**The following content is the sole intellectual property of the author and may not be reprinted in ANY form without the express written permission of Heather Korn and DittyNoodle.  Violators will be prosecuted.**

MONTSERRAT JOURNAL

On April 2, 2008 I was checking my email when I had an urge to check my spam box and see if there was anything important in there. Little did I know there WAS something important in there...a message that would lead to an adventure of a lifetime and the wedding of our dreams.  I have a few words of advice.....ALWAYS check your Spam Box!!!

Shirley Spycalla <erindell>
to  hrkstudio@gmail.com
date: Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 1:47 PM
subject:   Singing lessons on Montserrat, Caribbean
Dear Ms Knowles,
 
I live on Montserrat, a tiny island 27 miles from Antigua, West Indies, and I have been trying for some time now to get a singing teacher to come to the island, for 1 or 2 weeks.
 
Our last teacher, back in the 1970's, was an elderly American Peace Corps volunteer.  Before I could meet with her, she fell, broke ankle and had to return to the States.  There has been no one since then.  For lack of a coach, I've had to teach myself to sing.  Well, the basic voice was always there I suppose, but I've loved classical music since I was a child and feel terribly wanting whenever I listen to trained singers perform.  By the way, I'm a soprano.
 
Working on my own with a variety of accompanists, I've passed exams (some with Merit, some with Honours), from Grades 5 through 8, given by the Royal Schools of Music, UK.  Following that, I took and passed Grade 8 given by Trinity College of Music, UK, and, one year later, the Associate in Classical Performance from Trinity, without ever having had a singing lesson.  I believe in miracles, you see!
 
I've read your website and listened to you sing with a great deal of yearning.  My husband (Lou) and I operate Erindell Guesthouse (www.erindellvilla.com) in Woodlands, Montserrat.  We are offering free room and board for 1 or 2 weeks to you (or even to one of your students) to come here and help us.  I say 'us' because there are other individuals, a choral group ("Voices"), a folk group ("Emerald Community Singers"), church choirs, etc. who have also indicated that they need help.
 
Please say 'yes'?
 
Sincerely,
Shirley Spycalla
 
P.S.  I have a piano and music for most of the well-known operas.  My favourite arias are Puccini's "un bel di vedremo" and "O mio babbino caro". as well as Mozart's "Ach, ich fuhl's".  I also compose and sing calypsos, a type of island song, just for fun.  I am in dire need of vocal exercises.

Monday, April 21, 2008
Today is the 7 year anniversary of the day I moved to Las Vegas. Joe said to me tonight  "aside from Montserrat....when will be on a tropical island again in the near future?"  I said "probably not for a while".  He said "yeah....we should get married there."  I said "yeah, let's do it!"  He said "good....because I already called your parents."

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
McCarran Airport was insane! It felt like the New Wold Order had really begun. Giant seals proclaiming "THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY" greeted us at every turn.  The TSA agents were scary and trying to exude their power and authority.  But really, they are just like us working hourly paying jobs.....acting as they should....being "Good Americans" and excising the will of the Government.  It felt very much like Big Brother was watching our every move. The US Airways flights welcomed us by bombarding us with offers of credit cards and frequent flyer miles.  If you applied for "the exclusive offer only available to US AIR passengers" then you got a 500 mile bonus. 

Thursday, July 24, 2008
We are waiting in the Antiqua Airport for our flight to Montserrat.  We left Tuesday from Las Vegas.  We had a little bit of a rocky beginning to the trip. Joe pinched his finger in one of the suitcase handles.  The largest suitcase we brought has a broken extender handle and so you can only pull it by the short strap.  We are trashing that suitcase when we get back home.  I was excited, nervous, tired and sad to leave Jackson when we left which did not contribute to me being in a good mood when we got to the airport.  I cried a few tears and then tried to focus on being on the trip.  We took a tiny little plane (about a 20 seater) from St. Maarten to Antiqua and stayed the night in Antiqua.  We were two of only three white people on the little plane. We spent a lot of time waiting in airports yesterday for delayed flights which was tiring and made us grumpy.  (Joe says in the future no layovers more than 2 hours.)  Joe has been suffering from lack of food, lack of sleep and sitting which is bothering his back injury and nervous system.  He was not in a good mood. He feels better today but last night he could hardly eat anything.  He slept for about 10 hours and is feeling better.  We are so excited to get to Montserrat!  There are two other American couples here at the airport that apparently have just been married.  They are chit chatting about the islands.  It is so beautiful here!  We took a short walk this morning around the neighborhood, up to the old church and back so we could stretch our legs and get some fresh air.  It is so HUMID!  We can see already that life here is slower and the people are much happier and healthier.  We had a great taxi cab driver back to the airport.  He told us a lot about Antiqua's history, farming and people and the big Cricket games that go on here.

Friday, July 25, 2008
We arrived in Montserrat but our bags didn't!  Shirley and Lou arrived to meet us a little bit late. So we waited outside the airport just taking in the view of the green mountains, the sea, the island breeze, some roaming roosters and chickens and a stray dog that happened by.  When Shirley and Lou arrived we all sat down at the airport bar for a Heineken and some fresh bread while we waited for the 5:00 pm flight with our luggage - the last flight of the day. We were introduced to the man that sat behind us on the Monsterrat flight who we found out was Basil, aka Yhow, the local radio station DJ and the most famous DJ in the Caribbean.  Basil likes to change his name every year and so Shirley gave us a little history on his former names.  I then found out that I would be interviewed on the radio later on!  After we finally got our bags, we went to Erindell Villa to settle into our room and unpack. Shirley showed us around and gave us instructions on the room and meals and the pool.  The guest house is quaint with lots of louvered windows, no air conditioning, just island breezes to cool your sweat.....and we are SWEATING!

