Rainy with a Chance of Cabildo

In Colombia, Carnaval de Barranquilla remains king of kings in regards to week long celebrations--there are a surprising amount of week long festivals in this country.  However, every November, a bit further south, Cartagena hosts the National Beauty Pageant.  This year the schools in La Boquilla, where I work, raised enough money to throw their own parade/Cabildo in anticipation for the excitement that comes with the fiestas novembrinas.  

All four elementary schools participated in the event as did two high school groups and a number of community groups.  There were uniforms, face paint, firecrackers (busca pies), and unfortunately lots of rain.    The downpour only delayed the festivities briefly and luckily for me, one of my students moms decided to take it upon herself to use the weather delay as a good time to braid my hair, giving me a more appropriate look.  

Once the rain stopped and all groups were organized, we all began to walk/dance down the only paved road in La Boquilla.  I was asked by one of my counterparts to participate with Madre Bernarda elementary school.  Although I did not have a costume that resembled a tiger or face paint, I made up for it by providing tons of foam to spray and cornstarch to throw at students/bystanders, no one is innocent at cabildo.  It was a fantastic day to be in La Boquilla and see the community come together and celebrate.  

Keepin' it 100 

War Paint on some of my 4th graders at Madre Bernarda! 

4th graders at San Juan

Lost drummer boy

Crowd shot

EVEN the babies aren't spared

The Home Stretch

October 14th marked my two year anniversary in Colombia and I couldn’t help but thinking about everything coming to an end and what my life is going to look like when I get back to the States, but then I smelled something....It was puppy poop.  So after getting a plastic supermarket bag and disposing of Quilla’s do do my mind began to wander once again.  Recently, there have been days where I feel like I just got to site yesterday and others where I feel like it was 5 years ago that I lived with the catholic priest.  These contradicting ideas do not put my mind at ease when i wake up questioning whether i have 24 months left or if I need to start packing because I only have a week left; I guess that is just part of realizing that my two years of service are almost over.  Although my 29 months are coming to an end, I am very content knowing that La Boquilla will continue to work with the Peace Corps.

The other week I met the next Volunteer who is going to be calling La Boquilla home until 2015.  She was wide eyed and had tons of questions, much like I imagine myself two years ago.  She starts in a few weeks and I am looking forward to introducing her to all of the great people I have met and showing her some of the cool things my counterparts and I have accomplished over the past two years.  The so called passing of the torch is no doubt going to be hard, but I trust my Boquillero counterparts to welcome the new PC volunteer with open arms much like they did for me two years ago.

Quilla is 2 months!