This is the front of the house I was stazing at in South Africa

Actually I was staying arroud back in the shack

It is a standard issue Aparthied era abode, there are literally

millions of these arround the RSA

This is the street in the township that our house was located.
Sebenzisa Street or in English : Make it work Street

The first weekend I was in the RSA I went on a trip to the Kingdom of Swaziland
with the Gauteng Choristers. Its a beautiful country surrounded by
huge mountain ranges.

Greetings from World Cup Land!

So I have arrived in Germany. A week of traveling since I left Afrika. I'm with the sisters south east of Darmstat. I came via Frankfurt via Zurich via Rome via Johannesburg. Rome is wonderful if dreadfully hot now. Switzerland is beautiful and cool this time of year and Germany is not too bad. I go back to Rome on the 6th and back to the states on the 20th. Tommrow I go out of the convent for a trip arround Germany. A nice break from the music writing for the nuns. I will post again when I get to Rome.

Geting ready to go again

In a week my time will be up in South Africa and I will be off to Rome. I have been in touch with the sisters these past months and it would seem that there is quite a bit of work to be done that side. But there will be time to see Rome and the Vatican and there will be a trip to the convent in Germany. I'm tremendously excited.

South Africa has been intresting.
I have learned much about music here.
I have gathered the material for my next two pieces.
But at the same time some of these projects have gone quite wrong.
But that is Africa.

Right now I'm on a small vacation in Botswana visiting people but I leave for South Africa on Sunday. Then I will have a week to wrap things up there. I have to register some of my Zulu/Xhosa/Setswana music in Johannesburg so that it will be open for people to sing in SA. If things go well we will make a recording of my arrangement of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika next week. I'm also hoping to set up a few commissions that I can fulfill when I leave SA. I'm hoping to visit the Soweto String Quartet and see if we might beable to strike a deal. We shall see. At least the last few days will be productive ones.

Well, as I was typing this I tried to upload the pictures but blogger crapped out. Or rather the ISP in Africa crapped out, God knows. The internet is such a headache here. Lets just say I'll post when I get to Rome.

Hello again

I have some wonderful images to post but the internet cafe that i'm at wont support my flash disk so we will have to wait... Sorry.

Some things have worked out quite well and other things have failed miserably. I did get to adjudacate in a national choir competition. It was about 40 choirs singing western, african, and gospel music. It was quite an earful but a very intereting experience. Right now I'm finshing a piece that I was commissioned to write for the Twelve Apostles Church national assembly that happens next week. Its one of those deals where the choir is already rehersing the begining and the end is still being written. They only asked me to write something for them 5 days before they wanted to reherse! The audience will be well over 5,000 when they pergorm the piece. We are renting out a whole stadium...

The text for the work comes from 1 Cor. 13:
Love is patient and kind, Love is never angry or spiteful...

People in South Africa use the word 'love' 5 min. after they meet you. That's not love.
I thought that it wold be a good text to set for SA. Its in Zulu, Setswana, and Xhosa. I'll post it when I get a recording.

My music classes failed entirely though. Its quite sad, I did quite a bit of prepatory work back in the states to make these classes the best I could. Well, thats africa. I have lived here long enough to know thats how these things go.

I'm going to try and find a different internet cafe that can take my flash disc or I'll put the images on CD and do it that way.

Peace.

Greetings from Botswana

Its been a very fast two weeks. The first weekend down here I traveled to the Kingdom of Swaziland with the Gauteng Corristers (the premirere semi-professional choir in Johannesburg). They were invited to come and sing at a big music celebration of traditional African Music in Swaziland. It was quite amazing, the music was wonderful (even if the ear tires of tonic-dominant harmony), the country was beautiful, majestic even... deep ravines, sharp mountinans, all very dramatic.

This weekend I'm in Botswana touching base with my host family and letting them know of my plans. Life continues in Botswana much as it has for time out of memory. The country is modernizing but the basic day to day life remains unchanged for the masses of Batswana. And for the most part they are content. Life just is. I think that is one of the elements that I find attractive in this counrty. Everything remains simple.

So, I go back to South Africa on tuesday and I will post some pictures and recordings I have collected. Now, that I'm established here it shouldnt take so long to get to my next post.

I have arrived...

Just to let everyone know that I arrived safely to South Africa. The flight was long but I got bumped to first class for the first half. The second half I had four seats to my self - no complaints!!!!! I will update soon. Peace.

Time to go

Ka mosso, ke a tsamaya.














Tommrow, I leave.



For the Republic of South Afrika














Rephaboliki ya Afrika-Borwa



And the townships of Johannesburg,















Stay tuned and I will update you all when I arrive.

on the ordinary and extraordinary

I have been thinking about this subject of ordinary vs. extraordinary again as I prepare to return to Africa. Over the new year in 2004 I got to go on my first Peace Corps vacation. Some friends of mine wanted to go up to Victoria Falls so I joined in. It was fabulous. We went white water rafting (as pictured here) below the falls down the zambezi. It was the most exhilarating experiences of my life. During the kombi (minivan) ride back to the hotel I chatted with our guide. For him it was another day on the job. Nothing special. I started thinking about my Peace Corps experience. To those at home it was extraordinary to an incomprehensive level. And it was for me at first as well. But the extraordinary has a way of slowly turning into ordinary. I suppose familiarity and repetition turn the extraordinary into routine. But, interestingly it doesn't diminish the profundity of an experience. Perhaps the ordinary can expand upon the profound by bringing it down to a level in which we can more easily comprehend.