After we settled in a bit and had a bowl of Lou's beef stew in the main house, I was whisked away for my first teaching session at the Salem Methodist Church.  I was not prepared to teach anything and really had no idea what kind of session I was heading to.  Shirley drove me down to the church in the village of Salem.  I walked in to see a church full of Monsterratians (mostly women and about 5 or 6 men) looking at me with curiosity and some trepidation.  I was introduced to Beth Breuer, an American, who is the accompanist for the church.  I was introduced to the group and the session was handed over to me.  I figured the best place to start was with breathing exercises.  So I asked them all to strand up and do some breathing exercises with me and they did.  The seemed eager to try and were very interested in what I had to say.   The church was hot, windows wide open with no screens.  The night sounds of the island ringing loudly outside.  During the session bugs came by to see what was going on.....I was dripping with sweat.  I tried to teach them the apoggio breathing technique - rib cage out and expanded while singing, not collapsing the rib cage.  They seemed eager and interested to learn it and yet it seemed so foreign to them at the same time.  No one has taught singing in Montserrat for at least 30 years. We did a few vocal exercises so they could try to apply this new breathing technique and rib cage expansion.  What a surprise when I heard them start to sing with bigger and better sounds!  They sounded good!! 

I got stuck with what to teach next and so I asked them if they had and questions.......and did they ever have questions! 
    How should we stand to sing?
    How should we hold the music and turn pages when we sing?
    What should we wear when we sing?
    How much food should we eat before we sing?
    Why does my voice crack in certain places when I am trying to sing?
    How should I harmonize?
    How do I know what voice type I am?
    How do we sing longer phrases?
    How do we know when to breathe?

I began answering questions in the most basic way I could so that they might gain an understanding of the things they were asking.  I started with a brief anatomy and physiology lesson in which I taught them how the breath and the vocal chords create sound.  I taught them how the vocal mechanism works to make low and high pitches and how the breath is an important part of the range of the voice.  I also taught them about the passagio (the break in the voice.)  As more questions were answered I could see them thinking and more questions came as they began to understand the importance of breathing and singing.  The looks of uncertainty about why this white American singing teacher from the States was here began to turn into acceptance for some knowledge about singing.  I continued to have them try different vocal exercises and they sang a few short pieces for me.  I taught them about choral blend and the importance of matching vowel shapes and opening their mouths wide when they sing.  I answered more questions about phrasing and breathing and then several of them wanted to sing for me to see what voice type they really were (ie. soprano, alto, tenor, bass).   So they stood up one by one and sang a little something for me.  Amazing Grace was sung a few times and I stood with each of them as they sang for me, nervously.  Their voices cracked a little, but they sang for me and all the singers in the church so that I could tell them if they were altos or sopranos, tenors or basses.  A young girl was sitting at the front of the church and she volunteered to sing something for me.   I asked her for her name and she said it was Roberta.  She stood up and I could see she was quite nervous.  She opened her mouth and immediately I heard a beautiful, deep, dark, mature mezzo soprano voice floating out.  She sang an aria from the 24 Italian Songs and Arias book with quite good Italian diction.  The singers in the session asked if she could turn around and sing it again so that they could see and hear her.  I took the opportunity to do a short teaching session with her and focus on the breathing technique.  It was a great example!!  I asked her to sing the song again and while she did I held the sides of her rib cage with my hands while I stood behind her.  I asked her to sing the song and try to push my hands out and away with her ribs.  She sang it again and it was beautiful!  They loved it!  After the session Shirley told me that she is about 16 and  lives in England and is here for holiday and that she is getting some voice training in England.  When we finished the session a few people came up to me to ask more questions.  Shirley's cousin's wife wanted to sing something for me and find out about her range.  So I had her do a vocal exercise to see about her range and tessitura.  We talked for a little bit and I told her to work on the breathing technique.  Many singers in the session already knew that Joe and I were planning to be married there and they came up to thank me for the teaching and to give us blessings and congratulations on our wedding. One of the ladies said "when you're married, you'll be Mrs.....????" And I said "Korn."  I didn't  know the significance of her question until later on. 

After the workshop Shirley and I came home. Joe and Lou had been drinking rum and cokes and chatting while we were gone.  Shirley talked with Joe and I after Lou had gone to bed for a couple of hours.  She told us a lot about her personal life before she met Lou, some stories about Montserrat and the Monserratians.  We heard a story about George the Pool Man and how when he was born they thought he was dead and they were preparing his body for burial when his mother slapped him and he came to life. In the confusion of the whole thing his birth was never registered and so George doesn't really know when he was born and he considers every day to be his birthday and that he often wears lime leaves behind his ear for wisdom.  We learned that the grapevine here is strong and fast and that just about anything you say to anyone will get around.  We also learned that in Montserrat domestic violence is considered quite acceptable and that women sport their bruises and battering scars as badges of honor.  Joe had and still has a hard time wrapping his mind around that as that is something he deals with everyday at work.  We learned that marriage for women in the Caribbean is a very high goal in life and when a woman gets married and becomes a Mrs. that this is very high honor and title for a woman to have.

We went to bed with all the windows open listening to the crickets, the frogs, all the sounds of the island and a big rain shower!  It was so loud but so wonderful!!  It will take some getting used to....this island in the middle of the vast Caribbean Sea.  We finally arrived in Montserrat.

Friday, July 25, 2008
This morning we had our first breakfast in Montserrat out on the patio overlooking the jungle and the sea.  Island breezes and fragrant Flamboyant tree flowers are relaxing and refreshing.  A student from the session last night brought us mangoes this morning.  After breakfast we went to the University of the West Indies to meet Gracelyn Cassell who has been responsible for scheduling the teaching sessions for me.  She invited us to lunch at her house down the street on Sunday afternoon.  She arranged for me to go the the Emerald Community Singers rehearsal tonight as they are preparing for their concert on Sunday.  After we left the U. W. I., we stopped by the Governor's Office but he was not in.  We stopped by the bank so I could cash my check and then we stopped by the hospital where we ran into Shirley's doctor who said she had already heard of me. We stopped at a roadside "cook shack" to get goat water for dinner.  A man stopped to say "HI" and said he had already heard of me as well.  He told Joe that he needs to come here and start and AA program as they haven't had one since the volcano eruption and that the island is more traumatized then they realize. 

