Starting to Say Goodbye

Goodbyes really stink. I have entered into the time of starting to say goodbye to people that I have come to know well over my time in Guyana, and I will miss them greatly. Today was my last Sunday at the church I have been attending while in New Amsterdam. I have been their organist for seven of the past nine months. I was asked to give a talk again today as a farewell. I was really afraid I would not be able to get through my whole talk, but I basically did. I didn’t choke up until my last sentence where it really hit me that this was the last thing that this congregation of my brothers and sisters in Christ were going to hear from me. Their friendship and faith has helped me to grow in my own testimony and faith this year.

Tomorrow we have a different kind of goodbye. One that I am really not looking forward to. One of the students in the academy passed away last week from cancer. We have cancelled all classes tomorrow so that we, as the GLMA teachers, and any students who want to can attend the funeral. I know tragedy happens. Shoot, Lake Mills Class of 2010 knows a lot about that with all the death, sickness, and injuries that plagued our class during our younger years. I never thought about the fact that those things happen to teachers as well. Waldorf had the death of a senior student this year and I saw many of my mentors and professors grieving in their own way. As a first year teacher I didn’t think it would happen to me. This was an older student who had perfect attendance in the academy until he got sick. He always had a smile and made sure to greet each teacher whenever he arrived to the academy. The teachers will be offering a special musical offering at the funeral tomorrow to honor him and to share with the family.

I have 23 days left in Guyana. The goodbyes have started, but I can see the days on the calendar of goodbyes we have left. Saying goodbye to friends I have made, my students, personal relationships, the people who have treated us so well, and saying goodbye to my fellow teachers is going to be really hard. I can only imagine what I will be like when Dan and Claire leave. They fly out on June 11 while Eric and I head to Suriname for instrument repairs. I have come to know both of them so well.  All of these relationships I will cherish forever. I know I will see Dan at least once this summer and Claire and I will Skype I’m sure, but that is nothing like living and working with the same two people for ten months. We have had experiences that no one else will understand.

Goodbyes are always hard. I have come to realize that when I said goodbye to people back home before I left for Guyana was hard, but I knew I would be seeing them all again in a little over ten months. It is different here. I don’t know when I will see all these wonderful people again. I know I will someday, but not knowing when is what is making it so hard. For now, I will distract myself with my to do list of things to get done before concert week. I will take the goodbyes as they come and look forward to the exciting things ahead in the next 23 days.

These two lovely ladies are great young women and I have been blessed to get to know them this year. It was tough to say goodbye.

A Letter to Mom

To all the moms in my life, happy Mother’s Day! Thank you for everything you have done for me. And now a letter to my mom…

Dear Mom,

Today is a day that celebrates you. I haven’t really spent time with you on Mother’s Day for many years. I am usually up in Minnesota drumming at a show. So this year isn’t all that different, is it? Just because I am in a different time zone, country, and continent does not mean that I can’t still celebrate you.

You have watched and helped me to become the woman I am today. You sat through so many concerts, sporting events, Girl Scout meetings, and so much more. I have drug you around the country for Sheltered Reality, FCCLA, Girl Scouts, and life in general. Your time and energy has not gone unnoticed. Everything you do for me I take note of and thank God for.

You are a blessing in my life. You gave me life and taught me how to go for my dreams. You also accepted the fact that I was going to go for those dreams, no matter what it takes, from a young age. You let me be my own person. You let other moms watch out for me in your absence. You knew that I would travel far and wide all over the country doing what I loved, and you let me go. Without that I certainly would not be in Guyana today. You did your best to be active in my life. You became my Girl Scout troop leader, you became a Sheltered Reality site coordinator AND board member, you traveled far and wide to support me in my performances for music, speech, and athletics. You send me packages all the way to Guyana when I need things and just to know that you are thinking of me. You have given me so much.

I never thank you as much as I should. If anything you only know when I am mad or upset with you, and that is not right at all.  I hope you know that I love you very much and appreciate everything you do for me. I look forward to being able to take crazy selfies, traveling to SSDB and other drum events, and just being able to turn to you for advice and help in this crazy thing called my life.

