This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Centers for East Asian Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

When we throw our trash away, we don’t expect to see it again, and we certainly don’t expect to hear it again. But a group of young musicians from a slum here in Paraguay is poised to change that. Thanks to a collaboration between a trash collector and a local musician, Paraguayan music, best known for its distinctive bottle dance and the unique rhythm of its polka, is about to add to its canon. The violins, guitars, flutes, clarinets, trumpets, and cellos in the “The Recycled Orchestra” are made entirely out of materials collected from the 1500 tons of solid waste that arrive each day including discarded paint and oil cans, forks and spoons, water pipes, packing crates, coins, and so forth. You’ve heard of the philharmonic? Well, this is the “landfillharmonic.”

With thanks to Danika Swanson for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.