Los Espots

The great challenge of scavenger hunt N. 3 for me? So few Bolivian companies produce television commercials of note -- or at least worthy of youtube posting -- that I have been scrounging to find something to post. The two main sources of television "espots" as they are known are Bolivia's beer and telephone industries. In particular, I love the Paceña beer commercial whose moral is that if you drink Paceña beer, you will TOTALLY bag a hot gringa (foreign girl).

But what struck me while working on this assignment is how many of the very few commercials available deal with the exact. same. theme.

And that theme? BOLIVIA, we are diverse, but UNITED.

Entel, the largest phone company, has particularly focused its campaigns around the issue of Unity in Diversity. These are nice aspirations, but the commercial must be understood against the backdrop of deepening racial, regional, and political rifts and a series of violent confrontations with racial overtones.

Take for example this Entel commercial, which is part of a series of ads featuring 3 dudes from 3 different parts of Bolivia (three regions known for their inter-departmental tensions) who go traveling across the country on a quest to deliver a wedding dress to a cousin. They encounter regional cuisine, natural beauty, and then, the three upper-middle class guys are saved by an indigenous woman with an Entel cell phone after their car breaks down on the desolate salt flats. In the below short, the longer storyline has been reworked into a series of images showing the wealth of Bolivian cultural diversity -- all united by the Entel slogan of "Entel, uniendo bolivia, desarollando futuro," or "Entel, Uniting Bolivia, Developing the Future."



Behold!! They hold aloft their Entel phones, beacons of light -- of progress -- in the darkness of racial and class division and underdevelopment. The title of the espot seems rather ironic to me. "Somos Milliones" or "we are millions" is intended to capture the notion of richness in diversity, and the song celebrates the millions of dreams or aspirations held by Bolivians. But it also evokes the last words said to be uttered by Tupac Katari-- the dying leader of an indigenous rebellion -- as he was drawn and quartered during the colonial era, and more recently invoked by indigenous movements: We will be back, and we will be millions. That cry has inspired people to seek to radically upend Bolivia's political and economic system. And it has inspired terrible fear in the hearts of those who would rather things stayed the same.

At least rival Viva! has the humility to suggest that Bolivia is united by Futbol (soccer), and not their magical phone lines. Of note here, Cholita soccer! Thick multi-tiered skirts make for more challenging goals.



Finally, a slew of ads preceded the Bicentenial of La Paz last year. Again, Entel.

But the fun of this ad is you get to see a little of the capital, a capital "Full of mysticism, character, and hope." Ahem. So join us on a journey to Our Lady of Peace:



Behold, Mt. Illimani! The Mystical Witches Market! That Cholita holding some gold necklaces! A grandmother instructing her grandchild in the ways of the Alasitas -- or, buying miniatures that represent the various things you hope to get in the coming year, from trucks to American Visas, to a boyfriend (ahem, not that I have ever bought one of those at alasitas...ahem)...all in miniature!... (adapted from Ekeko, the Andean god of abundance). Yikes! It's the notorious construction of the "Triplet Bridges" -- which are perched precariously on unstable soil.Gringo tourists gasping for breath as they walk around the city! Oooh! Our Weather patterns are so unpredictable (It's sunny outside, I should probably take an umbrella)! Arg! The lack of small change for all things (bus fare). Bread sellers who will yell at you. Market Cholas! Zebras teaching us to use crosswalks while being sassy! Look at our Big Modern Buildings!

Because "Celebrating 200 years of Freedom, a gift for La Paz -- full cell phone coverage...Because development is never extinguished. Entel: Uniting Bolivia, Developing the Future" (development "nunce se apague" -- a reference to the unquenchable flame that symbolizes La Paz's "cry of freedom," throwing off the shackles of Colonial domination. Which is like not dropping calls on your cell phone).

And, if at the end of all this you do wanna see that commercial about how Bolivian beer will get you a gringa, click here.

