North Africa…Where all your Dreams Come True

We saw a poster with this title other day and it made us laugh. However, we shouldn’t laugh too hard because this week two of Jared’s long-term dreams came true.

1. For a violin.
2. For a grand piano.

How was this possible?? Well, one of the only music stores in the country (affectionately called “The Yamaha Store”) had a going-out-of-business sale. We rushed over after school one night and bought mass supplies of guitar/violin strings and picks, drum heads and sticks – even guitars. Once the store is gone, it will be hard to get such supplies for the school, so Jared stocked up. We first bought all these goods... and then Jared turned to his own interests – a German violin that he’s been eyeing for a few weeks. Since he was a boy he has wanted to have a violin and learn to play. After all the (school’s) money we spend on the music gear, the shop assistant–turned-friend was more than happy to make a good deal "because it’s for you." As I say this he’s sitting behind me practicing his scales – and is quite happy.


When he’s not spending free time on the violin, he’s over at the school on “his” new baby grand piano. With school funds, he negotiated from 19,000 dinars to 10,000 dinars. Then he showed up the next day with 9,000 dinars in cash (see the picture of what that looks like – the 20 dinar note is the highest bank note available, but school mostly had 5’s and 10’s on hand that day!).



The real feat, though, was transporting it to the school. With no one in-country with piano-moving expertise, we hit Google to get some advice about how to do it. Jared insisted on being present for the move, and he was flexible and gracious when a flat-bed mini-truck pulled up to the shop. But, he wouldn’t budge in insisting that they remove the petals and actually cover the piano. They obliged and found some bed sheets to wrap it in - before using duct tape to secure the piano in the back of the truck (I’m really sorry I didn’t get my camera in time to document that!). Jared hugged the driver and pleaded with him, ‘shwaya, shwaya,’ – ‘please, slowly, slowly.’ It made it in one piece to the school, but then the nine men had to wrestle it up three flights of steps! I’ll spare the details and let you see the pictures…