Music in Santiago, and La Cosecha de Kiwis

Well, because I never stop, the Wednesday after returning from Ourense, I was on the bus to Santiago, violin in hand, madly learning lyrics to sing in a bar in Santiago. Maybe I should clarify. I met a Brazilian singer/songwriter/ Ani Difranco type through a mutual friend, and as my luck would have it, she invited me to play with her in Santiago at a performance of hers. She's been studying here, and is currently off to Madrid to make it big, which I believe she can, because she is quite talented. So, on Monday she invited me to sing any song I knew well (I panicked and chose "Something" by the Beatles), and sent me a link to a song to play along with on violin. Less than 48 hours later, I was ditching my dance class to make sound check. Soon enough, I hope to be the artist headlining, and as soon as I figure out how to focus myself, I'll make it happen. In the meantime, however, this was pretty great. The other band members were Brazilian as well, as was most of the audience, and they played a combination of American, Brazilian and Spanish songs, as well as others from who knows where. It was a blast, and felt great to be onstage again, even though I was only playing a couple of songs. (Must... make... arts career work!)

Here is a link to the pianist's website: his name is Paulo, and he's wonderful:

http://www.myspace.com/paulosilvasambafunkmantra

I have a video of me playing on my facebook if you're interested, but it's only about thirty seconds long. (I was kind of a mess, but I was improvising... so forgive me. Unfortunately I didn't get a recording of me singing, as I imagine that was MUCH better...)

Anyways, Thursday I was back on the bus home to Ferrol, because Friday was the Magosto celebration at school, and I wanted to see it. Magosto is Galicia's harvest festival, in which the Castaña (Chestnut) is celebrated. It sounds strange, but the Chestnut was a primary source of protein and starch for people in the region for years before and during Franco's dictatorship. Galicia has historically been a relatively poor region in comparison to the rest of Spain, as it is cut off by mountains, and has it's own cultural and linguistic heritage, and Magosto celebrates the traditional dietary supplement that is the chestnut. I ate fire roasted chestnuts for days. You're apparently supposed to accompany them with milk, not water, so they don't swell in our stomach, and we were served fresh, preservative-free local milk. (yummmm)

As I was digesting, I watched the kids play all sorts of games in the gym, including some familiar ones, like the ring toss, sack race, and tug-of-war. They do have some distinct recess games I didn't recognize, and the most traditional is one played with small wooden tops that you throw with a string, called Buxaina. Apparently buxo is Galego for boxwood, which the tops were made out of in days past. My apologies that I don't have any pictures of the kids playing, but here's what it looks like:



Because I can't say no to anything, and am an enthusiast for any "cultural" experience, the weekend after touring Ourense, I found myself heading back south to a town called Pontevedra, with three new friends to harvest Kiwis in the rain for a full Saturday. Needless to say, I was a little tired by the end of the weekend, but "vale," it's worth it. Valer is THE word used for almost everything here, in this context, it means whatever. I'll explain more in depth later, I'm already too wordy in this post.

....So, on to Pontevedra!

Luciano, the Galician native who is teaching me Galego in exchange for English conversation, is from Pontevedra, and his father has a Kiwi farm there. The first Saturday in November was the harvest, so he invited me along for the chance to get to know Galicia a little better, and try some typical food at the end of the day that his mother would be preparing for all the workers. How could I say no?

This is Luciano's parents' farmhouse, typical in this area:



It was raining. All day. Not pouring, but definitely raining. We got wet. But, the misty on the hills across the valley was beautiful, and there was an enchanting quality to picking fruit in the rain. Made everything smell fresh, vibrant, and alive. Here's my impressively hip kiwi harvesting outfit. The rain boots I bought definitely paid off! The brown bag unhooked on the bottom so you could empty it when it was full with minimal damage to the fruit.

We spent the entire day gathering kiwis, from nine until four. Around noon, the owners brought us out coffee and muffins on a tractor, and all the workers huddled around for a nice descanso.


So! The best part of the day.... LUNCH! After hours in the rain and cold, all the workers headed in for a home cooked traditional stew called Callos, prepared for thirty people by Luciano's mom. Callos is a very typical Galician dish, consisting of garbanzo beans stewed with some rather appetizing pig parts--- the feet, stomach lining, and sometimes elbows of the animal. I have to admit, the "meat" from the feel was more gelatin than anything else, but the stomach was delicious. Everything is slow cooked for hours, and absolutely savory at the end of a day in the rain. Accompanied by three plastic cups of wine, and half a baguette, it hit the spot.



I discovered this wonderful cardboard box for a Paella Cooker in the barn.... couldn't help but laugh out loud, and I enjoyed explaining to my spanish-speaking friends what was so funny about the typo, and how exactly "paella-cocker" translates. It was a good moment.


Needless to say, we were exhausted by the end of the day, but not too tired to go out! We napped, showered, and hit the bars for some drinks. Pontevedra is all beautiful medieval stone, with a very well maintained historical district. The town just breathes history.



Convent:

This is the cathedral that Pontevedra is famous for. It's s stop on the Road to Santiago, and this church was built in the shape of a scallop shell, the symbol of Saint James. The photo is horribly out of focus, but hopefully you can get a sense of the unique beauty of the building. I plan on returning to Pontevedra, so I can go inside the church and explore a little better. For now, here is my brilliantly out of focus night shot of the church:

That's all for now, slowly but surely I'm catching up!