LA GUELAGUETZA

As published by JPlus by The Jakarta Post, December 2015

La Guelaguetza, one of the biggest festivals in Mexico

It’s worth visiting Oaxaca in July, when the city stages La Guelaguetza, one of the biggest festivals in Mexico.

La Guelaguetza takes its name from the Zapotec word for “the present”, which in a broad sense represents an attitude of sharing with neighbours, nature and life.

The pinnacle of the festival is the Lunes de Cerro, or Monday of the Hill, when there’s folk dancing, chanting and other rituals performed by people from throughout the state.

I watched the festivities at the modern Guelaguetza Auditorium, located above Fortin Hill close to the city centre.

While the most expensive tickets cost 1050 Mexican pesos (US$65), it’s also possible to enjoy Lunes de Cerro in the free seats, if you don’t mind sitting a little far from the action and are willing to arrive at least two hours in advance.

Most of the performances I saw were accompanied by chilena music, an Afro-Mexican fusion genre from coastal Oaxaca.

Men and women danced in pairs. Following each act, performers and organizers threw presents into the crowd, such as handicrafts, tortilla crackers, sweets and coffee.

Women dancers from the Tuxtepec region emerged carrying pineapples on their shoulders and dancing in line – and pitched bananas, oranges and pineapples into the crowd after the show.

Tuxtepec Women

I was blown away by an Aztec-Mixtec’s feather dance act, where eight men, each with about 25 kilograms of plumes tied to their heads, jumped and danced.

Feather Dance

There was also magic, as a blindfolded woman danced across the stage in search of a needle given to one member of the 11,000-or-so people in the audience. Of course, she succeeded in finding it and danced her way back to the stage with her eyes still eyes covered.

Women from Oaxaca city then emerged, dancing with huge flower baskets on their heads that held giant puppets inside, only to be joined by all the performers before the festivities ended with a fireworks party.

The Guelaguetza also involves various activities throughout the month. In 2015, the local government
invited native vendors to participate in street bazaars while museums conducted cultural workshops and exhibitions.

Wowrale!

Life has been different lately as new experiences dropped by. I moved from Jakarta to Mexico City. I have a new job, new boyfriend, new places visited, new language learned, and new friends that express "orale!" for many different reasons.

It is a magic word in Mexican Spanish language. Let me give some examples to explain the idea.

At San Marcos Festival, State of Aguascalientes

"Let's play football," I say. "Orale!" they say.
This means let's go.

"I bought a new dress for one dollar," I say. "Orale!" they say.
This means Oh my God!

"The traffic is unbearable," I say. "Orale!" they say.
This means I agree

There are many more Mexican slang I have learned since my arrival to this Northern American country. "Que padre!" is the Mexican expression of "Cool!", yet "padre" literally means father. Another expression of the same significance is "Que chido!".

"Mande!" is used when you do not hear clearly what someone is telling you. Not even other Spanish speakers would understand it. "Pardon me" is its English match.

Instead of the common Spanish word "trabajar", which means to work, Mexican love the word "chambear" more. Then it makes the noun addressed as "chamba" instead of "trabajo".

One of my sources to learn the slang is my Mexican roomie. When he is on the phone, he may repeat twenty "güey" in one minute call. This word means "dude". Then when he craves for beer, he would ask a glass of "chela" instead of widely-known Spanish "cerveza".

My favourite Mexican slang is "Aguas!", because it has the same message as in Indonesian "awas!", or "watch out" in English. The word "agua" in Spanish means water. This alerting expression rose in the Colonial era when the water drainage system was not well established. Therefore people used to throw dirty water from the balcony to the street, and to warn people who passed by, they shouted "aguas".

In my humble opinion, those slang words are what make Spanish language interesting, yet difficult to master. They reflects the culture, at some points education of one.

People with higher level of education in Mexico refuse to use such words, thus I would use standard Spanish to converse with important persons. Although I still sound like foreigner for lacking Mexican accent, I try to put some slang into my street conversation. I am glad that they do not judge me for trying too hard to blend in, contrarily they appreciate me of doing it and it often makes them laugh. Well, I don´t mind people laughing at me this way. After all it is always better to laugh than to frown.

Eradicating Corruption with Music

I met Mul and Rendi last year in a humble house which serves them as basecamp in Depok, just a little bit South out of Jakarta. It was an interview assignment for the mass media I worked at, to make a profile story of this community, or syndication.

They call themselves SIMPONI (Music Syndicate of Earth Dwellers). Gamulya, or Mul for short, acts as the leader or manager of the music group. Rendi Ahmad who also earned credit in a couple of Indonesian features film is one of the talents. The others are musicians with various music genres, including beatboxers. Together they promoted environmental awareness with music in 82 schools for 82 days. For this they received an appreciation from Indonesia's Record Museum (MURI).

Recently these musicians cum activists have been working on different project: anti-corruption, collaborating with Indonesian Corruption Watch. They grieve for the government of Indonesia, who are comfortable with corruption. "Saweran" or fundraising to construct a new building of Corruption Eradication Commission is one thing. They did what they know best, playing music while moved people come and go to donate.

