Man has it been crazy here the last couple of days. And I should mention before I begin that I’m going on 4 hours of sleep over the last two nights, so if it doesn’t make much sense, sorry. It all started Friday morning (Semana Santa), when I was forced out of bed to start peeling potatoes. From 8-12pm we chopped, peeled, pounded, breaded, fried, and cooked until I wanted to pass out. Then at exactly noon we sat down to a two hour lunch of epic proportions. There were at least 4 potato dishes, but only one was actually tasty. It was a ball of mashed potatoes stuffed with a bunch of crap and a hard boiled egg, then fried. It was heavenly. We also had rice, arroz con leche, chocolate milk, this cake-like bread stuff, soup, fried fish, hunks of straight up cheese, fava beans with butter, mashed zuccini crap, and I don’t even remember what else. So after that there was a good old-fashioned siesta because I couldn’t move. However, soon after that I found myself peeling more potatoes and watching my butch gramma kill, pluck, and de-intestine at least 20 chickens. Why you ask? The next day, Saturday, was my sister’s quinceneta party. Talk about a big deal. They brought in a DJ, a gazillion tables and chairs, and even had a new kitchen made in the backyard to accommodate all the food they were going to be making! So all Friday evening and Saturday morning we were setting up for that and of course cooking, cooking, cooking. Finally at around 4pm on Saturday guests starting arriving and the damned Regaeton (sp?) music started to blast. And blast it did. In fact, it did not stop blasting until 5am. I could feel myself going crazy. The exact same beat, thumping over and over for 13 hours straight will apparently do that to you. I tried to go to bed at midnight, but lucky me, the party was directly outside my window, so I got to hear the world’s worst Bolivian DJ yell God knows what all night long. The only event that broke up the long night a little was when a fellow volunteer got locked out of her house at 2am and had to come sleep on my floor. It was at least a little comforting to know that someone else had to endure the same torturous fate as me.
Ok, so I just went into the backyard to check out the damage and boy can those Bolivians drink!! There are 6 empty bottles of rum and at least 10 cases of beer all strewn about the lawn. And all the uneaten food is covered in flies and stinkiness. I really hope I don’t have to help do the dishes!
So that’s the end of my venting on the last two sleepless nights. It’s Sunday morning, so I’m still a little bitter. All I know is that a nap is definitely in my future. Oh yeah, Happy Easter everyone!! I really hope there’s no Easter celebration here. I’m all partied out for the time being. But I wish you all the best chocolate Easter bunnies and jelly beans!!