Adventures in Peace: Fiesta! Déjà vu??

I know what you are thinking… “Didn’t I JUST read about a town fiesta in Galera? Yes, I’m quite sure… it lasted several days, there was music, child queens, dancing all night…” Well, that was just a warm-up, let me tell you. Back in July, we celebrated the Virgen Carmen in a weekend –long tribute as described above. But September 13 was where the party was really at. This day commemorates the founding of the parroquia (celebrating 68 years now!) and the town celebrated accordingly. Well, accordingly for them. I still found it to be a little much. Here’s a quick breakdown of events:

1. Wednesday, September 13: The discomovil shows up, music starts at 6pm. A small stage is set up on the cancha . In case you don’t remember, the cancha is directly in front of my house. No escape from the music. People start to gather at 8. Sarah and I wander down at 9, buy some salchipapas. The election of the niña reina commences at 10pm. 4 girls, ages 10-12, strut their stuff on stage- first in a risqué little outfit while dancing to a choreographed J.Lo number. Next in their trajes tipicos to represent different aspects of life in Esmeraldas.. one in seashells, one with cacao on her sleeves, etc. Also super risqué. And if we hadn’t already seen enough of these girls… Next was the swimsuit competition. I wish I could post pictures, but a) I didn’t take any and b) I don’t want my blog to get flagged as a kiddie-porn site. Then there was evening wear and the questions from the hosts (it was obvious the girls knew the questions ahead of time). A winner was elected, she won a bike and of course the highly-coveted niña de 13 de septiembre sash, and the thing ended at midnight. I mean, most people (including me) left at that time. The music was still going strong when I was walking up to the bus stop at 6:30 the next morning.

2. Thursday, September 14: Bingo baile. This is exactly what it sounds like. There is bingo, with prizes, and dancing. I opted out, as I was still recovering from the night before and knew I had to save my strengths for Saturday.

3. Friday, September 15: Some kind of party going on with the school and colegio kids that required them to be dressed up as clowns and other things on the cancha. Whatever they were doing, it wasn’t learning, but I didn’t complain because there was an ice cream truck. 25-cent soft-serve? Sign me up!

3. Saturday, September 16: I was up early making bolones with my host mom (see Bolones! blog) and there were two fútbol games going on: the two mens’ teams of Galera- Deportivo Galera and Calle 13 (named for … you guessed it! The 13^th of September! It actually is the name of a street here in town); afterwards the women of Galera also played the women of Galerita. I grabbed a power nap, and soon an even larger, extremely legitimate stage with lights and everything was installed on the cancha in preparation for the REAL reina competition, which commenced at 10pm. After a filling dinner of bolones and Pilsener, we took our seats in anticipation of seeing which girl from the parroquia would be crowned reina and hold the title all year. The competition went about like how the niña competition did, but was a little less creepy since these girls were 16-17. It was just creepy like a regular beauty pageant is. During each “costume change” there was a little entertainment for the (very large) crowd- a blind man who sang (decent), a tone-deaf girl that sang (horrible), and my personal favorite-a group of break dancers from Esmeraldas city. They were really good! Back to the girls- there were 2 girls from Galera, 1 from Galerita, and 1 from Estero de Plátano. A girl from Galera won (prize was a big screen TV!) and although the entertainment was over, the fun was just beginning. Practically before the girls had left the stage, the dancing started. I mean, I think it was just torture for the community to sit there listening to music for two hours and not be able to get up and dance! A situation which was soon remedied. I did my fair share of dancing as well, although people watching with my friends was definitely more fun. My host brother (who usually pretends I don’t exist) and his friends kept sending beer over to us, so we were set for the night. The music shut off at 6am, but someone was kind enough to plug their mp3 player into the speakers to keep the party going. I gave up at 9am, made some pancakes, and took a good nap.

Sunday, September 16: More music, more dancing, more libations. I went to bed early, but I think the music shut off around 1-2am.

Monday, September 17: Defile (parade). The kids from the colegio marched through town beating drums and playing one-note horns, the girls did a little dancing, the escuela kids just marched, and there were speeches by members of the Junta Parroquial. (This is the only thing I have pictures of, courtesy of Sarah’s camera.) Obviously school was cancelled for the rest of the day, and the music started early- at 11 am. This was the last night of the fiesta, so we made an effort to be social and headed out to the cancha one last time for a few beers and dancing. I didn’t dance with anyone except Kevin, my 14 year old host nephew, but he definitely showed me up. I was talking to some of the guys in town and they were saying how not many people came out the night before. I said “yeah, I was so tired.. I just went to sleep.” They said “We know. We saw you.” Busted! I knew you could see into my window from the top bleachers from the cancha, but apparently people were wondering where I was that night, only to climb the top step and see Sarah, Mary, and myself all curled up and passed out in my bed like three sleepy kittens recovering from the night before.

Tuesday, September 18: SILENCE. So nice. And the countdown begins until the Fiesta de Navidad…