dancing queen

This past Saturday was a day. It was interesting, good, exciting, event-filled .... day. I was supposed to teach an English class Saturday morning but the teacher never called me to say she was at the school. (I’ve decided that instead of waiting around and looking like a fool, I’m going to have the teachers call me when they are on their way so that I can time it better. Gringo time and Salvadoran time are not the same, so I’ve adopted this system to allow me to keep my sanity.) So, instead of going to the school and teaching some basic English phrases – I’m Carol. I’m from San Miguel. Are you and your family from San Miguel? – I hung around cleaning my room and lazy-ing about.

In the afternoon we headed off to San Miguel to meet up with some of Caro’s co-workers. (My host-mom, Carolina – we've kind of been christened Carolina del Norte, and Carolina del Sur, but no one really uses that…maybe eventually it’ll stick.) Her co-workers have a fútbol team and they were going to an away game up in Morazan Department, somewhere near Perquín. Caro wanted to show me Perquín because it’s awesome, and then we would go support her friends at their game. Well, the game was actually not really anywhere near Perquín so we just went straight to the game, but it was still fun anyway. Morazan is beautiful (mountains, trees, rivers, and much cooler!) and as we got to the cancha it started to drizzle a little bit which cooled everything off nicely for the game. Caro’s co-workers won 6-0. It was a fun game because all of the team mates were cracking jokes about each other and egging each other on. And I understood a good portion of what was being said!

After the game we headed pretty much directly back to SAS because we had to arreglarse (literally arrange ourselves; to get ready) for the fiesta in which the Candidate for the Queen of the San Miguel Carnival was to be presented. But first we had to pick her up from her hair appointment in San Miguel. Each year for the HUGE carnival that San Miguel puts on, there is a reina elected. Each community under the municipal direction of San Miguel has a candidate. Saturday night here in SAS was our fiesta to officially present to the community our candidate.

So, in true style, the ADESCO arranged a dance. They hired DJ “Super Caliente” to provide the tunes, sold tickets and advertised on the local radio stations. The party was set to start at 8 pm and we got there at 7:30 to help sell tickets at the door and any other last minute preparations. No one really started showing up until 8:30, but that didn’t mean the music wasn't going! I don’t know how this whole country isn’t deaf yet. The music was so loud I could feel my jeans vibrating against my legs. I spent a good part of the night watching poor ants struggling to get away from the vibrations, but of course, they would have to walk for miles to get away from the bass. DJ Super Caliente had brought a literal wall of speakers and set them up in front of his stage. It was a monstrosity of 3 speakers x 6 speakers. At one point I was pleasantly surprised to feel a breeze inside the casa communal where the dance was being held, but as I plugged my ears with my fingers, I realized it was just the bass pushing the air. I had a mini headache the next day. I don’t know when the next fiesta is, but let’s just say I’m not really looking forward to it. =P