Anniversario de la Ronda Campesina

 The verb rondar means to patrol.  In rural Peruvian communities like mine there are no police instead we have the Ronda.  The Ronda is a highly organized community group that is made up of male representatives of every household.  The have several meetings a month at the level of individual sectors of my town and a bigger one with the entire centro poblado.  Men take turns patrolling the streets at night.  They carry machetes, coca leaves to chew, rope (apparently to tie someone up if need be), and little notebooks to write offenders names if they encounter anyone trying any funny business. 

From what I can tell the Ronda is quite effective in keeping the crime rate down.  There is not a whole lot of breaking and entering, or stuff like cattle theft.  It is pretty tranquillo around here.  This week was the anniversary of the Ronda in my town.  It was a very big party.  The party started during the daytime on Thursday.  The men had a soccer tournament and the teams were divided by the sectors where the ronderos live.  In the evening my grandparents hosted a dinner for everyone in our sector of town; sector centro (we live a block within the Plaza de Armas or town square), we ate normal party food giant plates of rice, potatoes, and instead of cuy (guinea pig) we had lamb.

At around 8pm people started gathering in the Plaza from all the various sectors.  Each sector had a banner, a Peruvian flag, lots of fireworks, and a small band.  My neighbors asked me to carry the flag for our sector.  I was a little nervous and said to them ‘but I’m not Peruvian,’ and they told me they wanted me to carry the flag anyway.  I was in the front of our group, just behind my neighbor Segundo who was lighting off fireworks and shooting them into the air from his bare hands.  Don’t worry I asked my brother Witman to take pictures and he got a video of one of the ronderos shooting off the fireworks.

After each sector had had it’s turn to parade around the Plaza there were some speeches made and several small groups of people sang songs over the sound system.  Then each sector with their own little band danced.  In the past when I have attended dances a song would end and the dancers could take a break if they chose to do so.  This time was different the music never seemed to stop.  My first dance partner quit on me after about 15 minutes, then I had a second dance partner and he was probably about 9 years old, my third dance partner was a neighbor who I am guessing is in his sixties.  Griserio is his name and we danced for more than an hour straight.  After I realized that the song just kept on going I thought it might be some kind of dance competition.  Then new dance pairs would join in and I realized it was just non-stop dancing with no competitive edge.  Boo, I love a good dance-off!

I think Griserio must have been chewing coca leaves or something, because I can’t think of any other explanation for how he had so much energy.  He and I were definitely the most energetic dancers.  My host grandmother Niceda and a neighbor named Juan danced next to Griserio and I, only we were jumping around sweating while the others moved their feet slowly.  The ronderos chew coca leaves when they have to stay up all night.  In Peru coca leaves are not illegal and I have been told the effects are like having an espresso shot. 

At midnight when Griserio and live band showed no signs of stopping I had to bow out.  My feet hurt and I was covered in sweat.  It was fun.  And I think I earned some Peruvian street cred from my neighbors.  The vast majority of people just stood and watched the dancing.  There were probably only 8 pairs of dancers at any given time.  The dance that we did is called Huayno.  It’s pretty easy.  You stand facing your partner; there are only male/female pairs-when I tried to dance with my grandma once she told me it was not alright for 2 women to dance together, and stamp your feet around.  Every so often you switch sides with your partner.  Also everyone dances in a long line.

I’m not a big fan of Huayno music, but the dancing is easy and fun.  I’ll be sure to bring back some Huanyo music videos to the states.  My understanding is that Huayno is vastly more popular in the sierras than on the coast.  On the coast they listen and dance to other types of music called Cumbia, Marinara, and Reggatone (not sure on the spelling). 

All in all it was a fun party.  The Peruvians sure know how to have a good time.  I went home after midnight, but the party went on until 4am.  Then the kids all went to school on Friday morning bright and early.  The party continued on all day on Friday and seemed to wind down at night.  I don’t know how they do it here, but I guess if there’s a will to party they’ll find a way to party.

Chau for now,

kb

Diamond and I giving a presentation about Peace Corps to a municipality health  reform group in Bambamarca.

Sector Centro!  My cousin Eduar on the left and neighbor boy Willian on the right.  

Witman took this picture.  The guy in the poncho with the hat is Griserio who I danced with.  The young guy is holding the fireworks that the men were all lighting and shooting out of their hands.

Witman took lots of pictures of the parade for me...

This little boy was in my summer school english class.  His name is Edder.

It's difficult to see, but that is me marching in the front with the Peruvian red and white flag.

Two of my favorite neighbor boys; Willian and Nilton, arm wrestling while we waited for other sectors to  parade around the Plaza de Armas.

Yessie is my favorite neighbor girls and the star student of my english summer classes.   She and Willian are my next door neighbors.  She's about the same age as my sister Jessie.




P.S. the internet in Bambamarca will take forever to upload youtube videos-so I'll put them online next week.  For Easter we get a 4 day weekend and a bunch of us are going to the beach in a neighboring department called Piura.  In the bigger cities the internet is always way better.