independence day parade

It's 4:30 am and the dogs have started barking. I'm not sure at what exactly, but I can hear other dogs in the distance begin to bark to. I try to fall back asleep, the electrical hum of the ceiling fan helping with it's white noise. It's no use though, because the local radio station begins to air it's daily offerings on loud speaker to the entire community "today, two for one pupusas at the comedor. fútbol game at 2 pm. church services at the following churches..." etc. A wonderful advertising tool that I will for sure need to take advantage of at some point, but kind of a bummer at 5 am!
Today is Independence Day here in El Salvador, as well as the rest of Central America. School is cancelled for today ("summer" break is November-January) but the schools are the main participants in the parades. My host mom and I went to the school at 6 am to help prepare the food for all the marchantes after the parade. We returned home to wait for the parade to pass. The parade consisted of the school, and only the school. First the flag bearers, then the kids in costumes - traditional El Salvadoran dress, doctors, police, soliders, nurses etc. - then the littlest cachipuristas (baton twirlers), then the band, then the older cachipuristas, then the cheerleaders, then the gynmasts, then a "brigade" of students marching in their school uniforms. It was all pretty cool, especially because all the parents and teachers work really hard to make it all happen, and they parade right next to their kids, making sure everything goes alright. In this heat, they also provide them with water, wipe their faces etc. It's a pretty big event, considering. We waited until the parade passed, and then followed behind to watch some more. That quickly became walking with the parade, and then barreling on past the parade. It's weird to me to be watching a parade, and kind of participating in it, but here it's no big deal to walk right along side, and even pass the people parading. I guess it's also a little weird for me, because I know that gringo t.v. is really interesting and that I was like a saturday morning cartoon for a lot of the kids.
After the parade, and some brief words of congratulations and thanks at the school, we returned home. We watched the larger ceremonies in the capital on t.v. in the comfort of our living room. They have essentially the same thing, but in the large fútbol stadium in San Sal. It begins with school groups, gynmasts, cheerleaders, cachipuristas, bands etc. A large part of it was a parade and display of the armed forces of El Salvador. They had a fake war right there on the soccer field, complete with helicopter evacutations, cannon fire, and peace negotiations. They also had a cavalry demonstration and paratroopers! It was pretty impressive, if not a little disturbing.
After that, I passed the afternoon watching fútbol (Real Madrid vs. Zúrich) in a hammock. It really is a tough life here, but someone has to do it!
I will close here - my host brother and a jigsaw puzzle are calling me!