| | Music Festival in El Salvador, Central AmericaIV International Suzuki Festival
Sponsored by the Asociacion Suzuki de El Salvador
A while back a summer camp that I teach at sponsored a campaign to collect instruments and accessories from people who no longer use them and distribute them in countries and to individuals who can.
At the time, one of the girls I'd taught in a Teacher Training Class here in El Salvador was asked to start a guitar program at her school. They had 75 students who wanted the class, but only 3 instruments. So, I obtained 3 more from the Summer Camp donation drive.
...and they sat under the counter in my studio until the next time I should go to El Salvador...which was today. I was determined to get them out of there and into the hands of kids who needed them even if it meant carrying extra bags and paying extra money. I boxed up two of the guitars and the third I just padded in it's case. With my own baggage, it came out to three items to check.
My husband was telling me all of the things that could happen - they will make me take the box apart so they can inspect it at the airport. They will tell me flat out I can't take it. They will let me, but only if I pay exorbitant money to them. And even if I do get them past the ticket counter, when I get to El Salvador at the border they will charge me. They will accuse me of selling items for money and expect big fees. Or they will just have a thirst for getting money from rich Americans and detain me until I offer them lots of money....
It all made me so frustrated that I said "....or we can say a prayer over this box and just ask God to help me." So, we did.
When I arrived at the Check-In Counter, the lady there told me the charge for a bag over the two-bag limit was $80. She asked me what they were for so I told her and though she was sympathetic, she said she still had to charge me.
She asked a Supervisor to come over and had me tell him the story. They asked if I had a letter. Well, on the advice of a colleague, I did have the literature about the donation program ("Viva Suzuki!") as well as a letter explaining where the guitars came from.
After all of that, he also said he wasn't high up enough in the chain of bosses to give me permission and that it's too bad because the airline does like to do benevolent things like that, but it needs to be arranged in advance...so, too bad, pay the $80.
OK, so, then the Bigger Boss Guy walked away and the lady at the Counter was stamping my stuff - my suitcase, the other guitar and then the big box.
She handed me my Boarding Pass and said "Thank you, Good bye."
I hesitated and said "Don't you need to charge me?"
She looked at me very sternly and said "THANK YOU. GOOD BYE."
Ha!! I said "Muchas Gracias" (and Thank You to God!!) I was totally overcome!!!!
On the El Salvador end, first I went through Immigration, no problem. Then Customs (all in spanish...I was surviving. It was working) The man asks me "What's in the box?" "Tiny Guitars"
"What is in your case?" "My Guitar" "Step over there."
He was definitely not amused and looked...serious.
He opened the two guitar cases (mine and the loose one that I padded inside the case). Then he opened the box and took out the two little guitars.
"Why do you have so many guitars?" I tried to explain about the program and the donations, but now my Spanish wasn't so strong and he was getting tired of me. He called over a buddy.
I said I had a letter and showed them all of the paperwork. The second guy said "It's OK. You can go."
YAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!
So, I got here with four guitars (including mine), none was damaged and they will be put to good use.
On another note, there is a violin teacher here from Honduras - Fernando Raudales - who was telling stories at dinner. He was an acquaintance of Joaquín Rodrigo (the Spanish composer who wrote the Concierto de Aranjuez and many other well-known pieces for guitar) and hung out at his house a few times. He was saying Rodrigo really had a hard time getting the first recording of the Aranjuez. He had so many problems in Spain that he felt, well, jinxed and went to Germany to finally get it done. The first recording was done by Sigfried Behrens (who, oddly enough, did the arrangement of "Malaguena" that a trio of my students recently played.)
Anyway, I have a feeling there will be many more stories this week since he also knew Pablo Casals, Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz. And who knows who else.
Gotta Go Practice. Here's a link to some dumb musician jokes I found:
http://www.ahajokes.com/muscn.html
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| | Posted 2/11/2007 7:01 PM - 1 view - 1 comments
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