The Parade in Arrijan

None of knew what to expect. I heard there were going to be alot of people there , but I had no idea. We marched yesterday with my school´s band and baton twirlers, in their home town. We started at 11.00 and marched for 1.5 hours in the heat fi t for Hades. It was sweltering.After first assembling in a schoolyard amongst i would say 500+ kids practicing and getting ready to go, we had a better idea o what to expect . Everybody was getting dolled up, pu tting on makeup and preparing for the event. Water to drink was always available. Before we knew it we were ready to march. Our band had 30+ students in it, some hi tting the drums, others twirling and some just marching, oh and I cannot forget the girls playing the xylophone.
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We were tagged on at the end as the signature visitors, the Canadians. We did not have a special talent, in fact dressing in red and white is all we had to go on. We were kind of a mon tley crew tagging along in the back , but that was fine, we were all happy to be there.

The st reets were lined with people, as the parade curved through this sleepy little town. Its 20 minutes out side of Panama city and is kinda in the country, dirt roads, farms and mostly lower to middle class people. But a quaint little place nonetheless. As the parade snaked to the middle of town the people on the sides increased. There was not much excitement, mos t people were just quietly watching what was going on, the sounds of the drums and the tings of the xylophones kept everybody moving. Besides there was a whole day of this and a no ther day tomorrow to celebrate, everybody was conserving their energy.

We didn´t really have a sht ick so we held up the rear and clapped, boggied and yelled the occssional yippee. I bet most of them thought we were aMERICANS. pANAMANIAENS do this every year, besides we weren’t making any music and had some pretty inconsistnent form.

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After some waiting around after the marching, I began to get al little restless and began turning it up a no tch. BAM! You know me, always willing to sacrifice my image for a good joke, or what at least made sense to me at the time. So using all the Lat in rhyt hm I could muster I began to put a li ttle shimmy in my shake. I pulled a dance move out of my white-guy repertoire. I called it the –stethescope-. Anyways after getting a little attention with it from the crowds, I was convinced to do it again and again. I attracted the attention of a tent of ravenous women. They egged me on to do it some more and I did, then one of the girls fro m the tent emerged on the scene. Be aware that although there was a lot of ooggling and bootie shaking at the event it was all down played and proper as the marching part was really the reason why everyone was there. So the young girl comes out and I am choking here as I don’t know what the hell to do. She and I share some moves, as all eyes are on me and her, BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE. I pull out the –stethescope- as it is the only thing I know as she has enough and gracefully leaves the premesis.

But the highlight after that was arriving at the adjudication tent, I twas there that we really received the attention I was craving. All eyes were on us as we danced and marched away, and we were acknowledged as visitors as I heard the loudspeaker say,¨ WELCOME CANADIANS. It was quite a moment as it seemed t o go on forever. I remember the people in the tent looking and smiling at us watching us perform and welcoming us wit h their gestures.

The parade soon ended and we ended up in a cemetery to relax and fuel up before leaving. Ray had chicha and hot dogs ready for us.