Oh say can you see...

Today was the final day of rehearsals before the dress and gala concert. The band will keep me on my toes until the last minute. I tried running the easy pieces at the beginning of the rehearsals and they nearly fell apart. They do know how to make a much better sound now, though. Anyway, it's unlikely that anyone in the audience knows "Deep River", "Shenandoah" and "The Water is Wide". Or Brahms 1 for that matter. The band kind of rocks on the Danse Diabolique (at least, that's what I think) but that's fast and sound doesn't matter as much.

Mr. Najat is still hanging around-- I made an announcement about concert dress being white top and black bottom (and NO hats) and he immediately stepped in to alter it to all black. Who am I to differ? John Ferguson, the director here, still worries that he's going to step in at the last second to and try to conduct the concert. That would be an interesting bit of drama.

Tomorrow's concert will have a prelude in the lobby, and I'll be accompanying a couple of my wind students-- an Albinoni oboe concerto and a movement of a Bach suite. None of these hats fits me very well, but I sure have a lot of them at the moment. The one thing I'm barely doing is playing my horn-- I broke a string on a valve and I'm trying to find a replacement string here. I may use one of Marc's used gut strings!

After band rehearsal today I gave the trumpets one last sectional. Those army guys are persistent. We kept on hammering away at stuff, and even after it was scheduled to be over, they kept on asking to rehearse more sections or to play something through one more time. It was fine with me, although my Fasil (the translator) gets tired at the end of the day. He's kind of been the limiting factor in my lessons since he won't stay late and the other translators are busy with the other teachers. And I can't fake my way in Kurdish at all.

At the end of the trumpet sectional, one of the guys brought out a little crumpled sheet of music. It was "Star Spangled Banner" with "Department of Defense" emblazoned across the top of it. They wanted me to help them with the style! I made sure they knew what it was (they did) and then I gave them a good coaching. I mean, if they're going to do it, they should do it right). So I sang it for them in as heartfelt and patriotic a manner as I could, and then I played it for them. They told me they want to memorize it. The general feeling here in Kurdistan is pro-US, no question.

It reminded me of an incident earlier in the week with Gene Aitken, the jazz teacher. When I was going through the boxes of music to decide what the band would play, I came across Star Spangled Banner. It seemed to me to be wildly inappropriate, and I kind of chuckled as I pointed it out. Gene told me he thought I ought to do it. I said it seemed not quite right for the situation. A little miffed, he said he had just done it in Nepal. I retorted that we hadn't invaded Nepal recently and he got annoyed and said "whatever". A minute later he tossed "Anchors Aweigh" (the American Navy march) at me-- I think he just wanted to piss me off. There's always more than one point of view. Obviously, many Kurds wouldn't mind playing the US anthem, but it was as much about what I felt comfortable with as anything else. If we were going to play for an American delegation, then it would be a nice gesture. Otherwise, who does it really benefit?

After rehearsal today, one of my army trumpet players offered me a ride home in his cab. I guess when he's not on duty, and not playing trumpet, he's driving a taxi. I declined the ride because I like unwinding on the walk home, but I thought it was a nice gesture.

This evening we went back to Zara's cafe, the Western-style supermarket towards the center of town. My cellphone mysteriously sends and receives text messages there (who knows how much they cost me). The place was filled with families shopping. Obviously the upper crust here but it was packed. I even heard a little girl chattering in English with her parents, even though all were clearly Kurdish.

I'm coated in my second layer of sulfur tonight. Did I mention that I'm NOT to change clothes until the treatment is over? I guess the idea is to get this set saturated in sulfur while the other ones are laundered or boiled or burned. My undergarments are acquiring a distinct yellow tinge. Thanks all for writing about scabies experiences. Makes me feel a little less dirty...