Just Another Week

Well, TownDay was just what I expected. A ton of people, lots of loud music that changed drastically every block and a half, and a lot of food. The celebration takes place on Main Street which is right outside our front gate. We could hear the music from our house easily. We walked up and down the street and then went back to the house so we could eat where it was quieter. After that Claire and Dan went back out. I decided to stay in and get some work done. About half an hour later they came back, and Dan decided to head back out on his own. Claire and I sat and drank a fruit smoothie while looking at my Pinterest boards. After a little while we hear Dan come back and said he had some people with him because someone cut their foot on a broken bottle. I guess I am glad I got recertified in First-Aid before I came down. I mean, I know what to do, but it is always nice to have a little refresher.

This week has been pretty quiet. Nothing too crazy has happened as far as I can remember. The people from Georgetown ended up not coming on Sunday so Dan cancelled the choir rehearsal and decided to make cookies for them as a thank you for all of their hard work. He did pretty well. They made about 80 cookies (after some of the cookie dough was eaten by those making the cookies) and they were all gone by Wednesday morning. I joined the choir for the first time in rehearsal on Tuesday. I am playing bass guitar for one of the songs they will be doing in the choir festival in two weeks. It has been scary having to learn a new instrument (in alternate tuning) so quickly, but I am catching on really quickly. They are sounding awesome, and I think they will do wonderful in Georgetown. I will also be singing with them because there is only bass for one song, and I would rather not stand on stage awkwardly for the other song.

We got to Skype with Eric on Monday. That was really fun. In all the email communication we have had back and forth I have been able to hear his voice and personality in my head, but it is so much nicer to see his facial expressions and actually hear his voice! It sounds like we are going to make this a weekly thing now which will be helpful to get things done a little quicker. All three teachers were commenting how weird it was to be seeing his office that we got to know so well in our short three days of orientation in Minneapolis, but that is what makes it so fun! I would love to be able to Skype with more people, so please feel free to add me so we can talk! Ninety percent of the time if my computer is open Skype is also open (unless I am over at the academy).

Claire has had many more cooking adventures this week, and Dan and I just stay out of the kitchen. We will be having a cooking day sometime soon so she can teach us how to make the things she has been learning. We have had some may people bringing us food or teaching Claire how to make food that we have run out of space in the fridge and we have no more containers to put things in, so last night we had a “eat all the things before all the food goes bad” meal. It was crazy. We had a very random meal to say the least. I think we will only have to have one more dinner like that before we can actually start cooking again. That will be nice. Leftovers get boring after having them for so long.

We just had new kitchen cabinets put in today (Friday). I forgot what it was like to have workers in the house. I put up with it though, because we finally have a mirror in the bathroom! We have some cleaning to do before we can put away everything in our kitchen again. It is nice though, because it now looks like a fully working kitchen. They built us a table to go between the fridge and the stove that houses the gas tank, has a drawer so we can store utensils (yay!), and a counter top. I think that was the most exciting thing in the kitchen. We no longer have to do 800 laps in the kitchen from stove to counter in order to fry plantain chips. It works a little better now to have all three of us in the kitchen. Who knows, maybe Dan and I will start joining in on the kitchen adventures from now on!

Celebrations for Everyone!

Where has the week gone I fell like just yesterday was Sunday and now it is Friday! Our weeks seem to fly by. Yesterday (Thursday) we had another day with no classes held at the academy. This time it was for the Hindu holiday Diwali. Diwali is the festival of light, and if I remember correctly it has to do with light overcoming darkness or good over evil. To the teachers it seemed liked a mix of Christmas, 4^th of July, and Halloween back in the states. This was a very welcomed day off. One of Claire’s students own a really nice restaurant in town, and came to teach Claire how to make a bunch of different food. Dan and I decided that if we were in there too we would have had too many people in the kitchen, so we will let Claire teach us what she learned later. One of my guitar students celebrated his birthday yesterday as well so he stopped by and gave us a bunch of Indian food. He was one of our two students of the month for the month of September. Claire had another student who brought us even more food as well as firecrackers. Dan and I got really excited about the firecrackers. We had a very relaxed day. We decided to try playing one of our board games that was sent down and none of us have every played. We played Tri-Bond, and I dominated!! Around 7:00 Pastor Diana picked us up to take us out to see all of the lights. We saw a couple stationary motorcades. These are decorated structures with kids and teenagers dressed to represent the different gods. They are not supposed to move or talk, which is really hard for kids their age. By the time we were there some of the younger ones were exhausted and just wanted to be done. We also drove by many houses and temples that had all sorts of lights everywhere. We then went to one of Pastor D’s friend’s house where we got even more food. I seriously think we won’t have to cook at all this week. We also got to shoot off firecrackers and fireworks. It was so much fun! I loved it! We made some new friends last night, and they told us this is just the beginning of what New Year’s and Christmas will be like in Guyana!

We just finished having our Friday academy class. One of our students brought her very young (maybe 1 or 2 years old) with her because she was watching her. Towards the end of class we had an activity where the students had to be in groups of four and do a lot of moving. I ended up taking the niece and ended up singing her to sleep on my shoulder out on the veranda. I don’t remember the last time I held a little girl that young, let alone sang her to sleep. She had been fighting sleep the whole class, but she finally gave in. It was so sweet. We hated waking her when I passed her back to our student so she could go home.

Tomorrow is Town Day. We really are not sure what all that means, other than there will be a bunch of booths everywhere. I feel like it will end up being a lot like July Jubilee. A few of our students said they did not think we would have a good turnout for our academy classes tomorrow, but others said they were crazy. So we have decided that we will have class tomorrow, and make it more of a review of everything we have covered so far this semester. We will hope for the best when it comes to turn out. From the sounds of it, things will be in full swing when we get done teaching, so I think we will go out and explore what Town Day is after that. Who knows maybe Dan and I will get to have more fun with firecrackers. We would be okay with that.

This weekend brings Reformation Sunday, and we are scheduled to attend church with Pastor Leroy. We still do not know much about it, so hopefully we find out soon. Sunday we also have some people coming from Georgetown to hear the choir rehearse. Dan had to call a special rehearsal just to get everything worked out. I will be playing electric bass for the first time with the choir at this rehearsal. We only have five rehearsals left until the performance!

I think we are done with holidays for the month, but you never know. They seem to pop out of nowhere here. At least our students give us a little warning (by about a week). I hope that continues to happen because it will be a sad day when we are sitting in the academy waiting for students and no one shows up. I guess that is all part of starting a new chapter in the book of life in a strange new place. Every day is a new and exciting adventure in the lives of three GLMA teachers just starting out in a whole new world.

Two Months in Country!

Another week is in the books here at the Guyana Lutheran Music Academy. My classes are progressing wonderfully, and we have some awesome academy classes planned. We attended a multi-school sports day today. All of the schools in the region were participating, so we got to see a good number of our students competing. One of my students has moved on to the national competition next month in at least one of her events! We are all extremely excited for her!

This past Wednesday we celebrated Dan’s birthday. We made the most American meal we could think of in order to celebrate with him. We had a student who is a butcher make us some ground beef and we made hamburgers with all the fixings and French fries.  It was really good! Having ground beef made me miss a good crumble burger! We also had cake and ice cream. I made the cake again. We had a Halloween themed cake because even though Guyana does not celebrate the holiday they have mixes and such that celebrates it. I am getting really good at making cakes here without them getting dry and crumbly. It makes me excited because the Canadians came over again and said something about that. It is very rare to get moist cake like that with these ovens. Claire and I also decorated Dan’s bedroom door as well as the dining room to liven up the celebration. Dan has really wanted to get a pet monkey for around the house. No, I did not go deep into the rainforest and smuggle a live monkey into the house for a pet (although walking around New Amsterdam one day we did see a guy that had a pet monkey on a leash), but I did find a stuffed animal monkey for him. We have seen these monkeys hanging off the back of cars all over Guyana, so I was excited when I finally found them to get one for him. He put the monkey around his neck like a cape after we gave it to him. Also for Dan’s birthday we got internet! That’s right everyone, I can now Skype and do things!

This has really been a big week for the GLMA teachers. We finally got our bank accounts figured out. Claire spent about three hours at the bank on Thursday and Dan and I spent a total of two hours on Friday. Dan and I even have debit cards already. I think it is now just finally sinking in that I am in a new country and will be here for a while. Opening a bank account finally had that hit home for me. I have always known that I have been in Guyana for two months, but it never really felt real. It always felt like I was in a dream or something. 

Thursday was crazy. All day there were some dark clouds off in the distance and we could hear thunder, but it just would not rain. I had been asking everyone I saw all day if we were going to get rain. Every single person answered me “No!” I figured they would know better than I would what weather in Guyana is like. My first class of the day was COFONA brass. We got set up outside just like we do every single class. A short two minutes into class a few rain drops started falling and the next thing we knew it was a total downpour! The percussion group came sprinting downstairs to help us get everything out of the rain and we all went upstairs. Dan and I had to do some very quick thinking to now combine two classes that had not been planned to be together in one class all together and make a lesson plan that makes sense based off what both classes had learned. I am rather proud at how well we pulled that lesson out of thin air and got the group playing as a full group without traditional instruments.

