Wow, I really got to get better at writing more regularly. Will’s making me look bad. And I honestly have no excuse, considering I’ve been out of work for the past 2 monthes.

But! Things are looking up for me. I may have 2 new jobs. I could very well be the organist at a Lutheran church here in Tavi, and work full-time at a horse farm doing barn chores.

In terms of being an organist, my “audition” will be to play at their communion service in two weeks. That’s a little nerve wracking for a few reasons: 1) I don’t know how to play the organ. Yes, it’s the same as a piano (the manual keys, anyway), but I’m lost when it comes to the foot pedals. Good thing that’s not required. 2) I’m Mennonite, it’s a Lutheran church, and so they have a different way of worshipping. There’s a lot of liturgy that’s new to me, but I just love it. It sounds beautiful, and it’s refreshing to worship a new way.

In terms of the horse farm, this certainly wasn’t a job I aspired to do, but after 2 monthes of fruitless searching in areas I am obviously not qualified for, I thought I’d re-visit my past (of working with horses) and enjoy time on a farm again. I just love being around horses, and this way I’ll definately have hours. Assuming all goes well, I will be the only full-time helper, which means I will be there lots. Oh, and I will finally get some exercise.

Speaking of work, my once-a-week job at present, as the music coordinator at a nursing home in town, is going well. I am starting to see the results of music therapy (although I don’t call it that, because I am not a music therapist). There is one man I bring to the piano to sing with, and he generally is quite incoherent, saying sentences that don’t make sense, mixing up words and generally being confused. One day I brought him to the piano, and he started off in his usual way. I would ask him if he knew a song, an oldy that I was about to play, and he’d said he didn’t. For the first few songs it went this way, where he just sat and listened. Then he started to hum along, then sing. His words still were incoherent, but the melody was there. Suddenly, as if the music pulled him out of darkness, when I asked him if he knew “Four Leaf Clover” he said, “Yes, I know that one. That’s a good one”. Then he proceeded to sing along with me, with ALL the correct words. From that point on in my time with him, he was coherent. It was magical. Within the span of perhaps 10 minutes, I witnessed music pull someone from dark into light, confusion to coherency, forgetfulness to awareness. So there IS a point to what I’m doing, after all.

Our musical is still coming along slowly, but we now have 7 scenes and 5 songs. I am in the process of transcribing my songs onto my computer, so we’ll have properly printed music…eventually. It’s pretty exciting.

That’s about it for now. Until my next inspiration to write (or until Will nags me).