Día Pascua: Decorating Easter Eggs With My Host Family

Guatemalans do no do Easter eggs, Easter baskets, excessive candy eating, egg dying, or anything of the sort. It is all about the alfombras , processions, and church. So Kelley and I decided that since we have been learning so much about Guatemalan celebrations for Easter that it would be nice to show our families a little bit of our Easter customs. Originally we were going to do an Easter egg hunt for the kids, but there were no plastic eggs to be found anywhere. So we decided to dye eggs. It actually turned out really well and I think our families enjoyed it! All 6 kids in my family participated (as well as some parents), Kelley and her host brother, and Jimmy. I did one as a demonstration. First we hardboiled the eggs then we had them draw on the eggs with crayons and then dunk them in different color dyes. I think this was the first time that anyone had done anything like this and a fun time was had by all.

The whole family with our eggs!!

Work in progress

Adorable

Holy Week (Semana Santa) in Guatemala

If you have ever consider end visiting Guatemala - do it! And do it in Antiga during Semana Santa (holy week) which culminates in La dia Pascua (Easter). This is a week of rest. Very few people work Thursday-Sunday. Instead Guatemalans (Catholic Guatemalans) spend most of this week in church and participating in / watching the processions.

In the processsions men/boys always go first carrying the float with Jesus and the women follow carrying the float La Virgen. Someone made the (very true) observation that when men/boys are carrying the float they look like they are about to die it is so heavy, but the women (carrying a float of similar weight) look just fine. Typical.

Miercoles Santo (Wednesday - the real start of holy week celebrations) there was the processions of kids in Antigua. Three of my host siblings participated in this event. Children of all ages took turns carrying the floats down the street.

The Saturday before Easter (Dia Pascua) there is a ritual in Guatemala where kids are held up in the air (sometimes upsidedown) while their parents (gently) hit them. This is to help them grow in the upcoming year. I find this ritual ammusing because Guatemalans as a whole are generally short. As in I (at 5 feet 3 inches) am tall compared to most men and women.

My host siblings in the procession! 

Baby Cucuruchu 

Meta Alfombra

Jesus entombed 

Un Nuevo Papa

My internet ran out and I haven't figured out how to recharge it yet, so I am back to internet once a week. So now I will take advamtage of the PC wifi (or wee-fee as Guatemalans and I like to call it).

So the new Pope was elected and he is from Argentina! He is the first Latin American Pope (but you probably knew that). Anyway it is a big deal here especially because it is such a Catholic country. I think that most people who have TVs here were watching the news that day (at least my host mom and Kelley's host mom were). And let me tell you there are many reasons to be happy about this new Pope.
1) First Latin American Pope
2) According to my host mom lots of people thought that if a black Pope was elected that that would signify the end of the world. Fewf. Dodged a massive bullet for humanity on that one.

This is a little editorial that was in the "Prensa Libre" (Guatemala's most popular newspaper). It is now outdated but oh well it's interesting. If you were wondering what the air quality is like here this perfectly describes it as TERRIBLE. All of the buses and cars billow black smoke (humo) and trash is often burned outside. Trash is also basically just thrown on the ground here. There is trash in the streets, in the parks, in my backyard, everywhere. I myself have been tempted to (but never have) thrown trash on the ground because there is not a single trash can in my town.

In the Vatican.      In Guatemala. 

Alfombras (Carpets)

Last Sunday my host family and I went down a couple of "blocks" (houses aren't actually divided by streets it is more continuous) to my hoist mom's family's house to make an alfombra (carpet) for the religious procession later that evening. When we arrived at 11:30am the men of the family were already laying down the four wood planks to make the outline of our to-be rectangular carpet in the street. Up until lunch at 1:30 it was me and the men working on the carpet. The women were inside making lunch. After lunch the majority of the family worked together to finish the carpet. It as finally completed at 6:30. So much work! I'm glad that I got to participate in it, but I don't feel the need to spend my entire day working on something that is just going to get trampled on and destroyed almost as soon as it is completed -The processions walk right over all of the beautiful handmade carpets! Today's procession went from the church in the next town over to our church and back again. I'm not sure how many alfombras there were, but I think that most houses made one. They really ranged in size, material, and level of complexity. I think that ours took the cake in all three categories. Others were made of some combination of greens, fruits, vegetables, wood chips, and flowers.  It would be interesting to total up the expense of the alfombras alone for this event. I am sure that it is a lot of money.
I was going to write out all of the steps that went into the making of the alfombra, but even that would take too long. So here is the condenced version. After the perimiters were set about we used a hose to wet the concrete (this was done in the middle of the road - the street was blocked all day). Next, four big bags of the base color of saw dust was poured into the area. Next, it was flattened out so that it was level with the top of the wood. Then lots and lots of water was added to the top of the sawdust to make it completly wet and prevent it from blowing away. Then a border was made with a dusting of another color. Next a panel in another color. Then stencils were used on top of this to make the final design. Then right after the carpet was finished at 6:30 the pro session began. At this point it was pretty dark. The main part of the procession was a big float only it was carried on the shoulders of probably 30-40 people. It was lit up and there was a band playing music. This as a really neat sight.

