Sights & Sounds

Neal, they've found him.  Squatch lives
about 46,814 miles from Panajachel. 

Last Saturday, a few of us Kids Alive folks went with a team from New Hope, MN to Panajachel on Lake Atitlán.  It was fun to see a little bit of Guatemala beyond Antigua/San Lucas, and we had a great day with the team!  

Every friday during lent, the catholic churches in Antigua take turns putting on a velación which is best described as a very big, very elaborate nativity, except the story is different every time.  It might be the story of Job, the second coming of Christ, the creation of the world, whatever each church picks for that year.  Whichever church has the velación on Friday has a parade on Saturday that goes all over town and lasts for as many hours as a Green Valley work day in Spring!  

Velación
The story depicted above is "The Second Coming of the Son of Man"

Also in front of the “nativity” is a large alfombra, or carpet made of dyed sawdust, sand, fruit, and/or flowers.  Sawdust alfombras show up all over Antigua on the weekends and are super pretty!  The piles of fruit creep me out a little . . .  maybe it just looks too much like a ritualistic temple offering.  Anyway, after it’s done being used to decorate the church, the family who made the alfombra takes it home to eat or donates it to charity.  I'm trying to suspend judgement on which things are syncretism and not; for now, it's a huge part of catholic culture in Antigua and something worth learning about!  

The alfombra in the Merced church

For those of you who love corny little one-liners (ahem*Dad*hem) there's a great one about the carpenter's phone and the Spanish word for sawdust.  Ask me about it and I'll tell it to you!  


Well, even barring the hour I didn't lose today, it's time to sign off.  An all-too-familiar sound awaits me tomorrow morning!
  
Lorenzo . . .  before 7 . . .  every .  morning .   This bird cracks me up!  Enjoy =)