Several días festivos: All Saint's Day, Halloween, and the Day of the Dead

El Día de los Santos

Just eight hours after I arrived back to Cuernavaca from my trip home, I woke up at the beautiful hour of 5 am to celebrate one of the most fun days of the year at NPH-Mexico: El día de los santos (All Saint's Day). It is a day in which they celebrate all the kids' birthdays. The kid mariachi band goes from dorm to dorm, playing "Las Mañanitas" to wake everyone up, from the youngest kids to the oldest. It is a shame we don't celebrate this one in the US.

Edith (my roommate and fellow volunteer), Veckry (one of the full-time caregivers), and I went down to the house at 5 am to first wake up the estudiantina (band) boys who were sleeping in the game room. They sleepily grabbed their instruments and we all quietly sneaked up the stairs to the large girls' dorm where the girls in 10th and 11th grade sleep. Once we were inside, the band arranged themselves in the middle of the room and after a "uno, dos, tres", began to play "Las Mañanitas" a traditional mariachi song for All Saint's Day. A rough translation of the song is: "These are the mañanitas (good morning songs) that King David sang. Today, since it's your saint's day (your birthday), we're singing them to you. Wake up, my dear, wake up! Look, it's already morning. The birds are already chirping, and the moon has gone away." It sounds way better in Spanish.

Lots of the kids groaned and pulled the sheets over their head, but some excitedly popped out of bed to join the group in singing to wake up the next section of kids. The girls especially had fun waking up the boys and mercilessly ripping their sheets away from them so they had to get up.

After "las mañanitas", everyone gathered on the patio and was served Tres Leches cake (delish!!) and hot chocolate. Some kids opted to go back to sleep but lots were up for good and were ready to start enjoying their day off from school. Several wanted to watch a movie so I ran upstairs and grabbed our dvd player to put on a movie down in the game room. Unfortunately, I had to go to work that day 8:30-1:30 like normal. It was so weird to have been up so long before going in!

Halloween

That night we celebrated Halloween with the kids since we hadn't done anything Sunday night. Several kids dressed up spooky-like...I was a "rockera de los 80" or 80's rocker girl. Upstairs in the big family room there was a dance contest of people in costumes and it was pretty hilarious. I was unwittingly roped into joining some girls in dancing to Lady Gaga in front of everyone, haha.

After that, there was a haunted house that several kids had put together in the little garden pathway down close to our house. I hate being chase, grabbed, and spooked, so I helped them with the smoke machine as people passed through. If disturbing people so much they puke is a sign of success, the haunted house was a great success. Lots of kids were hiding in the dark off the side of the path and threw food waste at the kids passing through....which is really disgusting. I was sitting off to the side and got hit several times, ugh! Fortunately, I didn't find out until later what they were throwing...it was dark and I just thought it was fruit or something.

El Día de los Muertos

I was really excited to see and experience the Day of the Dead in Mexico, because it is something we don't have in the US. I wanted to see what it was all about. I wasn't sure if it would be something like a Mexican Halloween. In the end, it was much more religious in nature than I was expecting.

The kids also had this day off from school. After getting up and having breakfast and they did their chores, we had mass at 11 am in the dining hall. There was a huge table set up on which was placed lots of flowers and tons of sweet goodies. There were calaveras, or sugar skulls, chocolate bars, and fruit, among other treats. This was the offering that was placed out the night before for the dead to come and feast on.

The mass that morning was very sad to me. It was to honor the deceased relatives of people connected NPH and to celebrate that they are now alive in heaven. The hardest part was when we all stood and Father Phil read a list of the deceased. It broke my heart to hear the last names of so many of the kids here that I love, as we honored their parents and other family members. I don't know how they do it, but these kids are tough cookies. I was trying not to cry but the kids stood there attently and strong. I really admire them for the strength they have, even if for some it may just be a front. Sometimes it's good and right to feel sad about sad things.

