As one year turns into the next, it is the natural time to take stock of what’s gone before, and to use that information to plan for the future – MaSamba is no different, and that’s exactly what’s been happening over the last couple of weeks.
On the ‘historical’ side, we had a lot of paperwork due in to our key funders, the Department of Social Protection. Some of this work had backed up, and we had to wait for Board meetings to happen, and to get essential information for various parties, which crushed the whole thing into a two-week writing spree, which turned out a report of almost 10,000 words – the equivalent of a University thesis! Anyone who has ever completed one of those will know how much work is involved, but they probably didn’t have to write it all up in a fortnight. However, the team at MaSamba prevailed, and it went in today – on time, and hopefully up to scratch!
Of course, there is always the ‘real’ work to be done too, or we wouldn’t have the pleasure of all the report-writing.
Tonight, we began a new initiative to provide a children’s rumba-class for young people from the Dublin Inner City area. Zumba is a big craze at the moment, and it has the double benefits of developing great dance skills, and being great for the auld health & fitness! The kids we really enthusiastic, and could learn all the moves really quickly, and Kelly B – our dance diva, was nearly as wrecked as the kids at the end of it!
Next week, we begin a new project in Balbriggan, working with children and their teachers to develop some ongoing samba skills in an educate together school. We will be working outside school hours, but the plan is that this becomes a mainstream activity for the children in the school, and we can support it from afar!
Also next week, we are doing a session with our American friends from Champlain College. The students come and go, but we have worked a lot with the college over the last couple of years, and the groups are always really nice, and very easy to work with.
Of course, all our regular rehearsals and ongoing workshops continue as usual. and no doubt, there is more paperwork out there to be done into the bargain!