I love you so much, and I hope you can feel it from 3,000 miles away. I come home in 37 days. Then I will be able to give you your Mother’s Day hug in person. For now, this virtual hug will have to do.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<HUG>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thank you for being you. I love you!

Love,

Kelli Jo

Easter 2014

Prom 2010

High School Graduation 2010

Steve's birthday 2011

High school graduation 2010

West Des Moines SR show

West Des Moines SR show

Indiana SSDB

Thanksgiving

Iowa State Fair

ToI SR practice

Shopping

Indiana SSDB

Texas Roadhouse on your birthday???

SR show in Austin, MN

Relay for Life, Forest City, IA

Thanksgiving 2009

Chanhassen Dinner Theatre Speech trip 2010

Jaci and Michael's Wedding

Senior recital 2014

Easter 2014

College Graduation 2014

College Graduation 2014

Thank you for everything you do for me Mom! <3

A Crazy, Hectic, All Around Insane, but Rewarding Week

Holy crazy week Batman! This week has been hectic, busy, and all around crappy, but at the same time is was very rewarding. The worst part? It’s only Wednesday! Classes were cancelled on Friday because of Labor Day. So on Friday we had some students come help us early in the morning to move the entire academy. We were preparing for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana (ELCG) national convention. We had to find places to put everything and consolidate so that the academy could be transformed into the room they needed it to be for the convention meeting space. I was very happy that we had those six guys who showed up. Lord only knows how long of a day it would have been had it just been the three teachers! Davy came down to practice music for the church service that would be happening. It was nice to see Davy and Lavini (his wife who we haven’t seen for a very long time). They spent about three hours in New Amsterdam with us while we got ready for the week ahead.

Saturday was fairly low key, but still crazy. Dan and I went with our student Valini to the Berbice Indian Cultural Committee shed at Highbury. We went in order to practice for a play that we were going to be participating in for Arrival Day. Saturday also brought more setup for convention. People who were in charge of convention started to arrive so that they could set up their chairs and tables how they wanted it. Finally our friends from Suriname arrived on Saturday night with Canadians and Americans. We were not aware that there were going to be others with them, but we invited them all to dinner. It was a very hectic little bit of time as Claire and I made more food just to make sure we would have enough. We were excited to see the Kross family and Reza again, and to make some new friends. It turned out to be a wonderful evening. We were able to share about GLMA and ourselves, made new friends, ate good food (mostly prepared by Claire, but I helped), and had many laughs. We were exhausted by the end of the night. We had 13 people eating dinner. Go figure it was the end of my week to do the dishes, so I was there for quite a while.

Sunday we took off running. Sunday was the first day on the ELCG convention. It started with an opening worship service where Lutheran members from all over Guyana, Suriname, Florida, Canada, and an ELCA representative worshiped together. We had the choir and some violin students perform special pieces during the church service. The music teachers also provided all of the music for the service. We all played choruses, Dan played hymns, and I joined in on a few hymns on trumpet. During the worship service I was not feeling well. I have been saying how lucky I have been to not be sick while in Guyana. Well, it was my turn to be sick. I think I had food poisoning, but I am not 100% sure. I am better now and I never did have to go to the doctor. As soon as the service was over I was sent home to go to sleep. I did, and I woke up about half an hour before our call time for the concert. Dan and Claire were rock stars and finished everything we had to do to prepare for the concert without me. They decided I was not going to do any of the speaking parts other than introducing my own students and their music, which was probably for the best. We had a migrating concert and interactive session with the participants of the convention. They started up in the academy with the piano and percussion classes and moved down to the church for COFONA, guitar, brass, violin, and choir. During this concert we also taught a few hymns, and changed up how they did some. Many people praised us for how wonderful the concert was and how organized it was. All three of us really had to hold in our laughter, because at the end of the concert we all went crazy and felt like we had run a marathon. (Don’t get me wrong, I have never run a marathon, so I don’t know if that is actually how we would feel after that, but I can only imagine.) To us it had felt like the least organized event we had ever put on. All in all I am proud of my students. They did well. They performed the best I had ever heard them, and they deserve all the praise. At the end of the night the teachers went crazy and slept pretty dang well. We can all easily say that Sunday was in the top 5 craziest days of our musical lives.

