Ola Meu Amigos!
It`s been a long time since I`ve posted to this blog, but being that this is my first international trip since South Africa, I thought it was appropriate.
A lot has happened since my last post. To those who haven`t been updated since my last blog posting, I will summarize. Shortly after my jobs at CARE International and World Hope International I moved to Boston for another job in music. I was there for 6 months to find once again that music industry was just not cut out for my future ambitions. I went back to Cross-Cultural Solutions to find they had an opening for a Program Manager. I intereviewed for the job in late July/early August and became a part of the Program Management staff on August, 23rd, 2010. It was a big accomplishment in my book with all of the efforts I had put towards my work in South Africa. It seemed to be perfect timing for this opportunity to come my way after I became so passionate about African culture. I`m proud to say that I have been working with Cross-Cultural Solutions for 7 months now and have really enjoyed every part of it.
As a Program Manager you are the direct liasion between your country programs and the enrolled volunteers. Before the volunteer departs on their journey, the program managers are the connection to the culure and life of each program. Currently I represent the South Africa and Brazil volunteer programs. As a part of our training you are required to travel to your site and experience the program inside and out, so you are able to communicate those expectations to future volunteers.
As I write this blog, I´m sitting in an internet cafe overlooking the sun set in Salvador, Brazil. I wish all of you could be here to see it, but hearing about it is just as good, right??? I´m set to stay in Brazil for 2 weeks to train on my site and I just wanted to give you all an insight to the beginning of my trip.
I began traveling to Brazil via TAM airlines, which itself was an interesting experience because it was the first time flying with an international airline carrier that was primarily in portuguese. Most of the time the announcements would come up without an English translation. It was just the way it was :) The flight was almost as long as my travel to South Africa, because I connected from JFK to Sao Paulo, then to Rio de Jaineiro and finally to Salvador, Brazil. I left at 7:40pm on Friday night and got in at 6pm on the following Saturday. What can I say, it was the cheapest flight I could find!
We were met at the airport by Ivan, an extremely friendly driver of CCS and another volunteer named Liz. The drive back to the homebase was gorgeous as we drove along the coastline to watch the sun set on Salvador. The narrow roads and archeitecture along these ocean views reminded me of some areas around Los Angeles. As we passed by one of the first beaches in Salvador, you could see a rambunctious crowd circulating. We came to the homebase to meet with the rest of the volunteer group and see that everyone was safe and sound and ready to experience everything Brazil had to offer. Vini, our Program officer informed us that we had a free day tomorrow until 7:30pm to explore before we had our program orientation. We all decided it was best to get to bed and hit the beach bright an early, being that´s the place everyone seemed to go.
The next morning we got the group together and were introduced to some of the other CCS staff including Lulu and Beto who were both very friendly. Five of us in the group went down to the beach around 10am and had a wonderful time experiencing what seemed to be the epi-center of social culture in Salvador. It was a great time seeing tons of people enjoying the sun, swimming, and playing beach volly ball (or at least a different version that had an object that was reminicent of a badminton birdie). There was also a lot of people who obiviously had experience in capoeira who were doing flips and cartwheels right on the coast line. We relaxed swam and enjoyed cheese on a stick which plenty of vendors brought around and toasted right in front of you like they were cooking smores. It was a great treat and really added to the experience of the beach life in Salvador. After the beach we explored the historic city of Pelourinho, which was a very colorful part of Salvador that had many restaurants, shops, and unique archeitecture. The whole day was wonderful and after our informative orientation with Vini, it seemed all of us were ready to begin volunteering the next day.
As a Program Manager, you are required to visit as many of the program sites as possible. This is essential when discussing placements with enrolled volunteers before they depart to their country site. The volunteer group was up early and ready to go. Since there were 6 volunteers total, Vini decided to have 2 at each placement so each volunteer would have some support. The 3 placements were Lar da Creance, Fruitos de Maes, and Madre Teresa.
We first visited Lar da Creance, which is an orphanage home to many children abandoned at a very early age. Some of the children that stay at this orphanage are here because their parents didn´t have the means to look after them while the others are there because their parents suffered from drug abuse or other issues. The placement definitely had a need and with 25 children to look after. The staff relies on volunteers to help look after the children and make the orphanage run more efficiently. I´m happy to say that the volunteers are really enjoying their placement and are already falling in love with the kids. They are planning a trip tomorrow to take them all to the park or the zoo.
The second placement, Madre Teresa, is a special place where nuns work with elderly and a children´s daycare center. One of the volunteers, Judy, was a 3rd time alum of this placement and was ecstatic when she walked through the door to see many of the same women she had cared for in the past. It was a heart warming feeling to see the elderly women embrace Judy as if she was a part of the family. Some of the elderly women at this placement have special needs that require a bit of extra attention from the staff. The volunteers really make this possible by aiding in chores, caregiving for the kids, and having occasional games of bingo which the elderly women love!
