Griffin loves music. He's one of those kids that's always emitting a tune - humming or whistling. Music just seems to be a part of him. He took piano lessons for a while and did very well. Unfortunately, lessons were difficult once we hit the road in the RV. We tried to stay connected to his teacher via Skype, but the connection just wasn't reliable enough to get the job done. The frequent stops and starts made it hard for the teacher to hear what he was playing and for Griffin to get clear instructions. In the end we gave up on piano, for a while. Better to quit while he still had a positive attitude than to ruin piano for him forever.
Once we stopped traveling we found we couldn't afford lessons anymore, but Griffin continued to tinker with the piano. He asked me to print the sheet music for certain things he wanted to know how to play, like the Mario Bros. theme song, and then we would plow through them together, though I have no musical knowledge at all. When we came to Africa I expected that we would just put off piano a little longer, hoping eventually to be able to barter for lessons back at home. Imagine my surprise when I found out that one of the missionaries here, a piano player, was already teaching three of the other boys!
There is a small keyboard here in the house we're staying in and most of the keys work:) It's good enough to practice on. And the teacher, Michael, recently purchased a nice keyboard from another missionary who was returning home and didn't want to try to ship it. Michael said he had room for Griffin and we started lessons our third week here. Griffin is having a great time.  After his first lesson Michael assigned Griffin two songs. Grif memorized those two, then memorized two more for fun. At his next lesson he played them both flawlessly and his teacher turned to us, looking a bit stunned, and said, "Mom and Dad, we're going to need new books - fast. Start looking now." Even more unexpected was something that happened with Mason.
He's never been interested in piano. It's just not his thing. But our roommate for the first two months plays guitar and she noticed that Mason was interested. He would watch her play and ask her questions, so she offered to show him how to play a few chords, how to strum and the different fingering. He's been having so much fun learning from her. He really sounds good. I am amazed at how God has provided for our boys here in Africa, far beyond even what I had hoped for. This is great. So I guess now I'll be looking to barter for both guitar and piano lessons at home. Anyone want to trade?