Finally, we are now on a brief blog haitus during the holidays, but Stacey has encouraged me to shake my fist at everyone and remind the cohort that things will recommence with earnestness in 2011. Dammit.

Naija Ads

Ok, so I think Nigeria might be a little behind India on this front because I was somewhat disappointed in what ads I could find online. However, I think these three are still amusing enough.

(3) Wild and Dirty (Nollywood Film)

This one is particularly dear to my heart because I first saw it at the shelter, where everyone kinda giggled over the mention of human trafficking. Also, hear that pidgin! (Apologies for redundant sharing for some of you)

(2) Star Beer

Great shots Lagos and my favorite beer. What's not to like?

(1) Mouka Foam Mattresses

I take Sohini's dancing squirrels and raise her this Bambi meets Sims-esque paradise. With astute cultural commentary of course: solutions to problems with traffic, poverty, light, oil, government--only in your dreams!

Scavenger Hunt 3: TV Ads

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Announcing the Third Scavenger Hunt - TV Ads

Here's the deal: Pick your top 3 TV advertisements from your place of research. Hopefully they are available on Youtube and you can simply get the embed code (look just below the video) and post it into Blogspot. Commentary, of course, appreciated.

Good luck with this foray into the intersection of old and new media!

To start us off, here are my top 3 ads from India:

3) The Blackberry Boys


Coming in third is the Vodafone/BlackBerry ad for prepaid services on BlackBerry. Other than the annoyingly catchy song, I'm a little intrigued by the way that BlackBerry is choosing to change its branding from men (largely middle aged) in suits to hip young men and women. So is this a case of the democratization of a brand or simply a case of rebranding? Of course, both the men in suits and the the hip young men and women appear to be urban and upper class, so while I appreciate, in particular, the attempt to make a brand more gender-inclusive, I'm wondering what a truly inclusive BlackBerry Boys ad would look like.

2) Cadbury Silk


At number two is an ad for Cadbury's Dairy Milk Silk chocolate. In addition to liking the song, I love the perfect contentment the guy derives from eating the chocolate bar. On the gender analysis front--I like that it is a male figure that is seen indulging in chocolate, instead of the usual chocolate = women (There's a related version of the ad with women dancers). I particularly appreciate how he treats himself to the chocolate bar after what seems to be a good meeting--and hey, who hasn't done that... Ok, before I give myself away, on to number one...

1) KitKat

Some of you may already know my partiality for this ad, so the number one slot won't come as a surprise. But, beyond singing squirrels there is something charming about the earnestness of the squirrels in this rendition of old-school Bollywood melodrama (it is an old Bollywood number), particularly in contrast with the vaguely too-cool-for-school hip young guys, who keep turning up everywhere with their fancy technology.

Naija Chop: Egusi Soup & Semo

As some of you may know, I have been living in the land of expatriates for the past couple weeks, after stumbling onto the most awesome housesitting gig yet. This was fantastic for many reasons (air conditioning! running water and hot showers! imported American toilet paper!) but the well-equipped kitchen meant I could finally cook for myself, which was not so great for my local food stories. However, a week-long trip to Kano provided great relief in that department.

Thanks to Katie's most wonderful network up there, I was able to stay with several different families throughout my visit. One of my most memorable nights, though, was with her good friend Grace, who taught us how to make egusi soup, arguably the most popular dinner in Nigeria. I don't know if it counts as "evocative" or "emblematic" (high orders that stress me out for blogging purposes) but it certainly seems close enough after my own long delay on this post.

So, without further ado, I humbly present to the Cohorticulture scavenger hunt committee and to the interwebs at large, a lesson in Egusi preparation, made in the courtyard of Grace's small concrete bungalow in the "village" outskirts of Kano. Tony Bourdain would be at home here right?