Today I had my first session with the "soloists".  Each session is 2 hours and is for anyone that has registered for the small group sessions.  Today about 12 singers came - several from the session from last night.  Roberta, the young girl that sang for me last night at the church came and I was excited to work with her again.  The singers had a lot of questions about the things that we covered last night and some other random questions that came up.  I had them work on apoggio breathing exercises again and then explained to them how the vocal mechanism works and the importance of proper breathing and breath support.

The students in the Soloist sessions:  Tiffannie Skerritt, Elizabeth "Vera" Ryan, Elveta Chalmers, Gloria Margetson, Beth Breuer, Rachael Ryan, Peter Sullivan, Quasi and Shirley Spycalla.

Tonight I went to the rehearsal for the Emerald Community Singers which is in the Brades Primary School Building.  Shirley introduced me to Sarah Allen one of the directors and the song arranger for the group.  The music room in the school building is a little wooden building on stilts with plywood floors, open windows with shutters and it is full of chairs and desks and some electronic keyboards and some percussion equipment.  The rehearsal starts about 30 minutes late and as people start filing in I can see on their faces a look that says "who is this white woman sitting in here?"  A man came in and I was introduced to him by Sarah.  He was Dr. Buffong one of the founding members and director of the group.  He seemed surprised to see me there so I assume the message didn't get passed on to him that I would be coming. Sarah introduced me to the group as "our voice trainer from the states".  I thanked them for having me and told them that I had been watching some of their performances on YouTube.  The rehearsal began and they started with warm-ups which I was pleased to hear and see.  Sarah asked me what I would like to do and so I said "why don't you sing a few songs".  So they began singing "Oh Montserrat" written by Kenneth Allen. It was a beautiful national ballad.  The rehearsal went on and they sang 3 more songs for me and after those songs I did a short session on breathing.  I told them about the rib cage and the importance of the breath in singing and introduced the apoggio technique to them.  I had them do some breathing exercises and then I talked to them briefly about choral blend and the importance of matching vowel sounds in a group.  They were attentive but some seemed a little unwilling to hear what I had to say.  So I made my coaching session very brief as I could sense that they had a lot of rehearsing to do for the concert.   Dr. Buffong handed me a program and I was amazed to see a total of 28 songs on the program which was a tribute to Songwriters and Singers from Montserrat!  I felt uneasy to overstep my bounds when I could easily see that rehearsal time tonight was precious. So I sat back and listened and watched.  Every once in a while Dr. Buffong would ask if I had any input and I would reiterate some of the notes that he had given which were that the diction was lacking on a lot of the words.  The rehearsal was long as they were trying to run the program straight through.  When it was done it was well past 11:00 p.m.  One of the singers who is also the choreographer, Elizabeth Piper Wade, dropped me back off to Shirley's.  Joe was a bit unhappy when I got home that the rehearsal went so late and he didn't know where I was and he was worried.  He asked why I didn't call from Shirley's cell phone....but I had honestly forgotten that I had it.  I told him how the rehearsal was and that I didn't really feel that I was much help to them considering they are trying to prepare for a performance in 2 days.  I am tired, hot and sweaty and am getting eaten alive by mosquitoes!! The mosquitoes love our desert blood - I have about 20 bites so far....it has been a very long time since I've had mosquito bites!

Saturday, July 26, 2008
This morning at breakfast Shirley said she is canceling the soloist session for Sunday afternoon so that we can have a little more of a day off.  Today was a much better day - we awoke to a rain shower and after breakfast Lou took us to Woodlands Beach. We were the only ones on the beach!  We saw a pelican, collected some shells, saw snails, moss, crabs, muscles and sea turtle tracks and broken eggs which the lizards were eating.   It was so nice!  The sea is very salty and the sand is black!  We got our first dose of island sun and we both have a little bit of a sunburn.  As we were leaving the beach we ran into John Jones, the guitar player for the Emerald Community Singers.  He was playing his Fife which is a hand made flute that he can make in any key.  He played a little for us and said "oh, you are the one they were talking about on the radio!"  I said "yes and we'll see you at the concert tomorrow."
 
We came back from the beach, showered and ate lunch and then met with Pastor Meade who lives next door to Shirley and Lou.  He has agreed to perform our wedding ceremony in exchange for a voice session at his church, Our God of Prophecy.  We filled out the draft marriage license application for Pastor Meade to review and also gave him our passports and non-marriage letters.  We talked with him briefly about marriage and our relationship.  At 3:00 my soloist students began to arrive and Pastor Meade left. I  didn't have as many students attend today - probably because it is Saturday.  A few of the singers seemed more eager and lesson nervous to sing for me today.  I worked with Quasi today on some breathing and basic mouth opening/positions and gave him a warm-up CD to take home and practice with. We had a good session with more singing, more questions and more discoveries.

We had dinner after the session and then we went over to Pastor Meade's to catch a ride with him for the voice training session at his church.  This was the first session that Joe went to since we arrived in Montserrat.  He said it was more entertaining than sitting in the guest house.  We arrived at Our God of Prophecy and I was introduced to the choir director.  I was met with the same usual looks of interest and uncertainty.  The news about the American singing teacher has been spreading around the island and also has been announced many times on the radio so I think more people are aware of me, but they are curious nonetheless.  We started the session in the same way that I have been starting all of my teaching sessions; with breathing exercises and having them put their hands on their rib cage and breathe in to feel the expansion and then exhale on "ssssssss....." working to keep the rib cage expanded and open. I have found in just a few teaching sessions that if I can encourage some smiles and laughter that I can begin to win them over and ease the nervousness.  I usually have the best luck with the younger singers and they warm up to me pretty quickly. 