The third placement Fuitos de Maes is a really incredible facility. It was once an empty plot where mounds of trash were piled up, but then turned into a wonderful school for kids 1-5 years old. The school has 4 classrooms that are overwhelmed with children, providing a great challenge to a minimal teaching staff. In this way our volunteers really become great assistants by giving extra attention where it is needed. One volunteer Lee has a great background in teaching and has experience working with children affected by autism. The teachers had just received their first 2 children that were diagnosed with Autism. Since the teachers had never worked with autistic children before, it became very apparent that this was an area they needed help with. I sat down with Vini, Lee, and the teaching staff at Fruitos de Maes to have a discussion about techniques that would help the teachers in working with these children. Lee gave great insight to her work with autism and really enlightened the staff on ways to create a great learning environment for the children. Simple things like taking the child out of the classroom when the environment becomes too hectic for them, ignoring the child when they are obviously asking for attention, and rewarding the child with stickers and other things to give them incentives to continue focusing on their daily tasks. It was definitely a special occasion to see a volunteer really putting her life skills to work. Thanks Lee!
Vini has shown me around to many of the other placements and they have been incredible. One of the special experiences I had is when I visited CAASAH, which is a center for people of all ages affected by HIV/AIDS. As I was there, a little 7 year old girl took my hand and walked me around the entire center, showed me all of the rooms, and even sat with me to chat and draw. It was a special moment that really stands out in my mind when it comes to my experience in Salvador.
I will touch on this and much more in my next Kevin Tackles South Africa blog. Yes, I´m still calling it Kevin Tackles South Africa, because that´s how it started, so I´m sticking to it. Like it or not Jess Fraser!!! ha. Stay tuned folks....and thanks for reading :)
Kevin Gschwend
kevin.gschwend@gmail.com
p.s. feel free to email me anytime with your comments. I always love hearing from everyone and it´s definitely a part of the reason why I love writing it so much.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Kevin Tackles South Africa Presentation & Job Updates!!!
Hello everyone!
It's been a while since my last post, but I wanted to let everyone know about my upcoming Kevin Tackles South Africa presentation. The presentation will be held at "Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church" this Sunday, February 21st in Covenant Hall(smaller worship hall to the right when you go through the main entrance). The presentation will start at 11:40am and last about 45 minutes. I will also be doing a small musical workshop/performance for the "Children Sermon" during the church service in the main worship hall, which will be at 10:30am. It should be a lot of fun so if you're interested in seeing that, please feel free to come at 10:30am and attend the service. Again, the presentation will follow the service at 11:40am so feel free to attend either one or both!
Here's the address:
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
6601 Bradley Boulevard
Bethesda, MD 20817
Here's the link for google maps directions
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&q=bradley%20hills%20presbyterian%20church&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl
Summary Sunday, February 21st:
- Church Service with Kevin's small South Africa children musical performance starts at 10:30am in the main worship hall straight ahead when you go through the front entrance.
- Kevin Tackles South Africa slideshow presentation will start at 11:40am in Covenant Hall (smaller worship hall on the right when you go through the main entrance)
Also, I would like to tell everyone some exciting news. During the first week of February, before the Snowpocalypse of DC happened, I was offered 2 part-time jobs with both CARE International and World Hope International. Both organizations deal with development work overseas in Africa, Asia, South America, etc. I was able to work out my schedule so I can work both jobs. I start training for a "Face-To-Face Recruiter" position with CARE tomorrow. This job requires me to charge the streets of DC and try and get people to sign up as monthly donors in support of CARE's wonderful development programs, including their program in Haiti. The second job with World Hope starts next Tuesday, Feb. 23rd. At World Hope International I'll be a "Hope For Children Processing Specialist", which is an administrative/support position for their international children sponsorship program. I'm really excited about both opportunities and will be talking a little more about it at the Kevin Tackles South Africa presentation.
Again, thanks for everyone's support and I'm excited about sharing my experience with everyone first hand at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church. If you have any questions about how to get to the church or anything else, please feel free to contact me.
Best,
Kevin Gschwend
301-758-7916
kevin.gschwend@gmail.com
Monday, January 4, 2010
Return home - Time of reflection
For those of you who don't know by now, I have returned home from South Africa safe and sound. The camping trip that I did was incredible and had me seeing parts of africa that I would only dream of. In Namibia I explored deserts and hiked some of the highest sand dunes in the world. In Botswana I discovered vast animal life and camped in the wild among the Okavanga Delta region. Finally, I finished my travels in Zimbabwe where I witnessed the epic beauty of Victoria Falls and grazed the forests with lions. The people I traveled with were amazing and from all over the world, including Germany, Holland, Norway, South Korea, Spain, England, etc. I was the only American among the group, which definitely provided the ultimate of cultural experiences..haha. Overall the trip was wonderful and will be something that I will never forget.
This blog will be a reflection on my time volunteering in South Africa. I will discuss the experiences of both volunteering in Cape Town and Robertson. My discussion will also focus on the issues that South Africa faces today and what are the possible solutions, if any. Finally, I will talk about my overall impression of my time in South Africa relating to culture, people, and the Cross-Cultural Solutions program.
