Day 3:

Welcome to day 3 of the exciting Glomus camp 2015 here in Sarawak Cultural Village, Kuching. If there is something I was expecting this morning then I was sure of this wonderful friend we had close to our cabin (15) volunteering to wake us up before six in the morning since our arrival and that's a wonderful monkey friend who will jump on our room early in the morning to say 'hey guys it's morning wake up'. As early as 7 in the morning, the temperature was around 27 degrees with the sun up in the sky presenting a nice and beautiful environment. At this point, all one could think of is there's no better place to be at this moment than here, Sarawak cultural Village. What a sight to behold!!!!

This day is indeed special not only  because of the wonderful presentations but also for the first time we have the opportunity to go out on an excursion to Orang Utan Sanctuary at Semenggoh Wildlife Center and also a tour of the Kuching town itself. Let me quickly take you through what transpired today.

We had two wonderful workshops in the morning where participants had the option of choosing wherever they wanted to be. There was an amazing workshop captioned 'Local Culture Experiences' and it was about the Malay Gamelan. This workshop was led by Dr. Shahanum Mohd Shah, a faculty member of the University Teknologi Mara, Malaysia. The main idea of this workshop was to introduce participants to basic knowledge of Malay Gamelan and a firsthand experience with the instruments. The beaming smiley faces of the participants could tell it all. As I walked towards the Rain Forest Music Center where this workshop took place, I felt the nice melodies of the gongs and I could understand why every participant was very happy trying their hands on the instruments. I should say that Dr. Shahanum was a wonderful teacher because it was highly incredible how she approached the teaching and within a very short time frame the wonderful participants were making good music.

Hey you can't believe it. Glomus camp 2015 is not just about music, dance and drama, it goes beyond that. There was an exciting and equally important workshop on 'Types of Funding Sources: Finding the Right Match ' led by Randall Stubbs, an American who heads the music department in Tumaini University, Makumira, Tanzania. How to raise funds and approach your funding application has been a challenging experience for both students and even teachers so this workshop highlighted on how to approach these funding opportunities. As I sat and listened to this thought provoking workshop, the thought that kept coming to me was this saying that 'give me a fish and I will come back for fish again but teach me how to catch the fish and I can always go catch my own fish'. This I think has been the main point as far as this workshop is concerned, thus, students and teachers and arts administrators developing the habit of working out for funding opportunities with the right approach.

These workshops were followed by regional presentations from Afghanistan, Nepal and Brazil. Listening to diverse musical performances from these diverse traditions was an interesting experience. It's stunning the kind of work Dr. Ahmad Naser Sarmast is doing in terms of reviving Afghan music despite the set backs. It is incumbent on all musicians and arts educators to extend a helping hand in any capacity to the revival and development of Afghan music.

For Nepal Music Center, their aim has been using music to promote national unity and development. It's also important to state that the Nepal Music Center is doing a great job in promoting Nepalese music but we were made to know that they also need help in diverse ways: teacher training, bachelors in World Music Program and future collaborations. For me this presentation wouldn't have been complete if we had not seen the maestro Mr. Nucche Bahadur Dangol perform. He is just a delight to watch on stage and the passion with which he approaches his music making serves as encouragement to younger musicians. Above all he is so humble and down to earth.

The Presentation from Brazil was just perfect to end the day's regional presentations. Fabio told us about the wonderful work they are doing in Natal-Brasil and he highlighted on some incredible projects their university is undertaking. It was also fascinating to see him perform with some Mozambique musicians. I think collaboration is one big thing this camp is actually emphasizing on so it wasn't surprising though to see Fabio collaborating with the Mozambiques for a wonderful Brazilian tunes. He also managed to involve all the camp participants in one of his performances which was so interesting. Little did I know that human voices could imitate the sound of a train. Yes the sound of a train, Fabio challenged the camp participants  and I guess he was surprised himself.

As I stated earlier, the day was special partly because we had the opportunity to move out of the camp premises to observe nature and experience the wonderful Kuching city. The excursion to Orang Utan Sanctuary at Semenggoh Wildlife Center will be an unforgettable experience. We had wonderful bus conductors who also offered to give us a little history about Kuching city. We were told that Kuching is the biggest state in Malaysia and the third biggest island in the world. Kuching also is divided into north and south. The north we were told is inhabited by Malays and the south by the Chinese. The name Kuching means cat, no wonder there are lots of cats and cat portraits around.

It was so nice seeing the beautiful Kuching city, the landscape and the Semenggoh wildlife center. The main purpose of going to the wildlife center was to see the Orang Utan, at least one, but we got there and we were told that it's not automatic that we will see them but if we were lucky then we might see them. Apparently they had not showed up in the morning at all making our chances of seeing them a bit slim but guess what? We got there and lo and behold there were two big ones just approaching the feeding area. We were so happy to see them and that made our purpose of going there successful.

We ended up the trip to Kuching city with a wonderful dinner at one of the biggest restaurants in town, one which I personally have never seen before. Of course Glomus participants registered our presence there with creative shouts and music making. This is definitely an experience you wouldn't get anywhere else than GLOMUSCAMP 2015, MALAYSIA.