Monday 24 November 2008

Friday, November 21st, 2008

Friday, November 21, 2008 – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Men in orange involved in municipal repair were taking their lunch near their digging spots. Every two blocks you would see a group of them catching a restful moment. I made a few heads turn, for sure, as I passed by with a nod while they reciprocated. Women, too, and school children got curious. If they are all lucky they will see a whole slew of us at Plaza Francia with our drums and mantras, flags and chariot tomorrow.

Our drama group is working hard to invest in hours and details of a beautiful story about Jagannatha. With every effort there is challenge. I’m directing in English with one percent Spanish thrown in while everyone else knows little English. Fortunately our narrator Anna does professional voices for TV characters and Marina has a career in making documentaries. They get by with English. The actors remain strained without their translations. Rather I should say that I’m the strained one. This is their territory I’m in.

It’s always exciting seeing how a production molds together in so little time. – three days. We have people in our troupe that are strong-willed. Rodo is a professional juggler and funny man, and he is a piece of cake to work with, but one of the fellows seems to struggle and I guess it appeared that I was giving him a hard time. He’s taking it well and I believe that by performance time tomorrow he will do well. He’s trying hard.

In any service, steadfastness is a true embellishment. To be steady is the mark of a hero.

10 Km

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