PBA in Argentina

Our flight out of BA was in the evening, so we had all day for one last adventure. We loaded up the bus for Santa Cristina (I think) ranch, where many empanadas awaited us. Gauchos greeted us on arrival, and we walked past a giant grill on our way to put our things down. Then, we got in line to load up the horses. Yes, another PBA tour first, we all took turns hopping up on horses, and something rather bizarre and completely unexpected (though I guess we must have been warned) was unfolding. From helicopters to snowball fights in the Andes to now riding horseback. We weren't very impressive as riders I don't suspect, but it was fun nonetheless.

The place is a bit touristy, but the touristy things here seem authentic, as if the culture has been conveniently gathered for you, rather than spun and packaged for you. Maybe a cable car is indeed as cool as a tango band on a street or an Argentinian horseride, but right now I give the edge to Argentina.

There are other groups here at the ranch today, and walking back inside for lunch, I notice from a distance there seemed to be somebody wearing a Wesleyan University sweatshirt inside. Lots of college start with "W" but as we got closer, I noticed they were all from Wesleyan, and it turned out to be the Wesleyan women's field hockey team. Being a Wesleyan alumnus, I was rather surprised, and chatted with them for a while. Turns out they're not winning much on their trip, but they're learning a lot. Field hockey is the third most popular sport here, even for men, behind futbal and polo (!). Wesleyan is known for being quite liberal ("PCU") and I couldn't help ask if theuy were finding many vegetarian options in Argentina, and those that cared said it was a challenge.

There was a musical presentation, tango and gaucho dancing, and some dancing led by Hernan of course, and he matched up Wesleyan undergrads with PBA boys. There's a Seinfeld episode about "worlds colliding," something about two people meeting that travel in different circles that aren't supposed to exist in the same place at the same time, and I was getting that feeling. It would admittedly have been more strange for me if it were the Wesleyan crew team, but in my mind, Wesleyan and the PBA don't exist simultaneously since the PBA didn't even exist when I went to Wesleyan. Anyway, after riding a horse for the first time since my first ever boys choir tour (Alaska in 1986), anything is possible. We were asked to close the show with Carnavalito, and ended up singing a couple extra songs. We went outside, some boys having finished off their tour bank with a gaucho hat, we watched the gauchos herd and run horses. The photos below say more.

Hernan seemed to know everybody at the ranch, and no doubt he's taken many groups there. Since he lives in Buenos Aires, it's clear Hernan has particular passion for the area. The tours, the meals, the tango house, it's all well-planned out, and Hernan knows everybody. We stop at a rest stop, and he knows everybody, and still I don't have the feeling we're being set up. He's showing us his hometown, finding the boys shops they would like and the best prices he can. It helps to have somebody who the territory of course, but Hernan also makes everybody smile where he goes, whether it's a concert presenter or the people at a rest stop on our long bus ride. It's a particular talent that makes one a good guide, and thinking back, we've always had great people on the ground who not just show us where we're going, but who connect with the locals in ther own way, whether it's jumpting the line at the Vatican museum, getting our equipment through airport checkin, getting a little more food for the older guys, or getting us on TV in Brasil or Argentina or wherever, we are lucky to be working with people who know how to get things done. A smile and some patience goes a long way in any language. With the striking farm workers puzzlingly meeting in our hotel lobby that morning, one now wonders why we didn't really need to contend with the blockades we saw early in the tour.

I like to think we return the favor. I don't know if it's because our staff has so much touring experience (I'm guessing this staff has about 80 tours under its belt) and do our best to present professionalism at every step, or because of our adventurous spirit as part of a startup choir or just as Californians, but we do seem we have a unique effect on people when we're on tour. "Good people," as I recall Flavio saying as we left Italy last summer. And then he brought our rejected Yamaha keyboard back to Switzerland with him and shipped it to us, going above and beyond, even after we were gone.

