Sunday, December 12, 2010

Lately

Delicious lunch at a vegetarian comedor [one of several, actually] 
¡Payasos! Circus entertainment at a public event held by the FMLN Youth

The entertainers juggled, unicycled and clowned around [haha] in the plaza in front of the National Cathedral

Pupusas with a view!

It looks like a lot, but we didn't leave anything...delicious pupusas...mmmm....

Friday, December 3, 2010

Channukah


Now, I don't know any Jews here, and I didn't have a Menorah, or a dradel, or gelt, and turns out the closest place to get sour cream is in Nicaragua, but did I let that ruin Hannukah for me? of course not!!






 Happy festival of lights, all!





Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving Break

Took a couple lovely days off and headed to the beach with Ryan. No stuffing, mashed potatoes or pie, sadly, but the ceviche and horchata was awesome.





Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Rio Lempa

Drove out Saturday to the Rio Lempa...highlights include:


From the new Puente de Oro; can you see what's left of the old one? It was taken out by the guerillas during the war to cut off army supply lines...

Can you tell what she's selling? ...Iguana! No, it's not legal.







Thursday, November 11, 2010

Unexpected Return to a Cemetery

Yesterday I made an unexpected visit to a cemetery in Nejapa, a municipality in the department of San Salvador. The uncle, who was really more of a father, of an activist compañera here passed away, so we spent the afternoon at the burial. Nejapa is a very poor, incredibly dangerous area; recently, this friend had to abruptly depart one afternoon so as not to end up on the bus after dark. 

The cemetery itself was beautiful--we seemed to have chosen the wrong place for Día de los Difuntos, because here all the graves were decked out like christmas trees. It was lovely. 





The burial was a super strange experience for me. A whole crowd (noticeably more women and children than adult men) gathered around the gravesite. People didn't wear black, no one was particularly dressed up, though some wore lace scarves over their heads. There was lots of peripheral chatting, even cell-phones out among the close relatives of the deceased, children running around. I guess the family belonged to one of the many evangelical sects that draws on old testament insignia; the ceremony was lead by this guy in a Kippa, who i guess was a minister, and his crew of a couple guys, also in kippas, and a couple women wearing the lace scarves over their hair. He read from the bible, new testament mostly it seemed, and they sang without accompaniment (or adherence to tune, really). There was a lot of talk about how life and death make sense when you believe in jesus, otherwise all is meaningless, how death with jesus is a gift...no one actually talked about the deceased, though I'm sure there's a space for that in the pre- or post-burial gatherings. While the minister spoke, male relatives prepared the grave site and female relatives arranged flowers on the grace. Before the interment, the coffin was opened and folks cycled through to see the face. I saw one relative pulled out a digital camera and took a picture. Back where I was standing (we all were arranged between and on top of the many surrounding graves) a woman collapsed. 

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Día de los Difuntos

Sorry I've been neglecting this blog a bit (though that is what I promised...) but I've been super busy blah blah blah. Anyhow, I'm back and I've got a super ton of pics to prove I'm still here. 

While Halloween isn't much of a thing here, the first two days of November are a big national holiday, businesses and schools closed, etc. It's nothing like the party in Mexico, but folks do head out to the cemeteries and clean up their relatives graves and bring flowers, etc. So we went to the Cemeterio del los Ilustres near the centro in San Salvador to have a look around. 







This is Schafik Handal's grave, beloved  FMLN comandante, 2004 presidential candidate, known for his unshakable integrity, Paul Raymond look-alike 





This is me enjoying a delicious treat--no worries, they cut out the flesh after so you can eat it 


Til next time!