Like with all Nigerian foods, you start with palm oil. A LOT of palm oil. Like a quart or two. Grace emptied out most of this bag, promising that she was actually reducing the amounts since some foreigners don't like it as much. This explains a lot about why half my pants don't fit anymore.





Next, you add ground up melon/pumpkin seeds (the yellow bits) and a ton of local spinach (the green chunks). The palm oil (red stuff) envelops these and basically deep fries them, along with some onion, dried pounded crayfish, lots of hot pepper, and Maggi bouillon "flavor cubes".






At the end you can add your meat--chicken, goat, beef, or fish. Since all of the goat and beef was gone for the upcoming Sallah festival, we got fish. If you're lucky, it's freshly roasted fish from the market like this one. If you're not, it's the much stinkier dried fish. Both are sold in markets and roadsides from big trays precariously balanced on the top of people's heads. Oh, and if you are really really lucky, someone takes the time to piece them apart and remove (most of) the prickly bones inside, which I still haven't acquired the skill to remove and often swallow whole by accident. Also note awesome bending--another necessary skill I haven't acquired.





And that's your soup, giant puddle of deep frying oil and all. Mmmm. Next up, the starch. Tonight, we made semo, which is basically a huge mound of sticky cream of wheat. Here is my friend Bic, helping stir in the semo flour over the modified trashcan/cooking bin.





For extra fanciness, Grace swirled each lump of finished semo in a calabash shell to give it that round professional look. Note also the food coozie/thermos, brilliant and ubiquitous solution for life with microwaves. Here we were saving some for Grace's husband.






Finished setup. The giant portion size of that carb component also explains a lot. And if you look closely, you can even see the wedding sticker on my bowl, a favorite party swag item for all kinds of celebrations.





... But of course, we actually didn't have light, so here is what it all looked like without the camera flash. Unfortunately, my fingers were too sticky with palm oil to actually bust out the camera during eating, but the idea is that you pinch off small balls of the semo (or any other starch) and use your thumb to indent it and scoop out the soup. Messy for me even with light, but super sloppy without. But still completely delicious.

¡La hoja de coca no es droga!

In fact, I think I would have slept for 72 hours straight without it in Cuzco.

The Second Scavenger Hunt: Foooood

In order to avoid being further shamed cross-continentally by Susan, I shall post for the second scavenger hunt...

While Kolkata's street food is famed and delicious, it is known to consider considerable gastrointestinal distress to the untrained stomach, and even well-trained stomachs. So, my cousin and aunt decided to take Caitlin and me to Haldiram's for a more hygienic version of Indian street food and snacks.



Front, Left Tray - Chole Bhatura or curried chick peas with fried bread.
Front, Right Tray - On the left is Pav Bhaji--most popular in Maharashtra, including Mumbai--is bread with curried vegetables. On the right is dhokla, or a steamed snack made from chickpea flour, eaten with tamarind or mint chutney.
Back tray: Dosa--not really street food--but popular South Indian dish of rice crepe with sambar or spicy lentils.

While all of these are popular in Kolkata, we didn't have the most iconic of street food here: the phuchka, or small hollow fried breads, eaten with a stuffing of potatos and tamarind water.

However, here's a picture (courtesy of Caitlin) of a typical Bengali meal at home:



Along with rice, there is some spicy okra, fried poppy seed balls, daal--or lentils, this one made with bitter gourd--and finally some friend pomfret fish.

Cohorting Scavenger Hunt #2: Apthapi

So, I came to regret the assignment I handed out as our Scavenger Hunt item #2. It never seemed like I was eating those meals I find most "evocative" or "emblematic" of my fieldsite -- as I so imprudently invited us to post over two weeks ago.

