VII Festival

Choir and orchestra of Santiago on tour in San José

Friends and family!

They say that time flies as you get old – well, given the fact that I’m still just twenty four years old and I already feel the time disappearing like needles in a haystack I don’t know what will happen in a few decades!

In the last several months, things have been HAPPENIN´. It feels good to finally report that I feel involved, active, accomplishing, etc. Here is the account of the activities:

The months of March and April were filled with preparations for the VII Festival de Música Renacentista y Barroca Americana. (Check out http://www.rutaverdebolivia.com/Baroque-Music-Festival.php to get a taste of what the festival entails) In the process of getting ready for the grand events of the Festival, I was able to get involved in new and more interesting ways with the community. For example, we were able to pool the help of many community members together to make beautiful túnicas (choir robes and matching shirts for the orchestra). However, the mothers who were sewing the túnicas didn´t actually finish their part until 48 hours before the concert... leaving every mamá, papá, hermano, hermana, tio, tia, and prima scrambling to embroider a relatively delicate design of parakeets, wrens, and monkeys onto their kids´ uniform. I never thought it would come together, but somehow it did. My favorite moment was going to the meat shop to find the papá of my first cellist sitting with the túnica of his daughter draped over his knees, doing the job as his wife was out of town. Priceless. We had our opening concert that night, with the mayors of three neighboring towns in to visit; the kids played well, looked sharp, and halfway through got so nervous that things nearly fell apart, but so it goes!

As part of the Festival de la Música Barroca, (I stray from my humble Menno-ism to puff my chest and proudly report) the Choir and Orchestra of Santiago de Chiquitos officially participated for the very first time in all of history, presenting concerts not only at home but travelling to the distinguished San José de Chiquitos (3 hours away) to sing and play. M-hmm! Moreover, the reports were excellent! Humble as we are (we really are humble), concert-attendees especially noted on the distinctive sound of the choir. Oh joy.

I also had the opporunity to travel to some of the other Jesuit mission towns and see other professional and local groups perform. It was an immensely valuable experience, both to be inspired by groups from abroad as well as gain a fuller sense of what other Bolivian orchestras and choirs are doing.



From there, thanks to the collaboration from the mayor of Roboré (santiago´s city neighbour), two students from Santaigo´s music school and I were able to attend the closest thing to ´´professional development´´ I could think to find here in Bolivia. There was a stellar orchestra conductor/visiting professor from Spain that was offereing a week-long course in San José. So, I had an excellent time attending the class, improving my conducting skills, interacting with my Argenine music friends (directors of the orchestra in San José), as well as connecting with other music directors in the Chiquitania.

And then I headed off to explore a bit of the ´´other side´´ of Bolivia – the famous Salt Flats of Uyuni (Salar de Uyuni). I hope to include some pictures soon, as words do not even begin to describe the marvellous sights.

And now I am settling into my last month of real time in Santiago, attempting to prepare a final concert to mark my time here. And I eagerly await the visit of my parents, who come mid-June. The days are passing quickly now!

It has been a refreshing several months, full of many things but I like it that way. As my time comes to a close, I am cherishing all I can about living in this beautiful place. There will be many things and people I will miss when leave, especially since in the last several months I have finally come to feel more connected. Yet at the same time, I can almost taste the freshness of being home and it too is calling me.

Thanks again for your emails, thoughts, prayers. Bolivia sends her greetings. And in not so much time now, I will be seeing many of you again...

Saludos.
Dianita.

When it rains, it pours

It is hard to believe I´m moving into the final stretch of my time in Bolivia, but here I am: mid-March, finally feeling settled into a workable routine, full into the swing of music as I´m preparing my students for the big international baroque music festival, and celebrating some long-fought-for funds for the music school. While the beginning part of my term felt much like a downpour of challenges and wheel-spinning, trying to get things moving, the table has turned and the downpour is like a refreshing spring rain: exciting, fast-paced (or as fast as you get in Bolivia), richer with more community connections and a sense of feeling rooted.

Novedades (What´s new) from past few months:

--Began teaching 3-7th graders during school hours--young kids learning folk songs and basic music theory, older kids recorders. I continue to teach a beginning orchestra, a youth choir, and a high-school-aged chamber orchestra after school.

¡Estudiantes! (i tried to tell them to stand up straight but they wouldn´t listen)

--Prep for the Baroque Music Festival, which includes: incentive for kids to come to rehearsal (!), designing and organizing community to make traditional Chiquitano tunics for the kids to wear, traveling to neighboring towns to see performing spaces and organize concerts...

Traveling with my counterpart Filomena and her grandson, Duby

--FINALLY seeing the benefits of raising funds for the school... amid the frustrating state of Bolivian beauocracy, this is a HUGE blessing - something long fought for and finally received. The children will have much-needed materials for the festival! New strings, rosin, new bridges to replace the bridges destroyed by the tropical climate... oh, it is a happy day.

--Enjoyed participating in the events and customs of Semana Santa (always huge in latin-american catholic culture). Highlight included recording one of Santiago´s folk musicians play La Marcha Fúnebre (Funeral March), notating it, teaching it to the young orchestra violinists, and then joining the abuelos (elderly, respected folk musicians) in a late-night procession around the center square, remembering the mournful walk on Good Friday, carrying Jesus´ body to the tomb. It was quite moving.

