Yesterday was the unveiling of the new Mercado de Animales (animal market) here in Agato. It is a big deal for the people, one which I truly hope will help them sell their goods. Up until now they have been in the downtown indoor market where the the fruit and vegetable vendors are. They did not have a very large space (from what I’ve been told) especially for the live animals. Here they have a great deal of room, and it is just for the selling of animals. There will be some street vendors as well, I imagine selling things like pies as the one man that I met told me yesterday. He was an older man that just walked over to me and began a conversation. He spoke a little English, but Quichua was his native tongue. He wanted to know where I was from and how long I have been here. He explained that this is a very poor country, the people very poor (I think he was referring for the most part to the natives).
In this picture you can just see the pens with troughs for the live animals to be displayed for sale. The vendors would be on the other side of the lot.
I understood, but added that the people were beautiful, full of smiles and laughter. He could only nod his head, leaving me with the understanding that this was true but not enough. I also could imagine that he hoped I was there to help in some way. Someone like me stands out in a crowd here with my silvery blond hair, my height and paler skin (I am trying to get a tan but one has to take it slowly here, the sun is pretty strong). Patrick is even more obvious standing head and shoulders above everyone; everyone looks up to him here :).
When we got to the Mercado, there was already a big crowd gathered, the street vendors were set up, the people anxious to go inside and see the rather expensive and large facility. The band was set up on stage and we could hear them playing while we were standing outside the gates. This was a very strong political move by the major, one he hopes will get him re-elected.
There would of course be many speeches by all the important people, the major, the priest (it is a very catholic community) as well as many others who I did not have the title for. We at first went to the tent set up in front of the stage to see the proceedings, but there were not enough chairs set up so Patrick and I stood behind. The way people were looking at him though I figured we would be smart to go to the very back. People were looking up at Patrick , smiling a bit amazed I think at how tall he is, so we shuffled to the back so they would have a better view, all of us having a good chuckle.
We then decided to go up on the hill behind the bandstand where there was some shade, the sun was very bright on the grey stones and it appeared we would be there for awhile. From the hill we could not see those talking (which was ok, political events are not my thing) but we were beside some lovely people, the only whites in the crowd, and we enjoyed the company. We are welcomed by everyone pretty much. Total strangers just walk up to us and shake our hands wishing us a good day. It puts a smile on my face and teaches me always to accept the beauty of each person I see.
There were big blow up decorations to honour the event.
They seemed kind of meaningless to me, but then I do not understand fully the culture in which I am experiencing. We did have a good chuckle though when the plug in for the fan to keep them blown up came undone and they lay deflated on the ground.
Perhaps I just have a terrible sense of humour but I saw it as a sign of the deflated promises of a man in politics who took three years of his term to decide to begin helping the people he was elected to improve the lives of. Like many politicians (all?) there was a sense of proven inability to do the job until election time rolled around again. The people around us were laughing about it also and no one made an effort to fix the problem for quite awhile.
Here are three of the six girls who would be performing a couple of traditional dances. They are practicing before going on stage, a little nervous. This brought back memories for myself getting ready to perform ballet, jazz or modern dances in front of an audience. No matter how well prepared you think you are, there is always that bit of self doubt, that you will forget the timing or a step. But you just have to keep going if this happens. When it happened to me those few times, I would always laugh giving myself away, but still I kept going, embarrassed, but hey….. I will put the dances on my facebook page so you can see them if you choose to. They were very graceful!!
We walked to the other side of the stage hoping to get close enough to get some good video of the girls dancing. It was the only thing I was waiting for in truth, as I said I have no faith in politicians or their promises. It was pretty crowded on that end also, but we were able to get a little closer and I thought I would be able to see most of the dance. There was drone with a camera flying above us and it seemed to have some interest in me (Patrick was hiding under someone’s umbrella lol), hovering right in front of where I was standing, it’s camera pointed directly at me. Of course I was not the only one there, but it stayed for quite some time, until the battery died to be exact. I felt that he should have been filming the speeches and the important people in the crowd, but I put it down to the hair, pegging me as a gringo (foreigner) which would make me a target. I was not very comfortable thoughnot knowing who or what this film was for.
Just before the dance some of the people standing in front of me left, what freakish good luck!!! So down I went on my knees right in front of the row able to get great footage of the dancers. There was a police officer beside me, whose hand and baton you will see on occasion. He was kind enough to offer me his hand when it was over and I needed to get up. A gentleman!!
We ended up standing behind the band after the dances were over hoping to see the family we came with to tour the building. Again my rather weird sense of humour got to me and I had to film the band members who kept turning around before they began to play, to stare at me and say Hola to. Me being the shy uncertain one kept looking around to see who they were saying hi to and seeing no one other than Patrick realized it was me they were talking to. I digress…..they were all lined up and swaying to the music in perfect harmony, all these men with their backs to me. I just thought it was a moment that you wouldn’t see every day, kind of gift for a woman to see all these men swaying in gentle harmony.
Just before we left to find the family, a photographer seeing us went to take our picture. Patrick turned away from the camera which made me laugh – it’s usually me that does that. So in the end it was just me that had a picture taken which I understand will be in the paper today. I will have to get a big hat and sunglasses to disguise myself now :). It was after this that we went to the roof top of the big building and I had my conversation with the gentleman. It was a fun excursion, not a place I would be comfortable in had the animals and the vendors been there with their slabs of meat to buy. Today marks the grand opening for the vendors, so I am at home writing about it rather than going to see it.
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