I carried around my camera, ready to capture that special meal. But it didn't happen. Some friends ordered the always crowd-pleasing Pique Macho at a nice bar, but that version looked nothing like the mounds of thick-cut fries, oily hot dog slices, and mounds of beef, onion, egg, and hot peppers you get at, say, Dumbos with your godkids. I thought about trying to capture the extent to which starches comprise most meals here: piles of rice with a side of noodles (usually a little burnt, because they are often toasted first), several boiled potatoes and/or rehydrated chuño with a helping of boiled chicken or pan-fried meat. But now that I am eating less with my compadres (due to my research schedule), I have fewer opportunities to capture our (and most Bolivians') carb-driven meals. I was at a loss for something satisfying.

And then, Todos Santos (All Souls) happened. And I was reminded of that meal I do find most evocative of my fieldsite.

It's not so much a particular dish as a WAY of eating: the apthapi.

Sure, the apthapi usually has common food elements: boiled potatoes (lots of them), rehydrated chuño and tunta, ispi (deep fried Lake Titikaka minnows), roasted bananas, sweet oka, puffed corn, fava beans, oranges, bread. But the point of the Apthapi is the act itself -- that everyone brings a little something, spreads it out on big aguayo blankets, and gathers 'round to share, often inviting each other to glasses of beer in order to ch'allar the pachamama. And that meal is often followed by time to open the ch'uspa and invite each other to pichar (chew) coca while offering more libations.

The below photos are variations on my most recent apthapi experiences while celebrating Todos Santos -- first with my compadres de rutucha (I'm the godmother of their daughter's first haircut) in Viacha and then with friends in their rural community, Quieskapa.

Above: Prepping bananas, sweet and plain potatoes for roasting in the huge oven the Rojas family uses for baking bread. Present: extended family members, compadres, and a few neighbors.

Above: On Tuesday's celebration of Todos Santos in the campo (countryside) I got served two full dishes -- as always seems to happen every time I visit the Altiplano's rural hamlets. My friends had prepared boiled pork in a spicy aji sauce (which we also had for breakfast at 8am!), boiled potatoes, puffed corn, tunta (white dried potato). Their extended family brought roasted pork (initially placed at the head of the mesa for their deceased loved one during the prayers for Todos Santos), salad, the sweet, pink and yellow oka potatoes, and roasted bananas. Everyone contributed bread, cases of beer, sugar cane to the kids. Anytime a vecino (neighbor) would appear, they would be called over to partake.

Finally after sharing a sleepy, joke-filled meal (jokes usually at my expense), we gathered around to invite each other to coca and to ch'allar (pour libations to the Pachamama) and pass around cups of beer.

Botas

Scavenger Hunt Catch-up: Travelling Toilets

Hey ya'll. Here's a picture of an Irish toilet:


This is from my brother and sister-in-law's house in Dublin. It may not look like anything special, but I think this toilet-scape beautifully captures the crisis that a young household faces upon running out of "toilet roll" just days before leaving the country for good. On the one hand, our delicate sensibilities called for more toilet paper, but on the other hand, we couldn't stand making that kind of investment when we'd probably have to leave most our newly-purchased papel hygiénique behind. Solution: random box of weirdly perfumed tissues that would, as my sis-in-law pointed out, "make all our parts smell like flowers."

Fin.

(Indian toilets/food to follow shortly.)

No Reservations: Fieldwork Edition

A scavenger hunt assignment in honor of Caitlin’s travels to India (aka "Eat, Shop, Drink"): Foodie edition.

An invitation to post the meal you find most evocative/emblematic of your field site.

Fear not, there will be more foodie assignments in the coming weeks and months (from typical breakfasts to favorite street foods) -- for the culinary delights of fieldwork are nearly inexhaustible.

Reminder: those of you who have not yet posted for the previous assignment can still get partial credit if you post ASAP ;) In the meantime, we will judge you for your sloth.

My Throne

So, this is my bathroom. My favorite part is the Skye Bank air freshener hung on the left wall, which is one of dozens scattered around the house, including the very formal living spaces.



Not a lot to see, but let's take a closer look anyway.

