My Trip to the Circus
By Sara
It was a hot, sticky, humid evening on Sunday October 8, 2007. I was invited to go to a circus in my community of Colonia Jerovia. As advised, I showed up at my host mom´s house at 7pm, ready to go with her and her daughter, Cintia. I was super excited. Earlier that day at the horse race, I was informed that the circus would have lions and elephants. There were no animals, but thats besides the point. I´ll start from the beginning.
It´s about an hour walk from the house to where we were going, so on the way my sister and mom started talking about the big fiesta next saturday (tomorrow). I must go, I´m told. I´m getting past my prime and it´s vital that I find a boyfriend and marry. Now! And what better place then a fiesta full of underage boys drinking cerveza and dirty old men groping little girls? ¨It´s a streepehr party Sara. Have you heard of streepehr?¨ My sister asks me. I repeat the word a few times and give my sister a puzzled look. She proceedes to explain to mom and me that the ¨streepehrs´will perform ´el baile del cano.´A dance with a cane? Oh a pole dance?! Streepehr = stripper. ¨Cintia?¨I ask, ¨By streepehr, do you mean the girls who dance and take off their clothes?¨ ¨Exactly!¨ She replies while undulating her hips to demonstrate how the streepehrs dance with the poles. She´s 12 by the way. She went on to explain how they won´t take off all of their clothes, like streepehrs in the cities. Just down to the pretty undies. ¨You have to go!¨She insisted. Her mom urging her on. I told her I´d think about it.
We arrived at the circo around 8. Like usual, all the high school boys were hanging out by their moto´s, sippin 40´s, whistling at the girls (including my new pretend boyfriend. He´s a cowboy. My marlboro man. I have this mental picture of him with his cowboy hate on, chewing a blade of grass, leaning against a fence, arm´s hanging over, one foot perched up on the rung, staring off into the distance, thinking deeply; about me of course. We´ve never actually had a convo, but thats not important. I rode in his ox cart once, and drank his gaseosa spiked with cana. I think that means we are an item.) Anyway, we paid our 5 mil entrada fee. Mom demanded 1 mil from me to buy some chicle. Being the tool that I am, I gave it to her. So as I said before, there were no animals. Paraguayans don´t have the best reputation for treating animals kindly, so it was probably for the better.
Ther evening started with a ponytailed man in a sequin jumpsuit demonstrating his trapeze skills. There was your usual fire eather and tight rope walker. There were also 2 clowns that put on a very raunchy comedy act. It was hilarious and I was proud of myself for understanding the majority of what was said. It was dirty. I thought circuses were for children. I made the mistake of getting up in the middle to go pop a squat behind the circo ´tent.´I got immediately called out by one of the clowns. He said something about being my chair, getting in my pants, and asked what he had to do to be my underwear. I didn´t understand the rest, but my sis said it was dirty and wouldn´t tell me. ¨Eike nde revikuape!¨I yelled (stick it up your ass). I was not about to be degraded by a stupid clown, especially in front of my pretend boyfriend.
There was a magician as well. For the end of his act, he intentionally picked the best looking girl from the audience for a teick. She was able to turn a bandanna into a sheer black thong before you could say ´abracadabra!´ It was truly amazing. The magician then had her put the thong on over her pants and model for the audience. Degrading? Not in Paraguay. At the end of the night, the dirty clowns picked 8 little boys out of the audience. The had the boys drop and do push ups, sommersalts, cartwheels... while the clowns smacked them repeatedly with home made paddles. The audience was rolling on the ground laughing. The poor traumitized children were scared out of their minds.
The show finally ended around 11pm. I was tired as hell and not looking forward to the long walk home. My buzz had worn off from the rum and tang mixture I chugged before leaving my house to prepare myself for the circus and calm my social anxiety. Now, all I wanted to do was climb into my bed and sleep. I made it home around midnigt, and thats exactly what I did. Even though my sheets were still wet from washing them that afternoon because my dog pissed in my bed, I was able to pass out and sleep like a rock.
And thats my trip to the circus in a nutshell.
