Hey all! So at this point in my training, I
do know what my site is. However, there was so much to put in this particular
post that I’m going to save it for the next post. Please send all your hate
mail to my Hotmail account since I never check that one.
I do want to start with talking about the
one big event in El Rosario that’s been going on for the past week which is Dia
de la Virgen. Essentially it’s a whole week dedicated to the Virgin Mary (You
will find out in later blog posts that there are at least three festivals a
year dedicated to honoring Mary. She’s a pretty big deal down here). Each day
starts promptly at 6 with the bells of the church ringing loudly to announce the
start of mass. Then at seven, or whenever mass is finished, the church sets off
polveros (fireworks minus the pretty
colors) for about 15 minutes while a procession carries a statue of the Virgin
Mary to a new house to spend the night. That is the time that I usually wake up.
Our house is night next to the church and so I literally wake up “with a bang.”
Pun so intended. During the week, the Virgin Mary spends each night in a
different house. Each night, the family that is hosting the Virgin Mary invite
everyone in the town to come eat food and hold a vigil at their house.
The best part of this particular festival
happens on the first and the last day. After
the night mass, the church sets of fireworks and the whole town participates in
“Juegos de Polveros.” Literally this translates to “fireworks games.” As you
can probably glean from the name this is definitely not something that would
fly in the states. What happens is that a man will run out from a hiding place
carrying a wooden bull on his back. This is no ordinary wooden bull though. It
is a wooden bull completely covered in polveros that shoot off at random. The
trick is for people on the street to try and avoid getting hit by one. Being a
naïve American, I assumed that since children were allowed to participate, this
was not a dangerous activity. However, when I asked my host mom and brother to
confirm, they simply laughed at me and replied “Of course it’s dangerous.”
Therefore, I don’t think that’s something that I will be bringing back to the
states anytime soon.
In addition to Dia de La Virgen, my town
also hosted an Hipica festival. Although the real focus is supposed to be on
locals showing off their horses, the event has evolved to consist of a 75%
focus on drinking and a 25% focus on horses. People start drinking at 2:00 in
the afternoon and continue well into the night. The horse parade, which is
supposed to be the focus of everything lasts for all of an hour. After hours of
drinking, the event ends with a town fiesta. I had the pleasure of being able
to go to this town fiesta stone cold sober. It was a blast. Geri, one of the
other trainees, and I learned how to dance cumbia in the rain. I also got to
meet a lot of locals from my training site. If anyone wants advice on how to
better integrate I have two words for you: town fiesta. They are seriously one
of the best opportunities to meet and talk to people.
Well as they say in Nica “Aqui Muere.” (I’m
done). Tune in next time for a blog post about my site visit to…..BLUEFIELDS. I
am stoked to finally start getting to know the place where I will be spending
the next two years. I know that I’m going to love it.
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