This day started really early, well at least for me. I still haven’t adjusted to the 7 hour time difference. Normally we’re getting up when people back home are going to bed. Also, the sun rises around 4:45am here. So in addition to trying to sleep in the night at the equivalent of about 5:00 or 6:00 in the afternoon back home, I also have the beautiful, brilliant, bright, vivid and intense sunlight articulating every detail in my room….even my eyelids. It’s so bright that these curtains do no good.

We did a workshop for kids at The Music Academy of Gauteng. One of South Africa’s greatest jazz Musicians, Johnny Mekoa, started this music school for kids in the area of Davidson that have a desire to learn and play jazz. When we got out of our transport van, Mekoa said “Welcome Home”. It felt really good to hear that. Mekoa studied in the US as a Fulbright scholar and brought his experiences back to South Africa. The facility was incredibly nice and the equipment was comparable, if not better to stuff that we use on gigs in the states.

» Read more: Catch Up Time: 11/29/06

I’m so happy to have the internet!! I didn’t realize exactly how much it mattered to me until I got here and realized that I wouldn’t have access to it on a regular basis. At any rate I’m here and anytime you see a title “Catch Up Time” then I’m going back to days that I missed.

We did a workshop for about 15 college students at the University of Johannesburg. They really enjoyed everything we covered in the workshop and even stayed through our entire rehearsal. We asked them about some of the difficulties they have as musicians here in South Africa and the number one issue they seem to have is not being able to access instruments. Most people simply can’t afford them. You also find that here, most people play more than one instrument because they work with whatever they find available.

This particular group of musicians wasn’t studying music at the University, but they organized themselves a year ago and meet once a week to rehearse. For everyone that’s in Atlanta, imagine the Apache Café with a 12+ piece band (because there is no limit to the number of musicians that can join them) playing behind vocalists that don’t really sing, but they read poetry. Instruments in the band range from drums and percussion, to guitars made from Castrol cans, Cellos, violins, pianos and harmonicas. Their spirits are really great and they have enormous music potential.

» Read more: Catch Up Time: 11/28/06

I just figured out how to hijack a wireless signal from the other part of the hotel across the street.  So I’m happy for now.  I’m going to just get the blog together in my room and then just grab a signal to post.  Keep watching, I promise… I have pics coming soon.  Now, I’m going to get some SABUSA (or spelled something like that) and I’ll be back with a post soon.

Holla!

P.s-> Sabusa is some kind of Indian dish… I know it’s funny but I had to come to Africa to get an Indian dish.  Well, at least they told me it was Indian.  Whatever is in it, it’s good.

Long Flight Man!

I was anticipating Day 1, but uh, Day one got lost in time… literally.  That was the longest flight that I have ever been on.  The flight was 8 hours from Atlanta to Amsterdam (from what I was told, Amsterdam has Vegas beat by a long shot when it comes to the title of “Sin City”) and 10 hours from Amsterdam to South Africa.  We were supposed to take Northwest Airlines for the first leg of the trip, but the plane was late and it would have caused us to miss our connecting flight, so we ended up on Delta… in an Emergency seat row.  Usually I freak out over having the weight of about 150+ passengers on my shoulders, but this time I was cool with it for one reason… LEG ROOM.  I knew it was a good thing, but it didn’t become apparent how good until we got on KLM airlines for the second half of the flight.  Dude.  My knees were hurting from the sight of those cramped seats.  And to make matters worst, the dude in front of me had his seat all the way back.  Figures right?

They tried to make your boy eat raw salmon for dinner on that flight.  I wasn’t having it.  I decided to go with some pre-packaged Ketchup Chicken and Rice cleverly disguised as some kind of Asian delicacy (that’s what the package said)… made by Heinz.  Interesting right?

Anyways, things are well so far.  We’re not in the Hyatt as they stated in our Itinerary.  We’re in a bed and breakfast in this place called Melville.  It’s quite nice and quaint, isolated with a few restaurants and bars about a quarter of a mile up the road.  There is limited internet access, so I’ll be posting whenever I can.  I took a boatload of pics and video.  I’ll post some of those as soon as I can get more than 10 minutes at a computer.  We’re going to the Embassy today to meet some people and get our per diem for the trip, I’ll try to muster up some more communications time then.  Until then…

Well, it seems like time has flown by very fast and the time of departure is closer than it’s ever been. I must admit that I have mixed emotions about the trip. On one hand, there is this incredible opportunity of a life time that I have been blessed to have, and on the other hand is the sadness of leaving behind family and the people that matter most, especially for this long. I’m sure God will help me to level things out.

It’s funny because everyone I speak to typically has something negative to say about Johannesburg… mainly about crime rates. Please believe I don’t plan on going anywhere by myself. I’m interested in seeing what we’ll call home for the next week or so.

We start off tomorrow headed for Amsterdam…I did some research and found out that it’s in the Netherlands. I don’t know much about the Netherlands other than the fact that Dutch is the offical language. I’m sure we’ll have an adventure trying to catch our connecting flight!!
I guess I’m just rambling. I’m tired and I’m going to bed soon in anticipation of Day 1. Holla!!

So for the Africa trip, it goes down like this:

1. South Africa – November 27th – December 5th
2. Zimbabwe – December 5th – 10th
3. Mozambique – December 10th – 15th
4. Tanzania – December 16th – 20th

This tour should be interesting because it’s my first “major” stint on the road and because I don’t think that any of the band members have ever spent this much time together.  Hopefully, we’ll still be a band when all is said and done.  The good thing is that were taking some pre-production stuff and we’ll be writing and recording some new music. I’m sure the experience will give us a lot to say and play about.