So little time...

Fun Fact No. 62: Sunny side of the street. As the rainy season is winding down, it now rains when it’s completely sunny outside. Also, it’ll rain on one side of the street and not the other. If you have the misfortune of traveling on the rainy side of the street (no wider than Guadalupe), you’re soaked but on the other side you get a sunburn.

Fun Fact No. 63: June bugs. Here, they’re called papazos, or big potato bugs. They’re dumb as rocks and they’re literally falling from the sky. Sometimes they fall in your hair (ick) but mostly they fall on the sidewalk and then little kids get a kick out of crunching them. As June winds down, there are less of them, but they keep banging into things.

Well this last week has been quite the adventure. First of all, I had some really killer interviews. And as I type this blog, in a hotel lobby, I’m awaiting the Big One: the guy who composes the hits for all popular cumbia bands in Peru and Brazil. He sells his hits for the very low price of S/. 1500 (about $500) and makes no royalties because piracy is what sells a band here. But since he sells a few hits a week, he’s rolling in the dough. And he happens to be in Iquitos this week. And I’m just waiting for him to show up!

Sunday the 24^th was San Juan. San Juan is the patron saint of Iquitos and the biggest holiday here – bigger than all other holidays (independence day, Christmas, New Years, etc.) combined. Nothing but party, party, party! The district of San Juan, on the south side of the city completely shuts down to make room for the carnivals and festivals and markets and parties and dances and bands and competitions. They had folkloric music and dance competitions, food competitions, chainsaw competitions (I felt like I was at the Ohio State Fair for that part of it) and the like. They made the worlds biggest juane, the most typical food from Iquitos. It’s rice, chicken, a hardboiled egg, olives, and saffron boiled in a bijao leaf. Pretty yummy but the first juane I ate this past weekend gave me food poisoning, so I’m less inclined to like the stuff. Anyway, the world’s biggest was a meter tall and a meter and a half wide. Dude!

On Friday night, I went to a velada (a religious dance) next to the main cathedral. That was where I ate the juane that doomed me until this morning, but it was still fun. It’s fun to dance with the old ladies and jump around (literally) to Los Solteritos, the other part of my research. I went to bed relatively early that night due to an upset stomach and exhaustion.

Explosión played at this local theme park called El Monte (the jungle) and it was quite the concert space – pools, tennis courts, basketball courts, jungle gyms…I’d always passed by it, but never actually entered. What a show!

The super-size Texas part of my San Juan weekend was an outing in The Big Truck. Mario recently bought a pretty sizable truck to transport lumber and was able to fit 36 people in the truckbed (including 3 babies and 5 little kids). Mario, Mario Sr., and Dina were in the cab. All that was missing was the Lonestar. Seriously! I’ve never EVER done something like that and wow besides the sore rear end from sitting for 2 hours in cramped quarters to get where we were going, it was FUN! We went to Nauta, the cute little town at the end of the highway (95 kilometers long) and bebopped around and then doubled back to Puente Itaya, a lovely part of the Itaya river that has a white sand beach and really cold water. We just swam and played volleyball and soccer and ate juanes (well, I abstained from the juane experience). We got back into town around 8pm and I hit the sack. I was completely exhausted!

I haven’t been sleeping well for about 3 weeks and tonight I’m going to take a sleeping aide. I think it’s just stress and anxiety resulting from the fact that I ONLY HAVE ONE MONTH LEFT AND I STILL HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!!!! Other than that, I’m great. I head to Lima tomorrow and then to Trujillo because Explosión is playing in both places. Plus I can go ahead and spend some time with my friends in Lima and say goodbye now rather than in August when I really leave. I just know that I’m going to be really sad when I actually leave Iquitos so I’d rather go straight to Austin rather than sit around in Lima for a few days. That’s the plan anyway.

Cementaries

Fun Fact No. 60: Cementaries are strange and wonderful. Just to illustrate, take a look at a the following pictures from the main cementary in Iquitos.
























































Yes, those are dead birds on top of that grave. Yes, that's a soccer ball and yes, that is an Amazon boat, built to scale. Wow. If only we were that creative!


