Day 2


Started morning 2 sans water and electricity once again. Eh showering is overrated anyway right? After breakfast I walked up to the plaza to see the parade. Leading the parade was the statue of San Mateo which was the placed on the balcony overlooking the plaza. Then all the schools marched into the plaza, the band played, and speeches were given. Then the real parade began. Now when I say parade you’re probably thinking an American style parade with banners, floats, and marching bands but it’s a little different here. Parades happen quite often and should be considered more of a demonstration. There were marching bands….well minus marching. We had stationary bands. Each local organization marches in and presents a little offering to San Mateo. Following these organizations come in each school, first their color guards with the banner then groups of students marching. Now this is real marching with arms and feet kicking. See picture. How well the students march is actually a huge and serious matter of pride. My host mom even told my host dad that a police officer said they should be ashamed that they let one of their students march because he was so bad. Ouch. That’s pretty much the parade. The highlight was definitely the preschoolers’ marching which was absolutely hilarious.

After that I perused the open air market until lunch. The priest invited my site mate and I to have lunch with him so we headed to the church at lunchtime. We ate with him, the deacon, the nuns in town, his mother, and some other random people. I have to say I really like the priest and it was a really nice lunch. The priest, the deacon, and one of the nuns have really great senses of humor…well the stuff I understood anyway. The priest said if he didn’t have to be there even he probably wouldn’t make the 5am masses they’ve been having.

After lunch I headed home to find some my host parents with some of their friends who were in town for the fiesta. My family is 7th day Adventist and they had a couple from their church over. They’ve been to the states with the church and the husband practiced some of his English phrases on me. With so many people from out of town people, of course, they spot me right away and ask “where are you from”. It always catches me off guard and takes me a minute to realize that they’re speaking to me in English. I also met my host mom’s best friend from Trujillo. We had tea and turron which is layers of like a crackery-cookie with honey in between.

Later we went and visited my host mom’s cousin who I have never met. She and her husband are bakers and were making bread and empanadas. They have a huge wood burning stove to cook with and we got to try one of everything they were cooking. Delicious. We were there for a few hours talking. We spent a long time talking to the woman who works for them about her husband who used to drink a lot and the alcohol problem in Contumazá which is rampant.

We then all headed to the fireworks. Fireworks shows here are not like US fireworks shows. Usually the main attraction is a castle with a torro loco. They had a huge “castle” set up in the plaza. This castle is giant frame made of bamboo and when lit it burns different fireworks at each level of the castle and it shoots off fireworks into the sky when it gets to the very top. It is awesome. I think the fact that you can get as close as you want adds to that. They definitely don’t believe in having distance between you and the fireworks like they do in the states. Then there is the torro loco. It’s quite simple. They put together a paper and bamboo torro strap it with fireworks then somebody puts it on their head and runs around the plaza and through the crowds. Neither are very safe but really cool but I think those two things usually go hand in hand. They also had a free dance in the plaza set up with two different bands to play so the plaza was packed. We left at 1am when the fireworks ended so I didn’t even see band number 2.



Day 3

No water. Had breakfast with the fam then headed to mass. This was the central day for the fiesta so they had a big mass at 10 (much more doable). Apparently the masses don’t run on Peruvian time because I got there 10 min before and had to stand in the back. I did get there before a lot of people just not in time to get a seat. The mass was led by the cardinal and almost 2 hours but otherwise pretty much the same as the Catholic masses I’m used to. The priest invited us to eat with him after lunch. They had a community lunch which I thought we were going to but we attended a special lunch. My site mate and I ate lunch with the cardinal, priest, mayor, sisters, and all the other big wigs involved with planning the week. I was not prepared for that and definitely underdressed. Time to pull the gringo card. I was not impressed with the cardinal. Not a terribly friendly guy and in my opinion acted like he really didn’t want to be there. To my surprise they brought in beers for the table. My favorite point was when one of the sisters showed everyone how to mix inca cola (this awful, yellow, cough syrupy soda) with dark beer so it didn’t mix in the glass. I also tried one of the typical desserts of Contumazá. Quesillto con Miel. Its “honey” made from sugar cane mixed with cheese. It sounds as good as it tasted. It was like eating rubber is a sugary sauce.

After lunch I headed back home to rest for a while and realized I had forgotten to go to the Agriculture fair which I had “helped” plan. Really my site mate and I started attending the meetings after we got to site when things were pretty much planned so we didn’t contribute too much. I like the people I met planning it though and I got there as they were handing out awards. They had a pretty pitiful showing for the fair but that happens when you don’t advertise and nobody knows it’s happening. After awards they brought out the canaso (hard alcohol made from sugar cane) and cracked open a caja of beer. They invited me to drink with them and while they’re nice guys I did not want to be the one girl drinking with these guys. I politely had one sip of canaso and then peaced out. I took up some of the purses from the fair to my friend Lily’s store for here to sell. She was super busy so I took her kids to the fooseball tables set up in the plaza. We played fooseball (1. I forgot how fun that is and 2. I kicked butt), some carnival games and they went on some of the inflatable things that had been brought in. I absolutely adore Lily’s kids and really enjoy spending time with them. On the way out the little girl wanted to play that carnival game where you throw balls at a pyramid of cans. I tried to explain to her that they set it up so you can’t win the guy running looked at me then looked at the boys next to me and asked where I was from. Seriously dude? I’m standing right here and you heard me speaking Spanish. I answered him but he continued to direct his questions about me to the boys, who knew me because they’re in the youth group. This royally pisses me off. I HATE it when people direct their questions about me to other people.

We left and I politely dodged the drinking circles with guys I knew. Especially after this week I’ve become very good at this. While most of these guys are harmless it is in my best interest to avoid them when they’re drinking…which everyone was this week. I went back to Lily’s and played the Nintendo 64 version of Mario Brothers with her son then went home before I had to play “make-up” with her daughter. That purple eye shadow just didn’t go with my outfit.

I chatted with my host mom’s friend for a while before dinner because she wasn’t home yet. The friend lives in Trujillo and is a pretty successful lawyer. She’s divorced and lives alone. I explained to her Peace Corps, so far it hasn’t been the easiest concept for Peruvians to understand, and we talked about the various places we’ve been. After little bit to eat I went with my family, my host mom’s friend and the cousin and her husband to the fireworks. They had two bands and two castles set up in the plaza. We walked around, played fooseball (I killed) and chatted with various people. Then I saw my site mate with Lily, my friend Susana, and their kids so I went and joined them. Lily’s extended family was there as well so we all hung out and chatted. They passed around the Anis, which Is the drink of choice for a cold night. Its licorice tasting alcohol which even my family, who don’t drink alcohol, drink because “its good for your stomach”. Anis tea for your stomach? Sure. Anis booze for your stomach? Yeah, I don’t know about that. Following the show was a dance at the elementary school. I headed home though because by the time the fireworks were over it was almost 1am, I was freezing and didn’t want to pay 20 soles to get in.