fiesta en 3 de octubre

In the town of 3 de Octubre (or what we call “tres de”), the community’s anniversary was celebrate last week. All of the PC volunteers were invited to celebrate in the anniversary festivities. There was singing, dancing (amazing dancing!), and crazy fireworks. These weren’t your average fireworks. A man dressed up like an animal (maybe a horse? a dragon? I couldn’t tell…) literally wore the fireworks in his costume. He would go around chasing us with the huge sparklers going off. Then, fireworks would shoot into the air from the big costume he was wearing. If this whole event wasn’t a fire hazard, I don’t know what is. But it was quite the cultural experience. 3 de Octubre loves its fireworks! Fireworks were going off till 7 in the morning.

The dancing was definitely my favorite part. Several groups of teenagers performed folkloric dances. I couldn’t help thinking that teenagers in the US would never do this sort of thing. These teenage guys and girls who listen to hip hop music, constantly send text messages, and wear the latest trends, got dressed up in traditional Peruvian dance garb to honor their own heritage. The choreography was complicated and amazing. I’m looking forward to seeing and learning more about folkloric Peruvian dances!

At one point during the celebration, the MC announced that the Peace Corps volunteers were there (as if the group of 40 tall, white, and awkward people wasn’t obvious to the rest of the community). But everyone cheered for us, it was cute. The PC soccer team was also recognized and the town leader gave them all shirts for participating in the town’s soccer tournament. Although they didn’t win the tournament, they got the team congeniality prize.