Drumming lesson with Nzimbu Browne

Today, Austin, Aidan, Aaron and I took a trip into Kingstown to meet up with Nzimbu, a local indigenous artist and drummer. Skye and I had first met Nzimbu on a trip into Kingstown in August, when we were in St. Vincent to buy our boat. We were attracted to his beautiful artwork in dried banana leaves. When we purchased one of his pieces of art, we chatted with him a bit, and he told us that he teaches drumming to all ages. We instantly imagined having Austin and Aidan attend drumming classes with this gentle artist.

So our vision finally became a reality today, having overcome some timing challenges to arrive half an hour late for the workshop. Nzimbu waved down our taxi while we were looking for the place to meet up with him. Austin and Aidan were the only two students today, so they had a private lesson with the master :)

Nzimbu is very patient and kind. He is not at all critical, rather he encouraged the boys to take it slowly and he pointed out that it's supposed to be confusing at first. He taught them the bass, tone and tip positions. For the bass position, the hand is slightly curved and the base of the palm lands at the rim of the drum. For the tone position, fingers are together and the four fingers land just inside the rim of the drum. For the tip position, only the tips of the fingers land, together, at the rim of the drum.

Throughout the lesson, Nzimbu taught the boys a few combinations and rhythms. Aidan kept wanting to play the bass position with his hand right in the middle of the drum ("because that's what Mr. Drew taught me"). Since he is a bit smaller, it was difficult for Aidan to keep his drum tipped forward to avoid "deadening" the sound. He needed to keep his feet wrapped around the bottom of the drum, but they didn't quite reach.

For the first 20 minutes, Aaron sat quietly and contentedly watching the lesson. He seemed to be actually paying attention. Then, he couldn't help himself. He had to start drumming on Austin's drum. Nzimbu just went with the flow, and even invited Aaron to play on his drum a few times.

Austin paid close attention and was clearly trying hard to follow instructions carefully. He kept a good beat, and was able to shift between hand positions for the different combinations. This seems quite challenging - I don't think I'd get it right on the first try. The only recommendation Nzimbu had, was for Austin to slow it down a bit.

In the final 20 minutes of the hour-long class, the three drums sounded really good together. Aaron and I wanted to dance! Nice work, boys!!

A spiritual connection to our cells

Last night, Austin and I were talking about the possibility of calling the green turtles to our boat, telepathically. Austin said, "I'm too much of a scientist to try that. I'd be more likely to make a sound in the water, that sounds either like turtles or what turtles eat."

Then, we talked about how Iain is jealous that Austin has a nice brown tan already. Austin's skin always tans nicely and evenly. So, my little scientist went on to say, "What if we could be spiritually connected to our cells, so we could communicate with them and they can trade positions every fifteen minutes or so, in the sun. That way, we wouldn't burn."

Skye thinks this idea may have been inspired by the movie, Contact, that Austin watched a couple weeks ago.

Drawing of our jet

Austin drew our West Jet flight from Toronto to Barbados, for inclusion in his Memory Book.

Bequia Turtle Sanctuary

We took a taxi to the local turtle sanctuary. There we met Brother King, who was happy to tell us all about his labour of love. His most recent exciting story was about how he saved turtle hatchlings from certain death as they were being washed away in a rain storm. He showed us the tank full of 6-week-old baby hawksbill turtles. They are so sweet.

I mentioned to Brother King that Austin is particularly interested in marine biology. He was happy to hear that, and expressed his concern for the dying oceans. He says that more people, particularly young people, need to become involved in saving our oceans and its ecosystems. He told me that plastics weren't being used until he was in his mid-teens. Plastics are a huge contributor to the demise of our ocean wildlife.

We weren't allowed to touch the baby turtles, but we could touch the bigger ones, only we had to avoid their beaks - they bite!

Austin was really interested in the oldest and largest turtle in the sanctuary. He is a 14-year-old hawksbill turtle, and he has the unique marking (two drill holes in the tail of his shell) of the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary. Our driver said that this turtle is the owner's pet.

Austin drew a nice picture of this turtle (above).

Brother King has devoted his retirement years to saving the hawksbill turtle from extinction. He is very passionate about this.

The Wizard of Oz

During the hurricane (Tomas), I started reading the Wizard of Oz to the boys. I was blown away by how appropriate it was for our circumstances. We really had to just trust that everything was going to be okay as winds reached speeds of over 70 miles per hour.

We couldn't stay on the boat during the storm (too dangerous), so we stayed at a nice local hotel (Beachcomber). We lost power and water, and food was scarce for about 24 hours.

Here are a few quotes that I found to be most appropriate for our situation:

"At first she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again; but as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring." - I read this from the first chapter, on our first night in St. Vincent (we were staying in an exposed apartment, with windows to the sea.

"I'm afraid, my dear, you shall have to live with us." This was spoken by the good witch of the North, when Dorothy was in the land of the Munchkins. I remember having to resign myself to things that are beyond my control. Austin has embraced the Island culture very well and can describe such a mentality with ease.

"So she went to the cupboard and cut herself some bread, which she spread with butter." On Halloween night, we had no power in our new hotel, and the only food available (besides what we dubbed dog food sandwiches) was bread and butter. I read this third chapter on our third night (Oct. 31).

Anyway, Aidan and Austin have been enjoying the book, and after chapter 6, Austin couldn't wait for the next read-aloud session to find out what happens next. He finished the book on his own, and continued to join Aidan and I to listen to the book being read aloud.

Stabilizing the boat at anchor

Austin helped Skye to rig the dinghy anchor off the boom, to give us some stability in a rolling anchorage at Blue Lagoon. It definitely helped to balance us.

All of us were bothered by the rocking and rolling, so it was nice to have a break from that for a night.

Swimming at the Black Point Tunnels

Our driver of choice, Kishorn, took us on a tour of St. Vincent. We tried to go to see the volcano, Soufriere, but the road and trails were blocked by fallen trees, caused by the hurricane.

Instead, we stopped at Black Point Tunnels. These tunnels were dug by hand, by slaves in 1815, for a sugar operation. They are really quite remarkable.

One area was dug out, intended for storage, but an underground fresh water stream was uncovered and this created a refreshing swimming hole.

This is such a special place, that even many locals haven't heard of it.

There were bats living in the tunnels, and Austin loved that! They were flapping over our heads as we walked through the damp tunnels.

Cooking curry

Austin loves to explore in the kitchen. He has recently discovered that he loves curry flavour. He has been working hard to create the best spice mixture for chicken curry and rice.

A few nights ago, he was so happy with his creation, that he sent the recipe to friends in an e-mail.

He used curry powder, paprika, cumin, pepper, seasoning salt, garlic and onion powder.

It's fun to play in the kitchen with Austin!

Learning to drive the dinghy

Austin learned to drive the dinghy last week. He's very confident, and has remained enthusiastic with every opportunity to pilot the dinghy.

Initially, he had difficulty with acceleration and steering, but he quickly felt comfortable with it. He drove most of the way, while he, Skye, Aidan and Aaron toured around Young Island in st. Vincent.