ABC's or Happy Birthday?

Although the exchange rate here in Amman in approximately one Dollar and forty cents to the Jordanian Dinar (JD), there are bargains to be found on almost every corner. During the first week of my stay, Sasha and I and a friend of ours were walking around the down town area. When we arrived at the corner, there were about 25 people all going after a huge pile of stuff. Diving in to get one item or two and then handing their money off to the man standing outside the pile on a stool. When Sasha and I took a closer look, we discovered that that one of the five or six items in the pile was an electric keyboard, and after asking "gidesh?", or "how much?" I could see why everyone was going a bit crazy on this particular corner. Only 2 JD for a medium sized electric keyboard! It didn't take more than a minute before Sasha and I selected the one we wanted and sent our friend into the pile to claim it. Although it didn't turn on immediately upon arriving back to CRP, Ghazwan worked his magic (tape, batteries, etc.) and within a few hours the keyboard was as good as new....and still only 2JD.

I am telling the story of this purchase not only because it was an amazing Jordanian bargain, but more importantly because it is the center of this week's art and music group. Before I get to the middle half hour of the day, the one filled with music, I want to run through the other activities that took place before and after this period. The younger group of children, ages four to seven, took part in activity I like to call, “googly eyes”. The children were given one piece of white paper on which two sticky plastic eyeballs had been placed before hand. The children then spent the following half hour drawing whatever they wanted to go along with these eyes. While some children chose to go the more traditional route and draw a head and other facial features to accompany the two eyes, others decided to go for rabbits, stars, and birds. It was creativity at its best!

After the half hour with the keyboard, which I will get to in a minute, the older children took a great deal of time perfecting “the potato & leaf project”. Ahmed, the art and music group’s newest teacher, had pre-cut several potatoes in half and then into different shapes (hearts, stars, etc.) in order to form a stamp-like utensil. The children were given a piece of paper which had a slightly faded outline of a vase, with a few stems coming out just above the top. The children, who were scheduled to have time at the end of this project to work on their mural, ended up spending the entire hour working on this project instead. Another volunteer, Lucy, and I were so inspired by the children’s enthusiasm that we decided to create something for together. Lucy and I chose to turn our flower vase into a fish bowl, an idea that a few of the children then tried to replicate. It was really quite a fun and silly final hour to finish off the day’s event…fish, flowers, and all.

To get back to the middle half hour of the day, this may have been the best half hour of my life. One of the mothers at the event suggested that I play a song on the keyboard for the children, so I did. I played something simple and upbeat, The Entertainer, and the smiles on the kids’ faces made it impossible for me not to do the same. After a big round of applause from both the children and their parents, the kids took the lead by explaining to their parents and their parents explaining to me that they wanted to play the piano. One by one, each of the children came up to the keyboard. He or she would play freely for about 30 seconds, (some already knew a song or two) and then look at me with great interest. I looked at the first child and put my hand on top of hers to help guide her fingers through a simple song. The first song that came to mind, because I remembered my host family singing it to me in Cairo was Happy Birthday. From that point on, everything just seemed to work itself out. After trying three or four different songs with the first few children who played, the ABC’s became the second big hit. So, after every boy or girl finished playing his or her own made up song, I would ask “ABC’s or Happy Birthday?". Before I could even finish the question each child would respond and place their hand on the piano awaiting my instruction. At the end of every child's performance came a big round of applause, not because I asked but because they wanted. Only four weeks into the Children's Art and Music Group, there was already a strong sense of community that seemed to have developed among this room of little music maestros.

I was overwhelmed with the amount of patience each of the children had to wait calmly until it was his or her chance to play, and even more astonished at the focus and attention paid to such a new and complicated activity. While it may have been boring for an outsider to hear these two songs played over and over with several mistakes along the way, the obvious enthusiasm and joy this opportunity brought to all of the children involved made me think I could listen their music forever.