During training, a Volunteer came and gave us some advice:
Just say yes. What he meant was
that when opportunities present themselves, you should always take them. In the last few weeks, I have been
trying to take this advice.
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Down the valley, below rows of corn and potato crops, there
is a river. And in that river,
there are trout.
Do you want to go
trout fishing with me?
Yes.
Waldir is the Secretary at my Municipality. In reality, he did all the
fishing. When he caught something,
he would toss it up on the bank, and my job was the chase after it with a
bag. I learned how to throw the
net, and managed to catch absolutely nothing. But we posed a picture so it looked like I had,
anyways. To round off a wonderful
morning, we then went up to his chacra
(farm) and ate fresh cactus fruit.
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In Tantará, there are cows and sheep, pigs and chickens, and
the occasional goat. What we do
not have are llamas and alpacas.
But for the town anniversary, something special was in order.
Do you want to go buy
some alpacas?
Yes.
To find someone who would sell us an alpaca, we had to drive
about two hours up into the mountains.
It took some convincing to get the owners to sell it to us
(and we had to go two different places because we wanted two alpacas). Luckily, they were nice enough to give
us breakfast.
Then, once the business end was settled, we had to go find the alpacas,
herd them closer to the car, catch the one we wanted, and get it in the truck. And after all that work, yes, they were
delicious.
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The beginning of rainy season came with a bang in
Tantará. About 30 minutes of
downpour was followed by a flash flood.
No one was hurt, but the highway was impassable for a few
days, and 11 houses were flooded.
Will you help me
shovel the mud out of my house?
Yes.
In the proceeding week, this landed
me a position on the Committee for Civil Defense, and I became a member of the
Committee for Citizen Security.
And suddenly, I’m now considered one of the “town’s authorities”.
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The 92nd anniversary of Tantará was a 2 day party, complete
with a band, dancing all night, and delicious food (see above, RE: alpacas).
On the second night, there are two distinct traditions. The first is to cut down a tree, tie
various prizes to its branches, and re-plant it in the middle of the
plaza. Then, everyone dances in a
circle around it and takes turns chopping at it with an ax. When it falls, it becomes a free-for-all
to claim a prize. It’s like a
piñata for grown-ups. While this
is happening, the second tradition is to paint your face white with flour. Now, no one actually wants flour all
over their face, so everyone sneaks around with pockets full of flour, painting
whoever’s face looks too clean.
Do you want to get in
a town-wide flour fight, then dance around a prize-tree with an ax?
(Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of this, for fear
of flour damage to my camera)
Yes.
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While all of this is going on, I have the wonderful
opportunity of having sisters for the first time in my life. We braid each other’s hair, sit in the
kitchen and play cards, and go with their aunt while she is milking her cows
and eat spoonfuls of fresh milk foam off the top of the bucket. Any moment where I can spend time with
my sisters, the answer is always YES.
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| (Birthday tradition is to take a bite out of the side of your cake) |
