First day in Tobago...

The end of day two. Well I started off the day by flying into Tobago as the sun was rising, that was pretty cool. There were only 12 rows on this plane with two on each side. So, of course, I talked to my fourth and final seat buddy. He lived in Trinidad and went to Florida Tech for civil engineering. He was excited to hear what I was doing here and actually gave me his card and said to call if I ever need anything. Nice guy. The plane had landed and I was picked up by Kirth, the Buccooneers Steel Band Captain. I found out I will be staying with him and his son Omari for a few days. Omari is 8 and loves to show new people (Me) everything just like every other 8 year old. Omari is also my voice coach. He is going to help me speak with a Trini accent in the next 6 weeks. His very fascinated with how I speak. “why do you say ‘thanks man’?” he says to me. Cute kid. Kirth and I walked in the door and the power and water were out. Luckily after about 30 minutes it came back on. I was extremely happy to find out that Kirth was going to let me borrow a cell phone. Also, the place where you buy minutes is right next to the panyard.

was very early in the morning still and they were both getting ready to go to school and work so I took a nice long nap. I had a little trouble falling asleep because there was a rooster literally right out my window.

I woke up around 3 and they were both back from work and school. I was finally able to take a nice shower, I felt like a new man. Omari was showing all his toys and I showed him some cool things on my phone and he loved that. The tree of us walked (yes walked) down to the beach to see the Kirth’s fisherman friends. On the way we stopped at the panyard, which is only a 5 min walk away. I got to finally see the instrument I am playing. It was exactly what I expected… nothing like anything I’ve ever played. Haha well that’s not entirely true, it is a four cello and… it has a low Bb. However, the layout was very much different but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It was nice be in an actually panyard and in a pan rack. Pictures to come.

We continued on to the beach. The nicest breeze was blowing and the sun was setting and it smelled like fish but in a good way, not too fishy. I don’t think they have wind hear, its just breeze. Wind is cold. But the fisherman were unloading what they caught, cleaning some flying fish, and tying up their boats. We then went over to go where they clean the bigger fish. Kirth was going to buy some fish from his friend who had caught a Dorado (I’m pretty sure). I was able to watch him clean it and Kirth picked exactly what parts he wanted. By this time Omari and I had become BFF’s and he is definitely not a shy character. He was quite fascinated with how hairy my arms were, and really gets a kick out of it when he pulls them out. Haha all in good fun. It was getting dark and the mosquitoes were coming out. I actually wasn’t getting bothered by them too much and Omari comes out with the quote of the day… “Do mosquito’s not bite white people?”

Kirth paid for his fish and we headed back home. I helped Omari with his reading while Kirth was cooking. He ended up making fish soup with potatoes and carrots and it was amazing. My mouth is seriously watering right now typing this. I’ve never tasted anything like it and there was so much fish it was delicious. Oh I almost forgot, Stag beer is great.

Anyways, we finished eating and headed down to the panyard for rehearsal. I spent most of the night observing and listening to the tune and the cello part. I definitely got some bits and few large chunks but today was mostly getting used to the pan. I really like the tune and I can definitely hear Seion flavor (Seion is the arranger, I went to NIU with him). Not everyone is at rehearsal every day so there are a lot of empty pans. I found out that Seion has about twenty players that are contracted with him. Seion and some of them are coming this Thursday through Sunday and I will be staying with him then in a guest house. I found out that there will be a little over 90 people in the band. It was an amazing sound hearing all the bass pans and guitars. The cello part is a reeeaaal good one, which is typical of Seion. This also means that its hard. Thanks for all the double stops. We rehearsed from about 830 to 11. After rehearsal we hung around a bit, got a beer at a friends bar and walked back home. Now when I say bar, if you made your garage into a bar and opened the door. It was great. And it was right next to the panyard.

Well its 3 am here and I am exhausted. More tomorrow