In The Studio, At Last.

I had intended to write this before leaving Bogota, but due to a fairly hefty storm on Wednesday most lines of communication down that day... so here goes.
Monday was spent in several meetings dotted around the city, including the Ministry of Culture. Tuesday was the big day, the day we finally were going to get people into the studio and christen it. The morning passed swimmingly, Nick went to the Semillas building to give the studio a lick of paint whilst I spent the morning working on the written side of the project with our host and (one of) partner in Colombia, Angela. We were due in the studio at 2pm with all of the electronic equipment, we couldn't go earlier due to morning classes in the building.
At around midday our carefully laid plans started to go slightly amiss. First, due to a communication breakdown, we discovered that the guys who were going to come and play hadn't been confirmed. A bit of a problem seeing as it was our last possible day to do anything. Phone calls started flying out left right and centre in an attempt to lock down some musicians. We managed to get Diego from Vivo Arte to commit and come down to play some bass so we would at least be able to do something and have some footage of it in use.
We then called a cab, asking for one with a big boot to fit the kit in. When it turned up I knew that we weren't going to get the run of the green, today of all days. Whilst the taxi arrived on time and with a big boot, said boot was full of a massive gas fuel canister. Brilliant. So off we set with almost all the equipment on our laps. Until the taxi stalled and fluid started leaking from the engine.
A few concerned minutes later and the driver managed to get us going again, not without a lot of traffic soundings its point of view on the way past. The rest of the journey turned into a bit of a joke, for us, and we eventually arrived at our destination. With the gear safely in the studio we went out for a quick bite to eat and returned to set everything up. And here's where events began to turn farcical.
When we got back to open the door, one of the young girls who teaches at the school managed to snap the key in the door. A couple of minutes later we began to be inundated with local hip-hop artists who had responded to the calls we had made earlier. Eventually a locksmith was found and the agonising hour long wait began whilst he set about drilling the lock, breaking the drill, fetching another and eventually we were in.
Now we were up and running. It was amazing, for a good few hours we had the place full and recorded first Diego and a singer, followed by two groups of young rappers. These guys were really good. They are all young guys from Ciudad Bolivar and they truly had a lot of talent. The lyrics were slick and had a gritty message that told a lot about the reality for kids growing up in a barrio like theirs. Nowhere can be found the bling bling that we here from other parts of the world. These guys are respectul and really want to get an important message across.
As is to emphasise what we were listening to in the studio, outside the whole barrio was out to bury a local restaurant owner who had been murdered by some thieves at 8pm on Sunday. The procession was vast as the vehicles and people on foot passed noisily past the Semillas building and toward the semitary nearby. Life can be cheap in areas like this, although not to the people who live there.
On the whole, for us, it turned out to be an amazing day. We achieved what we set out to do, and we even managed to record a few acts as well. Now the studio is being left in the capable hands of the 'Por Nuestros Medios' communication school. Each Saturday they are going to spend the morning teaching people how to use it and in the afternoons record people in it. We cannot be more pleased, with the very little that we set out with, our goals have been achieved thanks to the effort and hard work of the amazing people we have met.