Do you remember what I look like?

m just shooting off a couple pics in case my family and friends don't remember me. It's been a while. With birthdays and holidays passing by, weddings, births, and other major events, I feel excited to get ready to get back to the states (7 months to go!), but still have a lot of work yet to do.

The concert series with a few songs I have written in Niger is going amazing and there was over 150 people at the show last Saturday. We were on National TV and National Radio a few times and we were requested to play again next month. Very exciting! Most of this is possible because of a connection with a French man named Phillipe Colucci who is talented in the producing arena and is intent on helping to take Nigeriens' music to the next level in the World Music genre. Really exciting times in a country where widescale promotion of professionalism and training in music is not done. I feel like we are on the cutting edge of a musical revolution here. Because every show opens with a traditional band with gourd guitars with one or two strings called "Gourmey," as well as a talking drum....this all has western influence added to it to get it in the World Music style. But then when I enter and am singing in English there are those same instruments in the background. So the first half of the show is Nigerien music with a tad of Western influence, and the second half is Western Folk/ jazzy stuff with Nigerien influence. It's cool and lots of different people are in the audience together. Pretty beautiful when tables of Japanese, AMericans, Nigeriens, French, Canadien, and other West African nations are all smooshed into a music venue together--Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Atheist, Pagans, Animist---

This month I will be working at an American Idol type event for the whole country, which sounds big but Niger has no music classes in school like the US does, and there is somewhat of a stigma against music here so there are a lot of people who will enter the contest, but it is by no means as flooded with entries like the US' American Idol. More background on Niger music: their tribal history is rich in music of many languages and styles, but since the country is 99% Muslim, there are conflicting ideas about the dangers and benefits of music. Mostly people are really respectful of my friends and I playing music and promoting professional music, but I do get some interesting comments from very religious people. We all try to respect each other and do what moves us through the world.

Anyways that will be fun. So I will be helping to train the contestants in voice basics (breathing, posture, excersizes) and then seeing them through to the competition. Also gearing up for all the projects that I listed in the last blog. Whew!

I have some interesting snippets and scraps of gingersnaps that I have been writing and observing but haven't posted. They're not really updates but little vignettes of my everydays around these parts. Have met some incredible people and now that the group of volunteers who came in right before us are leaving, we are almost like the "seniors" of our class here. It has really been a ride. Will miss those guys, good luck.