As a volunteer in Cape town I worked with a music and drama group called Siyaya. They are a professional performance group made up of 14 young adults from the ages of 18-26. Siyaya was created as one of the many programs at the JL Zwane Community Center in the township of Guguletu, which means "Hope of ours" in Xhosa. They mainly performed at health clinics in the townships that treated people affected by Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. These health clinics are extremely over crowded and many of the people will wait for several hours before they're able to see a doctor. The Siyaya group will come into these clinics several times a week to perform music and drama that promotes HIV/AIDS education in a fun and entertaining way. My job was to work with Siyaya on vocal technique, teach them new repertoire, and work on ways to market the group in hopes of getting them more performance opportunities. A lot of these aspects of my volunteer work were ideas that I came up with that I thought would benefit the group.
All of these ideas sounded great to me on paper, but to actually execute them is another story. I still remember coming in the first day and working with the group on vocal warm ups. I was so nervous, because all of the members were around my age. I thought to myself "Why would any of these people want to listen to me? What do I have to offer them that they actually need?" I felt like I was taking a giant leap of faith into a dark pit that I wasn't sure if I was going to land on my feet or completely crash. It was a tremendous experience to feel success on this journey as the Siyaya group listen to me and performed the warm ups with a good amount of success. A good deal of the group had some trouble with the breathing exercises I taught them, which made me relieved in the idea that I could teach them something that they could improve upon in the future. Although I had a good deal of success there were also weeks where I experienced some obstacles. One major obstacle was the idea of trying to create an online marketing presence for Siyaya. It was a very frustrating situation as the internet in South Africa was very unreliable and I had a lot trouble creating an EPK (Electronic Press Kit) and other online marketing materials. these were materials I used a lot at the record company I worked for and also when I managed a local funk group in Cleveland. Unfortunately, creating these materials in South Africa was a more demanding task due to the lack of technology in the township areas. Overall I think it was all apart of the experience. If I hadn't had difficult experiences like that one, then I wouldn't be able to appreciate my successes as much. I also wouldn't be able to understand the fact that there is only so much that one person could do in the matter of ten weeks.
My two week volunteer experience in Robertson, South Africa had me experiencing similar feelings to my work in Guguletu, but was also very different. I went to the rural farmlands they called "The Land of Wine and Roses" 2 1/2 hours east of Cape Town after spending my first 4 weeks in Cape Town. I remember being very nervous about leaving Siyaya, because I didn't want to abandon them especially after we started making some real progress. I also knew that I didn't want to give up an experience like this. I came to South Africa to experience as much of the culture as possible and the differences between urban and rural South Africa are vast. It was a difficult opportunity to pass up. Fortunately, Bongani the director of Siyaya was very supportive about me going, which was very relieving. In Robertson I was going to work at a primary (elementary) school called "De Villiers". Another volunteer and I were going to work in a computer lab teaching 4th, 5th, and 6th graders how to use basic computer programs. In the first couple of days I felt really unhappy with how things were going at this placement, because we worked with younger children who didn't know how to even use a mouse. The other problem was the fact that many of the children only spoke "Afrikaans", one of the 11 national languages. It was very difficult emotionally for me to come in after I felt like I had a good grasp on what to expect after volunteering in Guguletu for several weeks. Although it was difficult in the beginning, shortly afterwards we were able to teach older students that could understand English. We worked a lot on typing skills and soon had a agenda worked out where we would practice typing lessons through a great free online program. We would also mix it up where the could play typing and math games. In the end I was able to create a typing packet that our supervisor, Houman Joseph could easily use to teach his kids. In the end I felt like our volunteer work was a success. Not only did we experience a lot with our time volunteering, but Houman was great in the fact that he took us around Robertson in his truck and showed us the townships and gave us an insight to his community. Robertson was such a magical place with it's beautiful land and mountains. The people around us were so kind and inviting. We were treated to delicious baked treats called "fat cakes" from complete strangers. It's unfortunate cause with beauty also comes an ugly side. The racism there was definitely apparent among the whites, coloreds, and blacks. Again, colored meaning a mixture of different ethnicities (i.e. black, white, indian..etc.). I still remember Houman driving the other volunteer (Ty) and I around in his pick up truck. Ty had to sit in the back in the pick up hitch as there was only room for 2 people in the front. I asked Houman, "What would a white person think if they saw a colored person driving around 2 white people, and especially with the fact that one of them was sitting in the back of a pick up truck." Houman laughed and said that they wouldn't believe their eyes. Sure enough we passed by a couple white people that turned around several times in a look of amazment. It was those kind of experiences that really made me realize how far back South Africa is in terms of human tolerance. Even though I only spent 2 weeks in Robertson the people like Houman and his family made the experience unforgettable.