In the meantime, they heard about international anti-corruption music video competition who had been calling musicians from all around the globe to submit their work. The best three videos will be invited to attend the 15th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Brazil. 

Mul does not bother winning, but he sees the power of social media. By making video the message could be spread out everywhere more attractively. The clip was produced low-budgetly by documentarian Dandhy D Laksono from WatchdoC Indonesia.

The song and music video "Vonis (Verdict)" was launched today, 1st of August, at Newseum Cafe Veteran Street Jakarta. As well there was a short discussion with the video's director and historian Bonny Triyana, who revealed that corruption in Indonesia has actually started ever since the country got its independency.

CDs comprising the song and video were sold for 50 thousand rupiah (five thousand will go to saweran) to fund "Indonesia Without Corruption Tour", a commemoration of the 9th anniversary of anti-corruption day on 9th December 2012. The group aim at 90 campuses in 9 provinces, hopefully not only in Java. Care to support the movement? You can contact @simponii at twitter or send e-mail to simponi10@gmail.com

German Families

1. Greul Family (left to right): me, Lars, Katharina, Sabine
2. Margareth, Cornelia Steiger, Me
3. Maier Family: Fiona, Opa, Viktor, Me, Isabella, Markus, Martina, Margareth

Before I thought (sorry) Germans are pretty strict and rigid. After staying with these persons for several days, I'd like to revise my opinion. Even though they speak no good English (bit language barrier, yes!), these Germans have golden hearts, warm hugs, never ending smile, and speak an understandable language of love.

Family Maier has a very good cooking mom, Martina. Hubby Markus is a hardworking carpenter, however he tried to spend time with us as much as he can. Fiona (14), their youngest daughter is always happy to meet us (Margareth and I) even though she hardly speaks English. Meanwhile Maiers' oldest daughter Isabella speaks perfect English as she works in a French restaurant in Stuttgart; and of course she cooks fine too. Maiers have six children, but we could only meet four. We managed to meet the boys: Viktor and Sammy. Viktor takes care of elderly people, which is very nice as we can rarely find youngsters doing it in Germany, not even adults are willing to do that sincerely. Meanwhile Sammy who was pretty busy with exams and football still made time to watch our performance too.

Maier is actually our friend's (John) family, but since Martina and Cornelia (our appointed mom) are close friends, and Cornelia Staiger still has to work Monday to Friday in a hospital (but not a nurse or doctor), we were welcomed to the Maiers during the day. However, Cornelia never abandoned us. Time we spent together at breakfast or later at night is quality. She speaks English very well, used to live in Ireland, so we understood each other easily. Her weekend which supposedly is used to study (she wants to take more qualification), was sacrificed to take us around. These two Ebersbach families are super!

Greul-Hennig family who lives in Hemsbach was pretty rigid at first. I found it later that language barrier is the cause. However our lovely Katharina, which is 70, never forgets to pick us up almost every midnight whenever we had a show. She had to wake up in the middle of her sleeping time which starts normally at ten. There is also her second daughter Sabine and her grandson (Sabine's son) Lars live in the house. Sabine is a horse lover. Once she took us to fourteen years-old Mary, her lovely brown horse. I got on it for minutes and it felt awesome! Meanwhile Lars installs aluminium drain pipe for housing, which is a rare job in the state. They both have to go to work very early, around six or earlier. Another lovely thing about the family is that some of the members (Katharina's daughters, son-in-law, granddaughter-in-law-to-be, etc.) run a center to take care of very old people.

It was our first meeting. They did not know me at all before, no communication had been made before, but they did not hesitate to receive me in their house. Something that is not likely to happen in Jakarta, as people always suspicious, careful, and (maybe) put this thought in front of everything: What's in it for me?

These Germans families are not paid to take care of us, receiving us as parts of their family.

So... Danke fur alles.

Liebe,

Florence

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Where am I before Europe?

Where in Jakarta I spend my last day before going for Europe Trip? Hospital!

As some of you might have heard, I am going to Europe with a show choir group Mia Patria on Sunday, 29th April 2012, which is tomorrow.

For the last two weeks parents have been very busy reminding me to take more rest, vitamins, and so on. Anything to keep my stamina since I have been practising much, until midnight, before the departure day.

Yesterday the man who warned me much to stay healthy was hospitalised. I got the shocking news when I was at a relative's house, after crossing through Jakarta's traffic for three hours! Dad has tumour somewhere (If am not mistaken it is at the back of his stomach). Fortunately, it is not threatening (now). However, it needs to be removed otherwise it would press out other organs.

Today we're quite busy looking for the right hospital to do surgery. I therefore go nowhere else but to the hospital. 

Reunion at Hospital?!

It's quite funny though as my old man doesn't seem sick at all. He was busy surfing the net and having a cup of coffee when we, the pretty ladies (mom, sis, and I) came. At around three, he had the infusion removed. At five, we ordered pizza. At seven, friends of mom and dad started to pack up the room and made a reunion!

I don't know whether it is God's will or anything else, I have to spend my last day with family.

