a Real drum
It is so heavy! Carved out of a Mukwa log, one of the world's densest woods and only found in Southern Africa. So heavy that when you tilt the drum to give full expression to the booming resonance coming out of the base, it's almost impossible to squeeze hard enough with your knees and brace your back enough to keep it up. Yet somehow that one sisal rope - not too thick, and frazzled over time - can still carry the weight all these years later.
Twenty-three years later. I remember because it was the last week before moving to the United States after seven years in Africa. We were in a village in rural Zambia, celebrating the opening of a new housing project - my final Habitat for Humanity contribution. The air was pulsing with the usual delicious smells of the upcoming feast, the exultant trilling ululations of the mamas, the delighted squeals of children propelling old bicycle rims with sticks. Then the deep boom of the drum echoed beneath the canopy as the inevitable music and dancing started.
"Now that's a REAL drum!"
I gushed to my co-worker Mwemba. "I've been trying to buy a drum for seven years and all they sell to us tourists are these cheap little toys that can never sing like that."
Five minutes later, Mwemba came back with the news that the young men would sell me the drum for $50. "They'll make a new one," he assured me. "They have the lumber, then they'll burn out the inside before the finishing carving. Next time a goat is slaughtered they will stretch the skin over the top, then carefully wet it and dry it over a fire until it stretches to just the right tone. They would be honored for you to bring it back to your home (and their families will benefit from the extra cash.)"
That drum has moved with me from Zambia to Texas, Vancouver and Minnesota. But now it will stay with the Men's Center in St. Paul, to once again sing and transport men on their journeys. For my own journey, I will carry the memory of that cherished exchange, and the memory of the young man I was who could merit and accept and treasure such a gift.
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Currently in...
Monteverde, Costa Rica, for 2 months of cloud forest and community
Heading to...
Chicago/Montreal for Christmas, then Thailand (Chiang Mai), Vietnam (Hoi Ann, Feb-Mar). Please share any sites, people or ideas by email.
I love this backstory! Happy adventuring to you both….