Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Time - Rachel Ruscombe-King
I just met Rachel through a mutual friend while she was on vacation. She is a former VSO volunteer who was in Malawi and has a lot of great songs. Check out her video so we can guilt her into making more. Also, I have added a banner at the top for an organization call Playing for Change. Pretty cool stuff!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Malawi Music Project pics2
These are pictures of when Peter Mawanga (famous Malawian musician) was recording the PC volunteers and other students' songs at the Music Camp. Enjoy!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
New Direction?
So, I tried to add a few photos, but am having trouble. The internet keeps timing out before I can get them uploaded. Will try again later, but wanted to share a new thing I'm working on here. As I said in my description of the Malawi Music Project, the experience was absolutely incredible for me, and I have decided to try to pursue such activities full time during my time here in Malawi. I have been in contact with a music NGO based in Lilongwe (capital city) called Music Crossroads International (link here:). I first contacted them and went to visit their office back in July of last year to introduce myself and see if they had any interest in being involved with our Music Project. Although we weren't able to swing anything for the project, I have stayed in contact with them and always inquire about what they are doing/direction they are heading. So, after my experience with our music camp, I have decided that I would like to work with Music Crossroads full time in Lilongwe. I contacted the director of Music Crossroads and he said that they would love to have me come be a part of what they are doing. How can I do that from Chitipa (the Northernmost district in the country)??? Can't. It would mean that I would relocate from Chitipa to Lilongwe for the remainder of my service. So I have presented my idea to my boss, who has promised to talk about it with our country director. We have also scheduled a meeting with the director of Music Crossroads, myself, and my boss next Friday to discuss how it might be worked out. Its not a yes yet, but I feel fairly confident that it is possible. It feels so great to finally find something that I am truly passsionate about and am hopeful that I might pursue it here where it is so needed. After telling my friend Jo about it, she said,"You should write a manifesto to state your case to Peace Corps." I thought it was a great idea, but of course, didn't know how to write. Jo, without being asked, decided to take it upon herself to put to paper what we had discussed. The following manifesto pretty much sums up why I feel this project is important and beneficial here in Malawi:
Jo's Music Manifesto
It’s hard to get lost and still feel safe, to not know where you are, but to feel comfortable in not knowing, to not know what comes next but to find that exciting and right. There is something about this kind of getting lost that if you can find, it guarantees a certain comfort, a comfort that rests in the fact that the world is unfair and filled with lost, but that one can feel, and feel safe in the face of lost, in the face of a world that presents so many ways to get lost. It’s easy to feel a certain non-existence in a world that often seems to want to crush the existence of so much. It’s easy to feel numb in a world that is degrading and filled with injustice. It’s easy to lose the need for responsibility when you feel nothing at all, when you have numbed yourself to the inequalities and unfairness that composes so much of the world. And maybe that’s why feeling in the face of so much numbness, feeling real in front of the continual push to not exist is incredible, though hard to achieve. But possible and easily attainable often in art and specifically through the art form of music. In the pursuit of social change people lose their grounding, they lose faith, they lose hope in their work to preserve what so many work to destroy and not only work to destroy but succeed in destroying.
Organizations, individuals, governments, and volunteers all work tirelessly on forming ideas, on implementing plans, and on attempting sustainability of a change they see the world needs. And so much fails often because people lose their hope, they lose the energy, and most importantly they lose the ability to sustain and ground themselves and with this loss comes the loss of development. This loss leads to numbness and people assume it’s a result of their failed efforts, the result of being part of a world that often offers little and takes a lot. Not only do people lose feeling they lose the need for feeling and without that, little change takes place, inspiration shrivels and a needed creativity dies.
Music allows people to feel and not only allows but demands it. An offered escape that finds feelings even if nothing on the outside offers up any, or any reason to feel. And that gives people motivation to change. To change because they feel something for no reason, and they don’t mind the lack of reason. Music commands feeling and commands a force and with this, people have unfounded hope to instigate change and unfounded hope is the most sustainable kind. A kind of hope that is unbreakable as it unfounded in the first place; there is no way to challenge it, in the same way that the feelings brought on by music are unchallengeable therefore making music a key instigator in social change, one that grounds, prompts, and activates a way of feeling that people can work from.