In all that I've read and my understanding from my experience volunteering in South Africa, there are many problems that are holding back South Africa. In the history of the apartheid government, which began in 1948, the black and colored population majority was systematically removed from their original homes and placed into decrepit and unsanitary living areas called "Townships." While that was happening the white minority, which made up maybe 20% of the population took more than 85% of the land. It was an ugly system of legalized racism that not only removed people from their homes, but denied them basic human rights including, education, health benefits, jobs, etc...based on the fact that the white government did not believe that blacks and coloreds deserved the same rights they had. Eventually political parties like the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) formed to fight against the government powers. Political activists like Nelson Mandela, Steven Biko, Archbishop Desmund Tutu and many others led these parties to eventually cause a global disturbance in the international community, which helped contribute to the dismantling of apartheid. It was a long and dreadful process, which led to more than thousands of brutal deaths, many which were in secret because the apartheid government's secret police force would round up anti-apartheid activists and would take them away to be never heard from again. In the end the apartheid government did, under a brutal context, deny other races human rights for almost 50 years as it was finally dismantled in 1994. Now in 2010, 16 years after the apartheid government was dismantled, you need to ask yourself, "How long do you think it takes a country to turn around in terms of understanding that human rights should be granted to all people no matter what color they are?" I'm not saying that all whites in South Africa were racist, and in fact a lot of them opposed the government just as much as the blacks and coloreds. My main point is that along with being a brutally repressive government, apartheid also brainwashed the white minority population into believing that blacks and coloreds were communists and out to drive the whites into the sea. With that kind of political propaganda being shoved into your face for nearly 50 years it's no wonder why racism in South Africa is still rampant. As Americans we can definitely relate to racial inequality in our history with events like the civil rights movement. As we've come to understand our country, there have been great strides in equality for all human-kind. Even so there is still lots of work to be done in terms of excepting differences in humans. In my perspective I believe that South Africa is kind of like America back in the 1950s where they still struggle with human rights for all races, because of the psychological impact of their history. In my mind it's going to be a long and arduous process for all people to be accepted. I believe that a good portion of the solution is in the hands of youth and their understanding of past events and using that understanding to come to a point of reconciliation among all people.
When I first came to South Africa I felt somewhat prepared for my experience with my small knowledge of their history. I realized that even knowing what I did, no one is ever prepared for the experience until they get off that flight from Cape Town international airport and see the miles of land covered in a blanket of shacks made from tin metal and wood. It is a shocking spectacle that strikes a very dark chord in your body.
Just as soon as you feel that sudden shock, the quicker you begin to acclimate to the sights and culture that makes up life in Cape Town. It's an erie thing for me to think about because everyday when I drove to the township of Guguletu I was so used to the sights of the townships that it felt normal. The reality was that these areas of extreme poverty that were covered in trash and riddled with drugs, crime and violence were a product of the Apartheid government. The feeling of shock returns upon your departure. As I said in my previous blog, the last week of my volunteer program was the most difficult because you realize that you're about to leave these people in the drop of a hat. It's a difficult reality because you return home to a huge suburban home that is a place of almost complete safety.
After some time when you reflect on your experiences and the work you did, you understand the subtleties of the impact you made. When I worked with Siyaya and the choir I felt like I really engaged with both groups. I'd like to think that I inspired members who were new and struggling to strive and become leaders and the members that were veterans to continue to enhance their craft so they would become the best musicians they could be. In Robertson, working at the primary school I taught typing and saw many students improve in such a quick period of time. My supervisor Houman Joseph was an amazing person who took me around Robertson to get an inside view of the culture, which revealed many differences from rural South Africa to more urban life. He introduced me to his beautiful family and within the matter of a couple weeks I felt like I was already a close friend and knew so much about his life. Overall the biggest impact I made and that any volunteer I think can make within a short period of time is the idea of cultural exchange. I really believe that everyone should experience going to a third world country in some point in their life. Not only does it open your eyes to the hardships that people face all over the world, but to interact with the people, is to get an inside understanding of their culture. In that regard you are able to develop perspective and bring back an insight to the world that you can share with the people around you.
I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who have supported me in my development project entitled "Kevin Tackles South Africa". It's been an honor to write this blog and share as many experiences as I possibly could with all of you. It's also been very therapeutic for me to write my ideas down, because I feel like I'm embracing all that I have taken from this experience. Now as we have come into the New Year I'm deciding on a different career path. I love music and all that it has given me with my college studies and my work with Telarc/Heads Up records, but now I feel that it's time for me to pursue a job that deals with development work specifically related to Africa. I've continued my reading and personal studies on the history of Africa, by exploring books like "The Fate of Africa", by Martin Meredith. An extraordinary account of the modern political history of every country in Africa from the beginning of independence in 1951 of Ghana to the present. I'm continuing my readings with books about Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Darfur. In terms of the job hunt I've been pursing many opportunities with several organizations. None have proven successful quite yet, but I'm hoping that when they do I can continue writing this blog, sharing my experiences with everyone about what's happening in the world and what can be done to help.
As always I love to hear from anyone reading this blog. So please, I invite you to send me your comments, questions, or if you just want to say hello! It's been great to hear that so many people are reading it, so I want to keep it up. Below are my contact details, so feel free to reach out to me anytime. Thank you again for all of your support and best hopes for a prosperous year in 2010!
