Students -- New and Old

One day in Puerto Armuelles at Maria's home, we met this couple.  They'd ridden up to visit Maria from David.  They expressed interest in our program and we told them we'd take them as students when we changed locations.  We met them at our sign up day and made an appointment.  When we got to their house we actually had 4 students and eventually 5.  A few weeks ago Ruth and Alejandro got married and she got baptized.  Last week we visited their ward and the younger brother, Carlos, played his first two hymns.  It's harder for the older ones.  We surely have a testimony that learning in your youth makes sense.  We love the spirit in their home.  They are smiling and enthusiastic.  This is the guy I told Audrey reminded me of her.

This is a wild rabbit that the Zarate family tamed as a baby.  He is part of the family but has been relegated to the back of the house since he bit the cord off the piano.  Luifred, our younger student, loves it when he escapes.

Their mom wanted to take a photo, so we took advantage.

Carlos plays well by ear.  He wanted to learn to read music and learn to play hymns.  We taught him some, but now he is off to the University, too far away to continue.  Rod offered to let him learn the theme song from Titanic.  He began to play it in its real form.  It was rather funny, as our simplified version doesn't sound too good by comparison.

Jo

Joanna is from Volcan.  Her adopted grandfather, David, sees that she can have music, bringing her to lessons on Friday nights (a 45 minute one way drive).  So far, the whole family has come.  David isn't really concerned that she isn't practicing really well (he thinks few kids do, and I certainly have to admit I was one of them), but he just wants her to have the joy of music.  He is a North American, very colorful, but I have huge admiration for him for simply making a difference in the life of one family.

We had a party for our students here in Bugaba on Friday night.  I have been giving a lesson to one student, David, but then I decided to use the same time and invite all of them.  10 came, and we had a nice time, playing Go Fish in English, and playing piano.  We shared the Flight of the Bumblebee from YouTube as well as some of the videos from the mission.  The girl on the left is Karyn.  This is the first time she has allowed us to photograph her.  It isn't my favorite.  I love to think of her concentrating on playing a hymn.  I pray we can have made a small difference in her hard life.

Juan was inactive when we came.  His mom has been super active in the past and has become active again as well.  He is still studying with us as he started late. They were fascinated with my purple weights.

Karyn, Harold, and Nicole.  Nicole also is still studying with us.  She is a recent convert who started early and quit out of fear that she would have to play in church.  She started again, and last week played in church.  Unfortunately there is no way we can be there when all of them play.  Rod is making a list of new songs added to send to music  coordinators in the wards, and he added 30 new songs this week.  We are progressing.  I LOVE THIS WORK. 

This is the kitchen, where we had 3 pianos set up.  Kids just came through and played throughout the night.

I offered to go visiting teaching.  I do so wish we could get that going here.  My companion and I haven't received an assignment after 2 months.  In all fairness the president has had a baby and is living with her mom because there is no electricity in the house.  She is also the wife of the branch president -- it would be nice if they learned to delegate -- but our suggesting hasn't helped.
At any rate, Janell went with the mom of Juan Carlos, a student.  She is a prior relief society president and took us about 20 miles out to visit a sister who had had a bunch of skin cancers burned off -- they looked terrible.  They have a pickup and come about 1-2 times a month.  Pretty good for being so far out.   Janell's companion was given some raw milk to take home.  We enjoyed the bottle.
They live out on a small farm, having sold off the larger one 25 years ago.  The final stretch of road was pretty rough.  They use rocks here instead of gravel, when it is not paved.  With our little Yaris, we would appreciate sorting out some of the larger boulders.  However, the Yaris does pretty well, as long as we don't high center.  Frequently, taxis here are Yaris or equivalent, so they can handle it.  The counselor in Aguadulce has a Yaris taxi with 550,000 kilometers on it.  He said the government requires the taxi to be retired when it goes over 1 million (625,000 miles).  I have been wondering, if we don't care for our cars carefully enough, but the taxi next door is getting an engine job, so maybe it is just that we aren't willing to put the time in for repairs.

The visit took quite a bit of time, they were grateful to see us, but it would be hard to keep busy if we were just home/visiting teaching and also hard to evaluate the effectiveness.  We are grateful for having the music program and for having discovered how to make it effective.  We are at the stage in David where we are starting to lose students that discover they have to practice, but currently we have over 60 hours of teaching appointments each week (and 7 hours driving time) with about 70 students and 45 keyboards lent out.

These oil palms were planted in rows.  They are not yet large enough to start harvesting, but one can grow lots of 'exotics' here.

Yesterday we traveled to Boquette.  It is up by the volcano and a bit cooler.  Our first appointment is at 9am with a family part way up.  While at that appointment, the branch president called and canceled his 11am appointment for himself, his wife and the two member boys that live close by.  He is moving to David, where he has found work.  We decided to swing by and then see a bit more of the town (further up the road than our appointments).  The branch president, Pedro, has been living in the house of his uncle from Canada -- who is in the process of moving down.  At any rate, we got there just as the uncle was leaving for David, so we could pick up the keyboard (the boys don't have electricity and weren't progressing, so 4 less students.  It was a very nice 'coincidence' to be able to make that connection simply.  We then went on and decided to stop at the church on the way through.  Turns out they had changed the time of seminary and it was about to let out, so we were able to teach both students that had attended.  Then a third student was in town and we connected to give her a ride home and teach her.  I slept in the hammock while Janell gave the lesson.  On the way, Janell chewed out the mother of the other student who had gone to David for the day without telling us (she didn't have money on her phone (text for $.15), but enough for the bus ticket).  So we were able to accomplish pretty much all that was possible for that day (with some help).  I'm looking forward to meeting our guardian angels and finding out what percentage of their hints we manage to take up on.  Basically, how frustrated they were with us and then thank them.  We have really been much more successful/coordinated that one could expect.
Gracias a Dios!