Domingo, 29/11/2015: Christmas concert, PayPhone, glacier melt, BIRM

Hola, Todos – 

Pagina cultural – 

Fotografía – There was a meeting of the Motiquedada Ecológica Mundial en Cuenca in El Paraíso at 10 today (19/11) for aficionados of photography.

Concierto – A concert, “Navidad: Cantos e Historias de Nuestra tierra” (Christmas:  Songs and Stories of our land) will be this coming Thu. (3/12)at the Catedral Vieja. (I hope you all feel that Cuenca is now “our land” and not some foreign country you got stuck in.)

Teatro – “Penelope” estrenarán (will premier – your word for the day which has another meaning which you may have seen in real estate ads and is “to use for the first time.”  So if you see an ad like “Vendo casa por estrenar” it means no one’s lived there before.  But that’s assuming you read the local paper when you househunt so you can avoid gringo prices.) on Tues at 20:00 in the Teatro Sucre with playwright Jorge Dávila Vázquez and actress Juana Estrella.

Articles about –

An interview with Dan Cameron, the curator for the XIII Bienal de Cuenca.

A dance performance this Fri at 19:00 in the teatro Casa de la Cultura combining groups from Bolivia and Ecuador where they will demonstrate part of the philosophy of the Andean people that is expressed through dance.

La Asociación Ecuatoriana de Editores de Periódicos (I think you know how to translate that, and why hasn’t anyone told me that periódico has an accent in it?  I’ve been writing it wrong for over 2 years!) is having the las Libertades Juan Montalvo competition. It is open to members of the association, each of which can nominate a journalist who has distinguished him or her self in the defense of human rights, civil liberties, and the fight against inequality or against any form of discrimination.  (We should all try distinguish ourselves in these efforts.)

The “De polo a polo” exhibit (From pole to pole) at the Sala Proceso de la Casa de la Cultura del Azuay.  The project is by two Colombian artists who each went to a different pole – one to north Canada and the other to Antarctica.  (I have no idea if they’re paintings or photos or performance art or what.  Is art still art if you can’t even identify it as art?)

A show at the Galería Larrazábal by 14 women artists with El Barranco as the theme.

Otras cosas –

Titular – 500 especies de orquídeas le dan color a una expo (500 species of orchids (the same orquídea as in the film festival) give color to an expo).  In addition to the 10,000 orchid plants, there were bonsai and flower arrangements.  It ends Sun. at the old Seminario San Luis, now converted to a new cultural space. (Let’s just hope the roof doesn’t get set on fire again.  Newbies, ask someone who’s been here a couple of years or more.)

A new app – called PayPhone, by a Cuencan start-up, uses your phone to pay at 6,000 registered establishments, 150 nationally. It’s free to sign up and free to use for both buyer and seller. (So far.) You use the PayPhone app which will ask you to select a payment method. The payment methods are Visa or Mastercharge credit cards or the Produbanco debit card.  For more info go to www.payphone.com or call 281 0285.  (Sounds like digital money just got privatized.)

Your sliver of life article – the Salesiano Agronomic High School in Uzhupud is training the students’ parents in dairy arts and animal husbandry at weekend classes on the campus. This is a way to present the parents alternatives for future businesses.

Cuban visas – the Ecuadorian gov’t will issue visas to Cubans who purchased their airline tickets before 26/11.  (Now the world has a new Cuban crisis.)

Actualidades – 

Articles about  –

The orchid show.  An orchid called the Cymbidium Dori Merchán, created by José Portilla won several contests.  (In case you didn’t know, the Merchan family owns El Mercurio.)

A ceremony at the Parque Ancestral del Museo Pumapungo to start the 1st International Museum, Ethnography and Community Symposium which will be held from 30/11 to 2/12.

A Chilean glacier that’s lost 19 square kilometers of ice in the lat 30 years.  (And there are those who still don’t think the world is warming up.)

Loy Krathong, a festival in Thailand where people float offerings in baskets into the waterways to honor the water god.  But they also contaminate the very same waters.

Documents in Spanish from the 16 and 17th centuries are on line at www.cordiam.org for students of the Spanish language in the Americas.

A book by Juan Gil, “300 historias de palabras” (300 stories about words) telling that  “zombi” comes from Paraguay and not Africa and that tsunami has pretty much replaced maremoto.  (And 298 more words in between.)

An Ecuadorian doctor has patented BIRM, a medicine derived from the solanum dulcamara, an Ecuadorian jungle plant.  It has been used to successfully control mancha blanca (white spot?) in shrimp. Studies on humans indicate strengthening of the immune system, delaying the progression of cancer, AIDS, and other diseases.  (So pretty soon big pharma is going to own that plant and if you touch one, they’ll sue you for more than you, your kids, and your grandchildren will ever be worth.)

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne