Trip to Oruro x2

I went to Oruro, a city about 4-5 hours away from Cochabamba to experience Carnaval, a festival that is sort of like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Well, that is the best example I can come up with at the moment. They are actually quite different, but they occur around the same time of the year; before Lent.

Here's a bit of history taken from another website. Not sure about the accuracy!
Much of Oruro’s cultural traditions are based on the legend of Wari, Lord of the Earthquakes, who lived inside Mount Uru Uru. Every morning, the sun’s firstborn daughter, Inti Wara, the dawn, woke Wari, who tried to capture her with arms of smoke and fire but the Sun always rescued his daughter.

Seeking revenge, Wari turned the local farmers away from solar worship and their agricultural efforts and into activities pursued in the dark: mining, drinking too much chicha and the worship of snakes, lizards and frogs. The people became silent and apathetic.

Following a fierce rainstorm, Inti Wara descended to earth on a rainbow accompanied by handmaidens and chiefs Wari had exiled. The goddess reinstituted the ancient worship of the sun, taught the people to speak Quechua, and guided them along the righteous path.

In retaliation, Wari send four great plagues: La Vibora, a monstrous serpent that devoured livestock; El Sapo, a colossal frog; El Lagarto, a lizard that threatened to destroy villages; and las Hormigas, a legion of ants. Inti Wara fought each of these plagues, decapitated them and turned them into stone. (Today they are the rock formations of La Víbora, el Sapo, el Lagarto and las Hormigas.)

Following her victory, and to prevent further retribution from Wari, Inti Wara transformed herself into the Virgen de Socavón, Patrona de los Mineros, the patron saint of miners. Wari became El Tio, the uncle, who lives underground in the mines.

Carnaval is based on the pre-Colonial ceremony of giving thanks to the earth-mother Pachamama. During carnaval, one group of dancers is dressed in devil costumes, led by the chief dancer, called Waricato, representing Wari. Between the devils, groups of dancers dressed as pumas and insects caper to the music from brass bands, or pipers or drummers. The noise is loud and frenzied.

Out of the devil dancers comes China Supay, the Devil's wife, who dances a seductive dance to entice the Archangel Michael. Around her dance the members of local workers unions, each carrying a small symbol of their union such as pickaxes or shovels. Dancers dressed as Incas with condor headdresses and suns and moons on their chests dance along with dancers dressed as the black slaves imported by the Spaniards to work in the silver mines.

Today there are also many Christian influences that show up in the parade. For example, Mary (along with the Pachamama) is a symbol of fertility and life.

It was a fun time, and since I went on a 'budget' tour, I experienced things such as bathrooms without toilets, climbing up and down a rickety ladder to get to my seat in the stands, and walking through questionable 'water' after a day filled with water balloon fights and squirt-gun attacks. (Water is also a sign of fertilitity, so the females tend to get bombarded. Especially the foreigners. ha.)

A good choice?

It was raining all weekend and to ease my boredom, I went to the movie theater and saw a film in English. When I walked out of the theater, I was literally shocked to see that all the signs were in Spanish and everyone around me was speaking . . . well, not English. Blood started rushing to my head and I looked at Michelle, who accompanied me, and she looked like she was having the same reaction. We both burst out laughing, but it was anything but funny. I thought I was going to throw up. It was my nightmare come to life. (I've recently had trouble sleeping because my dreams have been in Spanish. Normally, this would be a good thing, but in my dreams, I am speaking Spanish to people and nobody understands me. This is when I panic, wake up, and lie in bed reviewing verb tenses.) I had been so completely wrapped up in the film that I forgot where I was. It took me a good ten minutes of walking and taking deep breaths to calm down. Now I am left wondering if I should forgo the whole movie experience until I am a bit more fluent . . . the transition between the languages might be a bit less dramatic.

More info on the new constitution

For those of you interested in learning more about the new Bolivian constitution, my friend Dan M. has recommended this article in the Washington Post.

Wonderful welcome

On Saturday Michelle and I were officially welcomed into our host community/organization here in Cochabamba with a party. We met a lot of people and got to know them a little bit. The food theme was refreshingly familiar; hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and salads. It was the first time I've been able to eat a green salad here. Generally, it is very unsafe for gringos to eat lettuce because there is no real way of knowing where it came from or how it was grown, but this came directly from another missioner's garden. There were also some fabulous desserts. Hm, I guess I've missed N. American food more than I realized!

Monday the 2nd marked a new 2-wk period of classes. I have four new teachers and we are moving a lot faster through the material. This is great for me! I feel like my language skills are slowly moving forward. At dinner the other night, my host family told me that I can speak much better than I could a month ago. I am not sure how much I believe that, but it was kind of them to encourage me.

On Tuesday, the language institute started offering dance classes and I decided to attend. The first few weeks we're learning salsa. It is fun and good exercise.

Wednesday we had a class on culture shock. I am not homesick yet; I think I've been too busy and everything is still a novelty. At least now I know that if I start to feel 'not quite myself' and certain things start bothering me more than they normally would, I'll be able to recognize the signs. Obviously the culture is very different here and I think I have been the butt of a joke or two when I have been out shopping. (Like the time I bought shampoo only to discover that it was for chestnut-colored hair. This was after I had asked the saleswoman several times if it was for brown-haired people. OR how people are gearing up for Carnaval (a pre-Lent celebration similar to Marti Gras) and one of the traditions is to throw water balloons at young people and Gringas when they are walking down the street.)

Signing off for now. . .