I imagine that the job of president of the United States would make the perfect case study. They must make world altering decisions daily as a matter of course. Extraordinary by our count. But at the same time we expect our president to be able to handle hundreds of domestic/international issues daily as a matter of routine. The country would collapse if the president could not perform his tasks with the ease that the ordinary brings. At the same time the profundity of the decisions is never far away. Compare a first term and last term picture of any president who has been in office for eight years. They look 20 years older from the weight.

I digress.

This trip to Africa is far from routine, but there is nothing extraordinary about it. Its not a matter of "Wow, look at the woman with the sticks piled on her head". That's infatuation with something extraordinary. Its a matter of the warmth of something real. Just a guy returning once more to a land he loves. Hope you enjoy the reports that come out.

Oh, my goodness

Where has all the time gone?

A trip to Austin
A trip to New Orleans
1 week
then I'm off!

I'm suddenly hit with this.
Thank God that I don't have to drive a car back from Hartford.

There are so many little things to do before I go.
I'm actually packing for two different trips.
1. Southern Africa
2. Liturgical/Monastic Europe
Both requiring different not only different packing but also a different Michael.

I was looking at the celing and then I saw the sky.

Well, now I have to go finsh a Zulu Hymn I'm working on. The first attempt at an ending failed. I let the bottom voices go one by one and left the soprano hanging on the last note. It was kind of a long shot any way. I want to get this done before I sleep.

So here we go!

The previous post has been confirmed and plane tickets have been purchased! I leave for South Africa on the 20th of April.

The Plan

I was in Austin this weekend with Jeremy trying to flix my laptop. We took some time out on Sat. to scout a location for the film project he is working on. The two photos in this post are from that shoot. While I was in Austin the plan for the next few months fell into place. The idea is to go to South Africa and teach and research my next composition for 2 months or so. Then go to Rome and Germany to work on some translations of my music for the nuns. Then back to Texas to work on a flim score.

Mid April- Fly to Connecticut pick up my
brohters car and drive it back to Houston

April 20th- Fly to Johannesburg, South Africa

Late April to Late June - Teaching music in South Africa

Late June - Fly to Rome

Late June to Late July - Work on Italian and German editions of the music for the english prayer manual I wrote.

Late July - Begin film score for project with Jeremy

Thats the plan for now. I'm waiting on exact dates from the nuns in Rome so as soon as I have those I will book the flights. In the mean time things are going to get bit crazy. I have 5 weeks to get everything ready to go overseas and teach ...as well as drive a car halfway across the US.... and earn a few more bucks for the bank account.

So what happens now?

With the Francistown Gym project in this protracted cycle of delay, I have been looking at possible alternatives. I have put out feelers to see what projects I can devlop both in Rome and Johannesburg. The nuns I have been working with for these past few years have been asking me to come out to Rome for a while so I think that we can get something together in that department. The sister incarge of the German translation of my music is now in Rome and since we are now publishing our third English edition she could use some help in puting together the eqv. German and Italian editions. The Mothers are in full support of the trip and so we are working out the details.

In Johannesburg I have a musician friend looking into projects in townships of Kagiso and Soweto. When I was in the Peace Corps I did some work there with local choral directors and their chiors. They were the best music students I ever had. They wanted to asorb everything that they possibly could from the short time I spent with them. They were so happy to have me with them that they offered what little money they had between them to come and stay with them and set up some formal classes. While I could never take their money I'm looking into what we might be able to set up. Here the Mothers have come to my help by asking the community to pray for my return to Africa. The sisters have been very supportive my projects over the years.

Time will say...

What is it like?

What is it like to be a Peace Corps volunteer?


On Returning Home- Notes from a Peace Corps Volunteer:

From the Savvy Travler comes an clip aired on NPR about a PCV (Peace Corps lingo for a volunteer) in Benin. She is preparing to end her service and discusses what its like to be a volunteer in Africa and the difficulties of ending her service and returning home. I have never been to west Africa but what she says is amazing- it could have been my service she was talking about.

Visiting with a Peace Corps Volunteer



A Day with Sister Agnes:

Check out this radio diary / flash presentation about a HIV/AIDS nurse in the Soweto hospital. Soweto stands for the south west townships and is one of the largest townships in South Africa. The hospital, Baragwanath Hospital, is the largest in the world. They can see 2,000 AIDS paitents in a day. Often there is little they can do. The drugs to treat HIV are not free and hardly anyone can afford them.


The NPR Web Page - Audio and Flash Virtual Tour

Direct to the Real Audio from NPR

Delays, Delays

On the issue of returning to Africa we have reached a critical junction. The board of directors for the devlopment agecny has voted not to approve. There is an appeals process and the branch manager and the project supervisor from the devlopment agency reccomend that the project be taken down that path. They still very much want the project to move forward. I cannot speculate on the reasons for denial but the report should be out tommrow. When I was in Botswana the national devlopment agency and the national devlopment bank we accused of not approving good business plans so that they could pass them off to friends. I dont know what happened but the though has crossed my mind. Everyone so far involved in the project is convinced of its viability... even those with MBAs who work at the branch and district level. Time will tell. For the mean time I shall continue to prepare for my return to the music school world.

Welcome

Welcome to the blog that I should have started before I joined the Peace Corps!! Well, at least I figured out how to do this before I head back to Africa. I have been backloading it with pictures and stories from the past two years so you can see what I have been up to.