With All Of My Love,
Kevin Gschwend
Current Address:
7300 Brickyard Road
Potomac, MD 20854
phone: 301-758-7916
e-mail: kevin.gschwend@gmail.com
www.kevintacklessouthafrica.blogspot.com
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Week #10 A beautiful journey comes to an end
Before I start I want to mention that this blog will be very sporadic to my very hectic schedule in preparing for my departure. I apologize for this, but I will be writing a more extensive reflection blog when I come back home on October 31st. If you don't know by now I'll be doing a 20 day overland camping trip from Cape Town to Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.
This week I worked more on going out to performances for Siyaya and helping them record video footage for promotion. I did very little music teaching as I needed to concentrate on getting my going away presents together for everyone in the group. I decided that I wanted to make individual mix cds for each member of the group including their musical director, Bongani. So in total I made 15 mixes. It took a long time to put together, because I wanted each cd to be special to the person I was giving it to. Some of the people in the group were more into classical music and liked singing opera so I concentrated on making mixes with a lot of Italian arias and opera works. Some were interested in pop music so I looked for music that would fit their style and would be songs that they could possibly sing. Finally, for the instrumentalists I made mixes featuring great artists that play their instrument of study. It was a long process, but I'm happy to say it's done.
The other major project of the week was gathering video footage of the group for a submission into an arts competition. South Africa has a major arts competition every year called the "Spier Contemporary Arts Competition". The competition has over 1.2 million rand in award money that they pay to visual artists and performing artists. I've been in touch with a lady named Fadia who is one of the administrative workers for the competition and she said she was very excited to have Siyaya be a part of the competition. I also mentioned that I was interested in submitting the African Chord Choir as well and she seemed extremely excited about that.
On Wednesday, October 7th I got everyone in Siyaya to get into costume and set up their stage at the JL Zwane Centre. I had them rehearse and perform a couple of their strongest pieces and then recorded them. It was a somewhat emotional day as I gave them a motivational speech telling them how much of an honor it's been to work with them and how talented they are. I had to stop myself once because of the thought of leaving this amazing group was difficult for me to comprehend.
I was happy with the results of the recording and prepared to record the choir the next evening. The choir did an amazing job and I was happy to have everyone participate in hopes that I could really help finance the group. Everyone seem to really appreciate how hard I was working to do something to help the group.
Towards the end of the week Siyaya had some last minute performances at a high school. I went to the one on Friday, which was one of their best performances I've ever seen. There must have almost 1,000 kids that attended the perfromance in the main gym. The kids were all screaming their heads off like Siyaya was a rock group. Bongani stood up at the end of the performance to say thanks and introduce the members of the group. Every member got a huge standing ovation from the audience. Bongani even introduced me and had me stand up in front of everyone and once again everyone cheered as loud as possible. It was quite an experience.
Being that Friday was the last day I was to work with Siyaya I wanted to celebrate with them by going out to a township barbeque restaurant in Guguletu called Mzolis. Although I was excited about this day I was also dreading it. I had been dreading my last day with Siyaya for many weeks now as I knew it was going to be very upsetting and emotional for me to say good bye. When you spend so much time with a wonderful group of people that struggle so much everyday to live on the basic necesstities, It's hard to think that you are just going to leave them in a drop of a hat. Not only that, but I felt like I became a part of their family as I felt a strong connection to each member. These people were not only my colleagues, but my friends.
Almost everyone from the JL Zwane Centre showed up, which was about 30 people. We all had a blast eating, sharing stories, and enjoying each others company. After we finished eating Bongani stood up to give a speech thanking me for everything I did to help Siyaya. It was very heart felt and then he proceeded to have the group sing 2 songs that were to be dedicated to my last day. At that point I started to cry as I couldn't hold it back any longer. The songs were so beautiful and I felt so honored for them to sing to me. Once they finished I regained my composure and stood up to say a few words. I thanked everyone for welcoming me with open arms and making me a part of their family. I told them it was an honor to work with them and get to know each and everyone at the centre. I began to cry again and sat down while many people came up and gave me hugs and held my hand.
After dinner I was able to spend a little more time with the group. When the time came for me to go it was already late at night. Once again I broke down in tears giving a hug to everyone. Everyone was so supportive and helped me regain my composure. Bongani drove me back to his house so I could have some food and then proceeded to drive me home. We talked a lot on the way about keeping in touch, which made me feel relieved.
Overall this was the most difficult week of my journey. I don't usually cry unless it's dealing with death of a friend or a family member, but this time I couldn't help it. I really believe that the people of siyaya had a large impact on my life and I really tried to cherish every moment I had with them. I can only hope now that I can return as soon as possible to this wonderful place called South Africa. It was hard for me to understand the impact of this experience until I knew that I was leaving. I felt like I became so acclimated to life out in South Africa that I had no idea what it was going to be like to leave.
The people I've met through Cross-Cultural Solutions including the staff, volunteers, and people at my placement have been some of the most compassionate people that I've ever met. I feel very blessed to have had this journey. Thank you everyone for your love and support. I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors. I will miss you all.
