Out in Africa

[Brian Lawson, RPT]

This, is just part of my day...

I had a call the other day from a guy named Sipho, he said he was a friend
of another customer I tuned a piano for a couple of years ago. Sipho lives
in Vosloorus (pr. foss-loo-rus), a black township south of Johannesburg. The
term township is often applied to just the black areas but is actually a
South African term for suburb, as I live in the Bez Valley township
according to my house's title deeds.

So, as I had been there before I agreed to meet him at the BP garage (gas
station) just inside the township, I got there about 8:15am and waited there
and he arrived carrying a small kid who he introduced as his baby brother.
We drove over to his house, the architecture in his part of the suburb is
fairly modern though the amount of space per property is very small. His
house was really a one bedroom house. Outside there were a couple of guys
sitting on beer crates drinking beers, entering through the kitchen as is
tradition when visiting black African's I was taken through to his bedroom,
going through a small lounge, a TV on a beer crate and 6 plastic chairs
against a wall, the next room - more beer crates and a hi-fi playing and
then to where his "new piano" was, it was a early 1900's birdcage,  Burling
& Mansfield and a tone below pitch and sounding truly dismal.  I had said to
him previously on the phone that if I couldn't tune it there would be a call
out charge.  However the pins were tight an the plate seemed fine. There
were a couple of broken keys, split at the chasing which I began to glue up
while inspecting the piano. The only other "furniture" in the room was a
mattress against the wall and a fitted cupboard, the large open window
looking at other small houses with the wind blowing the net curtain.

So in-between tuning I chatted with him, he said he was still at school and
really wanted to learn to play, he said what he had paid for it (what I
thought was twice as much as it was worth but didn't tell him).   I went
through this piano giving is about 4 passes to where is was sounding like a
piano, during this time there was the sound of other people coming in and
out of the house . By the end the time was about 10:30, surprisingly the
damping wasn't too bad on this one, having fixed a sticking note and the
squeaky pedal I said that now he can play.

He paid me my tuning fee in very used notes, walking out through the house
there was the sound of others in the yard and Sipho said well you know,
running a shabeen (a non-licensed liquor outlet/bar) helps put a meal on the
table, sure enough as I walked outside there were about 10 people hard at
work - drinking beer!

Well, there you have an industrious schoolboy creating a business empire,
servicing the community and putting his future into music.

Or, how would you view it?


Brian Lawson, RPT, MPT, SAAPPT, CGLI

Johannesburg
South Africa

http://www.lawsonic.co.za