Parties Galore

For the Mexicans to supposedly be so much poorer than we are, they sure do like to spend a lot of money on 1. fiestas! A few weeks ago we went to the birthday party for a little girl at church who just turned one. Her parents rented a children´s hall just for the evento (Disneyland!) and invited everyone from la iglesia, as well as several other friends and relatives. It is not uncommon here for adultos to attend children´s birthday parties and even participate in some of the juegos. At this particular party, I really think there were close to 200 people—and only about ¼ of them were kids!!! Also, the parents invite any kid they know—edad doesn´t matter.

The little girl, Miriam, was dressed in a Snow White costume. Miriam´s hosts hired someone to paint the kids´ 2. caras, repeatedly brought us 3. refrescos and 4. platos of snacks, and broke at least 6 different piñatas—half for the kids, and half for the adult family members. They gave out nice photo 5. invitaciones of the girl, because a spoken invitation just doesn´t count. And all of the tías, tíos, abuelos, and primos worked together more than a semana to make the 6. recuerdos—decoractive wooden boxes that they hand paintd with various 7. diseños. (Another 8. ¨regla¨of parties here is that every guest has to take something nice home afterwards with the name of the person being honored and the 9. fecha.) Basically a party just isn´t a party here without lots of food, lots of piñatas, and lots of musica. There is normalmente a clown show for the kids, as well. So I must say that they make our traditional invite your 7 closest friends and go to the local pizza parlor parties look like wimpy little nothings. On the other hand, I can´t understand why the parents want to spend so much money on their kids´birthday parties—especially when the kid is only turning 1 and isn´t even going to remember anything! I really think they spend more dinero on the party than we spend on all of the gifts ; )

You may have heard of ¨quinciñera¨; that´s the big birthday party for girls who turn 15. Supposedly the quincieras are like a miniature wedding—with just as many expenses. The parents of the girl find friends and family to help them with all of the major 10. gastos, like 11. pastel and hall, just like in a wedding. And the girls have up to 40 ¨damas de honor¨ (like bridesmaids). And what do the boys get when they turn 15? Absolutely 12. nada! I haven´t actually been to a ¨Sweet 15¨party yet (most of the Christians here don´t celebrate it because they think it´s too Catholic), but I will let you know more about it as soon as I do. Of course, the Catholics here also like to have parties to remember the birthdays of their favorite santos. Well, they say it´s for the Saint, but according to what José Luis has told me, it´s really nothing more than an 13. excusa to get together and gossip with other ladies and take away their boredom.

Wedding Padrinos/Padrinos de la Boda

Now that you know a little more about the festive nature here, let me tell you more about my upcoming wedding. Los padres of the novios only pay one part of the wedding fees here; the rest are divided up among several amigos and familiares known as ¨padrinos.¨ When the bride and groom ask someone to be their padrino, it is considered a great honor for that person, and an 14. ofensa to turn them down. Remember that Mexico is still very traditional compared to the U.S. When the futuro bride and groom have decided who their padrinos are going to be, they cannot just ask them at any time; they must make a formal visita to the person´s casa. And they also cannot make any specifications; for example, with the padrino of cake they cannot ask that the cake be a certain flavor or certain color. To do so would be considered very 15. rudo, because the Mexicans believe that as long as they are paying for something, they should be able to choose how´s it´s going to be. Nor can they ask them how things are going, if they bought the item yet, etc. So basically we just have to trust each of our padrinos and hope they don´t forget about their 16. responsibilidades and pick something we will both like!

Well I say all of that to let you know that José Luis and I are going to have cuatro padrinos: two of his aunts for cake and rings, his brother Gerardo for video, and four of his cousins working together for photos. And my future in-laws are going to help us with the food and location fees. So basically the only things we have to pay for ourselves are our attire, a few 17. flores (which are really cheap because we can just go and buy them in the mercado), and a few decorations. I brought my 18. vestido back with me in June. It needed only one alteration, height (of course!), but I got it done here and only had to spend about $6!! Woo hoo! On an aside…Catholics sometimes have more than 40 padrinos—even for the small things, like the bride´s hairstyle or party favors—and don´t have to pay for ANYTHING themselves! I must say that I am willing 19. sacrificar not having the exact color and decorating sheme for everything in order to have reduced costs. And if something doesn´t turn out well, we will have a second chance to make it right anyway (in our American boda). By the way, we have now completed the first 20. paso of the long and frustrating immigration proceso, as well—getting José Luis´21. pasaporte. It was actually 22. listo on the same day that we applied for it! I will let you know more about the wedding (and immigration stuff) 23. poco por poco as we continue to plan everything…

Another American Teacher/Otro Maestro Americano

Two weeks ago another American teacher was here, and I translated for each of his clases. He taught at the church in San Cristobal on Sunday and Wednesday and at two of our Saturday preaching schools, Larrainzer and Ocosingo, on the 24. fines de semana. He made presentations about some of the Biblical 25. tierras using pictures and 26. mapas of some of the places. Before he came I had to go to the nearest Office Depot to buy an overhead projector and a powerpoint LCD projector. Both were necessary for the class, but now they will come in handy for other classes, as well. I am especially looking forward to using them in my upcoming English classes! Antonio, the director of the Ocosingo school, really went out of his way to invite several brethren to the class. He also allowed us to use his second grade 27. salon for the 28. presentación since none of the local churches were big enough. Over 70 men, women, and children came to Ocosingo, with at least 10 different congregaciones represented. Some of the people who came to the Saturday classes are so poor that they never even leave their home comunidades, so naturally they found it very hard to believe that someone has seen places where Jesus and the 29. apostoles lived. We had to explain to them several times that the fotos were in fact real and that the teacher actually visited those places several times. Once they finally caught on, they were 30. MUY impresionados.

