Anna in Haiti-Day 4
Cookies, and Pachabel’s Canon
Today I woke up really early, considering that a bunch of us were out late last night. 🙂 Even on 6 hours of sleep, I felt awake and really wanted to get some work done quietly before my students get here. I went in to take a shower, which here, consists of a trickle of cold water in a dank and mildewed shower stall. It is fairly disgusting compared to American standards, but here I am just totally grateful for it! Running water is a luxury and I have no complaints. 🙂 The only bad thing is that you get out of the shower, get dressed and immediately start sweating profusely. Luckily, though….everyone has the same problem and none of us smell all that great. 🙂 Somehow, not worrying about things like personal hygiene just seem to make us see the real person inside anyway….just like backpacking.
After breakfast, I sat and worked with my headphones, listening to Jimmy Buffett as I cut bow plugs. Of course, my students show up early and away we go. They are all in great moods today and we all feel like old friends. They tease me as I drop a bow, saying ” “, which means ‘Careful’. I have been saying it to them for two days and they are happy to have the opportunity to say it back. 🙂 We all laugh and work hard and their work has come along fantastically!!
I slip away twice to teach a couple of bass lessons and enjoy the challenge of teaching through the language barrier. It is so much easier to do this with music than with re-hairing!! The atmosphere is insane…..we are literally ten feet away from giant trucks barreling up a mountain road and the constant cacophany of car horns and yelling make it almost impossible to hear each other. However, there is no other way so they keep playing and I keep teaching. 🙂
As the afternoon wore on, I broke out cookies that I had brought for the men and smiles abounded. Then all of the sudden one of them jumped up, grabbed a beat up old cello and started to play. Within five minutes we all had instruments and had a wonderful jam session! We played jazz, Amazing Grace and something Disney that I didn’t recognize. I started to cry as we settled into Pachabels Canon. It was one of those, “Oh my god….how did I get here?” moments. The unhappiness of the last few days is completely gone and I, once again, and totally filled with gratitude. I just want to say ‘thank you, thank you, thank you……………”
Bon swa,
Anna
We’re Gonna Dance Upon This Earth!
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