Update Part 1, Fiestas Patronales

For many reasons, I haven't updated in a long time.  I figure I'll do some posts this week and next to fill you in on everything.

I think we left off during the week of Fiestas Patronales.  Throughout the whole week, there was a tent set up in the stadium where there were a bunch of tables and people drinking beer.  Apparently everyone's nightly form of "entertainment" was to go to the stadium and just hang out and watch the people inside the tent.  Some of the waiters were cross-dressers, and apparently when some of the men get drunk, they end up dancing together.  And people just stand outside and watch.  Not just teenagers and men, we're talking women with their toddlers and young children.  Weird.  I headed down there almost every night with my host sister or other friends and after about 5 minutes of standing around, I would realize that I still didn't understand the entertainment value of listening to music and watching people drink beer.  There were also food vendors, so I would often take advantage and have a huge cup filled with hot popcorn (yum!).  Some of the nights there were rodeos, which weren't very well-attended.  I went one of the nights with my host sister and our neighbor.  I also went to a rooster fight, thinking it would be an interesting "cultural experience."....never again.

The biggest day of the week of Fiestas Patronales was Sunday, when they had the hipico.  Pretty much every town and city in Nicaragua has a hipico as part of their fiestas patronales.  People from all over bring their horses, dress in cowboy hats, plaid shirts, and boots drink lots of beer and rum and parade their horses down the street.  I'm not much of a horse enthusiast, but at the hipicos that I've been to, I've seen some pretty beautiful horses, mixed in with a bunch of normal-looking horses.  I have been to hipicos in both Masaya (during training) and Esteli (back in December, with a friend of mine from site).  Compared to the hipicos in those cities, the one here was much smaller, but still just as much fun.  Luis had come to visit the day of the hipico.  We sat in the park, drank a couple of cervezas, and watched the horses parade by.  After I pointed out that we were watching the same horses over again for the second or third time (I think they were just riding in circles), we headed up to El Guanacaste, a bar/restaurant a couple blocks away from my house.  At night was the big party that everyone had been gearing up for for weeks.  All of the other parties that I had been to had been inside the "recreativo," but this one was held outside in the park on the basketball/soccer court.  They had fenced off the area and set up the sound system and a stage.  The band that came was called Escandalo (except it had some weird spelling, which I can't remember).  Luis and I went with my host sister Seydi, but ended up not staying out too late because Luis was tired (he had left home at 5 a.m. to travel to my site).  We had a good time though, and it was nice to be outside dancing in the fresh mountain air :-)

The next day, Luis wanted to go visit San Rafael del Norte, a medium-sized town that is about 9 kilometers away from La Concordia and famous for being the home of Padre Odorico D'Andrea, a famous priest who apparently performed miracles and is in the process of being considered to be a saint (probably not the correct terminology, sorry for my lack of knowledge of Catholicism).  Basically, he's a really big deal for Catholics in Nicaragua.  Before heading out to San Rafael, we stopped by to see the church, which was preparing for the mass of Maria de Lourdes, its patron saint.  The church was decorated beautifully, and we also got a chance to see the procession, which was much more solemn than the other processions that I have seen.  The people walked in two lines on either side of the street, with people holding the figure of Maria de Lourdes in the middle.  There was also a band playing and walking along with everyone.

Inside the church in La Concordia, Luis taking a picture too

in the church

The procession as it passed by my house

 In San Rafael, we explored a little, hung out, and made our way to Tepeyac, which is the monastery/retreat center/church of Padre Odorico.  Inside, we caught the end of mass and then checked out the tomb.  It wasn't really my thing, but for Luis it was a big deal, so it was nice that I got a chance to go with him.  I also hadn't really checked out San Rafael before, so it was neat to get to know a new town, especially one that's so close.

The steps to Tepeyac in San Rafael del Norte

The tomb of Padre Odorico

So, that was the fiestas patronales.  Next update I'll tell you about Semana Santa (Holy Week) which I'm spending here in my site.  Then, of course, I'll update about how everything's going in the schools!

Happy Easter!