La Batalla de Flores

La Batalla de Flores

It was time for Barranquilla to show off. It was Carnavales – time to bring out the best of the best. The day after the Carnaval at school and the Tambor was La Batalla de Flores. I knew that the translation meant the battle of flowers, but also had learn that this would be a grand parade.

Even Barranquilla's nature was showing off

Karen, Dave, and I had made plans with our friend Tania to go to La Batalla de Flores. I had never seen more people on the streets of Barranquilla. Lots of people were dressed up in Carnaval costumes. We got there around 11:30 and it was already packed. It was hot so I bought myself a costeño hat – un sombrero revueltiao.

Starting young - we saw this future Carnaval Queen on our way there

general craziness

It was ridiculously crowded and loud. It was getting nervous with the amount of people and the chaos. People were squirting foam into other people's eyes. This unfortunately happened to Karen and she got her camera stolen.

We got to a place where we could all see, although not well, not long before the parade began. Dave and I had bought tickets to have a reserved seat with a view. The thing was, we couldn’t make it through the crowd to get to our seats, and even if we had gotten there, the police weren't letting people through. It was not the most organized event, and I was seriously scared from the pushing and sheer number of people. I literally was sandwiched between people much taller than me. When I finally could move I decided to head back to where Tania and our other friends were. Unlike most of the chaos at this event, the port-a-potties were the cleanest most organized part of the whole parade. They even gave you a little wet-nap after using them.

After a while Tania used her palanca with the police and Dave and I were able to get in to a VIP section with our tickets and had a decent view and a bit of space. We ended up joining a larger group of North American teachers from another school. We had met some of them at parties before. They do loads of things together and live in a cool area of the city. One guy had rum in a 2-liter bottle that was being shared.

Finally being able to see, and not being worried about my camera being stolen in this VIP area, I was finally able to take a few (read: A LOT of) pictures. I was lacking explanations from a local during the parade, though I had asked about some of the symbolism before. Some of the captions are fact and some are my interpretations. The marimondas and the three races are true though.

mud man


gods and goddesses?

Don Omar of reggatón fame

Millions of marimondas. These are the symbol of caranaval in Barranquilla. They represent exactly what they look like - a penis.

marimonda phallic symbol

Bicycle with flags of the world

Carnaval is not short on beautiful women who can dance

The 3 races of Caribbean Colombia represented stereotypically – afro for Africans, gold spear - Indigenous people, and then the other clown-like costumed folks somehow represent the Europeans.

African dance turned mapalé

Afro-Caribbean

Yes, this is a man. Everyone would cheer for the 'gays' which somehow seems to translate here as drag queen.

More marimondas and queens

Cumbia

Our colleague and Cumbia queen

a balancing act

scary

odd

traditional costeño vallenato y cumbia y sombreos voltiao

costume detail

famous fútbol player

Barranquilla Carnaval





Political humor

local humor

an appearance by Michael

This guy was then eaten by vultures but the picture was a blur

narcotrafficante?

macabre

iguana

coyongos - another symbol of carnaval

Leaving carnaval, Dave and I had a long and winding search for our friends. There were enormous stereos blaring everywhere, people dancing on patios and in the streets, and Colombian trinkets for sale.

I will never be able to convey the volume. I have traveled to 30 countries in my life, and Colombia the loudest country I have been to by a very far margin. During carnaval I knew it would turn its normal ear-splitting volume up to 11. It's all part of living in a different culture. My Spanish is getting better, but that doesn't mean I understand all of the subtlties (as well as the not so subtle parts) of the culture.

¡Quien lo vive es quien lo goza!

KaBOOM!

KaBOOM!

There I was in my classroom as my students had just left for extracurricular activities and Ka-BOOOOOM! It sounded as though a bomb had gone off in my classroom. The light flashed brightly then went out and seemed to have exploded on the inside. My room smelled like burnt electrical wires.

After my initial scream, with my hands still trembling and heart racing, I went out in the hall to see what had happened. Apparently all the power in the school had gone off. Thankfully that's all it was. Something electrical had indeed exploded and it sounded like it had happened in my room. I was especially frightened because I’d seen on the news the night before that a bomb had gone off on the Pacific Coast of Colombia where several people had been killed and there was tremendous devastation. It was 7:19 am, the high for today was 95, kids leave school at 3:30 and I leave at 4:00, it was going to be a long day with no air. Oh, and when the power goes off here, the water does too, which means no hand washing and no toilet flushing.

Miraculously, within an hour most of the electricity in the school had returned. What a relief, because it was really getting hot. The air conditioning was back on in the library where I was preparing lessons. When I walked back down to my room for class, the janitor said to me, “Meess, no enciende la luz o aire, por favor. Aquí todavia no sirve.”
So, the electricity was back on in the rest of school…except my classroom.

