My OperaPost before project week : Reasons and goals/ Graham Guest and blues piano/ Pancuare
Friday, February 1, 2008 5:46:43 AM
Wednesday, when I stepped into English class, Melody was talking to the early-comers about one of her previous school, a Christian school in Hongkong. I'm not sure how the story was brought about, but she mentioned a question that some teachers back there were probably asked: so they were there because they cared about education and wanted to dedicate their little service (to God or not). Then why were they teaching all rich kids and receiving really high salary for it?
And there was a response from one of the teachers, who spent many years in India. She (that teacher) said she had loved, and enjoyed, teaching all the poor Indian girls, seeing them growing up and telling them about all the unjust that Indian society had imposed on them because of their gender. And most important, she had taught them to fight against it, to strive for a better future. Maybe these girls would grown up and lived well in the society, would have a good career, a good family. A good life. She had taught them to change their own lives.
But there in that school, she got to teach and have impact on the kids that would change the world. These kids had not only the power to change their own lives, but to change the world.
The idea, I think, is that both poorness and richness shouldn't be prejudices, neither do we have to turn our backs against the so-called corrupted and extend our hands to the oppressed to show that our care. It's our goals that matter, and we should act accordingly. We want to make changes in a large scale, we work with these powerful people. These rich and educated kids, they will grow up to be doctors, lawyers, human right activists... They will grow up with power in their hands. And one of these things which we can do is to tell them what to do with that power - to lead them into the right way.
It's the same idea as that which I have thought of quite long ago, after Model United Nations: to look down on something and to go away from it means that we can no longer make any impact on it. Say, this is a system, or an organization. Despite of its ideal vision, it's not doing anything. It's corrupted. But actually, when thinking of it, that's exactly the reason why we should be there.
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Thursday night, and I've just come back from the Blues Concert - hosted inside my school, given by Graham Guest (blues pianist), Ken's friend from Alberta. It was great (not to say that this was the first time I'd got to see Ken's real performances with his saxophone). Graham Guest was an amazing pianist - he looked like a musician, and performed like a real great musician (if not to mention the fact that he really is one). But after great moments, people think. So did I. And I felt scared.
I talked to Guest, but it didn't go anywhere beyond introduction and compliments. Not that I didn't want to talk - just didn't know what to say. Or, I had so much to say that I didn't know where to begin. As the concert ended, it started to get overwhelming. I suddenly became so unsure of what I was doing, and doubted whether one day I would be somewhere close to be as good.
Carey talked to me about his son, who was also a musician (a bassist I think). Similarly, one day, after watching someone's performance, he was really down. He thought that all he had been doing was pointless, and then he couldn't play music for a while. He just couldn't. But eventually things came back to normal. I guessed he just had forget all and go for it, or just live with it.
It's like, well, a big fish in a small pond who suddenly gets lost to the sea and becomes a small fish in a big pond.
I don't think I'm good enough to suddenly not be able to play something - but yeah, I feel kind of depressed. Excited, but depressed as well. And overwhelmed. It's a hard feeling to describe.
We'll see.
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Next week from Monday to Saturday, I'll go for project week at Pancuare - one of these famous parks all around Costa Rica, a (so-called) jungle, a nice place not that far from the beach. Unlike last year in Monte Verde, which was a rain forest, Pancuare is dry and much warmer. There will be no electricity, and this time here in Costa Rica, it often gets dark at half past 6. The plan is that we will work on the jungle during the day (what exactly is yet to be known), and spend early mornings (at 3 or 4) walking around the beach and help the turtles. I can't be more excited to be away from school and all the burly-hurly - or any trait of civilization, as a matter of fact - and do something different.
Not that I don't like school, though. I love being busy or being an all-nighter. However, sometimes changes are just needed.
And there was a response from one of the teachers, who spent many years in India. She (that teacher) said she had loved, and enjoyed, teaching all the poor Indian girls, seeing them growing up and telling them about all the unjust that Indian society had imposed on them because of their gender. And most important, she had taught them to fight against it, to strive for a better future. Maybe these girls would grown up and lived well in the society, would have a good career, a good family. A good life. She had taught them to change their own lives.
But there in that school, she got to teach and have impact on the kids that would change the world. These kids had not only the power to change their own lives, but to change the world.
The idea, I think, is that both poorness and richness shouldn't be prejudices, neither do we have to turn our backs against the so-called corrupted and extend our hands to the oppressed to show that our care. It's our goals that matter, and we should act accordingly. We want to make changes in a large scale, we work with these powerful people. These rich and educated kids, they will grow up to be doctors, lawyers, human right activists... They will grow up with power in their hands. And one of these things which we can do is to tell them what to do with that power - to lead them into the right way.
It's the same idea as that which I have thought of quite long ago, after Model United Nations: to look down on something and to go away from it means that we can no longer make any impact on it. Say, this is a system, or an organization. Despite of its ideal vision, it's not doing anything. It's corrupted. But actually, when thinking of it, that's exactly the reason why we should be there.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday night, and I've just come back from the Blues Concert - hosted inside my school, given by Graham Guest (blues pianist), Ken's friend from Alberta. It was great (not to say that this was the first time I'd got to see Ken's real performances with his saxophone). Graham Guest was an amazing pianist - he looked like a musician, and performed like a real great musician (if not to mention the fact that he really is one). But after great moments, people think. So did I. And I felt scared.
I talked to Guest, but it didn't go anywhere beyond introduction and compliments. Not that I didn't want to talk - just didn't know what to say. Or, I had so much to say that I didn't know where to begin. As the concert ended, it started to get overwhelming. I suddenly became so unsure of what I was doing, and doubted whether one day I would be somewhere close to be as good.
Carey talked to me about his son, who was also a musician (a bassist I think). Similarly, one day, after watching someone's performance, he was really down. He thought that all he had been doing was pointless, and then he couldn't play music for a while. He just couldn't. But eventually things came back to normal. I guessed he just had forget all and go for it, or just live with it.
It's like, well, a big fish in a small pond who suddenly gets lost to the sea and becomes a small fish in a big pond.
I don't think I'm good enough to suddenly not be able to play something - but yeah, I feel kind of depressed. Excited, but depressed as well. And overwhelmed. It's a hard feeling to describe.
We'll see.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Next week from Monday to Saturday, I'll go for project week at Pancuare - one of these famous parks all around Costa Rica, a (so-called) jungle, a nice place not that far from the beach. Unlike last year in Monte Verde, which was a rain forest, Pancuare is dry and much warmer. There will be no electricity, and this time here in Costa Rica, it often gets dark at half past 6. The plan is that we will work on the jungle during the day (what exactly is yet to be known), and spend early mornings (at 3 or 4) walking around the beach and help the turtles. I can't be more excited to be away from school and all the burly-hurly - or any trait of civilization, as a matter of fact - and do something different.
Not that I don't like school, though. I love being busy or being an all-nighter. However, sometimes changes are just needed.
