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Well after Tuesday's quiet beachy reflections Wednesday was a much more active day. I had a morning appointment with the Minister of Education, Colin Riley and having talked through the options with Margaret (who's looking after me and the other guest, Gary at Olveston House supremely well) I decided to try out the bus to get to the Government Headquarters. It all worked very well, you just wait at the side of the road for a minibus with a green number plate starting with 'H' and flag it down and tell them where you're heading. There's one main route going from Olveston/Salem to the North so the buses just go up and down and during daytime fairly regularly. It cost me 3ECD (East Caribbean Dollars) which works out at about 70p. I sat up with the driver - no seat belt, it's not illegal yet here to be unbelted in the car. When I told him I was from London he said he had two sisters there in Stratford. It's true of most of the people I've met that they have relatives in Britain or if not the States, many I suppose emmigrated after the volcano erupted and have stayed out
there since. The island is building new homes in the North in the hope of attracting people back, but after 15 years many people will have settled and made lives for themselves abroad so not many come back.
The Government Headquarters is a series of long wooden buildings with a wooden raised walkway. Various departments are signed along the way so it didn't take me long to find the Ministry of Education. Colin Riley was very enthusiastic about the musician placement and had some ambitious long-term plans in terms of music on the island, which is really encouraging, though was very conscious that this first placement would just be a first step. I won't go into any details here as I have more people to talk to and I will wait until I get the full picture of what all the various interested people are hoping for before trying to define an outline of the role for the placement. It is starting to shape up though!
As I had a few hours before my next appointment and again on the recommendation of Margaret I borrowed some snorkelling equipment and headed to Little Bay. On my way I asked
a fisherman where the diving shop was (because I wasn't sure which part of the beach to head for) and he gave me a lift in his car. He asked me which part of London I was from he said he'd lived in London for 20 years driving buses through Peckham. He said being a fisherman on Montserrat was a much better way of life. I can see that!
Little Bay has a jetty where the ferry goes from (it's a two hour trip to Antigua). I went to the other end - again there was no one on the beach and I felt rather uneasy swimming on my own to begin with. However once in the water, besnorkelled, you enter another world and although it wasn't up to the Egyptian snorkelling I did back in January it was pretty good. Big blue fish, some stripey and even a fat spotted thing that stuck it's tongue out at me. Well not really but it seemed to have that sort of attitude thing going on.
After the snorkelling I became the only guest at the beach restaurant and ate a kind of fish I've never heard of and can't even
remember the name of. Then I started to walk up the long steep hill back towards the Government HQ. First of all as I was waiting for a car to pass so I could cross the road he kindly stopped and waved me to cross shouting through the window "you've been doing a lot of walking today! How do you like Montserrat?" to which I responded as thankfully and enthusiastically as I could from under the sweat and matted salty hair. Shortly after a taxi offered me a lift and thinking it would be good to gain a bit of composure and not arrive out of breath and puffing it would be a good plan.
I stopped at the one bank where there is an ATM and then visited a couple of shops along the way to the music room/warehouse. I looked in the BBC Radio and TV which is actually a shop full of useful things like lights, shampoo, microwaves, postcards and the sort of bric a brac I love. Then I checked out one of the supermarkets. There are 3 on the island all owned by Indians - Ram's, Ashok's and Deepak's. They're not huge but seemed
pretty well stocked. I imagine there might be better places to get hold of fresh fruit and veg though.
I got picked up by Herman Francis as I couldn't recall where the warehouse was. Because that day the schools had closed early for some big meeting in the Cultural Centre there was a low turn out for the rehearsal. Three trumpet players, two guitarist and bass player and violinist (normally there are about 30 young players from different schools). Whilst Herman looked after the trumpets, guitars and bass I did what I could to help the violinist. He was about 13 and had only just taken up the instrument, but considering he'd only been playing a short time with guidance from a teacher who can't play the instrument himself he was doing pretty well. He was reading music too, so we worked quite intensively on the first line or two and I tried to demonstrate on a violin that I couldn't tune and with a bow who's hair was brown and greasy and not really responding to the copious amounts of resin I put on it. The boy struggled with a similar set up. I thought he had a very good ear as he managed to adjust when he was playing with me to my tuning (which wasn't particularly reliable!) and he had a good sense of rhythm. He was very determined too and seemed to respond well to my rather intensive one to one. Afterwards Herman said he thought it was really good for him as the other violinists who normally came to the group were more advanced and it was hard for him to keep up. He said I should come and do the placement myself, which is tempting but I know there's plenty of people out there who can do a much better job! However I am sort of eligible I guess, having done Junior Guildhall all those years ago - so that sort of makes me a graduate, doesn't it? If not that my 5 years loyal service to the school surely does! Anyway, not to worry, I'm not going to apply, but I do hope I'll get the chance to visit Montserrat again. It's a beautiful place and full of lots of friendly people.
I got a lift back to Olveston and then I practiced my mandolin to try to get the sound of my horrendous violin playing to stop ringing in my ears. It's rather lovely sitting on the veranda with my mandolin watching the lizards scurry about.
After an early dinner and glass of refreshing beer I headed out again with Herman for the Community Choir rehearsal. The man is incredible - every night of the week he's teaching or taking part in a music group. The group is a mixture of people from all walks of life and they are very dedicated rehearsing twice a week. They have a tour to Ireland in August. The Island has strong links with Ireland as back in the Colonial times a group of Irish fleeing from religious persecution found refuge here. Now you see many Irish place names as well as people's names. They have big celebrations around St Patricks day, but apparently the island has it's own reasons for this. When the Irish masters who ran the sugar plantations the slaves on the island formed a plan to rebel against them and chose St Patricks day as the time to attack while all the masters were dining together in celebration. Unfortunately for the slaves the masters got wind of the conspiracy and were prepared for the attack with their guns. The slaves who were armed with sticks and stone didn't have a chance and the ringleaders were caught and hung. So the people here celebrate their bravery but it's not quite the same as the celebrations in Ireland.
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Mub
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bated breath!
I'm dying to know what the group of Irish did.......and should we make link with ConCorda who'll be in Kilkenny from August 15th - 23rd? So envious of your brave swimming! loads of love Mub xxx