Safe and Sound

For those of you I haven´t had the chance to directly communicate with, the hurricane passed to the north and barely touched us.

That evening was my first rehearsal with Fachento. We rehearse on the front porch of the keyboardist´s house, so we turned our backs to the rain and made some noise. It´s quite a privilege to play with the band -- the feel these guys have for rhythm is just incredible. My work is definitely cut out for me, though there is a possibility I´ll be ready to play a few tunes at the show on Friday. I´m practicing two or three hours a day, playing along to my iPod and stretching my range.

The bandleader, John, is Canadian. He moved here six or seven years ago with ´no intention of staying.´ He teaches music at the wealthiest school in the country, in Managua, and has a three-year-old child with his wife, who is Nicaraguan. He invited me over to his beautiful house last night and I made the rather obvious comment, ´wow, it´s like you really live here!´

What else? I´m teaching trumpet to the younger brother of the keyboardist. I´m teaching English to my former teachers of Spanish. I´ll be done with the first half of the novel by this time next week.

It´s hard to believe it´s September! The days are not noticeably shorter than they were when I arrived ten weeks ago. Living up north, we have this built-in expectation that each month should feel different.