When the somber mass was over, the kids were called up according to section and were allowed to take treats from the offering to eat and we got pan de muertos, or dead bread, and hot chocolate. I grabbed a calavera and some flowers to take up to our house.

The rest of that day was super chill. We enjoyed a traditional meal of mole for lunch along with more pan de muertos. I just spent the day hanging out with the kids, watching movies, playing pool, getting sucked into telenovelas, you know, the usual.

The excitement of this week made leaving home again and coming back to the house a very easy transition, of that I'm thankful. I have to admit, though, on Wednesday, I was glad the kids were going back to school and that we picked back up with the normal routine...celebrating all the time can get exhausting!

I'll add pictures of the holidays soon!

Home, Sweet, Home

Can I just say I love my family, I love my friends, and I love North Carolina? But I do love my life here in Mexico a ton, too.

Last weekend I had the awesome opportunity to dash home for a few days. It was so wonderful to see my family and several friends. It was not too surprising that it was somewhat odd jetting back into my old NC life for a hot second. I had few moments of reverse culture shock that were kinda fun. Everything seemed easier in some way back home.

Some things that really stook out to me were: flushing toilet paper, drinking from water fountains, speaking English, seeing white/black/Asian/Indian (insert any other race besides Mexican) people, driving my car, eating American food, and shopping in US stores besides Wal Mart.

Some things that had changed in my absence were: the trees were the beautiful reds and oranges of fall, a Bojangles popped up down the street from my house, my mom got some pretty new flowers for our front porch, and now there's a Krispy Kreme on Franklin St., not to mention my brother currently has a low-functioning leg :( (is that nicer than calling you a gimp, Matt?).

Some of the things that haven't changed really caught my attention including my dog Grace, flipping out upon seeing me again and the fact that walking into my bedroom at home was like time-travelling. There was all my stuff just sitting there, lots of which I had forgotten about and realize I don't really need (but I like, but I forgot about, but I still like...it made me feel a little guilty, if you catch my drift).

My weekend was jam-packed and lots of fun!! Here's what I did:

I got in at 5 pm on Thursday night. My mom and Matt picked me up from the airport and we went directly to my favorite restaurant, La Shish, for delicious Greek food. After that, we went and did a little shopping for things to bring back to Mexico. We went home and I got to see my Dad and the dog. We talked for a while, I showed them some pictures, and we watched a goofey show before heading to bed. I was exhausted because I had woken up at 3:45 that morning (4:45 EST, but still) to take a taxi to take a bus to get to the airport.

Friday was my crazy day. I was slightly concerned when planning Friday because of how many different people I wanted to see, but it went really smoothly! I got to go see my grandma that morning, which was great. I grabbed lunch with Matt and my dad then went over to Brier Creek for some quick shopping for the kids. I got coffee with Jennifer and then booked it over to Chapel Hill to see Katie and grab dinner with Allison. Later, we met up with several friends at Yo-Po and ended up heading over to Allison, Priya, and Sue's apartment to talk and play a game. It was awesome to get to see everyone!!

Saturday I accidentally slept in and we just got ready for the wedding and headed to Greensboro. Laura and Stephen's wedding was beautiful and it was so great to see all the Winslows!! I'm excited for the next family wedding at New Years (Jenny & Dee's).

I will post pictures from my trip later on when I'm writing from my laptop (I'm on my work computer right now).

The best thing about going home was getting to spend time with my family.

I was so excited about coming home but was a bit worried that it would make me sad about leaving again and going back to Mexico after three days. It was sad and not fun to have to say goodbye to my family again. But coming back to Mexico was nothing like leaving the first time, and as soon as I got back, I got to hug the people I missed and jump right back into all the crazy activities that make up my life down here.

It was good to realize that when I got back to my apartment here in Mexico and saw my roommates and the kids, I felt the "home, sweet, home" feeling again...yep, I have a good life, regardless of what country I'm in.