Ecuador and Peru Go Jazz

I remember that kid Fabian, a proud native guy out of the mountains of Ecuador with a big apache warrior emblazoned across the chest of his shirt. Right about my age. He was down in the urban recesses of his country, hitting up the reggaetón underground dance fests pretty hard -- he was a good dancer and the ladies loved him. Lights. Booze. Cuties. Just a good guy too. He was there in the city living it up, but had come from the mountains just to the north.

And I remembered those dark and rhythmic nights as I met Leanne, a girl who had recently gotten back from those exact mountains, chilling with those exact same peoples -- indigenous groups from the mountains of Ecuador and Peru, stocking up on wares for her Fair Trade company. Selling high-quality crap up North, and giving those that made it a pretty good deal. And as I headed to the grindstone of factory work on my bicycle in what felt like sweltering heat to make burgers for giant international companies, she and her partner were kicking back during the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival, hitting up that marketplace.

Hell, her partner even learned to surf in the same place that I was at last year -- the beach break of Canoa. Brought me right back.

I listened intently as Leanne pointed out all the interesting little facets of the wares she was selling. For example, on cloth had these rectangular designs on them. To the untrained eye what you see is just a fun little pattern. Like how waves all look the same when they're rolling in towards shore -- from a distance. Well, turns out there's like this hidden map the craftsman or craftswoman were actually stitching in, and you can accurately find the location of ruins and historic sites and stuff like that if you know how to read it. Kind of like how each and every wave is different if you look closely enough. But I didn't know such a simple piece of fabric could be so rich with detail and textured with geography.

This girl is hardcore though. Seriously. She's lived in conflict-imbued Sri Lanka for an extended period of time and has been at the forefront of Fair Trade work on the island there, even establishing a tea company, and working in partnership with a Buddhist NGO of some sort. I really kind of wish I had her job, instead of, you know, stacking patties for 9 hours a day...
And it was cool to chill out with Aryn too -- the Broadway punk kid that everyone loves. He's looking at sheet music here. I've seen him play guitar at an Oxfam benefit show. And he's always just around town, you know. He's got a show coming up at Ness Creek you should all check out if you're in Saskatchewan later this summer.

It's funny for me to think that in the land of the urban cowboy -- Saskatoon -- a folk-punk rocker, a newly-minted surfer and a development worker/art-lover would be the thing that links me to that memory I have of just having a fun time hanging out for a few hours in the hazy late-night along Earth's half-way marker at an extremely high altitude, with people as rad and chill as Fabian.

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