In every type of work; in environmental work, in social action, in HIV/AIDS work, health, and education, there is a great lack of creativity, and a lack of sustainability. Organizing for social change does not exist in a sole pursuit of projects and proposals, but in an attempt to find grounding and meaning beyond what the world offers. And in order to do that there must be representations of beauty that exist beyond words and that provide sustainability through feeling anything but numb. One can pursue many projects, one can plant a million trees, start a thousand programs on HIV/AIDS prevention, but none of these will survive without the feeling that they survive in the face of all the injustices the world presents, and this feeling can only exist if the leaders of the projects, the programs, and the planters of the trees feel it too. To work for the environment and the world people have to learn also how to work for each other and inherent in this, is a need to work for oneself and to feel this without explanation, which often can only be done with the motivation of a song or a tune. The world presents a complexity of challenges and we fire back with a complexity of answers, but nothing will be sustained without a self-grounding that exists beyond complexity and instead in a realm of unexplained beauty and a feeling of being real.
Play to feel, feel to change, change to feel.
You rock, Jo!
I'll let everyone know how things turn out next weekend hopefully.
Peace
Jo's Music Manifesto
It’s hard to get lost and still feel safe, to not know where you are, but to feel comfortable in not knowing, to not know what comes next but to find that exciting and right. There is something about this kind of getting lost that if you can find, it guarantees a certain comfort, a comfort that rests in the fact that the world is unfair and filled with lost, but that one can feel, and feel safe in the face of lost, in the face of a world that presents so many ways to get lost. It’s easy to feel a certain non-existence in a world that often seems to want to crush the existence of so much. It’s easy to feel numb in a world that is degrading and filled with injustice. It’s easy to lose the need for responsibility when you feel nothing at all, when you have numbed yourself to the inequalities and unfairness that composes so much of the world. And maybe that’s why feeling in the face of so much numbness, feeling real in front of the continual push to not exist is incredible, though hard to achieve. But possible and easily attainable often in art and specifically through the art form of music. In the pursuit of social change people lose their grounding, they lose faith, they lose hope in their work to preserve what so many work to destroy and not only work to destroy but succeed in destroying.
Organizations, individuals, governments, and volunteers all work tirelessly on forming ideas, on implementing plans, and on attempting sustainability of a change they see the world needs. And so much fails often because people lose their hope, they lose the energy, and most importantly they lose the ability to sustain and ground themselves and with this loss comes the loss of development. This loss leads to numbness and people assume it’s a result of their failed efforts, the result of being part of a world that often offers little and takes a lot. Not only do people lose feeling they lose the need for feeling and without that, little change takes place, inspiration shrivels and a needed creativity dies.
Music allows people to feel and not only allows but demands it. An offered escape that finds feelings even if nothing on the outside offers up any, or any reason to feel. And that gives people motivation to change. To change because they feel something for no reason, and they don’t mind the lack of reason. Music commands feeling and commands a force and with this, people have unfounded hope to instigate change and unfounded hope is the most sustainable kind. A kind of hope that is unbreakable as it unfounded in the first place; there is no way to challenge it, in the same way that the feelings brought on by music are unchallengeable therefore making music a key instigator in social change, one that grounds, prompts, and activates a way of feeling that people can work from.
