Sorry for the delay in updating you on our journey - it has been a crazy, insane, fulfilling week so far!
Our performances in Dublin on July 17 were really great experiences. We first played at Our Lady's Children's Hopsital, Crumlin in the morning. Our time there was split into two parts, the first being a lobby performance for patients, visitors, doctors, and some American interns! Even though this performance was not too interactive, we had a very responsive audience. After this performance, we met up with two musicians who perform at the hospital regularly named Grainne and Liam (pictured below). They took us up to the wards where they interact with child patients and play personally for them. Liam described this activity this way: "We may play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star about a dozen times, but we play it for each patient because it's THEIR time - nobody else's. That is the most important part of what we do." And indeed, it is. We were able to visit with a 2 or 3-year-old named Sam would was INCREDIBLY adorable. He requested everything from "The Wheels on the Bus" to "Hakuna Matata" to MICHAEL JACKSON! He even demonstrated a moonwalk for us, and was probably the cutest thing you would have ever seen. If we could post pictures of Sam, we definitely would. It was so rewarding to play music in this way. Liam would set a key, and we would simply improvise. The experience was nothing at all about right notes or correctness, and nothing about us as musicians. Instead, it was all about Sam. Amazing.
Before we end this entry, we thought it would also be fun to post this picture below. We rented a car this past week in Ireland, as it seemed like the most practical and cost-efficient thing to do. Indeed, they do drive on the left, and it's not too bad to figure out! However, Americans tend to hug the left side of the road because that is typically our point of focus...well, if you do that too much, the left front hub cap just might come off.....
Ha!
Regards,
Nave and Matt