Bautizo!

So it’s possible that some of you are tired of my never ending “Ecua-talk.” I have made a bit of a habit of turning every word into something Ecua…I can’t help it, I think it’s kind of Hilarious.

Of all of the Ecua things I have experienced so far, what I saw yesterday may in some ways top them all. Not because it was so out of control that it could never happen under any other circumstances…but more because it happened at SCHOOL.

Yesterday was an event that took place during class time (my charter school friends are probably picking their chins up off the ground in disbelief…WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT???), a tradition that they have just recently brought back called…The Bautizo. Now, this word in Spanish can be translated to literally mean Baptism. But what it really was folks? A School Sanctioned, Student Council run, Principal approved, Freshman Hazing activity. Since I teach both Freshman and Seniors, I got to attend…stealthily avoiding any mud, flour and egg covered child that came within 10 feet of me in order to try to take as many pictures as I could of this ridiculous show. There were stations set up that appeared to have no greater purpose than getting people as dirty as humanly possible within the span of 30 seconds. Mud tunnels, Pies getting smashed in faces, eggs being cracked on heads, bags of flour dumped everywhere. Then…the culmination of all of these shenanigans, the last and final “station,” was something that gave me vivid flashbacks of summers in my childhood. It was a GIANT “slide” that resembled a little too closely the yellow (never quite long enough) slip and slides that would always inevitably get you a serious case of ground rash and grass stain on your face when you flew off the end. THIS particular slide however had multiple hoses, pounds of mud, and a crowd of seniors lined up and down the hill waiting to throw whatever they could get their hands on all over the poor souls that actually volunteered to partake.

In all honestly, it definitely wasn’t the mean spirited, anxiety ridden “Freshman Day” of my (somewhat distant) memories but more of an afternoon where the Seniors and Freshman got to hang out, and well….roll around in and throw mud and flour and eggs (not to mention bowls of Aji which is a spicy Ecuadorian sauce) at each other, while simultaneously eating disgusting combinations—the likes of which I had no interest in finding out. The seniors did seem be having just as much fun being covered in slop as the 9^th graders did… It seemed like kind of a mix between a Senior Buddy thing and Fear Factor.

When asked multiple times by multiple students if I would be joining in the chaos, I could only answer, that one “freshman” day was enough for me thanks. Even if it is an Ecua-tradition. :)