In every type of work; in environmental work, in social action, in HIV/AIDS work, health, and education, there is a great lack of creativity, and a lack of sustainability. Organizing for social change does not exist in a sole pursuit of projects and proposals, but in an attempt to find grounding and meaning beyond what the world offers. And in order to do that there must be representations of beauty that exist beyond words and that provide sustainability through feeling anything but numb. One can pursue many projects, one can plant a million trees, start a thousand programs on HIV/AIDS prevention, but none of these will survive without the feeling that they survive in the face of all the injustices the world presents, and this feeling can only exist if the leaders of the projects, the programs, and the planters of the trees feel it too. To work for the environment and the world people have to learn also how to work for each other and inherent in this, is a need to work for oneself and to feel this without explanation, which often can only be done with the motivation of a song or a tune. The world presents a complexity of challenges and we fire back with a complexity of answers, but nothing will be sustained without a self-grounding that exists beyond complexity and instead in a realm of unexplained beauty and a feeling of being real.
Play to feel, feel to change, change to feel.
You rock, Jo!
I'll let everyone know how things turn out next weekend hopefully.
Peace
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Malawi Music Project Pics1
Holy crap, I think this worked!!! The following pictures should be:
-The arrival of the kids from various parts of Malawi
-Me talking with my band on what songs/music/band name they wanted to work on
-One of the stars of the camp, Clifford, showing the bridge and nut he made for his banjo at the camp
-An impromptu jam session with the kids
-The head planner/fundraiser PC volunteer, Scott (aka The Griz)helping with a banjo
will try to post more tomorrow!
-The arrival of the kids from various parts of Malawi
-Me talking with my band on what songs/music/band name they wanted to work on
-One of the stars of the camp, Clifford, showing the bridge and nut he made for his banjo at the camp
-An impromptu jam session with the kids
-The head planner/fundraiser PC volunteer, Scott (aka The Griz)helping with a banjo
will try to post more tomorrow!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Malawi Music Project
Just wanted to send everyone a quick Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! I’ve been really busy these past couple months so its been hard to keep this thing updated, but I wanted to assure everyone that I’m happy, healthy, and had a great holiday season here in Malawi.
During the week of December 12-18, myself and five other volunteers put on the Second Annual Malawi Music Project. This was, without a doubt, one of the coolest things I have EVER done, and was definitely the highlight of my service here so far. Based on applications from kids all over Malawi between the ages of 13 to 23, we selected 19 students to attend the camp focusing on instrument building (using locally available materials), music theory, creativity, dancing, voice lessons, as well as how music can positively affect your life and the people around you. The group of kids had various talents/interests, but overall really enjoyed the camp and learned a lot. They even got to take home their very own homemade banjo they built during the camp. I will try to post photos with this update, but it might not work. The first day/evening we were very happy to welcome our special guest, Peter Mawanga, who is a very well known and respected professional Malawian musician to welcome the kids to camp. He was even kind enough to bring some recording equipment and lay down some tracks and make CD’s for the kids who were brave enough to sing their own songs on the first night. This was absolutely incredible for those kids because you have to remember that these kids all come from various villages and are very poor, then all of a sudden they are hangin’ out with one of the most famous Malawian musicians ever, getting pointers from him, and HE is recording THEIR SONGS FOR THEM. It would be like me going and hanging out with Eric Clapton for a day and playing my songs for him. (Amazing, but very intimidating) Regardless of the intimidation, the kids that played did great and each got to take home a CD with all the tracks on it. Anyway, during the first few days, we split the kids up into three bands who were each assigned a Peace Corps volunteer as their “band manager”. The goal was that each band would compose at least one original song with an important message and perform that song at the end of the camp in a sort of “Battle of the Bands”. I got to “manage” a great group of kids and was very impressed with their talent and attitude towards the project. It was so great to get to know them each individually and as a group and see them open up and become comfortable enough to share who they really are and bring their various contributions to the song. (Most kids here are very shy, so this was very quick progress) We also had plenty of classtime to teach them about music theory and were able to expose them to a great deal of diverse music they had never listened to before. Each PC volunteer also brought something unique to the camp and taught the groups different skills or gave them advice/ideas in order to help them achieve their desired goals with music. Our group of counselors (PC volunteers) worked wonderfully together despite our different musical interests/talents and we all stayed busy through the whole week. (And even found time to jam with each other and the kids after hours!) The camp was one of the most rewarding experiences not just of my time here, but of my entire life and I am very excited to be in charge of planning the camp next year. It was so great to get the message across that music can benefit you as a person even if you aren’t making money doing it. I tried to explain that for me, music is something that helps me through even the hardest times of life. NO MATTER WHAT I can always turn to music, and there is no better feeling than when you fully express what you feel inside through song.
