2/19/10

On Monday we had a special visitor come and speak to us about her life in Banyam province in Afghanistan. Our School Climate committee of which I am a member had initiated Greg Mortenson's Pennies for Peace program to promote awareness of other cultures since we have so many friends and relatives serving in Afghanistan now, and also to promote kindness and generosity among students in our school. We found out through the grapevine that this 17-year-old young lady was an exchange student nearby and would be willing to come in and speak to our school.

I immediately began searching for Afghan songs for our students to learn and welcome her with. I know how I would feel if in a strange country with more liberal customs. In my search I discovered that when the Taliban came through they destroyed many things that were forbidden in their more restrictive religion, including ancient Buddhist statues throughout Bamyan province. I wish I could include these pictures I found on the web but I believe they are copyrighted. (Wikipedia has two stunning pictures of Bamyan province which show no water and plenty of water.) My words cannot do justice to the overwhelming beauty of the province which appeals to my wild spirit. And no words can certainly be stronger than the pictures of ruined Buddhist carvings in tall mountains. The Taliban also destroyed schools, books, and music.

30 years or so ago a young Peace Corps volunteer was teaching English and music to Afghan children and she collaborated with local musicians to produce 3000 copies of the songbook. This project was reborn when she realized most of the copies were probably lost and destroyed after years of civil strife, war, and dislocation. She re-published and started distributing it to children and schools in Afghanistan. (http://www.trivision.tv/news_songbook.html) Louise Pascale, now a professor at Lesley University, has donated the songbooks to Ayenda School in Bamyan but would like to reach more schools in the province. I decided to give our guest, Adelah, the book and CD which contains children's songs from various provinces in the original, English translation, an overview of each song, and the musical notation. Adelah has heard of this program and I have initiated communication between the two!

The performance was first thing Monday morning one week before vacation. Anyone connected with schools and teaching will know exactly what that means! I believe the students were so stunned by Adelah's beauty, traditional festive lapis lazuli attire, and stiletto heels that they were not able to concentrate 100%. But it really did not matter for Adelah clearly felt welcomed and appreciative of the efforts the students had gone to learn a song in her own language. And this was a huge thing for kids in our isolated area not used to performing or being outside of their comfort zone. It would have been a challenge for anyone to perform a song learned in an hour without a school-wide rehearsal.

The week before in each music class I introduced and rote taught the song. I chose the Alphabet Song because I had less than one hour to teach each class not only a song, but one in a different language! It has mostly one-syllable words, many of which rhymed, and many of which were words in English. I had the bigger kids write it on large paper using colorful markers with the rests and repeat signs written in, laminate, and post them around the multi-purpose room. Later in the week I got smart and had two wonderful 7th grade students come in to class and lead the singing and teach gestures to the students to make it more fun. We used expressive hand gestures and avoided any hip action or anything else that might cause offense. The kids really enjoyed that and the MS'ers were far more effective than I! I had the words and eastern melody running through my head like a Reuters news feed all night long and woke myself up often singing them, just like the old days with opera scores!

I have included some pictures. The other bigger event will have to wait until another post!