My cousin Sandra made me a payaso de condon out of clay made from recycled paper and I can’t wait to bring it home. I named it Bumpy because she told me it was a very strange material to work with, and rather bumpy. Bumpy the Condom Clown. I think I may have to hang him on my front door! Both Stef and Tony loved it! Thank you so much, my talented, loving prima del sol! Can’t wait for you to teach me how to work with bumpy, weird clay!
Was pretty busy working away this week…día de los muertos was sadly pretty uneventful for me this year…compared to last year’s sensory overload. I was planning to go to Sumpango for their annual Festival de Barriletes Gigantes (Giant Kite Festival), but when I woke up it looked like it was going to pour so I actually checked the weather, which I never do, and it called for thunderstorms in that area. And I would have to take several chicken buses to get there, making a two hour trip a four hour trip (at least), in the rain…ugggghh. So I decided not to go and went to the lake with Stef and Lore instead. I love Lago de Atitlan, it’s so amazing, and Lore’s house(s!) are just so stunning. And maybe I’d see some barriletes there. It’s a dia de los muertos fixture, kites being flown by little boys or being released in cemeteries by mourners visiting their dead.
Okay, so maybe there’s nothing gigante about this barrilete, but the little boys running around the hills above San Marcos sure were having a great time getting them airborne. Flor, one of Lore’s roommates and another METOCA organizer, took a walk with me up to the cemetery in San Marcos to see some of the beautiful, haunting ceremonies. I have to think that gringos visiting cemeteries in small pueblos must seem very odd to the mourners, but they were still so inviting and friendly. Hearing K’iche being spoken behind the walls of tents made of hefty bags as a mourner curiously peeks out to say “buenos dias” or waves you over to inspect a shrine of candles and other strange offerings placed around the grave of a loved one lost, is a somber and heartwarming moment. There’s always next year for Sumpango.
I’m going to get a little shut-eye now, want to go to Gian Luca’s yoga class at 6:50 tomorrow, but I’ll write more about alfombras, volcanoes and Mayans, oh my! And Guatemala’s new president! Elections were held yesterday and despite his “uncomfirmed” role in the atrocious genocide during the civil war, the high-ranking, ex-military douchebag Otto Perez Molina was elected.
Love that clown face. I think I see it
minus the beautiful colors when I
look in the mirror in the a.m.
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I know, it’s great isn’t it! You smile like that when you get up in the morning?? I don’t. hee hee mama xxoo
Loved reading this…sounds like you are having a great time…miss you! Melissa
Miss you too elissamae! I actually have a U.S. skype number…I’ll email it to you, if you get a chance give me a buzz, but from your landline, not sure if mobile phones have roaming charges and can figure out I’m in Guatemala! xx