closed door, open window

there was no shortage of young women in the home wanting to get into the new beginner classes. they zoomed up to give me their names and get on the list. here was their chance. finally it would be their turn to learn and sing and be part of the survivor girl ukulele band! large beginner classes started, and the new girls were so happy and earnest.

i can still picture reka* as she sat cross-legged on the floor and held her ukulele close. she gave it a strum and shut her eyes tight and began to hum. her head tilted to the side and her eyebrows knit together and she imagined she was playing real chords in a real song and that she was somebody. it was a magic moment.

a few days later the project was cancelled. the end.

i got to say good-bye to three of my first batch students, and when they came down to meet me i could tell they had been crying. i started crying too. no one said this was going to be easy.

and rather than get into the whys and wherefores, i'll just get into telling you about phase two, in which laurie gets her bhelpuri and then shifts to the big city.

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this guy has a stand right across the street from where i lived and serves up the best bhelpuri pettis ever!!

and the following short video is of the bhelpuri man's wife. she and i would sit together and eat and try to carry on a conversation in my limited hindi and her marathi.

[wpvideo BVv2cmeT]

after my last meal of bhelpuri i packed up, and the next day i headed to mumbai.

here is the guy i hired to drive me to mumbai. he drove like the wind.

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half way to mumbai, it started raining, and it has barely stopped raining since.

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in mumbai, i'm volunteering with an organization that has a number of drop-in centers in some of the city's red-light areas. the drop-in centers provide a place for doctors to hold clinics, for social workers to provide counseling, and now for me to conduct ukulele lessons for the women working in these areas.

my commute includes auto-rickshaws and trains. mumbai trains are very crowded and never boring. on the first day as i approached my station carrying six ukuleles, i worried how i would get off the packed train. not to worry, the crowd ahead of and behind me disembarked at the same station. i had just managed to get the six ukuleles out of the train and myself onto solid ground when the crowd surging to get on nearly carried me back onto the same train!

from that busy station i take another train, and from that train i take an auto to one of the slums. i walk in a short distance and then turn into a narrow walk-way between two buildings. on the other side is a narrow raised cement footpath, and either side that path are small hovel brothels with benches and chairs outside under corrugated roofs where the women sit and wait for customers.

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on my recon visit to mumbai we were invited for lunch at the new home of a female pimp / debt collector. she served goat and gravy and rice. the apartment was one-room, approximately 10" by 10", with no toilet. here's a photo of the kitchen area and the goat.

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and here's a short video of a lemon seller girl on the train. enjoy!!

[wpvideo d1uIWrVA]

*name changed.

play it again, that survivor girl ukulele band song

eleven of my students were recently restored to their homes and families. each of them brought home a ukulele and an electronic tuner and music and lots of happy memories of our survivor girl ukulele band days. one of the police officers accompanying the girls on their travels gave each of them a rose at the train station as they embarked on their new life.

here's a little video montage of those days and of their departure. listen to the end -- you won't be disappointed.

i hope that they continue to heal from the trauma they have endured and have courage and hope and joy in the challenges that lie ahead. lord bless those girls!!!

[wpvideo 1K9Hj8FC]

a new song

hello again! it's been a while. in case you were starting to forget what i look like with soft focus great lighting and sunglasses in an auto-rickshaw, here's a recent selfie:

seems every time i go to write a new blog post, i have no idea where to begin. and it gets even worse when i haven't posted anything in a while. how to account for all that unblogged about time?!! well, the last few weeks have been an absolute blur, with eleven of my students about to leave for their home country -- all on the same day --  and i wanted to send them off with their very own kala brand music makala dolphin ukulele. and to get that beautiful ukulele they had to earn it.

here's what they had to be able to play to earn their ukulele:

1) tu pyaar ka saagar -- chords and melody

2) kuch kuch hota hai -- chords only, but the timing is tricky!

3) survivor girl ukulele band song in hindi -- also tricky timing

4) c major scale -- forwards and backwards and be able to name all the notes

in addition:

5) each girl had to write an original song and perform it.

before we get any further with this post, here is one of the new songs:

[audio http://theworkingdraft.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/guitar-teacher-song.m4a]

and then we planned out a program to play for the home before they left, and they practiced and practiced!

but it wasn't all on the girls. on my end, i had to think about what materials to send with them so they could easily review and continue to work on their music. this whole project was an experiment, and i started from scratch. plus, i didn't have a printer. so for two months i had been teaching mainly with this one sheet of paper:

here's the other side. it got a lot of use!!

but then i finally sprung for a nice little printer. wheee!! and now we're working off sheets that look like this:

and believe me, these took hours and hours.

i also purchased some clear sleeves and some folders for the girls in which to keep their music and chord charts.

here's one more song, not to be missed:

[audio http://theworkingdraft.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/train-station-song-16may2013-2.m4a]

requiring the girls to write an original song turned out to be so amazing. many of these young women cannot read or write. one uses her thumbprint as her signature. and none of them had ever written a song before. but they are learning how to learn. more than that, they are creating and expressing themselves through music. the range of feelings and the ideas that come out in these songs -- well, i wish you could see and hear what i have witnessed in the past weeks. it is such an honor and privilege to be here with these dear sweet traumatized hurting intelligent loving and hopeful young women.

the survivor girl ukulele band project is truly impacting these girls' lives in a positive way. thank you, friends and family for your support and encouragement. you are part of this, too!