Guitar Hero

Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t steal this title from a video game of questionable worth (but unquestioned popularity). But I confess that I have always wanted to be a guitar hero in some musical form or another. I have also admitted that, in contrast to Robert Johnson, who is said to have sold his soul to the Devil in order to gain his eerie guitar skills, I have simply gone to hell playing the guitar in spite of the fact that I have no particular musical talent. I’m mostly just thrilled that Allie is already the guitar player that I never was, and hope that talent sustains him somehow.

But here in Tolte, I’m the best guitar player available. I’m not the best musician; that would have to be Juan Vicente,  local folkloric music expert, luthier, and multi-instrumentalist, who can play traditional Ecuadorean music on at least five different instruments. He can also manage a disorderly band of amateurs, and that’s how it happened that he invited me (as the best guitarist available) to join a group for a one-time presentation for a small group of tourism evaluators who came to Tolte on Thursday.

We started rehearsing Thursday morning at 8 AM: Juan Vicente, his brother Pablo (the local carpenter, also capable of playing at least four instruments), Jose, my housemate and their cousin, who had the drum-beating duties, and Giovanny, the best guitar player in Tolte, and the only non-relative (besides me on both counts), and me. We managed to learn instrumental versions of two songs, either because no vocalists were available or because it’s too complicated to get vocalists to do the right thing in a short amount of time. This took over two hours because a) I had never heard the songs before, and had to learn a couple of single note fills, and b) Vicente doesn’t like sloppy entrances and exits, and we had plenty of those. We hurried down to the new look-out point near the train station to greet the tourism evaluators.

At least for me, things started to make me laugh at this point. First of all, in a display of the kind of unconcern that the high and mighty generally reserve for the rest of us, the tourism evaluators showed up almost two hours later than expected, while all of my neighbors neglected the million demanding things they do every day to wait for them. I suppose it wasn’t really funny, but it so conformed to my most cynical expectations that I did kind of have to laugh. Then there was the organizing of the band into an appropriately costumed group, which included me wearing a woven poncho, just like my bandmates. I’m trying to get someone to give me a photo of this (I stupidly forgot my camera), but I’ve decided to go ahead and publish this without the photo, because none has come through yet.  No sense letting this news get any staler.
The funniest thing, though, was that when the inspectors finally showed up, Vicente introduced the band by saying that we were all natives of the area, and before he got to explain my dubious presence, one of the inspectors asked, “Y que es eso?”(“And what’s that?”), indicating me. No, I don’t look very Ecuadorean, especially in a group where three out of five are close relatives. Vicente explained that I was an “invitado,” and we got down to playing the songs we had practiced. Our entrances and exits were kind of rough, but the music sounded pretty good in spite of it all, and we got high marks from all concerned.

Of course, the inspectors then went on to tell everybody that our touristic product wasn’t ready yet, for reasons that aren’t quite clear to me. I do have my own concerns about the tourism effort here, and whether it really will attract outsiders to Tolte, but I think people are doing about the best that can be expected. The idea is that tourists will ride horses down to the train station, where they’ll hear about life in Pistishi and see the Nariz del Diablo zig-zagging train route in action. They’ll also get spectacular views of the Andes from horseback, the chance to pet a llamingo, and maybe some folkloric entertainment. As touristic products go, it’s not great, but it’s pretty low-key and harmless. I’m not sure what the tourism inspectors are waiting for, but there has been a lot of testing and no income in sight. I think we’re all getting a bit impatient.

Now that the touristic presentation is over, it’s back to playing rock band with Freddy, Mario, Dani, and the other Freddy. We’re working on five songs, one of which I’ve actually learned the lyrics to and three of which I can play the solo from the recording. I don’t like learning recorded solos, but they’ve been easier than I feared and this is one of those things the lead guitarist with a garage band has to accept. I do get to do a solo of my own on the most “roquero” of our numbers, though.  The truth is, I kind of wish Allie would play a solo and I could learn that, but I feel pretty good about what’s coming out so far. It isn’t really loud enough, but it is sufficiently horrible to attract attention. The boys are very pleased.

Oh, and my job? I’m into my final lessons with the sixth grade, and I hope to go into a more free conversation phase with them in about a week. Seventh grade, at least its functional members, are about a week behind. Fourth and fifth grade are about three days behind the seventh grade., though maybe at a lower level entirely.  Still, there’s more English in the air these days in Tolte, and it’s coming from my students, not the high school kids, so I think I’m doing pretty well. Agricultural technology is at a bit of a standstill as we wait for the dry season to begin; you can’t build bench terraces in mud. But it hasn’t rained in a day or two, so maybe we really are entering verano as scheduled. It just hasn’t had the same sudden start as the rainy season did back in December.

As all of this winds down, I am looking for the next job. Nothing tangible has happened yet. The job at Yachana in the Amazon has been indefinitely postponed due to funding problems and program changes, and that was my safe play. Carolina is trying to get me funded for another year in Tolte. I have just spent the morning applying for jobs all over the Spanish-speaking world that I located through idealist.org. We’ll have to see what happens, but keep in mind that everything and everyone I’ve ever needed here in Tolte has surfaced just when I needed them. I’m feeling pretty good about my chances.