Saturday, October 16, 2010
Beauty Pageants and HIV Education. Why not?
Most people, when they hear Celine Dion belting about how the heart must go on, conjure up their favorite scene from Titanic. Mine used to be the moment that what’s-her-name told Leo “Ill never let go” and then pushes his frozen body off her raft. Now though an altogether different and perhaps better image comes to mind. That is one of two 15 year olds walking in their best outfits (picture: black turtleneck (wait, a turtleneck in Nicaragua?), white pants and an oversized dinner jacket. Add: lb of hair gel and cologne to match. And for the girl: red sequenced dress with slit and all. Add: red rose) across the “stage” at the pace of the song…so they were essentially crawling. But every step they took was about as dramatic as the song. Why were these poor kids subjected to something we would find humiliating in the States? The answer: they are awesome and I gave them the full 10 points. Mostly because of the dramatic red rose give away at the end.
As you might have guessed I was a special guest judge at the beauty pageant that Jill had at her site. And this wasn’t just some run-of-the-mill pageant that happens impromptu here in Nica. This was the grand finale of all pageants, the big one. I traveled to Jills site (Sabalos, beautiful) and was lucky to take part in one of the funniest moments I’ve had here in Nicaragua. It started with a day of sex ed, hosted by Jill and myself, and ended in a huge fiesta. What was in between though was certainly the most interesting of all. Sabalos showed up for a fiesta and what they got instead was a beauty pageant. This pageant was special because it was an HIV/AIDS pageant and included in the festivities were: a long, and very graphic charla on common STD’s- yes there were pictures, and children present; a casual wear competition- think tube tops and wife beaters; the formal wear competition I described above; a cultural number- some were super inappropriate and involved dancing reggaeton like maniacs. My favorite was this cute folklore number where there was a mermaid and a captain; and of course the question answer part, specifically about how much of the charla the participants had retained.
Being a judge was great and it was hilarious to compare my scores to that of the other judges. More than once when I gave a 9 to a certain couple my neighbor gave a 4. I judged the competition on how hard I laughed whereas the other judges probably took the pageant just as seriously as the participants and judged them as such.
One follow up note. My favorite couple, and the clear loser of the group, was a mismatched couple. The girl was much taller than the boy which made dancing reggaeton interesting and awkward. She was also clearly the boss of the group, and thus spent most of the time on stage yelling at her counterpart, who seemed to not care or hear what she was saying. At some point, I think during the casual wear portion, she was yelling at him (on stage) for wearing his baseball hat and he just turned and walked off the stage. They did not receive any 9’s from me that night.
As you might have guessed I was a special guest judge at the beauty pageant that Jill had at her site. And this wasn’t just some run-of-the-mill pageant that happens impromptu here in Nica. This was the grand finale of all pageants, the big one. I traveled to Jills site (Sabalos, beautiful) and was lucky to take part in one of the funniest moments I’ve had here in Nicaragua. It started with a day of sex ed, hosted by Jill and myself, and ended in a huge fiesta. What was in between though was certainly the most interesting of all. Sabalos showed up for a fiesta and what they got instead was a beauty pageant. This pageant was special because it was an HIV/AIDS pageant and included in the festivities were: a long, and very graphic charla on common STD’s- yes there were pictures, and children present; a casual wear competition- think tube tops and wife beaters; the formal wear competition I described above; a cultural number- some were super inappropriate and involved dancing reggaeton like maniacs. My favorite was this cute folklore number where there was a mermaid and a captain; and of course the question answer part, specifically about how much of the charla the participants had retained.
Being a judge was great and it was hilarious to compare my scores to that of the other judges. More than once when I gave a 9 to a certain couple my neighbor gave a 4. I judged the competition on how hard I laughed whereas the other judges probably took the pageant just as seriously as the participants and judged them as such.
One follow up note. My favorite couple, and the clear loser of the group, was a mismatched couple. The girl was much taller than the boy which made dancing reggaeton interesting and awkward. She was also clearly the boss of the group, and thus spent most of the time on stage yelling at her counterpart, who seemed to not care or hear what she was saying. At some point, I think during the casual wear portion, she was yelling at him (on stage) for wearing his baseball hat and he just turned and walked off the stage. They did not receive any 9’s from me that night.
