A welcome billet
Kathaumixw attracts the world
By Janet May
Anne and Alex Combe have welcomed the world into their kitchen. They started billeting Kathaumixw choir members in 1986. That was the second year that Powell River held the international choral festival. Since then, the Combes have missed the opportunity only once.
"Our first choir was from Lviv in the Ukraine," Anne remembers. "That was just after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor had leaked radiation into the countryside there. These boys hadn't had fresh fruit and vegetables for two years. They were overwhelmed by a salad. They asked me 'Is this from your garden? Can we eat it?' The 12-year-old boy ate up to six bananas a day!" Alex worried about the boy's digestion.
For Anne, Kathaumixw visitors are part of the season. "It always comes around my birthday, and they usually sing me 'Happy Birthday' in their native language." She has enjoyed her birthday song in Swedish, German, Polish, and Chinese. The festival comes just as fruit ripens on the Combe's cherry tree. Their visitors are happy to pick and eat from the tree, but none so much as their Chinese guests, who could not believe their eyes. "They thought we must be very rich to have so much land and a plum, a pear and a cherry tree. Those two Chinese ladies had me take their picture picking cherries, and then ate an ice-cream bucket full." Again Alex worried about his guests.
The Chinese visitors valued their fruit trees, the Ukrainians, their vegetable garden. Learning about the values held by people from other countries is one of the benefits of billeting. "It is so neat to meet people from all around the world," says Anne. "They are really, really, grateful that you open your home to them, and you couldn't ask for better company."
As well as billeting, Anne is involved with the Kathaumixw organizing team. For years she has been a Kathaumixw Host, responsible for finding billets for the members of a visiting choir. North American choirs are accommodated in hotels, but overseas choirs are billeted in homes around Powell River. Mixing the community this way is one thing that makes Kathaumixw special as an international event.
This year Anne is hosting a choir from France, Cigale de Lyon, or Cicada of Lyon. She needs to find 20 homes for two or three singers between the ages of 10 and 16. The job tests her persuasive powers. "I try to get families to billet choir members by telling them what they will gain by it: new friends, contacts in another country, exposure to another language, education for their children. And I know that I am giving them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Kathaumixw 2010 will include 11 overseas choirs, meaning 11 Powell River Hosts on the prowl for billeting homes. For host Zuzana Kulhankova, the job is part of her mission to bring the Viva La Bella choir from a small town in the Czech Republic where she lived for eight years. The whole town of Slavonice is involved in raising funds, says Zuzana. She has rallied to find sponsors from six countries, to enable the 30 children, conductor, and two accompanists to come to BC.
Slavonice is a beautifully preserved medieval renaissance town, "in the middle of nowhere," says Zuzana, "not unlike Powell River in some ways." There is high unemployment in the region and not very much for the children to do after school. "The choir is one of the few opportunities they have for spending their free time meaningfully."
Zuzana wants to give the children this experience so they will believe that there is more to the world, and to know the importance of learning another language. "Some of these kids have never seen the sea. To say 'you are going to Canada', is like saying 'you're going to the moon.'"
Videos of the choir singing in Slavonice are available on-line as well as direct quotes from the children introducing themselves and imagining what they will do in Canada. Ten-year-old Adela illustrates the feelings of many of the young singers coming to Powell River next month. She writes, "I would like to see the nature and animals (maybe whales), spend time by the sea and, most importantly, sing."
People who can offer a billet for visiting choir members are encouraged to call Joyce Wolfe at 604 485-9132 or the Academy of Music office at 604 485-9633.
