{"id":266,"date":"2018-07-31T22:01:38","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T03:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/?p=266"},"modified":"2019-08-28T18:56:53","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T23:56:53","slug":"5-a-sampling-of-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/?p=266","title":{"rendered":"5: A Sampling of Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tuesday was an exciting day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first stop was a harp makers workshop. The harp is the national instrument of Paraguay and the harps handcrafted in Paraguay sell all over the world. It is a huge point of pride for the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, the harp maker was not there when we arrived and had to be called in by his team. It took some convincing, but Tracy was able to get one of his assistants to answer some questions about the process of creating the harps. All of the harps are handcrafted by a small team of artisans.\u00a0 Even the detailed designs carved into the instruments are all done by hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The shop is unassuming as was the owner. Once he arrived it was clear he was nervous about talking with a large group. He makes instruments that are recognized the world over, and it was clear he loves his work, but talking about it was another matter. As he talked he fidgeted with one of the harps, constantly tuning it. He ultimately played some short tunes for the group to demonstrated different styles of music, and then turned to answering questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n