Damond's Birthday

We were without email for a while, and I didn't get a chance to write about our experiences in East London. We flew out from Johannesburg to East London and went to our hostel, a place called The Sugar Shack, which was pretty much both a little bit of sugar and a little bit of shack. The good thing was, it was right on the beach, and we had our first glimpse of the Indian Ocean, which was lovely. In our free afternoon, many folks went swimming or walking on the beach.

The real highlight, though, was after dinner, when a local man named Richard came and joined us around a campfire. Richard is a traditional African drummer as well as a really great guy, and he gathered us (and a few random Australians and Brits) around the fire, gave us amazing hand-made drums, and showed us how to use our hands to make the best sounds. And then we drummed. For a while, we all drummed together, with the sounds of the fire and the waves, but then we went around the circle and each one of us started a new beat which everyone else then picked up. It was Damond's birthday (and Richard's birthday too) so it was already a special night, but the drumming was almost like magic. Even the students who were less interested (or capable) at first ended up getting the hang of it, and it was pretty cool to learn drumming from a man who not only made all the drums by hand but for whom drumming was such an important and traditional part of his life.

So happy birthday, Damond. We had a great time.