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Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Stellenbosch
July 20th 2007

Published: July 20th 2007

Hello!
I am so sorry that I haven't written a blog yet, but there has been seriously not a moment of free time since I arrived until now (and even now, I only have 20 minutes before I have to go back so that the TV crew can film us "walking slowly to rehearsal" - those were our instructions). I do have some stories written on my laptop, but there is no wireless and now I am in an internet cafe... so I suppose a short update is better than nothing at all! Most of it will probably be random because I don't have the energy to organize it into lovely paragraphs and also I'm kind of rusty because I haven't written coherently in English for a long time. Actually, I can barely speak coherently in English anymore - languages are so confusing here! Though the common language for everyone is officially English, not everyone is comfortable speaking English to one another and so by the first or second days we had figured out with whom to speak which language - for example, even though the first language of the people from the French part of Switzerland is French, I speak English with them because their English is better than my French so it is easier to communicate. But I speak only French with Nana, who comes from the Congo, because her English is not very good. What a wonderful thing, to be using language as it should be used - for communication - instead of constantly trying to improve or learn vocabulary or use the right grammar. Of course, that is all important if one wants to communicate... but I never worry here about mistakes that I make or if my accent is wrong, because nobody cares! All that we care about is that we can talk to one another! For the first few days I always spoke Italian with the Italians, but Italian is not as comfortable a language for everyone as German or French so the sentences usually contain a mixture of languages. It's great to be at a table, where, say, everyone is Swedish except me and a German boy, and then they speak Swedish and translate occasionally into German so I am forced to understand German because I understand much more German than Swedish. Get it? It's awesome. And actually, I am so impressed with how much German I am learning here in South Africa (it seems odd, but it's great!). My favorite people are the Austrians - there are six of them and all of them are so nice and friendly... and so willing to teach me German! So I have been learning a few phrases every day and having conversations about pets and colors and other rather simple things. Randomly, I learned a song in German the week before I came here (from Andrea at the lake) - mein Hut, er hat drei Ecken... and the second day here we were having a reception with random singing going on and the Austrians sang that song! I was so excited!

Actually that reception evening was really wonderful because that was the first random singing evening... people were off in different corners of the garden getting to know one another and asking questions, and some people were singing, and then at once someone started singing their national anthem (I think it was the Americans, actually), and that started an amazing sing-off between the countries!!! Some countries volunteered their anthems themselves and some had to be encouraged a little more (especially the countries that only had one representative), but eventually everyone sang. I felt so proud to get up with Emily on the edge of the fountain and sing O Canada! Only the French didn't sing their anthem - when it was their turn they stood up and said that they refused to sing because their anthem spoke of war and how they had to triumph over the enemy (I don't remember exactly, but they said it was inappropriate for a gathering of peace), so instead we all sang Frere Jacques in our own languages (yes, Frere Jacques has also been translated into Japanese).

I have also learned a few random phrases in Swedish and Taiwanese. One of the Swedish girls is named Tove (pronounced TOH-VAY) and every time I call her name for something I think of when Nadia and I were in France and we pretended our names were Toiva and Jennelle! My roommate, Victoria, is also Swedish, and she is the perfect example of what one thinks of when one imagines a Swedish girl - sooo blonde and fair and blue-eyed. But she is not tall, so I guess that's different. But there are so many tall people in this choir! I am used to being very tall, especially from where I have travelled in the past... but here I would say I am about average. It's a relief, actually, and makes me not feel so awkward when I'm dancing.

So in other random news, the first concert was last night and it was amazing! I can't believe our rehearsal period went so fast... we learned so much in such a short period! During the concert as we moved from piece to piece, especially in the second half with the African music, I was amazed at all the music we had memorized and learned to dance to (yes, me, dance! Crazy! I also didn't make any mistakes the first concert!). I felt so much love for everyone else in the choir and for the conductors, who had really challenged us a lot during the rehearsals (challenged us to tears, often) and it was so amazing at the beginning of the second half when they called us out by our countries and we came up and bowed as CANADA, and then went to our place. It was so powerful, to think of everyone coming from all over the world and then we all started to sing together. I really love it here, among all these people who love choir as much as I do!

The Austrians are so wonderful in their love for Brahms - we are singing some Brahms at the beginning of our programme and every time we rehearse it they go back to the piano and stand around playing it and singing Brahms long into the night (or morning, or afternoon, or whatever time it happens to be) just for the love of it! And they love it so passionately and it affects them so much that I can't help but be caught up in the wave of it as well, so I sing along, too! I think most of them study in Vienna, which is an intimidating thought (I mean... it's Vienna!!), but they are just normal people like me who also love music passionately! So exciting. Everyone in the choir except for four I think study music at university - most are in performance, some are in choral conducting, and there are maybe five or six in musicology or music education. It is an amazing bunch of people to be around.

Nana, the girl from the Congo, has her hair in little braids and I asked her where she had that done - she said she had done it herself! Then she said if I wanted, she would braid my hair for me on one of the bus tour days. So exciting!!

What else...
so our conductor from the Netherlands, Peter, is absolutely amazing. He is only 29, and he just got the job as the conductor of the Swedish Radio choir (!) and also a really famous Bulgarian choir. He speaks five languages fluently and three others quite well, and plays piano like a fiend, and can sing SO high and SO low (I think officially he is a baritone, but he sounds better than all our tenors in their range and all our basses in their range (does that make sense?) and they are really good anyways, so he is really, REALLY good). He rehearses so efficiently and he teaches us about vocal technique and he makes us give a really good sound without pushing or holding back. It is amazing. Especially in the soprano section - I have never ever experienced this where I can sing easily and freely with my full voice, and so can everyone else, and the section sounds SO GOOD!! I can't even describe it really, because I hate the word "blend" and it doesn't really sound like one voice - it sounds like all our voices, but a good combination! I don't know how he does it, but I love it.

Then there is Sidumo who is hilarious and has so much faith in us and can get us so excited about the music - he is determined that we will look just like an African choir when we are done this! And from the reaction of the audience last night, we did! There were some Africans right in the front row (I mean, obviously they are all Africans, technically, but the difference between the Afrikaans (white, Dutch) and the black Africans is still quite pronounced) and when we started dancing in the first song they looked completely taken aback and as we progressed, they looked happier and happier! It was so encouraging! Then at the end, they gave us an encore so we sang one of the songs we had already done and they all stood up and danced and sang along with us! I have never seen an audience that was so engaged in a performance before - it was wonderful.

Remind me to tell more about the reherasal process of the African music later - that was a challenge! But now I have to go and get my folder and walk slowly and casually to rehearsal...
check out www.worldyouthchoir.org. They are supposed to be updating it daily with pictures and stories and even sound clips from our rehearsals!

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