Shirley tells us frequently that Montserratians in general are a people that feel they know everything that they need to know and they don't need to learn anything new.  Perhaps this is where some of the resistence I am sensing is coming from.  I do not fight it, I just try to better understand it. 

We continue on with the session and I ask the director what she would like for me to work on.  She is very prepared and has in mind several things that she wants to have me address. I was surprised to see a good number of men in the choir - about 6 or 7 if I remember correctly.  She has them start singing one of their anthems. I am surprised to hear several parts and a strong mens part coming through all of the female voices.  Three of the younger teen girls have short solos in this piece and I listen to each of them making mental notes on what I want to address in their singing.  They sing the entire piece through and I start by going to each of the young girls and ask them to sing their solo for me again.  I can sense they are nervous to be critiqued so I try my best to help them feel more relaxed so that we can get to working on the singing.  I spend about 10 minutes with each singer having them work on apoggio breathing and opening the mouth more as they sing.  We break down each little solo and try to incorporate two or three  ideas into their singing.  We go over it again and again and after a few times the singing begins to change.  Their sounds become stronger and bigger, their breath supports the sound more and they are able to reach the high notes easier. Beautiful sounds begin to come out and I ask them how it feels which I found on Montserrat is a question that you never really get a direct answer to.  I don't think they have ever thought very much about how their singing "feels". 

As I am working with these three young teen singers I can sense that the rest of the singers that are observing are starting to see and hear the differences in their singing.  After I finish with these singers I ask the entire group if they have questions and some questions start to pop up.  I think to myself that this is a great time to teach them about how the voice works.  So, I find a rubber band - the best and easiest teaching tool as far as explaining in simple terms how the complex vocal mechanism works.  I try not to use all of the big words that I have learned in vocal pedagogy (sorry Michael).  Instead I use the most basic terms and describe to them how the voice can make low notes and high notes and the importance of the breath support in singing.  I briefly talk about the "break" (passagio) and why it is that when your singing along all of the sudden some of the notes don't come out or they break.  I see many of the singers nodding their heads in agreement that this has happened to them in their singing. 

They begin to sing another piece for me which has two male solos in it.  I listen to the entire piece making mental notes on the next two soloists.  The first man sings for me and I can hear a very beautiful voice behind a very tight, forced throat position; he is nervous.  The second man sings for me and he has a slightly odd singing posture...he sings his solo with an imaginary microphone in his hand.  At this point I am not sure if this is him practicing to hold the mic or if this is a habit he has picked up.  He has a very nice voice but again the voice is tight and forced, his body is tense.  They finish the song and I go over to the two men and begin to work with them.  I spend about 10 minutes with each singer in the same way that I worked with the girls earlier in the session.  But I have a much bigger task at hand - to teach these two men how to relax the throat and focus on using the breath to make sound.  How can I do this in such a short amount of time?  Obviously these are habits that they have been singing with their whole lives. 

The first man seems nervous and has a hard time making eye contact with me.  I later learn through my teaching and talking with other Montserratians that this is a common behavior.  Does it go back to the slave culture and have more to do with me being a white woman or does it have to do simply with the teaching and being critiqued....or both?  At any rate, my job is to address the singing and try to make as much positive change as I can in a short amount of time.  So I continue on with talking to this man about relaxing and relaxing the throat so that air can move through and easily make sound is it passes through the vocal folds.  I take a piece of paper and try to explain how tight throat muscles effect the production of sound and how it makes singing harder when we have tense bodies and throats.  I ask him to do some deep breathing and see if I can get him to relax his body.  I talk softly to him and see that as I am talking (even though his eyes are wandering a bit) his body is starting to relax.  So I ask him to sing it for me again but to focus on staying relaxed and using the air to make the sound, not the body and the throat.  He sings and freer, easier sound begins to come out.  The song is a strong gospel style piece and it is hard for him to break the old habits and sing it in this new way.  But he tries and as we work on it, he is understanding it.  I ask him how it feels which he is not really sure how to answer the question.  But I encourage him to try it one more time and see how it feels and how it sounds.  He does and it is better each time.  We try it a few more times and I talk to him about opening the mouth more and we work on that for a few minutes.  He was willing to sing it a few more times and each time the sound became easier and sweeter.  I thanked him for trying it and encouraged him to work on the things we did. 

I went to the second man and had him sing his solo for me.  He had a beautiful, rich, deep bass voice.  There was some tightness in his throat and lack of support under the sound.  So I knew we had to work on that first although the imaginary microphone was an obvious point to focus on.  He sang it again for me with a slightly nervous and powerful voice.  So I did the same with him as I had done with the other 4 singers.  I asked him to do one of the breathing exercises again and focus on trying to relax the body and let the air move in and out easily.  The we took the solo apart and I had him try only the first part with emphasis on keeping the body and the throat relaxed.  He tried it several times and although I could still see tension in his throat, it was more relaxed and after a few times the sound began to have breath support.  Then I talked to him for a minute about the importance of keeping the body and throat relaxed and asked him to sing it again with the hands down and relaxed.  I could see right away that this posture was very foreign to him and he had to fight to stay in the relaxed, neutral position.  He sang the solo section for me a few more times and it improved.  At then end of the session, some other singers had some questions about breathing and I answered them.  This gentleman asked asked me about his "imaginary microphone" and explained a little about his past singing and this is just the way he learned to sing and how can he change it?  I told him "as singers we pick up habits and we become very used to certain feelings in singing and performing.  Singing is a concentration game and it becomes very hard for us to let old habits go even when we know we should."  I suggested to him to continue to work on it and that it will take time for him to get used to the feeling of keeping the body and the throat relaxed so that his breath could do more of the work in his singing.  Pastor Meade spoke up and said "it's in your mind, you have to overcome it."  He thanked me and I hope I was able to help him....even a little bit.

