Update #5: The Organ

I hardly know where to start describing this project that consumed my time for about the first month I was in Santiago. 

Kathryn Whittaker's father helps some Santiageñas carry the large organ tubes

Before I was even thinking about coming to Bolivia last year, Peter and Kathryn had started working on getting an organ from Earlham (they both graduated from Earlham) donated and sent to the Catholic church in Santiago.  Peter came back to the US for SALT re-entry retreat and while visiting home in Indiana help pack up the organ at Earlham (these sites have his video of the process- http://www.univision.com/uv/video/Barckhoff-tracker-pipe-organ-to-Santiago/id/593132644 and http://www.youtube.com/user/wiggipe).  About the time I got to Santiago, we had a little over a month to prepare for the big opening concert (Friday, October 30)  for the organ with an amazing organist, Stephen Roberts, who was coming to play.  So while Peter was in Santa Cruz trying to work out all the problems that the organ ran into trying to get to Bolivia, I stayed in Santiago to help Kathryn and the Organ Committee (a group of Santiageñas helping bring the organ) organize various things and get the choir and orchestra ready for the concert, while still learning Spanish and how to do my job. 

Peter and Susie put some finishing touches on the organ

During part of this time I took the train to Santa Cruz for the MCC retreat, and came back with Susan Tatershall who came to put the organ together. 

Peter and Kathryn decided it would be really great to bring the Hombres Nuevos orchestra in Santa Cruz to play with our orchestra because they are a bigger and more established than our orchestra.  So that they could play well together we got donations to take the Santiago orchestra to Santa Cruz to practice with Hombres Nuevos for a couple days.  Their director Antoine Duhamel is an amazing and crazy musician (whose primary instrument is trombone) who spent much of his life working with the system of orchestras in Venezuela.  About 4 years ago he decided to come work for SICOR in Bolivia and has directed Hombres Nuevos sinces then.  Because I was directing a few of the pieces for the concert I rehearsed with Hombres Nuevos and the Santiago orchestra and was incredibly nervous to do so especially because I had absolutely no time or resources to help me prepare for conducting these pieces.  Looking back, I know there are things that with experience and practice I could have done better, but I think things ended up going pretty well considering I was overwhelmingly busy, just a beginner at Spanish, and still learning how to work with string instruments.  Also I felt crazy taking 16 students to a city of 1.5 million people with only two parents.  Luckily nothing terrible happened and we all returned to Santiago for the concert.

Kathryn helps Stephen Roberts get his organ shoes on to start the concert

While I took the orchestra to Santa Cruz, everyone in Santiago was waiting nervously for the organ to arrive.  It should have come 3-4 weeks before the concert, but because of various shipping and customs problems in kept getting held up.  Then about 3 days before the concert it arrived and Susie, Amado Cadena (a Bolivian organ builder and repairman-this is a pretty unique position because there are hardly any organs in Bolivia), and Peter began what was supposed to be a two week job of putting the organ back together.  The final week before the concert, everyone involved in the project worked like crazy to get all the details put together, the organ in good enough shape to play, and the music sounding good because the Organ Committee had invited different important people from the local government and also people and organizations who had donated very much money to support the project.  Finally on Friday night the concert began (all the organ parts were played by Stephen Roberts):

the orchestra waits for its turn to play during the concert

Concerto in G major, by Prins Johan Erns/J.S. Bach- for organ solo

Adagio en Sol Menor, by Giazotto/Albinoni- for organ with the Santiago and Hombres Nuevos orchestras

Concerto No. 3, by Pdr. Antonio Soler- an organ duet with Waldo Papo (an organ teacher in Urubicha, another Bolivian town who had been penpals with Stephen Roberts for several years) 

Sonatas de Capilla, by W.A. Mozart- for organ with the Santiago and Hombres Nuevos orchestras

Praise the Lord with Drum and Cymbols, by Sigfrid Karg-Elert- for organ with an Hombres Nuevos brass ensemble

Ego Sum Panis Vivus, by Pdr. Giovanni Battista Martini- for organ and the Santiago choir

Trio for organ and trumpet- for organ and trumpet solo (a kid from Hombres Nuevos played this)

Concerto in G for Organ, Op. 4, by G.F. Handel- for organ with the Santiago and Hombres Nuevos orchestras

Variations on America, by Charles Ives- for solo organ

looking inside at the organ's pipes

Leading up to the concert, I was incredibly nervous because it was my first ”real” concert that I conducted in (I directed two orchestra pieces and the choir piece).  But overall I think it ended up going really well, and everyone was happy to relax after getting the organ in place and working.