--Aside from music, time taken to visit community members and learning more about some of the arts and crafts the townspeople of Santiago are involved with.

Ervin, Hilda y Alex - nuevos amigos

Más Escenas/Scenes:

Züpfe for Easter in Santiago, Visiting the Menno church in Santa Cruz, Cruceña politial hype

And there´s more news! I am celebrating the offer of a JOB back in Harrisonburg upon my return: given that my references and other logistical details come through, I will be teaching music at Smithland Elementary school - a school with over 50% Spanish-speaking immigrants in the fall. The opportunity is truly a gift!

Thanks to all for your prayers and support. I continue to be sustained by knowing community is behind me at home, and feeling my community in Bolivia grow. As I read recently, la vida es la lucha - life is the struggle. As we struggle, we find ourselves and we help the world grow towards the new kingdom. May we all stay strong in our struggle!

(from atop the rock pillar Chochis, where all is so

beautiful even gravity seems to lose its effect.)

Christmas and New year´s Greetings: Better Late than Never!

They say that pictures say a thousand words: well, I would love to rely on pictures to communicate all that has occured in the past two months. Unfortunately however, Camera Cable in Santiago + Me in Santa Cruz = Words Will Have to Suffice!

The rollercoaster of life in Bolivia continues in unexpected and unpredictable ways. Here are some highlights and excitements of the past few months:

--Early December, reunion at MCC for cookie-baking and merry-making. Each participating MCCer made a batch of their favorite Christmas cookie and then we shared them around. Twelve kinds total, featuring all from Russian Tea Cakes to Peanut Butter Blossoms to Gingerbread Men! It felt a little odd to be baking Christmas cookies in sweltering hot weather, but it certainly was refreshing to celebrate with a familiar tradition.

--Rehearsals in Santiago pick up speed as we prepare for the Christmas concert. I experience all the joy and frustration that happens as a concert date draws close and music feels unprepared. However, true to Bolivian culture, I tried my best to not get too stressed out, drank ''tecito'' (a little afternoon tea) to calm myself, and in the end all went at least decently as planned. The concert was very well received by the community - so well in fact that we decided to do a repeat concert shortly after New Year´s to give others the opportunity to see it, as well as to make a recording for history´s sake (not necessarily due to the superior quality of the performance, but let´s face it: we were proud!). Photos of the actual concert will come.

--Christmas Day began just after our Christmas Eve Concert/Midnight Mass combination. I took up the invitation from a family of some music students to join them for their late-night supper, and we enjoyed talking until 3:30 a.m. when the grilled meat, rice and potato feast was actually ready. I collapsed into my bed at 5:00 a.m., thankful for the priviledge to join in new holiday festivities in Bolivia but utterly exhausted.

--I made friends with the couple that runs the local restaurant and helped them prepare ¨chancho al horno con salsa de tamarindo'' (roast pig with a sweet-sour tamarind sauce) for their New Year´s Eve celebration. I have surprisingly enjoyed pushing the boundaries of my vegetarian-cooking knowledge!

--In mid-January, I returned to Santa Cruz to participate in some extended SALT-orientation where we went out to visit MCC´s rural programs, as well as to attend the MCC Focus Weekend in which we discussed many of the structural changes that are happening at MCC Bolivia.

--I visited two other Jesuit Mission towns: San Javier, known for its milk products and Concepcion, for its woodworking). The restoration work in these old Jesuit churches has been completed, so it was quite interesting to compare them to little Santiago (the least elaborate) and learn a bit more of the history of the area. I hope to post more pictures of this excursion soon, too.

--Thanks to heavy rains of last week (resulting in shutting THE bridge that goes between here and my home) and now the wild celebrations of Carnival (in which the entire city throws one non-stop parties, pegs anyone or anything moving with waterballoons--sometimes filled with ink--and there is general debauchery and drunkenness -- NOT a good time for traveling), I have been stuck in Santa Cruz and haven´t been able to leave the city to return to Santiago. It has been good to reconnect with MCC friends, but I am getting antsy to return to my pueblo and jump into classes again.

I continue to feel challenged and stimulated in my work here. I struggle at times to feel order and consistency in the midst of so many changes: difference in concept of time, flipping of seasons, constant changing of plans, stark differences in mentality related to completion of a project (i.e. students coming an hour late to rehearsal, if they come at all), and language differences - not ever knowing exactly if what I´m trying to say is being understood and vice versa. It has also, bizarrely, become time to think about ¨what´s next¨ when I leave Bolivia, which puts me in the delicate place of trying to fully immerse myself here while getting excited about potential jobs back home. They are two different worlds!

But meanwhile, I will walk as humbly and observantly as I can. I have been seeking joy, a kind of grounded joy that surpasses understanding. Perhaps someday my disjointed thoughts will bring themselves around and I´ll have some wisdom!

Thanks for all your prayers and support. I haven´t always been the best at responding, but know that the words you send are like gold. In your prayers I ask for continued safety, creativity, and humor, and for the energy and stamina to continue deepening my understanding and connection wih the people with whom I have the priviledge of spending my days.

Mil besos.