28 Mayo 2011 take two

Today, I rushed back to Madrigal to enjoy the festivities of San Isidro. Apparently this catholic saint was a farmer, so they celebrate him here by blessing their work bulls. They strap their horns together as if they are going to the fields, decorate them with flowers and parade through the plaza. A father came into town to bless the bulls, and their owners. With a funny face he threw water on my head and walked away. Juana wanted me to dress in the traditional attire and show the bulls in the competition, but she just looked so darling already dressed up I had to resist this time. I promised, next year. And, I would gladly.

Don Juan y Doña Juana won second place in the handsomest bulls contest. You might have wondered why I call Hercules (our black bull) my enamorado or boyfriend, but he is a handsome devil!

During the parade I had to choke back tears a couple times. The community’s pride for their cattle is formidable. Even the young woman my age who owns only one young cow walked tall. I tried to think of a comparison in Western culture. Perhaps owning a house or a car carries similar pride. But most of us don’t actually own houses or cars, we make payments on them our entire lives. And, there is definitely something to say for tending to a living creature every single day without fail. The connection between the animal and the human built over years also has to contribute to the fulfillment of owning livestock.

As the alcohol and chicha started to appear I left my post watching over Hercules y Pompeye to Roxana and took advantage of the fact that the entire community was congregated. I played a bit of the politician shaking hands, and kissing babies and bulls (oh, the shame), and chugging invited chicha. Then, handing out letters of invitation to different events coming up in the next couple weeks (greenhouse project meeting, PreNatal anti-teen-pregnancy workshop, In Service Training in Lima, etc).

As my host mother and father started drinking more, Roxana and I took responsibility over the bulls and walked them back to the house to tie up in the garden for the night. As we arrived at the house a neighbor saw the two skinny little women with the massive bulls and decided he should help us un-unite them. Even after a year, people still get a kick out of me handing the animals and speaking quechua commands at them. Sometimes I think my most important job here is entertaining my neighbors.

As the bulls munched on corn stalks Roxana sat down for tea and sudoku (or new favorite evening activity, we are getting pretty quick!). Señora Benilda knocked on my door around 8 because she heard I had free reading glasses, which I do. The dentists had left a small handful of brand new reading glasses behind as a donation and there have now been 3 individuals fitted with the glasses closest to the prescription they need. I ended up giving her a book to read from my collection (Ibañez, a favorite Spanish author of mine) and we sat looking at video and photos from my birthday last month. Sra Benilda danced the night away that night, and was just tickled to see video of herself.

This delightful day was wrapped up with apple fritter frying. Roxanna makes a delicious fried dough, and I thought it would be a good idea to add apple and cinnamon. Because it would have been rude not to share our dinner with Benilda, we were still a little hungry and stuffed ourselves with more tea and homemade apple fritters; A sublime way to send us both to the pillow after a sublime day.