In the meantime, recent news includes....
1. The concert went off with a few hitches, but nothing too drastic. I recorded it and it ain't bad. Unfortunately, the Bernstein didn't go as well as anticipated, mostly because that 10/4 time signature is tough. But it was passable. All in all, it was a good experience, and it was fun to play with Nancy.

2. I had AMAZING interviews yesterday, which, in my desperate last month or so, I really need to keep my spirits up. Everyone says that your fieldwork really gets underway in your last few months of research, and that is SO true. I guess that's what you get for not being a native and for staying for such a short time. 10 months is long but in a lifetime, it's nothing.

3. I'm going to Lima next week with Explosion. I get an interview with the main composer of Peruvian pop music and I'm also going to Trujillo with Lissette's parents where Explosion is also playing. I'm excited about the trip, but nervous about leaving Iquitos, even if it is for research. I feel like I have to take advantage of every second that I'm here.

4. I LOVE my seamstress! I am having lots of cute things made for people, and cheap! My seamstress is sweet and efficient, and quite creative. Hooray!

5. San Juan is coming up...June 24. It's the biggest holiday / festival / celebration in Iquitos during the whole year, and people eat juanes, rice, saffron, chicken, and olives boiled in a banana leaf so that everything absorbs the flavor of everything else. I love LOVE juanes and tis the season! Plus there are a lot of things happening for my research - veladas, parades, folkloric contests, etc.

Smart Classrooms (for real)

Fun Fact No.59: You have to be SUPER gay. Here in Iquitos, there is a thriving gay scene. Lots of transvestites, transexuals, and generally queer people. They are loved and hated in the same fell swoop, but they are loved more if they really REALLY show how gay they are. It´s kind of sad for those who don´t want to paint their fingernails and grow their hair long, because they have little chance of being accepted.


Today I gave a lecture in the private university of Iquitos (UPI) about ethnomusicology. It was a success for a number of reasons:
1. it was my first lecture in my field in Spanish
2. the audience paid attention, participated, and did not seem to be bored (even after a full 1.5 hours)
3. I think they got it. I mean, I think they listen, processed, and understood. Hooray! Hurrah!
I enjoyed myself immensely and it was refreshing to be in front a class again. I (unexpectedly) had lots of fun. Oh, and the other neat thing was that the room was a smart classroom à la UT. Except that here, surprisingly, it was remarkably efficient. Seriously, who would have thought that in the middle of the Amazon a smart classroom would exist and work? They had laptop, iTunes, speakers, stereo, internet, and a pointer thingy so that I didn´t have to be anywhere near the computer to change powerpoint slides. How badass is that? It ran so smoothly I almost choked. It was unbelievable. If the Society for Ethnomusicology conference went half as smoothly (technologically speaking) as my lecture today went, the conferences would be 10 times better.

The sad thing about my lecture was that none of my friends came (except for papa Mario, who was really excited). Most of my friends here are in biology or forest engineering or some such kind of jungley field, and I think they don´t get why I´m here if I´m not saving the manatees. (There are manatees here that my roommate César is actually saving.) It was a full house, but no one I know (except papa Mario) got to really see what it is that I do. Alas...

Good news / bad news:
1. I´m in Peru until August 5. I´m actually dreading leaving right now because I still have SO much work to do! But I want to see my friends (y´all) so I do want to get back -I´m generally conflicted.
2. Jamie Freedman is leaving. Great for her (who doesn´t love San Fran?) but sad for me and my apartment complex. Boo hoo....
3. Erica Konya emailed the sweetest email today. Great news, it´s just that she made me really miss my girls from 702 Wooster.

OK, ttfn!

Organs

Fun Fact No. 58: Trash days are everyday. Nope, no assigned trash day. Garbage trucks kind of swing by whenever they feel like it at whatever time they feel like and they just honk their INSANELY LOUD horns and you better get your trash to the street. You can´t leave your trash on the street because the 1,001 dogs will attack it and leave trash everywhere (including bathroom trash which, if you recall some 30 fun facts ago, may NOT be flushed down the toilet. ICK.).

