The gringa is in the sequía!

The fun in Cochán continues. The rain has been pretty much nonstop but that doesn't matter when it comes to Carnavales. My host family continues to play Carnaval and one day several of my students arrived to class soaked. I asked what happened and they told me that my host family attacked them with a line of buckets while they were walking to class. I'm a little jealous that I can't join in on the fun because I am in class all day. However, today was a sunday and it was nice and sunny out. Of course I knew this wouldn't last because there were clouds quickly moving in. Nevertheless there was nothing to do. There was no electricity or cell service because they were doing maintenance all day. It started all innocent. Some of the girls wanted to fill up some water balloons to throw at the cars coming by. I went and filled up a few to throw from the safety of my balcony. I also filled up a bucket hoping to dump it on someone. My host sisters are always up for playing Carnaval and pretty soon is was a bunch of females hiding behind doors in houses with water balloons to throw at unsuspecting males. However, the occasional water balloon soon turned into more once my host sister filled up a bucket as well. She went out into the street while I continued to throw water balloons from the safety of my balcony. Pretty soon I decided I wanted to get closer so I too went downstairs and outside to help my host sister. Well once word got out that a gringa was out on the street with a bucket, a bunch of the men went out and filled up buckets. It then turned into a full on Carnaval fight and pretty soon I was drenched, this time without the protection of my rain pants. I really wanted to get photos of it but I was already soaked and I was afraid that someone would ruin my camera. I can't explain how much fun it is to drench people with buckets of water. Well all fun has to end at some point and this fun ended when I tried to get my host uncle wet. He told me to go to the sequia, or the stream to fill up the buckets. So I followed him down the street thinking I could fill up my bucket there. I went to throw water on him and then my foot slipped and fell into the stream. It didn't matter too much because I was already soaked. However, he then proceeded to push me down so I was completely laying in the stream. That wasn't enough for him so he then took buckets of water and poured it all over me. Unfortunately the water level was low so the water was completely brown and muddy. Being wet was one thing, but being covered in dirt is another. My host sister came down to help me and he got her soaked too. However I was able to pull the bucket away from him and get him back my throwing water all over him as well. Once we got down fighting in the stream I looked at the street and there was a large crowd of onlookers gathered. Apparently one person saw me in the stream and then yelled, "run, run, come look at the gringa who is laying in the sequía"

I should also mention that not only can I not throw water balloons, but I also can't tie them. There is an art to it. I also just learned that there is an art to throwing buckets of water. Who knew? Even though I was successful in getting people wet, my host mother informed me that I didn't know how to throw buckets of water.

The green milk truck that terrorizes Cochán with water balloons.