There also seemed to be a lot of ice cream – everyone was eating ice cream and I saw a couple of women carrying large boards on their heads that were piled high with big mounds of ice cream. Wow, I just said ice cream a lot in one sentence.
Just last night I was mentioning that I hadn’t seen any indigenous men yet. Well, they’re here today. They are dressed in black felt shorts with bright knee socks pulled up to meet the shorts, black felt jackets, and black felt hats. They also have long ponytails. I’m not sure if this is a special traditional Christmas costume (for the parade?) or if this is their regular tribal clothing. Either way, they look amazing.
When I was on my way back from getting cappuccino, I saw an indigenous family with a father, a mother breastfeeding an infant, and two beautiful little girls. They were all dressed in their tribal clothing and looked so nice, but they were obviously poor. I smiled at the little girls because they looked so cute, and immediately their parents sent them over to me with their hands out. I always have a hard time when it comes to people begging when I’m travelling. On the one hand, I know I am incredibly wealthy compared to these people, and I would love to give them money. I feel a tremendous sense of guilt that comes from being born into privilege. On the other hand, “they” say it’s bad to just hand out money to beggars, as it creates a dependence on handouts from travellers and traps them in a cycle of begging. It’s especially bad to give money when parents send their kids over to beg, as it can result in parents using their small children as a source of income, even keeping them out of school so that they can go beg from tourists.
Here, we haven’t seen much begging at all – probably less than walking down any street in Manhattan (or any downtown North American street, for that matter). In some places we’ve travelled, however, we have been practically swarmed by people begging for money, followed by droves of kids begging for pens, candy, money, etc. In cases like that, where begging is so prevalent and you’d be screwed if you pulled out your wallet, I almost never give money. But when there are two cute little girls with their hands out while their parents await sheepishly in
the background looking at the ground, I feel compelled to give money. I would feel guilty all day if I didn’t. I dug around in my purse and managed to find two 50 cent pieces – not much but all I had. I gave one to each girl and they responded with big smiles. Then I remembered that I had Dave’s camera with me, so I asked the parents if I could take the girls’ picture. I felt like a bad person as soon as I asked, but at the same time they were so cute that I really did want a picture of them. The parents said ok, so I snapped a quick pic – the girls didn’t seem to like having their picture taken. Of course, the parents asked me for more money after that, but I didn’t have any (and not sure I would’ve given it even if I did). I felt weird about the whole situation – like I had participated in some watered-down form of child prostitution, or like I had bribed them or something. Ok, I’m being melodramatic, but I wish I would have just given money without asking for something in return. But I didn’t, and now I have a photo of two cute little girls.This afternoon, we went and checked out the parade, which is called Pase Del Niño (Pass of the Child). It was so much better than we had anticipated! Pretty much every kid in town was in this parade, and they were dressed up in all different kinds of costumes! Some were wearing
traditional tribal clothing, some were wearing Christmas costumes (almost every infant was dressed as an angel and we also saw several shepherds and Wiseman), and others were wearing very random costumes such as clowns, gypsies, or Winnie the Pooh characters! Many were riding on horses or donkeys, others were walking or being carried by their parents, and the lucky ones were riding on floats made out of cars (they call these carros alegoricos, which means allegorical cars).
The horses are covered with silk or woven blankets and an array of different foods strung together – these are offerings to the Christ child. I guess I should mention that that is the purpose of this whole parade: to honour Niño Dios (“God as a Child” aka Baby Jesus). They have these Pase del Niños all over the country, but this one is the biggest and the best. It has been a tradition for many years, and the literature they distribute on the parade is very open about the fact that the celebration is a mix of many different traditions, including Christian and pagan, and that it evolves to include new traditions and “modern cultural elements” without “losing its splendour.” I won’t say too much more about the parade, because the pictures Dave took will be more informative than my rambling.
In the photo below you can kind of make out see a few pictures of Popes throughout the years - there were a lot of Pope floats, some of which included kids dressed up as the Pope, priests, and nuns.
Many of the young girls had dolls strapped to their backs...practicing, apparently.
In these two pictures below, notice the chili peppers stuffed in the chicken's and pig's mouths and other holes! There was a lot of that going on...
Some dogs were getting into the fun as well!
Of course, Henry and EO couldn't help but to join in on the fun.
Dave was feeling sick throughout the entire parade, so we only stayed for about an hour or so. He went back to our room while I wandered around a bit more before getting back to work. I worked for the rest of the day while Dave alternated between sleeping and getting sick. He must’ve eaten something bad yesterday, because he was in very rough shape. I just graded for the rest of the day/night (yes, it is taking me FOREVER!!!! I am obsessed with giving feedback – it’s like a sickness I have!) with the exception of a brief outing to buy Dave Gatorade and crackers. But, the good news is that I finally finished my grading at around 2 am – YAY!!!
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