Choir Director

Fun Fact No. 31: People in Iquitos are ALWAYS late. It´s called the "hora loretana" or the Loreto Hour, which basically means that people are always late. And I´m not talking like 5 or 10 minutes. I´m talking an hour. And let me tell you how insanely AGGRAVATING that is. Well, it is.

On a lighter note than the last blog, I´m now directing a choir. Thank Jesus I took conducting in undergrad before dropping my music ed degree and pursuing ethnomusicology full time. Man, does that help. But it´s still scary stuff, especially this one piece that changes meters about ever other bar. But this choir is good, really good and so I´m learning quickly. Although it´s a bit nervewracking. And I love to sing in my car, but I haven´t sung in a choir since high school. Seriously. But good freaking experience! Damn, Gina, who knew all this music ed stuff and even Mozart would come in handy in the middle of the jungle? I´m loving it!

Also, I´m learning to play volleyball. I pretty much SUCK but I should be good, especially considering that I´m tall and I should be able to spike. Ha! Some friends of mine have taken me on as their little project and it´s kind of funny but if you can believe it, I actually improved about 100 times yesterday from Thursday. You should see me - it´s really funny. But I´m getting it.

We had the farewell party for Lars, Lilia, and César on Wednesday. We ate at Al Carbón, this fancy joint that serves mostly MEAT and lemme just tell you about the quantity I ate: TONS. I´m talking 2 pork chops, chorizo, 1/4 of a chicken, potatoes, and anticucho (grilled heart). I´ve lost almost 10 pounds since I´ve been here (I know, I have to work on putting on the pounds), so there was no guilt in gorging myself like a freak! Afterwards, we went to the hippest place I have seen in Iquitos: Nocoro, a little bar on the river. You take stairs down about two flights from street level and then you cross a bridge and you arrive in this beautiful, open bar with couches and lanterns, and moonlight. It´s just beautiful and it was the perfect spot for a relaxing party among intimate friends. Aunt Anita baked a pineapple upside down cake for the occasion, and we sang a song and drank beer and ate cake. It was so sweet. It was Lars, Lilia, César, Mario Luís, Mónica, Gloria (Mónica´s roommate) and Paco (Mónica´s friend visiting from Spain). It was just perfect.

On Thursday, there was a huge fiesta in Punchana, this really beautiful district of Iquitos that´s a little far from my house. It was for the Purísima (Super Pure) Virgin, and it was complete with beer, ferris wheels, food, and dancing AND (most importantly for me), a velada, or religious dance in front of the statue of the Purísima in a warehouse. Los Solteritos played and little old ladies danced back and forth with hankerchiefs. It´s not too much more complicated than that, but I really enjoyed myself. And it was the first time that Kathryn The Ethnographer came out of the closet, video camera and all. Kind of scary, but kind of fun once everyone realized that I´m in with the band!

Afterwards, I ran into one of the boys that works at the lumber store at home and we went dancing to Grupo Explosión, which was hilarious because there weren´t very many people there and the lead singer, Eduardo, was waving at me and blowing kisses, and the audience was like "what´s with the gringa?" Entertaining, at least.

Tonight we´re having a party for my friend who tried to commit suicide. We need to show her how much she is LOVED and how many friends she has. No one wants her to go all the way over the edge. Here´s hoping it´s a rip roaring success.