WALL  MEMORIES

The year 2017 is soon history. Only one more day to go. One more day to  make some reflections about the year gone , and to take a look around  on the walls in my private library thinking about the reasons for me to collect items from different countries. To my surprise I see that I had kept on the wall two interesting music instruments. I am not a musician at all. I used to play guitar and made a school performance at the age of twelve singing in Norwegian “ The Ballad of Davy Crockett”. He was a favorite at the time. The film about Davy Crockett was shown in Oslo in 1955 where the American actor Fess Parker presented the movie. I was there watching Fess Parker. But that is another story. On the wall I noticed a music instrument which I bought in Kenya in 1975. I was on a study tour for the Norwegian Agency for International Development (NORAD) evaluating the development of public libraries in Eastern Africa ( Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana). Kalimba Thumb Piano is the name of the instrument. I never learned to play the instrument but I used the item in connections with my information about the problems and issues of the life in Eastern Africa.

Kalimba Thumb Piano has many names: Finger piano, Karimba, Sanza and the Mbria. The instrument is old. Some archeologists have dated the instrument back to 1000 BC. I used the instrument later on as a wall decoration in my library. So far,the African piano and my experience with the instrument.

What about the balalaika which have never been used except as a wall decoration. The Russian balalaika was bought in St. Petersburg in 1991  when Soviet Union fell apart . The cold war was over because the wall in Berlin had been torn down. The Russian balalaika is a stringed musical instrument with a triangular wooden, hollow body and three strings. The instrument is dated 

back to 1688.

Memories on the wall, nice to reflect on because of the travelling and the experience connected to the travels: Kenya in 1975 and Soviet Union after the collapse of the country and the official end of the cold war? I still have some space for new wall memories – we do not know what year 2018 might result in?

Happy New Year!