So, all in all, it was a super successful week thanks to all the hard work of the kids and of course the PC volunteers as well. We set the bar pretty high for next year, and I will be looking for ways to fund the camp starting soon. Hopefully with a year to plan and fund raise we will have an even better camp at the end of this year!!
Gonna post this first, then try to upload some pics...
During the week of December 12-18, myself and five other volunteers put on the Second Annual Malawi Music Project. This was, without a doubt, one of the coolest things I have EVER done, and was definitely the highlight of my service here so far. Based on applications from kids all over Malawi between the ages of 13 to 23, we selected 19 students to attend the camp focusing on instrument building (using locally available materials), music theory, creativity, dancing, voice lessons, as well as how music can positively affect your life and the people around you. The group of kids had various talents/interests, but overall really enjoyed the camp and learned a lot. They even got to take home their very own homemade banjo they built during the camp. I will try to post photos with this update, but it might not work. The first day/evening we were very happy to welcome our special guest, Peter Mawanga, who is a very well known and respected professional Malawian musician to welcome the kids to camp. He was even kind enough to bring some recording equipment and lay down some tracks and make CD’s for the kids who were brave enough to sing their own songs on the first night. This was absolutely incredible for those kids because you have to remember that these kids all come from various villages and are very poor, then all of a sudden they are hangin’ out with one of the most famous Malawian musicians ever, getting pointers from him, and HE is recording THEIR SONGS FOR THEM. It would be like me going and hanging out with Eric Clapton for a day and playing my songs for him. (Amazing, but very intimidating) Regardless of the intimidation, the kids that played did great and each got to take home a CD with all the tracks on it. Anyway, during the first few days, we split the kids up into three bands who were each assigned a Peace Corps volunteer as their “band manager”. The goal was that each band would compose at least one original song with an important message and perform that song at the end of the camp in a sort of “Battle of the Bands”. I got to “manage” a great group of kids and was very impressed with their talent and attitude towards the project. It was so great to get to know them each individually and as a group and see them open up and become comfortable enough to share who they really are and bring their various contributions to the song. (Most kids here are very shy, so this was very quick progress) We also had plenty of classtime to teach them about music theory and were able to expose them to a great deal of diverse music they had never listened to before. Each PC volunteer also brought something unique to the camp and taught the groups different skills or gave them advice/ideas in order to help them achieve their desired goals with music. Our group of counselors (PC volunteers) worked wonderfully together despite our different musical interests/talents and we all stayed busy through the whole week. (And even found time to jam with each other and the kids after hours!) The camp was one of the most rewarding experiences not just of my time here, but of my entire life and I am very excited to be in charge of planning the camp next year. It was so great to get the message across that music can benefit you as a person even if you aren’t making money doing it. I tried to explain that for me, music is something that helps me through even the hardest times of life. NO MATTER WHAT I can always turn to music, and there is no better feeling than when you fully express what you feel inside through song.
So, all in all, it was a super successful week thanks to all the hard work of the kids and of course the PC volunteers as well. We set the bar pretty high for next year, and I will be looking for ways to fund the camp starting soon. Hopefully with a year to plan and fund raise we will have an even better camp at the end of this year!!
Gonna post this first, then try to upload some pics...
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Jo's Post
So, I was sitting next to one of my favorite individuals(Jo) over here, and was telling her how much I enjoyed reading her blog... I told her I have a hard time updating my blog, but wished I could be as diligent as she with her updates. So, I did the next best thing to updating this thing,...I had Jo write my blog entry. I didn't read it before posting this, but I'm sure we're in for a treat. Enjoy!!
