Hi friends and family,
I hope you're doing well. I'm having a good time here, settling in and getting into new adventures.
I had a really cool evening. I went jogging with my roommate Courteney. We try to either play tennis or go running a few times a week, then come home and do ab exercises to BET music videos. But we broke our ritual tonight. We ran, as usual, past the shanty town, then the dog-guarded mansions, past the cow pasture, up the hill, down the hill and to the end of the road where there is often a church singing gospel music. Tonight was different, though. Courteney spied across the street a building lit up that we hadn't noticed before. We heard yelling and it sounded exciting so we wandered in to find a cock fighting arena! There were tons of men hollering passionately, really into the fight that was just about to end. The poor cock that lost was all bloody and could hardly stand up anymore. Then someone came into the middle of the ring, at the bottom of 5 rows of steep bleachers, and took away the cocks. The meeting adjourned and the men settled their accounts. It felt like another world that we had stumbled into We want to go back next Saturday to eat peanuts in the stands and check out the scene again.
Not every minute of my life is as exciting as a cock fight, of course. Work is fine. I'm starting to feel pretty close to a lot of the kids and will miss them when I have to leave in April. I taught them "You are My Sunshine" and "The Hokey Pokey" which was fun. They got a little too riled up over a game of memory the other day, I had to give the evil eye for a long time to calm them down.
I've been playing drums a lot lately. I joined a music school that prepares people to play in Carnival. Along with the actual Carnival rehearsals, I've had 4 rehearsals this week, not to mention the Gwo Ka lessons I was already doing. It's great to feel busy again and I love all the music. There are sometimes singers at rehearsal who sing in Creole and everyone seems to know the songs. There is also a little boy, no older than 6, who plays a mean Contre-basse. He is amazing, I can't get over it! This little guy plays with the rest of us 20, 30 and 40-somethings like it's nothing at all. I'm really looking forward to being in Carnival at the end of February.
Another great development has been getting a car. We found out from some English assistant friends about a car they started renting for 200 euro/month and jumped on the opportunity. The guy we rent from is a really nice older guy, a mechanic. The car looks like junk but it runs just fine; it just doesn't stop too well.
We got Internet after winter break and it has revolutionized life. I can actually keep in touch now if you feel so inclined.
Going out dancing tonight to a new place. We've been to "Zoo Rock Cafe" so much lately the bouncers are starting to recognize us.
Miss you all.
Avery
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