Right after the New Year our Field Band truck had an accident. Luckily no person got hurt, but both our instruments and the truck needed some serious fixing. Since we are running an activity where instruments play a crucial part we needed this to happen as soon as possible. With great effort from the Free State project manager things started to happen and we got messages from the people who were fixing that this would be quick: ”Next week the truck will be ready” and “In two weeks the instruments are back”. Now, can you guess how long we waited?

Four months!

It is unbelievable, but it is true… Living in South Africa we have experienced that things can take time, and I guess we really got to experience the worst case scenario here in our band. In connection to this event we decided to have a talk about efficiency with the teachers in our Field Band. Why does these things happen and what can we do? Quite naturally the teachers are of course very tired of all the waiting, but they are not as shocked as us Norwegians. “We are used to things taking time, and the only thing you can do is accept and wait”. One of the teacher even told us a story where he was very persistent on getting his passport issued, where they person in charge decided to punish him for “nagging”, resulting in the passport arriving even later. 

On a more positive note, the Field Band Foundation has been focusing on time keeping and efficiency in their bands for a long time, and we are seeing the results every day when the Field Bands are on time, and the rehearsals go by the plan.  

This week we had a very important visitor in PULSE, and that was Tutu Jacobsen, our program director from FK Norway. It was so much fun showing her our work, talking about our challenges and successes. She came all the way to Free State and saw a rehearsal and attended one of our sessions with the teachers in Parys. She also went to Springs with Randi and Lisa, and observed a rehearsal and one of their awareness themes. 

Written By PULSE