The Beginning of the Feria

So, the feria in Sulaco is in full swing.  I had expected lots of fun events, and there have been quite a few.  Although, I've also spent a lot of time just hanging out because most of the fun stuff occurs in the afternoon/evening.  On Friday, I went to the graduation of the 6th graders from the school that is my counterpart, Escuela Francisco Morazan.  In the morning, I headed over to help decorate.  The municipality of Sulaco has a "salon de actos culturales" which is a big room where they hold most of their important community events.  I helped blow up a ton of balloons for them to decorate the tables with.  The graduation was bring-your-own-table-and-chairs, so each family brought a table and chairs so that they'd have a place to sit during the event.  I sat up on the stage with the other teachers to watch all of the kids get their diplomas.  In Honduras, many students do not make it to their high school graduation, so 6th grade graduation is a big deal.  The students received framed diplomas and were each escorted to the stage by their godmother or godfather.  Afterwards, they served us dinner, which ended up being around 10:00.  It was great to see how happy the kids are about graduating, and I'm looking forward to working next year with those of them who choose to go to the colegio San Juan de Sula.

the kids all holding up their diplomas

While I was at the graduation, I talked to the music teacher who told me he was going to be waking up at 4 a.m. because that was the official beginning of the feria.  Little did I know that I would be waking up too...but not by choice.  Saturday morning at 4 a.m. I was woken up by firecrackers, a band playing, and a person riding around in a car shouting things in a loudspeaker.  They were traveling all around town yelling at people to wake up and making LOTS of noise.  I did get up, but didn't go down to the street to see.  Did I mention that they do this every morning during the feria?  Yup, firecrackers every morning at 4 a.m....awesome.

Saturday afternoon, there was a very short parade of people on horseback that went past my house.  They went by so fast, that I didn't get to take any pictures, so I headed to the park to get a better look.  Representatives from AGASUL (the agricultural organization in Sulaco), the mayor, the reina of the feria, and the "Madrina AGASUL" (winner of the beauty contest I judged) all were riding horses.  It was pretty neat.

Saturday night was the graduation ceremony for the colegio San Juan de Sula.  Somehow they managed to transform the half-finished gymnasium into a really pretty location for the graduation ceremony.  Like I mentioned before, graduating from colegio here is a HUGE deal.  One of the graduates made a speech about how she, along with many other female graduates, has a child to take care of at home but that didn't hold her back from graduating.  She also told her classmates that there is no reason why they need to stop there after finishing colegio, that they should keep striving for more....very inspiring.  And she was right.  A lot of the students who graduated are older and are married and have children at home.  One of the male students even brought his son up with him to the stage when he accepted his diploma.  It was another very special night for the students of Sulaco.

Afterwards I headed to the main strip of the fair where there are games and a few small rides.  I gambled away some money on some games, with help from some of my students from the escuela.

A little later on Saturday night, I headed to the salon de actos culturales to go to the "gran fiesta bailable." (dance party).  There were disco lights and a DJ, and I had a pretty good time dancing.  It is a little bizarre because there are adults and high school kids all mixed in with each other, and also some little kids running around too.  It was strange seeing some of the kids from my high school English class there.  It took awhile for people to start dancing (for the first 45 minutes or so people just stood around--kind of like a middle school dance), but once they did it was really fun.  I headed home at 1 and went to bed...of course only to be woken up again at 4 a.m....grrr

Sunday afternoon, I visited the church because they were selling food and the youth group had set up some games.  I played a balloon-popping game and won a little goodie bag of cookies and candy.  I also grabbed some pastelitos (little fried pastries filled with rice and meat) for lunch.  At 4:00, I went to the Catholic church.  They had their normal Sunday service, but also brought in a statue of the virgin Mary to make an altar for the feria.  Sunday night, because I was so tired from staying out the night before and being woken up at 4 a.m., I stayed in, watched a movie, and went to bed early.

Yesterday (Monday), I went for a walk before lunch and grabbed an ice cream cone (there's nothing wrong with eating ice cream before noon, right?).  In the afternoon I headed to AGASUL's rodeo, which was located about a 10 minute mototaxi ride away.  It was a really beautiful location.  Of course, it started at least an hour and a half late, but once it got started it was really fun.  A bunch of guys from Sulaco and a few from other municipalities took turns riding bulls.  The announcer on the microphone came over to me at one point and asked me a bunch of questions and made the band play a song for me.  It was a little embarrassing, but everyone in town pretty much knows me already, so we all had a good laugh about it.  The rodeo got over around 5:30 or so, and I'm happy to say that it didn't look like anyone got hurt too badly.

After dinner, I went back out to the park where the announcer was having some kind of boxing contest with kids.  The crowd was really into it.  Then I headed back to the main strip of the feria.  I ended up playing roulette for awhile.  I had tried it out on Saturday night, so I figured I'd give it another try.  The wheel has pictures on it, and all you do is put 1 Lempira on one of the pictures, depending on which picture it is you win different amounts if the wheel lands on your picture.  With my first Lempira I won 20, so of course I had to stay and play some more.  A little while later, I won 10 more, and then 50.  It was my lucky day!