Pool Party and Fashion Show

 

“Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,
Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary…
Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next,
Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it.”

-       Walt Whitman

 Today was the last official day of Orff Afrique. After a morning of reviewing all drumming, dancing, singing, games and xylophone pieces, we had a videotaping session where Kofi reviewed words to songs and drum patterns and such one by one. After all, we are all teachers committed to remembering at least some of what we’ve learned here and bringing it back into our classrooms.

 

For much of my life, I’ve been graced with moments when the world stops and I look on as if from the outside, in it, not wholly in it but savoring the scene. When the video review was finished, we headed to the pool and that’s the moment when some part of me stepped outside myself and watched the groups of people so joyfully talking and laughing and posing for photos and floating around together in the pool and toasting with plastic cups of beer. People might have come here for “professional development,” but in the end, most have forged friendships that will carry on far into the future, wholly bonded together by mutually experiencing what so many have said is the most remarkable two weeks of their lives. 

 

From the pool to a “fashion show” where people showed off the various clothes they had the local tailors make. The colors were vibrant and designs dazzling and the energy of watching people strut their stuff in their new outfits just pure fun. At the end, several sub-groups gathered to take photos and I was so pleased to be asked to pose with the 5 people who took my New Orleans Jazz Course last year, the 3 people who took my San Francisco Jazz Course two years ago, the 2 people who I had taught at the Special Course in Salzburg, the 1 person who took my Tennessee Jazz Course. There were 3 people who took Level III together with me one year and 2 more from another year. There were another 5 or so who had done workshops with me as long as 25 years ago. Many acknowledged that their presence in Ghana was due to me announcing the course and enticing them to consider it. 

 

So watching that scene at the pool and again at the Fashion Show, I felt blessed that my work has opened doors for people into places that they’ve come to cherish and put them together with people they’ve come to cherish. That brings a grand satisfaction to me and it happens year after year in so many courses I give. Some of the people I teach become my genuine friends, but for many, I’m somewhat apart and just enjoying watching them enjoy each other. I’m sure being old enough to be some of the participants’ grandfather is part of the dynamic, but at the same time, I’m perfectly comfortable hanging out with 25-year-olds, especially if they’re musicians or music teachers. 

 

We had a lovely closing circle, ending with a needed hug line—well, hug circle— even though we still have one more “Wake Up to Life” exercise routine tomorrow morning, breakfast and a couple of hours before one bus takes half of us to Accra and the other heads to Ho for a one-week extended Ghana tour. I’m on the Accra bus, poised to fly home tomorrow night. 

 

But first, my last sleep under a ceiling fan before I return to a foggy San Francisco. Good night.