THE MILKA ANNIVERSAR

THE MILKA ANNIVERSARY FAIR


30.03.1994


March 29th. was the 3rd. anniversary of the founding of the dairy plant, so they had a fair.  All the milk producers came along and spent the day sitting around on the grass eating and drinking ambrosia, a beverage made with milk and an alcoholic drink, like an eau de vie.  It is traditionally made in the byre as soon as the cow is milked but here, of course, it was made with pasteurized milk.  I think it was pretty strong because it had 1L. of this alcoholic potion for every 3L of milk!  There was a band playing altiplano music with pan-pipes, wooden flutes (quenas) and a huge drum called a bombo.  

The main events of the day were a bicycle race from Valle de Sajta to the dairy (about 15Km) and a five-aside football championship between the teams put up by all the associations participating in the project, a number of local teams  and the project team.  It lasted all day, and in the end the project team won against the Comité Cívico from Ivirgarzama.  The UMOPAR (the drug control police) wanted  to take part too, but none of the other teams would play against them so their kind offer had to be declined.

The local radio station sent along a representative to record the events.  As he was trying to record the prize-giving, the band kept playing away and beating on their drum. Someone told them to keep quiet for a minute or two but they just played on.  By the end of the day they had drunk 22L. of ambrosia and at 10p.m. went off on their truck still playing away for all they were worth.  Another association team also brought along a band, but they played a wider variety of instruments, such as the small South American guitar and mandolins.  They were very good indeed.

Another event of the day was a tombola with a small Holstein bull as the prize.  He had been wormed and washed and shampooed with my dog shampoo to get rid of the ticks and then brushed until he shone.  However, the person with the winning number was not there when the draw was made. He turned out to be a young boy from the village who likes animals so that worked out not too badly.

The day before the fair the producers were paid for February.  There are 280 of them and I got roped in to help out with the paying procedure.  It was quite interesting to see the number of people who could read and write, those who could only sign their names and those who can only make their mark with their thumb.  There were also people who could speak no Spanish at all.  Next month I am going to ask if I can help again, because I would like to do a survey to see what proportion of the illiterate people are women and also to see what relationship, if any, there is between illiteracy and the quality of the milk they produce, since hygiene and animal care play a large part in that.