2/20/05 Ndara

Since I've been feeling like I haven't been connecting very well with
people here-- overwhelmed, I guess, by having to negotiate the vast
distance between growing up on a subsistence farm some ways apart from
Gulu on their side, and conducting salons des intellectuels et artistes
in Berkeley cafes on mine-- I prayed this morning (I'm liking getting
up long before dawn to do this) for a deeper connection, a feeling of
real camaraderie and love between me and the people here. Later, after
church, a couple of the usual suspects and I were sitting around in my
room and got to talking about music-- they were wondering about
american music so i played some on my computer, and then Mambo
mentioned that near where he lives there's a group that practices music
and dancing every night. Really?? Let's go! i said. But after vespers
there were a couple of other guys standing around so I said, Anybody
else want to go? and Kisembo mentioned that there was a Madi group
just down the hill behind the clinic which had just that day made a
xylophone. (The Madi are a Nilotic tribe from the West Nile area (far
northwestern Uganda) related to Mambo's-- he's Kakwa.) We decided that
since the other group plays every day and we didn't know how long this
Madi band would be at it, we'd go there instead.

Um, yes, well, gee-- we don't have anything like that in America.

It's very simple. Just dig a pit, maybe a foot to a foot and a half
deep, tapering from a foot and a half at one end to about six inches at
the other, and lay a 4-inch diameter banana tree log on either side (banana trees are soft; you could achieve the same result with anything that's able to absorb impact, for instance by lining a wooden log with hard rubber like from a tire). Across the
logs, over the hole, lay boards-- pieces of log, crudely split so
they're flat on both sides, about an inch thick-- the larger ones were
an inch thick in the middle but maybe an inch and a half for the final
few inches on either end. Drive pegs into the logs to keep the boards
apart from each other.








For drumsticks, drill a hole in a piece of old
tire and poke a stick through it. The guy at the bottom (wide) end of
the instrument controls the beat-- he just hammers away at the biggest
plank, beat beat beat beat, however fast or slow he likes. Others take
three or four planks each and pound out whatever rhythms work with this
on the two or three keys nearest them. The net effect, with about 10
players participating, was stunning, enchanting, delightful!







The rhythms tended to be cyclical, and some people got to singing a simple
phrase over and over in time with the beat. Kisembo pointed at one
little 3-year-old and said to Mambo, that's the classic dance. Mambo
nodded appreciatively. I guess there are certain steps that only the
Madi do.







I got to take a turn beating the root rhythm myself— they
liked my playing. They told me they got the idea for this kind of
xylophone from the Alur, a related people up north. They also said if
the sound wasn't good, to fill the ditch with water. I don't know if
that means fill it and let it soak in, or keep it filled, but obviously
this wasn't a problem here.

We had to stop as it got dark, since people have to go to work early,
but on the way back to my house we passed through the little compound
where Labok and Fr Joseph and a number of others live-- Iteso and
Acholi guys mainly-- and they were all hanging out on their front step
in the wonderful evening air. So I sat down with them and showed them
the pictures of the xylophone in the viewer of my digital camera and we
talked about computers and bugs (the local six-legged kind) and
children.

Meanwhile I'm happy to report that the seminarians all seem happy with
the Russian tone system. They took right to tone 5, and as a result the
singing has become much more clear and understandable-- i think both to
them and to me-- and it certainly sounds better.

Since I went to town yesterday, I decided just to stay here today.
After the crowd dissipates it gets very quiet on Namungoona hill on
Sunday. I spent the afternoon alone and quiet and am very grateful. In
all, a perfect day.

I'll post those pictures when I get a chance; right now i'm updating
the blog only by email.