Better late than never
I know I haven’t updated my blog in awhile and I apologize for that, mostly to my mom, who has spent a lot of her time over the past couple of months reminding me. The truth of the matter is that for awhile life had gotten into a fairly normal routine and writing about it just didn’t have the same sex appeal. But, looking back on the last 2 months there has been no routine and my life is anything but boring. Mostly what people should know is that the Peace Corps is just…hard. Sometimes its great and sometimes all I want to do is scream and possibly break something expensive (speaking of which, the Japanese have a store specifically for this task alone). Things in general are good, but let’s be serious; the Peace Corps is still the Peace Corps which by default means it’s difficult.
I miss the good ol’ USA, a lot (who knew I was so patriotic?) But to be perfectly selfish, it will be better when summer is over. My friends are just having too much fun going to concerts, the beach, the farmhouse etc., and I miss getting in a car and driving to a new destination for the weekend (let alone with people who can speak my language and get my humor). But, it’s not as though I am not doing anything and I certainly have all of the heat of summer here in Nica. On the contrary, if I am not hanging out in my incredibly beautiful site I am traveling throughout Nicaragua, sometimes for work and sometimes for play. Its true its not home, but that’s ok because when else in my life will I get on a boat on the Rio San Juan and go crocodile hunting, dance in the streets of Granada alongside dancing horses or swim in a volcanic crater lake.
A special shout out:
I was lucky enough to translate for a group of 15 Americans (North America) who came to Sabalos for an eye care brigade. We spent a week living in Sabalos, a town down river 2 hours from San Carlos, and traveling into the communities giving eye glasses to the majority of the people and setting up surgeries for the severe cases. The work was routine but the experience was truly refreshing. The group that came was generous and loving and took such good care of us. It was ridiculously fun although we were working long, hot days. We danced to Lady Gaga, to the displeasure of the teenage boys in the group, got stuck in the mud, caught in the rain and spent the nights relaxing in the hammocks talking about good wine, cheese and Thai food- the things we miss most in Nica. Thankfully they will be coming back in a year to repeat their good deeds and I will get to spend another week with this incredible group of people!
Updates to come include: My parents visit (!!!), our fiestas and that time that Ortega didn’t come to San Carlos. Be patient. I swear its coming!
I miss the good ol’ USA, a lot (who knew I was so patriotic?) But to be perfectly selfish, it will be better when summer is over. My friends are just having too much fun going to concerts, the beach, the farmhouse etc., and I miss getting in a car and driving to a new destination for the weekend (let alone with people who can speak my language and get my humor). But, it’s not as though I am not doing anything and I certainly have all of the heat of summer here in Nica. On the contrary, if I am not hanging out in my incredibly beautiful site I am traveling throughout Nicaragua, sometimes for work and sometimes for play. Its true its not home, but that’s ok because when else in my life will I get on a boat on the Rio San Juan and go crocodile hunting, dance in the streets of Granada alongside dancing horses or swim in a volcanic crater lake.
A special shout out:
I was lucky enough to translate for a group of 15 Americans (North America) who came to Sabalos for an eye care brigade. We spent a week living in Sabalos, a town down river 2 hours from San Carlos, and traveling into the communities giving eye glasses to the majority of the people and setting up surgeries for the severe cases. The work was routine but the experience was truly refreshing. The group that came was generous and loving and took such good care of us. It was ridiculously fun although we were working long, hot days. We danced to Lady Gaga, to the displeasure of the teenage boys in the group, got stuck in the mud, caught in the rain and spent the nights relaxing in the hammocks talking about good wine, cheese and Thai food- the things we miss most in Nica. Thankfully they will be coming back in a year to repeat their good deeds and I will get to spend another week with this incredible group of people!
Updates to come include: My parents visit (!!!), our fiestas and that time that Ortega didn’t come to San Carlos. Be patient. I swear its coming!
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