Spiced coffe and sea urchins...

A group of Umoja Arts teachers and staff made a trip to Zanzibar to hear the music of Saudi Za Busara, a well known world music festival that takes place on the island yearly.

We went by Dar Express (a 9 hour bus ride) and then took the ferry to Stone Town, one of the most famous and historically rich areas of the island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Town). When our ferry docked, the sun was nearly down. We made our way to a friend's apartment by walking along the beach, through the soccer games and swimmers.

 (just after our ferry trip)

We eventually headed inland, through the narrow streets that turned and darkened. Disoriented and in awe, we climbed the stairs to the apartment and took a rest before heading out to take in the music of the evening.

The festival was held in an old fort called...Old Fort! It was a surprisingly small audience, though the space was filled to the brim. The musicians performing as we arrived were from Senegal. They stopped for 15 minutes to pray between each song. They were very passionate about sharing their music and that made it all the more pleasurable to listen to. 

This image made me think of my Dad and our summer trips to Michigan where some part of our time was dedicated to scoping out the boats in the Great Lakes. The big blue and white ship on the left is actually a vacant 'ghost' ship. Apparently it's been floating there for a few years now.

Here it was low tide, but we all decided to brave the sharp coral and urchins to swim in the light blue-green band that can be seen at the horizon. It was Fatma's birthday at this point. Unfortunately, within 5 minutes of her swim session she stepped on an urchin. She spent a large portion of the beach visit pulling sea the needles from the heels of her feet.

A lovely view of the indian ocean from our table of morning coffee...

Building in progress.

A view from the front row on the Dar Express. I had come down with malaria at this point, so the journey was a rough one. The Dar Express buses always display a name and some flashy designs along the sides. This particular bus was given the name 'Glory to God.' You might just be able to make out the lettering along the top of the giant window. Despite feeling achy and feverish, I managed to enjoy the sights as well as the four tribal themed movies presented by our 'Glory to God' hosts.

Albehije

Tuesday and Thursday afternoons I teach at a school called Albehije. The class I work with includes students ages 8-11. My purpose there is centered around sharing stories with a goal to generate dialog and art projects that develop both literacy, critical thinking skills and the students imaginations.

The building is still under construction. This is a shot from the stairs looking down at the ground level where most people enter the building. A week after I took this picture the chairs disappeared...

I asked students what stories they already knew and invited them to share one-by-one. They were eager and jumping with their hands raised. We went through about five stories on the first day. Each student began their sharing with “Story, story…” and awaited the group response of, “Story come!” Then, naturally, the cadence of their voice would change, they sounded authoritative and confident. At certain moments the students in the audience would coax the story on from their seats by humming, “mmhmm?” There was no air of rudeness to this behavior. In fact, it seemed to be expected in the situation. 

In preparing for lessons with this group of students, I talked to teachers at Umoja who have a history of working with them. Most of my questions pertained to the level of reading comprehension and communication the students had demonstrated in the past. Then I had a very specific question. Which was, what if I asked the students to create a drawing of an animal or object they had never seen before? I wanted to know how likely it was that the students would be willing to deal with the discomfort of guessing at something, and was genuinely curious about whether or not the resulting illustrations would reveal similarities or cultural trends. The response from the teachers at Umoja was an interesting one. They warned me that I might be rushing into something that the students weren't ready for. Their concern was that a task like that would require imagination – something which there isn’t a word for in Swahili. It was argued that in the setting of Albehije, and in general, the city of Arusha, people rarely come up with things or ideas they have not experienced before. In summary, I was told that, basically, imagination doesn't exist here.

Is that true? I was doubtful, and determined that I would take small steps to find exercises that might result in a clearer understanding.

To start, I wrote a condensed version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and read it aloud to the class. The students created illustrations of specific scenes from the story, and then brought them together and placed them in order to form a visual story board. The students had never seen a bear before, so the illustrations are a lot of fun to look at. I eventually shared with the students, some images of brown bears in their natural environment. 

In the end, we formed three groups, and took turns re-enacting the events of the story. I asked the students to use their bodies as props for each scene if their character was not performing an active role, and this is what they came up with...

Goldilocks jumps through the window - running away from home...

Mattress testing.

Chair testing.

This picture has nothing to do with the class work, I just found it funny. One of the girls depicted lost her necklace in the space between the bars and the wall. Here her friends are squeezing in to reach it. 

