Day of the Dead like you have never seen it before.

                At school, we did less preparation one and two days before the big Day of the Dead festival than one would expect. Of course we made up for it the day of. Whenever Eloina puts "8am-12pm normal classes" for everyone before a festival, know that it will really be 8-9am (or in my case 7-9am) normal classes before we start in on the organized chaos Eloina and the teachers like to call "set up."

                The only kind of preparation for the Day of the Dead celebration I did on Monday and Tuesday was make "pan de muerto" or dead bread or more likely bread of the dead. All the women who were making bread told me to come in again and again because according to them, I have soft hands which makes the dough soft also. At one point Lucerito (the cook) told me "Wille, will you just make all the bread?!" Of course, she was joking, but I did end up making most of it in the end.

               "Set up" on Wednesday for me started with washing pumpkins for a sweet pumpkin soup with Paola. After, I went over with Maya and Lore to help them set up the giant altar - which for all the time they had been "working" on it - had come along very little. We taped up "papel picado" (think square multi-colored snowflakes made by 3rd and 4th graders) on all the levels of the altar then we started in on the marigolds. I brought an armful and a bucket full of flowers to use for the altar; we put some in "vases" made out of chlorine holders for the pool. The rest of the flowers got their heads cut off to make a path of marigolds to the altar. Then we decked out the altar with offerings of sugar cane, bread of the dead and other little candies. There was one bread of the dead that was only half of one, and my art teacher, Lore and I ate it very suspiciously as crumbs fell from our mouths!
                After we finished the altar, Lore and I walked around seeing all the little kids get ready for their speaking part in our presentation. We kept trying to avoid getting dressed for the reading of legends. I didn't want to change into my dress because I was nervous how people in my class would react. In the end Lore and I got changed in a guest room in her grandma's house (which is right next to the school). I got into my dress and self-consciously put my hoodie over it. I walked around to the classrooms to check on my little friends. I was in one classroom when Evodio came by and seeing the bottom of my dress, he made a pose and then I pretended to punch him in the face. After that I was nervous he or anyone else would tease me more. But then the next thing I knew, he is telling me how I should wear the shawl (that Eloina let me borrow) with my dress! Then, Maya tells me that I look gorgeous so that makes me feel better. She gently forces me and Lore to put lipstick on and tells me to take my sweatshirt off.

Evodio's pose, more or less!

                The little kids line up to say their speaking parts and I stand with Lore, Maya and Evodio who mans the smoke machine. It's a job he seems to really enjoy! After the little kids' turn, they pull out a giant armchair for the story tellers (Maya and Paola) to read in. As Maya starts reading her legend, Lore (who is dressed as a nurse who is one of the characters from that legend) walks around to set the scene. While Maya reads, Evodio trains the smoke machine on her so that occasionally when the smoke is really bad she pauses till the smoke clears. Then it is Pao's and my turn. Pao starts to read and I cover my face with my shawl because the character I am playing is one who disfigures herself (by throwing coals on her face) because she is sick of being liked for her looks and wants to be recognized for who she really is on the inside. I walk around people with my face covered up and at one point I am walking behind Pao's armchair when the top part of my shawl falls off my head. I quickly walk over to Lore where she rights the shawl and I continue walking!
              The thing is a big success and we all gather in the kitchen after a picture and a change of clothes to eat bread, sweet pumpkin soup and tamales. Once Mariana got her makeup off (she was covered in it) she gave me many many hugs to make up for the ones she missed! I ran upstairs to get my backpack and I was out the classroom door when I thought Evodio said something. So I walked back to the door and say "Que?" (what?), and Evodio told me that I needed to say goodbye to him properly. I sighed and went over to give him a kiss on the cheek and went back out the door. Then I realized I need my other bag, so I got up,  got the other one and was at the top of the stairs when Evodio said again "Say goodbye to me properly." I stuck my tongue out at him and walked down the stairs. (And Lorena says he has a crush on me, can you believe it!!). My principal wouldn't let me leave the school without bringing food home so the next night we had left-overs. Note: here they call Day of the Dead, Día de Muertos instead of Día de los Muertos!

             Since we had Thursday and Friday off, we visited some different places to see how the different places celebrate the same holiday. On Thursday, my grandparents, dad, brother and I went to Romerillo which is a small town outside of San Cristobal that is not a hot spot for tourists. Once we realized how heavy the traffic was, we backed up and parked a bit away from the actual cemetery. What we saw was very different from what we expected. We expected indigenous people to be talking with their dead with shawls over there heads; what we really saw was a little fair set up with rides, stalls to buy food and clothes and men so drunk they were passed out cold on the ground. Families were gathered around the graves but it was still very different from what we had imagined. The typical offerings were flowers and a coke (how sad).
             We left after a short time there to make it back to our house in time to get ready for a Day of the Dead gathering at Doña Lesvias house. We got there and the family band sang (as beautifully as ever) and we ate delicious homemade food!
             My mom went home to work some more while the rest of us went to the market to shop for her birthday presents.
            The next day (Friday), Oscar and I stayed home to relax while the adults went to a cemetery to see the celebrations there. When they came back, we went to TierraAdentro (a really cool coffeeshop where I am writing this post from) and played games while we ate lunch. After we left, we went across the street to a lotion-natural-body-stuff store and secretly bought something for my mom's birthday.
          On Saturday, while my mom got a birthday massage with a professional masseuse, Oscar and I took Papa Tom and JoJo to get some things to make a cake for my mom. We went home, looked for recipes and realized we needed more ingredients. Papa Tom and JoJo went out and got the missing ingredient and we got to work....until we realized we needed another thing. Then they went out again to get flour (which we had some of but not enough). In the meantime I did what I could until they got back. We hurried more near to the end of the cake-making process because my mom was coming home and we were going to a museum. We used frosting that Auntie Sarah froze for us while she was here, (Thank you very much for making that,  Sarah; it saved us a lot of time.)
       We went to Sergio Castro's museum for a tour. Sergio Castro is a person that treats wounds for people who can't afford a real doctor. All the treatments he does are free of cost; he works seven days a week even though he is seventy something and not getting any younger. We got a tour, gave a donation and watched him treat a wound (even though it was roughly 7 o'clock at night!)
        After that, we went to Entropia (our favorite restaurant) to celebrate my mom's birthday. After another delicious meal, we went home and my mom opened her presents and ate cake.
       Sunday was sort of a weird day; we drove to Chamula to show our grandparents the amazing church there. The moment we opened the door to our car, indigenous kids swarmed us. They tied bracelets on our wrists quicker than you would think possible. They started out saying: "It's a gift; It's a gift" then "You can pay for it later" then "Pay for it now." We paid way more for them than they were worth but we finally escaped. We went inside the smoke-filled church. It was illuminated by candles and there were floral banners that seemed the sort of thing you would find in Connie's house (my piano teacher). It smelled of smoke and pine needles that were strewn over the floor. I heard chanting that the indigenous were doing to pray to a saint. The saints were in glass boxes because in the past, whenever one of their prayers wasn't answered, they would punish the statue--sometimes by sticking the statue's head in the ground--take that!!!
       We walked back to the car and again were surrounded by indigenous children. They told us we needed to pay for the bracelets that we had already paid for. Two of them wouldn't leave us alone and  when my dad tried to close the driver side drawer to drive away, one put her weight against it to keep it open. My dad started yelling at her to leave us alone, but she wouldn't. So he pushed her and quickly shut the door. Not one of his brightest moments but it had to be done. (Generally the people here are not aggressive like that, so that was weird.)