Well eventually, and with a considerable amount of effort, we have just about finished building the studio in Bogota. At this very moment Nick is teaching the first workshop in our new studio for the benefit of kids who are involved with the 'Hip Hop al Parque' festival, which is going to some great effort to insure that there is some sort of lasting benefit for the deprived youth of the city. The festival is run by the 'Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota' in conjunction with the local Mayor, and is a great chance for youth across the city to learn from music professionals in a number of organised workshops.
The conference that we did on Friday was fantastic. Despite our initial nerves in presenting our project in Spanish to a group of kids that come for truly difficult backgrounds, we managed to pull it off. The kids were really interested in what we are offering and the session ended up in a dialogue between them and Nick about music production we me somewhere in the middle translating. Better still is that a number of these kids are going to be attending our workshops.
I suppose it is somewhat indicative of the desire that some of these kids have to learn more about studio production for their own music that they even turn up at all. Most, or all, of them come from areas where they have nothing and live under constant threat of violence from paramilitary organisations that operate in the marginal areas of the city. Giving up their time that could be spent earning a little money shows what music means to them and demonstrates the positive effect that it can have on their lives.
We have also been taking in some music this weekend, enjoying the local group 'Papaya Republik' as well as lots of 'Gypsy Cumbia', a local fusion of Gypsy punk and native Cumbia rhythms. Now that the work is finished Tim and are relaxing for a couple of days before the second leg of our journey whilst, for Nick, the hard work has just started.
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