Primera Feria de Integración

Friday, I went to the Primera Feria de Integración (the first annual fair featuring services, crafts, and micro-enterprises) in Ibarra. It was in Parque Boulevar, the place where I thought Fanny was going to kill me on our "little walk in the park," for those of you who read my previous blog. In the past, the park was an airport, but it was converted into a park because it wasn't used much. I had expected the feria to be something sort of like Crook Farm at home, but this was very different. They had food, plants, clothes, jewelry, shoes crafts, even cleaning services, a stand selling water purifiers, and a sound stage.

And somehow, there were Jehovah's Witnesses just down from us.

Here is Cristina with her cards, and right next to us was a stand with handmade stuffed animals, paintings, and magnets.

 And mom, they even had Tupperware!

It was certainly an adventure in disorganization! When we arrived, we had to stand in a crazy long line to get a plank and a set of saw horses you had to carry yourself to your space. Too bad no one knew where we were supposed to go; we ended up moving 3 times before we finally found the right spot! An elusive official had a map with numbered slots, but none of the nice white tents in pretty rows had numbers on them until around noon, after everyone had already found their spots.

Then came the line for chairs and tablecloths (while some folks were still waiting around for "tables," but we later found out they'd run out). I waited in like for Cristina, since her foot was bothering her. So, there I stood for an hour, frying in the sun, without moving. Literally, the line didn't move. We stood there in plain view of chairs and tablecloths, but with no one to hand them out. It crossed my mind more than once to just take them and walk off, but I thought that probably wasn't proper etiquette and I didn't want to be the ugly American who disregards rules. The officials finally showed up, and all hell broke loose! People started shouting about having waited so long and the lack of organization and information. At one point, people were chanting: "¡Quiero los manteles!" ["We want our tablecloths!"] Three officials had completely different approaches, so we finally gave up when we realized we weren't getting anything. Cristina's friend Monica knows the organizer, and eventually wrangled up some chairs for us, but tablecloths never arrived.

The lack of organization was certainly frustrating for the vendors, but I was able to shrug it off more easily. Not my circus, not my monkeys. I think a lot of the problems can be explained by the fact that this is the first time they're holding such an event, and they're still working out the kinks. Still, it was a fun day to sit back, watch, and talk to people around me (and get caught up on some of my journaling). I also enjoyed walking around the park. A lot of the cities here have these big statues of people that represent the city (in Otavalo, it's a group of Otavalans dancing; I'm not sure why it's a mom with two kids in Ibarra).

They also have attractions like this to encourage tourism, and for some reason, a beautiful mural (below).

There was a jumbo-tron kind of screen in the park that played music videos and movies (Angry Birds and one of the 17,000 Fast & Furiouses). I heard Ricky Martin (y'all, he's back! But apparently only in Latin America, singing in Spanish), Shakira, Enrique Iglesia, Marc Anthony, and "Despacito" -- sometimes the same song multiple times. That means I officially hear all of the Latino musicians I can name. Bonus: they played "MMMbop" for some mysterious reason! Seriously, I'll take "MMMBop" over "Despacito" any day!