Patron Saint Festival

Jeff
The patron saint festival of Saint Raymond (aka San Ramon) has distinguished (or marred) the past week depending on one's perspective. Our town is named for Saint Raymond Nonnatus who is the patron saint of child birth. He was born by caesarian section in 1204, hence the name, no natus. Saint Raymond was captured by the Moors who bored a hole through his lips with a hot iron, and padlocked his mouth to prevent him from preaching. Despite his radical piercings, Ray still managed to convert some of his guards - much respect to this total bad-ass.

Celebrating Saint Raymond in San Ramon, Nicaragua apparently requires one to be a bad ass, just like the man himself.  It all started at 4am on August 21st with a bunch of rowdies walking around town playing music, setting off firecrackers and yelling via a loudspeaker. For some, celebrating Saint Raymond means ten days of non-stop drinking. For others it involves climbing a greased pole for monetary prizes, chasing a greased pig or goat so you can catch it and eat it, riding bulls, fighting roosters, a death defying bicycle race and of course the high volume karaoke competition that went on way past our bedtime. During the past eight days we have heard about stabbings (one resulting in death), broken bones, a gorging by a bull and multiple arrests. All of this excitement and there are still two more days left! It is just like I said – bad ass.

Our friend's team pole climbing toward victory

All of my politically incorrect joking aside, this is an important celebration for our town. It is essentially a county fair rooted in a religious tradition that has morphed over time (kind of like Christmas). It creates some great recreational opportunities for the citizens of San Ramon as well as a much needed economic boost. There have been some lovely religious celebrations, parades, concerts, activities for the children and a general coming together in the community. We have gotten to see some cool stuff and bonded with our neighbors through shared experiences and gossip. While there are certainly some very ridiculous aspects of this ten day fiesta, there are just as many ridiculous aspects of our American traditions. I would gripe about those too in order to be an equal opportunity curmudgeon but this blog is about Nicaragua.

Luckily Raymond is not the patron saint of education. During the past six weeks of elementary school there has not been one complete week of classes and this week was of course no exception. We have decided to take advantage of the four day vacation and get out of town.  We will miss the last two days of the festival but the events we are going to miss are either a repeat of what we have seen, too religious for us or likely to be too rowdy for the kids. Besides all that, the noise and excitement have worn us down a bit and we could use some R and R. Tomorrow we are heading to Laguna de Apoyo (a lake in an old volcanic crater) to do some swimming and hiking. We will have someone watch our home while we are gone as the celebration of Saint Raymond sets off a mini crime wave each year. Viva San Ramon.

Emma
I do not want to talk about the patron saint festival. I want to talk about chickens. We now have two chickens and their names are Estrella and Luna. Mommy and Daddy’s friend Evaristo had to drive a long way to find chickens. We built a chicken coop but it took us a whole week to find chickens to put in it. We finally got them on Friday.  Our chickens are fat because they had lots of food before. They are very afraid of everybody because it is a new place for them. They got dumped into a truck and taken to a new place and they were very scared in the beginning but they seem to know us better now. My chores in the morning are getting new water, cleaning their bowls and getting the chicken food. The food is called millon (sorghum). I let them into the chicken run in the morning. At night I feed them again and chase them with a stick to get them inside their coop. They have not laid eggs yet and we think it is because they are still scared.

Hannah

We went to a horse contest with our neighbors.  They rode a fake horse and had to grab a ribbon.  Most people could not get ribbons.  My friend Osnan got one.  He did not win because the winner got three.  He won a prize and had to kiss one of the princesses.  He used our broom for his horse.  The adults will do the same thing but with real horses.

Osnan riding to glory

Aileen

Jeff already provided too much information regarding the patron saint festival so I will keep this short.  I really enjoyed attending a little fair a few nights ago because many of the local kids (including ours) were running around enjoying themselves. Below is a picture of Hannah on a carousel.  No consumer safety advocates around here, no way.  That thing was flying!  For those of you who know Hannah, it must have been going pretty fast to get her upset.  After she got off, she was uncharacteristically grumpy, and we realized she had a low-grade fever.  Even though her temperature wasn't that high, we decided to keep her home from school the next day.  When people realized she wasn't at school, everyone agreed that her fever was because of the carousel ride the day before.  Nicaraguans have some pretty interesting ideas about cause and effect!

Hannah and Friends on the Saint Raymond-Go-Round

Closing

The careful reader will notice that the children seem very well adjusted and the adults appear to be suffering from culture shock charecterized by irrational cynicism. Nevertheless, we are totally thrilled to be here and are really enjoying our time together.  The girls still marvel at everything they see but the honeymoon period is over for the adults.  Overall, this is a good thing because we are now settling down to a more "normal" life.  San Ramon now feels more like home rather than just a vacation spot.  On the plus side, this means deepening relationships and a sense of belonging.  However, it also means that the rose colored glasses are gone and we must now face the challenges and adventures of everyday life in Nicaragua.