This will be my last blog until I return home on October 31st. Upon my return I will write a reflection blog based on my experience in South Africa and my reactions to returning home. I just want to say thanks to everyone who has kept track of the "Kevin Tackles South Africa" blog. I've really enjoyed writing it and I'm very grateful for all of your comments and feedback. I feel very blessed with all of the support you have given me and I hope you all got a little taste of my experience in South Africa. Once I return home I will be planning a slideshow viewing of all my pictures and will be giving some presentations at my church to inform everyone on my travels.
Enkosi,
Kevin Gschwend
U.S. Address
7300 Brickyard Road
Potomac, MD 20854
U.S. Cell # 301-758-7916
E-mail - kevin.gschwend@gmail.com
This week I worked more on going out to performances for Siyaya and helping them record video footage for promotion. I did very little music teaching as I needed to concentrate on getting my going away presents together for everyone in the group. I decided that I wanted to make individual mix cds for each member of the group including their musical director, Bongani. So in total I made 15 mixes. It took a long time to put together, because I wanted each cd to be special to the person I was giving it to. Some of the people in the group were more into classical music and liked singing opera so I concentrated on making mixes with a lot of Italian arias and opera works. Some were interested in pop music so I looked for music that would fit their style and would be songs that they could possibly sing. Finally, for the instrumentalists I made mixes featuring great artists that play their instrument of study. It was a long process, but I'm happy to say it's done.
The other major project of the week was gathering video footage of the group for a submission into an arts competition. South Africa has a major arts competition every year called the "Spier Contemporary Arts Competition". The competition has over 1.2 million rand in award money that they pay to visual artists and performing artists. I've been in touch with a lady named Fadia who is one of the administrative workers for the competition and she said she was very excited to have Siyaya be a part of the competition. I also mentioned that I was interested in submitting the African Chord Choir as well and she seemed extremely excited about that.
On Wednesday, October 7th I got everyone in Siyaya to get into costume and set up their stage at the JL Zwane Centre. I had them rehearse and perform a couple of their strongest pieces and then recorded them. It was a somewhat emotional day as I gave them a motivational speech telling them how much of an honor it's been to work with them and how talented they are. I had to stop myself once because of the thought of leaving this amazing group was difficult for me to comprehend.
I was happy with the results of the recording and prepared to record the choir the next evening. The choir did an amazing job and I was happy to have everyone participate in hopes that I could really help finance the group. Everyone seem to really appreciate how hard I was working to do something to help the group.
Towards the end of the week Siyaya had some last minute performances at a high school. I went to the one on Friday, which was one of their best performances I've ever seen. There must have almost 1,000 kids that attended the perfromance in the main gym. The kids were all screaming their heads off like Siyaya was a rock group. Bongani stood up at the end of the performance to say thanks and introduce the members of the group. Every member got a huge standing ovation from the audience. Bongani even introduced me and had me stand up in front of everyone and once again everyone cheered as loud as possible. It was quite an experience.
Being that Friday was the last day I was to work with Siyaya I wanted to celebrate with them by going out to a township barbeque restaurant in Guguletu called Mzolis. Although I was excited about this day I was also dreading it. I had been dreading my last day with Siyaya for many weeks now as I knew it was going to be very upsetting and emotional for me to say good bye. When you spend so much time with a wonderful group of people that struggle so much everyday to live on the basic necesstities, It's hard to think that you are just going to leave them in a drop of a hat. Not only that, but I felt like I became a part of their family as I felt a strong connection to each member. These people were not only my colleagues, but my friends.
Almost everyone from the JL Zwane Centre showed up, which was about 30 people. We all had a blast eating, sharing stories, and enjoying each others company. After we finished eating Bongani stood up to give a speech thanking me for everything I did to help Siyaya. It was very heart felt and then he proceeded to have the group sing 2 songs that were to be dedicated to my last day. At that point I started to cry as I couldn't hold it back any longer. The songs were so beautiful and I felt so honored for them to sing to me. Once they finished I regained my composure and stood up to say a few words. I thanked everyone for welcoming me with open arms and making me a part of their family. I told them it was an honor to work with them and get to know each and everyone at the centre. I began to cry again and sat down while many people came up and gave me hugs and held my hand.
After dinner I was able to spend a little more time with the group. When the time came for me to go it was already late at night. Once again I broke down in tears giving a hug to everyone. Everyone was so supportive and helped me regain my composure. Bongani drove me back to his house so I could have some food and then proceeded to drive me home. We talked a lot on the way about keeping in touch, which made me feel relieved.
Overall this was the most difficult week of my journey. I don't usually cry unless it's dealing with death of a friend or a family member, but this time I couldn't help it. I really believe that the people of siyaya had a large impact on my life and I really tried to cherish every moment I had with them. I can only hope now that I can return as soon as possible to this wonderful place called South Africa. It was hard for me to understand the impact of this experience until I knew that I was leaving. I felt like I became so acclimated to life out in South Africa that I had no idea what it was going to be like to leave.
