The past three days have been Carnival. Coastal Ecuadorians celebrate this holiday by throwing water at each other, eating, spending time with family, and going to nearby rivers. Since I am currently 'familyless' my neighbor kindly invited me to celebrate Carnival with her. On Sunday we went to her in-laws house, which is located a short drive from my site, in the middle of a banana finca. It was an unusually rainy and chilly day, but no importa, the children happily attacked each other with water guns and splashed around in a kiddy pool that the dads had filled up. Then we went inside to eat. I changed my clothes, figuring I had been sufficiently doused for the day and, once dry, happily sat around and did my best to not make a nuisance of myself.
After lunch, my neighbor told me the adults were going outside and insisted that I join her. Since I was warm and in my dry clothes, she promised me that I would not get wet. HA!!!! As soon as I got outside my neighbor's brother-in-law insisted the we let him pour a bucket of water on each of our heads. "For luck," he said. Once we had all been 'baptized,' the party got started. Someone started to blast music and we all got up and danced. The men broke out a cooler of beer, and after several rounds of drinks started throwing each other into a nearby pool. The purpose of that pool was to wash the recently harvested bananas and then box them, but it served well enough as a pool for dunking unlucky Carnival celebrators. At first the men were content throwing each other into the pool, but soon enough they moved onto the women. Wanting to be a good sport, I was forced to dunk myself in the pool and let them splash water on me. Soon after, someone brought out several bottles of shaving cream and we sprayed each other until we looked like we were a bunch of rowdy snowmen/women dancing in the snow.
After about an hour, the formidable mother-in-law came out. We were not allowed to intentionally get her wet, but for some reason, we had to passively let her sprinkle flour and confetti on our heads. More dunking followed....
Near the end of the celebrations, one of my neighbor's brother-in-laws insisted on having a reina(beauty queen) contest. All of us women were forced to parade in a circle and then the men decided who would be crowned the reina and winner of some fabulous prize (the prize has yet to be revealed and probably never will be). As the guest, I was crowned reina de Carnival. Woo, hoo!! A rey (beauty king) contest followed, and my neighbor's elderly father-in-law was crowned king. His prize has also yet to be revealed.
On Mond
ay, the same neighbor invited me to go with her side of the family to a river. Around midday, a large group of us piled into one large truck and a camioneta (pickup truck). I live for riding in camionetas-- it is so much fun-- and asked to be allowed to ride in the camioneta. My request was granted and I jumped in the back, along with several kids and two buckets filled with water balloons. We happily spent the 1 1/2 hour drive throwing water balloons at passing groups of people, having water balloons thrown at us, and dousing each other with water. I was completely soaked b
efore we even arrived at the river.
We spent the next several hours soaking each other, eating, and talking. Before I knew it, it was time to load back into the camioneta for the return trip. By the time I got to my house, I was thoroughly exhausted.
Today, my neighbor once again invited to spent the day with her family. They brought me to her sister's house and we had a nice lunch, followed my conversation. I only stayed a few hours-- quickly exhausted by all the Spanish-- and caught a ride home with her aunt. I've decided that I love Carnival, but it is quite exhausting. I need a vacation...
No comments:
Post a Comment