Here are two articles (in Spanish) about the project:

–http://eldia.com.bo/index.php?cat=182&pla=3&id_articulo=18596

–http://www.eldeber.com.bo/2009/2009-10-18/vernotasantacruz.php?id=091017223407

Update #4: Random

The strangest food I’ve eaten in Bolivia: 

armadillo.  one day when i got home for lunch there was half an armadillo sitting on the fire stove.  i was a little hestitant when we started opening up the animal and pulling the meat off its body.  although i think it would take me some time to really like it, its juicy unique flavor was interesting to try.

Things I encounter on my 20 minute walk into town day:

wandering donkeys and cows because many people let their animals roam the village.  people visiting their neighbors or running errands.  a small monkey who lives in someone’s yard and at times likes to make mischief (when a visiting orchestra stayed near his house, he got into their room and threw the contents of their suitcases everywhere).  students walking to school.  chickens and dogs.  loud music from one of the dance clubs/Ricolas or someone’s house.  construction on various houses.  people riding bikes, trucks, horses, or motocyles.

What my work schedule looks like during summer break (the middle of November to February):

8am- beginning violins, 9am- intermediate violins, 10am- individual theory and piano classes, 11am- classes for those who want to start playing an instrument

working with the wind instruments

12pm- lunch

2pm- i get organ lessons from the organ teacher, 3pm- wind instruments, 4pm-choir, 5:30pm- a few piano students, 6pm-orchestra, 8pm-organize my stuff and walk home 

The most awkward cat name in Bolivia:

when I first got my kitten, people told me, even a biologist told me, that it was a she.  so i named her Eva.  turns out he is a she.  Since he already knows his name the easiest change to make it a guy name would be to call him Evo.  but this is the name of the current Bolivian president and  in the region of Santa Cruz where I live people don’t often hold this president in a favorable light.  maybe i should look for another name.

The most otherworldly SALT orientation visit:

one week when i was back in Santa Cruz we had an orientation visit to a Mennonite colony.  surprisingly, there are around 50,000 old order Mennonites living in Bolivia.  apparently they first moved to Mexico and Canada, but when the government started to expect too much of them they moved to Bolivia where they could have their own schools and more secluded communities.  one of MCC’s big projects in Bolivia is staffing a information center (Centro Menno) and providing other resources for the Colony Mennonites because some have had trouble adapting to life in Bolivia.  one of the guys who works at Centro Menno came to translate the low German for us.  we talked, ate lunch with them, and got a tour of the farm.  at one point we alternated singing songs for each other and asked various questions about our different lifestyles.  it felt like no place that i had ever visited before, especially not in Bolivia, and made me wonder if this is what my ancestors lives would have been like. 

More people to know in Santiago:

Filomena- an older woman who lives in the convent next to the church and music classroom who used to be the director of a nearby school.  she used to help do various things for the music school, but after multiple conflicts with the kids (she had a more authoritarian style of relating to them than they liked) she decided to retire from being involved with the music program.  she often offers me food or drink when i’m around.  she still works with a group of kids who do traditional dances with drum and bamboo flute music.

John Wood- one of many naturalists and bioligists who come to study plants and animals in Santiago.  i think he teaches at Oxford.  He brings a team of biologists who go tramping out into the forests to find the plants that ”can’t be found anywhere else in the world but Santiago.”

