11.7.13 Month 2 Day 17: Mr. Rauchi, the deputy head teacher at St. Andrews, is a man of strict convictions who strikes fear in the bones of his students, upon the very sight of his gaunt, yet determined physique. Students shrivel when he issues commands, and would not be caught dead in defiance of his demands. I am technically a colleague of his, but at times, I swear, he has the effect of putting me back in middle school, up at Mellon, with the feeling of being in a mountain of inescapable trouble. The funny part is that I am not even misbehaving when I feel the pang of guilt in my gut! He just has that way about him, which is impressive to say the least. I respect his ability to keep the consistent seriousness-thing going. I have to work very hard to maintain half as much seriousness, perhaps because I am just perpetually humored by life and cannot resist the urge to share in that humor with anyone and everyone who will join me. But the point of this preamble is not purely descriptive. Mr. Rauchi, in his morning announcements today in chapel said that, “perhaps Mr. Etzel will share with us what he has been doing with the music club all of this time. We are all very curious.” Now, coming from any other teacher in the school, I would take it as a polite statement that maybe sometime soon I should put together some kind of vague presentation for the school. Coming from Rauchi, it was a direct order to get prepared quickly and have a polished product by Monday, for assembly. Luckily, the group I have assembled is in a position to perform. We have managed to learn 5 different traditional Malawian songs using the handchimes, of which we will perform 3. The children know these songs inside and out, so it is largely up to me to memorize them and coordinate the quasi-conducting necessary to pull it off. I prefer it this way, because I can at least control my own planning, and I am confident I will have little trouble getting everything together by Monday. We will have another rehearsal tomorrow after school lets out just to make sure that everything is in working order. After classes let out today, the students (along with my musical companion Gerald) met in the library for our rehearsal. I had a full group today, pushing 12 ringers. The way I designed the formatting of the group allows for 14, which will be rare that we have that many ringing. If I have more than that number I can technically accommodate 21, since there are 21 individual chimes that are used for any given song. It is preferable that we keep the group size to maximum of 14, but I will never turn eager learners away! Having Gerald there to help has proven to be an excellent decision on my part. Each person you meet here in Malawi takes a while to understand, especially when it comes down to their motivations. There are quite a few people here that are primarily self-serving in their relationships but they are not easily distinguished from the other friendly people who are driven by more altruistic forces. If I had to make a character judgment about Gerald, it would be to say that he has a genuine interest in educating youth and learning at the same time from me. I adopt a similar philosophy, in that as much as I teach, I try to learn twice-fold. This ensures that I keep an open mind to new, better approaches, while also keeping me humble and grounded enough to know my true place here on Earth! Meeting someone who seems to espouse the same principles makes it easy to work well together. The practice went very well, although it was nearly 100 degrees in the library. A few weeks ago, bertha purchased me two men’s hankies, which I have used extensively to wipe my brow in this stifling heat. We planned for another rehearsal tomorrow and set the times and what not. I did not realize it but the headmaster sat in on the rehearsal, and got a chance to see how a typical practice is run. He did not give any feedback but thanked us for letting him sit and experience the lesson. I would be curious to see what his thoughts were about the practice. I always enjoy getting the input of respected colleagues! It was fun to have him and I am glad he was able to attend. Overall, a productive and fruitful day for all of us here in the warm heart of Africa!
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 13:28:12 +0000
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