Pascua and Santos Semana

Easter and Holy Week:



There is an excitement everywhere about the up-coming holiday. Even though this is called the approach of winter - this is when plastic pools, lawn chairs and barbecues are sold in every store. The dry season is almost over and in a month the rainy season begins. There is a lavender blossom on the jacaranda trees that is so riviting. The blossoms looks like a blueish grey mist from a distance. These trees grow everywhere here along the sides of streets but I hadn't noticed them until they began to blossom. The blossoms have a faint, sweet and very exquisite smell that causes me to try to want to keep breathing in and not out as the perfume comes and goes with the breeze. If I breathe out I might miss the next waft of perfume.

This is Easter or Pascua or is Holy Week, and there is a feeling of sweet reverence as families make elaborate plans to celebrate this holiday. School is out for 5 days, but in this instance, the focus is on Jesus Christ and the events that went on in the last week of His life. This is a week full of traditional activities. We are in charge of family home evening this next Monday and we have asked a member of the church to come and talk to our group about Guatemalan Easter traditions. We have also asked this man to take 14 of us to Antigua on the 10th in a large van. He does travels and tours and is also a member of the church, and he is very gracious about making sure all us gringos get a good chance to participate in Guatemalan culture. James and Tammy will be with us. In fact, we planned this for them, but now 14 of the Senior Missionaries are going to go with us.



I will digress for a moment and mention that Family Home Evening last Monday night was so much fun. Every one came with a silly skit. We did a very goofy routine I remembered from girl's camp years ago. It took about 2 minutes for the Bawdens and the Taylors to put on this melodrama and make complete and utter fools of ourselves. Dad was the villian, Marilyn the heroine, Dean was the hero with balloons in his arms and legs for muscles and I was the narrator. We invited a young woman from our office who is not a member of the church to join us . I have learned to love her. She, in turn, brought her boyfriend and her mom. They were so delighted with all the foolishness they asked if they could come again. The point of this is that Julio, the boyfriend, and his family make an ALFOMBRA each Easter. And that is the reason for the detour in the narrative I just made. He was so taken with all the activities at FHE that has invited us to take part in the making of his family alfombra. We never, ever dreamed of being a part of something like this. We didn't know there were alfombras made in Guatemala City, but we have now been included in the Pascua tradition here in the city. I will try to illustrate what this is; however the pictures will have to wait a week and a half 'till we go to zone 1 on Wednesday (8th) and Friday to Antigua (10th) with Tammy and James.

The alfombras in Antigua are famous all over the world, and everyone says that the world actually does seem to come to Antigua to see these carpets. There will be crowds of people, but the city is large enough to accomodate all of us. I don't care about the crowds because these carpets take my breath away.

Alfombra just means carpet and that is the vocabulary word that defines any carpet. But the Pascua carpets are unusual and typical mainly for Guatemala. I have only seen one up till now, and it was made in the lobby of our largest hotel for a brief time. It was fairly small - think twice the size of our living room in Salt Lake, but I have an idea, now, of how fantastic they actually are.

Streets are closed as each alfombra takes up about half a city block (60' x 20'). Families plan every detail, draw, obtain the molds, the sawdust, the dye etc. months ahead. Aunts, uncles, parents, kids, neighbors, cousins, and strangers who have been invited (like we were)begin to build the alfombra early in the morning. The family will clean the street and lay a layer of sand. Most of the streets are a type of cobblestone so all the cracks and spaces between stones have to be filled with sand. It is leveled and packed. Then comes the drama. All the sawdust that has been dyed prior to this day is brought into the street. The pattern, molds, and stencils that have been crafted for months are laid on top of this huge structure. From here on out the carpet is made with colorful sawdust of all the brightest colors. Everyone works on this as quick as they can, but everyone has been rehearsed and all know their jobs and they are ready. The edges come first, then the middle and then the beautiful fruit, designs, cultural depictions and finally the middle edge where everyone walks out at the end of the project. Evidently there will be 60 of these in Zona 1 this year. At noon, all the alfombras are finished. Looking at them, you would be sure these were fine wool and silk carpets. Even upon close inspection one can't tell this is sawdust.

