Day 5: Milton Margai and more teaching and learning

Today was an incredible day and an amazing experience for us all. We started the day off with our lovely cooked breakfast at the Family Kingdom Resort. This followed by us loading into the helpfully air conditioned minibuses, and headed on our way to Ballanta. Once we arrived at Ballanta we greeted our enthusiastic students, and begun teaching. Milo, Reuben and I were teaching all of the brass, who we soon realised learnt very quickly, and by the end, we had put together a whole quintet with multiple people on a part. The sound was so rich and full and it felt so rewarding listening to how far everyone had come, only in just two days. Everyone was so thankful for our help and support, which was lovely to see. While we were eating our lunch, Mr Brink entertained us with some unreal magic tricks, leaving Amelie’s jaw on the floor. After this, even though slightly bamboozled from the magic, we travelled to the Milton Margai which was a school for the blind. Walking into this school was hard hitting in itself, I think a part of all of us realised how privileged we are for everything in our lives. We engaged with all of the children, chatting to them, getting to know them, and gradually understanding what life was like for them. We played some music to them, including some duets, a solo from Lydia, and Luca, and the band finishing it off, with some fun tunes that everyone seemed to enjoy. One of the pupils at the Ballanta academy of music joined in for one of our songs on the drums, who was also blind. He astounded us all with his talent, passion, and perseverance, and at this point I think everyone was feeling pretty emotional. Then, some of the students from Milton Margai sung us a few songs, including ‘it’s a long way to tipperary and their school motto song. Everyone was so completely grateful for the music, the atmosphere, and the eye opening experience. One man came up to me and said ‘we don’t have much here, but your music makes a big difference and makes us very happy.’ We said a tearful goodbye to everyone, and departed back off on our way for a relaxing evening at our hotel. I think this experience has been very rewarding, changing our lives forever and allowing us to remember to never take anything for granted. written by Ellie May

We started the day by continuing our teaching at JTR. Harry and Noah got stuck in, teaching the wiggly woo song and dance to the children, whilst Linsey played head, shoulders, knees and toes with the youngest ones. All the while, me (oli) and Alvin, where left chaperoning an intense game of whats the time mr wolf. The children loved taking selfies with the us and found the snapchat filters hilarious. We left JTR and, after our usual lunch at balanta, headed to Milton Margai School for the Blind to perform. Joseph, a former student of the school who is currently at balanta, played alongside our band. The experience was simultaneously sobering, and joyful due to the admirable positivity of the children. This sentiment of perceverance and positivity from the children resonated with the lyrics they sang to us.It was an incredibly eye-opening experience. We will remember it forever. written by Oli.