Celebrate Good Times!

These past few weeks have been busy!  Now that school is in full swing, I'm spending my days teaching quite a bit.  I help teaching the students at the primary school and have thirteen private students, and am loving every minute of it!  Beyond the regular school schedule, there's been a lot of different celebrations going on. 

On Sunday, October 28, Saint Jacques, the Episcopal church where I attend services, celebrated their anniversary.  The celebration included a joint English and French service with Episcopal and Anglican priests from all over Haiti in attendance.  Bishop Duracin was also there to celebrate St. Jacques in this special time.  

The service was complete with musical offerings from the Boys Choir from Holy Trinity Music School, the chamber orchestra (which I played with) and the Children's Choir from the congregation.  After the service, everyone met for a feast of Haitian treats including pumpkin soup and cake!  It was beautiful to see the community gather for this special day!

Here in Haiti we also just had two holidays on November 1 and 2, which meant no school!  On November 1st we celebrated All Saints Day and on the 2nd the Day of the Dead.  To celebrate the Day of the Day, we attended a RAM concert.  RAM is a very popular Haitian band that plays a type of music called rasin.

The music is up-beat and so much fun to listen to!  My favorite part of their music are these long hand-made horns that are played called korne which you can see in my picture.  If you'd like to hear a little bit of RAM for yourself, I've included a link to a recording of their music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_hStbNmSZs&feature=related

Another highlight of these past few weeks was attending my first Haitian soccer game.  Soccer in the favorite sport here and a big part of Haitian culture.  Everyone watches it and many love to play it.  Even on holidays you can find streets blocked off for a game of the local people.  The game I attended was a team from the Episcopal church (we're in the black uniforms) versus a team from the Catholic church.  

I'm very sad to say, that unfortunately the Episcopalians did not win.  Maybe next time, but it was great being able to experience a game firsthand! 

Times are about to get busier too as we prepare for our first concert.  Next week is filled with extra sectionals and rehearsals.  More to come about all of that!  And a thank you to the following people for sponsoring me these past few weeks Dino and Carolyn Morgoglione, Bill and Sue Jarvis, and Jim and Diedra Kriewald!