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They returned today and the Bandleader shared their experience with us.

Therese Martinez, Pantempers Bandleader
"The trip to Taiwan entailed 5 presentations. It also included tours, so in effect what actually happened was the sharing of cultures; we share our culture with Taiwan and they also shared their culture with us in terms of the exposure to the different historical museums and to the different businesses and so on that exist in Taiwan."

"We have fun when we play, and so every segment of the music we do some activity or some movement to keep us alive and to pass on that energy to the audience. Sometimes as well we get the energy from the audience and you would see us moving and laughing - like jumping up."

"We brought back from Taiwan an appreciation of their culture and as well we also are more confident of what we have because what we took there to Taiwan we realize they didn't have knowledge of it, many of them came to the pan touching it, trying to find out what it is."

Reporter
"Pan music is new to them?"

Therese Martinez, Pantempers Bandleader
"Yes they are not familiar with and so they try to figure out how is the sound coming out. And so it brought about an appreciation and in terms of the repertoire that we took with us as well we included some music from local artists and we shared that with them and also shared with other delegations from the Caribbean and from Central America and introduce them for instance Punta Rock."

"What we got from them personally is that entrepreneurial mentality and that preservation of history and culture. That was identified through the different tours that we had in Taiwan."

The Pantempers band has been around for the past 20 years.