In Lilongwe there is a lodge which on the outside is somewhat reminiscent of a 1970’s office complex. One of the corners of the cement wrap-around porch is the bar of the lodge. If walking in the street below you can often see many a Peace Corps volunteer’s feet sticking off the edge. Beers in hand, the porch juts out crowded and packed with a collection of dirty volunteers tired from packed buses, failed hitch hikes and all sporting attractive back sweat compliments of their hiking bags. Far away from village life that often centers on early nights, lots of books, shadow dances, and way too much thinking time, volunteers find themselves realizing their general list of things they can tolerate has expanded quite extensively. They are spurred to think on how more tolerant they are when watching a music video of Will Smith’s daughter whip paint out of her hair, realizing that they are finding it entirely enjoyable. Those who back in America preferred to trek into cities for underground indie concerts, end up finding that watching MTV in a tiny African bar is incredibly entertaining. Those who found micro-breweries as having truly delicious beer become quite entranced with any beer that is ice cold. Transport that breaks down, falls apart, and consistently puts you in close quarters with sweaty, smelly, bodies are appreciated as long as they actually get you where you are going. Girls, who would in other circumstances think about freaking out, find themselves calmly sitting on buses while watching ants fall out of her hair extensions, deducting that in fact “yes there were ants briefly living in my fake hair.” Dance moves normally saved for confined spaces of cars, come out in full force and are greeted with smiles and more beers. Hair and beards usually kept in careful check seem to match more with the new dance moves as opposed to the word “careful.” And maybe someone might make a comment on people being more tolerant of each other as we are often, as volunteers in Malawi, “all we got.” But I think most of us would end up saying “all we got is actually a lot.” And it’s not about tolerating. It’s more about being lucky to have friends. Friends who like yourself, lack budgeting skills and will after spending money at the bar to fuel crazy dances and rationalize out-of-control-hair, will then head off to expensive Chinese restaurants. Not because it’s a good budgeting decision or because there is a lack of cheap eating options, but because its worth knowing a large part of why you trek around with sweaty back packs from village to bus to city, is because you have friends who will go with you to Chinese restaurants and back to village, onto bus, and into bars and who will validate your craziness with theirs. And that’s definitely beyond tolerance.
In Lilongwe there is a lodge which on the outside is somewhat reminiscent of a 1970’s office complex. One of the corners of the cement wrap-around porch is the bar of the lodge. If walking in the street below you can often see many a Peace Corps volunteer’s feet sticking off the edge. Beers in hand, the porch juts out crowded and packed with a collection of dirty volunteers tired from packed buses, failed hitch hikes and all sporting attractive back sweat compliments of their hiking bags. Far away from village life that often centers on early nights, lots of books, shadow dances, and way too much thinking time, volunteers find themselves realizing their general list of things they can tolerate has expanded quite extensively. They are spurred to think on how more tolerant they are when watching a music video of Will Smith’s daughter whip paint out of her hair, realizing that they are finding it entirely enjoyable. Those who back in America preferred to trek into cities for underground indie concerts, end up finding that watching MTV in a tiny African bar is incredibly entertaining. Those who found micro-breweries as having truly delicious beer become quite entranced with any beer that is ice cold. Transport that breaks down, falls apart, and consistently puts you in close quarters with sweaty, smelly, bodies are appreciated as long as they actually get you where you are going. Girls, who would in other circumstances think about freaking out, find themselves calmly sitting on buses while watching ants fall out of her hair extensions, deducting that in fact “yes there were ants briefly living in my fake hair.” Dance moves normally saved for confined spaces of cars, come out in full force and are greeted with smiles and more beers. Hair and beards usually kept in careful check seem to match more with the new dance moves as opposed to the word “careful.” And maybe someone might make a comment on people being more tolerant of each other as we are often, as volunteers in Malawi, “all we got.” But I think most of us would end up saying “all we got is actually a lot.” And it’s not about tolerating. It’s more about being lucky to have friends. Friends who like yourself, lack budgeting skills and will after spending money at the bar to fuel crazy dances and rationalize out-of-control-hair, will then head off to expensive Chinese restaurants. Not because it’s a good budgeting decision or because there is a lack of cheap eating options, but because its worth knowing a large part of why you trek around with sweaty back packs from village to bus to city, is because you have friends who will go with you to Chinese restaurants and back to village, onto bus, and into bars and who will validate your craziness with theirs. And that’s definitely beyond tolerance.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
