Saturday, October 31, 2009

Ingrid and the Andes

Ingrid is a science teacher in the UK. She had a week-long vacation, and she shared it with me! We studied yoga together in India, then went camping and road-tripping in the UK, and then...

She left a teacher’s meeting on Friday at 3 (UK time) and arrived in Resistencia on Sunday morning around 8 (Argentina Time). We went to the farmer’s market to get the makings for dinner, and then shared the whole day with Lorena and Yamil.

We checked out the plaza, various sculptures (Resistencia is the sculpture capital of Argentina, (¿viste?), and then we checked out Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, an awesome movie from 1988. Ingrid brought it for me to give to Lorena and Yamil, along with Something Under the Bed is Drooling, a Calvin and Hobbes book. We dined with Susana and her daughter Luz, and they shared photos and helped us plan our trip to the Andes.

Ingrid spoke in her English accent for students at my college, San Fernando Rey, and also my high school, Escuela Normal Sarmiento, then before we left on Tuesday night, Lorena, Yamil, Ingrid and I headed to the flooded Rio Paraná.

In my querido high school, Ingrid and I traded words like, "computer," "letter," and "tomato," so the students could hear our different accents.

Ingrid and mine's trip to the Andes began that night when we headed to the terminal and missed our bus. ha!

It may seem strange that a person would spend just a week touring another country, but when the power of the pound (nearly 7 Argentine pesos to 1 English pound) is combined with the rarity and value of a good travel partner (not every friend is necessarily a good travel partner), it all adds up. So we happily boarded the next bus to Salta, the capital city that shares the name with its province.

Once in Salta, twelve hours later, we lunched with my friend and fellow-Fulbrighter Paige from Tacoma, Washington, and headed to our hostel…

On Thursday we scooted off in a rented Chevy to Jujuy, a jewel-studded province if ever there were. WooO! Millennia in the making, exposed strata’s colors shift with the sunlight. It’s holy ground like every place but it does look different! In parts its hills are like black rock crumbs under black cacti dangerously sharp and with good posture like a SWAT team, in parts it's like red clay, in parts it's seven colors, and in parts, well, it's hard to explain.

Dinner included a sincere and talented musical performance, as well as a big, fuzzy black dog that casually pranced into the restaurant. We stayed in Pumamarca (that’s where la tierra de siete colores is, the hill of seven colors), and then rolled south early on Friday for more rock admiring. We arrived at a natural amphitheater, and I sang and met a few of the musicians and artists, one of whom invited us over. I had originally asked if the nearby river was swimmable, and he said not only was it swimable, but he would take us there, and to his house. His name was Adán, or Adam.

We talked about life styles, and he mentioned auto-marginalización, or self-marginalization, and also he imparted the idea of carrying, being near, or otherwise treating like amulets metals and liquids in the forms of cell phones and televisions. As you can imagine, we had a good connection.

He’s built several structures next to the river for prayers, music, and shelter from the rain. He lives without such apparent necessities as email, cell phones, electricity, and running water.

And if you know me you know swimming holes are important, and if you think I took a dip into that river, you’d be right. It was 37 degrees Celsius, or over 98 degrees, and it felt great.

Before we knew it we were back in Salta on Friday night at the hostel, and Ingrid said that there was a party that lasted loud through 3am, but I was out like a light at 11:30.

Saturday, after hanging out with Paige and one of her students who’s bound for Florida, I headed to the bus station and right now I’m 30 kilometers from home. Lorena and Yamil and I are going to hang out today, and possibly two German travelers that I met here on the bus last night.

Here are some pictures from the journey. It was a pretty one.


Chabela just happened to be teaching on UK culture
as Ingrid was passing through town.

Before our journey began, Ingrid got to meet my high school class.

Ingrid snapped this pic just as we were packing up
to leave for the bus station.

We stopped for this photo op on the way to Humahuaca. The next few
pictures are from about 4000+ meters high, several kilometers outside
Humahuaca.







This is outside Pumamarca, beneath the hill of seven colors.

A couple of hundred kilometers south of the previous
picture, and maybe 50 kilometers north of Cafayate,
this is where the natural amphitheater is.

Can you spot me? I sang along to some local music, and
then sang an acapella "Come By Here."

On the left is Nahuel, a musician, and on the right, Adán,
the artist who invited us over to his place on the river.

We shared about important things: non-participation,
exclusion, "self-marginalization," and other such topics.
My most urgent point was to share that we have to enjoy
creating a world of social justice and peace, partly
because honey attracts more bees than vinegar.

Things outside his primary structure.

Trading contact info. His address has his name and the zip code,
no más.

Ingrid, one of Adán's places, and the river and land.

Adán is pictured here next to one of his
houses of worship.

Here we are on the way back to the car continuing the visit
after the swim.


Thank you for following the blog. I head home in just 21 days. It’s really unbelievable: 8 months. It’ll be hard to leave Seba, Lorena, Yamil, the high school, the college, the Saturday music workshop.

The urgency of a practical realization of our common humanness, or how quickly we became friends, exposes our common humanness, millenniums in the making, and verifies that regardless of imaginary national boundaries we are one people, one family with different colors, different languages, different religions, and other subtle, potentially uniting differences. Yeah, I’ll see you in three weeks, Arkansas! We can practice yoga together, and I'll cook us brown rice and vegetable burritos! Then I'll study for the LSAT. ha!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Rowing, Swimming, Celebrating


What a week! On Monday, Seba, Lorena, Yamil and I went rowing in a branch of the Parana River. The river and the land along it was beautiful and relatively untouched by human "development." Then we had a picnic with the folks that let us use their canoe, and there was a commanding, funny woman there that loved to visit. They shared their mashed potatoes, their bathroom, their desert, and their tereré with us.

