My mom and dad on the beach down below our condo

A group we stumbled upon playing steel drums in a warehouse in Grand Case

Carina is on break right now between her first and second semester at AUC, and much to our delight, my Mom and Dad were able to schedule a trip down here during her break.  They like to travel and were excited when we announced we were moving to a Caribbean island.  We’ve been looking forward to their visit and were happy that it could coincide with Cari’s break.  I’ll compose a better post soon with fun details of their trip, but right now I just wanted to share a highlight.

Yesterday evening we drove out to Grand Case, a fun little village over on the French side that is well known for it’s cute shops and yummy restaurants.  (Andi, Tanner and I went there a while back and we recorded our trip here.)

As we were walking down the main street we heard the melodic and distinct sounds of steel drums, so we followed our ears.  We ended up in an otherwise unassuming warehouse where we found a group of young twenty-something islanders playing their hearts out on an impressive array of drums.

At first I just took a few pictures, and as I did so I was thinking to myself, “I wish I could record this… it sounds so fun and beautiful.”  And then it occurred to me, “Wait!  I can record this!”  I borrowed my dad’s iPhone (I no longer carry mine with me), put the camera on video mode, and after asking their permission, I started to record.  Here’s a short clip of them as they were finishing up a song.

(If the video doesn’t show in this blog, you can watch it on Youtube.)

I’m not sure who these kids are, what the drums are for, where they got them, or why they are playing such beautiful music in this odd warehouse.  But I do know that it was a treat to have stumbled upon them and to have watched them play.  My dad tried to ask them a few questions but they seemed either too timid or too unwilling to engage him in conversation, so we thanked them for their music and then went to find a restaurant for dinner.

A small church in Grand Case

It was dark by the time dinner was over and we meandered back to our car. All the shops and art galleries were still open and the street was busy with both locals and tourists. There was a fun atmosphere in the evening.

As we walked past a picturesque little church we heard choir music streaming from an open door in the back. It was unlike any church or choir music I’d ever heard before, and I felt drawn to it. I didn’t want to hold up the entire group so I resigned myself to moving on, but then I noticed my mom and dad also looking towards the church as well. We headed inside.

The choir was small. There were maybe a dozen people singing, a chorister, an organist and a drummer. While they were far from being a professional group of singers, their sound was still oddly intriguing and soothing. There was a small group of people like us who had been lured in and were listening. I caught the attention of one of the choir members and pointed at my camera, and she smiled and nodded her approval. Here’s the video clip I took of them. I know it’s not great camera work, but I didn’t want to be too disruptive or draw too much attention to myself in the process.

I know these short, poorly filmed little video clips can’t possibly convey the same impact as being there, but I hope they still share a little bit of the feel, the life, and the fun of this island music.  It was a treat to stumble upon them, and I’m happy to share even a little taste of it with you.