Holly Globos!

If there´s one thing that´s ticked me off about Bolivia it´s this - jugar con agua (water play). Every carnival for about a month kids, teenagers, and young men go nuts with globos (water balloons), squirt guns and buckets of water. It sounds like a lot of fun, and it is if you want to play. But when your freshly showered (which doesn´t happen often... believe me), dressed sort of nice and are minding your own business walking down the street to a party and some brat kid throws a bucket of water over you... it´s not so fun. And this is after they have spit in the bucket (and they have made sure that you have seen them do this) and you tell them your not playing, you don´t have any globos, your going to a party, POR FAVOR NO!!! And did I mention this water is straight from the gutter running in front of the house... which in addition to sewage has been known to contains random animal parts. Oh man was I pissed!! I had to calm myself down and remind myself that they´re just kids and it´s just water (poo water though!). I was threatening to throw my sandal at them, after it fell off from trying to run away, to hopefully distract them getting me. And looking back I probably would have thrown it at them if I had known they were going to get me after all. Humm...am I being culturally insensitive here? Oh yeah... and it´s just lovely when your waiting for the bus and someone in a passing car squirts you in the face or drive by globos you. And they throw freakin´hard too! Some Bolivian kid actually went blind last year from receiving a globo in the eye! I guess I´m bitter because I feel that I´m getting more than my fair share of the globos because I´m this blond gringa. ¨Let´s get the gringa!¨ I´ve heard more than a few times. I wonder if 26 year old Bolivian women have to worry about this crap?

I´m in down town Coch right now. My friend and I decided to brave the globos and check out the big carnival parade ¨Corso de Corsos¨ down town. Actually... I was pretty surprised. The globo situation wasn´t nearly as bad as I imagined. I thought for sure I would be dodging globos from 5,000 Bolivians, but to my surprise I only got a few thrown at me. By a few I mean around 20. But only a few managed to hit me. You know just as soon as I walk out of this Internet cafe I´m going to get slammed...haha...At least it´s not sewage water in the city...err I think!

The whole globo thing if fun I guess for the kids who want to play. But if you don´t want to play it gets really old really fast. Many Bolivian´s don´t like to even come down and watch the parade because of the globo madness. The poor dancers in the parade aren´t even safe! People from the stands (usually teenagers) are assaulting them with globos and espuma (foam). I just saw a well dressed middle aged woman spray foam right in the face of a dancer. What the hell?! And many of the dancers looked more concerned about protecting their faces than actually dancing in the parade. The parade is really great to watch. There are great costumes and dances, but the whole globo thing really distracts you. Your so paranoid the whole time... wondering if the kids looking at you funny across the street are about to launch one at you. And this is definitely my American mentality starting to show.... I´m just not cool with some random person throwing a globo at me. Actually, I get kind of pissed. I´ve had to bite my tongue (well...sometimes it doesn´t work, but luckily I swear in English) more than a few times and refrain from flipping the bird.

Actually, it doesn´t even seem like the Bolivians really enjoy it. It´s not like ¨Ha! You really got me there! Nice one!¨ One guy gets one in the face then looks at the guy who just threw it at him slightly annoyed, but doesn´t say anything then keeps on walking. And the guy who threw the globo gives a little ¨Ha¨ with a satisfied smirk on his face. Even he doesn´t seem like he´s really enjoying himself. What can I say? It´s weird. I obviously don´t get it.