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This is my burn a couple days after it happened, here is the story, because I´m disorganized and never posted it.
San Juan festival is one crazy festival that would never be allowed in the United States. I went to my barrio’s celebration, just two blocks up from my house in the middle of the street. They had set up a big pole in the middle of the cobble-stoned road for one of the crazy games. For about 2 hours they were playing the game, Pelota tata, where they kick around a ball on fire until it burns out. The neighbor was making the pelotas in their yard and throwing it over the fence into the crowd. At one point, I was getting sick of the game because they had the fake bull of fire and two or three pelotas out all at the same time and I was turning to go get some dinner when something hit me on my shoulder and I brushed it off with my hand. Turns out it was a ball of fire that burned through my jacket and my hand. I feel pretty lucky it didn’t burn my face or my hair because I had my hair down and it hit my jacket right at the top of my neck. It also burned my purse because it was on that shoulder. San Juan was definitely the scariest and weirdest experience I´ve had in Paraguay so far. Another weird part of the celebration is that a lot of guys dress up as women and put bags over their heads. I´m not sure how this tradition started, but the only purpose they seem to serve to go around annoying people and asking for money for alcohol.
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Next week we will be going on long field, where we visit a volunteer for an entire week. I am excited to get out of my town and see another part of the country :)
ciao for now.
p.s. I posted two of my friends blogs on the side menu, if you want to see the same experience from another perspective. (shola and mark´s blogs)