Pretty standard stuff, including the backup buckets. Even when we do have water in the pipes, the pressure is often not enough to wash shampoo out, so I am learning to love the bucket bath. I might even prefer it with the room temperature water we use, since there's no widow maker installed in here yet to heat up the water (though, as Susan has pointed out to me, the water doesn't come out near freezing either).


These buckets are also used to flush the toilet when there is not water in the pipes, which you do by pouring half a bucket of water directly into the bowl. If aimed correctly, this somehow opens the latch and flushes everything down. Unfortunately, this I am still developing these skills, but I'll just leave that at that.

I also wanted to share this little sample of Nigerian construction strategies, which include just grinding out holes in the wall for access to pipes and faucets that were made to fit spaces not originally suited for them.


One thing you won't see in this room is any kind of light fixture, which means that even when we do have electricity, I make my way around by flashlight, which is slightly treacherous given that the floors are perpetually wet and rather slippery. So most of the time the bathroom looks like this.

Mi palacio (cohort scavenger hunt, assignment #1)

They named a (hot pink) toilet paper after me...not a good sign of the gastrointestinal year ahead?


Nicer bathrooms -- like mine -- are generally covered in tile, with a brick barrier that helps keep shower water on one side of the room. Note that because the Bolivian septic system can't handle toilet paper, we all have little trash cans for such purposes. One of the hardest things for me each time I return from Bolivia is remembering that American toilets can handle toilet paper. Ahem.

The WIDOW MAKER. Most Bolivian showers are heated electrically (note the electrical cord connected to the shower). You have to be careful or you can get a nasty shock.

But lucky me -- my compadres have also installed a gas alternative for heating shower water, using the electric shower only when we run out of gas. These garrafas even allow me to have warmish water for my bathroom sink! Fancy fancy!

El inodoro colonial

I love colonial houses and their colonial toilets:Oh, did you miss the carved stone toiletbowl? A closer look:

It's sort of a leafy motif? Unclear.

P.S. This toilet's just for show, y'all.

Located here.

LOLtourism

I just wanted to sneak this one in before the scavenger hunting started. Next time, toilets and only toilets, I promise.

Launching: Photo Scavenger Hunt!

Inspired by Sohini's LOLnotes, I'd like to formally submit to the blog a parallel photocentric game for our amusement: a weekly(ish) photo scavenger hunt.

Susan and I have put together a working list for future assignments, and the plan is to announce one each Monday. Then we all would have a week to find that photo, in our own archives or around town. All are meant to show mundane stuff so hopefully this is doable and fun. And by focusing each week on want topic while spreading them out over the months, we should have some automatic blog content without much creativity required!

Organized by category, this list so far includes:

Household
bathrooms/toilet
kitchen/stovetop
room decor
laundry

Food
breakfast
streetfood
dinner
"American" food
local fast food
American fast food chain
bars/clubs/nightlife
desserts

Transport
cabs
buses
motorbikes
other

Fashion
hair styles
footware

Scenery
local animals
neighborhood shop
mall

Pop Culture & Advertisements
celebrity endorsements
white for brown ads
education campaigns
romance
pirated dvds
other imitations (I'm thinking of the fake apple store, fake best buy, etc )

******

Groundrules
In my mind at least, this is in no way supposed to be a performance of fieldwork suffering, nor even should these photos necessarily be representative of our respective fieldsites, whatever that would look like. Rather, I think they should be just the opposite. That is, since this evolving into a nice little intimate space for us (and our loyal reader Andrea -- anyone else out there I don't know about?) I would like to see just what your lives are like, including the indulgences and privileges we all share in different ways, thereby dispelling those images of huts and loneliness once and for all. Of course, if anyone wants to elaborate on these subtleties and differences in a longer discussion or disclaimer with their photo, that would be welcome as well.

*****

First up (and the sick inspiration for this whole thing): TOILET-SCAPES!!!!


