Joan Manuel Chouciño

Fieldwork report JoanManuel Chouciño Introduction The document reports the activity and experience of the author as a musical operator in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Al Beddawi and Wavel. The activities carried out are part of the internship course Music and Resilience Support (MARS), conducted in two periods: from 7 to 14 April Al Beddawi camp, and from June 29 to July 8 2017, divided between the camps of Al Beddawi and Wavel. As a part of the Mars course, the focus of the course and of the internship is “psychosocial music intervention […] as a protection against multiple risk factors emerging in under-resourced and marginalized communities, where chronic high- or low- level stress affects emotional, cognitive and social functioning, in particular in children and adolescents, undermining the community's capacity to care for itself internally and to respond to the external environment with adaptation and flexibility.”1 The main objectives of the document are to connect the theoretical and practical contents developed throughout the course with field work. As long as the internship was carried out in two 1 1 Excerpt from project description in Music and resilience support website. separate periods for two months, it has allowed to integrate the experience of the first period in the planning of the second. This document arises from the overlap with an initial experience with a strong emotional and personal impact, followed by a period of reflection and analysis of the learning done. Based on this experience and reflection, a second visit to the fields is planned, which is characterized by being focused on the most purely musical aspects of the intervention, and by the possibility of knowing two different contexts. The structure and contents of the document respond to the intention to report the author's experience, learning, practice, analysis and perceptions and self-reflective practice in two intervention contexts. Information of both internship periods is provided with a contextualizing purpose, not providing an exhaustive description of these two interventions. So, this document offers: Fieldwork report 1 Introduction 1 Musical Aims 3 Beddawi 3 Wavel 6 Two Vignettes 7 Vignette 1, April, Beddawi camp 7 Vignette 2, July, Wavel 9 Analyse, insights, personal dynamics & self-learning 10 Meeting the group through music 10 Imagining the space 10 Imagining time 12 Communication 13 Verbal 13 Musical 13 Developing relationships 15 Facilitating in group: roles, relationships and positions 15 Relationships within the music activity 16 Self-reflection: how does this work affect you? 17 To do list 19 Appendix 20 Fieldwork context and psychosocial aims Psychosocial intervention through music is carried out in two centres that Beit Atfal Assumoud (NISCVT) has in Baalbeck and Al Beddawi, in two completely different contexts. Wavel camp, established in 1948 in the stables of the French army barracks, located in the city of Baalbeck, in the Beqqa Valley, near to the border with Syria. Beddawi, established in 1955, in the city of Tripoli, north of Lebanon, at the top of a hill called Al Beddawi. Wavel Beddawi and have common risk factors for toxic stress, such as poverty, limited access to work, education, basic health care services. In Beddawi the density of the population and the difficulties in having spaces for privacy or shared spaces with the community contrast with life in Wavel's streets in the summer, where you can see groups of children by bicycle, playing within the camp boundaries. Unemployment, lack of services, and limited access education are the main difficulties of a population strongly constrained by the geographical isolation of the countryside, especially in the harsh winter inland Lebanon.2 The musical intervention in Al Beddawi takes the form of a community music project with about five years of experience, while in Wavel we have conducted a first musical psychosocial intervention planned as an ice-breaking in a camp that does not have any musical or artistic activity, modelled with elements closest to community music therapy.3 In both camps, the main objectives of the musical intervention are: to carry out activities that generate trusted, safe and healthy relationships, that promote the establishment of a network of mutual support, working with the children to reach the whole community, developing those protective factors against toxic stress and developing self-resilience of the community. Musical Aims Beddawi The community music project at Al Beddawi takes the form of an instrumental ensemble with about fifty participants from 8 to 16 years old, volunteers and teachers. The activities and repertoire have been programmed in coordination with the community music project in Ein El Hilwe. Children from Al Beddawi and Ein El Hilwe will share a Summer Camp in Chouff and a final concert at Saida. The project is focused on instrumental music playing with special attention and care to provide resources to the children to be independent in the process of learning music to make the project sustainable. There is emphasis on learning music reading and in developing a network of teachers and volunteers within the community to support and enable their own learning abilities. 