This week is my host community's patron saint fair. I don't know the story of the Virgin Lourdes, but I know she's a Catholic saint. So by default, the fair isolates half the community who isn't Catholic. I'm trying to convince the Evangelical half to come to the events anyways. There's free food!
From the onset it's been interesting to watch the community dynamic played out around the events of the fair. My host mom was suspicious when I told her the ADESCO is going to host a tarde alegre with a piñata and live music in our casario. They never host anything on our side of town. Must be a political ploy....
Oi ve. Politics aside, we've had a pretty good turn out for the feria. I'm planning on going to as many events as I can, with the exception of the coronación because I'll be sipping margs at the beach :)
Here's a run down of our events:
6 de febrero- 4am Alborada, 3pm Tarde Alegre en la cancha
7 de febrero- 2:30pm Tarde Alegre (in my casario, oooooooo)
8 de febrero- 4am Alborada, 2pm Carrera de cinta
9 de febrero- 4am Alborada en la cancha, 8am Torneo de futbol
10 de febrero- 2pm Celebración de adulto meyor (Yey! I love old people!)
15 de febrero- 7pm Coronación de la reina
We kicked off the fair Thursday morning 2 hours before dawn with an alborada. I went over to my community guide's house the day before to make 300 tamales. I spent the night there, and after an unfortunate battle with a gato that wanted to sleep on my head, I was wide awake and ready at 3:30am to pass out tamales, pan y cafe to the community members gathering outside. Free food is good food! Cohetes woke them up, but many men and women wake up at this hour on the regular. Woman need to make breakfast for the men who leave to tend the fields at 5am.
I kept asking, when does the sun come up? Why is it so dark still? They laughed and told me to wake up earlier. A true salvadoran wakes up at 4am. I told them I'll be a true salvadoran at the appropriate hour of 8am. We agreed to disagree.
I'm excited for the fair even though I've struggled with some ADESCO members in the planning process. They wanted a big, fat gringa candidata to crown. Ya know, one that'll bring in hundreds of dollars from her friends and family back in the US. As if this wasn't ridiculous enough, most candidatas are young teens (you can't have kids to participate so the sad reality is that this leaves 12 and 13 year olds). Some PCVs agree to be candidatas and it's totally awesome and they have a great time. But I personally choose not to. I tried explaining that I could help with soliciting funds by writing letters and going on visits. I mean, the majority of professional experiences I have required fundraising skills so I wanted to share that. Experience. Not magic money. Explaining my role is a constant process.
But never mind that. It's #feria2014 time! Follow my blog for updates on this exciting week of sport, food and community bonding!
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