AYS in Africa

The AYS all star team had some very specific goals that we wanted to accomplish while down at the Okari School.

The Okari Recording Sessions

Grimis, comprised of three of the Youth Services favorite people, Pete, Dave and Andy, agreed to travel with us to Okari to help record a CD. This may seem like a somewhat simple task; however it presented us with an array of challenges. We would need many things to make this happen, including but not limited to a sound engineer, microphones, mic stands, musical instruments, laptops, hard drives, cables, power strips, extension cords and much more. We were grateful to Tom Blanfard, also known as T2, for offering to taking time off from a very busy schedule at Notre Dame to travel with us across the globe as the AYS Crew sound engineer.

Our plan was to pack as much equipment as we could obtain in and around Andover and purchase the remainder of what we needed in Nairobi. On the first morning of our journey we headed into Nairobi and proceeded to haggle with a variety of local music shops. After 3 hours of endless bartering, the prices were agreed upon and thousands of Shillings were exchanged. The AYS crew then headed down a back alley with 4 guitars, an electric keyboard, 2 congo drums, a bass drum pedal and a variety of handheld percussion instruments. We were excited about our purchases and knew that once the recording was done and the children had learned a bit on how to use them, the instruments would be a phenomenal donation to the school.

We loaded up the van with the musical instruments and sound recording equipment, about 100lbs. of art supplies, 180 t-shirts for the school, underwear and socks for the kids, loads of school supplies and 7 passengers skillfully placed in and around the masterful packing job of our driver Alex. We were jam packed and ready for action, but we all wondered if we would actually make the 6 hour journey from Nairobi to the school.

Upon arrival to the school, we converted the tent, which is used for guests to stay in, into a recording studio. We did scout out other areas beforehand, including the dining hall and some of the makeshift classrooms, however, in the end, decided that the tent would give us the best sound for recording.

The musical instruments generated a lot of excitement and shortly after our arrival we began to organize groups of students that would practice, perform and record songs. From morning til night, the tent would serve as a wonderful space for this to happen. The students at Okari were excited to sing traditional Swahili folk songs, gospel songs, Paul Simon and original songs by Grimis and even a song by the infamous Mark Brickman of Andover, Ma. A huge addition to our team was a Kenyan songwriter and musician, Michael Wambua who Bill met on his last journey to Africa and who was invited to travel to Kisii to record with the students and help us create the Okari CD.

After four days of rehearsing, performing and recording we ended up with over four hours of beautiful music that we hope to transform into a CD that will be out in the very near future.

The Okari Art Attack

On the last visit to Okari, Bill and Glenn both noticed a lack of color in and around the dining hall and classrooms of the school. With limited resources and a tight budget it is very hard for the teachers to offer any music or art to the students. Along with bringing instruments, performing music and recording a CD, we also wanted to offer the students an opportunity to create various art projects, including a mural. As mentioned above we travelled with close to 100lbs. of art supplies, which included paint, canvas, construction paper, glue, markers, crayons, colored pencils, brushes, scissors and materials to make bracelets– none of which existed at the school prior to our visit.

Currently there is a construction project underway at the school to create a new dormitory for the girls, which will also include in it, a room that will house a library and an art/music space. We decided that this would be the perfect space to transform into an art studio during our time and would also be home to the mural. The room needed some prep work, including the scraping and painting of the rough concrete walls and the finishing of a few uncompleted tables. Bill also decided to do some electrical work to light up the room and now knows what 240 volts of electricity feels like running through the human body. He now proclaims to have super human strength.

With the space cleaned, arranged and lit up we could now offer some art to the kids of Okari. We knew it would be hard, because at the Okari School anything new always attracts the interest of all 150 students. With this, we needed the help from the school’s principal (T1) and the teachers to coordinate small groups (35+) of students to participate in specific art activities. Tony arranged drawing stations, canvas painting and collage work, while also utilizing the help of Bill and the boys of Grimis to work with students painting the mural. It was a chaotic scene, however once the students were engaged, they worked hard and had fun creating their own masterpieces for hours a day. Each student at Okari had the chance to paint, draw, cut, paste and create in any way they wanted. Each student took great pride in their work and the work of others. They were also happy to clean all the brushes at the end of each session.

In a very short time our AYS team had managed to engage the entire Okari community in music and art projects. It was a beautiful thing to stand back and watch kids working on the mural, painting on canvasses, practicing a Grimis song, banging on the new drums and recording song after song in the tent.

After many months of planning, everything had come together right in front of our eyes. Two communities, AYS and the Okari School, thousands of miles apart, were becoming one. We were very thankful to be a part of it all.