Tacabambina Baby: Tacabamba Fest 2012

This past week was the Tacabamba fiesta. It was a big deal. Tacabamba was flooded with visitors. There were bullfights every afternoon for three days and nightly concerts. Peruvians are good partiers. The blasting sound systems at the fútbol field a few blocks from my host family's house that were converted to fair grounds where on nightly until around 4 or 5 am. I went to the fair grounds for the concerts a couple of the nights. Everyone groups up into drinking circles formed around crates of beer. There were also very large fireworks displays every night usually at around 1am, but the hour changed depending on the night.

Overall I am really glad that the party is over. It was really stressful to have so many out of towners around. I stick out. The stares and whispers get old. Since public drinking and drunkenness are not illegal people's inhibitions were down and my guard was way up. I remember when I was in high school I used to think it was kind of exciting to get a cat call from men-running on Dixboro road near my parent's house, but I have had enough of it for a life time. I mostly get called 'gringa', but I also get 'micha' which is Quechua for 'cat'. People with green eyes get called 'micha' here, because they have cat's eyes.

I was so excited when on Wednesday night my host brother and sister in-law asked me to go with them to the concert. Since my host dad Sergio is a police officer there are always tons of cops eating at the house (remember my host mom run's a restaurant out of the front of the house). So when we went to the concert my host brother Iban and a couple police officers that frequent the house bought a case of beer. I think I may have described a drinking circle in another blog post, but essentially big bottles of warm beer are cracked open and a small plastic cup is passed around. Depending on your company, men will pour the beer for the women. It is polite to-I want to call it salute, but I'm not so sure if that's the right word-the person to their left who has just passed them the beer. Then you drink what I like to think of as little beer shots and throw the foam onto the ground behind you outside of the circle. Finally you pass along the beer and cup to the person on your right.

I was excited to be invited by my host brother Iban and his wife Yanette, because I still feel like I have a lot of work to do with connecting with this new host family. Iban got kind of drunk and liked to brag to his friends that we are brother and sister, can't you tell? Also we danced a lot. I danced with all the men in the circle, even the police officer Luis who seemed like he hated every minute of dancing. My other host sister Paola came in for the party. She works as a police officer in Cajamarca (the capital city of this department= Cajamarca, Cajamarca). She is really sweet and patient. I was lucky she came with us to the party, because at 2 am when the guys bought another huge crate of beer she and I were practically falling asleep standing up so we went home.

The other days and nights of the party Ellie came in from the town about 30 minutes away. All 4 of us; Laura, Diamond, Ellie, and I, spent a lot of quality American time together. Laura showed us a music video called 'Gangnam Style' (sp?) and we practiced the 'horsey' dance from the video. We cooked good food, painted our nails, and just hung out. Laura is an amazing cook. She made quesadillas on homemade tortillas one night and lasagna with a loaf of homemade rosemary bread on the side. Carby and cheese city so good, yay!

There were 3 days of bullfights. I went with my host siblings for one of the days. I like bullfights, but they are very stylized and therefore repetitive. First the bull comes out and runs around for a while so everyone can get a good look at him. Next 2 men on horseback come out-both men and horses are heavily padded. The riders stab the bull in the back of the neck on a big fleshy part of the back behind the head. Then 2 men on foot; I guess they might be assistant matadors since they wear the same little outfits, run out into the arena and stab decorated foot and a half long sticks into the bull's back. These lances or sticks must have a hook or barb in the end of them because if they are stabbed correctly they stay in the bull's flesh for the remainder of the fight.

Then the matador 'dances' with the bull by himself. At this point the bull is usually heavily bleeding out of his back and his tongue is hanging out of his mouth with exhaustion. The bull charges, the matador jumps aside, and when he is ready the matador attempts to stab a sword into the same fleshy part of the bull's back. If he is a good matador his sword will go right threw the bull's heart and the bull will die pretty quickly. If he misses then they have another process. The matador gets one more stab and if he misses again they stab the bull threw it's skull instead.

