Music & Art Collide in the "Art of Healing project" to make South Africa a better place for their children. Departing Volunteers is bittersweet

First I just want to apologize that I was not able to put up this blog sooner. Apparently I decided to follow the rest of the volunteers at my homebase by getting sick. I'm doing better now, but I swear I thought was going to have to come to our house and put up a quarantine sign.

Anyways, this past week was filled with many activities starting Monday, August 17th when all of the volunteers in CCS were invited to come see SIYAYA, the music/drama group I've been working with. After our placements our drivers picked us up and we went straight to a township restaurant called Mzoli's for lunch. The restaurant was located in Guguletu, which was definitely a great experience. All of our experiences in going out to eat have been in the heart of Cape Town among the middle class and upper class, and now we were going to eat at a restaurant that was surrounded by the tin shotgun shacks of the township. Mzoli's was a barbecue restaurant that was covered by a large white tent where we gathered to eat varieties of chicken, lamb, and beef. At the tables were a variety of sodas, but if you wanted a beer you had to walk across the street with an escort to a neighbor's house who sold the beer directly out of their refrigerator....I'm not joking! The atmosphere at Mzoli's was very lively as a local Marimba band called "Marimba Vibrations" played for the customers. A couple of the volunteers and our program director Luann got caught up in the music and started dancing in front of the group in the middle of the restaurant. It was a blast!

After lunch we loaded up the vans and headed over to JL Zwane Community Center to see SIYAYA perform. I was really excited for everyone to see the group that I've been working with for the past 2 weeks. I knew they were amazing and I wanted to see everyone's reactions. The performance included a combination of small dramas intermixed with operatic solos, afro pop tunes, and complex dance choreography. They started the performance with "I've Got you Under My Skin", the choral number that taught them in 4 days, which went really well. The diversity of repertoire and the energy of the group left everyone of the volunteers with looks of disbelief. The show was a major success and many of the volunteers in my group came up to me and congratulated me and some even said they were jealous that I got to spend my volunteer time working with such talented people. It was very gratifying.

The next day I woke up and my neck was still very sore from the weekend. I couldn't even move my head side to side. I knew I needed to do something as I didn't want to deal with back problems for the rest of my time in Cape Town. I set up an appointment with a Chiropractor, which was a very interesting experience. I've never been to one so it was kind of scary at first. I laid on the table as the doctor cracked my spine a couple times and in my mind I was like "What the hell is going on!? Is that supposed to happen!?" She did it a couple more times and I got up and I could actually move my neck and back a lot better. For those of you who have never been to chiropractor or who don't believe in them, let me just say I'm very much a believer now.

Later that afternoon we went to the District Six museum. District six is a very historic area of Cape Town. Before Apartheid it was a black area that was homed to thousands and then during Apartheid the government forced the population out into the townships and declared District six a white area. Eventually the Apartheid government decided to level many of the houses to create new buildings. They leveled the houses, but never actually did anything to build, so district six was left as almost a barren waste land. Since Apartheid the government and many organizations devoted to the advocacy of the area have spent the last 15 years building houses and giving the opportunity for the people who were originally forced out to move back into district six. One of the Cross-Cultural Solution drivers, Kimmie is from district six and after talking to him about the area, you can tell that the people of the area have a passion for where they live. One of the exhibits in the district six museum was a huge blanket covered with notes on it from people who were able to move back after Apartheid. These notes conveyed the people were able to retrieve a big part of their life that was missing for over 30 years.

The next day you could see that the volunteers were getting tired from the full agenda of activities that CCS planned for the week. It was tough for some of people who were leaving after this week. Not to say that the programs weren't interesting or fun, but everyone needs their freedom. That night we had yet another program, which some of us shrugged at. I was one of them, but I also thought that it might be interesting. It was a music/drama performance from a man named Themba. The volunteers walked into the room while Themba was playing a hypnotic melody on small instrument that looked like a small metal finger piano, but sounded like a small marimba. It was called a Mbira and it had a shell enclosing it to create acoustical depth and help project the music. Once everyone sat down he stopped playing and introduced himself and gave us the opportunity to have each one us introduce our selves to him. Themba told us about how he worked for an organization called "Healing of Memories", which contributes to the healing process of communities that suffered through governmental oppression such as Apartheid. They work to build and open the lines of communication between different races and have healthy discussions about the wounds of the past and establish cultural understanding. Themba then presented a musical poem using the Mbira. The poem was an intense look into the ideas of racial oppression and how we need to go about the future in terms of races finding a common goal to fix the problems of South Africa. I have to say this program had probably the largest impact on me out of all the other programming since I've been in South Africa. It really opened my mind in terms of realizing how long it's going to take for things to change in South Africa. We all came to the agreement that the many years of Apartheid manipulated so many people to believing that many blacks were terroists or communists setting out to destroy the whites. Since the end of Apartheid there are still many people out there that are residuals of that mindset. In my mind I believe that the youth will have the largest impact on the future of South Africa. They need to grow up in place where there is an established mutual understanding of what happened in the past with Apartheid and be able to put those hardships past them to create a better world where whites, blacks, coloreds, etc. can work together. It's going to take a long time, but like the civil rights movement, even America has made big strides, but still has a long way to go.

Going into Thursday, August 20th there was a lot of expectation. It was the day that a major community project sponsored by CCS and the Nomzamo Center for Abused Children, called "The Art of Healing Project", was taking place. The project was the volunteer focus for the 18 New York University students. They all studied "Art Therapy" and there job in this project was to design a giant mural on the back wall of the Nomzamo center. This was all to be completed in one day. So of course the rest of the volunteer crew from CCS took part in various rolls. Children and students from different schools in townships all over came together with CCS volunteers to paint a beautiful mural on a once white cement wall. The process was a blast as we had a dj play music as we all painted. Then we also had a wonderful musical intermission with the SIYAYA group. I helped them set up their instruments and they gave a magical performance full of percussion, marimbas, and energetic dances. The students loved every moment of it. We then finished the mural, which included wonderful images of oceans, ships, fairy tale figures, trees, flowers, and of course the flag of South Africa. Evan Spiegel gets a big shot out for helping design the flag! All of the volunteers and I walked with a great sense of pride accomplishment as we saw a sea of children from underprivileged areas come together and create something beautiful. Our director Luann stood in front of everyone and gave a heartwarming speech thanking everyone for being apart of such a influential project. The director of Nomzamo also extended her gratitude to everyone for their hardwork. It was a wonderful day and very much another day we all felt that we made an impact.

As much as the week was filled with joy and accomplishments it also had its' bitter-sweet ending. Much of the group was about to disappear as a lot of volunteers were doing a three week program. This included volunteers that I grew extremely close with. Matthew from Vienna, Austria was one of my roommates and very much a music lover. We related on many different levels in terms of our passion for music and explored a lot South Africa in the same group. He was also a great friend and easy to get along with. Laura from Toronto, Canada was also in our homebase and her optimism was extremely contagious to our group. When someone was having a tough time in the group she was very much always there to cheer that person up. Emma and Cody from Las Vegas were also in our homebase and were always there to come out where ever we went and just became the life of the party. All of the NYU people were wonderful as well, unfortunately I didn't get to hang out with them as much as I would like due to our housing separation. It was hard to say goodbye, but we all knew that we would stay in touch and plans are already in the works to make some hometown visits!

That's about it for now. Again, I apologize for the wait. This week was crazy with illness and friends heading out. Thanks for following week 3 of "Kevin Tackles South Africa".