April 24, 2007

Adventures in Myanmar...this is from my travel journal from our trip that was unbelievable!

Wow-our 1st day...no our first few hours..where do I begin? We arrived at the ripe hour of 8am...our friend Kit was waiting to pick us up. She's an american who is married to an embassy worker and has started up this great music center in Yangon. The airport was spanking new and clean. The first thing I noticed..

Oo..wait. We just got asked to work with the National Symphony Orchestra. WOW! I guess we'll do clinics and concert. That's crazy. Totally crazy! I guess they really don't ask people in and we're the first brass players they'll have ever heard! Cool! Wow! That's how I feel about this country so far. I'm just in awe...the charm, streets and cars. I mean, it's a 1/2 hour behind Thailand. That sums it up for me. What country is a 1/2 hour behind? It feels like the twilight zone a bit.

Our hotel is super cosy and cute...you can't beat $15 a night with breakfast! Anyway, back to my first impressions-all the men and women wear long patterened skirts called longyi.

We had our first Mohinga this morning after we arrived. YUM. A little fishy but I'll get over that..it's a consistency like split pea soup but tastes much better. Super good. Little fried veggies are thrown in with the noodles. After breakfast we visisted Gitameit (the music center that Kit started). It's a small 2 story building that used to be a liberal printing press. There are dark wooden floors and no a/c! 2 pianos are placed to the left and right of the front entrance and a few rooms in the back are filled with guitar students all practicing simutaneously. There's an air of creativity and although it's hot and humid, I'm totally inspired. After our visit to the school we went to exchange dollars into Kyat..which is only possible on the black market b/c there are no ATM's in the country! I guess you can get arrested for exchanging money even though it's the only way to do it! Dave went to a shop that was a trustworthy recommendation and went in, laid the $250 US down on the table and the guy takes it and leaves. It was pitch black with no electricity running and he could only see by candlelight. The guy came back a few minutes later and gave Dave a black bag filled with wads of cash. The largest bill in equivalent to $1USD..so imagine $250 single dollar bills in a bag. HILARE!

We were finally able to explore on our own at the big Scott market. I wasn't impressed with the bargaining but we did ok. Got 6 rattan placemats for under $3 each when initally they were asking for nearly $5. Not bad. We also got a rattan tray..soo cool. We were dying of heat so we went to a noodle shop and drank smoothies with our delicious noodle soup. I guess we're getting picked up soon. This is going to be such an adventure....meeting with a top government official so that we can work with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO). HILARE....until later

OK, it's later..well, basically we didn't know what to expect as far as teaching/playing is concerned. We had that meeting with the NSO. Apparently, we met with THE director of ALL TV and radio in Myanmar! HELLO! I swear..there's never a dull moment when we travel. It was a weird meeting filled akward silences but we've been asked..well, we've volunteered our time this week to the orcehstra in addition to teaching and playing a concert at Gitameit. It's great though. I was hoping we'd get to travel up to Bagan but volunteering time is a good thing. I am always interested in giving my time to those who want it! haha. There's 2 french horn players and 3 trumpets for us. Then I guess we're also doing a clinic with the whole orchestra. Sweet. Also, a few clinis with the winds.

It's weird being thrown into the musical politics of Burma. Real weird. I mean...how could a tourist ever learn so much about the country they're visiting? I love it. It's such a telling and fascinating way to learn about a culture. It's pretty nuts to be in the middle. Apparently, the orchestra started in 2000 and has had only a few concerts since then and all are private..for the military govt. Crazy! More tomorrow....