SOOOOO.....getting ready for another concert. Not the one with the Korean pianist, Li, nor the one with the choir I direct. This one is with another choir, the Polyphonic Choir of Loreto (Coro Polifónico de Loreto) and the choir´s former director, Nancy Dunn from Chicago, Illinois. Nancy received her DMA from Northwestern in Organ Performance and went on to teach organ and direct choirs at Georgetown in D.C. for about 14 years. She had a short career in forestry engineering before continuing with her performance degrees and so she´s always been mildly obsessed with the Amazon. She came down here 9 years ago and never went back. She started a library in a small village in BFE Amazon, and brought down a piano and directed the choir for a while. Since she was originally an organist, she recently brought down her GORGEOUS electric organ (which took 5 months to get through customs) . With that lovely organ comes a concert this coming Sunday in the main cathedral. Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Rossini, Saint-Saens, Handel and Bernstein (the Adonai from Psalm 153) are on the menu. The coolest piece is the Bernstein, super atonal and delightfully crunchy. I´m playing a Handel sonata (that I haven´t played since I was about 14) and a Vivaldi Pastorale. It´s gonna rock (in that Baroque, organish kind of way). I´m excited for it.

Also, this Friday I give a lecture on Ethnomusicology at the private university here in Iquitos. It should be interesting...here´s hoping I don´t completely botch it and give these kids the wrong idea!

On a sadder note, Mario Luis is leaving this coming week. I know I´ll see him in Austin in the fall, but he has been such an integral part of my experience here that it´s hard to imagine Iquitos without him. Monica is also hitting the road soon, and I´m mildly devastated at the departure of both of them. Boo hoo....

Knuckles!

Fun Fact No. 57: ATM cards are confusing. So since the ATM card is a relatively new arrival to the Amazon, lots of people have it & don´t know how to use it. Or they have one and can´t read so I end up helping someone take out cash at least once a week. The things you take for granted, right?

So today I was casually playing volleyball with one of the neighborhood kids when WHAM! My left ring finger snapped back. WOW did that hurt! A friend massaged it a bit and it hurt slightly less but when I went to pick up a glass it started to kill. My roommate Graciela is pretty well trained in home medicine and stuff so she grabbed it, pulled it, and then massaged it into place. My knuckle was dislocated. Such a tiny, tiny part of the body but such a BIG BIG pain! Now I´m typing about 2 words a minute because my finger is in a splint and is throbbing a bit. But an adventure nonetheless. However, since it hurts like H-E-double hockey sticks, I´ll save more exciting adventures for tomorrow or the next day. Tune in next time, folks, for more "This Amazonian Life".

Strike 3!

Fun Fact No. 56: Patch it up! With a bucket of water, an air hose, and some tar, you can patch up your tube for your motorcycle. Got a leak? They just fill it with air, put it under water to see where it bubbles, and then cover the whole with tar. Quick, easy, effective, and a mere S/. 2 (about 35 cents).

So today is the last day of a three day regional strike. The streets were once again filled with broken bottles, burning car and motorcycle tires, burning mattresses, tree trunks, trash, etc. Same reasons for a strike - no to federal taxes and yes to teachers´ pay hikes. Except that it´s really inefficient - it only causes people here to lose money, trash to accumulate in the streets, and the important politics in Lima to just ignore it all. It really only affects the people here instead of sending a strong message there. Oh the bitter ironies! The nice part is that it´s a bit of a vacation from the hustle and bustle of the city. No traffic, lots of volleyball and soccer games, and lots of time to work at home or go for long walks, of which I did both. Today I walked about 10 miles altogether and it felt great. Those of you who know me well know that I´m not a big walker. I prefer my bike or a run, and I´d normally rather run a marathon before walking a mile, but it really was terrific. I got some great interviews in and enjoyed the gorgeous weather these days - sunny but breezy, warm but not too warm.

And to top it off, Monica came over to spend the strike at our house where a new Finnish girl, Emilia moved in. So these past few days has been just girls (Graciela, Monica, Emilia, and yours truly) cooking and drinking wine and going for long walks. Sounds like a hot date, huh? It´s been great.

This past weekend I did nothing more than work on my motorcycle, listen to interviews, and sleep. For whatever reason I was super exhausted for about three days. At first I was afraid it was Dengue fever, but then I realized that I hadn´t been sleeping well and it was just cumulative exhaustion. As a result, I was super well-rested for this strike so I´ve been quite productive.

I feel like I have a million and one things to tell everyone but I can´t think of them right now. So I´ll write them on my computer at home and then get back to you. Happy Wednesday!