Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Fiestas Patrias

This weekend marks the 187th anniversary of Central America's independence from Spain. I know that number by heart now because they repeated it over and over and over again at the acto today. I don't really know what acto translates to, but it's basically a presentation of sorts. Despite having a long weekend, I chose to stay in-site to see what these Fiestas Patrias are all about.

Friday a torch that was being run through all of the Central American countries came through town. There was a parade and then some good ol' baile folklorico (folklore dance). I went with two German girls who are volunteering in town, Janni and Eva:



and we managed to sit up in the Important People Area because their boss was up there and signaled us to come on up! Here are some cute little girls in their traditional dresses for the baile (the middle girl is my neighbor, Erin):



and here's the alcalde (mayor) and the torch, I was sitting behind him so I didn't get such a good shot:




Sunday was the big parade and my friend Dianne was in town for the weekend, here we are clearly having the time of our lives:




and here are some shots of the flag girls and marching band from my school:








Watching the parade brought back dorky memories of marching band in high school and how awful our thick, polyester uniforms were- wearing them in a summer parade was described as being like taking a shower with your clothes on. These kids got significantly more comfortable uniforms but I'm sure they were still unbelievably hot marching in the hot sun, even if it was 9am. All the schools had dance teams in those short skirts and at least knee-high boots, and if that wasn't enough, their dance moves would scandalize most adults but that's par for the course in these parts.

Monday was, from what I can gather, the actual Independence Day. Although the acto didn't start till 8am I had been told by several people that the stadium would fill up really early, like by 6 to 7am. I showed up at about 7:10am to this:



Sooooo yeah. I chilled out till things actually got under way around 9am and the stadium looked more like this:



Each school from the municipality made their entrance, some people said some words, and by around 10am we were finally getting into the performances the schools had prepared. After several weeks of having to teach (or more likely not) above the din of marching band practice not so far away, I was excited to see the whole show. Here are some shots from the instituto's showcase:






Unfortunately things didn't go off quite without a hitch, being the biggest school there were both a lot of performers and also a lot of people who really wanted to see the instituto perform. This is a problem when the audience is standing on the field where the band needs to be and pretty soon people are throwing pop bottles and the the police are linking arms to herd people around while the announcer is yelling at everyone to move or else they won't finish the show. It took a good 5 or 10 minutes to get things back into order so the band could finish. All the bands did a great job and I think I saw the last one perform, but at 3pm I'd decided that I had had enough after 8 hours in the stadium and took off.

No class till Thursday! Hopefully planting trees today! The fun just never ends.

1 comment:

Laura said...

LOVE the pictures buddy! keep 'em coming!!!!

xoxo