As a teacher I rotate and the students stay in the same room. By the time I had to teach in my classroom, it was the afternoon and my students were melting. The high of 95 had been reached and had surpassed that in my classroom. I felt sorry for my sweaty, wilting kids.

At the end of the day I asked the head secretary if there would be power in my room the next day. She didn’t know that there hadn’t been any all day, although the janitors knew. She assured me there would be. Hmm, power in my room tomorrow, I’d say it’s about a 50/50 chance, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Let the Carnavales Continue

Let the Carnavales Continue

After the amazing Carnaval show at my school, it was off to the beach to do a bit of surfing. This time my colleagues Dave and Jose wanted to give it a try. Yoyi was going to give them a lesson and had told me that the waves were perfect for beginners. Indeed they were. It was possible to catch a wave, and stand up, but not be completely smashed around by a fierce sea.

The four of us stayed in the water about 2 hours laughing and having a ton of fun, besides the little ding I got on the knee. Afterwards I was tired and Dave and Jose, red-chested from the sticky wax on the boards, were exhausted. We all took the bus back to Barranquilla and decided to try a new Mexican restaurant called Orale Burrito. It was absolutely delicious and definitely the best Mexican food I’ve had in Barranquilla. For about $7 a burrito, it wasn’t exactly cheap, but it was worth it.

Karen came to meet all of us for dinner and then the plan was to meet some other colleagues for the beginning of Carnaval in Barranquilla. People called it the Tambor. Yoyi and I went to my apartment to shower off the saltwater and get ready for the evening. Thanks to the power of cell phones, we met up with a bunch of colleagues at the Tambor. We all ended up in what was called the wheel, which was a huge crowd of people walking and dancing around in a circle over and over again. Drums, reed flutes, and occasional accordions were in harmony with people singing. People kept shouting, "Wepa! Wepa!" I’m still not exactly sure what this means, but I think it’s equivalent to not knowing exactly what hooray means.

My camera ran out of batteries after two shots, but considering how many people were around, it might have been for the best that I didn’t have it out.

Me, wishing I had my friend's butterfly painted mask. Wepa! Wepa!

After a few beers at the Tambor about 15 of us strolled back to another colleague’s house for an after party. The streets were full of people reveling in Carnaval festivites. Music was blaring from various houses. People were singing, dancing, and drinking everywhere. Yoyi and I picked up a bottle of aguardiente on the way to the party. Aguadiente is an anisette flavored Colombian liquor that I love. It seemed to be the right thing to drink that night.

Yoyi feeding aguardiente to señor Cunit - el sabor preferido. He knows that still makes me laugh.

At my colleague’s house were the omnipresent extra large speakers with deafening music to dance to. Having a conversation is almost impossible over the latino rhythms blasting away. It’s a good thing I like so much of the music here, because if I didn’t this would surely be a version of hell. Almost everyone was dancing. Mainly people dance with their partners here, which is kind of a good thing for me. My hips always feel uncoordinated and Yoyi guides me in dancing better. Drinking, dancing, and sweating to the booming music were the themes of the night. Aguardiente y cerveza were flowing continually, and at one point I realized after being at school all day, surfing, and dancing, that I was absolutely wiped out.

About five of us piled in a cab and listened and sang along to Daddy Yankee shouting, “Quien no perdona, quien no perdona!” We bounce bounce bounced all the way home. It was past 3am and I had Carnaval activities planned for the next morning. I better learn how to rumba like a Barranquillera.

Computer Translators? Maybe Not.

Computer Translators? Maybe Not.

Have you ever wanted to communicate with someone whose language you do not speak or write? Have you ever been tempted to try to just use a computer translator and hope for the best? Here’s my advice, don’t do it.

I had a concerned parent who obviously wanted to communicate with me and thought it would be easier for me if she translated her e-mail into English. This is from a parent of a student who is not in my homeroom, so the parent doesn’t know me and doesn’t know that my Spanish is fairly decent, though not perfect. I receive several Spanish e-mails a day a read them with very little trouble. It was thoughtful of the parent to try and communicate with me in my language, but unfortunately the results of the translation made the following e-mail humorously incomprehensible:

Thank you for writing my E, simultaneously I him(her) go to be grateful that finding out on reveille for this way since lately putting on this me sluggish(weak), I comment to him(her) on Mister(coach) on the note that you I order myself, it(he,she) gives him Englishman's, social lessons and sciences, nevertheless I am grateful for him everything one remains communicated on reveille it(he,she) can do it in English since I put the translator and this way I find out, when she(it) does not do his(her,your) reports to him(her), tasks and carrying this one badly, please repréndanla and simultaneously they punish her do not leave him (her) to go out in playtime that is what mas he(she) likes it and in this hour that she(it) does the report that I do not present.

