Family Thanksgiving: Scratch the Turkey, Let's Eat Some Tacos!

Today is my three month anniversary in Mexico! It's hard to believe how fast time flies when you're having a great time, meeting so many interesting people, and when you're learning so much about yourself and a different culture. Every day Mexico provides me with an experience that is new, different, exciting, frustrating, thought-provoking, and most of all awesome!

So these past few weeks have been full of garden/farm-work, meeting new volunteers and interns, and the most exciting part, FAMILY!

In Santo Domingo Ocotitlán, we installed a water irrigation system (sistema de riego). Unfortunately it took a few tries before the pump actually functioned to its full potential, but the system is finally up and running!! And very much needed because it's the dry season here:

 Here are the lovely hombres of Sto. Dom. installing the system. We had to heat up every tube by hand over a makeshift fire so we could connect them. Quite the project!

At CultiNatura, we got down and dirty by collecting caca de vaca for Alex's compost pile. In this situation, one must be careful not to walk too far into the poo pile, for fear of getting stuck and perhaps falling on their face. Luckily, the situation didn't get too sticky, and we succeeded in collecting about 40 sacks full of potent cowplops!

Job well done, if I do say so myself :)

We also had the opportunity to take a gorgeous trip up into the campo, where we collected bags full of dried leaves for another compost pile. It was really nice to get away from the city for a bit to be in such a tranquil area. Kind of reminded me of Vermont. AND Alex was nice enough to bring us a scrumptious lunch that we cooked over a campfire. Nothing like fresh tortillas, salsa, avocado, frijoles, chapulines, nopales, and agua de frutas to finish off a hard day's work.

The best part of the past few weeks was when the Gittelsohns (Pops, Ellen, and Isaac) had the chance to come visit me over Thanksgiving vacation!

 We spent a day putzing around the D.F., sightseeing, eating a delicious breakfast at El Cardenal (amazing chocolate and pan dulce), ascending La Torre Latinoamericana to see a beautiful view of the whole city, and just spending time together before heading to Cuernavaca for the week.

 Isaac tried some fresh fruit juice from the kiosko.

 We hiked the Tepozteco in Tepoztlán only to be greeted by these little creatures (called Tejones). They were very friendly because they usually get little nibbles from hikers. However, there is a campaign to return them to their natural habitat, so feeding them is prohibited.

 We ended up going to Xochicalco, but unfortunately the Observatorio was closed. Regardless, it was a gorgeous day, and you could see for miles and miles around. Here's Ellen taking in the view from one of the temples.

Surprisingly enough, we didn't eat turkey for Thanksgiving, but we were having too much fun sampling all the good food in Cuernavaca and the surrounding cities. And besides Isaac getting sick for a couple of days (which regrettably can happen down here), we had a GREAT vacation together. Thanks for coming down padres!!!

We also did a fun Casa Hoy activity this weekend involving amigos secretos, where we all had a secret friend that we had to give little gifts to throughout the week to make them happy. Look what my amigo secreto gave me :)

Gracias Secret Friend (aka Carlos!)

On the Mexican agenda this week: More Mexican food, more Spanish, more volunteering, meeting new volunteers, and of course more fun activities with Casa Hoy!
Nos vemos... 

El Día de los Muertos: La Semana de las Fiestas

The past two weeks in México have been filled with preparation and celebration of  Día de los Muertos, a very important mexican holiday which honors and celebrates loved ones, friends, or important figures who have passed away. Let me give you a little background of this very special holiday:

The Day of the Dead holiday has been celebrated for perhaps thousands of years in the valley of Mexico. It used to be celebrated in the beginning of August in conjunction with the Aztec Calendar, in honor of the Goddess Mictecacihuatl, or "Lady of the Dead" (which now resembles La Catrina, which you can see all over Mexico). It is now celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November, coinciding with the Catholic holidays of All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day. Modern day Día de los Muertos mixes both Catholic and Indigenous beliefs, but it's really amazing to see such strong indigenous traditions still being practiced and honored. The 1st of November is in recognition of passed kids and infants, and the 2nd is to honor adults. This holiday has now spread all over the world, and is practiced in  places such as Brazil, Europe, the U.S., and in other Latin American countries. However, it's prevalence is still most strongly felt in Mexico.

As is custom on Día de los Muertos, people go to cemeteries to be with their deceased loved ones, where they set up not only the favorite foods and beverages for those passed away, but they also bring toys, flowers, pictures, and other rememberances. This is to encourage the souls of the dead to find their  way back to their families in order to spend time with them. Here's a pretty cool picture explaining what is generally put on the altars, and their significance:

All the cemeteries throughout Mexico were buzzing with life (ironic?) during these past few weeks. Here's a cemetery we visited right before the festivities started:

This is how they can look during the week of Day of the Dead.

Most families also do personal altars in their houses. We did our own little altar in the Casa Hoy house, and we dedicated it to all the fallen travelers.

The preparations for Día de los Muertos are extensive. Weeks before the actual holiday, you could go into the markets and buy calaveras (candy skulls), velas (candles), cempazuchitl (marigolds), and pan de muerto (dead bread) for the altars. What I love about Día de los Muertos is that it's a celebration of death, not just the mourning of passed loved ones. Dead ones aren't just put in the past, they are honored every year in a beautiful gathering, and you will even see people laughing and being cheerful as they remember past experiences they had with the deceased. It's just a very different view of death, and very eye-opening.

For Día de los Muertos, the majority of the volunteers and I headed down to Oaxaca to experience a Oaxacan Day of the Dead, and also to visit the city. It was my first time being back since studying abroad there almost THREE years ago! So it was quite the amazing experience to be able to go back to such a special place and visit some good friends :)

There were altars and tapetes all over Oaxaca city:

 The chicos decided to join in on the festivities and dress up as skeletons one night before we went to a Panteon.

 Unfortunately, we got to the cemetery a little too late to see people giving offerings and talking to their loved ones, but the cemetery was absolutely beautiful with such an intense energy. I've never felt an energy like that.

Here's a video of a really cool calenda that passed through the center of the city.

While in Oaxaca, I had the opportunity to stay with my two lovely and dear friends, Amber and Jonathan. We spent time bummin' around the city, eating delicious food, drinking mezcal, shopping in the markets, and just catching up! If you ever make it to Oaxaca, look for Jonathan in Carmen Alto (by the Church of Santo Domingo) selling his amazing hand-made jewelry!

Beautiful Oaxaca :)

Back to the grind in Cuerna! This week I've been working in Santo Domingo Ocotitlán, with CultiNatura Orgánicos, and at La Huerta de Lucia, and just getting back into the groove of things. I also had to say goodbye to SIX volunteers this week, as they either went back to their respective parts of the world or embarked on more traveling journeys throughout Central America, the U.S., and Europe! Good travels volunteers, will miss you lots! On the positive side of things, two more volunteers joined the Casa Hoy team from Australia, and there are now two wonderful interns who will be working with Casa Hoy for the next few months. Welcome new volunteers and interns!!

Also more exciting news: My dad, step mom, and little bro will be coming here in a week to spend Thanksgiving vaca down here. VERY EXCITED!

Hasta el próximo! Nos vemos :)

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!