The choir director then said she needed some of my help with voicing out a piece that they were singing.  So I told her a good rule of thumb in choral settings is to keep bigger numbers in the lower voices and fewer numbers in the high voices.  This was balance, even in a small group, is less compromised.   What I saw and heard next was amazing from my point of view.  She chose a few of the men and sang a melody to them.  After they had heard it a few times, they began to sing it over and over as a chant.  She stopped and changed a few of the singers around and had them begin to sing the same chant.  While they were singing she made a second group of women and sang another melody to them.  They listened to her a few times and then began to sing it back.  The layers began to line up and she made up another group of women and sang to them another melody.  They listened and began to sing it.  All the voices were singing by this point by rote, simply chanting the same melody over and over.   As I listened I could hear a descant in my head of a few sopranos singing over the top of these layers.  So I sang it to her and she liked it and so she pulled a few of the ladies out of their groups and they listened to me as I sang the descant.  After a few times they were singing it back and we had a 3 part chant with soprano descant.  It was really beautiful.  I regret to say I can't remember the names of the songs and at the time I wasn't thinking ahead enough to ask her about them. 

At the end of the session I had a few more questions to answer about breathing and singing and I thanked them for having me.   The first girl that sang a solo stood up and gave a short speech about how thankful they were to have me there and for helping them and she said she learned a lot and it helped her.  She hugged me and I thanked them all for letting me come in to work with them.  The girls youth choir wanted to sing one more thing for me and so I worked with them for a few more minutes.  I had them all take their hands and roll them fast to improve the spin of the air flow.  They did and it was terrific!   I told the choir director that she was doing a great job with the music and asked her what training she had.  She said "none, I just love it." 

Sunday, July 27, 2008
Today we slept in and had a late breakfast.  After breakfast I gave Shirley a s lesson and she was thrilled!  We did some vocalizing and then worked on "O mio babbino caro" which she sounded much better on.  She is really starting to understand the breathing and all of the things we've been talking about in the sessions.  She is so happy to be singing easier and better.  Lou thanked me for helping her and making her so happy. 

We went back to the beach for about an hour where we ran into our friend, John Jones, again.  He was sitting on the beach and said he was trying to get ready for the concert.  We talked with him for a few minutes and said we were looking forward to the concert.  Joe said "what is it that you say? Break a Leg?"  I said "yes, ....it's good luck".  Well, John Jones had never heard of this and so Joe said "what do you guys say before the concert?" He said "IRIE!"  Which.....when you think about it....really is better than Break a Leg.  We came back and then went to lunch at Gracelyn Cassells two houses down the street.  I didn't realize it would be such a big group of people.  The Cassell family prepared a wonderful lunch!  We had lime squash and coconut water and great Indian dishes.  We met Pat "Belonger" Ryan and a few others that we had not yet met. 

We heard some stories about the volcano and the big topic of conversation was the Cultural Center.  The locals are frustrated by the sound system at the Cultural Center and cannot understand why the sound technicians there are having such a hard time getting the sound system right. 

After we left Gracelyn's, Lou and Shirley took us for a driving tour up to the MVO (Montserrat Volcano Observatory) and then down through the Bellam River Valley area.  This was our first good look at the Soufriere Hills Volcano and the Exclusion Zone.  It was really amazing and shocking.  We have been hearing that the volcano has been venting some steam and sure enough it was.  Shirley took our picture in front of it with the steam venting!!  It was windy when we were up there and you could look down to Plymouth and see the ash blowing around out to the sea.  We looked out over the whole area and saw all of the abandoned houses and the buildings that are covered up to their roofs in ashes. The fertile farm land on Montserrat lies just below the volcano in the Bellam River Valley.  It is also vacant and abandoned and it is sad to think that all of Montserrats' exports of fruits and vegetables are gone. We drove down into the daytime entry zone inside of the exclusion zone.  It is erie, yet amazing.  We were driving on the ash and you can see where the pyroclastic and mud flows have made their own little river beds as they flowed out to the sea.  The trees are dead but still standing tall, cemented into the ground by layers and layers of ash.  Big boulders and rocks dot the landscape.  The volcano in the background in all of her intimidating and omnipotent glory.  We were absolutely amazed to drive through this area and see all that has been lost.  We saw Lou and Shirley's old beach bar, now abandoned and the remnants of the golf course and the beach harbor.

We continued to drive into Old Towne where we saw big Iguanas sunning themselves in peaceful sunlight.  We encountered a few random goats along the way and an egret sitting on top of a cow.  We stopped so that Lou and Joe could pick a few mangoes and then we made our way to Runaway Ghaut where we took our first drink (of many) of the water.  The local tradition is that if you drink the water from Runaway Ghaut you will always return to Montserrat.  We hope it is so.

