This past weekend was like an uh-oh-oreo: a day of sinful Carnaval sandwiched by a pure blessing on either side.
On Friday, I went down to La Paz with a few others to visist a Callawaya shaman/priest. We sat crammed together in his bathroom-office (literally, a tile bathroom with an old showerhead and a soap holder converted into an office...the soap holder now holds his pencils, if you were wondering) as he explained the ´secrets´ of his people´s healing. I couldnt stop staring at everything around me. Medicinal herbs, magical amulets, and other shamanistic ingredients were stored in old plastic grocery bags and cleaned-out cosmetic tubes; certainly NOT the holy way I expected to a witch´s kitchen organized! Perhaps the most shocking thing to me was the gold Cristo statue that hung prominately on the back wall. Ive come to learn that there is a major syncritism between Andean cosmovision and Catholicism here, but I still didnt expect Jesus Christ to be so important in the worshiping of someone who believes in ´pachamama´.
The priest explained the properties and symbolism of the iteams he uses for worship and celebration. He also spoke about how to heal certain ailments and problems. So, if anyone ever has chronic headaches and needs the devil taken out of them, I can tell you how. All you need is a rooster and a few hours between midnight and 5am for the bird to be attached to you...
At the end of our time together, the priest performed a special ritual to ask for our good health and fortune. Incense, alcohol, llama fat, silver, and many other ingredients were offered to pachamama and burned in her honor. We were blessed with this smoke, given a crushed-up mix of something to keep for good luck, and drenched in alcohol. It was quite a powerful ceremony, and although it was performed in Ayumara, not Spanish, I could understand the emotion behind it. The priest demanded that we not shower, or even wash our hands, for a full day inorder to preserve the blessing. That didnt bother me; when you havent bathed in a week, whats another few days, you know?
I woke up the next day (unshowered) at 4:30am and boarded a bus to Orurro. Thats right, we went to Orurro for CARNAVAL! Orurro is the Carnaval captial of Bolivia, one of the biggest locations for Carnaval just behind Italy and Brazil. Maybe my expectations were too high, but the experience in Orurro wasnt nearly as crazy as I expected. Still, there was TONS of beer, foam being sprayed everywhere and on everyone, and WWIII occuring with water balloons and waterguns. I wore a rainjacket, rainpants, and a poncho, and I still was soaked with water and foam by the end of the day.
The coolest part of Carnaval was definitely the dancing. It amazes me that there are dancers dancing in the parade 24 hours a day, everyday! (Different dancers, of course, but the dancing never ceases.) The costumes were fantastic, and pretty shocking in the amount of skin they reveal. The masks, too, were pretty incredible. The dances all tell the history of Bolivia, from ancient folklore of the indigenous people, to stories of spanish conquerers, to black slaves in the silver mines. My favorite dance was definitely the Caporallis. I swear, you have never seen men make shoulder-pads and bell-clad boots look so sexy. Trust me. Just look up a video.
So despite our late night in Orurro, I woke up early the next morning to travel an hour and a half across El Alto to attend a Catholic mass. The service was pretty interesting (at least the bit I was able to understand and translate). Like everything in Bolivia, the syncritism of Catholocisim and Andean cosmovision was pretty evident. In the homily, the priest spoke of Pachamama, and announced a Ch´alla (Andean tradition of honoring the earth´s spirits) occuring the following day. In fact, the priest is not only an ordained catholic minister, but he is also an Ayamara priest and devoted follower of the cosmovision. Like the Callawaya priest, he ended the service by giving us a blessing: holy water and flowers sprinkled on our heads.
So did these two very different (yet suprisingly similar) religious blessings cancel out the day of carnal indulgence that was Carnaval? I cant be sure, but I think that they did. At least the day of sin didnt interfere with my good luck while vintage shoe shopping. Later on Sunday afternoon, I visited South America´s biggest black market and found the most amazing pair of used boots painted with Venus de Milo, just in my size.
No comments:
Post a Comment