Displaced
A coincidental encounter was followed by an invitation from our choral conductor and an Afghan refugee family was welcomed at our choir rehearsal. Curious looks crossed each other yet the lack of a common language seemed to make us all a bit uneasy.
We started singing with 8 eyes staring at us but after a while a drum started hesitantly to accompagny us. Ever more confident the rhythm started to sing along and merge with us.
Just before the break we encouraged one of the brothers to sing an Afghan song for us while drumming along. Tunes whirled up across in the room and transformed the boring classroom floor tiles into a busy exotic bazar. A song about a lost love, the greatness of the Prophet or the Aghan countryside, ....? Who will tell?
A little later some of us stood up and tried in our rather stiff European way to do a little dance, much different to the demonstration we were given afterwards by the other brother. It turned into a quite unusual fun rehearsal with some Afhan/European folk music improvisations.
Yet I can't get her face out of my mind when he started singing. Her face and her hands who desperately tried to hide the tears rolling from her face while pulling her veil. How helpless I felt when seeing her pain.
We started singing with 8 eyes staring at us but after a while a drum started hesitantly to accompagny us. Ever more confident the rhythm started to sing along and merge with us.
Just before the break we encouraged one of the brothers to sing an Afghan song for us while drumming along. Tunes whirled up across in the room and transformed the boring classroom floor tiles into a busy exotic bazar. A song about a lost love, the greatness of the Prophet or the Aghan countryside, ....? Who will tell?
A little later some of us stood up and tried in our rather stiff European way to do a little dance, much different to the demonstration we were given afterwards by the other brother. It turned into a quite unusual fun rehearsal with some Afhan/European folk music improvisations.
Yet I can't get her face out of my mind when he started singing. Her face and her hands who desperately tried to hide the tears rolling from her face while pulling her veil. How helpless I felt when seeing her pain.
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