After dinner we left with Shirley for the Emerald Community Singers Concert at the Cultural Center.  The Cultural Center was opened in 2007 and although it is a nice building I was surprised to see how it was designed.  The hall is a very big space - it extends very far in the back and yet it is quite wide.  What is interesting about it is that the stage and procenium are very small in comparison to the volume of the auditorium.  So already it presents a sound problem because stage is so boxy and small and all sounds get eaten up by the huge and voluminous ceiling and the vast length of the auditorium from stage to back row.  The sound booth is what seems like miles from the stage.  They have very large speakers set up next to the stage which are able to project sound outward but one of the problems they have is that they use only 4 stand mics on the stage in front of the singers.  The stand mics only pick up sound that is directly in front of the mic.  This is fine for solo singers but it does no justice to a small choir.  There are no overhead stage hanging or boom microphones which pick up the sounds that get swallowed up in the tiny box stage.  I saw sound monitors on stage for the singers but they were in the back and side of the stage instead of on the front.  So much of the sound produced on stage is immediately lost.  In this concert, the musicians (keyboard, guitar & drums) were off on stage right.  The keyboard and guitar were amplified but not the drum in the first half of the concert and all of the drumming was lost.  They sound techs came in and put a mic on the drum during the intermission which made that somewhat better.  Unfortunately there is no orchestra pit on this stage so accompanying musicians have to play from the wings of the stage.  In my opinion, the Cultural Center is an impressive building but the design of the performance space was not planned out well enough to take into consideration the types of performers that would be using this space.  The sound issue could be resolved if sensitive sound mics were hung from the cat walk over the stage and the stand mics were used primarily to for soloists and to back up hanging mics. I hope they will continue to work these kinks out.  It is a shame for them to have such a beautiful auditorium with a state of the art sound system and yet so much of the performance sound is lost. 

Monday, July 28, 2008
Last night we were able to sit outside and look at the stars -- there are SO many stars in the sky here.  We think it is kind of strange to see the big dipper so huge and on the Western Horizon. It almost looks like the big dipper is about to take a scoop of water out of the sea. We saw shooting stars streaking across the sky.  We talked about moving to a place like this so that we can live simply and if we have kids someday that we want to raise them in a place like this. It is still hard to realize we are on this little island out in the middle of a vast sea.

This morning Rose from the radio station (JZB) came to interview me after breakfast.  She talked to Joe for a few minutes and said she wanted to interview him as well.  She asked me a lot of questions about the teaching I've been doing and about the singing.  This was my first radio interview and I felt like I was just rambling on for a few minutes....I could hardly remember some of the questions she asked me.  She interviewed Joe about what he does and about having an AA on the island.  Then she asked us both about the wedding and why we decided to get married in Montserrat.  We said "because we had a great opportunity and it was our anniversary and what better way to do it than on the beach at sunset!"

After the interview we had to go down to the Administration office to do the marriage application. After we filled it out we had to go to the Customs office next door to have Pastor Meade sign it. (He is also the Comptroller of Customs). After Pastor Meade signed it then we had to go back to the Administration office and relinquish our passports with the application which then goes to the Governor's office for approval and processing.

On the way back we stopped at a supermarket which was the first time I had been in one - Joe goes all the time with Lou. Joe just finished replacing the door handle that he has been trying to fix since Friday. He has been so frustrated by it!  We are still sweating and getting eaten up by bugs.  We have never felt so refreshed by a shower! We take a few of them a day!

I had a session this afternoon with the small group which was well attended.  My interview was on ZJB Radio Montserrat right before dinner.  It was not as bad as I thought!!  Beth Breuer was interviewed as well and said how great the training was and she said ended it with a comment followed by "Whoop de doo".  There is now an ongoing joke in the house called "Whoop de doo!"  We ate dinner and then Anne-Marie came to pick us up for the session with her choir, "Voices". 

We went out to look at the stars around 11:00 pm.  We were talking and then we both saw a flash off to the south and we thought it was a storm coming in.  So we got ready to go inside but we were so puzzled by what we though were the storm clouds.  We stood outside for a few minutes just watching.  It wasn't long before we heard a lot of rumbling and the low flying jet noise that everyone has been telling us about!  Joe said "I don't think that's a storm, I think it's the volcano."  We stood outside watching and listening and Shirley came out.  We asked her if she knew what was going on and she said "it's probably a dome collapse".  Shirley and Joe began to take in the patio cushions so that they wouldn't be ruined by falling ash.  I got out the video camera and started recording the night sky.  It started to lightening a lot and we heard what sounded like thunder claps but I think it was the dome collapsing. While we were standing outside we could see the ash cloud filling the sky.  All of the stars began to disappear and the volcano roared constantly for several minutes.  Shirley said "we will have to get out the brooms and the hoses tomorrow".   ZJB Radio finally came on and said that villages in the south near Belham River Valley should evacuate and go North and that the sirens would be sounding.  But no sirens were heard.  Little pebbles began dropping on the house and we could hear them "ker-plunking" in the pool. The rumbling volcano stirred up the whole neighborhood and we could hear a lot of people outside talking.  Pastor Meade was out on his patio, we were out on Shirley's patio. We watched the ash cloud in the sky and we were certain that it would start falling heavy on us.  But in a few moments the ash cloud moved south and we could see the stars coming through the cloud. 

Shirley then told us the story of the Anasazi Medicine Man that visited them about 6 or 7 years ago.  She said that the Medicine Man asked to draw a picture for her and asked her for blue, red and black ink pens.  The Medicine Man drew the picture and told her that as long as the picture was in her house it would protect her from troubles on the island.  She told us how she has seen the ash clouds coming for her house many times before and that the ash cloud always splits off or a wind blows it the other direction.  She said that guests have tried over and over to take a photo of the picture but their cameras never work and that no one has been able to take a picture of the drawing.  She was interviewed on the radio about her volcano stories and she told about this drawing.  The interviewer asked her if he could have a photocopy of the drawing and she said "yes".  Immediately after the interview she received a phone call at the radio station from someone whom she did not know.  The caller begged her not to make a photocopy of the drawing.  After 40 minutes on the phone with the unknown caller, the interviewer left and she did not make the photocopy.

Montserratians are resilient people but the volcano is a constant source of worry.  The volcano has destroyed their capital city, destroyed their farming and destroyed their homes and businesses. When the volcano comes alive there is a sense of the unknown and an unspoken feeling of "maybe this is a big one."  Only the young generation of Montserratians have no memory of the volcanic eruptions between 1995 - 1997, although the older ones know the stories.


