It was a busy weekend. I got to speed up my DIY project and also had some other things to attend.

The project is going smoothly. I can't say it's perfect I made some mistakes, but my teacher reminded me that each error is an opportunity to find a solution. This helped me greatly as I got to fix everything that was wrong with the project in 2 trips to the workshop. There are some other trips to make, but meanwhile I can do a lot at home.

Also, today I went to my grandparents' house and got the chance to use a power tool. It was just a cutter because I need to make some precise cuts on a piece of wood. My grandmother was watching me doing all of this and they mentioned two characters that I only know from tales: my great grandfather and my my grandfather's uncle. Both of these characters were woodworkers. The former was a shipwright; the latter, made furniture. 

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/11/03/04/02/boys-1793421_1280.jpg
[Source](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/11/03/04/02/boys-1793421_1280.jpg)

The tale then took the route of my uncle taking all the tools of my great grandfather with him. He sells fish, so there was no reason for that. This because a sort of *stolen heirloom*. But I actually don't care that much about it. I have some of those tools and I have been working on getting my own.

My work went fine. My mother was worried that I might cut a finger. My grandmother just said "he's a woodworker". Talk about a confidence boost.

Anyways, we were there as a family to enjoy a tradition: fish soup on Sundays. I can't remember the last time I had this. It was so good. We got to talk a lot and eat even more, drink coffee, make popcorn. watch how some fruits are growing (there are a lot of plantain and banana trees over there). However, I was fixed years have not been kind to both grandparents. I still remember my time as a child in that house. The stories I heard from them, the trips, the chocolate and coffee milk in the afternoons, the mangoes and other fruits.

It's just life reminding me of impermanence. But that's okay. Things change and we can't do anything about them.

The other high note is that after publishing the progress of my DIY project on Instagram I got some messages from a member of a band that promotes traditional music from the east of Venezuela (the region I'm from) in the capital. Negotiations have started for yet another instrument. So this day couldn't have gone better.

After this, I got some compliments from the teacher in the online course on how to play Venezuelan Maracas. This course has been sponsored by One Beat Foundation and I can't believe we are already in the final chapter. I can see a big difference now. I have gotten a lot better at playing and today in a moment when everyone was talking about a specific genre (one which if you guessed is from the east of the country), the teacher went on and named me. He said some pretty funny things in the introduction, but it ended in something I can't believe yet. To quote it as I remember it: "I wish I was able to play *Joropo Oriental* as good as Andrés and other maracas player from the east of the country..."

Well, I couldn't say anything about that. And we are talking about a guy who dictates this course worldwide and has studied music to an academic level, has recorded the cream of the crop of Traditional Venezuelan Music players. This was just a lot on one day.

This just gives me more reason to do even more this coming week.

It was a great weekend.