Monday was a day of convention for Claire. Dan and I stayed around the house not doing a whole lot (Monday and Tuesday classes were cancelled because of convention). After lunch Miriam and Krystel Kross came over to watch Frozen. About 20 minutes into the movie Dan and I both looked up from our computers when Miriam said, “Hey! What happened?” Our projector lamp has finally bit the dust. It had done so well all year! I am going to try to see if we can find a replacement bulb, but I can’t get the dang cover off the projector to get to the bulb. I did some quick thinking and the girls finished the movie on my computer while Dan took a nap in his hammock. After the movie the girls discovered the various percussion instruments that had found their way onto our dining room table. I taught them how to use them, and I thought Dan was going to have a rude awaking via triangle and Miriam. I then decided to print off some coloring pages for the girls. We all laid on the floor and colored for a while before Claire came home. Miriam proceeded to tell us some wonderfully imaginative stories with the different stuffed animals that they brought and we had around the house before dinner. That evening we went out with some of the overseas participants and the Roberts to the Buccaneer for drinks, food, and fellowship. It was a wonderful end to a very relaxing day.

Tuesday was another holiday here in Guyana. May 5 celebrates Arrival Day. Arrival Day celebrates the arrival of all ethnic groups who came to Guyana. On May 5, 1828 the first East Indian indentured laborers arrived in Guyana on the Whitby (the name of the ship they came in on). They were “welcomed” by Massa Davidson (Plantation Highbury) and Massa James Blaire (Plantation Waterloo). Dan and I went with Valini to the Berbice celebration where we played Mr. Davidson (Dan) and James Blaire (me) in a 20 minute production recounting the events of that day. It was fun. We also sang “How Can I Keep from Singing” which he arranged at the event. We saw many people, multiple Indian dances, as well as heard lots of Indian songs sung by different youths and adults. Dan and I both commented on how much we like seeing the different Indian outfits. It has been a wonderful experience learning about so many different cultures.  Claire spent the day at convention. She was the GLMA representative throughout the whole convention. Dan and I returned just in time to see her come out of the academy after having put away all the tables and chairs from the convention. We decided that we were going to wait to put the academy back together which was probably a good idea. We spent the night over at the Roberts on their veranda gaffing and liming.

Today (Wednesday) we started early. We were up to say goodbye to our Surinamese friends as they left to catch the ferry back to Suriname. We then went over to the academy and started to put everything back together. We worked from about 8:30-12:00 putting things back together so that we would be ready to hold classes this evening. During that time I looked at my phone to see I had multiple emails as well as a missed call from Davy. I called him back and he asked me for my autograph. I asked him why and he said that I was on the front page of Kaieteur News. Kaieteur News is one of the national newspapers in Guyana and is “Guyana’s largest selling daily” according to their header. Later I went online to see the Mu Phi Epsilon’s (my music fraternity) Triangle has been published online. I am the feature in the international corner. It’s pretty cool to see the things you have done for a year highlighted in a magazine that is published internationally to musicians in all walk of life. I was going to go out to get fruit and try to get a copy of the paper when Liz called me over to the office. I had two priority mail envelopes. I went back to the house and opened them to find a bunch of cards for me from the Top of Iowa Sheltered Reality site. They decided to have a mission project called “Cards for Kelli.” They made me cry. After how stressful this week has been receiving that little love from home was really lovely.  We (the teachers) always laugh and say everything happens at once in Guyana when things get crazy. It is true for good things too though.

This week has been rough, stressful, and any other descriptors I could ever think of. However, it has also been a very rewarding week. My students make me very proud, and I do not want to leave them. I can’t believe we have less than a month left with them. We only have one week left where we will have a full week of class because of elections and another holiday. It’s crazy! I still have to decide what my guitar students will play for the final concert. Ahhhh! So much to do, so little time!

Claire showing off just how much space we have in the academy when everything goes to one corner. It looks like the biginning of the year again almost!

I got to drive an ATV in Guyana! I do have my Guyanese driver's license so I am allowed to do this kind of stuff!

Dan got to drive as well! We had a lot of fun with this and would love to do it again!

Me as Massa James Blaire Esq. at Tuesday's performance

Dan and I on the front page of the news paper!

A shot of everyone (except our narrator) in the play.