Blogs from Lazimpat, Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia - page 2

New Nepal- A school drama This past Sunday, January 24, the students and teachers of Anonymous Nepali Higher Secondary School returned back to class from a 3-week winter break. We music teachers were approached by the drama and dance teachers with the fact that we would have to put on a performance for a big founder’s day/parents’ day extravaganza to be held the coming Friday—5 days in the future. Here’s the story about what happened; first in day-by-day rehearsals, then in a description of the drama, then thoughts about the drama, then thoughts about management and the whole crazy weeklong process. The writing is preserved in its original form as notes. As an anthropologist I realize the value of presenting culture with minimal personal judgment, and I know that just because something is different from what ... read more

At long last, here are the final two days of my music teacher workshop. The whole endeavor was a fantastic success--it brought me a group of motivated music teachers--and we have some excellent plans for the future. We'll meet as the 'Nepal Music Educators' Society' for the first time this coming Saturday, and it promises to be a big event. We're sending out invites to many other music teachers, including high-profile university professors, and we may get a story in one of the country's big newspapers. I'm excited. In other news, this morning I had a jam session with my friend the sitar professor, and he asked me to teach him an American song. After a little bit of thought I settled on Yankee Doodle, and I proceeded to teach it to him phrase by phrase. ... read more

My music teacher professional development workshop has been going for 4 days now, and I'm proud to say it's improving and growing every day. I'm extremely pleased with my small but motivated group of attending teachers, and I really feel like they're learning and growing as professionals as a result of my gathering them together and working with them. I'm again in the position where I need to copy from my notes to make this descriptive post about the workshop so far, so I apologize for mistakes of haste and minor repetitions. Here it is: Wednesday December 23 was the first day of the music teacher professional development workshop that I’m hosting along with the director at the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory. The first day started out a little bit slow; only three guys showed up: a ... read more

I’m getting into a phase of my time here in Kathmandu that I’ll call ‘general fieldwork.’ My days have developed a strange sort of consistency; they are never scheduled more than 24 hours ahead of time, but they generally involve some combination of lessons, gigs, teaching, interviews, hanging out with Nepali friends, or going to concerts. This past week in particular has been heavy on the concerts. Day to day I’m getting a deeper understanding of the music education culture here, but it’s no longer by exciting new discoveries or experiences. Maybe it’s a comparable situation for astronauts in the international space station. They know they are in a fantastic place, and that it’s really the experience of a lifetime, and many things had to come together to make it happen, and they’re doing good work ... read more

It’s time to start a new chapter for my work here in Kathmandu. Since returning from my trip to Tengboche I’ve had the opportunity to reexamine my project, evaluate what I’ve done so far, and prioritize my actions for the coming months. My conclusion is that after these past three months of learning, observing, and thinking, it’s now time for some participating—‘digging in,’ as my esteemed friend and former professor, the Director of Bands at Baylor University likes to say. Over the past months I’ve taken many lessons, learning how to play madal, sarangi, tabla, classical music on clarinet, and learning how to speak Nepali. I’ve observed some music classes, conducted some interviews, and spent much of my time experiencing and integrating into the Kathmandu-Nepali culture throughout the Dashain, Tihar, and Jazzmandu festivals. I am only ... read more