This picture was taken at a friends house. So, since I last updated this thing, a lot has happened. At the end of September, my group went back to Dedza for our IST reconnect and training. The event lasted two weeks with the first week being just for us volunteers, and the second week, Peace Corps brought in all of our counterparts (people we are assigned to be working with in our villages) to be involved in the trainings. We covered IGA (income generating activities) such as soap making and jam making as well as some training on beekeeping and fruit tree budding and grafting and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention activities. The Peace Corps even hired a new chef to feed us while we were there, and the food was outstanding. We even got ice cream 4 or 5 times while we were there. Funny story with that, my friend Colleen’s counterpart was very excited to be there and was really happy about all the different foods they were giving us, but didn’t know exactly what all the different kinds of food were, so the first day for breakfast he just mixed EVERYTHING together. It ended up being a big pile of potatos, onions, ketchup, sausage, peanut butter, jelly, hot sauce, etc… Then for dinner, they gave us ice cream as a dessert, but he had never had it so, he put it on his rice until Colleen told him that might not be the best idea. I had to laugh when he finally tried the ice cream, loved it, then ate it so fast he got his first “brain freeze” (insert Encino Man parody here). All in all, it was a pretty good time and was great to reconnect with everyone again. It was nice to be “pampered” by the Peace Corps again for a while, but after being on our own at site for 5 months, I was happy to be done with the training and get back to being on my own again. Since then, I’ve been working on a couple small projects involving water and HIV/AIDS prevention as well as continuing on with the Health Post renovation in my village (panandi panandi. “little by little”). As of right now, the 4 other volunteers in my district and I are planning on hosting a big Peace Corps gathering for Halloween involving a pig roast, volleyball match, and costume contest. We are pretty excited about our costume ideas (we are collectively going to be the Planeteers while our other Malawian friend who’s house we will use will complete the team as Captain Planet). It’s going to be great! After that, I will be continuing on those projects and possibly attend an Environment Camp in November, then Thanksgiving at the country director’s house in Lilongwe. And finally, the second annual Malawi Music Project at the beginning of December!! I’m really excited about this project. It’s basically a small weeklong camp for about 20 Malawian youths where we get them together to teach them about music and creativity. Some other volunteers came up with the idea last year and it turned out to be a big hit here, so I’m really looking forward to being involved. There are a pretty good handful of talented musicians among the PC volunteers, and we have all been working on different songs/activities for the event. After that, Christmas somewhere on the lake I think. My friend Justin and I are hoping to plan some sort of little mini-vacation for the holidays and trying to go out to the islands in the lake for some R&R if possible. That’s about it for now. I’m still doing well and enjoying the experience and seem to find more than enough time for playing the guitar and have begun writing some of my own songs too.
Before I forget I just wanted to let some people know I have received their packages, and the “worthless item” competition is getting pretty good so far. MATT-got your package with the “Chuck Norris quotes” and the “How to survive a Zombie attack” book . NEAL-got yours as well with the Nashville newspaper. DAVE AND DEBBIE-got yours too with the “Debbie Approved” magazines. All of these were great and had a lot of wonderful treats and things, so thank you VERY MUCH. But, I have to say, I think my Mom is winning the competition as of now with the wonderful, wooden napkin holders I just received! Thanks Ma!! Hope everyone is doing well back there, and can’t wait for some of you to visit. Just wanted to give a belated congrats to Dave and Debbie on their marriage, and a future congrats to the biggest Jonas Brothers fan in all of Tennessee, my boy Neal on his upcoming wedding as well. Love you guys and wish you the best.
Peace
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