In Cape Town during the winter months the weather is extremely sporadic. In the morning you could wake up and not see a cloud in the sky and then an hour later you could be going to your volunteer placement in the pouring rain.
After a weekend of nothing but rain, Monday, September 21st was a blessing. The sun was out and it felt like spring was coming. I came into my placement feeling rejuvenated from the weather and ready to teach the rest of "And So It Goes" to my group. Before I got there I thought about all the times I was in high school and college choir where we sat inside practicing music while we were missing the gorgeous weather. It was always a big distraction, especially when you were practicing a huge piece like Handel's Messiah. I decided I was going to change that today and have a choir rehearsal outside in the middle of a township. Now how many people can say they've done that!?
We set up the chairs outside behind the JL Zwane center and started listening to "And So It Goes". Everyone seemed to enjoy the change in scenery and I think it helped everyone learn the piece quicker. Shortly into the rehearsal, I was able to pick out soloists and at that point the group had already learned most if not all the song. It was a fun and productive day. when I came back to the home base I told the other volunteers about my outdoor rehearsal and they all seemed to enjoy my story.
The next day I was scheduled to stay at the home base to work on marketing for the group. I've been trying to set up an internet EPK for Siyaya on a website called www.sonicbids.com. An EPK is an Electronic Press Kit. It's a web link you can send to promoters, booking agents and other people to help promote your music group. The link takes you to a page that has bio information, pictures, streaming audio mp3s, and video footage. A lot of people use EPKs now-a-days to try and book shows at venues all around the country. If you're a new group trying to make it in music, EPKs are a very useful tool. I was having trouble once again with the internet and uploading anything on to their page seemed to be a big challenge. Again it seemed that technology would the major obstacle I would need to overcome.
That evening we were celebrating one of the volunteers' birthdays. Jenna was turning 22 and we all decided to go to a Mexican restaurant nearby called "Panchos". Everyone came from our group and it was a blast. Jenna even got a happy birthday phone call from one of our drivers, Wonga who lives in Guguletu.
The next day I was preparing to finish teaching my group "And So It Goes", but I was in for a completely different surprise. I got into the JL Zwane center at my normal time around 8am and usually I have to wait for about an hour before everyone arrives. It's just the way it works. The drivers take everyone to their placements at 7:45am and mainly everyone starts at 8 or 8:30am, but for me I have to wait. No big deal though, I always bring my 700 page book about modern African politics so you know it's a good slow read. Anyways, I was waiting for people to show up and at around 9:15am I realized that no one had come in yet. I didn't know what was going on and no one else in the building knew either. I called Bongani and he sounded very busy with a lot going on around him. He said that most of the members were at HIV/AIDS workshops to spruce up their education. He had to go and told me he would call back in 15 minutes. Just like clockwork he called back and told me that Bolo, one of the Siyaya members was coming to pick me up. I agreed and hung up, but in reality I had no idea where I was going and what was going on. I assumed that I would be attending the workshop, but that was not the case at all. I was actually going to be attending a rehearsal for the 31st Annual Loerie Awards. The Loerie awards is a huge deal in South Africa. It's like the Grammys for the best marketing companies and marketing campaigns in South Africa. People all over come for it and there are live music acts including one of South Africa's hottest funk/house/rock groups called "Goldfish". You might not recognize the name, but they blew up internationally due to a Kia car commercial for the new Kia Seoul. The commercial has four hampsters crusing in the car blasting Goldfish while many other hampsters are on the road, but they are caught in their hamster running wheels while the other hampsters roll past them in the Kia Seoul. Goldfish was going to be one of the performing artists at the award show and they needed a back up choir for one of their songs. Bongani had been in touch with a coordinator from the Loerie awards several weeks ago and they had arranged for his 40 person African choir (made up many of the Siyaya members) to perform with Goldfish.
It was an amazing opportunity for 40 kids from the townships to come out and perform in such a glamorous venue and with such a reputable rock group. Bolo and I drove up to the Cape of Good Hope Center in downtown Cape Town where the award show was to be held. At the rehearsal all sorts of stage set up preparations were going in place. The place was plastered with sponsor posters like Heineken, Postnet, etc. It looked like it was going to be a crazy event. The band came out and introduced themselves. They were all really cool and I got to talk to some of members and audio tech people. The rehearsal went very well and everybody seemed excited for the Saturday performance.
