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Published: July 28th 2009
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Another incredible day. Sunday is the big market day here, so we were sent down with assignments to find and retreive certain things for the week. (Max and I had to get qiwicha, witch is a kind of grain, though we failed and brought back potoatoes, adn Mashwa, I think, that we did get. It´s a little like a short, angry carrot. Made me think of Harry Potter. It was fun. Had a nice lunch at El Abuelo, since Pocha´s staff (2 ppl) desert on Sunday for the market 😊 Wow, the markets are colorful. And crowded. Laura, Ambra, Claire, adn I lost our way (by one street) on the way up to the house and made cross country, thinks to the intructions of a littl eboy, who laughed at us. It was good fun. Then this afternoon Umberto adn Yovana came to teach us a bit of folkdance and music. Umberto was really fascinating. He had a gym bag full of traditional instruments that he laid out on a cloth in quadrant, each relating to it´s element adn direction (north-air, and so on) Then he talked about the progression from stone to wood. And also the names of the intruments,
which related to the others of that "class" like family names, largest being Madre, smallest being a -itos, and such. Very cool. and then he played them, which was awesome. There was a huge conch shell in teh middle that he played first, ritually used to call on the gods/spirits adn also people to worship, or party, depending, lol. All of the instruments were considered to have a sould, or be animate, so it´s all very respectful. He had a drum made from teh stalk of a Maguay, and covered in leather. They used to use Puma skins and bones for war instruments. All of the materials were related to uses, even human bones for the most sacred rituals! He didn´t have instruments of that though. He did have a pan flute made out of Conder quils, that he played and beat time with a condor feather, which was easily two feet long. And a kind of whistle thing that works with water, using water movement to force air through a whistle part. really nifty. And then Jovana took over adn we danced while Umberto, and Max lucky bugger, played music. By the end I was exuasted! WçThe dance was
a harvest dance, adn truly imitated harvest motions, from howing to planting to eating, and gender specific, so there were girl and guy parts, where guys would break the ground and girls would sow the grain, guys harvest, girls cook, etc. It was tons of fun, and pretty, well, cultural, for lack of a better word. Interpretive. Anyway, then we had some delicious soup, adn our last photography class. again, cool. I´m going to miss them. I was so tired out that I had a hard time concentrationg, adn I didn´t take notes, which I should have. We got an assignment though. As a group we need to put a 30 pic collection together, adn then we´ll be part of a study project that some anthros are doing on photography. I think. Anyway, sounded cool.
Fell asleep on my journal, and woke up with it tucked away from me so I wouldn´t stab myself in my sleep. Max is a sweetie.
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