Continuacion de Semana Santa

Continuacion de Semana Santa

Saturday, April 16, 2011

This morning, I got my feet moving and headed for the market to get the things we need to make tamales on Monday. It was a typical morning in Copan Ruinas as I walked through the central park. People sitting and visiting, kids running around and the blaring presence of salsa music coming from large speakers in front of one of the pulperias (mini markets). I like salsa music, so that’s ok by me. I walked into the market and headed to my favorite fruit and veggie stand run by Rosa. Rosa is in her sixties, maybe seventies. She took a liking to me when once, I bought a big bunch of bananas from her and she was surprised that I was buying so many. I told her that I eat bananas every morning with my corn flakes. She smiled and grabbed and squeezed my upper arm and said, “Ah, por las chicas” (for the girls). Ever since, she gives me a little something extra. This morning I bought bananas and some veggies. She counted up the total and said, “Setenta y quatro” (seventy and four Lempiras, which amounts to about $3.50). Her daughter wanted to know if I wanted a small bag of green beans, so I accepted. I asked Rosa what the new total was and said, “Ochenta….” “Oh no, too much,” she said. She looked in the bag and added everything up again, looked up at me and said, “Setenta y quatro”. I was going to try to tell her it was the same as she told me before, but my Spanish is not quite good enough. I gave her seventy five, saying “Esta bien” (it’s good). She then tried to give me a one back but I told her no. She gave me a little frown and hurried over to the mangos, grabbing one and putting it in my bag. I thanked her as she patted my arm and away I went.

(Lolita from downstairs just brought us up some freshly made homemade sopa de res (beef soup). Today is our lucky day for good food.)

Wednesday after school, I went out and helped a couple guys with dyeing some of the sawdust for the carpets. I was wrong when I said they use food coloring. They use powdered dye that undoubtedly has some toxic elements, so it surprised me to see one guy had his arms dyed up to his elbows. There is still a lot of sawdust to be dyed before next Thursday but all of the ten images are cut out and ready to go. We have decided that we will go to church with our landlord and her family tomorrow morning for Palm Sunday.

Yesterday was the big “Cultural Day “ at school. The champas were all finished and decked out. Most of the girls were dressed in colorful traditional dresses. Some boys at least wore cowboy hats. Each grade gave a small performance of some kind that included singing and/or dancing. The finale was great. Some students from the primary grades dressed in traditional garb of the different indigenous tribes: Los Mayas, Los Lencas, Los Tolupanes, Los Garifunas, Los Chorti, Los Tawahkas, and Los Pech. The costumes were amazing. Some materials used for the costumes were corn husks, feathers, leather, dried beans and corn, and colorfully painted symbols. After all of the festivities were over we got to sample some traditional foods. Each champa had food for to offer that included soups, tamales ,chuchos (similar to a tamale) cornbread made from freshly ground corn, yucca patties, black beans wrapped in plantain patty, fish, and I can’t remember it all. For drinks, they served horchata, a rice milk and cinnamon drink, and chichu, partially fermented tamarind fruit juice (I’m not certain something with a touch of a kick to it would be served by and to students in a US school). What a feast! A full week of champa building, missed classes, and machete wielding kids, and it’s all over in a few hours. Now the kids will be “ready” to get back to the grind when we return in eleven days. Ha. One thing we can count on is there won’t be any more machete wielding at school until next year. One kid was whacking away with a machete half his size. Crazy! I got caught up in all of the machete wielding and went out and bought myself one. It cost me 55 Lempiras, the equivalent of $2.50. Now we can take advantage of the abundance of coconuts here at our place. I had to spend a little time sharpening the thing and now I have to get used to whacking on coconuts with it. This afternoon at four, we will go and pick up the freshly ground corn masa that we ordered for the tamales. As for the rest of the time today, we have decided to just take it easy and relax. Maybe I will watch a little bull fighting on TV at two o’clock. Amy won’t watch it with me. I can’t figure out why. We will keep you updated on the Semana Santa happenings as the week progresses. Ciao for now!