Sunday, 28 April 2013
The schedule says 9am pickup. Ugh. But hey, it's all in the contract, and for a good cause - I mean, this is what we signed up for, right? So I drag myself out of bed and go through the motions of making myself presentable before heading down for breakfast. Knowing the scheduling so far, chances of them showing up at 9 on the dot are slim, so I don't rush myself. And we even have the suspicion that there might have been a miscommunication, and are therefor expecting them as late as 10.
But when 10:45 rolls around and there's still no sign of anyone, and no phone call or anything, we decide it's time to call and find out what's up.
Turns out the event has been rescheduled to the afternoon, and no one told us. Grrrrrrr... In otherwords, we probably COULD have jammed with the cats till 1:30 am and had a nice "grasse matinée" (lie-in) before getting up to go perform for the kids at the Alice Foundation. Did I say grrrrr? I mean grrr....
Anyway, I take advantage of the "extra" time to update my blog entries and try getting on the internet (SUPER slow in this building!). Then, before you know it, it's time to head out.
We arrive at a dusty plaza encircled with grass-roofed open-air food stands which are wafting forth smoke from their grills. A gaggle of young kids are gathered under an open tent structure, accompanied by a few adults. A few of them charmingly hold up signs welcoming "Keri Chryst & Jeff Hoffman" ;-)
Under another tent, there are some musician-looking types, and a collection of native drums. I'm told that they and a few others will perform a few songs as part of the welcome ceremony. Cool! I introduce myself around, and do a quick sound check, and then leave them to it.
Alice herself steps up to welcome everyone and explain the mission of her foundation, which focuses among other things on health and education issues for children, as well empowerment for women. The entertainment portion opens with Peter, an elder from up-country in the Tanzanian capital, dressed in traditional costume who accompanies himself on the Ilimba - a type of lammelophone. I'm fascinated by the melodies, which are familiar yet unfamiliar... making use of some interesting scales.
Then the other group steps up to play with their drums and a guitar. Their name (which I unfortunately didn't catch) means "We are here, yet we are not here", and they sing a few more modern sounding songs, and the kids start to sing along already. The highlight of their performance is when of the guys starts doing backflips, and does a balancing act, placing stacks of beer bottles and tennis balls on the edge of a knife which he holds in his mouth! Wow!
Then it's our turn. The kids are so excited that they start participating right away - getting up to dance, and sing along! By the time we "Take the A Train" (with the help of "We are here, yet we are not here" and their drums) they have spontaneously started a choo-choo train / conga line of their own! Very cool. We do a few numbers with them, then turn it back over to the Alice Foundation who have a few more things on tap on their end.
One of their "mamas" has a talk with the kids about health and personal hygiene. And then a couple of brave young girls step up to the mic to honor us with a song of their own. After all is said and done, we step up to the mic for a couple more songs, and leave them dancing and singing to "Sweet Home Chicago" (it gets 'em every time, don't it?).
In a flurry of diplomacy and picture taking, one young girl manages to sidle up to me to get some one-on-one time. She asks my name, and introduces herself as Julie. She throws her arms around my neck in an embrace, and is determined to get a picture with me (Jeff obliges). Then she pops a question that takes me by surprise - "What is your tribe?". I try to explain that where I live, we don't exactly have tribes... but rather families, and regions, and countries. Then she proudly tells me her tribe's name, and Jeff snaps a few more photos of me and the other girls that have joined her as my entourage.
Given that we're here in what's basically the equivalent of an outdoor "food court", there was half a plan to catch a bite after the performance. Finally a chance to taste some truly local food. Jeff actually took an opportunity before we got started, and had some tasty grilled meet and grilled bananas. Between the heat and the big buffet breakfast though, I'm not really that hungry. Hot and sticky, more like... so we clear out fairly quickly, and head back to the hotel to rest and clean up.
Last on the agenda is an evening sortie to a local fish restaurant to which we've been given directions. My calamari and snapper combo is pretty tasty, but Jeff wins the prize with his sea-food skewer! Unfortunately, no one seems to have the famous dessert I've read about - grilled bananas in butter and brown sugar :-/ So, we call it an early night, and head back to the hotel.
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