Dia de San Juan Bautista is the epic holiday that “public safety and security forgot” as one of my G mates would say. Casi every ciudad’s collegios and escuelas host san juan parties throughout June as their huge winter fundraiser.
These San Juan festivals are reminiscent to a state fair. First, there are loads of food—asaditos, mandio, beiju, chipa guausu, and so much more. In fact, at one of the events, we got to sneak to the building where the group of ladies from the iglesia, including (my g-mate) Estee’s host mom, Asuncion, had an intense bejui-making line going… (look it up on google, its pretty cool)!
There are also presentations of traditional Paraguayan music and dance, guarani comedians, people oddly dressed up in crazy masks/costumes and most importantly, and the Games of FIRE!!! That’s right people, games of fire. Kids playing with fire while surrounded by hay. jahahha. Gotta love it.
One particularly famous game, love by the kids, is soccer played with a ball of fire. (The concoction is actually made up of a bag of coals.) Thankfully, only 2 of the 4 San Juan festivals I went to had stands made of hay roofs. Lol. And somehow, there were only a few close calls.
There is also the lighting Judas on fire (a stuffed scarecrow) as well as a game where a cow head with its horns on fire chases the crowd.
In another game during the event, people dressed up in costumes steal people from the crowd and put them in the carcel. Unfortunately, in Ita, the aspirantes, including myself, unaware of the game, let our g-mate, Christopher get taken. We thought that the announcers would make him be part of a play or dance or something. So later when they announced in guarani or Spanish, we’re not sure…that Christopher was in the carcel, needing his ransom to be paid. All we understood is “Christopher” and we all rooted for him. What they must have thought… the “nortes” don’t even come pick up their friend. In the end, he ended up paying for his own ransom. His jailer was like… where are you friends?? Whoops..our bad…guess we need to fine tune our language skills.
Ohhh, and lastly one particularly epic game only for the DAY of Patron San Juan is walking across coals of fire. San Juan dice si…entonces no va a quemar. (san Juan says yes, and on the day of the Saint John the Baptist, and only on this day, no one gets burned). And yes folks, I saw 3 old men actually do it!!!. Espectacular. But apparently, if you doubt, you’ll get burned. Also, you have to walk not RUN. Some of the young folks who ran across…didn’t have such great results. Maybe there’s something to it… hopefully, in the next two years, Ill manage the courage to partake in this experience.
Posts to come...
- Traveling in a Foreign Country: Lack of personal space & Language Mistakes are just part of the package…
- Site Assignments and Encuentro
So the day finally arrived, and I have been assigned my site for the next two years!!! San Juan Nepomuceno!!
- Swear-In Weekend.
2 comments:
Hey! Do you like where you were posted? When do you get sworn in? :) Hope all is well!
Gins, I am glad that you are living life well and not wasting it! Much purpose in this and that pleases me so! Cheerio~
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