Lent in Totonicapán
Semana Santa and the Cuaresma (Lenten) season have finally come to an end. Every Friday during Lent massive processions took over the streets of Toto with crosses, candles, incense, singing, and iconic statues of saints. Every block or so the hundreds of people processing – some dressed as Roman soldiers - would kneel down in the streets to pray. It was quite a scene to witness at dusk, especially for the first time. The weekend before Semana Santa, Totonicapán was overwhelming. In addition to the religious activities and processions, there were huelgas (strikes) by teachers, which included large gatherings and speeches on temporary stages around town; student protests from the University San Carlos, with students in cloaks and masks parading around with signs and squirting people with water; political campaigning – masses of people were bussed in and gathered in support of presidential candidates in the center of town; and Saturday being Toto’s biggest market day, the town was a zoo.
Mangos in the Xela Market
View from Eco Hotel Uxlabil - Tilt your head to the left and look for the profile in the mountain
Arcas
Later the week was much more tranquilo. Easter celebrations are the opposite of what they are in the States. Whereas we typically don’t make much ado about the days leading up to Easter and then go all out with Easter meals and egg hunts and sweets on Sunday, in Guatemala there are so many religious and cultural celebrations leading up to Easter, or “Resurrection Sunday” as it’s called here, that by Sunday everyone just seems to want to rest. And maybe go to church. Anyways, needless to say, there was no school all week. I was home in Toto the first couple days. I and some other Peace Corps friends took a day trip to the beach Champerico, a few hours south in the department of Retalhuleu. It was hot and humid and a nice little day trip. Later in the week I went with Julio to Lake Atitlan where we stayed at an Eco Hotel in San Juan La Laguna. There were beautiful views of the lake and on the way we zip-lined on the longest zip-line in Guatemala and one of the longest in Central America. It was 200 meters high and 400 meters long and would have had spectacular vistas of the lake if it hadn’t been so overcast. We went horseback riding and visited the more energetic and tourist packed towns of San Pedro La Laguna and Panajachel. In San Pedro and San Juan, the tradition is to hang arcas, garlands of fruit, high across the streets and entrances to churches.
On Good Friday we headed to Antigua which hosts one of the most spectacular Good Friday and Easter celebrations in all of Guatemala. The streets were lined with alfombras (rugs), made of colored sawdust, fruits, vegetables, plants, marbles, and flowers. The sawdust alfombras had the most brilliant colors and were the most detailed, but my favorites were by far the ones made of flowers. They were such beautiful works of art, but only last until the rains wash them all away. Friday afternoon and evening, Julio, his family, and I walked with the crowds admiring all the alfombras and his brother participated in one of the processions. Then men in the processions wear black robes with black head-coverings and carry incense and in some cases enormous wooden coffin-like boxes with religious scenes and statues on top. The one I saw walk by was at least 50-feet and carried by 100 men struggling under the weight and massiveness of it. It rained a little in the evening and was not as warm as it supposedly normally is this time of year.
This week I am “back to work.” Well, Monday I tried to go to work, but classes were cancelled. I tried to go to the girls group in Xesacmalja to start a tire garden instead, but because it was raining a little they cancelled. Tuesday I had a very successful meeting with my most difficult director – after several frustrations with him, yesterday if he didn’t make the time to meet and plan, I was going to seriously consider dropping this school. I was thinking perhaps I’ve been too patient with him. I won’t go into details because we haven’t made anything happen yet, but the planning yesterday did seem promising. Wednesday for the first half of the school day we watched the Barcelona Madrid soccer game on a big screen. Very educational.
Today is my 1 year anniversary in Guatemala! Time has really flown. At the beginning of April we had a 4-day training in Santa Lucia (we’ve been having a LOT of trainings over the last 2 months) – it was In-Service Training for two days for the volunteers in my Youth Development group, followed by Project Design and Management with a counterpart from our community. A teacher from my school in Xenajtajuyup came and we’ve planned a parents’ training/meeting for the first full week in June. At IST we received many resources and talked about in what direction to take our service. I’m kind of just trudging along, not nearly as busy as I was at the beginning of the year, trying to get other people organized along with me. I feel I’m doing what I should be doing, but it still feels like I’m lagging.
Sunrise on Santa Maria
It was cold.
Climbing team with the erupting Santiaguito Volcano atrás
Earlier this month I climbed Volcán Santa Maria with my new host family/neighbors. It was a tough hike and there were hundreds of people on the summit also camping, thanks to an organization that took over the volcano, providing drinks and security for everyone that weekend. It was nice, but coming down the next day was miserable. Everyone walked so slowly (I honestly don’t know how half those people made it up). It took 4 hours to go up, and 3.5 hours to come down!
There’s a possibility I’m going to be very famous. Not really. But I may be on Latino TV in L.A. My neighbor Guayo, who owns Dino’s, the nicest restaurant in Toto, had a TV crew come in to interview him – something about promoting tourism to Totonicapán and promoting his restaurant as well – and it just so happened that Christina, Laura (our new Healthy Schools site mate), and I were eating dinner there, so I was interviewed as well.
