Waiting for a Bus to the Frontier

It's 8:00PM in Montevideo. Originally I thought I was going to be on a bus right now with members of Mundo Afro, headed to Rivera. The departure was pushed back to 11:00PM. Rivera is around 6 hours to the north and shares a border with Brazil. Literally shares it.


Plaza Internacional
Santana do Livramento (BR)/Rivera (UY)

We're going to Rivera for a conference organized by Mundo Afro: the 6th Foro Internacional Kizomba, commemerating the International Year for People of African Descent.

The conference opens tomorrow morning at 9:00AM. Again, the bus ride is 6 hours. I'm not usually successful when it comes to sleeping on buses or planes.  Should make for an interesting few days.

We get back late Saturday night, I have Sunday "off," and on Monday must deliver a presentation en español. The first time I've ever done this. Ever. Already nervous. But I already have my script, and if I can keep that Inner Game voice in my head (who only speaks English) down to a whisper, I may be okay.

In my last post I said a little about my participation in the qualifying parade for Las Llamadas with the comparsa La Chilinga. Well, La Chilinga didn't qualify, and when the full results were released, the group was next to last. When I went out to Buceo last night, I was once again reminded of my connections to competitive marching band in United States. Everyone stood around, voicing their opinions as to the reasons for such a low ranking. I didn't understand everything since there were often a lot of people talking at once. However, two points stood out: first, for some groups the rules didn't seem to matter; and second, La Chilinga equals Argentina (as Argentines participate in this group). As for the first part, I haven't seen all the videos yet, and will never see every full run, so it's difficult to comment. The second part however deals with issues of appropriation; a notion that Argentina desires to tell the world candombe belongs to them. There were even a few jokes that perhaps I was the culprit.

What I do know is this: when that parade ended there was so much joy from everyone who participated with La Chilinga. I watched the faces in the crowd as we passed, and there were heads bobbing to the groove. I'm equally sure there were those who weren't fond of that very same groove, with allegiances to their comparsa. That's the way it goes. For me, I will always remember how great it felt to play that day, especially since in that 20 minutes I felt connected to more than just the group in Buceo. With candombe as our common language, I felt Uruguayan.

El resto de esta entrada es para cualquier persona que participó en las Pruebas para Admisión de Las Llamadas; ganadores y perdedores. También me gustaría conocer la opinión de los espectadores e incluso el jurado. ¿Cómo te sientes acerca de los resultados? ¿Cambia sus sentimientos sobre el rendimiento de su comparsa? Responder directamente al blog, me envía un correo electrónico (csutton1@hotmail.com) o un mensaje de Facebook. En cualquier caso, fue un honor para mí que tenía la oportunidad de desfilar y participar en la alegria que es el candombe. Por eso, muchas gracias a todos.

And one more thing, I ate cookies tonight because I was grossed out by my skeletal frame, especially this cranium!