It's been four months since I left Central America, which to some might mean these videos are overdue. On the contrary.
This is the point by when I usually start to miss Latin culture, when I feel myself settling back into the constant hum of the anxieties of living in the states. No moment feels simple here, what with thinking about how the $5-10 I'll need at least to buy anything (anything) will all add up, about my wrist that now has a chipped bone after I smacked it on the back of a glass doorknob and will this cheap brace I bought actually heal it because lord knows there's no chance in hell of getting an x-ray for the uninsured, especially for a non-life-threatening injury, and just the constant barrage of being around people who must fill their days and do not know, could not if they tried to comprehend, how to sit, say nothing, and absorb a moment.
This is the point by when I usually start to miss Latin culture, when I feel myself settling back into the constant hum of the anxieties of living in the states. No moment feels simple here, what with thinking about how the $5-10 I'll need at least to buy anything (anything) will all add up, about my wrist that now has a chipped bone after I smacked it on the back of a glass doorknob and will this cheap brace I bought actually heal it because lord knows there's no chance in hell of getting an x-ray for the uninsured, especially for a non-life-threatening injury, and just the constant barrage of being around people who must fill their days and do not know, could not if they tried to comprehend, how to sit, say nothing, and absorb a moment.
There is nothing complicated about any of these scenes, all from my trip to Nicaragua this Semana Santa. "Quotidian" in English has an implied negative connotation: a chore to dread, the day-to-day, a monotony. In French and Spanish, the connotation is neutral-positive: the word is more of a reassurance, something steady, something you can rest in, not something you're confined to. Most anything I ever do will be about trying to get back to or recreate communal, quotidian moments like these:
And, an addendum to my ode to Latin American buses last year:
The movies they play on the buses are legendary, or rather, the fact that the bus ayudante is actually being democratic in his selection of such cinematic œuvres is ... remarkable. On countless 8-hour bus rides between La Paz and Cochabamba, which I had to take because I couldn't splurge $50 for the 30-minute plane ride, I would to drown myself in Broken Boy Soldiers on my iPod as I watched the altiplano go by and try in vain to block out the gratingly dubbed apocalyptic Jean Claude Van Damme movies they played back-to-back-to-back, because of course I'd been stuck right underneath the speaker.
I infinitely prefer the Marco Antonio Solís.
And, an addendum to my ode to Latin American buses last year:
The movies they play on the buses are legendary, or rather, the fact that the bus ayudante is actually being democratic in his selection of such cinematic œuvres is ... remarkable. On countless 8-hour bus rides between La Paz and Cochabamba, which I had to take because I couldn't splurge $50 for the 30-minute plane ride, I would to drown myself in Broken Boy Soldiers on my iPod as I watched the altiplano go by and try in vain to block out the gratingly dubbed apocalyptic Jean Claude Van Damme movies they played back-to-back-to-back, because of course I'd been stuck right underneath the speaker.
I infinitely prefer the Marco Antonio Solís.
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