This weekend brings a lot of music performance/learning for the teachers. Saturday, Dan is heading back to town (by himself) to attend a music conference at the National School of Music while Claire and I stay in New Amsterdam to teach all of the academy classes. Then Saturday night we are performing two songs for a Cancer Society event at the town hall. Sunday the GLMA band will be heading to St. John’s Lutheran Church to be musicians at the confirmation service. We visited that church back when Glocal because some of the songs we are supposed to play have no music and none of us know the songs! This is something that Eric, Michael, and Dan all seem to be very comfortable with, but Claire and I are a little different. We will have a bunch of percussion equipment, a guitar, a piano, and a viola so we can be creative with who plays what throughout the service. I also just found out that we are playing at the opening ceremony for a town festival on Sunday. Glad I learned that the day before!

I had my first experience with a Guyana post office this week. Thank you Grandma for the package of Aloe. When you have a package come in the mail (via USPS and GPS, if that is what they call it) you get a slip of paper telling you that there is a package for you and the estimated duty amount based on the weight. You have to go to the post office between 10:30-11:30 am on Tuesday or Thursday with ID and money and wait in a line. I had no idea where the post office was, but I got in a car and they took me right there. Thank goodness because it would have been about a half hour walk to get there and I would have missed my pickup window! You then hand them the slip of paper and go sit down until you hear your name called. I waited about 45 minutes before my name was called. You go back up to the window and give them your ID. Then you watch them open your package so they can write down the exact items in each package and a real duty amount. Before you get your package you slide down to the next window and they tell you exactly how much you owe, you pay them, and then you get your ID and receipt and then you finally get your package and start making your way home. 

There have been a lot of firsts this week and we are two months in. I am okay with this. It just proves to me that I really do have one of the biggest learning experiences of my life right here, right now. I am so lucky to have been able to get into this on the ground level and have the opportunity to really help shape this program. I have fallen in love with Guyana, New Amsterdam, and Guyana Lutheran Music Academy. It is shaping me as a teacher, a musician, and a person. I look forward to seeing just how much I can grow in this short ten months. I can’t believe I only have 8 left!

To Town at 140!

How on earth are we already midway through the week?! We were thrown off by having a holiday observed this past Monday so we did not have classes. All week we have been off a day and confused on what class we were preparing for. Having Monday off was nice through, because we actually got to have a full weekend. We normally teach Monday-Saturday and then would have Sunday off, but we have had people over or something going on with the academy and haven’t really had Sunday off. This weekend was different though.

On Sunday morning we took off towards the car park in search of a car to take us to town. It was crazy! Dan went over to the gas station to get something to drink so all the drivers came to me trying to get us to take their car. One guy even grabbed my hand and led me to his car. We ended up taking his car because he had three spots left and we would fill it up. He drove really fast. I was a little nervous because I was sitting in the front seat and saw how fast and close to things we were. Dan and Claire were in bucket seats in the very back of the car and could feel every single bump we hit. At one point we were going 145 km/hour. When we got to Georgetown we stayed at the same place where we stayed when we first got in country. What a flash back. It seems like a really long time ago we were in that house, but at the same time it feels like just last week.

While in Georgetown we attended the GuyExpo. In my mind it was like the Iowa State Fair, only for the entire country of Guyana. We saw a ton of vendors from all over Guyana and learned quite a bit about different things to do, see, and eat while we are here. We didn’t really try and adventurous food, but we did get some free Guyanese candies. We also met some of the ladies who work at the American Embassy. It was fun to talk to them a little and tell them about GLMA. We came back to New Amsterdam Monday afternoon with a much calmer driver. Everyone (except the driver) in the car slept at least for a little bit. That afternoon we held open practice time for two hours so our students could come in and work a little bit since there were no classes. All in all it was a very nice weekend and a well needed break after how crazy things have been.

There is not a whole lot coming up for GLMA right now. My beginning brass class took home their instruments today and they were so excited! My guitar students are preparing to take home their instruments next week and same with COFONA. I have a lot of work to do before all of these guitars go home though. I have not looked at some of these guitars since the days after the container arrived. I know some of them need to have strings replaced, and they all need to be tuned. Today I got to see the violin students get really excited to play their instruments with a bow. Their faces were priceless and the excitement in the room was contagious. All of our students are so excited to do anything, it is a great feeling to have as a teacher, and very rewarding to see them excelling go much.

We are still working on trying to get internet up and running at our house. We can now call out on our phone. I have been working with the router, and it doesn’t seem to like our computers. I keep getting error messages even though I have followed the directions to a T. I have talked to Pastor Vivian’s husband, Eric (yes, another Eric), and he said he would come take a look at it tomorrow. He used to work for Apple, so we figure he might be able to help us a little. I attempted to upload some pictures to my Facebook while at the academy the other day. After there had been almost 100 pictures loaded my server and the internet crashed and nothing got uploaded. I am thinking I will spend time at an internet café this weekend and upload all of my pictures. Let me tell you, there are quite a few of them.

