Happy Carnaval...

Carnaval! What a weird celebration!

From what I understand, Carnaval is a celebration that begins the weekend before Ash Wednesday. The celebration is used to celebrate and party and divulge in whatever you want before Ash Wednesday when lent begins. Lent is when Catholics give something up for 40 days. So, they use Carnaval to eat, drink, and whatever you can think of to divulge in before you give it up for the next 40 days. I'm sure there is more to the celebration but that's what I understood about it! 

Brazil is known for the crazy Carnaval party but other South America countries will also celebrate. In the past, Cuenca was known to have quite the dangerous Carnaval experience. The main focus for Carnaval is a huge water fight. People throw water balloons, use water guns, buckets of water, anything water and it's just a huge water fight. Story is, Cuencans use to throw frozen water balloons, flour, and eggs at people in town. If your window is down in a taxi, you're getting wet. Because of these dangerous stories, OSSO was not allowed into town during the time of Carnaval. Along with water, this foam stuff called Careoke (it's like silly string but foam) is also used. Seems like a fun celebration to me!

We had our own Carnaval celebration at the orphanage with the children. It was a blast! We had tie-died shirts the day before and made flower headbands for all the children. Our celebration started out with the Careoke which was fun. The stuff actually smelled pretty good! Once the foam was out, we started on the water balloons. Only Alegria, Martin, Christian, and Nancy got in on the fun. Rest of the children we couldn't get wet. Cristian usually just holds on to water balloons and plays with it by himself, but not today! He was full force throwing water balloons! I'm pretty sure I won't be able to breastfeed out of my right boob due to his water balloon! Nancy was laughing the whole time and Martin was shivering but still in the game! Dome and Jhon were hilarious! They were all about getting everyone wet. After the balloons ran out, in came the hoses and buckets! Everyone was drenched! We calmed down for a minute and then Marcia started it all up again. Marcia was after everyone and then Veronica (the physical therapist). It was a lot of fun! By the end of the day Maribel was in on it too. It was a blast not only playing with the children but then to have the workers join in the fun! 

Oh, Jorge even got into it. Jorge was pretending to pour buckets of water on Christian and hold the hose getting everyone wet. Then Katie would pour FREEZING cold water on Jorge and he would just laugh! I was freezing and wanted out but someone had to keep Jorge standing upright. He was so funny to watch! Just smile and laugh as I was freezing! I'm so happy everyone enjoyed their time and had a great Carnaval!!!

Drenched head to toe

Even my pants grew a few extra feet!

 

 

The Aftermath

On Tuesday we went out to dinner for Amy's 19th Birthday and on our way walking to the pizza place, I was hit with a water balloon! I have no idea where it came from, just that I was all of a sudden wet! Kate said it was a water balloon coming from a car. I was Carnavaled by a drive by water balloon! Awesome! 

Happy Carnaval!!