February: I think some other things happened, but mostly there was this paint fight….

               Summer vacation continued through February so my English classes did as well. The last week of summer classes there was a little closing ceremony where all the classes performed a traditional dance and a mission group gave school supplies out as gifts. The dances were adorable and the kids were soooo excited about their gifts.

                We also had another costume party in Huaraz, a 1920s murder mystery! One of the other volunteers bought one of those murder mystery kits so we all had parts to act out and secrets to keep. The piano bar let us use their space and we organized a dinner. It was fabulous! Everybody got into their characters and their costumes, it was fabulous…. Did I already say that? I even got mom to mail down my flapper costume! The dress was even more fun because I ended up doing a dance routine with my friend David. During college David was part of a swing dancing group at his school so he taught me how to Charleston and we put together a number….complete with a flip!

                The true crowning glory of February however was my trip to Cajamarca for Carnival weekend. In keeping with the ridiculousness of the weekend, we spent about as much time traveling as we did in the city, but it was so worth it. We left Huaraz on Thursday night and finally got to Cajamarca City about 7 on Friday.  We arrived with plans of showering before going out, but rumors of Pizza Hut being delivered to the bar where everyone was meeting quickly changed our minds. Our hostel was on the corner of the main plaza which fills up every year with drummers, hundreds of drummers and the groups of people dancing around them. So we danced our way through the plaza and then off to meet everyone. Carnival is a pretty big event for the PCVs so it was great to see everyone and meet new volunteers. Saturday morning we got up, found breakfast and started preparing for the main event…..the paint war. We bought water guns, water balloons and two bags of paint. We spent a little while throwing water off the balcony, but by mid-morning there was just a general sense that is was time to go. We went out into the streets armed with paint and water and joined in on the parade through the town. It was about 4 hours of walking down the roads throwing paint and water at anyone you felt like. There were also people on the roofs of houses throwing paint and water down at us. It was AMAZING! We finally got back to the plaza for what I’ll call half time. We got a snack, washed the paint out of our eyes and head out to the concert. At the concert my friend Giselle brought out her last bag of blue paint which we emptied into a bucket and then used to paint our entire group blue. Then we stared painting the strangers around us. On the walk back from the hostel people were actually stopping us to take photos because we looked so silly :P Unfortunately so many people at the hostel were involved in the paint fight that there was not a drop of hot water when I got back. I took a few turns in the cold water to get the majority of the paint off and then decided I wasn’t really worried about the rest (read: there was still some paint in my hair when I got back to Huaraz ha ha). Saturday night continued with more dancing and concerts and Sunday was a parade and a party in our hostel. By the time Monday morning rolled around it was time for us to go……cue 17 hours back to Huaraz. At least we had a few hours to kill at the mall between our buses in Trujillo. We ate lots of pizza and played bumper cars J There is a generally accepted practice among PCVs of not using our vacation days on the same trip more than once, but I’m pretty sure most of us will be back next year.

                My Carnival adventure was truly rounded out when I returned to Mancos. I had just enough time to set down my bags and jump in the shower before I was hustled off to mass with my family. Then there was the parade back with the family cross, where I got a bucket of ditch water poured on me on the way (it’s a bit of a risk leaving you house for the two weeks of Carnival). When we got back to the house I helped my host mom serve lunch to 40 people and then we had a band in our living room for the next 7 hours. All this after two 17 hour bus rides in 5 days and less sleep then most would deem reasonable. Ali tells me I earned a Peace Corps merit badge that day. I’m expecting it in the mail any day now……..