otra familia

Now in its second residency in Quito, Ecuador, the orchestra is playing Mahler's 4th symphony and two pieces by Phillip Glass, our composer-in-residence. The orchestra is...exhausted, sick, and continually pushed. I am feeling fine, with the exception of a painful cough. We are still getting used to the altitude in Quito and some people are experiencing headaches.
On top of this, two members of the orchestra have lost grandmothers in the last few days. It is so hard for them to be away from their families and far away from home. We help each other by offering stashed food, vitamin C tablets, covering each others' parts in rehearsals, and with lots of hugs.
Quito is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains. We haven't seen too much of it because we've been shuttled between the hotel and the concert hall, which is quite far away and up a steep hill. The clouds here are beautiful - there are lots of eucalyptus trees and other flowers. One of my favorite parts is that all the buses have names painted across their front windows - "Trans-Zeta," "El Rey de la Via," etc. Fun...we even had a bus that had a furry covering for the outside of the rear view mirror.