La Parranda


Sunday night, I lay in bed at 11pm, having a stern talking with my brain, telling it to stop thinking about how great life was and to please let me sleep.  My brain had been refusing to listen for the past hour, and I was a bit frustrated with it.  And then my phone buzzed. 

Normally when a friend asks “what are you doing?” at 11pm on a school night, I would be tempted to reply with “Sleeping. Go away.” or just not replying.  And in fact, my answer Sunday night semi-resembled the former.  However, my friend replied that he was going to parrandear, and asked if I wanted to come along. 

Well…I wasn’t sleeping anyway, and the chance to experience a Puerto Rican cultural event really shouldn’t be passed up. 

Parrandas are sort of a funny tradition.  It’s basically really obnoxious caroling.  You stand outside someone’s house in the middle of the night, and then loudly bang on drums and sing Christmas songs until the residents wake up, let you in, and share their food and drink with you while you keep them awake a while longer singing more songs. 

On our way to Arroyo, my friend gave me a briefing on the drums that would be used.  There’s la bomba, or bass drum—which we didn’t have last night.  Then there are 2 hand drums—like tambourines, but without the jangles around the edges, more or less—the big one leads the rhythm, and the smaller complements it.  The bongos fit in around the cracks, filling out the melody.  My friend showed me the rhythms and how to strike each drum.  After 11 years on the drumline, I probably should have been more excited about trying it out myself.  But I was content just to learn and later watch, assured I wouldn’t have to play anything.   

It was a little after midnight when we pulled up onto a quiet residential street and parked near a few cars that were already waiting.  My friend passed around his drums and introduced la gringa to his high school classmates and their families—and everyone welcomed me with smiles.   Then, the 10 or so of us crept quietly to the front door of a house lit up with Christmas lights, and on the count of three, everyone started singing the traditional “let us in!” song.  I stood back and clapped along to the beat.  After a moment, the lights came on inside, and the residents came out to greet us.  After a few minutes of chatting, we all went inside and found seats in their family room.  Refreshments were brought out, and we spent perhaps an hour and a half singing every parranda song they could think of at the tops of their lungs.  I wish I knew the songs…singing along would have been a lot of fun!  I still enjoyed myself clapping along, though. 

Normally during a parranda, the party goes on, moving from one house to another. Since Sunday night was a school night and we were tired, however, we only went to the one house, then returned home. 
My brain gave me no more trouble about whether it was ready to sleep after that.  Spontaneity definitely does pay off once in a while.  I’m glad I bothered to read that text message!   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cambodia: Reflections and Highlights

Image
I was really excited to visit Cambodia for a few days and hit up Angkor Wat and the other temples in the area.  Cambodia felt like my kind of adventure--and I can’t even really say why.  But I was excited.  I was excited for our hotel there--a full-out boutique hotel (not a hostel), with AC, a swimming pool, breakfast included, and airport pick-up for free--which cost us a scant $20 per night.  And we’d read about a lot of great tours we could take with local guides.  Flying in and flying out, this leg of the trip would be a breeze, and hopefully everything would be as cheap as the hotel.   The Mango Rain Boutique Hotel Our flight to Cambodia was unlike any other I’ve ever been on.  There were only about 20 of us on the flight--which would not have been strange, except it was, because we were on a full-size plane that could have seated 200.  The 20 of us were mostly grouped together towards the back of the plane.  Second impressive t...
Read more

DI Globals 2016: A Tale of Two Teams

Image
For the past 3 years, I have acted as a team manager for Destination Imagination at my school in Guatemala, and each year, my team has earned a trip to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.  This school year, I was blessed to manage the exact same team I had last year—the Aguaguates, the most wonderful group of kids any DI team manager could wish for.  This group, all 7 th graders this year, has everything needed to not only excel at DI, but also make a team manager’s job almost unnecessary.  They have amazing team chemistry, and they understand the importance of teamwork.  They’re crazy creative and hilarious and amazing actors when they get on stage.  They push themselves to improve their performances.  They know what they need to get done for DI, and they create their own practice schedules.  In short, they are a DI dream team, not to mention really, really great people .  This year though, I took one look at the school calendar and deci...
Read more

Yearly Update: The Journey to 30

Image
Over a year has passed since my last “update.”  And the year I was 29, despite the fact that I lived close to home rather than abroad, was anything but boring, so there’s no real reason for the lack of blog posts.   The year I was 29, I survived what may have been my most difficult year of teaching yet.  Many overseas teachers say, “Teaching in the States is so much different than teaching abroad.  You’ll see.  That’s why I went overseas; I’d never go back to teaching in the States.  It’s just...too much.”  Well, they’re not wrong.  I admit, I thought that with five years teaching experience under my belt, my first year in the US, my first year at the high school level, would go rather smoothly.  While in a sense it did (no concerns about the quality of my work from administration or complaints from parents), it was mentally and emotionally very taxing.  Even this year, my 2nd back in the States, I’m still adjusting to and coming t...
Read more