Goodbye Gonubie!

I'm saying goodbye to an incredible little family I've had the chance to be a part of for the weekend.  Here I am, posing for what looks like could be a family Christmas card (it is winter here, after all!).  The people in this are- from right to left- Miss Laura, her daughter Shirley, Taylor Chin, me- next level up- Miss Barbara, Miss Beth Chin- next level up- Mr. Don Chin, and finally Miss Shelley!  Laura and Barbara are two sisters that have been hosting myself and the chins for the past few days.  They have been incredibly generous and sweet to not only the Chins, but a complete stranger like me!  We have enjoyed some great meals and lots of laughs.  They are like the sassy grandmas with English accents that you wish you had.

It is sad to say bye to my friends, the Chins, but they get to go back to America tomorrow to see family and friends!  They have really helped me settle in so well, from teaching me lingo to helping me get a phone plan to helping me get some last minute passport photos to even finding me accommodation for my time in East London after they leave.  All this while trying to move their whole life back to the United States in 15 suitcases!  They are pretty amazing, and I feel so blessed to have had them here to be my greeting committee.

Tomorrow I will be attending my first day of my first conference- the International Conference of Traditional Music.  It starts at University of Fort Hare located here at the East London campus.  Wednesday we will be bussed to a small town called Alice where the next two days of the conference will meet.  We'll actually be sleeping in a town called Hogsback that is nearby.  It is up in the mountains and is supposed to be absolutely beautiful.  Then Friday we will head into Grahamstown, where I will be for the next 10 nights.  Don't know when I will next have wifi.  Cheers!

East London... and/or Gonubie!!

Been a couple days since a post!  It has been tricky tracking down wifi here in South Africa.  But I have had possibly the best first three days that anyone could ask for.  I am staying with the Chin family, Jacksonville natives that have been in East London as missionaries for the past year and a half.  Ironically, my first days here are their last before they head back to the states.  So thankful for them hosting me and helping me around the city to prepare for my stay here.  

I spent the night in the Johannesburg airport Thursday night.  It was pretty miserable.  After many warnings from different friends, I decided to stay awake all night, so as to not put my bags at risk of being stolen.  I ended up making a friend that I hope to see again when I travel to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania!  By the way, Mom, you were right- it's Tan-zane-ee-uh.  Ugh.  My mother is ALWAYS right.

I have spent the weekend in a town called Gonubie, which is an incredible beach community outside of East London.  As Miss Beth Chin says, South Africa has very stark contrasts between areas of first world and third world.  I have spent my weekend in the former.  I have too many breath-taking pictures of this area to post.  Because the Chins are leaving tomorrow for the States, they have already moved out of their home here.  We are all guests in this unbelievable home that is on a point surrounded by the Indian Ocean.  Each day there are dolphins and whales in the water in front of the home.  It is quite surreal.

This morning I got to attend church with the Chins, as well as go lead a Sunday school class in a nearby township called Mzamomhle.  It is a community of extreme poverty in which they have been serving for the past year and a half.  And- you know me- if there are cute children around, I'm taking selfies!  The children were incredibly sweet, although they understood very little of what I had to say.  We exchanged drum beats and grins.

The community was built to host 1200 people but has since become a home to over 40,000.  These are some pretty standard "homes."

It has been really moving to get to be here with the Chins as they say their farewells to all of their friends in Gonubie, East London, and Mzamomhle.  I am so blessed to be here with them at this time!  And although they are leaving tomorrow, they have even made housing arrangements for me for after they have left!  The ICTM conference starts tomorrow at University of Fort Hare in downtown East London.  I will be staying with Gwen and Andy Morris- more people the Chins and I know from Jacksonville!  It is incredible to have friends to host and support me all over the world!

From the O.R. Tambo International Airport!

I have arrived in South Africa!  I got onto my 7:33 PM ET time flight yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia and I arrived today in Johannesburg at 5:00 PM Local Time (6 hours ahead).  The flight was just over 14 hours in total.  Everything went very smoothly!  It was a Boeing 777 and I was economy class.  Bonus points~ I was by the window, a man was by the aisle, and there was NO ONE IN BETWEEN. Those 14 hours could have been a lot more miserable with the third person!  Thanks again, to Shelby Ellis and her incredible parents for not only allowing me to use their standby flight, but also for constantly strategizing with me to make sure I got on the right flight!  Love you guys!!

On the plane, I sat a seat away [not necessarily next to! :) ] a man by the name of Charles Eisenhower.  He was a grandfather, and electrical engineer, and currently works for the state department of the US inspecting the physical security of Embassies all over the world!  He was on his way to Jburg to connect to Swaziland, where he will actually be meeting up with his brother to work on his next project.  We had some great conversation, and he had incredible insight for my travels, as he has seen much of the world in his work.  It turns out that 8 generations back, he has a common ancestor to the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D Eisenhower.  I meant to thank him for our Interstate Highway System...

