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15. Quiet. Calm. Cool. Warm. Inspiring.

Our Vibrant XI training was brought to life with Bintang's presence. A seemingly shy, but surprisingly self-assured teenager, he truly gave our group rhythm!

On the first afternoon of our Vibrant Communication training, Bintang addressed the group, "Oom-oom dan Tante-tante..." -uncles and aunts - I'd like you to just start playing your djembe...however you want!" Almost immediately sounds of all kinds of banging filled the room...some hard, some soft, but slowly getting louder and louder!

While everyone was playing, Bintang carefully observed everyone...looking at them one by one. I noticed that there was a look of bewilderment on his face as his eyes went around the circle of participants.

When the ruckus quieted down, the first thing that Bintang said was, "This is the first time I'm teaching a group of adults. I normally teach children. When I ask them to play their djembe, they hit it all over! They hit the top part, the sides... But everyone here just hit the djembe on the top!"

And then he turned to one of the participants who had been playing his djembe particularly hard, in all quietly asked one of the participants who had been playing particularly loudly, almost beating it, "Oom Taufik, what did you feel when you were playing?" With hardly a pause, Taufik answered, "Nothing. I wasn't thinking of anything at all." And when Bintang asked him the same question again, he said the same thing. Bintang smiled softly and continued with our lesson in percussion.

As an observer to this exchange, there were many things that fascinated me:
(1) How poised and observant Bintang was, both a leader and facilitator
(2) Bintang asked Taufik what he felt, Taufik answered that he wasn't "thinking"
(3) Children are spontaneous. Most adults aren't.

A few days later, Taufik came up to me and said, "I learned a lot about myself through percussion. I didn't realize how many emotions I had bottled up inside of me until I started banging on the djembe on the first day. It was cathartic!" ... so he was having feelings after all...

I can clearly see all the elements of conversation and communication when watching a group play percussion. While watching the junior percussion group of Jendela Ide in Bandung, what was so obvious to me was how there was an amazing conversation going on between the kids!

There was dialogue, there was listening, there was 'conversing', there were highs and lows in the conversation. And it was all done through the playing of their djembes and their body language. There was no doubt who was the leader, but at the same time you could also see how everyone was on equal ground. Each had a solo part, and both before and after each solo, the others paid attention and responded.

We adults need to learn how to cultivate and nurture this rhythm of vibrant communication - what better way to do it than through percussion!

So what are you waiting for? We're hoping to open Friday classes in Bogor, maybe starting in August. See you there! If you're lucky, Bintang will be there to teach you!

Marintan, Bintang's cool mom, sent me an sms after Bintang had returned home: "Thank you for being part of Bintang's journey to find himself."

Marintan, he was a gift to us! SO thank YOU for sharing him with us. And Bintang, we're hoping you'll be joining us again soon...