Mandela Washington Project Underway in Windhoek, Namibia!

I arrived in Windhoek on Wednesday afternoon and have been meeting and getting acquainted with project staff from ChiNamibia.  You can check out ChiNamibia, an Arts Education for Development and empowerment trust that works with children and young people in child development and Arts Education.  

Next week, we will begin teaching our adult learners, who are teachers from the local area, students from Windhoek's College of the Arts, and (wait for it.....) a gospel choir!  Imagine my excitement when I learned that an entire gospel choir signed up!  Thanks to everyone at Appalachian State University, St. Luke's Episcopal Church Choir, my family, and friends in the Boone community who sent me off with blessings and well wishes.  I am here to offer friendship through music on behalf of us all.  

The College of the Arts is a city college, and you can see that we are located in the city center, near the various embassies and a bustling buzz of capitol city activity.  Hallways and courtyards are filled with works in progress created by the visual arts students, and our classrooms are stocked with percussion instruments, marimbas and a dance studio. 

 


We are developing pedagogy for an integrated arts curriculum, so I will have to learn how to play and sing Namibian music brought to the workshop by the participants.  The college students will bring the marimba music, the teachers will bring children's songs and folk tales, and the gospel choir will bring choral songs.  We are putting it all together with African stories, and the ChiNamibia performing arts specialists will contribute the important ingredients of drama and dance. 

The grand finale is a public performance on June 29, at the end of the second week.  The adult participants will teach middle school aged children during the second week of the workshop, as the staff and I facilitate and evaluate their teaching.  Upon completion, they will earn a certificate towards a teaching qualification for arts and culture in Namibian public schools.