It’s hard to believe, but I now have less than two months left until I officially finish my Peace Corps service on October 29th, 2009! I am excited about the idea of completing my time as a volunteer, but also quite anxious about the thought of what to do next. But before we get into that…
I finished my last post mentioning that my bike had been stolen from outside of the internet café in my town. I quickly tired of literally EVERY person I spoke to asking me about the bike, but the fact that so many people were concerned about it worked in my favor. Just about 3 weeks after having my bike stolen it was returned to the local authorities with a different color of paint, but in otherwise the same condition I’d left it. Needless to say I was thrilled. The person who returned the bike, a local bad boy, insisted that he did not steal the bike but since he was being accused of doing so he decided to track down the guilty party as a favor to me (even though I’d never even met him before). Although I’m pretty sure he did not physically steal the bike, I’m almost positive he was involved in having it re-painted and sold. Regardless I have the bike back, along with a great respect for the people of my town, whose civic pride would not allow such an affront to occur to their gringo friend. I was quite touched that the Pariteños liked yours truly enough to use their collective persuasive powers to pressure the culprit into returning the bike. This incident convinced me that I’m about as integrated into my community as a volunteer can possibly be.
In addition to being sick of people asking me about the bike, as our patronales festival approached people began to remind me of the incident at last year’s patronales where I was head butted by a bull and wound up on TV saying I didn’t want to be on TV. After all the people of Parita had done for me I couldn’t leave them with the legend of the gringo who got hit by a bull and couldn’t even come up with something funny to say when the cameras were in front of his face. The teenage boys in my Junior Achievement classes made fun of me the worst and so it was really their approval I was seeking when I decided that at this year’s patronales I would actually ride a bull. Even at the age of 25 peer pressures a bitch.
Saddling Up
To celebrate the patron saint of Parita, Santo Domingo de Guzman, there are nine days of mass followed by about nine days of straight partying. I picked the second to last day of the festival for my bull ride so no one could say I rode one of the smaller bulls that appear in the first few days. I arrived to the plaza with a number of volunteer friends who had come for the festivities and quickly set to work about achieving my goal so I could enjoy the rest of my day in peace. After a little liquid courage and a “good” friend prodding me along I approached the chute where the bulls come out of, found some people I knew and told them I wanted to ride. I tried to observe the technique of the few guys who went ahead of me and passed on one bull that was supposedly especially bravo, but soon enough it was my turn. As I prepared to mount my buddy suggested I wait for another bull, but I knew putting it off again would only make it more difficult in the long run. Now these are real bulls, 1000 pound animals that can seriously hurt you, but they’re not exactly Spanish matador killers, nor Texas rodeo caliber, and they don’t cinch its balls. My bull was brown with small, not so sharp, fairly symmetrical horns. I was glad it had horns so no one could say I was skirting danger. With my heart pounding I finally sat on the bull as the guys attached the strap I would hold on to. After some brief instructions on hand and foot placement the chute opened and I was off. I don’t really remember much about the 6-8 seconds I was mounted but my friends said the crowd of 300+ spectators immediately erupted in applause and the play by play guy on the loudspeaker announced that “Robert Dawson, the gringo is riding the bull.”
A picture is worth a thousand words
From what I was later told I took the first few bucks in stride but then the bull slipped in the mud and I fell to the ground on its right flank. Some friends distracted the bull away from me while others helped me up and congratulated me. I had done it, and who knew, but that shit was fun! However, I paid for my fun, and 8 seconds of glory with two full days of soreness afterwards. My lower back, inner thighs and shoulders all felt the effort of doing my damndest to stay atop an animal that did not want me there. But most importantly, I had no more questions about the stolen bike or about “no quiero salir en television”, just “hey good mount” and a firm handshake.
Basking in the glory of it all
Besides riding bulls and bikes I’m trying to bring closure to my service in a positive way. I finished the Junior Achievement classes I’d been doing in the school and I used the last of the paint from my world map and Panama map projects to paint maps of the Province of Herrera and the District of Parita where I live. I thoroughly enjoyed working on all these maps and the school director was grateful for my contributions to the aesthetics of the school.
The Cooperativa Parita Avanza unfortunately has not fared so well recently. Shorty before the patronales festival they began knocking down the house next door to the co-op and in the process knocked down our adjacent mud-brick wall! Luckily we had moved everything to the opposite side of the office anticipating such a disaster, but the entire co-op was still filled with dirt and dust. Since it’s a government building we will likely wait for the municipality to pay to rebuild the wall, which could take a while. In the meantime we’ve been operating out of the manager’s house, but will soon likely setup operations in the student center that is on the same block as the co-op. Getting the co-op up and running again will be the only volunteer work I’ll be doing in the last two months as I focus on my post-service plans. I’m also preparing to receive the new volunteer who will replace me when I leave to follow up with the Savings and Loans Co-op, the Youth Co-op in the school and a few of the entrepreneurs I’ve been working with.
All iguanas should have to wear Easter bonnets
So what comes next for el joven Roberto you ask? I’ll then on vacation with my mom in Panama City for a week but when she flies back to NYC on NOV 9th I’ll fly to meet my friends in Colombia. We’ll be in Cartagena for their Independence Day celebrations and the Miss Colombia pageant which they hold there every year. We then head to the Santa Marta beach area a few hours up the coast for a week before flying back to Bogota where my friend Adam has some Colombian friends he knows from the states. Finally, we’ll go to Medellin for a long weekend and a few days later my 3-week excursion will come to an end in the first week of December.
