February is usually my lucky month. In the past it’s been a time for conferences and meeting people and exploring new ideas; in Texas it’s when the weather is most unpredictable, sometimes with snowfall and sometimes with beautiful 75 degree sunshine; and it’s the month when I started dating the lady who I’m soon to marry. This February in Kathmandu, however, has fallen far short of my usual February standard, and in many ways it’s been the most trial-ridden month of my Fulbright time so far. The month started extremely well—I went to a fantastic folk festival in a remote Nepali village and played music and lived with the townspeople for three days. I was the only foreigner there, and as such I was treated like a celebrity (for better or for worse). Those days were ... read more

Trip to the Village of Thannahu for the Thanimai Folk Music Festival Here it is, the promised account of my excellent village journey, typed up from my pencil-and-paper notes, raw from memory strain and hand cramps. This is the first two days; the rest will come later. Jan. 31 This was departure day—I planned to leave with a big group of folk musicians from Kathmandu to go to the first annual Thanimai folk music festival in the small village of Thannahu, Basantapur VDC. The idea was to leave at 11 am, so I arrived at my friend’s house at 10:45, thinking that I might be late. I wasn’t. He wasn’t even home yet—still at the university where he’s a master’s student—let alone at the place where we were to leave with the other musicians. I waited ... read more

Some really great, exciting things have happened in the last two weeks: I went to a village and participated in a folk festival, and I helped out at the South Asia International Schools honor music clinic, meeting music teachers and students from all over the subcontinent. Those will be the subjects of the next posts. This one will be the script of a 15 minute midterm presentation/project summary I gave at the Fulbright office as per grant requirements. It's a great, if incomplete, overview of the things I've been doing here and the things that I've noticed. Some of it may look familiar. Here it is: Good evening. My topic of research is music education in Kathmandu, and over the past 5 months I’ve been going to music schools, grade schools which teach music, private instructors, ... read more

This post is directed to all of the aspiring anthropologists in my audience; the following are a few experiences/observations about living as a foreigner here in Kathmandu, Nepal. Before I even get started, it’s important to realize that everybody can tell just by looking that I’m a foreigner. This is much different from living in the US where citizens may have any color skin, and where we’re working toward the ideal of treating everybody equally regardless of how they look. Nepali people all have certain key features of appearance, and people lacking those features will always be foreigners. So, immediately upon looking, I’m assessed to be a foreigner, and I’m treated that way. This treatment varies by situation and by the character of the person I’m interacting with, but my foreignness is always an influential presence ... read more

This post will again focus on my music teacher workshop, and will again be taken from my notes. I realize the account may not have wide appeal, but for my Fulbright project here in Kathmandu this workshop is incredibly exciting; now I’m directly working to help Nepali music teachers, giving them skills and ideas from my experience that they will be able to use—hopefully to great effect—in their own classrooms. Not only that, I’m starting dialogue among a group of music teachers (who are spread out all around the city) with potential to expand into a full, dynamic, productive music educator’s society. It’s thrilling, really, and you can read all about it right here. In other news, it’s very cold here in Kathmandu, and temperatures dip below freezing at night. Two days ago on my way ... read more