Music events
on Kate in Guyana (Guyana), 15/Dec/2009 12:27, 34 days ago
The party on Friday was pretty special - one of the leaving volunteers likes live music, so we had a group of drummers. They had a large bass drum, a medium drum and some small drums worn around the neck. They said that it was similar to Muslim drumming - it was extremely LOUD. The rhythm starts quite gently then gets louder and faster, with complex sub rhythms. The leader spoke to me about it afterwards - he is trying to revive local traditions - it is based on a mix of the cultures of Guyana. They played outside in a yard, so the sound was bouncing off the stone floor and walls. The other interesting aspect was that the neighbours did not complain, but that is also due to the local culture that having extremely loud music blasting out is absolutely fine. However some of the VSOs live near a rum shop which was very loud late at night, and they have a banning order in force at the moment which has kept the volume down to a low level - so things do sometimes happen and do get enforced.It was the Bishop of Guyana's enthronement on Sunday - there was a huge choir based on all the five anglican churches in Georgetown plus our Woodside Choir. The amount of singing was huge as it was a very formal service with sung responses, huge long hymns and anthems. It went off well - we managed a bit by the skin of our teeth as we had not really practised some of the things much, and it was difficult searching through all the sheets to find the music for the various bits and pieces. Afterwards there was a reception on the top of the bank building, which is about 4 storeys high, one of the biggest buildings around - so we had a great view round Georgetown by night. We could see the ships with lights passing up the river, see the stadium lights, the harbour bridge, the old lighthouse and of course the centre of the town below. There is another new and very posh bank being built across the road from where I work - it seems strange to spend all that money on a huge bank building - but then I suppose banks are about people trusting that the bank has money - so the grander the better!Today I have arranged a small training session at the primary school where the unit for the blind is. I hope that that will lead to some individual contacts to support the staff to move forward a bit in inclusion.