Team Cayman 2010

The rest of Friday was absolutely amazing.  I am so glad we were able to be a part of the Special Olympics Closing ceremony.  It is so cool how much of a community the Special Olympics is here.  We played my adapted version of the Jonsi song “Go Do” and had 6 people from the sunrise center drumming and singing with us on stage and we gave drums to members out in the audience to play as well.  It was so much fun.  There was a news reporter there, so soon there should be an article in the paper about it.  Some people videotaped it, so I’ll be able to upload that soon.

 

  

Also, Friday night the Koala (the band I am in) album got mastered in Chicago and when I came back I listened to the completed album for the first time and then again Saturday morning.  I am so happy that after almost a full year of putting it together it is finally done.  All we need to do now is give it a name.  Listening to it Saturday morning was such an emotional experience for me.  I felt like I was reliving so many experiences from the last three years.  This is mostly due to the fact that 5 of the 6 songs on the album are based on things that have happened to me during the last three years that have changed me in some way (in terms of the composition process, not lyrically since all of these songs are instrumental).  During last song of the album, “I Hope I Live Before I Get Old” (which is on the “Jams for Cayman” compilation that we sold for fundraising) I felt this overwhelming happiness, appreciating how amazing this whole week has been, and how lucky I am to have been able to work with the individuals that I have at the lighthouse school and been able to be a team with such an amazing group of people.  I can not wait to share this album with everyone, which I will have to wait another month for since that’s when we’re releasing it- but in the meantime you can hear the first song on the album on our myspace if you want: http://www.myspace.com/koalagroup  In addition to the tunes we have been doing at our site and “Go Do” this album has already become part of my internal soundtrack for the time I have spent this week here, so I felt like I needed to write about it here, and wanted to share at least a part of that with you all that have been reading. 

 

Saturday we went into town for a bit and then went to rum point to hit the beach for a while.  It was really cool to see the other side of the island since most of our time has been around one area of the island.

 

 On the ride there I got exposed to some more of the popular music here.  There was some that was a combination of Soco/Dance Hall music…but was really unlike anything I have heard before.  The songs were always only one chord and it had these samples in it: such as one that sounded like a video game ray gun, one that sounded like a car horn, and other sounds that were usually never in the same key that the rest of the song was in.  I’ll definitely have to see if I can find some, I really want to hear it again.  I also found out about the traditional music of the Grand Cayman Island.  I heard it’s a combination of kitch band instruments, country/western, and reggae influence- unfortunately it seems pretty darn hard to find and there are only two bands on the whole island that play the traditional music there (so I didn’t get to hear any before I left)…but I’m still hoping that I can check some out soon.

I’ve been getting a lot more photos and videos from everyone on the trip the last couple days so as I get more videos and links to news things relating to the trip I’ll post them.  As good as it will be to be back with everything, I kind of wish I could just stay here.  The memories I have from here I will definitely remember forever.  It has been amazing to work with the team we have had here and I cannot even begin to express how fun it has been living with these friends for the week.

 I don’t know really how to wrap things up here…Once again thank you everyone for reading and thank you to everyone who helped make this trip possible.  Catch you all soon and I will post more videos and such later!

Mike

Day 5:

 

This morning was the last sessions with both of the groups for us. I did the individual session with one of the individuals from the first session before our groups started today.  I think it went really well.  With a new song that I introduced to him he was singing along with a lot of the words, which was really amazing since he has such limited language usually.  We also did Day-O and he playing the guitar for that in an open tuning and was singing along with that a lot too.  His sense of rhythm is really good and he able to match pitches almost all of the time.  Individually he definitely did much better than he does in the group- I think the greater amount of attention really helped.  He was making way more eye contact and seemed pretty focused for more of the session.  It is too bad that there was only such a short time I was able to work with this individual.  I talked to the intern about how the difference with the individual session with him and about what he was able to do in music in relation to the areas of expressive communication and socialization and I hope that this information will be passed on to some of the other staff and that music and more one on one attention can be used with him. 

The second group was small once again because of the field trip and there were only three students there for most of it, but it was still a really good session.  The highlight for me was in the song “ABC” (Jackson 5) I took Carylbeth’s idea of going through the ABC’s and coming up with words for each letter, and we tried to name an animal for every letter.  There was one boy who was able to name an animal for every letter except for X, which was amazing!  A lot of them were pretty obscure animals to, such as “quail” for “Q”…I don’t think I could have even thought of that!  It was ridiculous how into the triangle he was today, he was just like totally enthralled in it (which he talked about later with the shape of triangle and such).  We then kind of continued with the animal theme for a bit and did when the lion sleeps tonight, but instead doing dancing instead of sleeping- and then picking different animals to dance like.

Both groups made thank you cards for us, and even though we had only been there for these five days it was sad leaving.  We left the instruments that we raised money for to bring down there at the school and I think the staff and students were really happy that the instruments were sticking around. 

 

Our group finished making the drums this morning (thanks to Elaina, Racheal, and Erin who made the drums look super cool).  Can’t wait for this evening to have them all be used at the Special Olympics closing ceremony tonight!

