Easter Break & Back to School

On Monday I celebrated a wonderful American tradition with some of my women's groups...

...an Easter egg hunt!

The week leading up to Easter is a very big deal here in Guatemala. Last year I spent a big part of the week traveling, so this year I decided to stay in site and see what happens in Soledad Grande for Easter. The week can basically be summed up like this: make semitas (sweet bread made from whole wheat flour), eat semitas, go to church, repeat. And that's about what I did too! I spent Tuesday and Wednesday baking with some of my women's groups, and learned how to make two different variations of this tasty Semana Santa treat. One was made of wheat flour, sugar, eggs, and yeast, while the other also included a sourdough base and ricotta cheese to make it much more moist. Both were delicious!

Working on dough for semitas in Las Ilusiones

Thursday I spent most of the day preparing for Emelin's birthday lunch on Friday. I made two cakes (carrot pineapple and lemon) and helped Sole chop vegetables, pluck chickens and clean the house. On Friday morning we got everything ready for lunch (chicken soup, rice, melon smoothies, and coleslaw), then headed to church for a service commemorating the suffering of Jesus on the path to the cross. It was really quite beautiful. They had set up 14 altars made of colored sawdust, flowers, palm leaves, and candles. Starting at the church we followed a procession around to each altar, stopping to read scripture and pray at each one. The first altar on the procession.

As soon as the service was over, we rushed home to Emelin's birthday lunch. Sole originally wanted to celebrate Emelin's birthday with a small lunch, just the four of us. But then she decided to invite Emelin's grandparents, which meant she had to invite her aunts and uncles and cousins as well...so we ended up having a nice "small" group of 26 people!

Happy Birthday Emelin!

By the time the soup was eaten, the candles blown out, wishes made, cake eaten, and dishes washed, it was time to head back to church. Sole joked that the only thing that Guatemalans are on time for all year is this service on Good Friday: it's at 3pm, the hour of Christ's death. Saturday gave us some time to relax after all of our scurrying about the night before, but at 4pm there was a candlelight vigil and mass, which I went to as well. The best part was actually after the service: they had a bingo tent set up behind the church! I came pretty close to winning a huge plastic bucket. Darn my bad luck...

Easter morning dawned surprisingly clear and bright, after a week of off and on rain showers. I went to town to visit my neighboring volunteers, and decided to go to mass. I mean, after all, I can't miss church on Easter Sunday! But strangely, there wasn't anything very special about the service. It seems like Guatemalans put most of their Semana Santa efforts into the days leading up to Easter. They celebrate the resurrection on Saturday night, not Sunday morning. But nevertheless, it was interesting to see what customs people have here, and wonderfully relaxing to hang out with my friends!

After all the excitement of Semana Santa, I was glad to get back to work on Monday (and kind of happy that the semitas were all gone, and that I wasn't going to be expected to go to church every day anymore!) It was especially nice to start working in the schools again- apparently the teacher strike is over, and things are back to normal. I'm excited to start working on my school gardens since the rainy season is imminent. Especially in Soledad Grande. Last year we got permission to plant our garden on part of the school's land, but the elementary kids did a wonderful job of stomping on, pulling up, or otherwise ruining everything that we planted. This year I have permission to use a nice little fenced in store yard practically next door to the school. Hopefully things will go better there!