After the rehearsal we had more things to take care of that I didn't know about. At this point in my journey I'm very use to the idea of spontaneous schedules and just going along with the flow. Our next task was to go to the Cape Peninsula Institute of Technology for a Siyaya performance. They were performing in a Heritage day festival. Heritage day is a national holiday that was happening tomorrow (Thursday), but the school was celebrating through out the entire week. It's a holiday where people celebrate their cultural heritage by dressing in traditional African clothes and have many traditional musical performances. Siyaya was one of the main acts and I have to say they blew all of the other performances away! Using my digital camera I recorded many of the dance and music numbers they performed. A lot of their entertainment portions of their repertoire are complex dance numbers with extravagant costumes. They had a large audience and I met many of the coordinators of the performance as I introduced myself as the publicist for Siyaya (ha!). After the performance Bongani drove me home and we discussed ideas for marketing both Siyaya and his choir. I now have a lot of footage that I will be burning to cds and giving to Bongani to show to promoters.
Thursday was supposed to be our day off to Heritage, but once again I had to run off with Bongani for the next rehearsal with Goldfish. Today I was picked up in a large van filled with members of the choir. The van could maybe fit 10 people, but of course they manage to stuff 15 in it. A lot of the times I'm pretty quiet in the van, because all of the members speak in their native language "Xhosa", which I know very little of. I do enjoy listening to them speak, because they all have such colorful personalities and seem to really enjoy each others company. The really remarkable part of drive to rehearsal was the fact that the group took up most of the time by rehearsing pieces that they were learning in their Choir. This is once again a testament to their love for music. The way they sang together in a stuffed van really showed how much they love the music they perform. Nobody was using an ipod or reading a book they were just singing their hearts out and I loved every minute of it.
We arrived at the center and this time they rehearsed on the main stage, which was a very colorful set up. There were large screens behind the performers where they ran music videos during the performance. I also managed to sneak in some footage of the rehearsal even though in retrospect I probably wasn't suppose to. It looked like it was going to be an amazing experience, unfortunately I wasn't going to be able to attend the performance being that there were no left over tickets.
After the rehearsal we once again had to run for another Siyaya Heritage day performance, but this time it was in Guguletu at the sports complex. It's always an experience to go into the townships and walk around. Mainly because everytime I go around I'm the only white person within miles and everyone around you is definitely taking notice. I really don't mind it at all and since I'm with the people in my group I feel safe. I also love talking to the people to get their views on everything that happens in South Africa. Siyaya gave a great performance that had a couple mess ups, but nothing too huge. We stuck around for some of the other performances, which were some dance numbers given by middle and elementary school children and then a hip hop group made up of South African teenagers that really got people dancing. It was another packed day for me while all the other volunteers had the day off, but I didn't mind.
By Friday I finished teaching "And So It Goes". I told the group about the significance of the piece to me and about Katie. I told them that Katie's family was very honored to hear that they were performing the piece, which was very inspiring for them. Bongani listened to Siyaya perform the piece and I was really happy to hear that they all had the piece down and they were already teaching it to the other members in the choir. I'm really excited to hear them perform the piece.
The last thing I want to mention in this blog is that another one of my fellow volunteers Tyler Eversaul aka "Ty Guy" has left after 8 weeks. Ty was one of my roommates from the beginning and he was a really nice guy, full of energy, and personality. He definitely made an impact, as everyone still talks about him even after he left. This blog is dedicated to him for keeping a smile on all of our faces when he was around. "Thanks Ty Guy, we'll miss you!"
Thanks everybody for reading this weeks edition of Kevin Tackles South Africa! It's been a crazy journey so far and I only have 2 more weeks of volunteering to go. If you haven't heard by now, after I'm done volunteering I'll be doing a 20 day trip around Southern Africa. I will be starting From Cape Town and then going to Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It's through a very reputable tourist agency called Detour Africa that does many of these trips, so don't worry about me going out all by myself! One of the other volunteers did the trip before volunteering and said it was amazing so I decided to pursue it. This means I'll be coming home on October 31st.
Thanks again everyone and keep sending your comments!!
Kevin Gschwend
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