02/12/2024
Belonging
Ultimo Refugio, July 16, 2022. It was the first time for the ukulele students from the islands Bastimentos and Carenero to meet and play together. How do you bring island kids from several islands to the same place? Is the effort worth it? One of the biggest lessons I‘ve learnt with BAMA is, that the effect of an effort is often not visible at the moment. The hard things such as organizing, coordinating, showing up, even if you have a thousand reasons not to, feel real and pretty convincing.
Now, 2.5 years later. This past Sunday, December 1, 2024, I find myself still teaching the ukulele in the weekly classes. I start with the same introduction song and finish with „La Bamba“. Sounds familiar? If you‘ve ever visited class, you remember. I have not changed those two rituals. But this past Sunday, there was something more I observed: In both classes, on Bastimentos and Carenero, the more experienced students got to teach the new ones. Two of them; Charly and Asthon, took part during the memorable presentation at Ultimo Refugio two years ago!! After all this time, they still come back to the ukulele class. But things have changed. Not only that they are taller. They teach and assist others with a patience, compassion and self-confidence. „Maribel and Jose are doing great“, Ashton reports to me. „May I teach them something more difficult?“, he asks.
„Maybe it‘s time to give BAMA a break“, I‘ve thought to myself so many times. The classes are open, few kids show up regularly, sometimes nobody comes.
„It feels like we‘ve never been gone“, Jess says. She is Charlys mom. This Sunday, we were 19 people, kids and adults, most of them have come several times throughout the years. I start the class with the introduction song and end with „La Bamba“. The same songs since we’ve started classes on Basti more than two years ago. Boring? The side effect: Familiar. It creates warm memories. You can come back months and even years later and feel connected again. Yes, there might be new students, new friends to play with. The consistency creates belonging. Here we belong together, here you are at home ❤️🏝️🎶
