Water fights

A few days ago, five days before carnaval, we sat in the plaza near our house and watched as six kids, age 12 and under, three avid dads and a mom showed up with water guns, the big kind about a foot long. They sprayed each other with the water guns for awhile, refilling in the big fountain pool in the center of the plaza. Soon it became evident that superior weapons were needed, and one of the dads picked up a plastic bucket, filled it with water from the fountain, and dumped it over the head of one of the kids. Then everyone used buckets to throw huge quantities of water on each other.

In a separate family, a 7-year-old girl was armed with a raincoat and a backpack water gun. The tank was strapped to her back, connected by a hose to the gun. She was squirting her grandma and her aunts, who didn´t seem to like it very much. The girl in the rain jacket started watching the family with the three dads and squirting water in their direction, although she was too far away. One of the dads noticed that she wanted to play, and dumped a bucket of water squarely over her head. The girl loved it but her grandma rushed her out of the park.

Then four big boys, around 18 years old, showed up with water balloons. The big boys started filling their balloons in the fountain as the six kids of the family with the three dads circled around the fountain toward them. All at once, the six kids hurled water from their buckets over the big boys, who quickly noticed the inferiority of their weapons and exited the park.

Soon, three more big boys showed up with water guns and some kind of foamy spray and covered the six kids with white foam. The kids chased thes big boys out of the park too, and then dumped water over their own heads to wash off the foam.

What fun my dad and brother and I would have had fun playing this game!

I like the water fight in the park, because it´s only between the people who choose to play. We sat on a bench the whole time and nobody bothered us.

Elsewhere around town, the streets and balconies are lined with boys with balloons. It´s summer here, and noone is in school. On some streets, the targets are pedestrians who walk by. In particular, the balloon throwers try to hit anyone who is female. On other streets it seems more like organized warfare between groups of boys hiding behind cars. The balloon sellers provide ammo to both sides.

Our street turned into part of the war zone. Three girls across the street from our house like to hide behind their tall fence and jump out to throw balloons at anyone who walks by. Sometimes they just throw the balloons over their fence, and their aim is very bad. They are in a war with our neighbors to the right, who play the same way. Some young adult men take aim from their balcony in the same house. Our house mate Miranda got drenched. I managed to avoid it by looking directly at all of the balloon throwers as I walk by, as they seem to prefer to strike when one is off guard.

The next day we went to the plaza again, but all was quiet. An indigenous woman washed her clothes in the fountain and dried them on the fence while a man took a sponge bath without a sponge. There were firecrackers everywhere. Only four more days to carnaval in Cochabamba!

The next day was Tuesday before carnaval, and everyone had the day off work. It was a hot sunny day. I left the house several times and each time I saw the girls across the street watching me. I decided that Gary and I had better get in on the water action, because who knows when we´ll have another chance. So I bought a few packs of balloons. The girls across the street watched me as I left for the corner store, and they were waiting for me with buckets on my way back. I threatened to throw eggs at them, but I guess they didn´t take me seriously and they drenched me. (But it feels good on a hot day!) I went in the house, where my co-worker Fatima tricked me into going into the back yard, where she sprayed me with the hose. From then, the fight was on.

Our house mates were preparing a pancake meal with delicious toppings, a British tradition for Shrove Tuesday. Several volunteers and students from our program also came over to share in the meal, and we all started filling water balloons. Soon, our whole neighborhood was in a huge water fight that lasted all afternoon and got most of us drenched from head to toe. We used balloons, buckets, a hose, and water guns. It was great fun! I took a few pictures, which are on our flickr site.

Carnaval was just a few days later, but I´ll save that for another blog entry!