"Con Madres" - Woman's Day!!!

We recently had "Con Madres" in Potosi, a day celebrating women! (Not to be confused with Mother’s Day, which is on the same day every year in Bolivia on May 27th - my birthday!)

The festivities specific to Con Madres were a bit blurred by a couple things. First, Potosi’s home team had a "futbol" match again Brazil’s ‘best’ team the night before. Potosi Real tied 2-2 (which, although there was disappointment at not winning, there were celebrations nonetheless for not giving away the victory). As a result, there was much fan fare in the streets that seemed to carry over to the next day. Additionally, with the 4 day "Carnaval" commencing 2 days later, there were arguably a lot of people "practicing" for the upcoming celebrations and street parades.

However…

Walking down the street first thing in the morning, the ground in front of all the doorways where women work or live were decorated with scattered flower petals. This is something that the men in their lives are suppose to do, in honor of them. (Nice!)

The areas that typically have women selling fruit on the sides of the streets were replaced by woman selling flower petals:


Then, during the day, men are suppose to buy women extra treats. In my office, us women had a "morning tea" with Bolivian goodies. This was great, since I had run out of oats for breakfast that morning, and was a bit hungry!

However, running out of things for breakfast yesterday ended up being a good thing, since as a result, I headed off mid-day to buy a few groceries. Unknowingly, I put myself in a position to experience "Con Madres" in the markets! Regularly, the markets are almost exclusively women. So, on a day like "Con Madres", the markets ended up being one big party – literally!

I was in the market for 30 seconds when the lady, who I refer to as my "market mom" and normally gives me a candy with my change, saw me and immediately poured me a shot of whiskey.

It’s 11 o’clock in the morning.

From there, wandering through the market to get what I needed, I noticed all the little stalls had trays of shots of various liquids (presumably different forms of alcohol) sitting beside their goods. But – only for the women! After all, it’s Con Madres!

And, as much of a maze the narrow paths in the market are, I was astounded when I came head to head with a marching band weaving their way through the stalls. That was just the start, as the rest of the day was punctuated with random marching bands making their way down the street outside my office.

Even though it was a Thursday, as is every "Con Madres", the festivities grew once night fell. I met up with a couple local friends and headed out to a "discoteca". The patrons at the club weren’t just women – perhaps only 70% were. However, there were "Serpentines" (Bolivian paper streamers meant for ‘good luck’), hanging from the walls and balloons decorating the place in honour of "Con Madres".

Additionally, there was a stage built up in the middle of the dance floor that hadn’t been there the last time I was there. I found out at about midnight why it was there… for the strippers of course! Now, these "strippers" might not be what you would think. When they first came out, I thought they were just part of the crowd – they were fully dressed, with an additional feature of wearing a mask. This wasn’t too uncommon, due to the Carnaval outfits people were already sporting.

But, from the point that they took to the stage and the DJ on the microphone started rallying the crowd, I’m not sure if I was smiling more because I had FUN or if it was because it was FUNNY!

Between their dancing on stage, they gradually (through several appearances) stripped down to the underwear. Watching the crowd, about half the woman were cheering the one. However, the other half were red faced and looking away.

This proved to be entertainment for the strippers. They would come off the stage and dance amongst the woman. Here’s a picture of one of them coming after me...


And after me, going after my friend Evelin (from the redness of her face, you can tell she's one of the ones turning away from the strippers!):


Any overly shy woman would then be dragged up on stage to their horror. The woman in this picture just stood there like a statue after being hauled up on the stage, with her hand over her mouth:



Now, as the only white person in the club, I had a little attention myself, which I am somewhat used to. However, as the night continues on and the alcohol is continuing to be poured, the random guys blowing kisses at me or asking for dances changes to be a little more "pursuing"…

While many men have professed their love to me over the last few months, there was one this night that took the cake. After talking and dancing for half an hour, he "loved" me and wanted everyone to know about it:

Point #1: He felt compelled to hold my hand. When I tried to extricate myself from his grasp, he just held on harder. In fact, when I did get my hand back, I ended up pulling him over in his chair!!!

Point #2: No words necessary for this picture…


Point #3: Even sleeping in his chair, he was able to have a death grip on my hand!


My girlfriends and I made an exit from the club when he was off in the washroom…

I can honestly say that I’ve never had an experience quite like that day… from the market to the night out. And despite the men that don’t understand "I have a boyfriend and am not interested in anything other than being your friend", I think Canada would do well to include such a day in their calendar of annual festivities.