The people I've met through Cross-Cultural Solutions including the staff, volunteers, and people at my placement have been some of the most compassionate people that I've ever met. I feel very blessed to have had this journey. Thank you everyone for your love and support. I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors. I will miss you all.
This will be my last blog until I return home on October 31st. Upon my return I will write a reflection blog based on my experience in South Africa and my reactions to returning home. I just want to say thanks to everyone who has kept track of the "Kevin Tackles South Africa" blog. I've really enjoyed writing it and I'm very grateful for all of your comments and feedback. I feel very blessed with all of the support you have given me and I hope you all got a little taste of my experience in South Africa. Once I return home I will be planning a slideshow viewing of all my pictures and will be giving some presentations at my church to inform everyone on my travels.
Enkosi,
Kevin Gschwend
U.S. Address
7300 Brickyard Road
Potomac, MD 20854
U.S. Cell # 301-758-7916
E-mail - kevin.gschwend@gmail.com
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Week #9 - Getting to know your township
On the morning of Saturday, September 26th I woke up to meet Reverend Dr. Spiwo Xapile for breakfast. Dr. Spiwo is the main Reverend of the JL Zwane church and also the main director of the JL Zwane Community Centre. We had talked before about meeting up and having him show me around the townships. He wanted me to see how the JL Zwane centre gives back to the townships. He also wanted to give me a more in depth taste of what township culture is like. The last time I actually walked through a township was my first week here in South Africa and that was very much a culture shock. I was curious to see what it was going to be like when I was more acclimated to the sights of shotgun shacks, overwhelming trash piles, stray dogs, and everything else that makes up township living.
I met Dr. Spiwo at a restaurant nearby my house for breakfast. He was with another gentleman who was apart of the church and he was coming along for the ride. As we ate breakfast we discussed the issues of poverty in South Africa, how the centre helps in terms of community service, and how the centre and church are funded. I found out that there are no government appropriations used to help finance the centre and that much of the funding for the JL Zwane centre comes from grant funding from partnering churches across the United States. The money is used for all the essential functions of the centre including programming, employee salaries, stipends, maitenance, etc. It was very interesting to here about the lack of government support to fund community innitiatives like the JL Zwane Centre. It seems like much of the support for any community based endeavors in South Africa are all supported from outside parties including churches in the US, Non-profit and Non-Governmental Organizations. We continued to chat about the prospect of my presbyterian church back at home, called Bradley Hills Presbyterian, becoming a partner. In this way my volunteer wouldn't be just associated with Siyaya, but with the JL Zwane centre as a whole. In the grand scheme of this program I want to establish sustainable relationships with my placement in South Africa so I can really make a difference.
After breakfast we drove into Guguletu to visit some of the orphanges that the JL Zwane Centre supports. Our first stop was an orphanage for children that have disabilities (i.e. autism, cerable paulsey, etc.). One of the many issues in South Africa is that many of women who give birth to new borns with disabilities will abandon their kids due to the burden of taking care of them. Many of the children will be found in dumpsters or trash piles where they'll be taken to social services. Most of the time social services will not have enough resources to actually provide any real support so they get in contact with one of the many independent 24 hour care orphanages in the townships. Being in the townships, these orphanges are no where near the type of place that these kids should be raised in terms of the unsanitary conditions of the townships, but it's all they have. The JL Zwane centre provides funding to these orphanges for food, clothes, and activities. It was a very impacting experience as at least 15 children were packed in one very small room. Some of the children very ill, while the others played on the floor with the balls or other small toys they had. One of the children immediately spotted me and jumped into my arms. They were so excited to see some one different and just enjoyed the feeling of being held. The manager of the orphanage asked me if I had a questions and I had a few, but it was so hard to speak because of how emotional I felt towards the situation. Next, Dr. Spiwo took me to another orphanage with non-disabled children. This time comparing to the first stop I was pretty impressed with the accomadations. I mean in reality it still was not a great place to raise children, but there was a new bathroom, new flooring and new bunk beds that had all been paid for by the JL Zwane center. The children were all really kind and the main care taker was extremely kind and welcoming. It was very interesting to see all of this, especially when I discussed with Cross-Cultural Solutions program director, Luann the other day about my trip and she informed that the JL Zwane does more funding for community services like these than the governments' social services.
The next stops were around the Guguletu open air market where people gather to buy vegatables, meat, play pool, and other activities. It was very busy so Dr. Spiwo had his friend walk me around to look at everything that was going. Over in the corner was a big fire where they cooked a very distinguished food called "Smileys". A "Smiley" is the head of a goat, sheep, or cow and is a popular feature in the township diet. They call them "Smilies" because you can see all the teeth once they finished cooking. Don't worry, there was no way I was thinking about trying one. My guide then took me around to the surrounding Shebeens. I was a little hesitant at first because Cape Town Shebeens are not always the safest, but it was daytime and I was with my guide. We quickly went into a couple shebeens where people were drinking, playing, pool and listening to music. One of the shebeens had food and a person came up to offer me what looked like buffalo wings. My guide insured me that it was safe to try and I didn't want to be rude so I ate a piece. I quickly found out that they were actually chicken feet. The taste I have to say was pretty bad and there were many bones.