Update #3: Birthday stuff

I got back to Santiago just in time to celebrate my birthday on a Sunday (Oct. 18), and had fun experiencing some Bolivian birthday traditions.  The celebrations started at midnight, when some of my students and a few others from Santiago woke me up with songs at my door.  This “serenad” with guitar, 2 violins, and singing continued for several songs including “Happy Birthday” in English.  Then in the morning, my two host sisters (Daniela and Diana), a visiting violin teacher (Eduardo- nicknamed Obispo), a visiting Swiss couple, and I hiked for about an hour to a place call Las Posas (the pools).  We spent just about all day there swimming, hanging out, playing games, and exploring the area, and a few more of my students showed up later in the day.  Sadly, somehow I lost all my pictures of this day, but I’ll have to put up some of Las Posas sometime, because, so far, it’s one of my favorite places to go in Santiago.  After hiking back into town as darkness fell, we ate dinner at the escuelita.  For desert we had some of the Whittaker’s ice cream with more serenading, and then Kathryn and the kids came over with a delicious chocolate cake.  Like in the US, I had to blow out some candles while they sang me a birthday song, but after that, I was supposed to take a bit out of the cake.  Luckily I had seen this happen at another birthday party and had an idea that when I went to bite the cake they would push my face into it.  I think I would enjoy adopting this tradition into my friends future birthdays in the US :).

Update #2- MCC Retreat

A gathering at the MCC retreat

So after my first 3 weeks in Santiago, I took the train back to Santa Cruz for the MCC Retreat and to get a few things done in the city.  A couple days after I arrived at MCC, all the MCC Bolivia workers (I think there are around 60)  piled into two small buses and a van to drive to Semipata (a smallish town known as a great tourist destination) for our annual fall retreat. To get to Semipata we drove 3-4 hours west of Santa Cruz, which means gradually curving up into the mountains. Our lodgings here were simple, yet homey guest houses where we ate and had different sessions during the day. I really enjoyed to chance to catch up with all the MCCers that I don’t get to see often.

along the bus ride to Semipata

We returned to Santa Cruz after about two days of retreat, and I had a chance to spend a night with Arelis, one of the other SALTers. Her family attends a Catholic church that some of the other 3-year MCCers work with, so we went to the Saturday night mass and then chilled out at her house. The cat at her house had kittens, and I mentioned that the previous SALTers in Santiago had their own kittens and the Whittakers had offered me one of the kittens their cat was going to have. The next day Arelis showed up at MCC with a kitten in a box that she had brought on the Micro (bus), and apparently the kitten had very orally expressed its dislike for traveling in a box. She had told her host mother that I was interested in getting a kitten, and her host mother immediately decided she should send this kitten to me.  I very quickly fell in love with this kitten and decided it would be worth trying the 12 hour bus/train ride to take it with me.

my kitten, Eva

As it turned out, Susan Tattershall, the woman who was coming to build the organ, was on her way to Santiago about the same day that I was so we decided it would be more fun to go together (with my kitten). Because the train didn’t run that day we took an overnight Flota (these buses are generally thought to be less comfortable and slower than the train, but they’re not too bad). I had fun getting to know Susan a bit during our trip, and the kitten did pretty well, although was happy to finish the journey. Susie now lives in Colorado and works for a University Honors Program, but has spent her life working on organs. Much of her work was restoring and fixing old organs in Mexico, and so she spoke wonderful Spanish.

the yard at the MCC compound where I stay in Santa Cruz

Overall my time spent in Santa Cruz tends to be a mix between being a chance to relax and take a break from my job (and have “English” days- what we call taking a break from Bolivian culture and spending time with other English speakers and doing things that remind us of home like watching movies), and having to frantically catch up on communication (blogging, skyping, emailing, etc.), working on various projects for the music school, and shopping for things I can’t get in Santiago or are cheaper her in Santa Cruz.

