More Mama Santchaba, Jali Mady, Biking....

Greetings,
I have officially come to the point where I am ready to be home. I didn't think I'd get to that point for only a six week trip...I think it took me two months to have that feeling in '08. I would say that the main contributing factors for this happening are the heat- it feels like it has been consistently breaking 90 for the past 5 days- and homesickness. I'm not finding it easy being a foreigner in this country. I feel a bit more comfortable with the situation, but it's still not easy. With that being said, I will leave it at that, because there have been positive experiences that I feel would be much more appropriate for me to talk about in this context.
Last Monday through Friday were spent at Mama Santchaba, the resort that Moriba has been teaching at for the past few weeks. The emphasis for the last week has been learning new songs, and practicing ones where I have added singing. The new songs that I am learning probably won't be ready for performance for a while, but it feels good to be adding to my repertoire. I'm pretty optimistic that there will be more singing at my upcoming performances. There are quite a few scheduled for March. Feel free to check out the concert calender at myspace.com/seankora.
On Friday morning, Moriba and I took a couple of bikes from Mama Santchaba up north to Gunjur. It's about a 2 mile ride. Here, we stopped at the compound of Jali Mady Susso and recorded him playing Kora. I also recorded him in 2008, and it was one of the highlights of my trip. I can say the same for this trip as well. He plays a very distinct "old school" style that you don't hear very much from the younger generation. Most of my 2008 recording was lost for whatever reason. I was only using a mini disc recorder at that time, but this time, I did this plus video, with my Kodak Zi-10 playtouch- a wonderful little pocket device. I'm amazed at the sound quality for such a small device. The video quality isn't great, but it captures the feel of the fact that it's a field recording, rather than a hi-tech studio recording. I have mini disc from the recording locked, so it cannot be deleted, and I'm carrying both this and the memory card from the Zi-10 in my wallet so that the chances are slim that they will be altered or lost. I'm pretty excited to try some video editing when I get back home.
The bike riding was quite an experience on it's own. The stretch that we were biking was very rural, yet Moriba seemed to be pretty well known in the area. We passed through a tiny village called Madina Salaam on the way up to Gunjur. We'd just be riding, and someone would call out to Moriba, he'd come to a halt, chat it up for a few minutes, and we'd be on our way again. Or he'd take a smoke break before we'd start riding again! I still can't wrap my around the pace of life here....20 notches slower....at least. The night before, we biked up to Madina Salaam with Thomas, the Australian whom I met at the beginning of my trip to get some bread and beans. Moriba was biking right in front of me when someone called out from a compound near the road. He slammed on his breaks, and I slammed into his back tire, cracking the fender. We spent 25 minutes tying on a splint we found off the side of the road, so that the fender would not contact the tire and make a horribly annoying sound the entire way back to Mama Santchaba!
Thomas has been staying up north of Brikama in a village called Lamin. He's been coming down to Brikama from time to time to work with Moriba on building a Kora. He's been very patient with the process! They finally finished it at Mama Santchaba on Wednesday morning.
I was able to record Moriba yesterday morning at Mama Santchaba doing a Kora solo. The mini disc player failed, but I got both video and cassette tape. I'm glad that I had that I had the cassette as the backup, although the sound quality from the Kodak will probably come out better. I'm hoping to make two more recordings at the compound here in Brikama before I leave on Monday, but I'm not sure that they will happen. Malamini is not around, and today will be my last night sleeping at the compound. I've decided that I will be heading back to my friend Lamin's place in Jambanjeli, whom I spent a night with a few weeks back. I will stay with him for the remainder of my trip, and he will take me to the airport. I'll fly back to London, stay one night, and head straight to Seattle the following afternoon.
This might be my last post while I'm in Gambia. Lamin has internet connection at his home, but it's not always reliable. I will try to post another blog while I'm there, but if not, I'll post a summary soon upon my return home to Olympia.
I look forward to reconnecting with all of you very soon!


Sean