The Greatest Show in Balfate

Last week, Josh came home one evening and said, "Hey, did you see the circus unloading?" I had walked home for a neighbor's house an hour earlier and seen no sign of such activities, but, sure enough, about 50 feet outside our gate, The Circus had in fact arrived and started to set up shop. The first thing they did was splice into the power line running overhead to electrify their operation. Then they set up their living quarter tents, complete with beds, tables, TVs, stereos, etc. The next day, the Big Top went up, and by that evening, they were ready for their first performance.

Most of the tents are made of the plastic sheeting off old billboard advetisements. If you look closely, you can see where they spliced into the power line.Josh and Guildy were curious, so they attended the opening performance, and their rendition of it was hilarious. There were a couple clown acts, but mostly, they just told dirty jokes, which thankfully, Guildy doesn't have the Spanish to get yet. Then three scantily clad ladies did the classic Latin American shakey dancing. They ranged in age from early 20's to probably late 50's, and a toddler, maybe one of their kids, even strolled in and showed off his moves during their performance. When Guildy was telling me about it all, she said, "Yeah, and the old dancing lady wore socks, and that seemed weird." Yep, I bet it was.

(Shakey dancing knows no age boundaries. We went to a kindergarten graduation here a few years ago, and as part of the little program, one of the graduates got up, between the alphabet song and the Honduran national anthem, and did quite the suggestive modern dance.)

Guildy thought her first circus experience was awesome and keeps asking if she can go again every night when they fire up their speakers for the evening's entertainment. I guess some of the travelling circuses have animals like goats and snakes, but this one didn't. Dang. Maybe next time.

All in all, the Circus folks have been nice neighbors. They bathe and wash their clothes in the lagoon outside our gate, and they happily stop and visit when we come and go. They actually have to move their entrance gate for us to get past them into town. And, as a side business, they also buy scrap metal. As one of the older missionary kids said, "You've got to difersify to make it in this economy."

So random. So Honduras. I love it!