Also, for those of you who want to see more pictures, I’ve been putting them all up at this website (there are links to this on the side of this blog page too):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristenswartley/

Update #1

So I have a lot to catch up on from this last month, and not much time to write.  I´ll start with a bit here and add more when I have time…

After Peter left for Santa Cruz, the next three weeks now seem like a blur in my memory.  Probably my brain filled to beyond its capacity in this sudden immersion of learning a new language and job that it couldn´t make sense of much for those first weeks :).  Since all the kids have school in the morning until noon, all of the music classes happen in the afternoon, and my schedule has stayed pretty much the same:

***first some definitions…  Vientos=wind instruments (we have 2 clarinets, 2 flutes, and 1 trumpet), Preinfantile=the begginners string class (about 8 kids), Infantile=the middle level string class (about 10 kids), Coro=choir (about 25 kids), Teclado=piano/keyboard (about 8 kids), and Orquesta=orchestra (about 22 kids)***

Monday: Vientos (2pm), Infantile (3pm), Coro (4-5:30pm), Orquesta (6-8pm)

Tuesday:  Preinfantile (2pm), Infantile (3pm), Coro (4-5:30pm), Orquesta (6-8pm)

Wednesday:  Vientos (2pm), Infantile (3pm), Teclado (4pm and 5pm), Orquesta (6-8pm)

Thursday:  Preinfantile (2pm), Infantile (3pm), Coro (4-5:30pm), Orquesta (6-8pm)

Friday:  Vientos (2pm), Infantile (3pm), Coro (4-5:30pm), Orquesta (6-8pm)

Then during the mornings I usually work on planning my classes, getting things organized, and fixing instruments (we have to replace a lot of broken strings here because the cheap ones we use break more easily).

Well, I´ve got to get going, more later….

Santiago de Chiquitos

About four weeks ago (Saturday, October 12) I took the 10-12 hour train trip out to Santiago.  Since then I´ve been so busy learning my job, meeting people, and working on my Spanish that I haven´t had a chance to check out the small internet café in Santiago (which doesn´t even work much of the time).

My first week was pretty intense.  Laurie, Peter, Paul Whittaker, and I took the noon train and arrived in Roboré at about 11:30 to meet Peter´s host father Don Willie who drove us the final 45 minutes to Santiago.  The next morning, Laurie and I walked down the road to Milton and Katheryn Whitakker´s for lunch.  About 40 years ago Milton came with MCC to Santiago to teach English and later Katheryn came with another organization (about 17 years ago).  They met, married and have worked on their own dairy farm in Santiago ever since.  Now they and their 5 children–  Ramona (14), Rachel (13), Joe (11), John Milton (9), and Paul David (6)—are the only people in town that I can speak English to.  They also own the the Escuelita that I live in.  Because Santiago is so small and not very wealthy, no one really has extra rooms to offer so my living situation works differently than some other SALTers.  Many years ago some missionaries built the Escuelita as a school for the indigenous people.  When they left, Milton and Katheryn bought the Escuelita and turned it into a guest house.  I live in one of these rooms, and my host family is the woman, Doña Marta, who takes care of the place and her three daughters, Daniela, Diana, and Samara.

 After meeting the Whittakers and eating lunch on Sunday we took their jeep into town for a welcome get together the orchestra and choir were having for me.  During this time, I met a bunch of people who I didn´t remember and got to hear the orchestra and choir for the first time.

We started rehearsing on Monday because during the upcoming week we needed to perform two concerts!  I began by watching how Peter worked with the orchestra and choir and gradually started to rehearse all the music with them.  On Tuesday morning we visited both of the schools in Santiago to announce to each classroom that the younger kid´s string classes would start that afternoon. 

Tuesday evening we had our first concert!  Some sort of eco-conference with people from around the world was meeting in Santiago´s hotel and they wanted to hear the local music.  They played several pieces that Peter had worked with them on before he left and I directed two of them.  Although I felt somewhat unprepared for this having only been in Santiago for 2 days, it forced me to jump in and start learning quickly.  With hardly any time to worry about it, I had participated in my first concert in Santiago.

After this we needed to prepare for a performance on Sunday.  The priest, Padre Piotr, who organizes the Chiquitania Baroque festival in April was coming to see how our orchestra and choir sounded so that he could better arrange our performance places for the festival.  At this point I had learned to conduct all the songs.  After the performance Padre Piotr seemed really excited about our musical potential for the festival, and expressed that the choir especially impressed him.  Also, he told us that he is going to send an organ teacher for December and January to get people started learning how to use the new organ.

Following this week of hard work and concerts, Peter headed back to Santa Cruz to work on the final details of getting the organ here, and I continued learning how to teach in Santiago.