September 3, 2006, 1030

¡Viva Otavalo! It’s the annual Yamor Fiesta and all of Otavalo is celebrating for two weeks. The festivities kicked off Friday night with a parade of floats, indigenous dancers in traditional dress, marching bands, and pretty girls throwing roses. It was also Aiden’s birthday (new volunteer who arrived from the UK with her brother, Charlie, two weeks ago) so we had cake and beer as we watched. Unfortunately, being Gringos we didn’t know exactly where the best spot would be so we ended up at the tail end of the parade and I think missed some of the high-impact stuff. Even so, it was pretty cool.

Afterward we headed to a bar to get out of the cold and off our feet for a little while. The place we found made great Mojitos and played a random mixture of US music – everything from Guns ‘n Roses to Shakira. Later we tried to find a good place to go dancing, but everything was super expensive, and we were all a bit tired (we did have school that day). So after cheeseburgers at midnight we all headed home.

Last night was the very exciting Elección de la Reina del Yamor – a beauty pageant/concert/pep rally or sorts that last four hours! I went with Madre and arrived two hours early so as to secure a good bleacher seat. I’m really not going to do this event justice with my description, but I’ll try. The space where the pageant is held is like a school gymnasium, but even lower rent – tin roof, all concrete. There are bleachers making an “L” around one side and plastic chairs in the center. At the front a stage was set up with two big screens on either side. When we arrived the sound system was blaring really bad covers that I think must have been recorded by the seven candidates. After “Like a Virgin” and Guns ‘n Roses’ “Patience” the coordinators thought better and put on some cool Latino tunes. But my favorite part of the pre-show was what was being shown on the big screens – really cheezy graphics that were very reminiscent of Lawnmower Man. However, the attendees didn’t seem to be paying any attention as they were too busy setting themselves up with drums, whistles, noisemakers, confetti and anything else they could think of to show their support for their candidate.

Rather than walk you through every number, I’ll give you a sense of what the evening included. Now, I assumed that a beauty pageant would involve a bunch of girls parading themselves in tacky evening gowns, big hair and too much makeup – there was that, to be sure, but surprising little of it. In fact, during the four hours I sat on an uncomfortable bleacher, I would say only about 30 minutes actually included the candidates themselves. And their job seemed to be to give a runway walk across the stage a few times, and once answer a question with the equivalent of “world peace” or something. Most of the evening included music and dance performances ranging from really good to fall-of-your-seat hysterically bad.

The Music: The evening was meant to be a celebration of music across the generations. This translated into some great Latino tunes mostly delivered on pitch (but sometimes frightfully off) with the crowd really responding. It also meant that there were some very interesting interpretations of non-Latino songs including “Jail House Rock,” “You’re the One That I Want,” from Grease, and – my absolute favorites – “Thriller” and a medley of the following theme songs: Superman, Star Trek and Star Wars set to a disco beat.

The Dancing: A dance troop accompanied some of the music, and they were pretty horrible, which of course I thought was awesome. Think teenage Solid Gold dancers. And it’s not that they were bad dancers per se, as Latinos tend to make white folks like myself look like a bunch of bumbling idiots on the dance floor (please excuse my generalization), but these routines were SO bad and half-assed. I’ve already mentioned the “Thriller” debacle – but imagine it with dancers trying to imitate Michael Jackson’s moves in the video; or the flying Spiderman/Power Ranger-like guy in blue spandex throwing glitter who accompanied the aforementioned medley. However, there was one traditional indigenous dance, and it was really beautiful.

Overall, my favorite part of the evening was the crowd. For four hours they went crazy, cheering on their candidate, beating drums, singing, throwing shredded paper (that I was piled in by the end of the night) and just having a great time. I really enjoyed being a part of it.

So that’s been my experience of Yamor thus far. I’m sure I’ll have more to report as I check out more events over the next two weeks. Other than that, I’m pretty focused on the start of the school year tomorrow. The local teacher and all the students, return to Muenala tomorrow to begin their regular term. This means that I’ll finally be doing some real teaching, as opposed to the half teaching-half babysitting I’ve been doing for the past three weeks. I’m nervous as usual about the unknown, but I’m excited too.

Tomorrow I also hit my one month mark, which I can’t believe. My first week or two seemed to drag on and it felt like I’d be here forever. But now that I’m a month in, I’m surprised at how quickly the time is going. I think after my 16 weeks, I’ll really be ready to go home, but for now I’m glad that I have the opportunity to spend so much time here. Suzannah has already left, and I think how incomplete the experience would be for me if I were already on my way home. With 16 weeks, I’ll really know the kids and the community.

And now I’ll close with a few favorite things about Muenala:

1. Cows and dogs in my kitchen

2. My little perrito (puppy) who I wish I could give a much-needed bath and bring home
3. Becoming the culinary expert on the preparation of rice and lentils (my job everyday)
4. Gaining a real understanding for how one can read without any comprehension – a daily activity of mine
5. The chicken who likes to hide under our outdoor sink to get stray rice and lentils while I’m washing the 6. dishes, and never ceases to make me jump six feet every time she pops out
6. Games of pato, pato, ganzo (duck, duck, goose) when the kids think it’s the funniest thing to see their teacher run around a circle
7. Kids riding their horses to school
8. The daily greeting I receive from all the kids (including the little ones in the daycare): a handshake followed by “Buenos Días.”
9. The view I get everyday as I walk (hike!) 40 minutes to and from school
10. And finally, the fleas that I’ve contracted from either my cute little perrito, the kids, or both. I consider myself lucky. At least I don’t have lice (yet!).