Tuesday, July 29, 2008
We got up early so we could take a walk before breakfast.  We saw Gracelyn outside picking mangoes.  She said she did not even hear the volcano and she slept through it.  We continued walking on down to the main road and there we saw Anne Marie driving by and she stopped to tell us that the ash cloud went up about 40,000 feet and that there were pyroclastic flows that went all the out to the sea and burned Plymouth. 

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Friday, August 1, 2008

Saturday, August 2, 2008
Our rental "Jeep" was delivered this morning.  (It's really a Toyota Rav4.)  We have the day to ourselves and are excited just to be able to go and do whatever we feel like today.  We loaded up the snorkel gear, a lot of sunblock and the cameras and took off for a day of adventure.  I must say it was pretty amusing watching Joe learn how to drive a right side steering car on the left side of the road. I drove a short way just to try it out and it was CRAZY!!

We wanted to go up to a trail called "Oriole Walkway" which we had been reading about.  We had passed the trail sign several times so we thought we knew where it was.  We drove to the trail which turned out to be just  a road.  We saw an old windmill and several other roads that lead up to houses, but after driving around for a while we never found the "Oriole Walkway".  Joe was bummed because he has been wanting to hike since we got here.  A big rain shower broke out while we were driving up the winding roads which was a little scary as we had noticed earlier that our "Jeep's" tires were melted in some spots,  like someone had been doing burnouts on the back wheels!

We drove down to Little Bay after getting lost about 3 times.  We found a lot of shells on the beach and saw the Green Monkey Dive Shop an a closer look at the stranded barge.  It is so hot today!  We stopped at Tina's Restaurant to get some lunch and then we came back to Woodlands because we wanted to get past the Cudjoe Head village before the closed the road off for the festival. 

We went back to the house to get our swimsuits and throw on another layer of sunblock and then we went back to Woodlands Beach to snorkel for a while.  It was so hot today!  We were in the water for a couple of hours. There were a few people on the beach today but not too many.  We could hear the music from the Cudjoe Head festival every once in a while on the beach.  We had a great time snorkeling around the rocky areas of the beach.  There are so many fish!!  It was the perfect day to be in the water - it was sunny and calm and so we could see everything very clear.  The water was really warm but as we were swimming we could feel very cold currents too.  It was strange to swim be swimming in cold AND warm water!

We got out of the water about 4:30 pm and as we were leaving we could see something in the water.  We couldn't tell if it was a turtle bobbing around or a shark or some other kind of fish.  We put the video camera on and after a while we decided it must be a turtle.  We saw a few of them and decided that we would have to wait until sunset before we started seeing the turtles getting closer.  We went back to the house and showered and then decided it would be a good time to try to find the road to Providence Estate or the Plantation House as is is also referred to.  So we took a little drive and found Providence Road and the gates to Providence Estate.  Now Shirley has been talking about the Plantation House several times and about how it is haunted.  She said her daughter used to stay there for a while and they have also had guests stay there.  The most common things that happen at Providence Estate is that the lady of the house is sometimes seen with her red nail polish and in the master bedroom you can hear what sounds like a shoe being thrown against the wall and falling to the floor.  We drove up to the house and let me say that just going up the driveway is kinda spooky!  We drove up and took a few pictures and then left.....Shirley had me scared with her stories. (Paul McCartney stayed in the house while he was recording "Ebony & Ivory" with Stevie Wonder at Air Studios back in the 80's.) Anyway, the house has been renovated and is currently up for sale for the bargain price of  $895,000 US.

After we drove out to Providence Estate, we stopped back by Woodlands Beach to see if we could see anything happening with the sea turtles.  It was about 6:00 pm and the sun was going down and it was a beautiful day to take sunset pictures on the beach.  (These are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.)  In some of of the sunset pictures you can see what looks like little round bumps on top of the water.  These are the sea turtles bobbing around in the water!  Aside from the bobbing turtles, we didn't see too much so we went back to the house for dinner at 7:00 pm.

Shirley and Lou's other guests, the Whites' arrived today.  He is a Montserratian and has not been to the island since 1969.  We had dinner with them and it was interesting to hear him talk about how he remembered it and how it is now.  He said that one of his family members was lost in the volcano and never found. They now live in Canada.

After dinner we put on another layer of bug spray and headed back to the beach around 8:30 pm to check on the turtle situation.  It was dark by this time and we went down to the beach and looked around but we didn't see anything.  So we decided to take a drive up to the MVO (Montserrat Volcano Observatory) to see if we could see the volcano glowing.  We found the road to the MVO much easier this time but when we got up there nothing was happening.  We went back to the house and decided to take a little rest before we went back to the beach.  We took a short nap and about 10:30 pm Joe woke me up and said "you think we should go back down there?"  I said "let's try it".  Little did we know we were about to have one of the greatest experiences of our lives.

After another round of bug spray we drove back down to Woodlands Beach and when we pulled up we saw a jeep there that said "UNDP Development"  I said to Joe  "oh wow, someone official is here!" So we headed on down to the beach with our flashlights blaring all over the place.  We didn't know what we were going to see...if anything.   Within a minute we saw someone flashing their light at us.  When we got closer we met up with a man who said we needed to turn our lights off because the turtles were there!  We have no experience with turtles and we didn't really know who this guy was, but we certainly wanted to see some turtles and he seemed to know more than we did about the whole thing.  So we followed him like the pied piper in the dark night with cameras and flash lights in hand.  It was apparent to us that he was indeed the official sea turtle researcher! 