I was able to move my next flight from Saturday @ 10AM to tomorrow @ 8:30AM local time.  This way I only have to spend one night in Jburg.  I can check in my check bag at 4 AM, so I'll probably hang around until then, check my bag, go through security to the gate, and then try to take a nap before my flight.  It's about 8 PM as I write this.  More later!

Side note:  the O.R. Tambo is possibly the darkest place ever. Makes me feel REAL safe.  PSYCH.

Flying out a day early!!!

My flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg is a direct flight through Delta.  But one of my best friends let me use her parents' airline benefits to fly standby on the flight for a reduced cost.  It is an incredible blessing, and it made other parts of the trip possible with less financial constraint.

HOWEVER.

Standby flights mean you only get to fly if there is a vacant seat on the plane.  When we initally booked my flight for Thursday at 7:33 PM, there were 48 seats vacant on the plane.  When we checked it again yesterday, there was only 1 vacant seat left!  And I was the third priority standby passenger!!  There are some cancellations typically, so I might have been able to get on the flight still, but it is a risk that could have cost me over $1000 in re-booking flights.

My friend figured out an incredible alternate plan!  She looked and saw that if I got the same flight, but on Wednesday (a day earlier!), there were still 40 seats available on the plane!  That means that I had a really great chance of getting on that flight.

It took some serious hustle to get all my errands done yesterday that I was planning on splitting over two days.  But I did it!  Even more treacherous- my mother and step-father just got in from working for a year in southeast asia, and we had planned on them driving me up to Atlanta on Thursday so they could see me more in the car.  Well now, after flying in at 6 PM, running errands with me, and then sleeping only a few hours, they are still about to drive with me up to Atlanta!!  So ridiculous!  They are unreal.

So I stayed up all night packing, and now am getting ready to meet up with them for the long haul up to the ATL!  Here's to hoping I didn't forget any crucial items on my to-do list that will prevent me from being able to get on the plane!

On the News!

I'm sure many of you already saw my Facebook or Instagram post, but Monday, June 23rd, I was on First Coast News for my fundraising website through gofundme.com !  Apparently FCN (the local NBC affiliate) was planning to do this story about gofundme, so they contacted the marketing director of gofundme to suggest to the reporter some exemplary projects from the Jacksonville area.  Last week, I got an email from this marketing director, asking if it was alright if they gave the reporter my information for an interview.  I, of course, said yes!  But I also clarified that I was leaving within the next week and asked if they could pass that information on as well.  The staff from gofundme was so nice!

Then on Monday, I had just finished speaking for an orientation session on campus when the reporter called me, asking if she could come interview me that afternoon!  It was about 3 when she called, and she said she would be there to interview me at 4:15.  She said to make sure I brought a guitar.  I didn't have one with me, so I had to call a friend to bring me one, as I no longer live on campus.  The reporter showed up, I spoke about my experience with gofundme, they took some shots of me playing, and then they left!  I feel like the whole interview lasted about 10 minutes.

ANYWAY.  Link is attached!

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/features/2014/06/24/jacksonville-go-fund-me-campaigns/11296949/

Getting SO Ready!

So I am four days away from flying out!  Some brief updates!

- I have booked all my lodging for my entire trip!
- I MAY STILL have money left to eat food while in Africa.  Which is a good thing!
- I acquired a Canon EOS Rebel T1i DSLR camera that also shoots full HD video so that I may document my trip to its fullest!
- I purchased my traveler's insurance, so everybody breathe a sigh of relief!
- I have raised a total of $4,365 of my $6,000 goal!  Absolutely unreal!  I am blown away by the generosity of all my friends, family, co-workers, and all those who have supported me so far!

Just to clarify once more, I am fundraising to replenish funds that I already acquired through a fantastic loan from Karl Rogers of 121 Financial Credit Union.  This means that even if I do not hit my $6,000 mark by Thursday when I leave, I will probably continue to fundraise some during my trip to try to gather all the funds necessary to pay back my loan.  Karl & the gang have been unbelievably helpful and I can very plainly say that I would not be going to Africa without them.  Thank you guys so much!

Things to come:

- I need to get my Malaria prescription filled so I can have it to take before I go into Tanzania
- I need to go raid the dollar store and get all the little supplies I will need for my trip
- I need to pack!
- My mother and step-father are about to come home from a year working Southeast Asia!  They will be here Tuesday, I'll spend two days with them, and then they are driving me to Atlanta for my flight out of the country!  Please be praying for our family for all the travels and just for the the small amount of time we get to spend together!