By Sara
It was a hot, sticky, humid evening on Sunday October 8, 2007. I was invited to go to a circus in my community of Colonia Jerovia. As advised, I showed up at my host mom´s house at 7pm, ready to go with her and her daughter, Cintia. I was super excited. Earlier that day at the horse race, I was informed that the circus would have lions and elephants. There were no animals, but thats besides the point. I´ll start from the beginning.
It´s about an hour walk from the house to where we were going, so on the way my sister and mom started talking about the big fiesta next saturday (tomorrow). I must go, I´m told. I´m getting past my prime and it´s vital that I find a boyfriend and marry. Now! And what better place then a fiesta full of underage boys drinking cerveza and dirty old men groping little girls? ¨It´s a streepehr party Sara. Have you heard of streepehr?¨ My sister asks me. I repeat the word a few times and give my sister a puzzled look. She proceedes to explain to mom and me that the ¨streepehrs´will perform ´el baile del cano.´A dance with a cane? Oh a pole dance?! Streepehr = stripper. ¨Cintia?¨I ask, ¨By streepehr, do you mean the girls who dance and take off their clothes?¨ ¨Exactly!¨ She replies while undulating her hips to demonstrate how the streepehrs dance with the poles. She´s 12 by the way. She went on to explain how they won´t take off all of their clothes, like streepehrs in the cities. Just down to the pretty undies. ¨You have to go!¨She insisted. Her mom urging her on. I told her I´d think about it.
We arrived at the circo around 8. Like usual, all the high school boys were hanging out by their moto´s, sippin 40´s, whistling at the girls (including my new pretend boyfriend. He´s a cowboy. My marlboro man. I have this mental picture of him with his cowboy hate on, chewing a blade of grass, leaning against a fence, arm´s hanging over, one foot perched up on the rung, staring off into the distance, thinking deeply; about me of course. We´ve never actually had a convo, but thats not important. I rode in his ox cart once, and drank his gaseosa spiked with cana. I think that means we are an item.) Anyway, we paid our 5 mil entrada fee. Mom demanded 1 mil from me to buy some chicle. Being the tool that I am, I gave it to her. So as I said before, there were no animals. Paraguayans don´t have the best reputation for treating animals kindly, so it was probably for the better.
Ther evening started with a ponytailed man in a sequin jumpsuit demonstrating his trapeze skills. There was your usual fire eather and tight rope walker. There were also 2 clowns that put on a very raunchy comedy act. It was hilarious and I was proud of myself for understanding the majority of what was said. It was dirty. I thought circuses were for children. I made the mistake of getting up in the middle to go pop a squat behind the circo ´tent.´I got immediately called out by one of the clowns. He said something about being my chair, getting in my pants, and asked what he had to do to be my underwear. I didn´t understand the rest, but my sis said it was dirty and wouldn´t tell me. ¨Eike nde revikuape!¨I yelled (stick it up your ass). I was not about to be degraded by a stupid clown, especially in front of my pretend boyfriend.
There was a magician as well. For the end of his act, he intentionally picked the best looking girl from the audience for a teick. She was able to turn a bandanna into a sheer black thong before you could say ´abracadabra!´ It was truly amazing. The magician then had her put the thong on over her pants and model for the audience. Degrading? Not in Paraguay. At the end of the night, the dirty clowns picked 8 little boys out of the audience. The had the boys drop and do push ups, sommersalts, cartwheels... while the clowns smacked them repeatedly with home made paddles. The audience was rolling on the ground laughing. The poor traumitized children were scared out of their minds.
The show finally ended around 11pm. I was tired as hell and not looking forward to the long walk home. My buzz had worn off from the rum and tang mixture I chugged before leaving my house to prepare myself for the circus and calm my social anxiety. Now, all I wanted to do was climb into my bed and sleep. I made it home around midnigt, and thats exactly what I did. Even though my sheets were still wet from washing them that afternoon because my dog pissed in my bed, I was able to pass out and sleep like a rock.
And thats my trip to the circus in a nutshell.
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