Why This Matters: Stories of Hope

It was a sweltering day in the vibrant city of Barquisimeto today. As I sat on my bed this afternoon, looking out my bedroom window, I began to reflect on the many individual stories we have encountered in the past 3 days alone. 

One that stood out to me, occurred on Monday afternoon. Elise Seymour, a fellow fellow and I, while waiting entered into a conversation with a couple who were also waiting. We were standing outside a room, that was bursting with percussion sounds of claves and different drum beats. It was a percussion ensemble for people with special needs. 

The couple we met started telling us about their son, who is 36 years old and has down syndrome. The proud mother pointed to her son through the window, and told us that he had been coming to the nucleo in Barquisimeto for 11 years. He attends the nucleo 3 times a week. Before attending the nucleo, he could not speak. Initially he was placed in choir, and then later was moved to this percussion ensemble, which he has been in for a few years. He is now able to speak, because of his time in choir, and his interaction with peers throughout this process. To me, this was profound. Being part of this nucleo family has literally changed his life. 

 

Yesterday, we visited a nucleo just outside barquisimeto called Tamaca. This humble-looking nucleo, has a big, vibrant and industrious spirit! We were welcomed by a vocal ensemble, and taken around to see many of the classes. One of the last classes we saw was a vocal ensemble containing women. We asked if we could sit in, and learn a song. When chatting later to the women in the ensemble, we discovered that they were parents of children at the nucleo. This choir was started for parents who come and wait for their children, as well as to help the parents develop musical skills so that they can help their children with their homework. This moved me.

One of the parents in particular, takes a bus from Barquisimeto 5 days a week to be at the Tamaca nucleo, since Barquisimeto has a waiting list, and is for children who already know how to play music to some extent. Her daughter is learning how to play the viola, and they will continue to travel to Tamaca for tuition till they are able to get her in at the Barquisimeto nucleo at the Conservatory. We gave her and her daughter a lift back to the city, and she began to speak about what the nucleo means to her. She said that besides keeping young people from things like drugs and prostitution, music is now what the community speaks about, instead of speaking about crime. This was a golden statement for me.

The work that is being done here in Venezuela by El Sistema is astounding, and it is easy to be completely overwhelmed when considering the fact that they currently serve 400 000 children throughout Venezuela. I realized this evening, that each one of these children and young people have their individual stories. They are receiving the beautiful gift of learning music, and as music and the nucleo family become an integral part of their lives, their stories are being transformed. Many of these stories now contain hard work, the pursuit of musical excellence and taking ownership of their own learning and the learning of others (peer to peer teaching/mentoring). 


The Director of the Tamaca nucleo, spoke about their sentiment behind learning music. He said they teach that every problem has a doorway and there is no such word as "I can't". There is a solution to every problem. This is as true for life, as it is for music. The pages in the very personal, yet unified stories of these young lives are filled with accomplishments and success everyday. It is in the daily mini-successes that come by overcoming musical 'problems', through hard work and practise, that change a life one accomplishment at a time. The nucleos and teachers are not just influencing the stories of these young lives, but they are an integral part of their stories. Since our stories are intricately linked with those around us, the nucleo becomes part of the community's story. More than this, the nucleo in essence, helps in beginning to write a new story for each child, and therefore for the community: A story of passion, success and hope.