sorry it's been awhile...

So, I know it's been awhile since I've written, sorry about that. I've got a bit of a fever today so I have some time to catch you up...

Life is good. It's been a bit crazy around here lately with the festivals for the town's other patron saint, San Rocca (sp?). Every day for the last week there was a mini-parade consisting of a band and one float with the queen of something or other on it. The floats are always taller than the power lines so they have people go in front with tall sticks to lift them up. One of the first days they had all the "queens" on floats pulled by some of the most beautiful cows I have ever seen :) The ladies themselves were dressed up as the goddess of coffee, goddess of agriculture, goddess of fire, etc. My first thought was "how pagan." hehe.  The girls love these little parades and we all rush to the door to watch and they ooh and ahh...by Sunday some of them were getting tired of it but for the most part it stayed exciting for them. Monday was the actual feast day so we had a big mass in the morning and there was another procession at night, this time it was MUCH bigger though. All the queens (like 15 or so) were there and they had a sound system in a truck and we prayed the rosary as we went. Of course they didn't formally close any of the streets so at one point we had to wait for a semi to back down the hill, in the dark, while the band kept playing in front of them. Classic.

Unfortunately I didn't make it to the Sounders game :( I really wanted to but I asked one of the girls how far Metapan was and she told me 4 hours. I knew there was no way I was ever going to get permission, especially with the animator gone, and by myself. Probably good I didn't go to Metapan because the game was in San Salvador.

I did however get to visit a couple of the houses of the girls who work in the bakery. The first was up by El Chingo, the volcano, near the border of Guatemala, and her family (13 people) had a couple of cows, coffee, corn, and various other tropical fruits growing right next to their house. While we were there we helped shuck corn and then we cut the skins for tamales and took the corn off the cob. We walked the corn down to a neighbors who had a mill and they ground it for us right there. I think they charged a dollar for the whole basin. We made tortillas (which we had for lunch) and tamales (which we had for dinner).  Yum! The tamales here are way better than anything I've had in the states. Not sure why but I think it might be the corn. They have a starchier white corn here that they use for everything...one of my favorite foods is atol which I guess is kind of like grits but made with this corn and usually with cinnamon and sugar.

The other house I visited last weekend and got to spend the night. The most exciting part was probably that we went dancing at the local club. Keep in mind this was a very small town; we almost got run over by a horse on the way in. The club was a cmu (concrete block) shed with a sound system, fog machine and colored lights. All the music was good, and it felt so good to dance!! Unfortunately there were about twice as many guys as there were girls, and they were pretty into grinding. If there wasn't a girl to dance with, they would grind with another guy, or many others in a pseudo-mosh situation. gross. I made sure there was always enough room for a really really big bible between me and the people I was dancing with. Also, Violetta, the girl I went with, would not let me dance with certain people she deemed "rats" and would periodically come rescue me from creepy old dudes. It was actually pretty funny because if they got too close I would dance farther away from them so they sort of ended up chasing me all over the dance floor. At one point I counted and I was dancing with seven guys at the same time...I think they knew their chances of getting to dance with me were better in a group. If they repeatedly got to close I would cross my arms and go sit down, so after awhile they started trying to hold each other back to give me space which was nice. When that didn't work I pulled out the old kick the person in front, kick the person in back dance move :) I excluded this bit from my recounting of the weekend to the sisters...

Another highlight was getting into a deep theological discussion with her evangelical grandfather in Spanish over coca-cola and pan dulce...

It was really cool to see the real living situations of people here outside of the city. Most of the houses are a sort of concrete/mud combo and have a separate little building for cooking (over a fire). Violetta's house had three rooms, two with beds and a central room with tv, stereo, gas stove and wardrobe. I guess it was sort of their living room.  The bathrooms are outhouses and the sinks are the same as the concrete wash basins we have here. It was beautiful, but it sort of felt like camping. I wondered what it would be like every day...they don't have to worry about winter weather so there is a lot of stuff we have that would be totally superfluous to them, but they still watch tv and envy what we have. It doesn't help that everyone in Disney movies is about 5 times richer than most folks I know, but the truth is we do have more stuff.

To what end and purpose to we have all this stuff? Would their lives be better if they had more stuff? Would our lives be better if we had less stuff? Where does it stop being good and holy comfort and start being a distraction from what is good and holy? And furthermore, what good does it serve to have so many people leaving their own countries in pursuit of this stuff? They say in pursuit of work, but I do wonder if there are unspoken stipulations on that work. For example, many of my friends and I have had a hard time finding jobs post-college, but the jack-in-the-box by my parents' was always hiring.

A few things I know:
   Work is important. More than for the money it provides, for the sense of dignity and productivity it imparts and for the ways it keeps us from boredom and idle habits that lead to choices that hurt ourselves, others and our relationship with God. Boredom is the enemy of holiness. Time to yourself is just dandy as long as you already possess the self-discipline to use it well, otherwise it can be a problem. Having said that, I think a self-disciplined person can keep themselves from being bored no matter what: there are always things to think about, prayers to pray, and patience always needs more practicing.
   Good food is important. Food that nourishes your body and keeps you in health.
   People who care about you are important.  Without people to share this journey with, the very daily little adventures, none of it means much.
   A place to sleep and sit that protects you from the elements and hopefully is a bit soft.
   Intellectual stimulation, from the people, the work, or from books or other sources is important.

If you've got all of these things in your life, give thanks. If you know someone who doesn't, be the person who cares.