Although we live under the same roof, we hardly met lately due to our own activities.

I do hope that things will not go worse when I am in Europe. If a surgery needs to be taken in the next 46 days, I'd be sorry can't be there with him or with mum.

"Whether it's a heart attack or heartbreak, just like broadway, the show must go on." The show must go on indeed, as the prayer will keep going on. Te quiero, papa! Love ya daddy! 

Two New Young Colombian Friends

Life keeps flowing and it takes me to fantastic experience lately.

One and a half year ago, my old man pouted my decision on studying Spanish. It's not popular at all in Indonesia, and its use is questionable here. I did not get clear vision as well why I was doing it. All I knew was that I wanted to be able to speak more than English and Indonesian.

Now I can see, the decision has given me some memorable opportunities. Starting from the "exclusive" interview with Fabregas, to recently a Liaison Officer (LO) for Latin delegation in the International Symposium on Constitutional Democratic State, brought by Indonesian Constitutional Chamber.

I had been given a task to escort a Venezuelan delegation at first. A couple days before the symposium, he canceled. So therefore I was transferred to the spouse program, in which I had to escort the spouse and kid of Colombian parliament's member, Carlos Eduardo Hernandez Mogollon.

A day before the symposium, I knew that Mrs.Mogollon could not come. I would be accompanying two children of Señor Hernandez then, Paola and Santiago. These two youngsters from the city of Cúcuta are very charming indeed. Paola became an idol for male LOs, while her younger brother Santiago charmed the female LOs, plus the women of the Constitutional Chamber.

In between two Hernandez (left: Paola, right: Santiago)

Paola and I are about in the same age. Well, she is younger by eight months, but sometimes I feel she is more mature. Probably it's because she has the gut to be married in such young age, and she is a mom of a three year-old Isabella already. With my (currently) beginner level of Spanish, I thank God Paola speaks English too, though I kept on trying to communicate in Spanish. (That's why I was hired for!) Another thing I admire from her is the passion to be a politician like her father. Probably in the next visit, I'd meet her as a delegation.


Meanwhile, the 16 year-old Santiago reminded me of my little sister. Both love Harry Potter and the TV Series Glee. Santiago is a pop culture aficionado. I bet he knows all songs of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and of course his home-country diva Shakira. Santiago and I share the same interest in film production. He has a plan already to be an actor and movie editor.

One thing they have in common is the shopping hobby. We went to two malls downtown on the first day, and supposedly went to the National Park on the second day. However, it turned to be a two-days mall tripping as they were animated to visit the biggest mall in Jakarta, located in Kelapa Gading area. 

Lunch Break in a Mall Tripping

Paola said that stuffs here are beautiful, and quite various as well. I was quite surprised that we have more branded shops here than Colombia. For example, we have Forever21 in Jakarta, while they have to go to United States to get one. Although they are smart shoppers (pick many, try many, but buy only a couple best), these two out of four siblings are also generous in shopping. They did not shop for themselves only; they have many gifts to be given to beloved people back home.

I like the flow of my life these days as it allows me to meet many new friends, especially these two young Colombians. They are currently enjoying Bali, and will be going home by the end of this week.

Fifteen Minutes with Cesc

I will never forget these fifteen minutes given to interview the Spanish national Cesc Fabregas last Wednesday, 22nd June 2011. Along with four others journalists, we had a very fun fifteen minutes talk, and it only took fifteen minutes for me to know that this world-class football player possesses a very nice character. His face showed exhaustion, yet his smile didn't wear off. I can also conclude that Cesc is a good boy, very humble indeed.

Here is a piece of my story published by the media I represented:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/06/23/barcelona-me-best-place-be-fabregas.html

Wearing Indonesian Batik Scarf
courtesy by Matheos V. Messakh

From these fifteen minutes conversation, there are several quotations of Francesc Fabregas that I find interesting:

"Being on the streets for many hours, that's how I improved."

"Discipline is something that I always had in me."

"When I was six year old and I had the game for the next day, my mom wanted to take me to McDonald then I said: no mom, give me a salad, give me a fish, I need protein for tomorrow."

"My friends are very important for me, because I  know them since they were very little, since school, and I have the same friends."

"Life is always about making decision, making the right one is not always easy. You'll never know what is going to be the best thing for you so you have to imagine what could happen in both ways, and hear what your heart says. It can go wrong as well, but at least you've done what you thought it was the best for you."

"I like many footballs and I try to learn from the best teams."

"I love kids so much. It's important for me because they are the future. The future of football, the future of football."

"When I was eight I used to play with ten. When I was ten I used to play with twelve. I was always been a little bit more advance."

Journalist: You don't want to go home to Barcelona?
Cesc: Yes I will go on holiday.

Journalist: You look gorgeous everyday. Please describe you fashion style in three words.
Cesc: Can I think about it first and let you know later. I really don't know what to say, it's difficult.

"Barcelona for me is the best place to be. All my family and friends are there, and it is a nice way to disconnect from football... I live a little bit away in a small town and it's fantastic to live there."

*)Cesc was in Indonesia for a product promotion event where he is chosen to be the ambassador.