Hola friends and family! Unfortunately I wrote a very thorough and witty (I'm sure) blog 3 nights ago and it disappeared into cyberspace. !Que triste! Thus, you are left with my rewrite. I've decided just to cover Dia de los Muertos in this one. In the last one I included Lucha Libre as well, but you'll have to wait on that.
I can't believe it's been so long since I've written, I apologize! It's kind of funny because the title of my last blog was "Living and Eating in Puebla" and part of the reason it has taken me so long to write is the "eating in puebla" part! I made the mistake of eating Enchiladas Suiza in a market about 2 weeks ago, and I have been regretting my decision ever since! Luckily, the organization has a super nice doctor available for these types of situations. So, I think I'm on the path to recovery, but am getting really sick of eating rice and bread when all sorts of tasty Mexican treats are in front of me.
Another reason I have been so slow in writing is that we had some visitors from African living in the house for 2 weeks at the end of October. While they were here, I spent time visiting with them. Part of the organization's mission is training other organizations. The five people who came here from Tanzania and Kenya work with runaway/ abandoned/ and street-living children in Africa. Before they left we all went to a Cuban club known for it's live music and salsa dancing. It was really fun even though none of us knew how to salsa dance! The trick is finding a really good partner and then you don't really need to know what your doing.
At the beginning of November (Nov 2), Mexican's celebrate Dia de los Muertos (or Day of the Dead). A holiday that coincides with the catholic holidays All Saints Day and All Souls Day, and also with Halloween. Here in Mexico, Dia de los Muertos, is an opportunity to celebrate the lives of loved ones who have passed. Even though I've only been here less than 3 months, I've decided that it is one of my favorite traditions in Mexico. Many Mexicans put altars in their homes during this time of year, known as ofrendas. Ofrendas can be very casual - on a small corner table - or they can be huge and take up an entire wall. Ofrendas usually include photos of the person who has passed, along with favorite items, favorite foods and/or beverages (many ofrendas included beer or tequila). I'm a little shaky on the beliefs, but from what I understand, tradition says that the dead can leave their graves one night a year and visit their familes. The dead "take in" the offerings of the ofrenda through scent. Ofrendas usually also include a glass of water (for the long journey), and are decorated with marigolds (not sure of the significance here). Another common item in the ofrendas is fruit (bananas, apples, oranges, guayabas, etc.). Also during this time of year, Mexicans flock to cemetaries and decorate the graves of their loved ones with yellow Marigolds and other brightly colored flowers. Joyce (one of the other volunteers) and I visited a huge cemetary near our house and I kept thinking about my Non, because she loves to put flowers in the cemetary. And, because I think she's appreciate a cemetary where all of the graves are covered with fresh flowers. Wish I would have taken some pictures, but I didn't have my camera that day!
For Dia de los Muertos, Joyce and I, along with a teacher from the day program and some of her friends, drove to a small town about 45 minutes outside of Puebla, called Huachechula. Huachechula has a reputation for being a town where people make huge ofrendas in their homes and also invite visitors in to see these ofrendas. The reputation is correct and it was amazing to see how much energy and money people put into these ofrendas. Once family invited us in for lunch. We had Mole Poblano (a tradition dish of Puebla) and homemade tortillas...mmmm. They must have fed at least 50 people that day!
I have lots more to update everyone on, but for now this should keep you busy! I've included an album with pictures from Dia de los Muertos, including pictures of ofrendas here in Puebla, pictures from the market, and some others. Hope everyone is well!
http://picasaweb.google.com/eharanin/DiaDeLosMuertos?authkey=oseY7y0MqXs#
