Carnaval

Carnaval is a giant celebration that happens every year during the
four days leading up to Lent.  Saturday through Wednesday are
typically days off and provide an opportunity to spend time with
family, eat food, dance, and get drunk.  Think of Mardi Gras, but for
four and a half days and with water.  I say four and a half because
the fiestas typically get kicked off Friday night and can last until
Wednesday morning.  And I say water, because during this time period,
people have the right – and some would say obligation – to splash
anyone and everyone with bucketfuls of water.  We were advised to wear
quick-dry clothes that we didn’t mind getting wet and bathing suits –
though really, when it comes to clothing, anything goes.  Women wear
really short shorts and more than a few were sporting the mosquito-net
tank tops over a bikini top.

Every town has a little celebration, though the biggest Carnavals, I
am told, are in Panama City and Las Tablas, where there are parties,
coronations and culecos (big trucks filled with water) all four days.
In my training community, while people can splash you anytime, the big
celebration and coronation was held on Sunday.  Padres de Familia, the
Panamanian equivalent of a mandatory PTA, planned an all-day event
that included food and drinks, culecos and decorations, queens and a
dance.  Since my host brother attends the local school, my host mom
was obligated to help with the event, so I decided to contribute as
well.

In the center of town is the Casa Comunal (Communal House), a large
structure that can be used for pretty much any event.  It is a large
slab of concrete, half of which is covered by a roof, and has an area
that can serve as a bar and another area where people can prepare and
serve food.  In the week leading up to Carnaval, I helped the members
of Padres de Familia had to make colorful streamers and other
decorations, and on Saturday after dinner we all gathered to decorate
the Casa Comunal.  I suppose the theme was Pirates of the Caribbean 4,
because there were large paintings of Jack Sparrow and friends.  One
of the members of the community had taken palm leaves and woven the
individual leaves of the palm in on each other to make a really
beautiful fan of sorts.  We placed these around a constructed stage
where the queens could stand and be seen, and hung streamers from the
stage.  We also hung streamers from the rafters, a job I was given
because I was the tallest and could reach the higher parts of the
ceiling.

Sunday morning, 6am before the sun rose, people started setting off
fireworks and playing loud típico music from the Casa Comunal.
Carnaval had begun!  I managed to sleep in until 7:30, but everyone
was up and about and splashing each other with buckets of water.  At
10am, a culeco arrived.  This is a truck that typically carries
gasoline, but had been cleaned out and filled with water.  They had
fenced off the uncovered section of the Casa Comunal and for a dollar,
anyone could enter and dance to music while being sprayed with water.
Members of Padres de Familia brought food to be cooked, and 4 to 5
women were preparing the food and selling it.  They made hojaldres
(fried bread), carne asada that resembled thick beef jerky, chicken,
and chorizos that are basically chopped hot dogs cooked in a red sauce
with onions and peppers, all prepared over an open fire, and stirred
and served with two spoons that were indiscriminately mixed between
raw chicken and cooked bread.  The food and drinks were wickedly
overpriced, but the profits all go to the school.

As the day went on, more and more people arrived.  Friends and family
from other towns came to visit, and there were even PC Trainees that
live 15 minutes away that came.  It was really nice to all relax and
hang out with each other.  It was my first time to dance, and even
though I could feel my skin burning, the water was really cool and the
music was really lively.  When the people in the culeco area wanted
water, they would jump up and down and chant “Agua! Agua!”  It got
kind of rowdy as people drank more and more, and at one point reminded
me of a minor mosh pit.  They threw people in the air, huddled in
groups and ran through clumps of people.  It was crazy, but so much
fun.

There was a break between 5pm and 7:30 for people to eat dinner, take
a shower, and change clothes (there is nothing nicer than taking a
shower after a hot, wet, long day, putting on clean clothes and
lotion, and eating a bowl of rice).  At 7:30, though, people began
gathering back at the Casa Comunal to see the Coronation.  For the
four days of Carnaval, there are four different queens, each
accompanied by a princess and represented by a different color.  Every
town does it differently, but my training community picked four
different queens and Sunday night they would all be judged and one
queen would be crowned The Queen.  In order to keep it unbiased, my
community asked three of the PC Trainees to judge the queens based on
her dress, the way she carried herself, her dancing abilities, her
speech, and the audience applause.

The queens arrived in a parade of sorts, each in their own car that
was decked out with balloons of their color: pink, red, light blue,
and purple.  Everyone crowded in to be able to see them enter.  One by
one, each queen and her princess danced in típico style around the
open area, waving and blowing kisses to the crowd.  The queens and
princesses ranged from age 5 to 15.  And their dresses – wow.  They
wore two-piece outfits that were gilded and sparkling, and had hugs
fans of feathers spreading out from either side of them, making it
hard for them to stand close together.  They also had on headdresses
with more of the same – sequens, feathers, sparkles and color.  It
kind of reminded me of the outfit of some sort of indigenous goddess,
and I heard that each outfit cost over $100 to rent for the night.
They also were asked to say some words, but even though they used a
mic, I could barely hear any of them over the noise of the crowd.  As
each queen walked around to present herself, her supporters, wearing a
shirt or hat of her color, would crowd to take pictures or try to
dance with her.  The latter were typically pretty drunk at this point,
but everyone was sternly escorted off the floor by this short but
intimidating woman helping to coordinate the event.  For each queen
there were also lots of cheers and applause and air horns and
firecrackers.  In the end, each queen was crowned and acknowledged for
some factor, either for her dress, her behavior, or her dance, but the
purple queen won overall.

After the coronation, there were a series of dances.  First the
queens each danced with a partner, and then came a series of
choreographed dance where 13-year-olds moved their bodies in way I
didn’t know was possible.  Then a group of kids danced Congo, a dance
that comes from the province of Colón and has a lot of African
influence.  A line of girls with their heads wrapped in bandanas faced
a line of boys who each had a sword and wore a towering hat adorned
with colorful crepe flowers and streamers.  When the music began, a
call and response singing accompanied by rhythmic drumming, the girls
began dancing in place and the boys whistled and cheered.  Then a girl
stepped forward to dance on her own and a boy stepped forward to dance
around her and try to impress her.  After a while, a second girl
stepped forward and the first girl stepped back.  The second girl
danced with the first boy a while until he, too, was replaced by a
second boy.  This continued with each girl and boy getting a chance to
step forward and dance.  After the dance performances, they began
playing típico music and everyone began dancing.  I think the dance
went until midnight, but I went to sleep around 11 so I’m not sure.

It was pretty fun to see so many people together.  And the
firecrackers!  I was sitting in the audience under the structure
watching the queens come forward to dance, but I could see outside a
little as well.  They weren’t actually securing the fireworks into the
ground, they were just lighting them and letting them go, and at one
point I saw a firework shoot like a meteor towards someone’s house.
The lady sitting next to me saw it too, and she nudged me with her
elbow and just cackled.  I don’t think anyone was hurt, so I found it
kind of funny, too.

On Monday a lot of people from my town went to a river, but since my
host family is in the process of building a bathroom and took
advantage of the days off to build a septic tank, I pretty much spent
the rest of Carnaval chilling at home and relaxing.  I did go to the
river in the town more than once and it was really refreshing to get
doused with water in the middle of the afternoon, so all in all a
great holiday.