Week of Sept 26-30
Mondays are such fulfilling days. I start my week by going to have a private drum lesson with Antoinette. This week was even more awesome because I got to interview her for my study. It was so great to hear some of the answers she gave about why she created DrumGhana and what she gets from leading and working with the members of the group. She elaborated on some of the answers that the group members gave last week because I wanted some more context. It’s clear that Antoinette does a lot of good in this community by helping people and giving them usable skills that hopefully they will stick with and continue to improve upon so they can make a better life for themselves. She helps them out in so many ways that I didn’t even know about until I asked in the interview. It’s so cool to hear all the ways DrumGhana is rewarding for her.
This is a pic of how we sit every week while she teaches me a one-on-one drum lesson at her home. It's so great!
On Mondays, after drum lessons with Antoinette, I go to my dance class for two hours. I just love it! It’s two hours of physical activity/exercise but mostly it’s just fun learning the new dances and understanding how the drum parts fit into the dances and vice versa. So much fun! I wish we got to do that more than once a week.
This is the classroom and some of the students in the class doing the dance. I take videos so I can practice. This is also the teacher of the course - his name is Reggie and he's a pretty cool guy.
Also on Monday, I was able to talk to two different teachers who I’m going to be working with in the UK next semester. They were both lovely and I can’t wait to work with them! We mostly talked about logistics of travel and where I’m going to stay. But it made me even more excited for the possibilities that lie ahead when I am in the UK!
Another high point was that on Thursday, my gyil teacher, Zie, invited me to his drum ensembles practice. It was so fun to go and see how that one works! They have an hour of children’s dance practice from 4:30 to 5:30 where the drum ensemble plays and one of the adult dancers teaches the kids some of the traditional dances. Then it transitions into rehearsal where the adults learn new dances and practice ones they know. I was kind of intimidated by this group because they’re also very good. But they were also very nice and welcoming to me. I just played supporting rhythms as I could. It was cool to watch Zie work with the dancers and the drummers. He was teaching them specific dance moves for a new dance they seemed to be learning. It’s clear to me that the teachers who lead these drum ensembles (I’m not sure if each of them is a master drummer, specifically, but they are always very knowledgeable) know all aspects of each of the songs, from the supporting drum parts to the master drum parts to the dance moves, and how to teach each part of them – amazing. Zie he also taught one of the other up-and-coming lead drummers some stuff on his djembe. Also, the place they rehearse is a really nice location: it was at this vegan restaurant, though the restaurant itself is not currently open. We practiced indoors in a banquet room type of place and outside there were beautiful palm trees and the ocean was beyond that. It was a fun evening with yet another new experience with a different drumming group! (I didn’t get any pics because I was new and I didn’t want to just start taking pictures without asking. But hopefully I will get a chance in the near future.)
This is a pic of Zie, as he teaches me the gyil.
Transportation continues to be something I’m conquering slowly but surely. To go to this practice, I had to take a new taxi on a new taxi route that I have not taken before. Zie told me which taxi to take to get from the university to the place, which I was able to do on my own for the first time! And when practice was over, I asked Zie to help me figure out how to get a taxi back. He walked with me down to the taxi station and got me a taxi – I think it was also a taxi that was on the taxi route that I had taken to get there, but I’m still not sure about that. He just got it for me and told me to get in. There were 7 people in that tiny taxi! Think about a small car like a Toyota Corolla with 7 people, two of which were children, and a woman’s shopping bag, and my djembe drum, all in one taxi! But I made it safely home with no problems. Though it may seem small, it always feels like an empowering accomplishment when I conquer a new experience like that!
These are pics of the taxis. The first one is the taxi lot by campus. The second is a closer look at what some of the typical taxi look like.
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