Fireworks, Fussball and Fun - Home Is Where The Plane Lands

The first true week of school has come and gone and tomorrow I’ll start it all over again. I have to say, the kids are pretty good. I have 7-9 graders and 10-12 graders. For the most part, they seem well (enough) behaved and generally interested in me teaching them all about the wonderful world of theatre. I also have a class of seniors for CT. Its community time, kind of like homeroom in a sense but also more about learning different principles to make you a well rounded person. Character counts after all.

I had my first professional development of the year this weekend. It was Destination Imagination. Although the little seminar wasn’t the most exciting, the program itself is really impressive and the school will be hosting an event it next April. Here’s the info about it if you’re bored…

Destination Imagination

I did finally move into the new apartment, aptly dubbed Casa Gringo Loco. Its nice, quiet and it takes me at most 15-20 minutes to get to school each morning. I can live with that. So now I’m out of the big city and living in the burbs – Tumbaco to be specific. There are still plenty of people everywhere here, but it “feels” less crowded and that’s what matter most to me.

After my professional development on Saturday, I took a bus to Guapulo, a little suburb nestled right up against Quito. Some of the teachers live there and the town was throwing a big festival – again, something about Mary I think. I think they just use any chance they can to party. So the bus ride wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. If you read the blogs and travel guides or talk to Alanna, you’ll come to the conclusion that riding a bus in Ecuador is dangerous because you will get robbed. People pickpocket you, use knives to cut open your backpack to snag items, you know, that kind of unsavory stuff. Honestly, I have heard the stories, even from other teachers, but the bus ride costs 25 cents so its hard to pass up. We got on first too, and got nice seats so we didn’t have to stand (which is when you get robbed).

We made it to Guapulo and safe and sound. I had a nice dinner and game time at a friend’s house and then a bunch of us ventured down to the bottom of the hill where the festival was being held. It was in a courtyard like area in front of a big church and there were a bagillion people there by the time we arrived. There was a huge band on stage playing, plenty of food vendors and half of everyone there was dressed in costumes – mostly clowns ans gorillas. I have no idea what this has to do with the Virgin Mary, nor did I make any attempt to figure it out. Everyone was dancing, conga lines were passing by, and somehow one the teachers decided it would be a great idea to weave our way through the throngs of revelers and stand right in front (below) of the stage. We were dancing and having a generally great time when a woman came up to us with her little boy. I’d say he was 3, 4 years old at the most and was dressed like a clown, She asked us (I think) in Spanish to pick the little clown up and put him on stage. So we did. She then shook her head and told us to sit him down on the stage. So we did. And then she smiled and walked away. Yeah. I know. So here the two of us are, standing beside a 3 year old clown boy sitting on the stage. He didn’t seem very happy, so I took his hands and helped him dance back and forth. He did this just fine, even swung his tiny clown legs around as well. He still never really looked happy. I guess he was a little confused as to why his mother left him to be babysat by two gringos. The lady finally came back and retrieved her son, and we mingled back through the crowd.

We’d also heard rumors that they shoot fireworks off, sometimes into the crowd. Stories about burn holes in clothing and scars on faces were running rampant. So… when I actually saw fireworks being shot off, of course I ran right for them. A little history about Rob – Back in my younger days, I was the rabbit of our group of friends. A rabbit, in medium to long distance comptetive running, is a special guy or girl who runs at the front of the pack. His job is to be the pacesetter for the race. Many times the rabbit doesn’t even finish the race. So, long story short – I was a rabbit, in general terms. Just ask Matt Ford or Jeff Heglar. They’ll tell you countless stories about how I was the one who always volunteered to do something first, to test it out, no matter how dangerous and completely idiotic it might be. So back to Guapulo – in true rabbit tradition, I headed right for the fireworks. Now these weren’t the kind that shoot up in the air (those were later), but were more ground based fireworks on some kind of metal contraption that men were carrying around. They’d light these suckers and hot, fiery like missiles would shoot horizontally into the crowd. There was a large circle of people jogging around this, but me… I decided to go inside this circle and directly up to the firework missile launcher thingamajig. Rather, I was pushed towards it. Anyway, it was me, the missile launcher and about 50 people in a circle blocking my escape. So these missiles start firing off, smacking every bit of body I brought with me into the circle. It didn’t hurt at first, then these hot fiery objects started smacking exposed skin – arms, face, the back of my neck. This was a tad bit unpleasant. So I did what any brave man would do – I ran like a sissy. The only problem was the circle of people blocked my way out. I tried to push my way through, and at one point I caught an elbow to the face, which of course knocked off my hat, glasses and almost sent me to the ground. I quickly retrieved my belongings and finally found myself safe from the missiles and crazy circles of people. So I learned my lesson… until I do something even more stupid next time.

After escaping near death from fire, we found a tent area that had these old fussball tables and tons of kids playing on them. And when I say old, I mean old. These things looked like they were made 50 years ago. But the kids loved them. So, of course, I had to play. A friend and I worked our way over to the tables and managed to challenge all the kids to a match. So me and him were on one side, and all the kids on the other, with about 10 more kids just crowded in to watch. We crushed them. Come on, its their national sport right? Soccer? Futbol? These kids were no match for our obviously superior fussball abilities. Ok, Ok, yes they were pretty much all under 10 years old and we were grown adults, but hey… we won. It was a blast. They didn’t speak English, I didn’t speak Spanish, but it was a very neat cultural experience and just to see those little guys having a great time was so rewarding.

Finally, the big fireworks started. They were unsafe, ungoverned, but impressive. There was even one that shot up little some kind of spinning UFO and then exploded. I don’t think I’d ever been that close (directly under) fireworks that big, but I’d almost lost an eye to the smaller ones earlier. Why should I be worried about these? All in all, it was a blast to hang out with the locals and soak up Ecuadorian culture. And I made it out without any burns or ruined clothes so no harm no foul.

Pics!