Fiestas Patronales de Santa Teresa

(note: i wrote this post on Feb 3, however the internet was being difficult so I was unable to post it...here it is)

Last week in the middle of the week I was feeling really frustrated. My spanish was not to the level that I wanted it to be. I couldn´t throw in quick jokes to the conversations like I wanted to and sarcastic jokes just failed miserably. I feel like that took away a big part of who I was, and therefore with the locals I couldnt really be myself. I couldnt joke around with the guys in my Youth group and I wasn´t ready for the whole spanish learning thing to be a LONG process. But...then this past weekend happened and I have felt way better ever since...

This past weekend was the big yearly fiesta in Santa Teresa where basically everyone just parties for three days straight. There are various activities each day that the town does. For example, on Friday night they have a stage set up in the street and the town elects the ¨queen of santa teresa¨which is more or less like electing a homecoming queen except they do it in a form similar to the ms america pageant with teenage girls competing from different neighborhoods in sta teresa. The girl who ended up being the queen is a girl from our youth group! So that was part one of feeling better, I knew the prom queen. Thats the most important thing in any town, right? I was feeling good about myself but still not completely out of my funk.

My favorite part of the fiesta was on saturday. A music group from the carribean coast came to perform in santa teresa. They were a fun raggae type band (called dimension costena, check them out). They played indoors basically in a rec center type place. Nicaraguans love dancing, and as many of you know, i´m a fan of dancing. So this was a great non verbal way to be bonding with the locals. I went with my host brother and host sister as well as some other peace corps trainees. We showed the nicas some dance moves and they showed us some merengue and salsa moves. Not to mention that this was my first opportunity to dance with a real live latina woman. I´ll be honest, their hips dont lie. Also, let me just explain a little bit about this ¨rec center¨ There are only a few small windows. There were about 400 people dancing in the room. and it was about 85 degrees outside. Obviously this place did not have air conditioning. I´m sure most of you can imagine what a sweaty mess I was, but it didnt matter because so was everyone else. It was nice to finally be accepted for my sweatiness.

The third day of the fiesta was the ¨hipica¨. This was explained to me before the fiesta as a day where these specially trained beautiful horses come and parade gracefully on a parade route through town. It is beautiful and the best part of the fiesta. Let explain what actaully happens at the ¨hipica¨. Everyone within 10k of Sta Teresa who owns a horse rides into Santa Teresa. When they get here they all start drinking beer. Meanwhile, all the residents of santa teresa go on their porches and start drinking beer. This all occurs at around noon. So by 2pm there are basically drunk guys riding around on horses haphazardly while drunk nicaraguans are dancing in the streets to makeshift musical bands. I decided to be an observer this day (still a little tired from the night before) and it was quite comical. Another volunteer and me were standing on a crowded street corner and a drunken bum decided to come up to us and sing us a song. Everyone is dying laughing that the bum is singing the gringos or cheles (as we are called here) a song. Midway through the song, his pants simply fall down, he doesnt notice and just keeps on singing. Quite comical for the entire street of people staring at us.

All in all this weekend was a good weekend of bonding with my nicaraguan family and some of the neighbors I have gotten to know. This past week for some reason my spanish has felt better and has started to click a bit. I gave my first health center talk with no problems and our youth group meeting went smoothly. This training in peace corps will have lots of ups and downs, as will my two years service. But right now, I´m just enjoying this good mood swing.