He took us to see a turtle that had already dug her nest and was starting to lay eggs.  Joe started the video camera and on the night vision we were able to get a pretty good video of the entire experience.  We found out that this sea turtle researcher was John Jeffers of the Department of Fisheries - Ministry of Agriculture and that he has being working on this project for about 3 years.  Joe was able to interview him on a few things that we were able to get on video.  It was amazing!!  These were the Green Sea Turtles and they were HUGE!!!  Around 400 - 500 pounds! We felt like we were recording a real documentary!!  We continued to follow John Jeffers around Woodlands Beach in the black night on the black sand with the stars shining and the waves of the ocean gently reminding us of where we were.  We held the flashlights while John tagged the turtles and measured them and recorded all the information.  We were covered in bug spray, sweating like mad and running all over the beach.....having the time of our lives!!  We were able to get on video the entire sequence of a green sea turtle digging her nest, laying over 100 eggs, covering the nest and then going back out to sea. It is about 20 minutes of video for just that event.  This turtle that we video taped didn't dig her nest very deep and she layed over 100 eggs in the nest which was very shallow.  John Jeffers used Joe's shirt to carry out about 60 of the eggs back to his truck so that he could take them up to the next beach over and bury them there.  The most exciting part for Joe was helping John by laying on top of one of the turtles while he tagged it.  It was amazing - they are SO strong.  We saw 7 green sea turtles nesting on Woodlands Beach!  It was awesome!

Sunday, August 3, 2008
We are getting married today!  It is a beautiful day and we hope to have a relaxing day. We feel that the sea turtle experience is a great blessing to our wedding.  We have had SO MANY people give us wedding blessings.  The people here have not just been saying "Congratulations" but they have been stopping to talk to us and tell us to remember our time in Montserrat and how beautiful it is and that getting married here means we will have a long and happy life and future.  They tell us about enjoying life and to be each others' best friends and we picked a beautiful place to celebrate our love and life. 

We had breakfast with the Whites' this morning out on the patio and they said that their marriage advise is to always have open communication and that if something is bothering you, you have to talk about it before it lingers on.  Gloria Margetson came by at breakfast to bring my bouquet of flowers that she picked this morning and a wedding gift. 

The turtles were bobbing around in the water when we were getting married!!  So we hope they really are a symbol or strength and wisdom and good luck.....what better wedding present could we have?!

Friday, August 8th, 2008
We are finding it hard to adjust to being home.  This morning I took Jackson to the dog park (which he was very excited about) and the sights, sounds and smells seemed foreign to me.   Ambulance and police sirens, smog and pollution and brown, dry desert.  Joe had a hard time getting himself ready to go back to work and was trying to find a way to wear his sandals; we haven't worn socks for so long.  We both felt sick from the KFC we ate for lunch yesterday.  Phil, Vanessa and Chloe came over to see some of the videos and hear some stories.  After they left, we were so tired that we fell asleep before we decided what to eat for dinner.  It seems like today will be challenging.  I am washing clothes, sorting through a big stack of mail (which is full of advertisements and credit card offers....most of it junk).  Shirley and Lou have spoiled us with fixing all of our meals, washing our clothes and making our bed everyday.  This morning as I am drinking my coffee, I am looking out my office window into our neighbors back yard.  I see dry, brown caliche and cactus in our back yard which has become a healthy spider habitat in just a couple of weeks. My eyes are scanning to find some lush green trees and flowers and I am hoping to see the sea, but then I realize we are far from Montserrat and we have left a little piece of ourselves there....on a tiny island in the middle of the vast Caribbean Sea.

I have been loading the pics from the trip onto the web site all day between two lessons. Vienne has been like Velcro to me all day.  She will not leave me alone.  She wants to be in my lap being petted all day.  She just came up here and layed down and put her head on my arm, so two weeks was a long time for us to be away.  I am adding the pics in date/number order so that I don't have to sort them.  This way it really is a chronological account of the trip.  It takes about 5 -10 minutes to load each session of pics and then I have to go in and rotate them.  I am listening to a new singer....well, new to me...Dobet Gnahore.  She is an African singer and all of her music is new to me.  It reminds me of the trip.  Joe is sleeping on the couch now - he says his stomach is bothering him....I think he ate too much "American food"....lol. :)

While we were in Montserrat we talked a lot about how we are going to have to let everything we've seen and heard and experienced sink in for a while.  Each of us will have to think about it and talk about it some more.  I have traveled to other countries before but this trip was different.  Montserrat had much to tell us and teach us. More, I think than we ever expected.  IRIE!!!

AFTERTHOUGHTS
I have seen several of my Las Vegas students this week.  We are trying to get back into our regular routine....which now feels a little "un-regular".   Every day I think of Montserrat and the people I met and the singers that sang for me.  I ask myself "what are the differences between my students in Montserrat and my students at home?"   There are so many differences but from a musical standpoint, a teaching stand point, the differences are that my students in Montserrat were appreciative of every little thing I was able to teach them.  And they PRACTICED!!!  Every day I could hear the improvements and they would tell me that they were practicing.

Although I know that the majority of my students practice outside of their lessons, there are some that don't.  In our American lives we are too busy, we are too tired, we are too distracted by our cell phones, computers and TV's, we are too much of everything to practice and focus on this art of music.  Our music and singing become "hobbies" that get pushed off to the side for other priorities.  This is not so in Montserrat.

Montserratians have music in their hearts and souls, all the time.  Before we arrived in Montserrat I hadn't thought about the mix of the Irish and African cultures.  They have a song for everything; they are always writing songs. How appropriate for them to have the African woman holding the Irish harp on their flag.  They are proud, they are resilient, they love their island, they love nature and they love each other.  You would think that the many of their songs would be sad, but they are not.  Montserratians sing happy songs, songs of hope and healing, songs that lift their spirits, songs that make them smile, songs that celebrate life, songs to be passed on and on. 

When I left I could see that each person I worked with learned things that will help them to be better singers.  This was the goal and the goal was accomplished.  Here I sit, thousands of miles away, but I can hear Montserrat singing for me out there in the Carib Sea.