On Sunday, the students and Neil opted for a slower start
and some downtime, while Jules and I accompanied Musa - a brass teacher at BAM
and our driver for the week - to his local church service. We were in search of
a more 'Salonian' church experience than we had managed the week before, and we
were not disappointed. The service was predominantly sung, with songs in Krio,
Mende and English replacing large sections of the liturgy. Unfortunately there
was no song sheet - the congregation was clearly familiar with the words - so
Jules and I joined in as best we could, approximating melodies and
harmonies and ad libbing lyrics.
After lunch back at the guesthouse, our long journey home
began. It passed without incident, and there isn't much to say about 8 or so
hours on a plane, but watching Freetown fade into the distance as our boat
transfer sped across the bay towards Lungi is firmly fixed in my mind.
Looking back on the trip, I feel very proud of our students
for their enthusiasm, their hard work, and especially for the inclusive and
cohesive unit they became. Spontaneous renditions of 'Woko, yu kol mi Woko' and
'Africa' bubbled up at every opportunity - even as we waited for our coach in
the car park at Heathrow. We made some tweaks to the music program this year,
and I especially enjoyed our outreach sessions at local schools, giving
students their first mini lesson on a pTrumpet or pBone. Eight of these
instruments have now been donated to BAM, and I wish to thank all my friends,
family and colleagues whose generous sponsorship made this possible. There are
plans to create bursaries, so that the most dedicated of these children can
continue to learn the instrument regularly at BAM.
Finally, an enormous "Thank You" is due to Jules,
for the extraordinary amount of work she puts in behind the scenes to make this
trip possible. It is such a unique opportunity for our students and staff
alike, and memories of the inspiring people I have met in Salone will keep me
warm - at least for another year! Jack Coward
As thirteen tired students and three tired members of staff
arrived back in Wells after a twenty-four journey, another epic trip to Sierra
Leone was coming to an end. And what a great experience it had been for all of
us. A particular highlight, for me, was our visit to the Don Bosco orphanage.
Here rescued street boys and young girls forced into prostitution were being rehabilitated, shown
the value of education and pride in oneself, with the aim of re-integrating
them into society. After a short concert, it wasn’t long before our
students were chatting enthusiastically with these abused children,
playing football with them, dancing, swapping stories, laughing with them,
having fun. ‘Attention,’ according to the French thinker Simone Veil, ‘is
the rarest and purest form of generosity’. It is to our students' great credit
that they attended to these children, interacting with real warmth and kindness,
each group making a lasting impression on the other.
Another highlight was our visit to the Milton Margai school
for the Blind. After our musicians had performed their regular set and all of
us had sung our team song, ‘Africa’, with various
degrees of competence and tunefulness, we were treated to a few songs by the
blind school’s famous choir. Rarely have I witnessed singers live so fully the
songs they were singing. And these were vibrant, life-affirming songs, packed
full of sunny optimism. Looking around at the basic surroundings and living conditions,
we felt both humbled and inspired by such exuberant expressions of hope,
praise and joy. We like to think we know the value of music here at
Wells, but at the Blind School in Freetown they know it just as well, and just
as deeply.
Spontaneous, and sometimes planned, outbursts of singing
and dancing featured regularly during the trip, and this year we felt that the
whole group worked especially harmoniously together. Certainly the team of six
who worked at the JTR school did an absolutely tremendous job. Having
observed all of them teach, I’d happily offer a few of them jobs in the English
department, if we had space, of course. Regularly mobbed whenever they went in
the playground, our students were incredibly popular with the Sierra Leonian school
children. During one break time, I watched as each of them was
surrounded by huddles of excited children, plaiting their hair, playing games,
high-fiving or just chatting. As it had been at the orphanage, it was
striking how warm and friendly our students were, how easily they interacted
with the children and how much they everyone was enjoying their experience.
So
thank you to our students for being such a brilliant, fun and industrious bunch
– you did us and the school proud. And thanks too to Jack and Jules, for their
excellent company, good humour and various suggestions for how to improve Wells
and the wider world. An especial thanks to Jules. Though she can go on a bit at
times, or so Jack tells me, she really does embody all that’s best about this demanding,
but also highly rewarding trip. Jules throws herself into each experience with
tremendous enthusiasm, always engaging warmly with other people, remembering
everyone’s names, always forming excellent relationships. And also reminding us
to take our malaria tablets each morning, even this morning after the trip had
finally ended. I expect there may be another reminder tomorrow morning too… Thanks
so much to you all and to our friends in Sierra Leone for putting up with us. Neil Bowen
Another year, another trip. Has it been successful? In two
words: absolutely yes! The team this year has been great, full of energy,
enthusiasm, and truly working as one. The musicians have really impressed me
with their professionalism and their resilience in adapting to new situations,
miles away - in every sense of the term- from what they had ever experienced
before. It is hard to accept that the audience is not going to be quiet whilst
listening to you, hard to I imagine that the hours it has taken you to get to
that level are not going to be acknowledged, but the enjoyment of the audiences
has been obvious- even if they had never ever seen nor heard a flute, a ‘cello
or a clarinet. Ultimately, we do not go out there to change things or to impose
our styles- we go out there to find out about another culture, to embrace our
differences and to share our experiences with them. So it is vital that we
do not expect a certain type of behaviour... and our musicians certainly did
not! They were nervous to start with, but once they got into their stride, they
just got on with the flow and took on everything that was thrown at them in
good grace and good humour. This year, Jack, Eliza and James went out to a
primary school to teach trumpet and trombone, using our P-instruments,
instead of having lessons at Ballanta- and it was a great way to spread their
love of music and to try to get more students to pick up an instrument.
Watching our musicians, I have observed a huge change in them in one week-
from shy but highly skilled musicians, to confident teachers.
But this
trip is no longer just about music, and the JTR team, as the non-musicians are
known, is just as important. They bring something completely different to the
students in the school. For a few days, they allow their creativity to run
wild, they teach them different set of values through the medium of songs,
mythical stories they have never heard before, Sudokus and poems. They bring
this new energy and enthusiasm into the classroom. They are totally loved and
idealised by students at JTR, who welcome them with arms open wide and smiles
to match. From every corner of the school, I could hear singing, chanting,
laughing and applauding. They worked hard to plan their activities, and in true
teachers’ style, they adapted at a moment’s notice. It is not easy being
dropped in a class with 40 students you have never met, a piece of chalk and a
blackboard... but they made it work. And as Neil said, I would quite happily
employ them! Watching them all week, I have seen them become confident,
reflexive and oh, yes, very sweaty but happy! JTR's proprietress Mrs Pearl Reffell also announced that their brand new library would be named Wells Cathedral School Library, which is a real honour and shows how deep our bond has grown since we started this partnership. We look forward to taking some books next year!
Finally,
this trip could not be the success it is without Neil’s and Jack’s support and
hard work there, supervising and teaching at the same time! Both adapting to
circumstances and being very flexible and supporting the students without
fail. It is vital to have this support, teachers prepared to tuck in and
muck in -quite literally- but in exchange, I reward them with a little bit of
quiet time to relax and reflect... so not all bad even if I go on a bit!
So until next year, thank you to all students and parents for making this truly an experience of a lifetime. Over and out until October 2019! Jules Desmarchelier-Arpino
