The Big Dance Number

So, somewhat after the fact now, I would like to say that our end-of-the-school-year program at Katitawa went swimmingly. Actually, it by far exceeded all expectations.

This is not to say that there wasn’t a significant amount of preparation involved, which certainly helped. But hot damn, it was quite impressive.

First of all, at the suggestion of one of the students (hats off to Wamari!), we turned our broken water tank into a small store/command central for events. This ended up being a slightly larger task than we imagined, but it was well worth it. Some bricks, a little cement, bamboo, and plastic and straw (and the requisite landscaping, if course) and then some electricity, and we were all set.

We also went up to the volcano, to collect some rocks for the pachamanka. In case you didn’t know this, you can’t make an earth-oven out of just any rocks. They have to be strong ones; rocks that will not have moisture in them and then explode from the expansion that the heat causes. Volcanic rocks are perfect for this (because, you know, once you get spit out from a volcano, chances are that not much else is going to make you explode). So, up we went to the lava flow, hauling an entire truckload of rocks back to Salasaka. I nearly broke my ass in half in the process, during a gracious (of course) slide down part of the flow, but hey, these things happen.

The kids all did a fantastic job, of course.

The older kids presented a program, or more of an ode, really, to all of the volunteers that had been up at the school in the past year. This involved juggling, and wearing funny hats, and presenting flags for each country represented by the various volunteers (there were 9 in total). And, for the most part, the kids did this all in English, with translations for the guests. It was fantastic. The little kids (ages 3 to 9) did an equally charming program, presenting a story in Spanish about the “Battle of the numbers”, where the different numbers argued with each other over who was “better”, and where they agreed, in the end, that they were all equally important, regardless of their size.
They had the audience busting at the seams with laughter, it was so cute and well-done. Maria Pozo, their amazing teacher, did an incredible job in working with them, as usual.

After the different grade levels were done presenting their separate skits, the kids all got together for a traditional dance program, choreographed by the illustrious Fabiola.

How she got all those kids stepping to the same tune at the same time, we will never know. It was truly a sight to see, though, with everyone swirling around in unison, in their fancy best dress.

We also ate a lot of lamb (one whole lamb, in fact), hot out of the pachamanka oven. Literally, we just grabbed pieces from the oven, and shared between ourselves (yes, eating with our hands). This was after having pet the fat little guy the day before, and having looked into those sweet lamby eyes, and even after the kids had named him, and then later our seeing his hide and wool on the kitchen floor. It was still oh-so-lovely to eat. And then we danced. And ate some more. The parents of the students brought ears of corn and potatoes, and chochos (my favorite), and giant lima beans, and made soup out of the lamb intestines and other innards (yum, magaritza, as if I didn’t love it enough as a kid) and a host of other things, including homemade booze made from agave and then, some not-so-homemade booze, as well. There was nary a guinea pig in sight, I am happy to say.



At some point, our solar power ran out (our battery capacity, even on good days, does not last all that long). But luckily, one of the fathers of the kids had had the foresight to bring up a generator, along with a complete DJ outfit! So, we had music and electricity all night. We even had the perfect DJ booth, what with the new store/event-central building, and all.

Let me just say it one more time: it was all fantastic.

Hats off to all of the volunteers and the teachers, and especially the kids and their parents.