So Very Much To Be Thankful For

As a little tribute to Thanksgiving this past week, I must say there is so much to be thankful for this year.  First of all a thank you to my sponsor from two weeks ago, Kay Keely.  Then, special thank you to Yvonne and Donald Bingaman, my parents who sponsored me during the holiday!  

Every time I think things cannot get any busier, they do and it's hard to believe that I've been here for almost three months already.  I'm ever grateful to God for this opportunity to serve here and slowly I'm seeing how my work is impacting the lives around me.  

I love teaching the younger primary students, since it's wonderful knowing they are the next generation of musicians.  However, I'm finding an even greater joy being able to teach the teachers of the school.  It's through these lessons that I feel I'm really helping the school in the long-term.  By helping the teachers become stronger, more intuitive musicians, I am in turn giving them new tools for their teaching.  One of the teachers put it so well to me, "In Haiti it is not easy to become a great musician, the fight is hard and the road is so long.  That is why I really appreciate you coming here and sharing your knowledge with us.  You have education in music which is so important for an instrumentalist."  

Another thing I'm thankful for is all the prayers and support that are coming from home.  This past week I received mail again, but this time from my parish office!  Loved the card, but more so I loved hearing from you all.

Although it was hard to be away from home, family, and friends for this holiday, I'm grateful for the new friends and family I've been blessed with this year.  God always provides and this year I was able to spend Thanksgiving with two wonderful missionary families.  The food was delicious and the time shared together was even better!

Now a big thank you to God for all the smiles and laughter that surround my life here in Haiti.  No day goes by without something that leaves me laughing hysterically.  As you can see one of the incidents that happened on Thanksgiving was another prime example of this...yes that is my doorknob that I'm holding.  The best part of this particular incident was when we had to "knife" into my room so I could get my instrument for rehearsal.  Never a dull moment!

And as you can see part of the reason things have been crazy is because we had our first concert of the year!  We had extra rehearsals all week to prepare and gave a really fantastic performance this evening at the Karibe Hotel in Port-au-Prince.  We performed some wonderful Tchaikovsky pieces, a Bach fugue, and two beautiful violin concertos featuring soloist Nicholas Kitchen from the United States.   

I'm thankful for getting to share music alongside all of my new friends here at my first concert in Haiti.  It was a fun evening and I'm looking forward to the next concert in December, but part of that might be because I love playing Christmas music so much!

So as I said to begin this post, there is so very much to be thankful for (and I just skimmed the surface!).  This week has another adventure in store, so stay tuned for an update next weekend!