Day of the Dead preview

This past week was a busy one, what with our Safe Passage assignments in full swing.  Actually, I have been reassigned - out of the kitchen, out of the class for 6-7 year olds - and into kindergarten, all day!!  I already miss my kitchen buddies and the wonderful teacher whom I was working with, but I´m enjoying the kinders.  It´s really interesting to watch them, with virtually no idea what they are saying, and recognize the exact same body language as my kinders in Maine.  It´s a small class with a very young teacher.  The principal has asked me about literacy in my class at home, which gave me an opening to run off at the mouth in fractured Spanish.  I was able to stop myself when I noticed eyes glazing over.  Their theme of the new month is shapes.  A small collection of pattern blocks was dredged up from the innards of a cupboard.  So I´m off and running, cutting out shapes and planning activities.

In the meantime, our Xela buddies - minus Jeff and Jing, who are settled in Worcester, Mass. for some medical training there - stopped in Antigua briefly for dinner one night, on their way to the Mayan ruins up north and the Atlantic coast.  It was great to see them.  Our Safe Passage colleagues have been slow to warm up to a couple of ¨seniors¨, and we´re missing our social outlets.  We chatted up a storm over Tuscan food and felt very fulfilled.

This past weekend was a holiday weekend as families geared up for the Day of the Dead/All Saints Day on Tuesday, November 1. All of the other 7 guests left the Morales home to go on short adventures or to leave Antigua for good.

On Saturday,  Bruce and I were going out for coffee in the afternoon, when we had another amazing serrendipitous occurence.  We stumbled upon a ¨procesion¨, which was an event related to All Saints Day.  It consisted of another huge casket (see the last posting and photos above) but this one was the most GIGANTIC casket ever seen.  In addition to the symbolic body in a glass case on top of it, there were little angels spouting water!  It took no less than 90 rugged men to shoulder it  - and the whole crew was rotated out every half hour or so. This was necessary as the procesion paraded around town for 8 hours!!  The casket gang, all dressed in formal black dress suits, were preceded by boys swinging incense pots, young men dressed in long black robes tinged with gold, and women in black dresses with lacy gold head-coverings.  Big banners were carried, announcing the name of the church that was sponsoring the procesion.  A band with tubas, marimbas, and huge drums played an array of somber marching tunes from the rear.  It was crucial that the ¨pall bearors¨ sway in sync as they made their way down the street, and the band´s rhythm helped.  Crowds lined the streets and traffic was tied up, as people poured into Antigua from Guatemala City and surrounding areas to view the event.  Again, it was an ancient, mid-ieval rite, and we felt so lucky to have encountered it.  While others were lounging on a Pacific coast beach, we were catching a glimpse of a time long ago - right here and now in Antigua.  That night, as we were drifting to sleep around 11pm, we heard the faint sounds of drums which got louder and louder.  Sure enough, the procesion was passing our house.  I got out of bed and climbed the circular staircase to the rooftop terrace to watch the big casket, now lit up with electric candles, as it swayed and backed and filled its way around the corner on this narrow street.  The crowds were much diminished on this final swing through town.

We understand from our hosts that this was just a minor happening, compared to the processions and public events which take place in Antigua during the Easter season, when people come from all over the world to participate in Holy Week. We won't be here then, alas!

BTW, it just took me 2 hours (!) to figure out how to get these photos from my camera onto this blog. But I did it!  Now I can go to bed.