Advertisement
Published: September 20th 2008
Edit Blog Post
"Word!"
On our way to the parades. So here in Honduras Independence day lasts from September 13th to September 15th. This year it fell on a weekend, so by the time Friday came around everybody started to feel the buzz. I celebrated by going to visit Karina in El Paraiso. No surprise there.
On Friday night we all relaxed and talked about the parades and all the different schools in town. Here in Honduras each school marches. They all have big marching bands, accompanied by baton twirlers and children carrying fruit and coffee. People line the streets, everyone holding their umbrellas in one hand and their cameras in the other.
Karina's family was interested in how we celebrate Independence day in America. They kept asking about our baton twirlers and marching bands. Sadly I had to tell them that we use firetrucks and open containers instead of color guards and baskets of dried red beans. It was hard to get them to understand that we don't get into the marching band thing, however I was equally upset to learn that there would be no fireworks display.
"We save the fireworks for Christmas." Said Karina's mother, "But we set them off in the street at three
Hot!
Paraiso was hot and crowded. in the morning."
I see the point here. When you think about it, a scheduled fireworks show in the park would kind of get on everyone's nerves. What with the glorious display of colors painted across the sky and the families together and the hot dogs with apple pie and what not. If there's one thing I've learned it's that this culture is not one of "oooohs," and "aaaahs." They prefer to use whistles and yelps. This theory applies to many levels of life here and it certainly goes well with explosive sidewalks on Christmas Eve.
Saturday morning we woke up early and feasted upon beans, tortillas, blocks of cheese and eggs. This is your typical Honduran breakfast. They same goes for dinner, just add sausages. After breakfast Karina and I headed into town to watch the primary grades march. They were the textbook definition of adorable. The rundown included cowboys in boots, color guards wearing dark glasses and tall hats, baton twirlers in every color of the rainbow, little Indians in burlap dresses, drummers in thick stuffy uniforms and what appeared to be the cast of "The Good The Bad and The Ugly." (Complete with paste on
Color guards
These are all the flags of Central America. mustaches)
Karina and I took way too many pictures and video, but we couldn't help ourselves. The kids put on a good show. Because of this, the streets were packed with proud parents. Hondurans in every size lined the streets with umbrellas, backpacks and purses. It was like a wall made out of Mexicans. If I wanted to snap some shots I needed to be crafty.
"That's my boy!" I would say with pride as I shoved my way through floppy arm skin and pudgy grandparents holding shopping bags. "Oh, que preciosa!"
I know, it was a dirty trick that no one would have believed if I didn't have Karina holding my hand. What I mean is, I've seen a lot of white kids come out of some pretty brown people, but never the other way around. Karina was my scapegoat. If anyone doubted I could just gesture her way and they would make the connection... as long as it wasn't their kid I was taking pictures of.
By the end of the day, I could have started a Hockey franchise with the kids I staked claim to.
After cooking our skin in the sun
Lisa
My favorite little niece. we returned home for some relaxation. On the way I stumbled across an open air meat market and had to get some footage. I asked the butcher if I could shoot some video of his stinky meat and he gave me a nod. People give me a free pass to do stuff like that because I'm white and I play the tourist card more than I should. The smell of the meat was villainous and immoral at best. I was pretty sure there was no word in the English language that could convey the proper sensory details I experienced, so I looked it up in the dictionary when we got home. The proper term for the meat is "Malodorous."
That night we ate tostados, a homemade fried tortilla with diced vegetables, chicken and cilantro. After dinner we had our usual discussions about the differences between the USA and Honduras. I decided to leave "Federal meat market del Honduras" out of the conversation.
Sunday morning was the beginning of a big day. Karina's niece "Lisa" (pronounced Eeh Lee Sah) was marching with her school. We found her in the street, baton in hand, dawning a lovely purple tutu and
Sock it to me
This kid was loving the camera, he started throwing in some hip thrusts for the effect. Classic. big white cowboy boots. The boots had two big purple puff balls tied to them and whenever she walked they would flop from side to side. The poor girl had to march for about three hours in the grueling sun. I didn't realize how painful Independence day was the day before, because I had been skipping from spot to spot in order to catch all the action. However, Karina's family asked me to film Lisa from start to finish, so that is what I did.
Needless to say I have a pretty respectable sunburn.
I hitched a ride back to Comayagua with Karina's Uncles and marched with my school on the 15th. We traveled all though Comayagua playing the same four songs over and over. On the bright side, we were the first to march so we finished at about noon. Then, it was back to Paraiso to surprise Karina.
You see, all the schools had the week off. However, I told Karina, since we are private, we have classes as normal. Not only did she buy my totally sweet lie, but her mom convinced her to stay at the house on Monday. Apparently she was really
Gotta move!
These girls just couldn't stay still. tired from all the festivities and was planning on taking a nap Monday afternoon. So Alma, Karina's mom, told her that she had a meeting at church and she needed to wait outside for her friends to come and get her. Eventually I came walking around the corner and she tried to play it off like it was no big surprise... but it totally was.
Keep an eye out for some videos this weekend. I will be compiling some footage of the parades for all of you to enjoy.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.115s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0772s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Eric Chaffee
non-member comment
fotos
Great pics, bro. You got an eye!