Week Four: Why Carnaval Made Me Violent

I’m not proud of myself. Ok, maybe a little.

See, right now we’re in Carnaval in Ecuador. It’s like Mardi Gras, but rather than having huge sin parties in New Orleans and flashing people for beads, here in Ecuador people try to get you wet. Water guns, water balloons, buckets of water...whatever. And you know, Quito is cold.

So, one day I’m walking with Bre down to catch the bus, and some guys throw literally like four buckets of freezing cold water on us from a rooftop. Not amused, I just kept walking as if nothing had happened, since I figured that most of why they do it is probably just to get a reaction. Very third grade in my opinion. In spite of the fact that they got a bunch of my books wet, I did my very best not to get mad.

Well, a few days pass and Bre and I go to the store to buy potatoes. I was already in a bad mood because Jairo and I had had a disagreement, and I also didn’t feel good. We walked by a mormon temple on our way and saw them playing with buckets of water and eyeing us suspiciously. On our way back, they start to approach with the buckets of water. I was not in the mood. I asked them not to get us wet (Bre had already run away...chicken.) and appealed to their sense of morals as they were coming from a temple. They obviously felt bad and explained it was just a game, but I said I didn’t care, we’re from the US and we don’t do that. So, situation diffused, they weren’t going to get me wet. (See, part of what I do here is diplomacy.)

Well, this is how diplomacy breaks down. One boy, who had not heard the conversation, came running up with the bucket to get me wet. I took this as a personal attack on my safety and before he could get me wet, threw the bucket back in his face, got him wet, and then chased him all the way back to his temple. He ran like a little girl, and honestly looked terrified. It was kind of awesome.
It was the first time in my life that I have ever actually attacked a person. Although in all fairness I wasn’t going to hurt him. The most ironic part is that the day before in our Compassion International group, I had taught our students about the difference between righteous and unrighteous anger. Bre and I agreed that my anger in this case was righteous!! I reasoned that if Elisha can send bears on a group of kids that call him “baldy”, I can chase a kid who tries to make me catch a cold in Quito.

What do you think? :)