In this country, often challenged by forward planning, getting ready for the November holidays seems to be a notable exception. In the land where just about everything is delayed, holidays never are - they always happen on time. Panamanians are deadly serious when it comes to getting ready for a big noisy party.
Every morning the streets are blocked by the practicing marching bands. There are drums and xylophones in taxis, sitting at the super market checkouts and waiting at bus stops. There are young men practicing bugle calls when you least expect to hear them, mostly on evenings and weekends. Unfamiliar with these customs and in the sleepy early mornings or late at night, I have found myself for a split second thinking there was a fox hunt nearby or civil war re-inactment in town. In fact it was little Johnny (Juanito) up the street practicing.
We are not exempt. We have being doing a bit of practicing all of our own. In our case it is all about the hair arrangements. Unlike everyone else in this town we don't know how to put in the hair ornaments which consist of 28 pearl ornaments and three gold combs. One of Beatrice's school friends aunt makes them and today she came to vist and we got our brand new set. Big thank you to Tia Lourdes, we are very happy with our new look.
They are made to symbolize different animals such as turkeys, butterflies, scorpions and any number of different types of flowers. There is a technique and an order to it, Tia Lourdes has even made a video to explain the process. You start with the combs and stack the rest in from there, use an awful lot of hair spray and plenty of bobby pins.
We will be ready, yes we will.
Every morning the streets are blocked by the practicing marching bands. There are drums and xylophones in taxis, sitting at the super market checkouts and waiting at bus stops. There are young men practicing bugle calls when you least expect to hear them, mostly on evenings and weekends. Unfamiliar with these customs and in the sleepy early mornings or late at night, I have found myself for a split second thinking there was a fox hunt nearby or civil war re-inactment in town. In fact it was little Johnny (Juanito) up the street practicing.
We are not exempt. We have being doing a bit of practicing all of our own. In our case it is all about the hair arrangements. Unlike everyone else in this town we don't know how to put in the hair ornaments which consist of 28 pearl ornaments and three gold combs. One of Beatrice's school friends aunt makes them and today she came to vist and we got our brand new set. Big thank you to Tia Lourdes, we are very happy with our new look.
They are made to symbolize different animals such as turkeys, butterflies, scorpions and any number of different types of flowers. There is a technique and an order to it, Tia Lourdes has even made a video to explain the process. You start with the combs and stack the rest in from there, use an awful lot of hair spray and plenty of bobby pins.
We will be ready, yes we will.
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