Friday, July 23, 2004
25th Aniversario de la Revolucion
Ok, its been a long time since I have written, and a lot has happened. First of all, this canadian girl named Robyn came to work with me for about a week, which was great, because I am terminally short handed. She was awesome and now that I am in a new site with more birds, I wsh I had switched sites earlier, because I need her help more now than I did before.
Anyway, I met her when I was in Cebollal at Dona Corinas where she was visting as a tourist. We got done and headed to Esteli on the 15th, a Thursday for the celebration of the anniversary of the revolution, which is a HUGE deal here. This department, town, and Miraflor, are Sandinista strongholds, and although the national day of celebration is the 19th, Esteli was liberated first, and so they celebrate here on the 16th. We got here, she lost her wallet in a taxi, got all upset, but then it worked out ok, becuase once she calmed down, it was really only a litle bit of money, and one credit cards, and she had others, and I lent her some money.
So we all got cleaned up and dressed up, Robyn, the english teacher Jane/Juanita, and a woman Clare she had met traveling, and went off to the Centro Recreativo to see local groups perfom, and dance, which was nice enough. BUT THEN, we ran into Chico Javier, Marlon, and his brother Ivan, and headed to the local Sandinista communist bar/restaurant hangout Rincon Legal to see a trad music group, and it ROCKED. The group was amazing, and sang trad songs, and songs from the revolution, and eveyone has red and black bandanas on, and they are all singing and pounding on the tables, and hugging each other and swaying back and forth, and its standing room only. During the breaks, they played film footage from the war which was tre interesante.
This bar has picturtes of all the great revolutionaries on the walls, Che, Sandino, Fonesca, Ortega, and other pictures and flags and propoganda posters from the FSLN(Sandinista political party Frente Sandinista Liberacion Nacional), and old weapons. There was a HUGE black and red flag hanging out front.
So we got home at 3am, and my stupid bird internal clock woke me up at 5am, and couldnt get back to sleep, so andaba muy cansada en la celebracion!
We get to where the parade people congregate at 10am, and its fantastic, tons of campesinos on horseback, and tons of truck and cars with people all hanging out the back with flags flying, and everyone is in red and black, and then we walk into town, and then the parade goes by, but not like a parade in the states, its a march, and everyone just goes, and then Daniel Ortega shows up, the leader of the FSLN, and he is on horseback, and surrounded by other guys on horseback and people are all running up to him and all crowding and reaching up to touch him and shouting ´´Daniel, Daniel!´´
And we all end up near the soccer stadium in a giant vacant lots and on the street, and people eventually get up and talk and talk and talk, and more speeches, and I am now really hot and tired and go home and sleep.
So we go out to Rincon Legal again, but it is much more mellow this time.
I was SO inclined to go to the 19th anniversario in Managua, because EVERYONE from all over Nicaragua goes to the capital on this day and a sort of symbolic overtaking of the capital again, and Daniel gave like a 4hr speech, and there were representatives from many different countries, like Mexico and Cuba, who gave good speeches I heard on the radio, but I did not go because I woke up and Sunday and felt all crappy and sick.
Oh, and I was so covered with btes and scabs, I went shopping for long sleeved shirts because I looked HORRIBLE, and my whole body was covered, especially the belt line, and my breasts, and armpits, and bikini line and whole back, and it SUCKED. no, wait, it still sucks, because it is still like that.
Anyway, I met her when I was in Cebollal at Dona Corinas where she was visting as a tourist. We got done and headed to Esteli on the 15th, a Thursday for the celebration of the anniversary of the revolution, which is a HUGE deal here. This department, town, and Miraflor, are Sandinista strongholds, and although the national day of celebration is the 19th, Esteli was liberated first, and so they celebrate here on the 16th. We got here, she lost her wallet in a taxi, got all upset, but then it worked out ok, becuase once she calmed down, it was really only a litle bit of money, and one credit cards, and she had others, and I lent her some money.
So we all got cleaned up and dressed up, Robyn, the english teacher Jane/Juanita, and a woman Clare she had met traveling, and went off to the Centro Recreativo to see local groups perfom, and dance, which was nice enough. BUT THEN, we ran into Chico Javier, Marlon, and his brother Ivan, and headed to the local Sandinista communist bar/restaurant hangout Rincon Legal to see a trad music group, and it ROCKED. The group was amazing, and sang trad songs, and songs from the revolution, and eveyone has red and black bandanas on, and they are all singing and pounding on the tables, and hugging each other and swaying back and forth, and its standing room only. During the breaks, they played film footage from the war which was tre interesante.
This bar has picturtes of all the great revolutionaries on the walls, Che, Sandino, Fonesca, Ortega, and other pictures and flags and propoganda posters from the FSLN(Sandinista political party Frente Sandinista Liberacion Nacional), and old weapons. There was a HUGE black and red flag hanging out front.
So we got home at 3am, and my stupid bird internal clock woke me up at 5am, and couldnt get back to sleep, so andaba muy cansada en la celebracion!
We get to where the parade people congregate at 10am, and its fantastic, tons of campesinos on horseback, and tons of truck and cars with people all hanging out the back with flags flying, and everyone is in red and black, and then we walk into town, and then the parade goes by, but not like a parade in the states, its a march, and everyone just goes, and then Daniel Ortega shows up, the leader of the FSLN, and he is on horseback, and surrounded by other guys on horseback and people are all running up to him and all crowding and reaching up to touch him and shouting ´´Daniel, Daniel!´´
And we all end up near the soccer stadium in a giant vacant lots and on the street, and people eventually get up and talk and talk and talk, and more speeches, and I am now really hot and tired and go home and sleep.
So we go out to Rincon Legal again, but it is much more mellow this time.
I was SO inclined to go to the 19th anniversario in Managua, because EVERYONE from all over Nicaragua goes to the capital on this day and a sort of symbolic overtaking of the capital again, and Daniel gave like a 4hr speech, and there were representatives from many different countries, like Mexico and Cuba, who gave good speeches I heard on the radio, but I did not go because I woke up and Sunday and felt all crappy and sick.
Oh, and I was so covered with btes and scabs, I went shopping for long sleeved shirts because I looked HORRIBLE, and my whole body was covered, especially the belt line, and my breasts, and armpits, and bikini line and whole back, and it SUCKED. no, wait, it still sucks, because it is still like that.
