Over this past long weekend, Wuerzburg hosted another African festival. It's always fun and interesting for me to see how one culture interacts with another. What I loved most was that the vendors were relatively unconcerned about the children who couldn't resist pounding on their very expensive instruments! In a world where everything is untouchable and forbidden to small people, it's so nice as a parent to have the opportunity to allow your child to interact.
"Musss-ee!"" my son's cry for music as he bounces at the knees to the pulsing rhythms around him.
A happy beautiful man with instruments arranged before his tent was attempting to engage people in a drumming session. I convince my small one to sit with me while we investigate his drums. Recognizing that I was speaking English, the man immediately switches away from German to a chant with a British lilt,
"Come home mummy...
Come home dahh-dee
1-2-3
1-2-3..."
German children joined us, straddling the drums and earnestly following the right-left-both hand pattern of the rhyme. It ended with a hearty, "Ja mon!" Clearly all the permission my child needed to bravely begin his own songs...
The visually creative aspect were the amazing displays of handmade wares for sale. So many unusual things made from recycled materials such as birds out of plastic bags and angels from recycled cans of insecticide. This is up-cycling at it's finest!
Of course I bought an angel for here at Studio Mailbox, as a reminder to myself to keep going with materials that I already have and to use things in new ways.
Aha, just wait untill the little one demands his first drums... :-)
Would love to learn to play these kind of drums myself!
Jacqueline
Posted by: Jacqueline | June 03, 2009 at 08:46 PM
Love the drum story!
Children do need to interact; some of us adults have our priorities mixed up.
Just found your blog...Nice posts!
I'll be back for more...
Posted by: DJ | June 04, 2009 at 10:18 AM
Looks like you all had a great day. I have a citroen 2cv made from pop tins which I bought on my first visit to South Africa. I treasure it. I watched a series about spirituality a couple of years ago. One activity they did was to play african drums in a group, just communing with the other members of the group. I fancy doing that at home with Paul, but haven't got around to getting a couple of drums yet.
Posted by: Julie Stenning | June 07, 2009 at 06:59 PM