During our trip with Larkin's brother, Noel, we stayed at the Kamanjab Rest Camp. We had stayed there previously during our hunt with the Pegg's and Hygnstrom's from Nebraska, and enjoyed the managers of the camp.
We received a special treat on this trip, as the manager arranged for the local school choir to come sing at the camp. The camp was full with 2 buses of Europeans in tents. Petra, the manager, has developed a relationship with the choir to help gather funds for the school. They come sing, and Petra passes the hat. The money goes for copy machines, blackboards, paper, and other equipment--the kind of things that we take for granted in the US. Every school has these things, right? Well, not here.
The students in the choir are middle school and high school students. They are from farms and communal conservancies around Kamanjab, and they stay in the hostel (dorms) at the school. So, they don't see their families for most of the semester. They go through a lot just to get an education. Their parents sell firewood or goats or butter just to raise the money for their school uniforms--for many of their families, school uniform purchases are the only item for which they need money.
They are incredible musicians. We were fortunate to think ahead, and we brought the video camera to their performance to film a couple songs. They were so good, I just let the camera roll, and we recorded 25 songs (they don't want to stop singing...!) before I ran out of tape. It was a beautiful 1.5 hours under the stars, listening to their voices. The choir is conducted by 3-4 student conductors--as far as I could tell, there is no 'music teacher'--just the school's Headmaster heading up the activity. You can play the video below to hear one of their songs.
When we arrived home from our trip, it didn't take long to splice the video tape to digital form, and then transform the digital video clips to audio files. PhiHat Recording Studio* was born. We have created a CD with 25 tracks--some of the most beautiful music we've heard this year. All live. All from the heart. Drums. Quiet songs. Rhythmic songs. Stomping feet. Even some dogs barking in the background on one song...
In true African fashion, the CD is now on its way through a messenger service (Petra's husband, Petrus owns a service garage and has a shuttle to bring spare auto parts to Kamanjab from Windhoek) to Kamanjab, where I've asked the students to identify the songs by name. And, they'll come up with a name for their CD. We'll get some group photos, and make a great-looking CD to sell at the local lodges around Kamanjab. Voices raising money for their school.
Petra reported via email yesterday that when she told the Headmaster about the idea for the project, she collapsed and cried with joy. "You've made our dreams come true," Petra said. Well, it is a dream to be able to share an evening with such a talented group of students. It feels good to be involved in a project that can help others, even if just a little bit.
But, the fund raising doesn't have to stop at the lodges around Kamanjab! If you like the video clip below and want to experience about 50 minutes of wonderful Namibian music, you can reserve a copy. To find out more details, just send us an email (larkinpowell at gmail.com) and we'll get back to you with more details when it is ready to distribute. We're donating the CD materials. The money goes straight to the school. It will probably sell for about US$10, with additional for shipping by airmail to arrive in the US by Christmas!
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*PhiHat is after the Greek symbol 'phi', which is used to represent survival estimates in the wildlife literature. A little 'carrot' or 'hat' over the symbol specifies that it is an estimate from a sample.
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