Wedding Weekend!! And Gardens Galore.

There is never a boring day in Morelos, México! Every week brings something new and exciting, and an experience that I may never have again in my life.

This past weekend is a perfect example of one which will probably never occur again in my life... Not only did I get to go to a traditional Mexican wedding, but I also had the opportunity to try on Mexican wedding dresses with some of the other volunteers. And the exciting news: we're going to be in a wedding catalogue!! Keep your eyes peeled :)

When I say traditional Mexican wedding, I didn't know what to expect when we first went up to Santo Domingo Ocotitlán. Soledad, the lovely woman I work with, was nice enough to invite me to the festivities. She had the honor of being one of the godmothers of the wedding, meaning she is in charge of a certain aspect of the party. She was the "cake godmother," meaning she provided the wedding cake (which turned out amazingly well as you will soon see!) Being a godmother, she could invite whoever she wanted, and I had the chance to go!

The wedding was very interesting because it wasn't the first time the bride and the groom had been married. Years ago, they had their civil marriage, and this one was their religious wedding (there are two types of weddings in Mexico). With just a civil wedding, they weren't considered married under the eyes of God. One year ago, their son died in an accident, and his wish was that they got married in the church. So, this wedding was a little bittersweet because they were celebrating their holy matrimony while also honoring their son's memory. Above, you can see the novia (bride) walking into the church where they had the misa.

As someone who has never been to church, it was quite an experience to see the whole process, which involved not only singing and prayer, but a baptism, confession, the eating of the Eucharist, and a point where everyone went around, shook each other's hands, and said "que la paz esté contigo" (that peace is with you). 

After the misa, we headed to the fiesta, which was held at the novio's house. Here's Sol and her husband, Francisco, enjoying some of the yummy food at the wedding. We had fresh tortillas, nopales, arroz, y carnitas for dinner. And of course a few chelas to wash down the food :)

Probably the most entertaining part of the wedding was the traditional baile de huajalote, which means turkey dance, and is a dance that is specifically used in Ocotitlán... This involves an actual live turkey being hoisted onto the back of the groom, who then proceeds to dance around in a circle with the bird. Then, everyone else proceeds to dance with the groom and the turkey. The procession then walks to the house of the bride, where the turkey is presented as a gift to the family. El huajalote represents prosperity and good health, but all I could think about the whole time was the poor turkey being upside-down and how it would soon be made into a turkey dinner.

For the rest of the wedding, we ate a lot of yummy food, danced some traditional Mexican wedding dances, listened to banda music, and enjoyed the bottles of tequila that were being passed around. Above you can see the huge wedding cake that Sol contributed to the fiesta. It was quite the cultural experience!

On Sunday, we met up to do the vestido de novia photo shoot. Sol's mother owns a wedding dress store, and is starting a campaign in order to advertise her dresses. So, we offered to be her models and try on all of her dresses :) Here are some photos we took, and eventually the catalogue will come out with all the finished photos:

The catalogue should be coming out within the next few months, so I'll post some of the final product when the time comes!

Along with a productive wedding weekend, we had some fun garden adventures during the week:

The other volunteers came to Santo Domingo Ocotitlán with me and Sol to install a water irrigation system, and also work in the garden. We finished weeding the rest of the beds, which were overrun with big nasty weeds, and also almost finished the water system, which will be used from now on to water the plants!

We also had a very appetizing lunch of tacos acorazados, which is a taco with rice, meat, nopales, chiles, and whatever else you want to put on it. We then cooked up some corn on the cob (elotes) as a final lunch snack.

After a hard day of work, we kicked off our dirty shoes and stuck our feet in Casa Hoy's pool. Chilly but refreshing!

I also had the opportunity to work with a new organization this week called CultiNatura Orgánicos, which is a small organic family farm that sells their organic products to local markets, restaurants, and neighbors. They have the most delicious strawberries, lettuce, spinach, and tomatoes I've tried since being here!