All those who came to hear the presentation in Ocosingo/Todos que vinieron para escuchar la presentación en Ocosingo By the way, we were standing in front of a second grade classroom (to give you an idea of what the schools look like here)

My Visit to Tapachula and Cacahoatan/Mi Visita a Tapachula y Cacahoatan

A few weeks ago I also went to visit the schools in Tapachula and Cacahoatan (on the coast, 8 hours away) and take them their new Biblias. Unfortunately, I picked the worst possible day visitar. I left San Cristobal Friday night via overnight bus and had the hardest time sleeping because hard rains and strong winds rocked the bus all over the 31. carretera. The yucky 32. clima continued most of the mañana on Saturday. As a result, the streets quickly became so flooded that most of the students were not able to attend classes that day (particulary those who live in the 33. montañas and have a longer viaje to the escuela). Only four showed up in Tapachula, and only two in Cacahoatan. In Tapachula we decided to have class anyway—but only for half the morning. Then I spent the rest of the day with Fransisco and his familia (el director of the Cacahoatan school). We went to see some Mayan ruinas, and then ate and hung out at their house until it came time for them to drive me back to the bus station. ¨Cacao¨ in Spanish means cocoa, which the people grow a lot of in that area—hence the name of the ciudad. Francisco was more than eager to show me the inside of a huge cocoa plant, coffee beans, and a few other 34. plantas I had never seen before.

Kids´Class at Church/Clase de Niños de La Iglesia

I have been teaching the kids at church again, on Sunday nights. This class is always a challenge, because sometimes there are as many as 30 kids from ages 2-11 all in one room. The church does not have the space or the funds yet to add more classrooms. A few months ago we started taking up a special 35. contribución to add classroom space behind the edificio. But there is still not enough money to start the proyecto yet because there are so many who said they were going to give and haven´t. Last week at a ladies meeting, however, we did discuss the possibility of renovating another room or breaking the class into 3 groups. It´s nice to know that others feel the same way that I do about the situation.

Many of the kids seem to have the 36. actitud that they can get away with anything just because they´re at church. Therefore, I have been thinking up some new 37. sistemas of punishments/rewards. For example, I have started giving them 38. estrellas for attendance, participation, and good behavior. For every 10 stars that they receive, they get a 39. premio. So far it seems to be working well. I have also started asking some of the teen girls to help me. Sometimes the poor kids act like they don´t even know how to use a glue stick—much less draw something from their own imaginations! And the younger ones completely depend on the older ones to do everything for them. But I can´t help but enjoy teaching them--despite their endless, crazy antics!

The materiales that the Mt. Juliet ladies contributed have really come in handy. However, there were some that the ladies here 40. obviamente had never seen before—like the flannelgraph materials. I told Ani, the preacher´s wife, that I would be glad to meet with the ladies sometime and show them how to use each of the materials. But I guess they thought they didn´t need me to show them, because they jumped the gun and organized everything themselves sometime while I was away. The result? Rather than sorting the flannelgraph pieces according to each story, they decided to put glue and laminate paper around each of them. Their reasoning? They thought it would be too easy for the kids to tear them up otherwise. Well maybe so, but I guess they didn´t realize that the 41. piezas won´t ever stick to the flannelgraph board now! Oops! And they are using the flannelgraph book as the main source for their 42. temas rather than an aid. So they are using the materials, they just aren´t using all of them in the same 43. manera that we do : )

Last week I was flipping through 44. canales and happened to catch the second half of the first Presidential debate. I didn´t even know it was going to be on. Sometimes I feel so estranged from my home country!

Well I better stop this blog here before it gets too long.
45. Cuidense,
Elizabeth

1. parties

2. faces

3. soft drinks

4. plates

5. invitations

6. souvenirs/memories

7. designs

8. rule

9. date

10. expenses

11. cake

12. nothing

13. excuse

14. offense

15. rude

16. responsibilities

17. flowers

18. dress

19. to sacrifice

20. step

21. passport

22. ready

23. little by little

24. weekends

25. lands

26. maps

27. classroom

28. presentation

29. apostles

30. very impressed

31. highway

32. weather/climate

33. mountains

34. plants

35. contribution

36. attitude

37. systems

38. stars

39. prize/reward

40. obviously

41. pieces

42. lessons

43. way

44. channels

45. Take Care