Charlys on the Sax

Megan Rounseville, Volunteer

UPDATE: The Peace Corps Volunteers that worked with Charly have developed a website highlighting his school and are now collecting donations to support it through paypal.

I first met Charlys when he came to the Small Business Start-up Skills class I taught as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican border town of Pedernales. Although a Dominican national, he felt strongly his Haitian roots. Three times a week he would cross the bridge into the Haitian town of Anse-a-Pitre. He would leave the Dominican community of Pedernales, where he lived in a cement house with running water and electricity and cross the border into the Haitian town of Anse-a-Pitre where nearly everyone lived in basic houses with no utilities and little employment. The border divided the two realities that defined who Charlys was—both Haitian and Dominican blood flowed in his veins.

He would cross the border carrying a single guitar and sheets of music, to give back to a community that he believed could “be more”. Charlys was a music teacher. He taught in a community center and mostly did it voluntarily, his students paying only when they could.

Charlys Presenting the Candy Shop plan in class

At the end of the three-month class my students were assigned to write a business plan. The students would submit their business plans to a national competition and have the opportunity to win funding to begin their businesses. One day, Charlys came to me in distress. He was working on his business plan focused on starting a homemade candy/sweets shop and he was having some difficulty developing his idea. As I sat and talked to him I asked, “What made you want to open a candy store?” He didn’t really have an answer, he didn’t know how to make the sweets he hoped to sell, and wasn’t too sure people would buy them. Nonetheless, he was determined to give it his all, he viewed this as one of few opportunities he might have to find employment.

As we chatted Charlys spoke of music with vigor and love. When I asked him why he loved music he told the story of how he learned to play and why it meant so much to him.

“I started taking classes when I lived in Enriquillo. I would take the bus for almost two hours from Enriquillo to Barahona, every weekend. From the day I began, I just loved it. My mom saw how much it meant to me and Mami made sure she found the money to pay for the bus.

“When I began my peers didn’t think much of it. They didn’t really believe me when I told them I was learning to play. But I kept practicing. “Wow, my first concert that was the best moment of my life. Everyone in the class was dressed so nice and there was an audience waiting to hear us play. When it was my turn, I played and played. When I opened my eyes, everyone was clapping.

“It was the first time that people saw me for something more than my black skin. It was the first time that people saw me as more than Haitian. After the concert the kids in the class picked me up and were cheering ‘Charlys, Charlys!’ Wow! It really changed how I felt about myself. And that’s what I want to bring to Anse-a-Pitre, that is what I want to teach the Haitian youth.”

Charlys with his winnings!

In September of 2008, Charlys presented his business plan developed on starting a private music school. He won funding to buy instruments, stands and sheet music. The music school is still going strong a year later. His students still have a hard time making the payments, but Charlys is seeking creative ways to promote the class and seek international donors to sponsor children at the school.

Charlys’ story is remarkable. It shows how people rise to the occasion when faced with challenge and oppression and how they grow and build an unbreakable strength of community and character. Charlys described the way he felt in a society that does not accept him because of the color of his skin and his ethnicity and found an inspiring, peaceful, caring means of overcoming it and has helped others to follow his lead.

In October 2009, six of his students attended the national business plan competition and played in front of a large audience. For some of his students it was the first time they had come to the Dominican Republic. For six students it may have been the first time people saw them not as Haitians, but as musicians.

Share this Post

Hide Sites