Fiesta!

This past weekend we went to the town of Ocú to see the Festival of Manito.  This festival is one of the country’s best folkloric events.  It was established to maintain the region’s traditional culture.  They had a parade, many dancing troupes, and a fair where many artisans sold their wares.

Our province is famous for the polleras, outfits worn by women at folkloric events.  The polleras are almost entirely handmade, and consist of two basic pieces – a blouse resting on the shoulder tops and a long skirt divided into two fully gathered tiers.  Here are some pictures of the polleras in the parade.

Girl with pollera and typical peasant food

Fellow Peace Corps volunteer Emily is part of the parade

There were also floats drawn by oxen

getting ready for the parade

These cloths are called molas and are entirely handmade.  They are made by the indigenous people in Panama.

Of course there was lots of food on sale.  This person is selling marañon chino from his pickup truck.  There is no English translation of this fruit that we know of.

You crack open the skin with your teeth to get to the fruit inside

The night before the parade there was dancing at the fairgrounds.  Click here to see a 1 minute video of the various groups of different ages dancing in their polleras.

There was also recently a folkloric day in our school.  Unfortunately we missed it because of Peace Corps training, but we did see the pictures.

Chepo students in their polleras

These students are in a contest to see who can salomar the loudest.  A salomar is a shout that people in the mountains give for various reasons - as a greeting, to communicate over long distances, but also just for fun, especially after a few drinks.  These kids are learning young.

Primary school students

Secondary school students

Steve’s surprise birthday party

As Steve’s birthday was on a Saturday and most teachers are out of town on the weekends, it was decided to have a surprise party for him the following Wednesday.  Heather left school early with a couple of other teachers to prepare the food.  Two other teachers detained Steve at school with various pretexts.  The party was a complete surprise!

Note the American flag candles!

At the party they sang a tamborito, which is a traditional Panamanian song where one person sings and the others chime in on choruses.  It is always accompanied by drums (tambor).

Damaris sings the tamborito

Also last week Steve and Ormelis (Heather’s co-teacher) took the boarding students out for a trip to a local pond on the property of our host family, and later to the town swimming hole.  The students are usually cooped up in the boarding facility at school from the time the school ends at 1pm for the rest of the day.  They were delighted to get out for a few hours.  It rained on us, but they didn’t mind as they were already wet from swimming.  When we went to the swimming hole there was another heavy rain, but their spirits weren’t dampened in the least.   They still had enough energy to race each other up the steep hill to get home.  Notice that the kids do not use bathing suits.  They just swim in their clothes.

Who's the bald guy hanging from the log?

We end with a picture of the local transportation passing by our house.  There are five adults riding on the back bumper, which is specially made to support them.  This truck has three people riding in front and at least twelve people in back (probably more) in addition to those on the back bumper.  No wonder it is riding a bit low in the back!  Even with the extra heavy duty suspension that the truck has, it has to slow way down for bumps.  Of course bumper riding is illegal, but these guys will all get off before they pass the new police station at the other end of town. 

One more picture of the countryside - this is from our morning walk.