The Calesita

There are a few U.S. inventions that can readily be found in rural Paraguay including volleyball, the jungle gym, sun glasses, cell phones, and the traveling carnival.  All of these except for the last excite me... you see I've never been a big fan of fairs.  I guess they never have struck me as overly safe or wholesome.  According to Wikipedia after the Chicago World's Fair, traveling carnival companies began touring the United States.  'Due to the type of acts featured along with sometimes using dishonest business practices, the traveling carnivals were often looked down upon.'  However, not unlike Pinocchio, kids continue to be irresistibly drawn to these attractions and when the Calesita set up next door to our house our kids did not prove to be immune to its allure either.

Calesita means 'merry go round' in Spanish and is the name commonly used for the traveling carnival here in Paraguay.  For no less than one month each year the Calesita has brought us loud music, regular power outages, and anxious children who say things like, 'Daddy, the Calesita's been here for a month now, can we go pleeeeeeease!'  It's not so much that I don't like spending ten dollars on a giant neon bear that will rip in a week and litter my house with thousands of bits of styrofoam.  It's more that I fear for my children's lives when they get on the rides.  I assume the traveling carnivals I saw in Upstate New York had to undergo regular safety inspections however that is NOT the case here.  The most thorough 'safety inspection' the giant ferris wheel ever underwent here was probably the one I gave it just before I put my two boys on it.  Sammie and Silas had to sit that one out, but as you can see the seats were rusted through in places and the safety bar was only held down by my sweaty palms.  On the right you can see Eli and Toby riding with their friends!

Somehow I got talked into riding the ferris wheel too.  It was a true test of my faith, really- as we rolled around I entrusted my children into the Lord's hands, meditated on the fact that my God is the God who holds rusty bolts together, and practiced calisthenics.  After we got off the boys were all smiles partially because of their excitement and partially from seeing their dad kiss the ground.  After that it was Sammie and Silas's turn.  I chose two rides much closer to the ground for them.  Once they got on I waited for the kid in the middle to fire it up.  Instead, after a pause, he leaned into the machine and it slowly, silently, started to turn.  He pushed and he pushed until my kids were whirling around, giggling with delight.  Then he smoked a cigarette until the ride came to a stop.

 

I was actually saving the best for last (there were only five rides) or probably closer to the truth, I was putting off the inevitable.  For always looming in the background was the swing ride.  I cringed as my boys came running up to me because I already knew what they were going to ask.  You know the swing ride, right?  In the United States the swing ride gently lifts you up and whirls you around just fast enough to get you excited.  It's really quite lovely, you can swing your feet, feel the breeze in you hair... wave to your friends.  Well this swing ride apparently ran off an old diesel tractor-trailer engine and though the ride itself didn't raise patrons up and out of harm's way, the g-forces alone would swing each rusty, chain linked chair ten feet off the ground (I knew, because I watched in astonishment many a time from our porch)! 

 

 

Once again I prayed over Eli and Toby and then released them into God's hands.  They ran around and selected their chairs.  Then the owner of the Calesita approached me- a short man with a cowboy's hat.  He reasoned with me, since I was an American I should have no problem buying one more ticket so I could share in this once (and possibly last) in a lifetime experience with my boys.  To my amazement I found myself once again sitting down on another ride!  The motor sputtered, the chains groaned and the world began to spin.  I calculated that if my chair broke loose at just the right moment I could very likely be greeting my wife through our kitchen window at a very high velocity.  The boys had a blast, and since I didn't loose any appendages, I found my self laughing too as we got off the ride.

 

 

All in all, the owner of the Calesita was right.  Going to the traveling carnival with my family and friends was a once in a lifetime experience.  An experience I hope I only have to experience ONCE in my lifetime! But somehow, I don't think that will be the case.