Along with helping out in the garden, cleaning strawberries, painting the greenhouses, and watering the plants, Alex (the founder of the organization) and I washed his cute little doggies, and cooked some amazing dishes using a lot of the produce from his backyard! Here's a veggie lasagna we made using spinach and tomatoes from the garden.

And a kick-ass organic salad made with fresh fruta y verduras!

Coming up in a few days is Día de los Muertos, which is one of the most celebrated holidays in México. It occurs on November 1st and 2nd, and is a holiday to remember family and friends that have passed away. The volunteers and I will be headed down to Oaxaca for the festivities, so keep your eyes open for next week's blog about this very cultural holiday!!!

¡Nos vemos!

Don't ferget yer fruits and veggies!

"In Vermont, authenticity is all; they do not try to keep it real; they are real."

This quote kept running through my head as more and more people loaded pictures of the beautiful Vermont foliage on Facebook and Instagram this week. Seeing all these incredible pictures reminds me of how much I appreciate being from such a wonderful state and having grown up there as well. Makes me miss home and all the great people I've met there throughout my lifetime!

That's not to say that I'm not having an amazing time in México, and that I'm not enjoying every second of my time here! I've grown to appreciate Mexico, the people, the culture, the language, and the food in a way that I feel like I can call it home now. I've really started to settle into the everyday Mexican life, and surprisingly enough there are elements that are very similar to Vermont (The downtown area has cafes like Church Street, and there are rural areas that are packed full of pine trees and cows!)

Along with how great the city and its surrounding areas have been, this week was jam-packed full of veggies, fruits, and great music!

Some of the volunteers got the chance to come up to Santo Domingo Ocotitlán to work on the huerta (And they got to ride up in style in the back of a truck.) We weeded and tore out a bunch of unwanted plants in and around the beds, and then watered and weeded some more.

We also got to eat an amaaazing lunch right there in the campo!

On Wednesday Mark and I had the chance to go up to Santo Domingo, and on our way back down to Cuernavaca we ate in the Tepoztlán market with Soledad, one of the staff members at the Fundación. Here's Mark enjoying some horchata and a huge taco.

On Thursday, I went to La Huerta de Lucía. We transplanted some lechuga, and got the chance to relax under some shade while eating some delicious snacks and sipping on coffee.

On Friday night a bunch of us went to an amaazing concert a little bit outside of Cuernavaca in an area called Acapantzingo. 

The two headliners of the concert were Los Amigos Invisibles and Nortec Collective. If you want to listen to some of their music, check out these YouTube vids:

Los Amigos Invisibles- "Yo No Sé"

Nortec Collective- "Tijuana Bass"

It was really great to see Nortec because a couple of days ago we went and saw a documentary about them. It explained how they formed as a band, their specific sound, and also about the culture of Tijuana. It's called Tijuana: Sonidos Del Nortec if anyone is interested.

Besides dancing our patoots off at this concert, Gerardo and I had the chance to go backstage and meet the Nortec Collective! We had to fib a little to get in, but it was a really fun and special experience to meet such a famous Mexican band!



Sunday was the most eventful day of the week. Soledad, her husband, four people from Santo Domingo Ocotitlán, and I drove to the Mercado el 100 in el D.F. (Mexico City) to sell the crops that the people of Ocotitlán had harvested and grown!

I made these signs for the market :)

 OrganiCOTITLÁN selling some of their hortalizas, frutas, y hierbas in the market!

 Soledad sealing the deal with some market-goers!

 Selling some ciruelas.. DELICIOUS, fresh produce!

 Soledad and Mari also gave a workshop on three medicinal herbs that aren't very commonly used in Mexico, but are popular in Santo Domingo. They taught about axihuitl, té de monte, and hoja de zapote. All of these herbs they made into a tea, which can be drank for various ailments, such as to relieve high blood pressure, stress, or to help you sleep at night.

