Jam Session!

Halfway through my education abroad experience! This week was a busy week studying and taking midterms. Today was my last exam, which was for my Tropical Marine Conservation Biology class. Out of all the exams this week, today's exam was the easiest. Again, this exam did not have an underwater portion. However, I made sure to get in the water. After the exam and lunch, a few of us went for a swim before our next class.

In class, we learned about local music. A local, Boy Janga, came in for the afternoon bringing in common instruments used in local music. There were seven different instruments:

1. bari (drum)
2. karko (a Queen conch shell used as a horn)
3. wiri (a steel tube with ridges and a steel bar)
4. two sticks (made from tree roots, can't remember what they were called)
5. bass
6. triangle
7. maracas 

Bass and bari in the upper right corner

He showed us how to play each of the instruments then let us play them for the rest of the afternoon. We started off with the karko. It was very difficult to do but I was able to make the correct sound once. Who would have thought that you could use a Queen conch shell as a musical instrument? I never did, but I have now attempted to produce music from the shell. We finally all had a different instrument and started a jam session. Boy Janga gave us a few different beats to try and we played fairly well. We all got our own solo in our jam session. Through this whole experience, we all had some good laughs especially when we all tried the karko, because that was the most difficult to play.

To finish off the day, we went to the Bonaire International Sailing Regatta. We didn't see any of the events given that it was night, but there was a little carnival, local food, and music. Hopefully, tomorrow we will be able to see some of the regatta during the day. There are a variety of sailing events as well as windsurfing.