Meet Carla!

This year CIAMO is excited to have as Peace Corps Response Music Teacher, singer-songwriter Carla Seidl.  She teaches basic music at CIAMO as well as guitar and dance. She also plans to develop an interdisciplinary project at the center as part of her studies at Goddard College.

CiamoReport: Where are you from in the states?

Carla: I grew up on Long Island, about an hour from New York City. I have since lived, worked, and studied in Massachusetts, Iowa, Chile, Maine, Azerbaijan, and Togo.

CiamoReport: What is your background in the creative arts?

Carla: Singing and writing have always been important pursuits for me. Adding in foreign languages, storytelling, anthropology, and dance, I created my own major as an undergraduate called Expression and Culture Studies. Afterwards, I studied documentary radio at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and started working independently as a singer-songwriter, writer, and documentary radio producer. I am currently pursuing an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College, so working among the myriad arts happenings at CIAMO is an especially good place for me at this time in my life.

CiamoReport: What inspired you to apply for your PCR post?

Carla: While working as a Girls' Education and Empowerment volunteer in Togo, I became very involved with a local cultural center and in collaborating musically with local artists. Perhaps the highlight of my service in Azerbaijan, too, was the work I did in the domains of music, dance, and theater with local students. So, shifting to work at a music and arts education center such as CIAMO was a natural fit.

CiamoReport: What are your initial impressions of CIAMO?

Carla: I like the way CIAMO stretches kids' imaginations and creative problem solving skills. I also think that the interest of this organization in furthering collaboration across discliplines is very important. CIAMO's goal of involving local artists and transitioning into a community-directed enterprise will be key to its future sustainability.

Happy Birthday CIAMO!

CIAMO is getting ready to celebrate its 1st anniversary! It has been a crazy year and we made a lot of progress! Now we’re starting a new school year with three new volunteers, six Beninese teachers , and an incredible office staff. As a team we’re making new and exciting musical and artistic opportunities happen every day.

So we’re sure you’ve been wondering “What can I give CIAMO for its birthday?” Well – how bout you give students guitar lessons? Or buy art supplies? All you have to is make a donation, and you can help CIAMO to be successful for another year.

While supplies last, we’re giving autographed copies of Herbie Hancock’s latest CD, The Imagine Project, to anyone who gives more than $100! Click here to participate. 

Who are you?

Recently we asked our students and all of you to send us your self portraits. Here's the results!




Do you want to help? You can make a tax-deductible on our Crowdrise page.  Like us on Facebook or follow us on twitter. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

The Navy Band, Topside, Plays at CIAMO

It’s not every day that CIAMO’s students see a saxophone, a tuba, trumpets, and trombones played masterfully. Yesterday, August 23^rd, 2011, CIAMO had the opportunity to host Topside, a high-energy brass band of the U.S. Navy.  While the HSV-2 Swift is in town, the American Cultural Center has been taking Topside around to see the sites and play for appreciative audiences all over southern Benin.

They arrived at 11 o’clock for a workshop with a group of children at CIAMO.  The students learned the name of each instrument and had the opportunity to hear each one play solo before they went full force into a short concert. The energy was great and the children loved the music.

After lunch, seeing a few sites, and getting pythons wrapped around their necks, the troupes played a concert to an audience of about 150 people at the Python Temple, including the mayor of Ouidah, the director of the American cultural center, and the military community from the Ouidah Military Camp.

The concert consisted of American classics including Ray Charles, some Dixieland tunes and Michael Jackson as well as some African classics like Malaika and the Waka Waka.

The CIAMO team thanks American Cultural Center Director, Rhonda Watson, and the US Embassy community for their continued collaboration. We look forward to future opportunities to promote cultural exchange in Ouidah and throughout Benin.

Get to Know Ouidah

Staying true to our promise to bring new videos to our supporters every month, we’re back for the month of July. This time, we let our film-making class students do the work.  As a cultural exchange with BayCat, a media program for youth in San Francisco, our students prepared five videos portraying different aspects of everyday life in Benin.   Here they are –

Life in Ouidah #1 – Transportation 
In Benin there are taxis, but the most common form of door-to-door public transportation is the motorcycle taxi, or the Zehmidjan. Two students show you how it works!

Life in Ouidah #2 – A Meal - 

Outdoor kitchens, milling stones, cooking is a different experience in Benin!

Life in Ouidah #3 – Clothing - 

Clothing in Benin starts at the market where the customer chooses fabric. Next the seamstress!

Life in Ouidah #4 – Haircut - 

Haircuts are “old school” in Benin. Check out how it happens. 

Life in Ouidah #5 – About Ouidah -  

You hear about Ouidah all the time. These students did a video to show you a standard house and the most interesting sites in their city.

End of the Year Variety Show Video

Mask-making Workshops. . .

During Festival Carnival Kaleta, CIAMO hosted mask-making workshops for students at Ecole Ganvè and for a group of children from the Orphanage Aide et Solidarité. The workshops took place on the mornings of the 17th, 18th, and 19th. We invited around 90 students from the classes of CE2, CM1, and CM2 (Roughly 4th, 5th, and 6th grade) and 61 children from the orphanage.

They worked with local artists, Pascal AVOKPO and Alexi CODJIA COSSI, to create the mask form using cardboard. A face shape is cut and then the bottom is folded to give the chin a curve. Rubber bands are stapled to the mask and the eyes are cut out. Time for paint!

The students moved into the next classroom, where they gave their masks a base coat. Once it was dry, they finished up their masks using a variety of shapes and colors – representing both people and animals.

The children from the orphanage actually spent a good part of Saturday at CIAMO. They arrived in the morning and participated in the mask-making workshops with CM2 students until about 1:00. After taking a short rest, they visited the Office of Tourism to see a new mural that depicts the history of Ouidah. Later in the afternoon we invited several percussionists to come and sing Kaleta songs with the Children. They took turns coming to the stage to dance and lead the songs.

There’s no question the children loved these activities. One afternoon after the workshops, I was passing by the stage at Fort Français, and what did I see – 3 of my girl students dancing on the stage while wearing their masks. There wasn’t anything in particular going on at that time, they were loving their masks and showing them off to Ouidah.

John Mark Feilmeyer
PCRV, Artistic Director and Music Teacher

A Few Kaleta Videos. . .

I'll try to write more about the huge success of our Kaleta workshops. In the mean time, here are some videos I thought everyone might enjoy.

John Mark