*****

Sidenote for Colin
This task might seem especially ill-fitting for your own fieldwork, but I would like to disagree in advance, particularly if you can recruit the participation of one special somebody to populate your photos : )

Typical

I iz on the couch, waiting for mies contacts.

Sneak attack sherd incisions!

c.f. LOLFieldnotes: i can haz fieldwork?

i iz in ur bisness, gettin alls ur gud quotes

LAUNCHING: LOL Fieldnotes

Here's to sharing our experiences--joys, aggravations, minor and major victories--through the medium of LOL (c.f. Urban Dictionary 2010; LOLCats 2010).

From Hope & Power, with Love

The starting point.

Field Reading

I’ve spent the past year reading like an extractive industry: mining books and articles for theoretical nuggets that I could summarize in one or two sentences for my preliminary exams or the literature reviews in my grant applications. This is not a satisfying way to read -- it’s a survival strategy.

In the final weeks building up to my exams, I fantasized about the day I would pick up a book and read for pleasure. It’s been several years since I’ve really read for the joy of reading. Even when I’ve been fortunate enough to read research-related books that were beautifully crafted and gripping, I was too often doing so on deadline, and in typical grad student fashion: read the introduction and conclusion, skim other chapters for ethnographic evidence -- and do so as quickly as possible.

My friends have been helping me recover the pleasure of reading. Stacey cajoled me into reading the ultimate historical junk book: Pillars of the Earth -- 983 pages that veer between 12th-century soap opera and Gothic cathedral-building tutorial. Kathleen refreshed my love of Barbara Kingsolver with The Poisonwood Bible, and Jen gave me Blindness by José Saramago as a post-prelim present. I’ll open it tonight for the first time.

I’m in an academic discipline that values good writing, a discipline that is most powerful when its members combine rigorous scholarship and theoretical insight with richly textured ethnographies. Once upon a time I loved to write, particularly poetry. But this phase of graduate school has left me speaking and writing in jargon. Most of the time I don’t even realize it’s jargon until my family asks for a translation. Over the next 15 months I’ll be taking field notes on a daily basis with the goal of writing my dissertation next year, and one day, si Dios quiere, my own book.

So here’s my goal: To spend the next 15 months in the field reading books that that will not only be enjoyable to read, but that will also help me to be a better writer. I want to read authors who will help me listen to the cadence of dialogue, and who will help me think about character development and how to vividly set a scene. I also just want to read gripping stories. For fun.

Daunted by the idea of lugging 100 books to Bolivia with me, I recently bought a Kindle (e-reader). I’ve been filling it up ever since. And I want to ask my cohortmates and the blogosphere what you-all will be reading this summer, what you are planning to read in the field, and what you think I should read while I’m in Bolivia.

Basically, I want to start a discussion thread on good books.

All genres are welcome, from science fiction to the realism of Depression-era literature. And I would especially love to hear about powerfully written ethnographies. I’ll list below books I’m lining-up for the field. I’d love to hear what you are reading or what you think I should add to my reading list.

My Working List
Germinal, Émile Zola
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy
The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich
The Painted Drum, Louise Erdrich
The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
A Mercy, Toni Morrison
Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verhgese

And of course, a few anthropologists…
Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights and the African Poor, Harri Englund
Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development, and the State in Cairo, Julia Elyachar
Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street, Karen Ho
The Palm at the End of the Mind: Relatedness, Religiosity, and the Real, Michael Jackson

Field Equipment Open Thread

Hi All,

So, I'm sitting here with Sohini discussing transcription software and equipment and we thought we'd dust off this old cohort page and put it to use:

Open thread on data analysis and transcription software, field equipment (e.g. cameras, digital recorders), water purification tablets, etc. etc. What are you packing for the field? We invite friends who have been to the field and back or who are otherwise occupied with similar topics to weigh-in too!

SLR Cameras/lenses?
Transcription pedals
Quality Netbooks for research assistants?
Portable Scanners?

--Susanita