The work the students did with Goldilocks is impressive when I think about the language barrier and the fact that many students cannot write a complete sentence in English. This group of students have had continual experience working with Umoja for the last two years. They come to Umoja on Saturdays to work with visiting artists, musicians and performers. Generally speaking, this sets them apart from many other Tanzanian students at their grade level, as it is extremely rare for Tanzanian schools to offer arts curriculum. I'm interested to see how this affects their development in the future. It is my understanding that Umoja will continue to work with this specific group of students into the next few years. 

 For now, the school is on break. In May we will begin a new project that will involve a video camera, lots of acting and extensive scenery and prop construction. It should be interesting…more photos to come. 

International Festival 2010

(a poster I designed for the event)

International School Moshi invited me to participate in their day of International Mindedness last Saturday. I gladly joined forces with parents, local musicians, talented students, and teachers to celebrate the diversity of cultures represented within the school community (students of around 45 different nationalities attend the school). As a part of my contribution, I decided to embark upon a collaborative sculpture that could be built over the course of the event, and illuminate as a kind of closing ceremony. 

Throughout the afternoon, families stopped by the collaborative sculpture tent to write their personal wishes on a square paper, that was then folded into a balloon, and later hung and illuminated by the bulbs along the walls of the space.

By the time the sky grew dark, a group of little girls overtook the glowing interior of the space and deemed it their own fairy castle. 

 

At the moment I took this picture, I overheard the girl on the lower right say, "does that fit alright, Cinderella?"

Pit firing in the banana grove...

We made it to the village to finish firing! I learned so much in a very short amount of time. Shanna and I were fortunate to be observers of Mama Anna in her element. Below are just a few captured moments of the process.

 It's a little dificult to see in this image, but the pots are being placed into a shallow pit lined with coffee branches. 

Mama Anna receives the leaves that she then piles high atop the nested pots

The smoke was thick and, at moments, completely blocked the view of the nearby banana trees. It curled up and out of the leaf mound like physics-defying cream. We watched as it thinned, and the burned branches began to collapse into the pit, revealing our finished pots. I was surprised to find that only an hour and a half of burning had taken place when Mama Anna began to fish each piece out to cool.  

Here are the pots cooling on the ground. I wonder if you can notice that the cylindrical piece at the bottom left is more of a reddish brown? This piece was brought out of the heat just before I took the picture. As each piece cools, more of the brick orange color is revealed.
I was a little surprised that this firing took a mere 2 hours in total. I'm so used to thinking of firings as taking most of a day, and then some to cool. When Mama Anna pulled these pots out of the coasl and brought them straight to the cool ground and air, admittedly I was a little nervous, but it turns out that it's not really a problem. She explained to us that a lot of the time she fires pots in the morning and pulls them out to sell at the market in the afternoon.
I'm looking forward to returning these pieces to their makers. Before we left the classroom on the day of the firing, the students sounded very doubtful about the chances of their pots coming back whole. Sweet relief!
Special thanks goes out to Shanna who did a lot of translating and transporting to make this firing a success.

Recently at Umoja

Below is a photo update of the paper installation above Fatma's desk in the front room. Soon I will take it down and we will begin again with a new piece. 

In the Saturday class we have been exploring proportion and scale. We began with careful looking in the banana grove, considering our perception of scale and how it changes as we move our bodies through space. It was really satisfying to see each student's understanding evolve over the course of an hour. 

These two students are working with wire to measure and construct small scale versions of themselves. Tomorrow we will build a village for these figures. Beyond discussion of technical objectives, I aim to touch on what it is that each of us needs and wants in a home, and how these ideals are manifested in our lives personally and as members of a village or community.  

Check out those smocks!

This is the Thursday class. Some of the students pictured are actually from northeastern Ohio! It was surreal to sit in the front room of Umoja and look down to see a pair of OSU Buckeye branded sandals on a new student.

Yesterday, this group finished clay projects that will be fired in a village 20 minutes away on Tuesday.

(finished student work drying)

Shanna (another art teacher) and I found ourselves lost on a clay hunt a couple of weeks ago. We were driving to an area called Usa, and had almost lost hope of finding our destination when along the side of the road, a woman stood with a splay of fired pots. It seemed like a good sign, and we stopped to ask her where we could find clay like hers. She told us we would have to drive 40 more minutes to get clay if we wanted it, because the area we were in had "run out" of its clay reserves. Shanna then asked her about a mama who used to operate a women's pottery group, and the woman directed us just a little further down the road to the left. We took off driving again, and found the turn-off she had mentioned. Quickly we transitioned from highway, to driving on a mud road surrounded by corn and school kids in gray uniforms. We drove for another five minutes, and came across a group of women carrying wood. Again, we asked for directions. According to the women,we were on the right track, we just needed to go a little further...