Maybe it's the Pacific Boychoir "sound" that gets people's imagination. I continue to be surprised that in a country with European roots I would be so frequently asked why we have a choir of just boys; I'm surprised we're a novelty. But I believe it's more than "the sound," which has been referred to too many times to ignore in the past 10 years. I've heard great choirs that people couldn't stand once they were off stage. Maybe they would be invited back, maybe not. I think back a couple days to the Iglesia de Pilar church in Buenos Aires. It was Sunday, and most everyplace is closed, so people it seems tend to hang out at the Sunday markets, of which we hit two, San Telmo and Recoleta, where vendors sell antiques and handmade goods, respectively. People seem to go on their Sunday strolls here. The Pilar church is right on this hill where the cemetery is, where the market is, and where the ice cream is. We were let off the bus, and (again) missing a suit bag, Hampton waited behind with the boy as the choir went ahead. Since Hampton didn't know where the choir was going, I split the difference as I kept one eye on his waiting for the bus to return, and one eye on the choir disappearing into the crowds on the hill. I got to the church after the choir did, and was greeted by the choir director there along with some helpers, two of whom spoke English. They may have said hello but perhaps even before that they mentioned how surprisingly quiet and organized the boys were. During our rehearsal there, the choir director, as he apprently typically does for concerts there, stood out front with a microphone for about an hour (!) talking up the concert to the crowds on the hill. My Spanish is pretty spotty, and I know "Pacific Boychoir" when I hear it, but what I didn't know until later was that in his sales pitch to the crowds, he was talking about how impressive was the discipline of the choir. I don't know how big a deal he made of that, or what else he may have said, but it was our biggest audience of the tour, standing room only, where they had to ask people to move who were standing in the aisles so the boys could get around them.

That, in turn, reminds me of our concert at Teatro Independencia in Mendoza, which turned out to be a great concert. One never knows what variable will make or break a concert, but I had a sense from our double line getting off the bus that we were going to have a good concert. It is focus and discipline that makes the difference, something that is pretty consistently widespread amongst many of the best boys choirs in the world. The choir performs together, and I think it's difficult for us as individually-minded Americans, Californians, and to top it off, Bay Areans, to get the sense of a what it takes to do great things as a team. It's a struggle, and I think a good one. We can be as individualistic as we like, but none of these boys by themselves would get to do what the group gets to do on a tour like this. Even as a singular group, we can't get the things we would like and need without working together. A smile and a song gives us the opportunity to be on the same team as the concert producer, security crew, or the restaurant manager.

I think that's one of our biggest tests, which I think is more Bay Area choirs than most: how to be part of a successful team without giving up our cherished individualism. Discipline is at the core, yet unfortunately in some circumstances, "discipline" can be synonymous with punishment, and some have made the mistake of making that connection at the wrong time. The discipline to do things as a group more akin to "focus" and "self-discipline." You can go anywhere, and the formula for excellence is pretty much the same: talent and hard work, and the work takes focus and discipline. Mads Bille in Herning, Denmark, talked about his aim to gather successful people and leaders from diferent avenues: music, sports, business, and convene discussions on what it takes to achieve excellence in the modern world. Our focus, our discipline is sometimes mistaken for random rules, rigidity, and the surrender of one's individuality. Yet, by learning what we have in common, a love and talent for music in this case, and by learning that we need each other to achieve things, we see what it takes to be extraordinary, more than a powerless, forgettable soul in the world, but rather one with a purpose and the tools to be the individual one wants to be.

More than anything that can be taught in a classroom, this I feel is the greatest gift we can give to those growing up in the world today.

Hernan explains about the horses: "They have two speeds, slow and stop."	Yes, we all rode a horse

	The grill is warmed up for lunch
The show at the ranch	Dancing!

We sing Carnavalito, then a couple more	Christopher in his new gaucho hat
Fletcher took some amazing photos with Gareth's Sony

July 1, 2008— leaving Buenos Aires