I want to give a shout out to the Lake Mills High School Marching Band! You guys did great in Algona! I just got to watch your performance. Colorguard girls I am so proud of you! You have worked hard and have come so far. I hope all of you take pride in being a part of such a great group. I miss playing in marching band, and proud to say I am an alumni of this band. I am working with a marching band and I hope to be able to show them videos of marching bands back in the states. I think it will be really neat for them to see something like this.

Cooler Temps and Changing Leaves...or Not...

Where has the time gone? I can’t believe it is already October and the leaves and weather are changing back home. It is a very strange thing to have my favorite season happening, but I don’t see any of those changes. I love crisp fall nights with the stars shining and a nice bonfire hearing a football game off in the distance. I also hear rumor that the Grand is starting up soup night soon. Someone should go have a bowl of vegetable dumpling soup and some of those amazing breadsticks for me. Diane, if you ever decide to start an overseas delivery service hit me up! Also, did I hear it is snowing back home? That is hard for me to believe when we are sitting around 89 degrees here!

We are heading to Georgetown tomorrow to head to GuyExpo. From what I have heard it is like the varied industries building at the Iowa State Fair only much larger and all about Guyana. It should be fun. Our students have also told us you get a lot of free stuff such as guidebooks, cups, and posters which perked up our ears.  We are going back to the Redeemer parsonage where we stayed our first few nights in Guyana. This is our first time back to town after moving to Berbiece. I think it should be a nice little get away for us and a good change of scenery. It’s really easy just to stay in one area while in New Amsterdam, especially since we don’t have a car or a license in Guyana. This puts us in the same old routine which can get dull after a little while. Sort of like living in a rural town in North Iowa before you are old enough to drive yourself to Mason. You do the same type of things every day and really don’t know what else there is to do in the world.

I have had several people ask me about what type of things should be sent in care packages. To be honest, I really don’t know. I can tell you that I am happy to receive letters and cards all the time. Things that remind you of home (Midwest America) are always welcomed as well. For Claire that is Hershey’s chocolate, for Dan it is coffee. Me? It’s hard to say really. I have traveled and done so much in my short life there are all sorts of things that remind me of home. If you get some good pictures of the fall colors I would love to see them!

Classes are about to hit the one month mark. I am so proud of my students and how far they have come since their first class. This past week my students have been preparing to take home instruments. Everyone has a playing/written test this next week to make sure they are ready to take home their instruments. I still have a couple brass players struggling, but I think they will be able to get it much better after they have their instrument home with them and they can practice every day and over the weekends.

 For Eric’s birthday my beginning brass class buzzed happy birthday (as only brass can) to make a video for him. He still has not been able to see this video because our internet has not cooperated with us enough. All of the academy classes sang happy birthday as well for him. I put them all together into a video edited together. Eric seemed to really enjoy that. Yay for video editing programs that we are able to do something like this! Dan’s birthday is coming up on the 15^th. I’m not really sure what we are going to do yet, but I’m sure I will think of something. For Claire I baked a cake, Eric and I cooked a really good meal, and we decorated Eric’s apartment with birthday decorations. Eric got the videos, but what on earth do we do for Dan? I’m starting to run out of ideas, especially since their birthdays are all so close together. Sadly, I am the only one who will not have a Guyana related birthday, but that is okay. Hopefully I will be able to spend my birthday seeing friends that I haven’t seen for a year!

I will say, I am really happy that Julie continued bidding on the calendar for me at the Summer Drummer Bash in Des Moines this summer. I just turned the page to October and was greeted by a Jordan Fratt selfie that makes me smile. This calendar brings me a little closer to my drumming family even when I am 3,000 miles away. I never realized just how much I would miss drumming until recently. Sheltered Reality was a great stress reliever for me and kept me connected to my drumming family. I have had a few short conversations with people, but that is it. We don’t have timbales at the academy and my iPod has stopped working or else I would be over at the academy playing songs all the time! I suppose I could take my computer over and play on the trap set some, but it isn’t quite the same. You can’t dance as well with a trap set.

I want to thank my wonderful Fairy Godmother Jeanie Grotewold for the cards. I promise y’all, mail does come to my address even though there are no numbers. Guyana mail is a whole different world compared to the USPS. It has been really nice to see the love that you all have for me. I greatly appreciate it! I suppose I better get ready to start teaching soon. Until next time everyone, enjoy the fall (if you even really get one now) for me!