Music Fund is in Kinshasa again !

Please go for pictures about our 'mission' to Kinshasa to the blog of the luthiers Jacky Walraet and Karel Dedain - for their blog, click here - both guitar-makers and teaching at the Flemish Lutherie School of Puurs (CMB - www.cmbpuurs.be). This work-period in Kinshasa is all focussed on the repair of guitars: we wish in the future to extend the workshop - which we opened together with the INA (Institut National des Arts) in June 2008 - to the repair of guitars. I have the last days not been able to write for the blog, as I was in bed most of the time. Fortunately, and exceptionally, I have not come alone, but accompagnied by the new coordinator of Music Fund, Messaouda Zaouali. She has taken over a lot of the work I did alone during our previous workvisits. Augustin Kadiata, the person who followed a 3-month intership in Belgium during the Spring of 2008, has the last months worked in our atelier and repaired already many instruments of the school, as well as started helping out musicians from the city of Kinshasa. Augustin has been engaged by the school and receives on top of his small salary a percentage of the money earned on the reparations of instruments. The guitar-repair-workshop is very succesful. A group of 5 guitarteachers attended, most quit young and very dynamic and good-spirited. We should absolutely need to also develop this as part of the atelier, and therefor need to set-up training schemes in this field as well.