Greetings from Jamaica!

Good morning from Jamaica! I have finally caught up with my sleep after being awake for 44 hours to get here. Yesterday began with a breakfast, which was very different for me... Chicken and yams and potatoes with a fried banana! It was delicious, but the equivalent to a dinnertime meal for me! After the breakfast I headed out for a swim in the Caribbean with my host and fellow GLP cohort member Darren Young, who has been a fantastic help in helping plan my trip here. After the swim we headed to the Saint Jago high school where I met the teaching staff and some of the students from the National Youth Orchestra of Jamaica. We did some improv and some exercises on ensemble skills. It was great working with the kids, and I am thoroughly looking forward to the next few weeks of coaching and teaching.

Last night we had a small welcome party for me with the staff and the senior students, who are also teaching the beginner kids of the programme. It is such an amazing atmosphere in the organisation and everybody is making me feel very welcome!

Today I am headed to a different school to work with the students from the wind band and symphony orchestra. I will also be speaking with the organisers and getting a chance to learn a bit about how they found funding and got round some issues of starting up their organisation, so that I can take these lessons and put them hopefully into my own programme which I am working on starting up in Germany.

I have a feeling these blogs are going to be quite regular on this trip, so for now I am going for a swim before my day begins properly!

Till next time!

Fraser