A bit of culture & the Fair!

Well, folks, the end of the month is rapidly approaching, bringing football season (yay!) and school, but for me, I'm just getting to the good part. This week is the big week in Santa Rosa, since it's all leading up to Saturday the 30th. Yesterday morning, the music teacher here held a concert in the park, featuring all his students. There were a few girls there from my school, singing and playing guitar, but there were a ton of kids from around the city, showing off on their instruments. They played some Mozart, Vivaldi, Titanic, Beauty & the Beast, and Love Story, so I think that pretty much hit on everything. It reminded me so much of high school band, complete with a few false starts, a little out of tune, a few people getting lost, but lots of proud parents and kids. It was truly entertaining and I loved every minute of it.

The big act, though, was a group of Garifuna performers at the end. They were invited to share some of their culture, along with dancing and singing traditional songs, and I finally felt like I wasn't the only tourist anymore. All the locals pulled out their cameras too, and were so intrigued with the Garifuna culture. Just a little background: The Garifuna is group of indigenous with African roots that live along the Caribbean coast of Honduras. They are most famous for starting their own colony after the slave ships they were on shipwrecked and they were able to escape to shore. They have their own language and customs that are completely different from the rest of Honduras, and are very athletic dancers. After this first picture in front, the music teacher invited us backstage to get out of the sun (a little too late for me, though, I'm sunburned pretty bad, but would it really be a music festival without one?).

That's right, the kid is playing a turtle shell. Very well, too. Three generations of performers were there, and the littlest ones got the biggest applause, of course. Highly, highly entertaining.

So after the concert was through, the girls and I headed back to school for lunch, and then a different group of them went with me to the actual fair, on the edge of town. It turned out to be a lot smaller than I thought it would be, and there wasn't much going on. We saw some of the high school seniors at their booth selling bread, and we bought some coconut candy, but then we left to walk around the rest of town.

Here's the Santa Rosa Cathedral at sunset, but the sun is behind us.I think there's just not much to the fair on Sunday afternoons, which unfortunately, is when I have my time off. However, this week we have vacations. So, after I get back from Tegucigalpa to pick up my new temporary residence card (wish me luck that there aren't any issues with that), I'll be back here in time for the big events, like a choreographed horse show (I guess it's the closest thing to a rodeo), and scary carnival rides!

Until next time... (da-duh duh)