A Crazy, but Different Week

This past week has been crazy! Tom Wells, a music teacher from Minnesota, has joined the team for a two week time period. They arrived on January 29 and will be heading back to the states on February 15^th. During this time he has been working with all of our classes including the academy class. He has been using Guyanese folk songs and incorporating improvisation on the five note scale. All of our students have really seemed to love it. It has been a breath of fresh air the teachers, and it brings something different to the academy. Tom is wonderful. I have really enjoyed being able to work with him. This week we are combining several of our classes with Tom. Claire’s keyboard classes will be pairing up with my guitar classes to experiment with how keyboards and guitars sound together in different settings. Dan and I will also be bringing COFONA together as a large band on Thursday which we have been meaning to do all year but haven’t.

With Tom is his wife, Rae. She has been going and spending parts of her days helping at area primary schools. It has certainly been an eye opening experience for her from what I have heard. On Saturday night we went to a restaurant in town that is run by one of Claire’s keyboard students. We have been there a few times now, and it is always wonderful. Today (Sunday) Tom, Rae, Claire, and Eric (the Canadian, not Sayre) went to 63 beach. That was fun. We have talked several times about going to the beach, but we finally did it. I think the teachers will go back with our fellow Lutheran compound neighbors sometime in the near future. It was a very pleasant experience, and Claire and I were both glad to get out of New Amsterdam for a little while. It has been a very relaxing day.

This week we will be wrapping things up with Tom before they head out. On Friday we will all head to Georgetown to spend a day there. On Saturday we will be going to the falls! I am super excited for this trip because of pictures I have seen as well as from experience I have heard about from my students, Eric, and Dr. Luebke. I will certainly post pictures!

That’s about all there is for updates right now, but I’m sure I will have some great things to share next week!