What Guate can teach the US about Independence Day Partying

Guatemala’s Independence Day was September 15th and let me tell you it was a blast! I woke up in the morning super pumped because in addition to Independence Day, my family was celebrating two of my host brother’s birthdays (6 and 16) so we were cooking a huge lunch, breaking a piñata, and eating cake! During the morning there’s a big parade of all the school children in different kinds of costumes. Before heading out the door my host mom asks if I’d like to put on some indigenous clothing. I clearly say yes! It’s pretty thick clothing that consists of a skirt which is called a “corte” and is a long rectangle that you have to fold in a certain way to make it into a skirt (not in an intuitive way mind you because when I tried to do it I ended up with a huge slit which is definitely not supposed to happen!) then the skirt is accompanied by a huipil which is also a square type of shape with slits for your arms and heads. The huipil is made by hand usually and is usually quite intricate. Then to tie it all together you have a belt the word is faja but I forget) which is also weaved and pretty cool. I think that the way all these different patterns and designs match is there is a predominant color; my color was pink  So we watch the parade which is cute but I liked the bands the best with their drumline beats and dance moves! Afterwards the eating and drinking festivities start with my family! We had a delicious meal called estofado which is a mixture of slow cooked beef and chicken in a tomato sauce accompanied with rice and a side of green beans and carrots. Absolutely delicious (and it takes two days to make!). So I bought a couple of gifts for the kids and a gift for the adults (bottle of Bacardi) which my family certainly appreciated and thought was cute.
Towards the afternoon the municipality planned a variety of activities ranging from a 15k to grease pole climbing. For a while I had told myself that I wanted to run this 15k because I have never in my life run that far and I thought it would be a great personal challenge. But after I realized my family was throwing a part and that the 15k was later in the afternoon, I figured that it probably wasn’t going to happen. Around 2:30 one of my sitemates decided he was definitely going to do it. So I couldn’t just leave him hanging, especially since I was the one that had been all pumped about doing it in the first place. So I have one more dance and my family feeds me another rum and coke (they said it would be my “gasolina”), and quickly change to run the 15k. I’m incredibly full and a bit tipsy but the adrenaline is pumping! For all of you PCVs, PCTs or future volunteers, if your town hosts a race DO IT! Running in the 15k was the best thing I’ve done so far in training. The first couple miles I was totally praying that I wasn’t going to vomit on the side of the street somewhere (can you imagine the gossip! A gringa throwing up on the street during Independence Day!!). The entire town is outside clapping and cheering which makes it even better because you kind of feel like a super star and you’re not going to just slow down when everybody is watching! I do have to admit that I did stop to walk for about ten minutes when going up a pretty long gruesome hill, but other than that it was a nice slow passed jog the whole way! It was such a high and I had a blast! Towards the end of the race I notice there’s a girl in front of me and I got a bit competitive and stepped it up so I ended up being the first girl to cross the finish line! (I have to disclose though that there were only three girls total that ran including me though). Anyway, with all that drink in my stomach, after catching my breath, I ran to the bathroom after! Supposedly, according to local gossip, I was supposed to win a trophy but the next day when I found out I of course received a “fijese que…” excuse that the treasurer was not in the office and that the race was actually just supposed to be men and they didn’t have any prizes for women. Who knows what the truth is and it’s not a big deal at all because nothing beats a huge crowd of people cheering for you and they even said our names on the loud speaker as the Cuerpo de Paz volunteers! Now the whole town is like oh aren’t you the girl that ran that race!? It’s great! Later that evening I just chilled with my family and ate even more food. I also watched people on horses try to use plastic straws to catch these tiny rings hanging on a string; pretty entertaining, especially since one guy’s horse would literally walk past the rings and the dude still couldn’t get a ring (he reminded me of Sancho Panza, Don Quijote’s side kick). I unfortunately missed the people trying to climb up the greasy pole that was incredibly tall, but I heard it was hilarious. In summary, it was an awesome day and the US should really step its game up because bbq and fireworks ain’t got ish on what we did in Guate!