Holy Flying Shekere, Batman!

I've had 4 shekere lessons and last night we were practicing throwing them to each other. It's like I'm in one of those intensive Spanish language courses where you learn two years of stuff in one 6-week course in Mexico City or something. So not only am I trying to get a decent sound out of the thing, but I'm playing patterns, stepping, learning the sequence of a piece, and now, throwing. And I'm not talking about tossing it up in the air and catching it (which is hard enough in itself) but throwing shekeres back and forth. I toss mine, I catch hers. We went outside to practice this, but because we're always up for a challenge, we were doing this in the dark--oh, and did I mention one of the shekeres was black? I'm having problems with my timing because I hesitate. Wouldn't you hesitate? My biggest fear is breaking one of them, so flying, colliding shekeres are on my mind when I'm in the dark tossing a black shekere at someone who says, trust me, I'll catch it (but drops it once anyway). I need to get over that. I was thinking of bringing over basketballs or something to practice with. One time I was wathing a PBS show about people who train to be in the secret service, and they learn how to do all kinds of fancy defensive driving in sports cars. The theory is is that if they learn how to do these complicated maneuvers in really nice cars, then they can do them in those heavy clunky presidential vehicles. Basketballs aren't exactly Mustangs, but at least they don't break when you drop them.

But I'm not complaining. I'm so excited to be learning the shekere! Everyone go learn the shekere!