A Gringa No Brasil

I have a couple projects in the planning process, but nothing solid yet. In the meantime, I’ve been taking advantage of the social scene. That’s right, Honduras has a social scene. Not quite up to par with NY or LA, but when you live in a quiet town of 5,500 people, it doesn’t take much of a party to make it seem like the blowout of the year.

Halloween isn’t a very big holiday in Honduras. Unless you’re a Peace Corps Volunteer. Every year, PCVs from all over Honduras and Central America get together in Copan Ruins (town just outside of the Mayan ruins in Western Honduras) for a big Halloween party, complete with a costume contest, themed drinks, and fake spider web decorations.

Outside of Copan Ruins, Hondurans have mixed feelings about Halloween. There are some bars and clubs that have adopted the U.S.-style tradition and throw costume parties. But on the other hand, there are a lot of people that consider it to be a kind of devil worship. While talking with someone from my town that I didn’t know that well, I made the mistake of mentioning that I was heading to a Halloween party and was subjected to a half hour harangue about the evils of dressing up to please the devil and how God would not approve of my behavior. He told me he hoped I would change my ways and that he would pray for my soul. Yikes.

Despite his disapproval, I got my costume together and drove out to Copan with two other PCVs and a Honduran friend. I went as Lara Croft, originally a video game character, made famous by the movies starring Angelina Jolie. (Mom, if you still have no idea who I’m talking about, Google it.) I didn’t actually raid any tombs, but I thought the costume was appropriate given the party location. I borrowed a black tank top from a friend and some black combat boots from a fireman. I bought fake hair in Teguz to make the long French braid, and I got some very real looking pellet guns there too. I found the belt at a second hand clothes store in town and fashioned the gun holsters out of cardboard and black electric tape. All in all, I think it turned out pretty well. Pictures are up on Facebook, but I’m not going to post the public link since I’m not sure which volunteers actually had permission to be there. I’m not trying to get anyone sent home.

I was really impressed with some of the costumes that people showed up in, especially given the limited resources here for putting one together. I know quite a few people bought fabric and then went to the local seamstress to have them sew something. The winners of the costume contest were the group of girls dressed up in various Lady Gaga outfits and the group of guys dressed up as the four Honduran beers – I have no idea how they constructed the beer bottles, but it looked like they went to some piñata maker for them. Another friend dressed up as Dora the Explorer, which was a big hit with the local kids.

A couple days after I got back, Alejandro Sanz was playing a concert in Tegucigalpa. He’s not very big in the English speaking world, but you may have heard one of his recent singles with Alicia Keys, “Looking for a Paradise.” I wasn’t planning on going since I spent all of my money in Copan, but a friend had an extra ticket so I got talked into it. I only know a handful of his songs, but it was still a fun experience since my friends are huge fans. The concert was held in an outdoor stadium, and there were an insane amount of people there, especially given that it was a Wednesday night. I knew we were going to be far from the stage, but I assumed that I would still be able to see Sanz on the screen like at concerts in the States. But from where we were standing, even the screens looked tiny and super far away. Oh well, we still made the most of it. Does partying with people from my town still count as community integration even if we’re not technically in Cantarranas?