2 Knowledge of the main stress factors in Wavel is due to the information provided by the director of Beit Atfal Assomoud at Wavel at the beginning of the July stay. Further information: Wavel camp, from NISCVT and UNRWA, and Al Beddawi, from NISCVT and UNRWA. 3 The distinction between community music project and psychosocial intervention modeled as community music therapy does not intend to establish defined boundaries between two kind of interventions. Knowing that they are full of communicating vessels, the use of this distinction aims to guide the understanding of two scenarios, where different groups and activities pursue the same objectives. April stage Dates from April 7th to 14th Overall planning Morning musical sessions with a group of 36 children (at maximum), from 09:30 to 12:30, with two short breaks (or one longer depending on the dynamics of the session). The instrumental activities are led by Henry Brown. The other musical operators provide support to the ensemble rehearsals and lead sectional rehearsals and singing activities as well. Afternoon sessions from 14:00 to 16:30 with volunteers and teachers, led by Henry Brown and with the support of the other musical operators in the instrumental sections. Teamwork Henry Brown (HB), Clare Tomlinson (CT), Tony Almond (TA), Alberto Balducci (AB) JoanManuel Chouciño (JM) Instruments Violin, clarinet, keyboards, guitars, recorders, flutes, trombone, trumpet, darabuka, drum April stage aims: • To provide a first input on the repertoire will be played at the final concert of the summer camp. • To train volunteers and teacher on the central repertoire to make them able to teach this repertoire to the children during May and June. • To promote sustainability of the project providing specific support and skills Brief description of the work I’ve conducted or led: • Support the process of learning music with the instrument, specially to the recorders and flutes section, and help them to develop learning music skills. • Support the process of learning the summer camp repertoire. • Teach a catalan song Les majorales d’Ulldemolins. • Support my colleagues activities. Materials and activities • Learning songs such Les majorales d’Ulldemolins to play with instruments and to introduce the concept and awareness of minor and major third. • Working on the process of playing a song with the instrument and using voice and clapping to understand the parts of the song. • Putting lyrics to a melody as a way to work on rhythm and pitch. Using numbers up to five in arabic. • Working on different articulations such as tiki tiki tiki tum / diri diri diri dum / daba daba daba dum • Teaching a canon, Tres i tres i tres fan nou. • Singings songs such Babalagumbala, Nisa nisa, Mango. Detailed planning See Appendix July stage details Dates General planning from June 29th to July 16th, divided into two weeks, first one to prepare the summer camp and the second one providing activities to the children is not allowed to join the summer camp. My participation during July stage is limited to the period comprised between June 29th and July 4th, working with two groups of children: in the morning, with the group of roughly 25 children not attending the summer camp, and in the afternoon with keyboards, oud and darabouka players going to the summer camp. Overall planning Morning musical sessions with a group of 25 children (at maximum), from 09:30 to 12:30, with one break. 09:30 to 10:15 / 10:30 vocal, body percussion activities, movement and coordination. JoanM 10:30 to 11:30, sectional rehearsals. 11:30 to 12:00, ensemble rehearsal, conducted by Henry Brown. Afternoon sessions from 17:00 to 19:00 with volunteers and teachers, led by Henry Brown and with the support of the other musical operators in the instrumental sections. Teamwork Henry Brown and JoanManuel Chouciño (in Monday’s morning Laura Contini joins the group activities and in Tuesday’s morning Alberto Balducci and Charlotte Cripps do the same) During Tuesday’s morning, Charlotte, who has joined the group this morning conduct an activity as a way to have her first contact with the group. She’s going to conduct the first hour of musical mornings the rest of the week) July stage aims • to teach the repertoire will be played at the final concert of the summer camp. • to develop activities with children who are not able to attend the summer camp, helping them to keep engaged in the community music project • to promote sustainability of the project providing specific support and skills Brief description of the work I’ve conducted or led: • Musical activities without instruments to work with the whole group during the first hour of the musical sessions.

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