Also, some of the Team was on the television show "DayBreak"- check it out- it's so awesome: http://cayman27.com.ky/news/item/5709

I’ll fill you all in about the rest of the day and night either tonight or tomorrow since there will be a ton happening tonight- but until then stay tuned.     

This mornings sessions went really well.  Before the first session we gave a short demonstration to the aids about what we learned in our music therapy classes classes about helping the clients play to the level they are able to and best be engaged in the music.  The demonstration went well and I think some of the aids got a lot out of it.  The rest of the first session went pretty smoothly.  It was definitely one of the best closing “hit the road jack”s and some of the group members really became engaged in playing the guitar, especially some that had been not as active in the group before. I’m hoping I can upload the video of this sometime soon (once the release forms and all that is figured out).

 

The second group was much smaller than usual.  At first there was only 2 group members which was kind of funny since there was three of us music therapy students, and three other staff members.  After a little bit, two other students came in to join the group and we really had a lot of fun.  The highlight was definitely singing “My Girl” in which one of the added group members started singing “Hallelujah” and it turned into this whole big vocal improv thing on singing “Hallelujah”.   After that we followed it with a song Karen Wacks introduced us to, “Alleluia”, which was a great success.  Its going to be hard saying goodbye to both of these groups tomorrow morning even though we have only been there one week.  We decided that “Hit the Road Jack” wasn’t a good choice for a last goodbye song (even with the lyric adaptations haha), so I worked on adapting Samantha Hale’s song “Goodbye My Friends”.  I think it will be a good closing to the time we have had with these amazing groups.

 

Our in-service presentation went pretty smoothly.  I still think I am a super awkward public speaker, but I guess it is what it is and I can at least roll with it more now.  It seems like the staff at the lighthouse school loved having us there and really saw how much power music could have with these children.  

 

We are still working on the drums, they are almost all done.  We are going to finish them tomorrow afternoon before we play “Go Do” at the closing of the Special Olympics ceremony (which I totally can not wait for)

 

Thank you again so much to everyone who has helped and guided me with the work we have been doing here- it is greatly appreciated.  This week has truly been an amazing learning experience that I will never forget.  And thanks again to everyone else who has been reading. 

Hey again,

 

So the rest of yesterday was again pretty sweet, we went to seven mile beach again.  It has been really interesting trying to get a grasp on what the music of this culture is.  From some of the radio it seems that in the pop realm there is a large amount of reggaeton as well as a good amount of reggae (and songs that are popular in the US but in a reggae style).  It has been slightly difficult to discriminate what is the music that is of this culture and what is more geared towards tourists.  It was really funny, the bar/grill thing near where we were on seven mile beach was playing a lot of the songs with either tons of nostalgic value to me or tunes I've been digging a lot lately- the highlight being a Bonnie Raitt tune which Carylbeth just introduced me to which was followed by “Home” by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros which I have totally been jamming out to lately. I'm really keeping an ear out for the traditional music of the island though and hoping to get my hands on some.

 

Another thing that has been really surprising to me to discover is how great the divide is between the rich and poor parts of the island.  There are some ridiculous beautiful mansions and people driving cars with spinners and then people who live in small shacks. 

 

This morning the groups went really well.  In the first group there were some other teachers and other adults who I did not know who they were watching the session which was a little nerve racking.  But overall, the session went really well- the adaptive communication switches definitely helped a ton.  In the greeting song there is one boy who is non-verbal who usually cries most of the session because of his sensitivity to sound who when he hit his switch to sound the word “Hello” I saw him smile for the first time and it totally just filled my heart with joy.  Sometimes it’s more difficult for me working with individuals with more profound disabilities and who often seem less responsive since I have less experience with individuals who are severely disabled and I am sometimes unsure of how effective the intervention is since they often appear more unresponsive.  This incident was a reminder in such a big way of how effective music therapy really is with this group even though that at many times it much less visible with many of the individuals.  One thing that caught me really off guard in this group one was during “This Little Light of Mine” one of the girls with Cerebral Palsy who is non-verbal started crying a lot.  The intern there told us about half-way through the song that she hates religious songs and always cries when she hears them…which is unfortunate since she goes to a very religious school.  I can’t stop thinking about why she may have this emotional reaction to religious music.   At first I assumed that it may be a learned negative association with religious music (possibly because of an associated place).  But then I wondered that it is possible that her receptive communication is much stronger than her expressive communication and that she is really much more aware than we think she is.  The possibility of an individual session has been brought up with one of the individuals in this group so I am really looking forward to seeing what ends up happening with that. 

The second group was once again nothing short of amazing.  I can’t believe how far some of these children have come in such a short period of time.  One of the group members who initially wouldn’t sit still and was just off the wall is now really engaged in the music, interacting more socially, and really exploring in music.  We are really able to allow them to direct the session even more now and they are choosing the kind of songs and what songs we are playing to a great extent.  It’s sad to think that I will only have a couple more sessions with this group.