Next, and if you know me you ought to know that among my favorite things in the world is swimming in rivers, we went swimming in a safe part of the Parana River. It was a fun, fun day with fun, fun friends, and I hope we do it all again. ha!

Tuesday I worked at both the Instituto Terciario San Fernando Rey and Escuela Normal Sarmiento. It's become kind of a tradition that I pick up vegetarian food from my Taiwanese friends' restaurant on the way to Escuela Normal and then eat with the juniors and seniors that linger there after school (they go from the morning to noon-ish and then what we might call middle school goes in the afternoon. I think.)

Wednesday I turned 25! A quarter of a century old. Seba, Alejandro and I practiced Kilómetro 11, an old, beautiful, and difficult Chamamé song. We had a party of ice cream and cake at
Escuela Normal, and then that evening I skyped with Stephen and Darby and called Mom and Dad before heading over to hang out with Seba, Yamil and Lorena.

Thursday I worked at SFR and napped.

Friday I had lunch with Seba's grandmother and Seba, Lore, y Yamil, and we were able to hear a little about what Chaco (the Argentine state in which I live) was like 70+ years back. She made delicious veggie empanadas (Argentine dumplings) just for me (there's an ode to her empanadas below). Then in the plaza my students and I read an article on organic farming and a great poem/story by Sonia Sanchez called Norma from her book Homegirls and Handgrenades. I dined with the Britoses, one of my two Argentine families.
On the way to the plaza Lore and I stopped by my place to put some beans in water, and she happened to read a couple of letters from Stephen Ironside and Darby. She observed that I'm fortunate to have people that love me and want to sing with me and be with me here and in Arkansas. I couldn't help but agree. The speed at which my Argentine friends and I have risen in love is inspiring. Seba, Lorena and Yamil have become some of my best friends ever and we've only really been hanging out for a few months.

Saturday I helped teach music with Seba in Vilelas, then came home and pressure cooked black beans. That night I hung out with my Taoist/Buddhist/Christian/Confucian friends from Taiwan and Resistencia.

Sunday I made fresh-squeezed orange juice for tereré, the cold version of the sacred yerba mate. Seba, Lorena, Yamil, Andrés Alvarez (a student and friend from San Fernando Rey, the college where I teach), my Taiwanese friends Pablo, Andrés, Shuwei, and Angela, and a couple of new friends, one from Italy working for a non-governmental organization (NGO) and another, a great sculpture from Resistencia, one of the world's
sculpture capitals.

Monday, today, I dared to wash a mountain of dishes and in a moment I'll sweep the floor. It's a beautiful, shirtless, tereré kind of day. Seba came over earlier and we wrote a lovely description of his music in English for publication on various websites. Tonight, veggie burritos and, if I'm feelin' real crazy, homemade peanut butter.

Thank ya'll for following the blog!

Below are some pictures, and an invitation to Fayetteville's event for International Climate Action Day. Obama and most of the rest aren't doing enough, and as they're a reflection of us, we can now examine ourselves and get to work.

See you!

PS I can't believe I'll be back in Arkansas in a month and four days!

Here is some great art from the port in Barranqueras.

Just outside my house these flowers were growing.

These are right outside the kitchen window and its mostly effective mosquito screen.

On the 11th, a few folks from San Fer came over for dinner.

This is of course my favorite class, minus a girl and all four
boys. The gal in the back scarfing ice cream is
really funny.

With a happy birthday wish in the background
and a delicious, lopsided torta in the foreground.
Much thanks to the four students who got
together to make this delicious cake.

Seba's grandmother is really cool. A technologically
literate senior, a gardener who knows a bit
about medicinal plants, a superb painter, and...
her empanandas weren't burnt at all
they were soft pockets of experience
and spinach, chard, and eggs.

Lore, Seba, me, and Seba's cousin Cristian
who later came and visited me and my students
in Plaza Belgrano as it is in front of his
university.

This is from Saturday in Vilelas at the music workshop.

These feet were in the park at Laguna Argüello to celebrate
my birthday with frisbee, badminton, and bike riding.

Here we are, some of us.

Diddo.

Ricardo is there on the left, then me, Seba, and Lorena.

They said the red candle/firework was worth
20 and the little ones one each. ha! Good times!

And from Moshe and Hamsa Newmark:

Greetings, please invite everyone you know, including those with alternative transportation (bicyclists, scooter people, those with bio-diesels etc.) to join in the parade - rally for Climate Change on Saturday, October 24th, at 2pm behind Bordinos Restaurant. This is an opportunity for us all to be part of an international tapestry with over 1300 other cities world-wide to help push for substantial climate change legislation. This issue affects everyone on the planet and is universally the most pressing! Let's join in solidarity on the 24th....here are the details:

Climate change is real and you can do something about it. October 24th is International Climate Action Day and Fayetteville is one of over a thousand cities around the world that will host a rally. Join with fellow citizens of NW Arkansas and people world-wide on Saturday, October 24th, 2:00pm for a March and Rally beginning in the parking lot off Dickson St. behind Bordinos then marching to the Fayetteville Square. There will be speakers, music and information on how we can make a difference affecting the December treaty in Copenhagen. Stand up for Action on Climate Change, Saturday, October 24th, beginning at 2:00pm behind Bordinos, sponsored by 350.org and 1 SKY. For more information call 521-7786.