   

Sawdust colors 

My host brother adding finishing touches

The finished product! 

Peace Corps Language Proficiency Interview

We had our second Language Proficiency Interview that Peace Corps uses. There are four levels - Princpiante, intermedio, avancado, and superior. Each level is further divided into - bajo, medio, and alto. I started out at intermedio bajo and today they told me after my interview that I am at intermedio medio!! I am really happy that I moved up a level! Besides the Peace Corps (PC) requires that we be at least at intermedio medio to be sworn into service so I am all set!! Of course I still want to get a lot better at spanish, but it is nice knowing that I already meet the PC criteria!!

Mayan Ceremony

On Saturday we traveled an hour in the peace corps mini shuttle to Iximche in Tecpan to view and participate in a Mayan ceremony. The Peace Corps hired a Mayan spiritual leader / priestess (I guess that is what you would call her) to lead a ceremony for us. So it wasn't like we were just observing - this ceremony was just for us and we got to participate. The ceremony was centered around a fire that had many layers of offerings in it such as a large block of sugar, lots of candles, cigars, incense, flower petals, etc. The ceremony went on for two hours. It seemed to be a little long for most of us, but afterwards they served us the most amazing lunch. The PC paid for a catered lunch in this park. My plate was piled high sigh rice, beans, potato and spinach salad, grilled chicken, and chorizo (a specialty of this region).

While our ceremony was going on there were other Mayans there participating in their own rituals. so while we were watching our ceremony right behind us the ceremony leader held a live chicken, used a knife to cut off its head and then threw the body into the fire. Needless to say I was not expecting this. Less shocking but just as unexpected I saw one group of people rubbing themselves all over with eggs as if they were doing a really good job washing themselves before they began their ceremony.

A Lovely Afternoon in Antigua

Today my group took a trip into Antigua for some sightseeing and lunch. We have been so fully emerged in the Guatemalan diet that we didn't feel the slightest bit guilty about going to "LA Hamburguesa Gigante" (The Giant Hamburger) for lunch. Let me tell you it tasted good. It was also probably the prettiest and definitely the cheapest hamburger resturaunt I have even been too.

My great group: Kelley, Jimmy and our language instructor Don Felipe 

La Iglesia La Merced 

Volcano behind the church

Inside the church. This rug is made of colored sawdust!

Don Felipe in the market 

Hike

If I haven't explained this already we are all split up into different groups based on language level. I am with Kelley (who took the picture of the group below) and Jimmy (far right). Our group along with some people from the next closest town (~30 minute walk) decided to get some exercise and hike up the hill behind the church in our town. It took us about an hour to climb to the top and only about 20 minutes to "climb" down. I say "climb" because we probably slid most of the way down. There were such great views of our town from the top!

Carrying his machete and wood

Scenic view 

Nicole kept trying to taste the weird nut she found on the ground.
I am convinced it is a terrible idea.

On the Subject of Coffee

I love coffee. I love its smell and its effect (although a cup of coffee has long stopped working its magic). So when I finally got my invitation letter for Peace Corps Guatemala I thought - great! I'm looking forward to finally really learning Spanish and I will drink some great coffee along the way. Wrong. Well partially. My host family drinks Nestle instant decaf coffee. No part of that appeals to me. I also find this to be sad. Why should we (in the states) get to enjoy their great coffee when they don't?

Breakfast Guate style
coffee and an omelette andddd beans and tortillas of course

Last weekend we visited the 'Centro Cultural La Azotea' which was part cultural museum and part coffee museum and plantation. Here our spanish-speaking tour guide told us all about how coffee is grown and the process that turns it into the stuff that we drink and also about Guatemalan music and traditional Mayan dances. I learned that Guatemala is 9th in world coffee production (although apparently not much of it stays in country). My favorite thing that our guide said was: "Nescafe = NO ES CAFE." Agreed.

Happily in a sea of coffee

The five stages of coffee - starts out as the fruit in the center!

La Caminata De Paz

Today I walked in the 'caminata de Paz.' This was an event that was organized through the church but was not only religious - it also had a social message. World peace & anti-domestic violence. My host parents are super involved in the church (my host father helped plan this event). Around 600-800 people (a lot of them kids) participated in the walk. It was a really cool experience. Everyone wore a white shirt and we held white flags. It was my first Guatemalan rally!! The Peace Corps mandates that we are not to get involved in any political demonstrations, but I couldn't imagine that the PEACE Corps would have a problem with a walk for PEACE.

Tonight for dinner we had a hot dog...and rice and beans and tortillas. Apparently one of their daughters sells hot dogs out of the house every Sunday. It was actually really good. It was cut up into slices and on a good crusty bread and had condiments on it. Tomato sauce here is called 'salsa dulce' or sweet sauce. Also my host mom thought the literal translation of 'hot dogs' in spanish was hilarious - 'perros calientes.'

"For a Pastores in peace" and "united for peace"

Watching the procession