Feiras, Festivals, and Funny Faces

This past week has been full of interesting things.  There were four days that celebrated Cartaxo.  During this time there was a feira set up with everything from shirts, scarves, and puffy pants to annoying little barking toy dogs to large amounts of cotton candy.  We were able to witness one new thing that some of the other missionaries haven’t seen yet.  The Portuguese set up heavy fences along the road and cover the cobblestone with sand.  Then they let two bulls run wild in the fenced in area.  Any daring person may jump in with the bulls and try to get them to chase you.  One man brought an umbrella to use and in the fight between the umbrella and the bull, well the umbrella lost.  Thursday was the Festival of Popular Saints.  This festival brought about the grilling of many sardines.  One of the main squares was decorated, sardines were being grilled everywhere, and several little jump houses had been set up for the kids.  There was a dance celebrating Cartaxo and the saints.  The performers were dressed in silky costumes of yellow, red, and green.  They had a dance that went on for several minutes and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they could keep in step and remember all the moves despite the song being very repetitive.  Today we went to the cafe and the women told us that today, Saturday, and Sunday there is a Festival of Snails.  When I translated that into English I must have had a very funny faces because both of the cafe workers started laughing.  It is good that God has given us plenty of reasons to go out and involve ourselves in the community and that He has given us times for fun. God is good and is allowing us to enjoy going out by helping us to understand the language.  I can’t help but wonder when the next funny festival is going to happen.