Finally fair week

Finally Semana  de Feria

I’m finally getting around to writing about fair week. Fair week was two weeks ago and is a very big deal here in Copan, bringing back fond memories of the Tillamook County Fair.

Fair week starts off the first morning with a brass band walking around the neighborhoods playing sweet music and setting off firecrackers to start your day at 4 am. This event is repeated each morning during fair week, although we somehow managed to sleep through it after the first couple of mornings. The first festivities in the park each morning are games for any kids who happen to be in the park. Some of us teachers volunteered to help the game instructor, Kike, with the games. One morning, we arrived to see the brass band playing. A lady, who was, I guess you could say, robust, wearing a dress, endowed, and drunk, was entertaining lookers-on as she danced her heart out. Her friend, a guy who is kind of short, has one funny eye, and is known for his public drunkenness, was accompanying her from time to time. That was a sight to see! He spent most of his time “dancing” by hopping around on alternating feet with his arms stretched out to his sides. Later on, as I was helping with the kids, Amy, who was sitting on the concrete planter boarder that serves as a bench, had the dancing lady sit next to and start talking to her. The lady was eating a piece of elotes (corn on the cob), a favorite local street food. As she was talking, she showered Amy with half-chewed pieces of corn. Amy, not wanting to insult the lady by removing herself, politely sat and enjoyed the soothing moisture of wood fired, salted, and buttered corn. Mmm, Mmm. Meanwhile, the kids and I played ball games, hoola hoop, jump rope, marbles, made parachutes, and held a 3-legged foot race with the kids. There were, of course, prizes for the winners.

On Saturday night, we went to the jaripeo (rodeo). Our landlord’s family runs the rodeo event, so when we arrived with our next door neighbor and fellow teacher, Hallie, they let us in for free. The rodeo was replete with vaqueros (cowboys), toros (bulls), and a pequena plaza de toro (small bull ring). The bulls, brahma type, were penned in the tiny ring. The first event of the evening was watching the cowboys try to get the cows into the chute and lined up for the bull riding. I would say there were about twelve bulls, and it took them close to an hour to get them into the chute. The bulls, being bullish, were not happy. As we watched and waited, we were blasted by large speakers playing country music and, on top of that, the MC shouting through the microphone. As we sat there, was walking along the bull ring rail and he noticed Amy and Hallie with me sitting in between them. He stopped, stood at the railing of the ring and kept looking over at us. I caught his eye and nodded as if to say “hola” and he nodded back. After a few exchanged nods, he went to sit at another set of bleachers and I moved to the other side of Amy so that she and Hallie could visit without talking over me. A little while later he caught my eye again and I once again nodded. At that, he stood up, clad in cowboy attire that included chaps, and walked over. Approaching me, he shook my hand and sat down. As he introduced himself, I could clearly see that he had been drinking. While he was not to the stage of slurring or staggering, he had that particular glow. He was amiable and told me how he spent time in the US on the rodeo circuit. He asked me if I liked the local beer, Salva Vida, which means Life Saver (wait, isn’t that a candy?), and I told him it was pretty good. We talked for a bit before he told me he would be riding that night. “How many cervezas have you had tonight?” I queried him, to which he replied, “Quince.” “Quince?!” I asked, flabbergasted. “Si,” was his calm reply. “How are you going to ride after fifteen beers?” “Fine. I will be very relaxed.” “That is a lot of beer,” I offered. To which he responded. “Coke, too. You know coke?” Clearly knowing what he meant, I answered with, “Yes, Coca Cola.” He gave me a funny look, so I said with a grin, “Yes I know coke.” He smiled and asked, “Do you want some...now?” “Coke, now?” I asked. No gracias. We chatted for a while longer then he went off to get ready for the event. When it was close to his time to ride, he let me know so we could be ready to watch him. When he finally came through the chute, he was off on a good ride. The bull reached the center of the ring, turned and approached the steel railing. As he was swung around parallel to the rail, his free came down on the horizontal tube, breaking his arm. As he got off the bull in order to avoid getting thrown into the railing, you could see he was in pain. They took him to the back side, laid him down and the other cowboys began to wrap his arm. There were no medics present at this rodeo. I got up, walked over to the beer garden, bought him another beer and took it over to him. He looked at me seriously and said,” Esta quebrar.” (It’s broken). I handed him the beer, saying, “Good ride.” He took the beer, thanked me, and I went back to my seat, remembering another interesting encounter.

During half time, if it was half time seeing as everytime they let a bull out they had to somehow finagle it back into the chute already stuffed with the other bulls, the music went up a notch. The gate to the ring opened and in walked a pretty lady wearing leather knee high boots, a knee length, zipper-front dress, and a cowboy hat. She was carrying a microphone and singing. After the song she began talking and motioned to a random guy outside the ring. He walked out to her in the middle of the ring and she began talking to and about him. Next thing you know the guy grabbed her zipper with his teeth and began unzipping her dress and underneath her dress she was wearing a halter top and a little tight skirt. We looked at each other and said, “This is a family event?” Next she sang a song while walking the perimeter of the ring, stopping briefly now and then to sing to one of the men in the crowd, and, wouldn’t you know it, she stopped for me. I was sitting in the second row with nobody around me, Amy had come down from the third row and sat behind me and when the lady started singing to me, Amy smacked me on the shoulder. We laughed and I told her it wasn’t my fault and I was just an open target sitting by myself. After the song, she called on a couple of different guys to go out and practice their flirting and dancing techniques. It was all rather strange. I’m sure it’s even strange since we couldn’t understand what she was saying and had to invent our own scenario of what was happening.

Another rodeo event was the two beautiful show horses that a trainer rode out into the ring to demonstrate their dancing and prancing abilities, which was difficult as the crowd and loud music made them jittery. They came with a price - only $25,000 each. We thought, briefly, about the prospect of owning one, but we have no place to keep it at our one-bedroom, two room apartment in Gilda’s family compound. Ha ha.

That same night, we missed an event called “The Coronacion de Diosa Maya Infantil.” It was a reenactment of a Mayan ceremony for the Mayan Child Queen. I had the good fortune to help the local artists beforehand making imitation jade beads. We did not plan that evening well.

The next day we ventured over to the carnival to see what was happening. It was a very sad looking carnival. Not much in the way of rides, but they did have lots of good sweets. We somehow found ourselves buying a coconut candy that I remember getting as a kid at Mexican events. They had a ring toss, but instead of pegs to throw the ring around, they had full cans of coke and beer with another treat on top, such as a can of sardines. You can’t beat sardines and beer! Being too old for rides, we didn’t stay at the carnival long.

Fair week lasted for nine days and had many events. We left town on Wednesday for a beach holiday in El Salvidor and returned on Sunday, so we missed half of the fair. When we returned Sunday afternoon, we noticed a stage set up for a concert in the park, and found out the music would begin at 9pm. 9pm?! There was school the next day. We were tired and opted out for the night, but could hear the music from our apartment. The next day, we found out the music lasted until 4 am. There were lots of bleary eyed teachers looking at yawning kids on Monday.