Continuing with my daughter’s posts
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Día de Arequipa (part one)
Welcome to part four (actually 4.1) of the Andes series. This is a continuation of some homesick writings I did a couple years back. Part three is Ciudad Blanca. It can be read independently, but I suggest following the series as it was written. Because this chapter was so long, I am dividing it up into two segments.
The hustle and bustle of the crowd around you only serves to pique your interest more. Obviously there is something of interest going on today. The city is decked out in its finest colors and everyone is out in the streets. All week long there has been a tension in the air, as if the whole city were building up to something important. The little shops have been selling firecrackers and all sorts of festive wares for the past month. Today you woke up early with anticipation and feeling the excitement that runs along the air. The city has been awake for a while already today, even though it is only 9:30am. In the chaotic patchwork of images around you, your mind picks out a few to store away as memories to be pulled out at a later date.
On the corner a child of indeterminate age, somewhere between seven and twelve, carries a little box that hangs around her neck by a leather strap. In the box, probably two feet long by one foot, and 6 inches deep, the child carries a wide variety of cheap candy, gum, and cigarettes. At first all you see is someone selling candy, then it registers… this is a child. She has flip flops on her calloused feet, both her and her clothes look like they haven’t been washed in quite some time, if ever. At first you didn’t realize because she doesn’t act like a child. This little girl can already count out change for her customers, she hawks her wares like a pro, and has a little boy of probably three or four tagging along behind her. Her eyes tell you that she is a twenty or thirty year old stuck in a child’s body. This little lady has grown up quite beyond what your little sister could expect to be when she is twice that age. Never having been to school, and never expecting to, this girl already is one of the primary breadwinners of the household and guardian of the younger children. In a daze you feel her putting your change back into your hand and then she is moving off to sell more of her wares.
Something brushes past your knee level and you look down to see a mangy dog weaving in and out between the people. Have you noticed all the stray dogs in the city? They eat where they can, and usually run from people and crowds. No one really cares about them, nor is anyone really scared of them. Is there a pound? Most assuredly there is, but it is already full and has no time to worry about all the rejected animals on the streets. Today most strays are not out because of all the people who are out en mass.
As your eyes absentmindedly follow the mutt, you notice that the buses are having quite a time trying to get through the people on the small streets like this one. Their usual kamikaze style of drving has become worse at this point from having to deal with the crowds. You wonder how it is that no one has been run over yet, or why the bus drivers have not bust some internal organ from all the outrage that they seem to be suffering from. Taxis also are in the same predicament, but being smaller, it is easier to weave in between the people and potholes found scattered throughout the streets.
Somewhere ahead you hear some strains of music and you notice that the crowds are getting thicker. It sounds like a band is practicing. No… two bands now. Marching bands, by the sounds of all the instruments. Rounding the corner there they are. But there are more than two. Row upon row of dancers and dressed up cars in between them. What is all this? Have you no clue? I’ll tell you then… this is Día de Arequipa… the most celebrated day of the year here in the city of Arequipa. August 15th, the day this city was founded on, this is a day to show pride and joy at being Arequipeño. For such as we, who were not privileged to be Arequipans by birth and yet still feel a tie to this fantastic city, we are allowed to be Arequipeños de corazón… in heart and spirit. Settle back, enjoy the festivities, the day proposes to be outstanding.
..Get ready for part 4.2 tomorrow! …
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