After the sessions we made drums to leave at the early intervention site and to bring and leave for the Special Olympics Closing Ceremony and then saw the sunset on the water. 

And now (about midnight) I’m working on the in-service presentation that April, Laurynn, and I are giving tomorrow afternoon.  It’s been a bit stressful, but I think it’s coming together.  I feel like it will be a really good experience especially for just getting better at talking about music therapy and the work that I do.  So now to get back to that…so I’ll write again tomorrow

 

Mike

After the sessions yesterday we got to chill at 7 mile beach for a while.  It was so gorgeous! 


After that we played a pretty intense game of catch phrase and worked on the song we are presenting at the closing ceremony of the Special Olympics (which is a reggae version of the Jonsi song "Go Do" with adapted lyrics).  Totally a great end of to a really awesome day. 

This morning we had the sessions for our two groups again.  The first group went pretty well.  We introduced two new songs: "Go Do" (using it as an instrument song and doing some call and response with it) and an adapted version of "With a Little Help from My Friends" that April brought in which was great.  We discovered they have adaptive communication switches at the school- so we are pumped to be able to incorporate those into the session.  I think they will really allow us to address the goals of socialization and communication much more with these children as well as open up a lot of different opportunities for different music activities.



The second group has definitely become one of my favorite groups I have ever worked with already.  One of the children with autism has a really high IQ and kind of reminded me of some of the children at Berkshire Hills- I had a really awesome conversation with him and his love of country music.  We did a lot of dancing and movement songs with the group this session which I think worked really well with the high energy level of the group.  In the song "Dance to the Music" they made their own dance moves which was just so much fun.  They also did some guitar playing in the goodbye song (an adapted version of "Hit the Road Jack").  I left the session just feeling so awesome and energized.  I really am looking forward to working with this group the rest of the week.

So we haven't gotten the release forms in from the school about recording and photographing in the schools so I have no pictures of videos or anything like that to include yet, but within the next couple of days I hopefully will so I can share that with everyone whose been reading!

I'll write again probably same time tomorrow- thanks for reading!

Got into Grand Cayman yesterday.  Flew into Miami, then to the island.





This place is absolutely gorgeous!  We haven’t got to explore much of the island yet, but in a little bit we are going to check it out more.  The wildlife here is so different.  There are roosters and hens roaming around the yard of the inn we are staying at and we saw lizards, a snake, and some cats around the pool which was pretty awesome.  Although the roosters kids of woke me up at around 4:00 AM with their cock-a-doodle-doing…but I think I’ll probably get used to that by the end of the week. 

We just finished the sessions for our first day here at the lighthouse school.  The kids there are so awesome! When we came into the school they had an assembly and welcomed us with music, which was such a heart-warming introduction to the individuals at this school.  We quickly found out that the school is a very faith based community (as is much of the island).  I’ll definitely be trying to dig out some of the tunes I remember from CCD and working in the children’s liturgy and youth ministry when I was involved with the church.  

At first I was a little nervous going into the sessions there since we did not know much of what to expect about the individuals we would be working with and what would work in the session and what wouldn’t.  Also, we were told before that both groups would only be 6 group members each, but we found out this morning it would actually be a group of 12 and a group of 9.  But once the music got going everything really went well. 

The first group had more profound disabilities.  Most of the individuals had an aid to help them and most of them were great at helping engage them in the music.  With this group we really worked towards increasing sensory awareness, increasing their abilities in communication, and allowing self-expression through music.  The highlights were definitely the instrument playing songs with this group- especially Funga-Alafia in which a drum was passed around and each group member had a turn at playing the drum.  There was one girl whose face just lit up and got so excited at the sight of the drum, pretty much like a kid on Christmas morning times ten

The second group was higher functioning, but were a definitely harder to manage.  When they came into the room it was pretty difficult to even get everyone sitting down.  At first the session was pretty chaotic, but once we got them drumming everyone seemed much more focused and we able to do a lot with them.  Most of the activities we did so far worked on communication, socialization, group building, following directions, turn taking, and self-esteem.  When everyone was playing bells in the song “My Girl” one of the children from the group said that it sounded like “a good dream”…which I thought was absolutely adorable.  Also in this song we asked "what else 'brings sunshine on a cloudy day' or makes you happy" and one of the girls in the group said "Sandwiches" so we made a great verse in "My Girl" about sandwiches.  The group was really just so much fun.  It was amazing to see how deeply music affected some of these individuals.  I am so happy that I get to start every morning this week making music there!

Going out to see more of the island real soon, so that’s all for now, but I’ll write again soon

Hey everyone,

I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but I'm going to try my best to keep it up.

I'll keep this one short since there isn't much to say yet...

Just finishing packing now and printed out my boarding passes.  It really hasn't hit me yet that by tomorrow afternoon I will be in another country.  Me and Laurynn worked out some tunes and activities for the two groups that we have at the Lighthouse School last night- So pumped!- I really can't wait to meet all the individuals we will be working with there. 

I'm going to go out to try to find a digital camera now so I can take pictures and put some pictures up on the blog and stuff.

Stay tuned...

Mike