Week #7 - Cape Town Revival

On the afternoon of Friday, September 11th the 5 Robertson volunteers and I drove back to Cape Town. It was very interesting that Robertson had such a large impact on us when we only spent 2 weeks there. I think many of us agreed that it was the people who really made the impact on our stay and not necessarily the city of Robertson itself.

As we saw Table Mountain in the distance I could feel an overwhelming sense of relief. I really felt for once like I was coming back to a home that I had not seen for a long time. Although Cape Town isn't as peaceful as Robertson, it has so many other qualities that make it so memorable. In that way Cape Town seems more like a place to stay then a place to get away from, but that's just the opinion of someone who has been living in South Africa for 7 weeks.

Although I was excited about coming back I was also pretty nervous. Unfortunately we were not coming back to the same Cape Town we once knew. Our homebase in Rondebosch was no longer a CCS residence. We were now moving into homebase 1 in Rosebank where a whole new group of volunteers had arrived the day we left for Robertson. It's not always easy to meet new people, especially when those people have already been acquainted with their own group for 2 weeks. I also had my own friendships established with the people that I originally came to Cape Town with. In that way I was just as much at risk for judgement of others.

Meeting this new group was another experience that opened my eyes to what else has been so wonderful about the Cross-Cultural Solutions program. The idea that people would pay to go to another country and do volunteer work for free really says a lot about the character of those individuals. I didn't realize this until meeting the next group of volunteers. There were about 13 new volunteers that were living in the CCS house in Rosebank. Again they were from all over including California, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico and Scotland. Even at the first moment we walked through the door we were greeted with many smiling faces asking us questions about our experience in Cape Town. For once I felt like I was the knowledgeable and cultured individual from Cape Town. It was a good feeling, but more than that it was good to feel like the individuals that you were living with were happy to have you among their group even after they established their bond. Finally, they all seem to really enjoy their volunteer work and had the same enthusiasm to be in South Africa.

On Monday, September 15th I was extremely excited about returning to my placement in Guguletu. I came into the JL Zwane center to everyone coming up and giving me hugs and asking how my journey was in Robertson. I showed them pictures and brought chocolate as a welcome back present. Warning to anyone who does volunteer work in South Africa: Make sure you bring enough for everyone if you decide to bring food to your place of work. It eventually worked out where everyone got a piece of chocolate, but man I thought people were going to kill each other for one of the bars of Toblerone. That day they had a concert going on for a little over 100 primary school kids at the JL Zwane Center. The concert involved an intense message about HIV/AIDS awareness. The concert was also to be attended by 4 major representatives from South Africa's largest insurance company. The company was looking to sponsor Siyaya in some of their performances and programs. It was a very important day so I stayed longer than usual to help set up and break down the show. Once again Siyaya put on a dazzling performance that had the students up and dancing like they were at a rock concert. During the encores Ntutu a soloist in the group brought some of the kids up to have dance competitions. This was definitely not planned for, but the kids loved every minute of it. It was a very emotional day with me coming back and seeing the group again, but also because they gave such a memorable performance.

Although the week started off well, a lot problems arose throughout. I began to move away from working on music with the group to working on promotion. I tried to give myself a set schedule where I would work on researching venues for Siyaya to perform at and organizations willing to sponsor them. Siyaya at that point was having a lot of issues financially and were struggling to keep the program going. I was very nervous about that idea, because I didn't want any the people in the group to lose what they had and end up on the streets. I believe that the JL Zwane Center is a wonderful place for people in the townships to keep their minds occupied and away from violence and drugs. If only there were thousands more of them around the country maybe things would be a little different.

The big issue with marketing a township group is technology and resources. The JL Zwane Center only had so many computers and everyday I went in there the computers were either not working or someone else was occupying them. I resorted to working at the homebase, but just as I switched work places, the Internet in our house wasn't working and I didn't have other available programs to upload pictures or MP3 tracks for the group to send to promoters. It was a very difficult week where I felt I accomplished very little. I did make several phone calls to promoters who were interested in having the group perform, but they needed information about the group via e-mail mp3s and jpeg pictures and so I'm still working on acquiring that material for them.

Although there were issues with my week there were a lot positives as well. The new CCS volunteers came to see Siyaya perform on Thursday and they blew everyone away. It was a great feeling and once again everyone congratulated me on helping teach them music and vocal technique.

After being here for 7 weeks I feel a very large connection with my group in terms of their passion and dedication to music. Although I'm no longer a musical performer, I can still remember the days of high school and college choir and steel band where I stood on the stage and felt a surge of energy in my body. Each performance was very euphoric and brought me to wonderful place. That's why I love music so much and I can see that same energy flow through my group Siyaya.

As I continue on my journey I will not give up in terms of working to promote the group and hopefully acquire sponsors that will keep this program going. In the future I hope to reach out to people in the states and spread the word about the Siyaya so maybe one day we can get them back to the United States to perform.

Thanks for reading this week's installation of Kevin Tackles South Africa. There are only 3 more weeks to go!!! I'm very excited, but also nervous at the idea of leaving this wonderful place. Please feel free to send you comments. Everyone has been so wonderful in their support so keep it up. Thanks again!

Kevin