| Saturday, February 25, 2006 |
| EMERGENCY!!! |
You all may not have heard it on the news yet, but yesterday civil war broke out in Bolivia. In fact, from what I gather, it´s broken out all over the continent of South America. I can´t speak for any other cities, but La Paz has decended into complete anarchy. Armed gangs that roam the streets have become the main authority. Foreigners, or "gringos" as they are called, are specifically targeted...and I nearly met my demise on several occasions. The distinguishing factor of this war is that it is not being fought with guns, but with water balloons. Welcome to Carnival season in South America.
This morning my buddy William and I (a "bloke" from the UK who´s been living here for a little while) decided to go out for a beer today, but the specific pub he wanted to go to was about a 5 minute walk on El Prado (the main drag) Initially I questioned if it was a good idea, knowing that we were prone to being attatcked (due to the color of our skin...). He said "Nah, they usually only attack you if they know that you´re playing." He couldn´t have been more wrong. The entire upper half of the 6-lane-wide El Prado was, I kid you not, absolutely packed with people; kids, parents, teenagers...most of them holding water guns, large bags full of water balloons, or a silly-spray-esque soap substance in a can. It´s simply anarchy. We were attatcked probably 30 times in our way to the pub...it was unbelieveable. Water balloons fly at you from seemingly nowhere. One hit me right in the nuts. And then, surprisingly, every so often a middle-aged woman will spray you right in the face with the soap stuff and laugh at you...you´d think only rowdy teenagers would attack you, but no!!! Will and I couldn´t stop laughing the whole way!!! I couldn´t believe it!!! We got to the pub (in fact the same pub that an escaped Nazi war criminal would go to every day to plan his military coups when he was working for the CIA...which was pretty amazing to think about when I was sitting there) and washed all the soap off our faces and sat down in the safety of the indoors for an hour or so and talked politics (so happy to have like-minded people in my midst...)
I met Patty and her/my friend Tanya at El Prado at 4:00. I havn´t had so much fun in my entire life. We promptly bought a few water-resistant panchos, which was best 2.50 Bolivianos I´ve ever spent in my life. There are people on every street corner selling water balloons, usually for 1B (about 20 cents) a dozen...and you run around for your dear life and chuck balloons at whoever you can. It´s freaking incredible. What was amazing to me was that there was about 2 groups of, I kid you not, 100 or more teenage males who roam El Prado, destroying everything in their path. Every time I hear all their yelling I can´t help but recall the battle scenes from The Lord of the Rings (it actually sounds like that). But it is in fact the sound of one of the raging hoards of teenagers annihilating their current victim. They will choose one person or a group of people and just blow the shit out of them with balloons. Sometimes war breaks out between groups, and an enourmous barrage of water balloons ("globos" as they´re called here) fills the sky.
As I mentioned before, gringos are a favourite target of people here. I don´t think I´ve run so fast in my whole life. There are three sidewalks in El Prado, two on each side and one large plaza-esque one in the middle seperating the two sides of the street. The huge gangs roam in the middle...so obviously me, Patricia and Tanya walk on the sides. Sometimes when you´re walking past and they see you, one of them will yell "GRINGO!!!" and they all look, and then they all start bellowing their war cries. You run for your dear life as you dodge, literally, dozens and dozens of water balloons. For the next 30 seconds before you can get out of distance, all you hear is the sound of explodsions and shrapnal around you (and sometimes, if you´re unlucky, ON you...) hitting every surrounding building, tree, and lightpost. It´s a war zone here.
What I find incredible is that apparantly Saturday is NOTHING compards to Sunday...as I am sure to find out tomorrow. Patty and co. are meeting me tomorrow and we´re going to go roam the streets and join in the fun once again (I almost, ALMOST wish that I hadn´t quit baseball...I can´t throw worth shit) I havn´t had so much fun in my life. Anyone game for starting up Carnival at UVIC when I get there?
PS: Brianne, is Chile´s new president a fluke too? That´s too bad...I knew that she wasn´t a radical leader like Chavez, but I didn´t know that she was one of the typical "socialists" governing today...that sounds a lot like Lula in Brazil. Everyone was super stoaked when he got into office, but he ended up bowing down to pressure from the USA, IMF, and World Bank and he´s turned out to be WORSE than the conservative leader that preceded him...which is a shame. But she did in fact sign the South American agreement against American Imperialism, so she can´t be all that bad (what´s the official name of that agreement, I just heard about it today from William...). Congrats on your getting accepted to that school in europe! Did you end up getting that scholarship that I wrote that letter for? Oh, and how about that write up on the World Social Forum from Hands Off Venezuela? I wouldn´t mind reading that. Oh, and could you send me that marxist reading list again? I´d appreciate that.
PSS: Get your own drum Mom!!!
PSSS: Ellie, you want more pictures? How about you fly down here and spend the 2 hours it takes to put the damn things on here... |
posted by Ben @ 5:37 PM  |
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| 9 Comments: |
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Benjamin Connor that first paragragh scared the hell out of me!!! Sounds like you are having such a great time! Regarding your drum....possession is nine tenths of the law. You'll have to fight me for it...perhaps water balloon style!! Love Mom
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Yeah, that was the idea :)
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Ben, stop giving your mother heart attacks! I mean really, you almost gave me one too.
But either way, make sure you show those grannies who's boss.
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Ben you scared the shit out of some chic at the interent cafe. I was reading it outloud being all "holy fuck" when she came over and was all like omg, whats going on!? Way to go you little bastard. It sounds kind of like this festival I went to in Basel where everyone has plastic hammers you beat people with and guns that shoot confetti.
Z
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Wow Ben...I'm with your mum...I was so shocked when I started reading...then I realized what it was all about...and it sounds amazing! You have to show some Gringo power. Yes it fits!!! You should have heard the compliments, and all the touches I got wearing the sweater. Thanks love bug. Say hi to Patty for me :P
Love E
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Goddammit, I'm with everyone on this, that freaked me so bad i actually fell backwards off the chair I'm sitting on. Good grief!
yeah, Gringo Power!
Andrew
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hey ben! you scared me too! but claire did that last year with the snowball fight..do you recall?? i've been thinking about going to chile. the talent show is this week and we'er gonna raise a hell of a lot of money for our school in kenya. i'm so stoked!! what would happen if you just stood there and let them drench you? would they stop cause youre no fun? if you get really hot and icky you should try it. have fun!
xoxox Erin
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Jeez ben, you sure know how to scare the shit out of a whole lot of people.
If I had a lot more money than I do now, I might just drive down to bolivia and take you up on that picture thing. But currently I don't ever feel like working for more than an hour a day.
Really focusing on my story now, half finished the outline and now my thoughts are floating all over the place.
Good luck to you tomorrow, I hope you get soaked.
Ellie
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Haha! Yes! This is exactly like both the snowball fight in Dharamsala and the festival of Holi (with all the coloured powder).
Good luck buddy!
*Claire
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Benjamin Connor that first paragragh scared the hell out of me!!! Sounds like you are having such a great time! Regarding your drum....possession is nine tenths of the law. You'll have to fight me for it...perhaps water balloon style!! Love Mom