…is where we are now. The internet has been very iffy so I haven’t been able to write and post as much as I would have liked to over the past week. But it is up now, so I figured I’d better get my hiney to writing before all of you started to think I was avoiding you;) We left Tumaco, Colombia on the 17th, so a week ago today. For some strange reason, it seemed like we were in Colombia for such a long time. I mean were only there for 12 days but it seemed like a month! It wasn’t as if I didn’t have a nice time while we were there, because I did. We had several performances which helped move the time along…but good night…it seemed to be the longest stop on the trip so far. On the day we left, we had our mandatory ship drills…fire and man-overboard. We really only have to participate in the man-overboard drill…what happens is they throw someone over board and then someone has to go and retrieve them in the ocean while we all watch! No!! I’m totally kidding! LOL!! We all have to put on life vests and head to the top of the ship which acts as our lifeboat meeting place. We all ‘muster’ together to get accountability in order to find out who it was that fell over. We all stand around in our stylish neon orange life vests while the roster holder shouts everyone’s name. Once ‘muster’ is done and everyone is accounted for, the bell sounds and we all head back inside the skin of the ship, put away our vests and go about our business. But on occasion, someone doesn’t show up for the drill and hold sup the entire process…which happened on the last drill. What can usually be a 20 minute drill turned into a 45 minutes drill. I need to get a pic in that vest for my ‘remember when’ file…I’ll have to remember to bring my camera next time to show you all how ‘fun’ it is! So after the drill, I handed my vest over to Ron and headed down to the galley where there was Corpsman birthday celebration being held. I was invited to sing “Amazing Grace”. The Corpsmen are similar to our medics. They go out and help people when no one else can or when people like me may not have enough courage to do so. It was awesome to celebrate with them. Thanks Corpsmen for allowing me to celebrate your birthday with all of you! The next couple of days were spent on the ship sailing North-North-West toward La Union, El Salvador. During that time, we had some rehearsals and another ‘strategic pause’ where we got to sleep in! Woo hoo! I woke up at 1030 that day. It was amazing! YAY sleep! I don’t get enough of it. So that day it was welcomed with opened eyes…oh wait…closed eyes…well…you get the point:) On the 18th, we had a steel beach picnic that was so much fun. We set up around 1030 or so and played for a couple of hours starting at 1300. There were so many people out just having a great time. People were playing basketball, enjoying each other’s company and even SUMO wrestling! It was a sight to see. Good times. Of course we couldn’t break our trend of getting rained on. As soon as we played the very last song, it started sprinkling!! RATS! But at least we got through everything. Here's a pic of TC and I at the steel beach picnic.The few days following the picnic were spent rehearsing some new songs and prepping our gear once again to go ashore. We arrived here in El Salvador on the 21st and we have hit the ground running. The band has had something every day since arriving, and we’ll have something every day that we are here with the exception of the 30th. So busy, busy. We had a performance yesterday and today. Yesterday was at a park near one of the medical sites. There weren’t many people out and I think it was because the word hadn’t really gotten out…but that’s ok. We were appreciative of the people who did show up. Today was a different crowd, and a different story. We were in a town square that looks like they have musical performances pretty often. We drew a huge, lively crowd. It was really fantastic. They seemed to love the music, the American and Latin American music alike. There were so many children around though, and I couldn’t help but wonder why they weren’t in school:( But this a different part of the world that I know nothing about…so perhaps school is less of a priority. The kids were great though. They received little trinkets from us today…kazoos and beads, and that brought smiles to all of their sun-kissed little faces.

Well I am going to jump off of here and go relax a bit, or workout…or roam the ship…one of the three or perhaps all of the above.

Thanks for stopping by!
Keisha