Carnaval !

Carnaval comes from carne, meat, as it is the last time to eat meat before fasting during cuaresma, lent.
What carnaval has become- A huge week-long celebration of water fights, beautiful & fun costumes, dancing in the streets, and for many a perfect excuse to drink and drink. Many families also pay hommage to the Pachamama, Mother Earth, during this time and ch´allan their cars and houses (scroll down for more info).

Monday, Padre Pepe came to have a water fight with us and the girls after lunch. I only had party balloons, so we filled up a few of those (they were huge) ready for his entrance. We ended up dropping one from the balcony onto the back of his truck (because some younger girls climbed up for a little ride) and it exploded all over their back sides, it was kinda funny. Then, while the sisters and Amber played Uno in the aspirancy after lunch, I went out to play.


Tuesday, I was anxious to get out of the hogar for a bit and experience something new. It was such a beautiful day, not dull and rainy like the past few days. Sister got one of the older girls to accompany me after lunch, and we went over to her house a ch´allar con su famlia. There were no autos, so we ended up going the entire way by foot, I wonder how long it took us...must´ve been 45 minutes or a little longer. Well, of course we are young, females, unarmed and I´m a gringa so definitely targets!
It wasn´t too bad, we dodged a truck of people by jumping through the fields and just got a little wet, UNTIL while I was running full force through a group of teens, one of them grabs me and tells his friend to get his bucket of water and throw it over me! awesome. I had my rain coat on, but doesn´t help much when a bucket of water is dumped over you. Of course, Claudia escapes this...
Soaked and a little chilly, we continue on our way and finally get to their neighborhood. After ducking through a couple neighbor´s backyards, slipping carefully through barbed-wire fences, and succesfully dodging a group of boys launching water balloons from the roof (they had bad aim). We find the house of Sister´s brother, but turns out that the adults are still over at her dad´s house, so we decide to go back down a little bit to find them. WHAT A MISTAKE!
Right outside their house, there is a big group of tall Bolivian boys around my age. My plan is to run as fast as I can right through them, although this plan didn´t exactly work the last time I tried it, I didn´t know what else to do...Naturally, they go after me first and Claudia once again escapes. The first boy (pretty strong) grabs me and yells to his friends to get my feet, I have no idea what is going on and feel so defenseless. There is a HUGE pan outside the house, they use it to make chicharron (resembles the photo below) I am caught by surprise and now dangling in the air over this pan of water, when they ask if I have a phone. I give them the plastic bag with my camera and Claudia´s cell to them, then they dunk me in. As if I wasn´t wet enough...While this is happening, I´m yelling to Claudia to help me and she´s like alright but as soon as i´m in the pan and she starts walking over, they get ahold of her as well and put her in with me(oops! should have told her to keep running). It was a little difficult to get ourselves out, but we made it, and began to dry off in the sun. When we got to sister´s house, the adults were just about ready to head back up by the brother´s house (where we were previusly) to ch´allar. We decided to stick close to them and stay away from the naughty neighbors...

LA CH´ALLA

Close-up of the completed mesa

An Andino tradition, it is an ofrenda for Mother Earth and in return good luck for the family. Before the ceremony, we helped the family decorate their house, car, and their tienda (little neighborhood store attached to house) with colorful ribbon, balloons, and festive plastic bells, butterflies and other shapes. while we did this, Don Francisco (hermana´s dad) made the mesa. This consists of a sheet of paper or cardboard covered with little images of different animals, people, or symbols, etc all with specific meanings / intentions for the year. Most common is money (good fortune), a couple (for a happy marriage), snake? (good health). Also included in the mesa is coca leaves and cigarettes. It is also customary to eat llama or lamb meet during this time, which we had for lunch with our special soup.


 

We put on folkloric music and came together by a small fire hermana´s brother made for the occasion. The men drank and smoke, which I decided best to stay away from, and when the fire was ready placed the mesa on top of it to burn. They say the smoke from this offering keeps away the evil spirits, but invites the good spirits for blessings and protection of the family/home. As it was burning, her brother shook up some beer and sprayed it around the perimeter of their backyard and around his car. Then they spill a little alcohol on four spots around the fire for Mother Earth (you see this spilling on ground or sometimes on family tombs for other celebrations as well). The men continue to smoke, drink, and chat until the fire burns out. Then the ceremony is complete.