On Saturday, I got up early, and went for a walk with some friends. At 10, we made our way to the University of the Western Cape for a workshop with students from Khayelitsha with the Institute for Music and Indigenous Arts Development (IMAD). They started by teaching us a song in Xhosa. Babalwa (their conductor/organizer) demonstrated it for us and we were all instantly lost. We’ve practiced several songs in Xhosa but this was a little too advanced…
However, some of the singers from Khayelitsha in each section walked us through it slowly. By the end of that session, I didn’t know all the words, but I could at least know where all the clicks were. We taught them Juba, and included our body percussion.
Then, they taught us their second song. It was a lot easier to learn than the first one and BCS caught on really fast. They showed us dance moves and I don’t know how long we sang it, but we paraded and danced all around the front of the building and back. I learned how to make the South African version of an applause whistle (kind of?) which is a high pitched “lelelelelele” which was a lot of fun.
We got a chance to mingle while eating lunch, before getting back to work. After getting their opinions on Wena Skelema and Jikileza My Love, we all sang We Shall Overcome together. Finally, because we had time for one more song, we taught Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around. This was the right decision. They caught on really fast and several volunteered to solo. One memorable moment was when Sophia decided to sing a verse and totally blew everyone away. At the end, we took a group picture and all sang “We are family.” We’ve had many moments on this tour to bond with other choirs and high schools, but this one was the most special for me so far.
We went back to the retreat and had some free time before dinner and rehearsal. Personally, I went for a run around the premises. All in all, a really great day, and relatively low pressure. Can’t wait to bring all the songs we learned back to the US!
Signing off,
Kat