Do you know what that means? Neither do I.

Remember, as much as computers can be helpful, their little brains don’t have language capacity, and definitely not the highly developed syntax that we use constantly. For translation, people are far superior to computers. If you don’t believe me, I’ll reveille that in my Englishman’s social lessons.

Let the Carnavales Begin!

Let the Carnavales Begin!

Before I came to Barranquilla, the best thing I heard about it was that it was the place for Carnaval. Supposedly Barranquilla has a Carnaval without equal in South America (outside Rio de Janeiro) and I was looking forward to see what it was all about.

It was Friday, February 12, Carnavales started this day and went on until the following Tuesday night. That day at school was Carnaval and nothing else. I did not exactly know what this meant, but soon found out it was an unbelievable display of dance, music, costumes, and colors. Mainly though, Carnaval is all about dance.

One thing my school does very well is put on a good show. Watching the students dance in their costumes was like watching ‘Mad, Hot, Ballroom’ on steroids. Each class, grades 2 – 12, had a Carnaval king and queen. The queen is the most important and she has to be an amazing dancer. The king and queen wear the most elaborate costumes, but everyone in the class has a costume and is part of the dance routine. I feel sorry for any Colombian who is uncoordinated, but oddly, it just doesn’t seem like these people exist. Are Colombians born good dancers? I think it’s quite possibly in their blood. That being said, I found out that students had professional choreographers for their dances.

boys and girls...

...dancing together happily

Each class had a mix of music that each had a different dance: Cumbia, Mapalé, and some hit of the day. Almost everyone had a part of the song El Celular, which was the song for Carnaval 2010. The thing is, I can show pictures, I can try to describe it in writing, but the best is to see and hear a bit of this in action.

Cumbia is a slower dance to music with drums and a reed instrument that sounds like the high scale of the clarinet. It's one of the few dances in the world that I might have a chance of learning because of its slower pace. Here is a Cumbia video.

Cumbia

Profesional Cumbia from a colleague in Barranquilla's Carnaval

On the other hand there is Mapalé. It is the dance from the Afro Colombian culture of the Caribbean Region of Colombia. It has a fast drum beat and is a lot more frenetic. There is no way I will ever be able to learn this dance. Here is a Mapalé video.

the queen of mapalé

The whole school day was full of things you would never see in the US – little boys and girls dancing together in coordination, some of the costumes were a bit risqué, and one act even had highschool students breathing out fire with what smelled like actual gas.

"Aló...

...¿donde estás?...

...¿qué pasó?...

...me apagaste el celular"

costume details that would make Michael Jackson jealous

Judges watched the entire show, and I couldn’t agree more with their choices for la Coronación of the kings and queens.

the judges

post-coronation rumba

Once again I will reference Wikipedia: “The Carnival of Barranquilla was proclaimed by UNESCO, in November 2003, as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.”

Intangible, yes, that it is.

Las Olas Han Regresado

Las Olas Han Regresado

“Las olas han regresado,” – the waves have returned, is what an amiga said to me when she saw Yoyi and I together again. It’s true, they had, and it was time for me to be a little bit more serious about my surf habit. It was time for me to get a board of my own.

Our family celebrated my dad’s birthday and I flew to Florida for the occasion. My brother and I took a trip to Ron Jon and I bought a surfboard. For those in the know, it’s 6’8” and is shaped like a mini-longboard.

My very own surfboard

This time returning to Barranquilla after my brief journey could not be more different than it was in the beginning of January. Yoyi came to pick me up from the airport, I had my new surfboard in hand, and it was the beginning of Carnavales. Back at my apartment, Kären, Yoyi, and celebrated with a bottle of wine while we opened up the gifts I’d brought back from the US.

Las olas han regresado

I returned on a Friday night and took the surfboard to the beach with Yoyi on Saturday morning to try it out. ¡Exito! It was the right board for me. We surfed in the ‘secret spot’ in front of his house. The waves were perfect for trying out the new board. Surfing with Yoyi is always fun, if a bit humbling. He always helps me improve and cheers me on. It was a hot and partly cloudy Saturday afternoon and we were the only ones there. I admired the beauty of the white garzas flying then landing on their tree, and decided to pay no mind to the burning plastic.

Trying out my new board

Even though I might be getting better...

...I'm nowhere near as good as Yoyi

That night I was treated to a post-travel, post-surf massage and slept like a baby.

Arising on Sunday after being away from work for over a week was a bit of a shock – whoa! I had loads of work to catch up on. Somehow, even if it causes some sleep deprivation, it all gets done. When it gets too stressful, I just need to think of the Sea.