Dec 11

Written by: reh
12/11/2007

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Left Fernando to get everything ready for Sigfredo. Walked through the marcado (open market) in Nacaomi.
4:00PM Fernando came by. I asked if he wanted to go to El Amatillo for Chinese. He said that was ok but there is a Chinese restaurant in Nacaomi (who knew?). On the way we got distracted.
On the north side of CA 1, northwest of Nacaomi in a field with nothing but a few shade trees and weeds, there is simple and crude structure. It is made of sawmill lumber culls. Two rows of 2x4 boards are in the ground every 12 feet with 20 feet between. This framing goes on for 120 feet. The boards are framed in with other lumber scraps and a tin roof is attached crossways and tilted so any rain water would run to the west. Along the length of both sides of this structure are booths of lesser construction. Tops covered with plastic scraps. To the back (far north) is an area surrounded by pallet rejects stood on end.

I have seen this structure in the past. I assumed it was the remnants of defunct flee market. I was wrong. Fernando asked me if I gamble. I said very little. He asked if I would like to stop by the local gambling place. Sure (everyplace in Valle District is safe with Fernando).

It seems that this area I just described is turned into an outdoor gambling casino during the month of December every year (why December? I have no idea). There are two rows of gambling tables under the tin roof structure and the booths along both sides sell food and bottled drinks. There are two preferred games (remember, this is on uneven ground and in the elements; any gaming apparatus that requires a level area or precision parts are out). The first game is a very substantial circle approximately 30 inches in diameter and 4 inches thick, probably made of hardwood, laying flat on a table slightly wider. The circle is covered with equal sized pock marks that are just large enough for a standard marble to rest in. A tin funnel is over the center of this circle. People place their bets in the center or on the side but not over any of the pox marks. I person tosses a marble into the funnel, the marble comes out of the funnel, rolls across the circle and comes to rest in a pock mark. In an instant money is flung around, someone else tosses the marble and off we go again. Half of the pock marks are painted black and half are white. I am told that white wins, black loses but there were too many side bets and some winners got the amount of their bet while others got some fraction. The other game consists of a rectangular box with sides like a small craps table. There are two very small cubes (no more than a quarter inch per side). The cubes have one dot on each side. The dots are either red or blue (there may be green or black too; I couldn’t be sure but didn’t think reaching onto the table for one of these little cubes for a closer look was a good idea). Someone tosses the dice, money is exchanged by some set of rules that, again, I couldn’t figure out.

The booths along the side each has a few plastic tables and plastic chairs and a boom box for ambiance (Ranchara-Country music - seems to be the preference). Each has its specialty; tacos, salads, fried chicken; lots of choices. Standard grill is the bottom 8 inches of a 55 gallon drum attached to some legs with a grill across the 8 inch walls. I opted for some barbeque beef. I have no idea what the marinade for the beef was but the flavor was great and it was the first tender beef I’ve had in Valle District. There were 4 of us around the table. I had eaten half the pieces of beef before I noticed that no one else was eating. I, of course, gestured for everyone to snack on pieces. Nobody did and I don’t know why.

While a Dr. friend of Fernando’s and a District official joined us, most of the crowd seemed to be blue collar, and 25 to 35 years old. Remember, this is a country field; a farmer moved his cows across the field north of us and there are the couple of obligatory stray pigs and dogs rummaging around for scraps. There is one really dilapidated outhouse north of the area, women use it; men aren’t so particular.

One patron saw me standing by and invited me to put some money on the table. I told him I don’t know the rules. He smiled and said “put some money on the table and you will learn the rules”.

This is one of those times when I would love to take a bunch of pictures but, somehow, it just doesn’t seem like a good idea.
6:00PM After some lengthy discussion about the differences between Indian chickens and Black chickens (it seems that Black chickens are better for eating and Indian chickens are better for eggs; of course, there are some refinement and exceptions to this general rule), we went to a place that serves fried Black chicken. Some of the toughest chicken I’ve ever eaten.
7:30PM End of day

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