It's not that a bullfight is boring. However, the fight I went to was 3 hours long and 6 bulls were killed. I just didn't feel the need to go back the next 2 days to watch the same thing over again and again. Sometimes I find myself cheering for the bull, because it seems cruel how they bleed out and run him around in circles until he is dizzy and tired. When one of the bull struck the matador I caught myself screaming with the rest of the crowd. I was happy to note that the meat from the bulls that are killed is sold in the street after the fights. Families can buy it to take home and cook up for dinner or buy some fried up right in front of you.

I forgot to mention that before the bullfights and concerts there were several days of fair. People could bring in their livestock or vegetables to be judged. During the typical plate contest Peace Corps and Predesci (a local NGO that works in ending malnutrition) teamed up. First we tried to get the municipality to change the rules of the contest that plates would be judged on their nutrition, but they declined. So instead we made healthy options and talked to anyone who would listen about nutrition. Most of our vistors during the fair were kids that colored the vegetable pictures I made copies of to pass out. Also Diamond and I were in a parade one of the days of the fiesta. The parade started about 2 hours late and only lasted 10 minutes. I was sunburned and kind of pissed off, but afterwards we had a fun lunch with the health post employees. I guess the beer and shiringo (a typical plate from Tacabamba itself-basically a tuna omlette) made up for it and I laughed it off as another instance of getting perued.

This week Diamond and I had an important meeting in the community where we want to do our project. I was under the impression that the meeting was already happening in the community and that we were just going to tag along taking advantage of everyone being in one spot. However, there was a big miscommunication. Apparently in order for us to call an official meeting we have to write an official document to the Teniente (I'm not totally clear on his responsibilities, but he's the only kind of leader/representative for this tiny community. I don't even think he is elected....I have no clue) and he will set off 2 fireworks which is his way of calling everyone to a meeting. This community is tiny and the houses are all very spread out. People don't have electricity, running water, or latrines, so I guess it makes sense that the easiest way to call a meeting is with fireworks.

So we hike up to Ayaque which is about an hour and a half straight up from Tacabamba and we find out that the people will not come to the meeting since the Teniente didn't call a meeting. I was really frustrated, but we did get to talk to a small group of moms that were very interested in working with us. Also we met the Teniente and promised to get him an official document next week so that we could have a real meeting next Thursday. On the whole the people seemed very interested and also very friendly-quite encouraging. Now we just have to wait for the municipality to decide if they have enough money in the budget to fund the latrines building project.

Project work is looking good. I feel like I am making some progress in getting in with my new host family. Host mom Rosa went to the doctor last week and found out her blood pressure is too high. Her homework is to go on a half hour walk every day and I am her new walking buddy.

Thanks for the mail; Sesame, Kwapis, Nana, Pat, and Yamo family!

Chau for now. With love,

setting up with the awesome Predesci facilitators/promoters

Ellie and I looking official in our PC polos

just beyond our table set up were big make-shift bleechers for a futbol tournament

some neighbor girls with their little brothers, they were some of the first kids to come visit our table

healthy plates; banana bread (admitantly not so healthy, but everyone loves it), tortilla de verduras (vegetable omelette), papas con queso y higado (cheese, potatoes, and liver), and camote con leche (sweet potato with milk)

our table and beyond the huge crowd of kids coloring

the whole gang

men setting up for the fireworks. Every night they would construct these gigantic bamboo structures with fireworks attached all over and the levels would light up one at a time.

some out of towners brought in this llama and charged 2 soles to have your picture taken with him

waiting for the parade to start

Lulu and Minina crying to me from the top of the stairs, so cute

the arena had a really awesome view of the mountain range all around us

the rest of these pictures Yossi took for me. She was acting bored so I handed her my camera-she killed the battery and filled the memory stick. I only kept some of the better ones though.