Police and Parties

About two weeks ago Cebadas got its first police officers. There are three of them, but they usually just work alone or sometimes two on the same shift. I don’t really know how long the shifts are, but they have a little house that they are renting or something and then a little office in the same building as the market on the main plaza. They don’t have a car however, so I don’t know what they would ever do if there actually was an emergency or something that they had to respond to. Also there is not a very good dispatch system here; apparently there is just one for the whole country so its takes forever. One of the police officers gave me his cell phone number in case I ever needed to reach him, but also because he was just being kinda creepy. Luckily a few days after that I had to change my cell phone number anyways and so now he doesn’t have my number anymore. JAJA This guys is just weird too, the first time I ever saw him he came up and said he had been looking for me, and talks to me every time he sees me and always tells me he wants me to teach him English. Once I was just sitting in the plaza waiting for something to start and reading my book, when he came over and was asking me how to say all these words in English. He took my book from me and was trying to read the words that he knew, not really even seeming to realize that when people are reading it usually means they don’t want to be disturbed. He isn’t always a creeper though – sometimes he walks around town and tells people to pick up the trash in front of their stores which is something that actually needs to be done (everyone just throws trash out the bus window and just wherever they want). However, you can see that there is not much for a police officer to do here. Recently, maybe in the last 2 months or so this lawyer office also appeared on a corner in Cebadas. I have only seen it actually open twice I think, but I guess its good that its there.

This last weekend Cebadas celebrated its 150th anniversary with 3 days of fiestas. Saturday there was a fair where they judged animals and stuff and the school kids had little cultural and science displays set up. Then in the evening was the election of the Sumak Warmi – the queen of the fiestas. There were 5 contestants from the ages 18 to 24 and they had to wear casual clothes, typical traditional clothes and fancy clothes (but pretty much they were all just the same – at least the long skirts they wear called anako’s) and answer a question. That ended at 12 and after that a concert started, there were supposed to be two musical groups but I went to bed and I assume the party lasted till like 5 or so. Sunday was the finals of a soccer tournament followed by bulls in the afternoon. Again just the kind of bulls where drunk men run around out there with their red ponchos, although some of the high schoolers and young adults are pretty good at it I guess. In the evening there was a concert of Christian music and kind of like a church service on the stage, but they were just talking all in Kichwa and it was really boring for me. The religious spirit didn’t stop people from drinking though and there were a few guys laying on the ground out there Monday morning. Monday there was a parade with the bands from the school and the high school and lots of other groups of people – the teachers, the people who work at the bank, the people who work at the Subcentro (including me!) and after that was a session where all the authorities spoke, some kids recited speeches about the history of Cebadas, and then the president gave kind of a “state of the union address” kind of speech, just talking about all the big things that are going to be happening this next year – opening a center for senior citizens, working on getting a sewer treatment system, possibly a paved road out to the farthest communities, and that people don’t throw trash on the ground.