We eventually found ourselves at a school with a large kiln in the backyard. That seemed like a sure-fire sign, so we pulled off and asked around. We finally found our way to Mama Anna, who filled us in on the status of the women's pottery operation. Apparently there was a dispute, and the whole thing had disbanded. She hadn't had any reason to make clay or fire anything for some time, but she offered her own small clay reserve as well as her assistance in firing finished pieces from Umoja. Wow.

After a little more discussion, she took us to her house further up the mountain. The road was again narrow, crowded with more corn, banana trees and the occasional person. We arrived, and were taken to the side of the goat stable, beneath which Mama Anna keeps her bags of clay. She grabbed one, pulled out a clump of prepared clay, and was quickly on her way to demonstrating how she makes a cooking pot. It turns out a lot of people make their pots on the ground, but from a standing position. As she demonstrated, Mama Anna was bent at the waist, arms elongated, and walking slowly around the clay ring adding coils. Meanwhile, the whole family had gathered and formed something of an assembly. In the end, everyone was looking at each other smiling and nodding.

To get the clay, Mama Anna has to hike a long ways, dig it out of the ground and carry it on her hike back. Beyond that, she has to sift it, add a fine sand and then water before it is a proper wet mix. Knowing the person who has gone to such lengths for a material we are using in class causes me to be more conservative, making sure we recycle each scrap, and to encourage students to put their best efforts in their work. We have used two batches of Mama Anna's mix for this project, and I am really looking forward to returning to Usa to work with her Tuesday!

To the Crater!

Last Sunday, I found myself on an impromptu safari. It was amazing to see herds of gisele, zebra, and clusters of ostrich, giraffes, flamingos, and flies! On our way across the grass, some of the animals ran alongside and ahead of our vehicle.
Our destination was Oltukai.To get there, nine of us squeezed into a seven person vehicle, drove across some grassy turf, avoided patches of tire trapping mud, and found our way to an open wooden lodge that overlooks lake Manyara.
From the platform of the lodge we could make out bands of rippling pink created by an enormous flock of flamingos on the lake in the distance. Two friends, a Maasai tribesman and I made our way to the edge of the lake. As we drew closer, we could smell salt and the defecation of the beautiful birds.The ground was cracked, and where the water lapped at the land, there lived a bright green algae!

When we returned from the walk, we happened upon a humorous scene. The Maasai men had descended upon a giant open box of donated summer hats and shoes. Some of the clothing items were pretty flashy and effeminate. In about five minutes, I found myself an observer of a kind of dress up/play time. Evidence of this event can be seen above...
Five of the Maasai men hopped in the car to join us on our return trip to the main road. In order to fit the extra passengers, we raised the roof about 3 feet and everyone stood. I was squeezed between two people, and a car seat. As we drove over bumpy terrain, my hand was repeatedly pinched between the chair and a Maasai man's machete.
By early evening, we returned to the bustling and chaotic city of Arusha. The smell of diesel and garbage filled my nose once again. Some part of me was glad to be back, though I immediately missed the wild and wide open sights of our excursion at Oltukai...What a treat!

The start of the collaborative project...

The art program at umoja has been somewhat dormant for the last six months. Being one of two new teachers in the department, I thought it would be appropriate to announce our presence and enthusiasm for working with students and making art. Last week I discovered a bundle of rolled up sketches from a few terms ago that have been damaged and thrown to the side. Since materials are hard to come by here, I set out to re-use the sketch paper, paint it, and initiate an informal collaboration amongst visitors and current students at the school.

This is my friend Marieke. She's been helping out at Umoja while awaiting the news of her acceptance to a UN internship position for the next month. Above, she adds a coat of white to the craft paper I scavenged for our latest project.

I laid the painted paper across  the floor in the common area where students accumulate before lessons, and invited them to join me in drawing and cutting patterns and designs.

A few days later we ended up with this decorative netting that now hangs above the front desk for all to see.

Stage two of this project will involve the crafting of hundreds of paper birds that will explode from the corner behind the paper netting, travel across the ceiling and out the front door into the trees.
Arusha is a very international community, so the discussion of traditional paper folding techniques from Japanese, Korean and Moorish culture should be an interesting addition to the mixing pot of information that naturally exists here.