"On January 5th, I disembarked in Lanzarote, ready to do my job. It all started as planned. First, of course, the capital. Great parade, smiles on the children, happiness in the adults seeing their children getting tired picking up handfuls of candy. At night, they will fall asleep earlier... Two and a half tons of candy, a retinue of two hundred people... For a day that I work, at least work well.
After some towns, I arrived in Playa Blanca. Upon arrival, I asked about the route: more or less the same as the bus, they told me. Surprise, because I know there is a pedestrian street full of shops and a promenade.
Already on the camel, I saw the monstrosity: a SpongeBob, seven Malabarist artists, three fairies, Peter Pan (I think I remember) and some other character. In short, no more than twenty people. My two colleagues and I on the
camels, the local police car and a City Hall employee sweeping.
I grit my teeth. Anything for the children. Great atmosphere, not at the beginning of the "parade" (an exaggerated term, as it runs, as I have already mentioned, along the road away from the urban center), but upon entering the town, no less than 1,500 people or more crowded into three hundred meters. It encourages me. My hand gets hot, the adrenaline rises, I ask for more and more candy, and at that moment I realize that they are bringing it to me in half-kilo bags, no bigger. If it were measured in handfuls, four handfuls per bag and also of the same type. I curse Santa Claus. How much does a kilo of candy cost? I complain energetically. The cuts, they tell me... ha, ha.
Hence, my complaint to the Playa Blanca city council. I don't think it's a
problem of money, but rather of attitude and planning. Throughout my years I have visited places without money, with crises, but they have had the motivation to believe in what they do, to organize it, to plan it, to make costume workshops, for the children to participate. How much money is a City Hall car worth pulling a trailer previously decorated and turned into a float by enthusiastic children and parents motivated to do something fun? Well, with a couple of floats, plus the camels and SpongeBob, things change.
The issue of the candies is the tip of the iceberg. The lack of candies or the control exerted over them is based on the fact that there are no resources. They are sought. The councilors are there to propose and find solutions. In a town with forty-two hotels, with a high occupancy rate and a year to organize, one of the three thousand five hundred proposals that come to my mind occurs to me right away. If their collaboration were requested at an average of 100 euros per year (a totally symbolic price), it would be a total of four thousand two hundred euros, for hotels that move millions, which would be an average per day of (I'm from the humanities, I'm sorry), but less than 0.33 per day, incredible. The hotels, in addition to free advertising, would have the option of organizing their clients to see a traditional and cultural festival of our land, integrating them into the culture, apart from bullfights and flamenco. An event for their clients for 100 euros a year. I'm sure they would accept. And the same, everyone wants to have a float with the children of the clients, because what child, no matter how foreign they are, doesn't like to throw candy?
This is a morning idea, without thinking about it much, but let it serve as an example that with organization, things would be done better.
Without further ado, a cordial greeting. Now, once my function is finished this year, I am going to stay in Playa Blanca and, as a good king, I will work in the kitchens of the hotels, to see if I save and next year I can rent the camel myself. You know, to cover expenses. Greetings to all except SpongeBob".
