Comparsas de Carnaval

Well, first off...hello to people I don´t know! I´ve had two fellow trainees tell me their friends and family enjoy reading my blog. I´ll be honest it freaked me out at first, but I´m glad people are reading it, although I often feel scatter-brained and ill-equiped to fully relay the details of all the interesting things we are all experiencing here.

So! I got to dress up as a Cholita on Sunday and participate in a parade/song competition with my family and neighbors, etc. Chachi ¨(it was his birthday) and I (pic) were the leaders of our group and with accordion, whistles, drum, and confetti we made our entrance through the soccer field and onto the basquetball court of the school, where we made two rounds getting the first round of globos, waterguns, and foam-spray. Walking across the field, Chachi said ¨this is the best birthday entrance I´ve ever had¨I was hoping some other gringos would be there to see it, and within the next 2 hours we recruited whatever other trainees that were lurking around to join us. We made multiple rounds around the b-ball court and took our turn at the microphone to battle against other groups in a on the spot rap-lyric-battle in quechua with charangos, drums, an accordion, etc. The other groups I could tell were making jokes about us gringos in their lyrics but I could only distinguish the spanish words when they pop up amidst the quechua, so we all just smile and watch my family laugh and look at us.

Getting ready, I was at a family members house, and I remember feeling a huge sense of happiness. We were all hanging out in the back around the open fire, cooking mid-day food, with everyone laughing and joking and the musician belting some quechua with her accordion. About 5 feet away the cows were lurking, the corn husks were cut in the field behind, and the mountains topped off the view in the distance. Kittens were rubbing my leg, and I was handed a full plate of conejo and rice before being whisked off to change into my pollera skirt and blouse. As more and more got ready, we threw confetti on our heads and adorned our necks with streamers and began blowing the whistles.....and then headed to the school.

oh! and we won 2nd place among at least 6 groups... meaning we won 150B´s, which I was told was going to be used for next year´s competition. Celebration always occurs after, so we returned to the house and shared food and sat around and talked with buckets of chicha.

Ok...more random stuff I thought I´d share: about once every couple of days, an airplane will be landing and I don´t know if they have to descend rapidly or there are no rules to low-flying zones in residential areas...but, it is impossible to hear the person next to you, and everything will just freeze for about 15 seconds as we wait for it to pass. it is soooo loud.

Also for carnaval, every family will ch'allar, which is an offering with a variety of things, including: k'oa (an herb that smells great), a llama fetus, coca leaves, fake american dollars, wine, beer, and any type of symbols of things you might want for the year to come or want to bless. Last night we did it again for my sister´s husband´s cargo truck, right under the truck, to keep it safe for the year. (He wasn´t home for carnaval, so we couldn´t do it then.)

No matter what I do, I always seem to have soap marks on my clothes when I wash them....I can´t get the rinsing part down... =)

and...to leave you, they call sleeping bags: un esleeping, pronounced just like it looks in english.

oh, plus I posted more pictures per your requests...but it looks like I´m not going to have time to write comments on them to explain...so use your imagination, I guess!

love,

Tiffany

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