 I got to drive in Mexico City! It wasn't as bad as I anticipated, except for the crazy motorcycle drivers, the cars getting within two inches of our car, the streets that appeared out of nowhere, and the couple of accidents that we saw en el camino. Besides that, it was just like driving in any other city :)

And the views along the way were gorgeous! (See, it's kind of like Vermont!)

This next week involves more gardening, working on new projects, learning more spanish, and of course eating awesome food!

Nos vemos :)

This Worm is My Best Friend

For the past few weeks, I've been working with La Fundación to implement and construct a vermicomposting system in Santo Domingo Ocotitlán. Well this week it finally happened, and the community will start their vermicomposting production, which will hopefully last for years and years to come! For those of you who don't know what a vermicompost is, here's a picture of what goes into the compost:

Yup, those are worms. But they're not just any worm. These worms are much more productive than your everyday wriggler. These are a species called Eisenia fetida, which produce some of the best compost around in a very efficient manner.

The reason why Santo Domingo wanted a vermicomposting system (lombricomposta en español) as opposed to a traditional compost system, is because these red wrigglers produce some amazing compost that they can use on their crops, helping the garden grow some pretty tasty fruits and veggies. Along with this, they can also make a profit from the worms, compost, and compost tea that will be created over the next few months. These little wiggly wormies produce and duplicate extremely fast, so eventually the village can create a small business by selling their organic products. Pretty cool, eh?

On Tuesday, I gave a quick presentation to a few people in the community about vermicomposting basics, and different techniques on how to grow and care for the worms. On Wednesday, a woman who sold us the actual worms came up to the village, gave a workshop, and helped us set up the vermicompost.

 Here's Carolina explaining how to set up the compost

 Don Isauro mixed the precomposted material that will be the food and home for the wormies for the next few months.

We then placed the worms in the compost, and watered it so the worms would be in a humid environment (they will die if it's not moist enough, and will also die if it's too wet).

Y voila! Now you have your compost and you wait to see the amazing effects that these little creatures have on compost, not to mention all the soil in the world! Pretty impressive :)

Besides playing with worms this week, I worked at La Huerta de Lucía again, cleaning up strawberry plants and transplanting lettuce. This little farm and orchard is a tranquil paradise, so it's a nice little escape from the city life. Not to mention that you can pull ciruelas straight off the tree and pop them in your mouth :) NOMNOM

 We've been getting situated in our new house this week, getting accustomed to the new location, learning how to live together (there's about a dozen of us in the house in total, so it can get a little hectic every once in a while). We have this awesome terraza that gives a great view of the cathedrals in the center, and it's a great place to kick your feet up for a couple of hours.

We also got five new volunteers this week!! Two from Los Estados Unidos, two from Australia, and one from Canada. Welcome new volunteers!!! 

Yesterday we had a little adventure when Gerardo was nice enough to bring us to a festival in Tepoztlán. The event was a fundraiser for a new alternative secondary school called TerraMar. In order to raise funds, they invited people to listen to GREAT music, watch a circus, eat delicious local breads, desserts, veggie burgers, traditional mexican food, and also play with their contraptions that someone had constructed out of recycled metal (bikes, weight machines, and German wheels for the circus!)! It was a great opportunity to meet some more people who are really involved with the community, and who are doing some incredible alternative projects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVxTiYVCHw&feature=youtu.be

An amazing band called Sonidero Meztizo played. They are a couple, the chica from Chile, the muchacho from México, who sing/rap about the political and social atmosphere in Mexico. They believe in a united South and Central America, and the social and political changes that need to happen. Powerful messages!

Clowns, fun mirrors, German wheels, trapeze

 We all piled into the back of a car for the ride back. How many güeras can you fit into a car?

After the festival, we had a going away dinner for Link, who has been a volunteer here for the past 3 months, and the Mama Bear of the group :). We went to a delicious restaurant called La Maga (best sandwich I've had in Mexico), and then went dancing and fiesta-ing for a few hours. A very fun night indeed!

My advice this week: Play with more worms :)

Nos Vemos!!