Volunteering in Miami

For those of you who know me, you may remember I have spent the past two summers in Miami, FL interning with an organization called Touching Miami with Love in the Overtown area.  Specifically I have staffed the summer camp they provide to underserved children in the community of Overtown.  I've had the same age group of kids both of the past two summers, and the kids stay mostly the same from year to year - growing up in the program.  Obviously this summer I will not be able to work in Miami for camp because of my internship in Africa.  But it is hard to stay away from my kids for too long!  This past week I went down and volunteered for the whole first week of camp, leading my usual group of now 5th-6th graders, as their staff person was actually out of town.  I loved every second of it!  My kids are such a handful, but in the best way.  So glad I got to go down and see them before I fly out!

Random side note:  Governor Rick Scott did a press release at Touching Miami with Love while I was down there to speak about a bill to fund anti-human-trafficking efforts.  I got to meet him, but more importantly he got to find out a lot about all the great work TML is doing in its community!  Pretty cool!

Progress!

It has been such an incredible week planning this trip.  Definitely stressful, but I am also just feeling such great support right now.  Whether it is people in my life just asking about my trip, or friends who have traveled before giving awesome insights into what is to come, or obviously financial support- all have been so helpful and uplifting!

As I type this I am close to 40% funded for my trip, and I cannot believe it.  I am so thankful to have such generous people in my life that simply want to do whatever they can to thrust me out into the world.  Family, friends, friends of family, colleagues, professors, administrators, trustees - I cannot even describe how grateful I am to you and your contribution into my life not only now, but in so many ways I could never deserve.

Some of my friends I see daily already know this, but I've been doing a lot of my supply shopping on eBay to save money because it is just so dang cheap!  This week I was able to find a Canon Rebel T1i DSLR camera that fit within my budget.  I am floored about this purchase because it means I will be able to document my whole experience with breath-taking clarity.  It shoots video as well, which will be unreal.  I cannot wait to share that extra quality in my photos and videos with you all!

One aspect of my trip about which I am beginning to be a little bit nervous is lodging.  There are just a few spots in the trip where I have yet to be able to book a specific place to stay.  It is no joke trying to figure out all these logistics for myself.  I want to make sure I can walk to where I need to go in cities to which I have never been!  And then even when I find something convenient, that doesn't always mean it will be secure.  I'm thankful for some friends in East London that already rescued me from booking a sketchy hostel!  I'll be in Grahamstown from July 4th - 13th, along with a huge swell of people attending the same festival.  Finding somewhere to stay during that time is proving to be difficult and I'm having to consult some hostel agents in the area.  All of it probably means I will be a little over budget for that term of the trip, which is unfortunate!  But I planned for lots of things like this, and hopefully it will stay in check.

That's all for now!  I'll keep you posted!  I need some type of cool sign off....

Launching My Blog!!

Will Baxley Records Africa! from Will Baxley on Vimeo.


Friends and Family!

I am launching this blog to keep everyone fully up to date on all the latest happenings concerning my research internship in Africa this summer!  I have a little under three weeks before I fly out, and I am feeling well prepared!

Just to give some general insight:

My internship is as a personal aid of the director of the International Library of African Music (ILAM), which is based out of Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa.  Her name is Prof Diane Thram, and she is incredible!  Last August, I was looking for potential research internships for ethnomusicology fieldwork.  There were no programs immediately available for undergraduates to be doing fieldwork, but the ILAM consistently topped my searches as an authority in the field.  I personally emailed Professor Thram, asking about fieldwork opportunities.  For the past year we have been discussing her plans for fieldwork this summer, as well as how I can be a part of them!  I will be attending a number of Applied Ethnomusicology Symposiums in a South Africa and Tanzania.  I will also be attending a major traditional arts festival in each country.  Finally, we will be conducting repatriation fieldwork in Kenya, updating existing recordings.  This is the real meat and potatoes of the internship.  I'll be working on a cutting edge project, in the field, with some of the top professionals in ethnomusicology.  All of this from just a crazy personal email to the director of ILAM!  Pretty exciting.

Preparations are well under way.  I had to take a loan for the full amount up front, so that I could make some time-sensitive purchases.  This amount came to $6000.  I am actively fundraising to hopefully pay this loan off as quickly as possible.  Because I worked to design this internship myself, there aren't quite as many options through my school for financing it.  Likewise, because it is a pilot research project, there isn't much funding for ILAM to bring me over.  The approval of the loan confirmed my convictions that this internship is indeed something beyond the plans of Will Baxley.  It blows my mind every day that I even have this opportunity.  The generosity of those supporting me in this adventure is also breath-taking; I could have never dreamt of making this possible on my own.

I'll be posting on this pretty regularly as I continue to raise support and get ready for my departure.  Please check out my fundraising sight below, and share it if you like!

More to come,

-Will Baxley