Party In The G.D.A

(GDA=Guaranda, this is how it is shortened for t-shirts ect.)

So I put my hands up, they're playin' my song

The butterflies fly away

I'm noddin' my head like "Yeah!"

Movin' my hips like "Yeah!"

Got my hands up, they're playin' my song

And now I'm gonna be okay

Yeah! It's a party in the GDA!

Yeah! It's a party in the GDA!

Well my friends… the content of this post, in general, is going to be the same as my last post. Carnaval. That is all that has been going on here in Ecuador and the last week, as been the craziest. It is going to be hard to put it all into one post, but I will do my best. This is going to be more of a list fashion to get you guys more of an idea of the general craziness.

Karioka (spelling???)- This is canned spray foam that was almost constantly covering my body during the past week. You could buy a can for a couple of dollars from anybody on the street and then you could have the joy of covering your friends, family, or random strangers in its white wonderfulness. It was mostly just condensed water that had some other chemicals added to it, if you left it alone for about 10 mins after you were sprayed it would disappear, unless you were unfortunate enough be sprayed with the bubble gum scented or colored stuff. Along with Karioka you could be covered in everything from eggs to buckets of water to baby powder. Before Carnaval I didn’t understand why everybody bought rain jackets, but I never took mine off. Every time I left the house I was wearing it and for good reason too. If not I would have been changing clothes more than a potty training two year old.

Food- As with all holidays here (and in the states); food is a huge part of Carnaval. You would go to a family members house and have a huge lunch than wait a couple of hours and head to another house to eat some more. We never stopped eating. (Given that I was a not allowed to run because there were so many drunk people this has resulted in… well… a little Carnaval tummy.) Fritada was a very common food eaten during Carnaval, this is pork fried in a lot of oil. Also street fair like foods were very common as they were available at every parade and we had parades every day. Some times twice a day, if you made it to one of the near by cities for their parade as well.

Dancing- this was a large part of my Carnaval celebration in many ways. Almost every family gathering had a radio playing that people would start dancing to. And me being the gringa was often pulled in by drunken Uncles to dance with them. But don’t think SHS home coming dancing, think salsa. And let me tell you, even the very drunk uncles out shined me in this department. One time my host cousin took pity on me and taught me the basics so I wasn’t quite as much of a fish out of water, but I was still quite the site. I think my host family enjoyed that quite a lot. The other kind of dancing I did was quite different then salsa. I spend 3 ½ hours dancing down the street in a parade with my school. But the best part is yet to come, I was dressed as ***drum roll please*** a sexy fire woman. I donned a short red dress, kids fire cap that was quite too small for me, black boots, and (my personal favorite) fish net stockings. Yes, it was quite the site. I will try to get some pictures of this up soon so you guys can see me in all my glory.

People- my small town of 30,000 was suddenly akin the Jersey Shore. People came flooding in from all over the country and all over the world. We had people from Colombia, people visiting family members from the states and Europe and many other countries were represented as well. I was always a little confused by the crazy number of hotels that this small, not touristy town had. But I realized that they all open for this week and this week only to hold the crazy flux of people. I saw more gringos this week then I have seen all year combined, they came by the dozens. This was quite a strange site in my very tranquil little mountain town.

I could write for hours about Carnaval but this gives you a taste of the crazy week that I have had. (I have to save some stories for when I get home.) ;)

The one other very notable thing that has happened to Guaranda in this past week was the addition of a new grocery store. I know what you are saying, big deal, but my friends the gringos in town are rejoicing. This grocery store has everything from Kraft mac and cheese to pita bread to real (not iceberg) lettuce. This store happens to be about 3 blocks from my house. It is a happy day for all…

Livin’ life on the loose. 

Don't Rain on My Parade

Don't tell me not to live,

Just sit and putter,

Life's candy and the sun's

A ball of butter.

Don't bring around a cloud

To rain on my parade!

Life is Guaranda, Ecuador is currently all summed up in one word: Carnaval. This is a season of festivities (in my case month) held traditionally before lent. Carnaval in Guaranda is HUGE! Let me put this into perspective for you, we got a week off for Christmas break, we get a week off for Easter break, but we have two weeks off for Carnaval. Guaranda is the center of Ecuadorian Carnaval celebrations. In my little town of 30,000 people for one month our streets are over flowing with parades, food stands, and people from all over Ecuador and all over the world.

Carnaval started off with a huge parade the 20^th of January. It lasted about three and was quite the event. When I think of parades I think of the Stoughton parades, where you have some marching bands, followed by local sports teams, and maybe the Shriners in there some where. But parades in Ecuador are that and so much more. Parades are taken very seriously here and if you are going to be in a parade you are going to practice. You are going to have very expensive outfits. And it is going to be an event. To give you an idea of what you would see in an Ecua-parade I will tell you about some of my favorite “floats”.  There are always the groups that I have nicknamed “the dancing grannies”. These are groups of 20 or so old women and some times old men that are dressed up in very colorful, very ugly dresses. They look like the prom rejects. Then they have some dance routine that they have worked up often to a very inappropriate English song. As the ladies get older the routines get less active, you have the 50 year olds who are doing quite impressive twirls, steps, and hops, but as they age they will leave out the hops and then the twirls go and eventually they are just walking down the street clapping their hands and trying to move their hips. They make me smile, but after about 50 of these groups you are ready for a change in pace. But don’t worry; a change in pace is just around the bend. The next extreme, the youngins who are dancing in very little clothing with a lot of provocative moves, but they have no idea what they are symbolizing. You will often get these little kids who are dressed in next to nothing dancing to songs like “Sexy Bitch” and other high quality English music. I always cringe a little bit at these, but they seem to be enjoying them selves and they aren’t being judged, so all the power to them, I guess. Then you get the “drunk clowns”. These are almost always groups of men dressed in any number of crazy outfits, at the start of Carnaval parade their were Native Americans, cave men, clowns, cross dressers, and Africans (they impersonate this by painting their faces black. This would not fly in the US, but here it is normal parade attire.) And just about any other crazy out fit you can think of. How do they get the ”drunk” part added to their name, well they walk down the street handing out shots to family, friends, and just random people watching the parade? They always have a bottle in a brown paper bag, and a little plastic shot glass. Then they often indulge in this them selves, so if you are lucky enough to be at the end of the parade you will get a group of dancing drunk men. They often try to hand me shots because I am a white girl, but not knowing what is in the bottle and having no desire to get drunk on a Sunday morning, I politely decline these offers.  Another float you see a lot of is schools. My school almost always participates in these. The best part of these is that they are always (I go to an all girls school) dressed in very small outfits. We would never ever get away with these out fits in the states, but here they are standard attire. Lastly you get the girls dressed in ball gowns. Yep that’s right friends; they walk down the street dressed in prom apparel. They are the reigna’s (“queens”) or different things. Each school, company, town, and any large organization has one and it is a high honor. I frankly find it pretty funny. But they take them very seriously. These are just a few of the many crazy things you will see in an Ecua-parade.

I will try to keep you guys up dated on more of the crazy events that take place during Carnaval. Sorry about it being so long since my last post. I will work on that. ;)

Livin’ life on the loose.