At this point, everyone goes up and down streets admiring each other's creations. The purpose for all this work is made evident at this time, as then, from the Cathedral, a huge procession enters the street. Many men hold up a platform of beautifully carved wood with a standing sculpture of Christ, usually in blue and holding a golden cross. He is larger than life size and the whole structure is extremely heavy.

The procession begins to travel up and down the streets, and street by street, the procession will walk through the middle of each alfombra in turn. It takes about 12 hours to go the whole route and the men in their best suits and traditional clothes take 5 minute turns in carrying the casket. The young man who came to our FHE showed me the photo his family took as he was taking his turn last year. This is a very Catholic tradition, and the lore has it that as the procession walks through the alfombra the family is cleansed. This is why they work so hard for months and put their very best effort into this.

Now, this is just in Guatemala City. The alfombras in Antigua are even more grand, evidently, and we will see those on Friday the 10th. I don't know when the procession (s) begin there, but I know they take a longer time for display than the carpets in the capitol city. We are looking forward to this and I will take pictures to put in my journal.

Guatemala is the marshmallow capitol of the world. This has nothing to do with Easter, but I must mention this observation. Cotton candy is sold on every street corner and marshmallows in every size, shape and color are sold in every store in the candy section. Guatemalans' love sweets. Maybe this is why I love them so much!

We have had several special opportunities for missionary work the last week and I am so grateful when these moments come. We don't get a much of a chance to do this sort of thing as lots of what we do is administrative. We are grateful for every one of these little contacts.

James and Tammy will come in a week and a half and we have planned some fun activities. I hope they don't get too tired. We are so excited and looking forward to being with them.

The week after they leave we will be involved in a huge dental project called a "dental brigade". We were able to see one of these projects last Fall, and we are excited to be able to participate in this one. Dad will be working on the physical exam side of this. Several times a year, in different places in Central America, a stake center is set aside for 20 or 30 dentists from the United States to come and bring all their equipment. They bring everything from their offices: chairs, drills, surgical instruments...in fact they strip their offices. They set up 20 - 30 separate offices, all in the gymnasium. The purpose of this is to help prepare the young women and young men in Central America who have already spoken to their bishops and stake presidents about a mission. This project will help prepare the way for these future missionaries to address medical and dental requirements that would ordinarily be impossible for them to accomplish on their own. The dentists do surgery, wisdom teeth, cavity repair, in fact, they do everything. There are over a thousand pre-missionaries already signed up for this one. This will take 10 days altogether and everyone will work dawn till dusk. If a missionary needs repeated care, he will come every day of the brigade until his work is completed. This type of help is needed in Central America as most applicants cannot afford to have dental problems resolved.

We will then go to El Salvador for a week of Zone Conferences in May. Before that, we will go to Tegucigalpa, Honduras in April for a two day training. Next we go to the South Guatemala City Mission in June. We have two or three other immediate trips in the next several months but they are still in the planning stage. Finally, our Central America Medical Directory has been printed and distributed to the Missions. This was a huge job and I am so glad to have it behind me. We have one other huge project we are working on, and that will probably take the next six months to complete. There is much to do and everything is one big adventure. We are very tired at night and we are so glad to come home to our cozy, little apartment. We love it and are very grateful for it!

Our church building is nearly finished and we are practicing our choir for the dedication. Our little branch is so excited and so are we. Our building will be beautiful and is, by far, the loveliest structure in this little town, although it nestles right into the landscape and is not intrusive. We love our Branch and the people in it. Everyone is so patient with us even though we simply cannot learn Spanish. Hugs and loves are the same language no matter where in the world one might be.

Our Central America Health Newsletter just gets better and better each month. It is so much fun for dad and I to tackle this project together.

Many eyeglass projects are scheduled for the next few months: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, etc. then, I think, after this batch of glasses is used up we will be finished with this project. We have a pressing project we must finish before we leave in December.

As we think of this project we realize that we have been partners with the kindest most generous people in the world. The hard work has been done by all of you. We get to do the fun part. We love our family and friends for eveyone's vast contribution of glasses. There will have been close to 3,000 pair of glasses distributed by the time we are finished. Think of this from your perspective. Consider the money you have donated, the time you have taken to accumlate and prepare and send, and the love you have given to us with every pair of glasses. This has been so overwhelming to us and it is difficult to describe our gratitude.

Buenas Noches!