Viva el Capitán!

This morning if you had told me that instead of a normal co-teaching and co-planning day at my high school I would be dancing on an Ecuadorian military base I would have thought you were crazy. I had already made plans with my teachers and planned to have a meeting in the afternoon with the English Area.

At 7 this morning a teacher called me frantically and directed me to get my "Mama Negra" military uniform and get to school as soon as possible. The avid reader of this blog, mom, will remember that "La Mama Negra" is the annual festival in Latacunga held in November. I was invited to take part in the parade last year and had a uniform made to fit my Gringo-sized body. I remembered the men saying that we should keep our uniforms handy throughout the next year in case we were asked to represent the high school at some city wide function. Apparently the authorities got the call this morning, cancelled school and assembled the ranks.

I was lucky enough to be one of the 12 selected by the authorities to march/dance at the military base outside of Latacunga today. I hurriedly packed my uniform and rushed to school. There we rehearsed the march that we had done for the parade. For the parade in November we practiced for almost 3 months beforehand. Today we practiced for less than half an hour. I was a little rusty but soon got back into the swing of things.

Chiva time!

We then loaded ourselves into the "Chiva" and drove the 20 minutes to the military base. When we arrived we were told why we had been asked to come. The women of the Ecuadorian military were at the base. There were about 150 women that were in the military and maybe 50 wives of the upper echelon of the Ecuadorian military. The women were taking a tour of the base and we were there special surprise at the end. We marched in with the military band and did a few laps around the gym where the women had ended their tour. Then we went into our dance routine. Soon our ranks broke and the women mobbed us with cameras. Not to be too modest, but the women really liked the Gringo in uniform.

Can you spot the Gringo?

After half an hour of photos and dancing we loaded back up into the open-air party-mobile and headed back to campus. The women of the school awaited us at the gate and rushed us into the school and told us all to get changed ASAP. Unbeknownst to me, the authorities didn't get permission to leave the school from the district. Our whereabouts had been found out and someone had made a police report that all the authorities had left the school and were dancing at the base. Apparently driving through the center of town wearing gaudy uniforms and shouting  is not the sneakiest way to get from one place to another.



Things blew over quickly once someone from the district arrived and observed that we were all in the school where we were supposed to be. Appearance is everything. The case was also made to the district that even if we weeerrrreee at the base, we were just being patriotic.

I think she is probably in Recruiting

It seems like every time I get into a routine and start to think I know what is going on here south of the equator something  like this happens to put me back into my blissfully ignorant place. And you know what, I wouldn't like it any other way.