My First Violin Student in Lima and other musings

I started today off by getting up at 8am and taking Pepe out. I was a bit tired but I had some breakfast and hopped on my computer to work on a roofing article. I also made lesson plans for Olga with whom I had class today at 11am. It was a pretty good class. She was obviously really tired. She told me that she was studying all day. We worked on past tense.

After class I had a quick meeting with Amanda, my boss. She reassured me that if I took vacation that I would not be fired from my job. Fantastic! She even said that Vladimir, the owner, knows all about taking a good vacation because where he is from it is about having time to stay healthy and not go crazy being a work-a-holic. I am totally on board with that idea. I also made sure that I was doing everything correctly with the google docs and blogging. Apparently it is required that we do 2 short blogs a week and 2 longer 500 words or so blogs. We get raises if we get people to start classes from our blogs. Not bad! I am all for blogging it up. Also, Amanda told me that Vladimir said he was impressed with how pro-active I've been. I have definitely been trying to make a good impression and do the best I can because this job is the only steady thing I have right now and while it doesn't pay a lot right now, I am very likely to be getting more and more students as time goes on. I am also going to be getting pay raises as early as next week if all goes well.

In the afternoon I had a meeting with Maria de Pilar and her son Marco Antonio who is 15. They came over and we discussed methodology and what lessons would consist of. They found me via the store Home Music in Plaza Lima Sur shopping mall. I left my cards with them and I have gotten two referrals from them. The first lady just wanted me to see what I thought her violin could sell for but she was super nice and said she would pass the voice as they say in Spanish (pasa la voz = spread the word)

Young Marco Antonio is very excited to start taking lessons. (I think it's funny that he and my Marco are tocayos or name twins.) He seems like a really good kid too. He was so sweet with his little brother Matias (8 months). They bought the book and CD from me and we are all set for having our first class the first weekend of March. I can't wait! I am so pumped to actually have my first student. Maria was super nice too and very frank. She told me that if I ever had any problems, I should call her. She works for the press and has connections. "If anything bad happens, no matter what, I will do what I can to help you out." It was a nice gesture and I appreciate that she sees how me being a foreigner living in Chorrillos is a higher risk than the average Peruvian. Everyone here has to be careful though, whether you are Peruvian or a foreigner. That goes for any major city in the world. When you put more people together in one place, you are bound to have more crime.

The best part about the entire conversation was when I played Marco's violin and Matias got really quiet and just stared with his mouth open. It was wonderful. Maria said she had never seen him like that before. I told her she should start him with lessons in two years or so when he is a little over 3 years old. It also doesn't hurt that he will be hearing the CD when Marco plays it.
Finally,  I have had lots of gigs playing masses and they are only getting more frequent. I am going to be playing a silver wedding mass on Friday night and then two masses on Saturday. I believe both are weddings. Let the hallelujahs begin!

Here is a picture of a cat in a tree in Parque Kennedy from the other day.