Grape! Raisin! Grape!

For two years I have participated in the "Special Populations" music hour. Special Populations is a local programme for intellectually challenged adults run through the Sackville recreation centre.

The group meets for an hour every Friday to sing and do some basic music exercises. It is generally an uplifting time - the group is a good break from studying or talking to other twenty-somethings.

We generally start with a warm up called "Grape Raisin". When the leader calls out "grape," everyone stretches their faces as wide as possible. When the leader calls out "raisin," everyone scrunches their faces as small as possible. Once everyone has the hang of it, the leader speeds up and calls the same word twice until we get too mixed up to continue.

We often do another warm up called "show us how to get down." This is a call-and-answer game that begins:

group: Hey Emily!
me: Hey what?
group: Hey Emily!
me: Hey what?
group: Show us how to get down.
me: No way!
group: Show us how to get down!
me: OK
group: (while I am dancing) D-O-W-N, that's the way to get down (x2).

Every week, without fail, one of the women says "Say what?" instead of "Hey what?" and everyone smiles a bit.

There is also a drama programme for Special Populations run by another student; her programme was actually the inspiration for the music component. Every year the group writes a play and performs it in April. Last year, the play featured the Flintstones, and the year before, some sort of newscast.

It is nice to get off campus every once in a while and realize the diversity of people in Sackville. It is also nice to sit with a guitar for an hour and sing some Shania Twain, Johnny Cash or Elvis Presley (country music is always a big hit with the group.)

At the end of my time in Sackville, I sometimes wish I had met a few more people in the community. There are some great groups: TEA (Tantramar Environmental Alliance), MAST (Mount Allison Student Tutors), a drama troupe that works with the middle school, a community garden, etc. University students are great company, but it's refreshing to step outside of the Mt. A bubble within the Sackville bubble every once in a while.