The rest of the week in my volunteer work included me going to other shebeens and clinics with siyaya to help promote the group and book them gigs. They are now preparing a township tour where they'll be performing at different shebeens and clinics through out the month of October. I'm sad to say that I'll be missing it.
Thanks everyone for keeping in tune with this edition of "Kevin Tackles South Africa". I'm sorry I wasn't able to go into more detail about my week, but I've been very busy working on burning mix cds for everyone in siyaya and preparing for my departure. The next blog will be very short as well due to my very hectic schedule.
Thanks everyone,
Kevin Gschwend
I met Dr. Spiwo at a restaurant nearby my house for breakfast. He was with another gentleman who was apart of the church and he was coming along for the ride. As we ate breakfast we discussed the issues of poverty in South Africa, how the centre helps in terms of community service, and how the centre and church are funded. I found out that there are no government appropriations used to help finance the centre and that much of the funding for the JL Zwane centre comes from grant funding from partnering churches across the United States. The money is used for all the essential functions of the centre including programming, employee salaries, stipends, maitenance, etc. It was very interesting to here about the lack of government support to fund community innitiatives like the JL Zwane Centre. It seems like much of the support for any community based endeavors in South Africa are all supported from outside parties including churches in the US, Non-profit and Non-Governmental Organizations. We continued to chat about the prospect of my presbyterian church back at home, called Bradley Hills Presbyterian, becoming a partner. In this way my volunteer wouldn't be just associated with Siyaya, but with the JL Zwane centre as a whole. In the grand scheme of this program I want to establish sustainable relationships with my placement in South Africa so I can really make a difference.
After breakfast we drove into Guguletu to visit some of the orphanges that the JL Zwane Centre supports. Our first stop was an orphanage for children that have disabilities (i.e. autism, cerable paulsey, etc.). One of the many issues in South Africa is that many of women who give birth to new borns with disabilities will abandon their kids due to the burden of taking care of them. Many of the children will be found in dumpsters or trash piles where they'll be taken to social services. Most of the time social services will not have enough resources to actually provide any real support so they get in contact with one of the many independent 24 hour care orphanages in the townships. Being in the townships, these orphanges are no where near the type of place that these kids should be raised in terms of the unsanitary conditions of the townships, but it's all they have. The JL Zwane centre provides funding to these orphanges for food, clothes, and activities. It was a very impacting experience as at least 15 children were packed in one very small room. Some of the children very ill, while the others played on the floor with the balls or other small toys they had. One of the children immediately spotted me and jumped into my arms. They were so excited to see some one different and just enjoyed the feeling of being held. The manager of the orphanage asked me if I had a questions and I had a few, but it was so hard to speak because of how emotional I felt towards the situation. Next, Dr. Spiwo took me to another orphanage with non-disabled children. This time comparing to the first stop I was pretty impressed with the accomadations. I mean in reality it still was not a great place to raise children, but there was a new bathroom, new flooring and new bunk beds that had all been paid for by the JL Zwane center. The children were all really kind and the main care taker was extremely kind and welcoming. It was very interesting to see all of this, especially when I discussed with Cross-Cultural Solutions program director, Luann the other day about my trip and she informed that the JL Zwane does more funding for community services like these than the governments' social services.
The next stops were around the Guguletu open air market where people gather to buy vegatables, meat, play pool, and other activities. It was very busy so Dr. Spiwo had his friend walk me around to look at everything that was going. Over in the corner was a big fire where they cooked a very distinguished food called "Smileys". A "Smiley" is the head of a goat, sheep, or cow and is a popular feature in the township diet. They call them "Smilies" because you can see all the teeth once they finished cooking. Don't worry, there was no way I was thinking about trying one. My guide then took me around to the surrounding Shebeens. I was a little hesitant at first because Cape Town Shebeens are not always the safest, but it was daytime and I was with my guide. We quickly went into a couple shebeens where people were drinking, playing, pool and listening to music. One of the shebeens had food and a person came up to offer me what looked like buffalo wings. My guide insured me that it was safe to try and I didn't want to be rude so I ate a piece. I quickly found out that they were actually chicken feet. The taste I have to say was pretty bad and there were many bones.
The rest of the week in my volunteer work included me going to other shebeens and clinics with siyaya to help promote the group and book them gigs. They are now preparing a township tour where they'll be performing at different shebeens and clinics through out the month of October. I'm sad to say that I'll be missing it.
Thanks everyone for keeping in tune with this edition of "Kevin Tackles South Africa". I'm sorry I wasn't able to go into more detail about my week, but I've been very busy working on burning mix cds for everyone in siyaya and preparing for my departure. The next blog will be very short as well due to my very hectic schedule.
Thanks everyone,
Kevin Gschwend
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Week #8 - major south african rock group comes together with township musicians
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
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
Monday, September 21, 2009
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
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
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