Malindi Music Festival
Trip Start
Unknown
1
17
Trip End
Ongoing
Malindi, Kenya
Friday, December 4, 2009
I kept 'subtely' asking Giovanni if I could tag along....and he relented!!
On Friday morning the drummers set off on their bus ride. We were to join them, but Giovanni felt unwell and so booked a flight...I followed suit - I was his personal doctor - I couldn't leave him in his hour of need!!!
So Giovanni and I left very early on Saturday morning. A short hour later we were there. This compared with the drummers 15 hour bus ride! I was so relieved!
We were staying at this lovely resort
Fancy costumes
. Mango trees were all over the garden bearing ripe fruit. After breakfast with the band, we played in the swimming pool all morning. It turned out that the band were playing at a music festival. This had been organised by an CISP. An Italian NGO dedicated to supporting children's rights.
The band went to set up at the festival, which gave me a great opportunity to see some other groups. I was delighted at my luck! The groups at this time were really traditional. They had fantastic costumes and very unusual instruments. One old man was gently shaking a basket of broken glass and china, which made a lovely tinkling sound. The women wore these fantastic dancing skirts made of pieces of wool, which swished beautifully around their waists.
The Juakali drummers performed, and drew in the crowds. Their energy is infectious.
They played again in the evening. This was an incredible performance. They played tunes I had never heard them rehearse; excerpts from their musical. They acted while they sang, and Michael read one of his own poems, which was absolutely amazing. I felt so so proud of them! The crowd loved it.
The rest of the groups were also a hit. They were a lot more modern. There was a rapper, an R and B guy and a Kenyan superstar, Obura.
We went to bed exhausted! I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to witness such a lot of Kenyan culture in one afternoon
Interesting Instruments
.The next morning we all relaxed. We went to the beach and played in the pool. They had another performance that evening at the casino.
We had been walking through the casino everyday and this was were we ate our meals. It was such a strange place that didn't seem to fit into its surroundings at all. It was glitzy and really unfriendly; full of pokeys with lots of Italians staring at the machines. I didn't know where I was!
The performance went well and was nicely set up on a well lit stage. We got a nice table right in the centre and I thoroughly enjoyed it - as always.
The kids left the next morning for their mammoth us ride. A few of them wanted to squeeze into our luggage. I felt really guilty just jumping on the plane....they arrived back at midnight....but in good spirits - they were singing and drumming the entire trip - Juakali style!
