December 30, 2014

As I finished the Aurora Hotel breakfast buffet, Joel S, Cindy's husband, camp director, and cardiologist, approached me and asked if I had any Imodium and would I like to make a housecall to the rabbi who was not doing well. I replied affirmatively to both questions, finished eating, and went back to my room to get some Imodium. We knocked at her door, and she answered, looking not well at all. She came outside, dressed and wearing her slippers, and we all sat down and assessed her situation. We reviewed her hydration status and the dose of Imodium that would hopefully help her improver her situation. She told us Gator-Ade had been her mainstay since the day before. Joel told me that she had eaten in the village with the family of her son's fiance in the village.

We then joined the group and departed in the vans to San Antonio to meet the children. The tye dye shirts were ready for distribution. The children eagerly claimed their shirts and name tags and put both on. Today was the day to go to the zoo. A large version of the chicken bus pulled up and each of our groups of children boarded. The drive to Guatemala City was uneventful except for some motion sickness. The children seemed excited, but were well behaved, packed about 4 to a seat. We adults only had to share our seats with two other children. I passed around pictures of my dogs Sophie and Emma from cell phone so the children near me from my group could see them. The drive in to Guatemala City took over an hour, so I think we got there between 11:30 and 12. We parked in the bus parking lot, and few of the boys ran over to the nearest wall to relieve themselves. The girls were more restrained. After everyone was off the bus we went to the zoo entrance and entered as a group. Near the entrance was a food court and playground equipment. The children were excited to play, climbing, jumping, and swinging. After about half an hour of that we regrouped at several of the food court tables and distributed the wonderful lunches prepared the day before. They actually tasted better than one might have expected and combined with apples and chips made a passable lunch.

Finished with lunch, we entered the zoo as a group. We all started out together following each other past the giraffes and zebras and then the exhibit of huge, hairy camels. All of the children except two in our group had been to the zoo before. They seemed to know what was where. We had two hours to explore and covered all of the zoo in about an hour and a half. We saw the jaguar, leopard, lions, reptile house, aquarium, Humboldt penguin, hippopotamus, monkeys, and a number of other animals. The zoo was clean and the animal enclosures were appropriately large and reflective of the animal's natural habitat. We all had a fun time. The children played some more on the playground equipment and then we all boarded the bus again to head back to their village. I guess there was more motion sickness in the back of the bur for the return trip. Most of the mothers were waiting to greet their children when we arrived. The chicken bus brought us back to Antigua and dropped us off at the bus station near the market.

I had identified some other places in Antigua I had wanted to see and some on that side of the city not too far from the bus station. So I visited San Jeronimo, ruins of a former church and school. Construction began in 1739 on this small church and school dedicated to St. Jerome and by 1759 it was complete. It did not last long as a school, and served the colonial government as a customs house, barracks and stables. After the 1773 earthquake, it was abandoned, inhabited only by families who moved in without the permission of the authorities. It served as a tannery in the 1800's and as a granary in the 1930's before being restored. The restoration was actually to clean up the ruins, not to restore any structure to its former state. The grounds are well-maintained and it is pleasant to walk around.

From there I walked to the Church of the Merced, the beautiful yellow and white church I had passed a few days before. Adjacent to the church is the two-story building that had housed the convent which was destroyed with the 1773 earthquakes. It has a spectacular fountain, the largest of the ones remaining in Antigua Guatemala, which was built during the XVIII century and restored in 1944. The convent has a magnificent view of the rooftops of Antigua from the second story. Only one side along the courtyard has rooms, the rest is open. It was late in the afternoon, very peaceful, with views of the rooftops and buildings of Antigua and volcanos in the distance. I went inside the church next door and walked around the sanctuary. The front has a gold nave and on the side the Christmas display was still present with Jesus in the manger. Walking back to the hotel, I passed in the daylight El Sereno where we had our Havdalah service and across the street another of Antigua's church ruins, Santa Teresa de Jesus. Then back to the room to rest a bit.

The rabbi was much improved from the morning visit with her and did not require all the Imodium I had left with her. We met for our first evening reflection, beginning with a low Sh'ma, the Jewish prayer to the one God. People spoke up about their feelings and impressions, now that we are directly involved in working with the people in the village. I raised the question about what the word poverty really means . Because the people in the village do not have the material wealth that those of us enjoy, are they poor? Do they have a different type of wealth with family and community that many of us in the United States may not have and which would define some of us as impoverished. We left early, about 6 PM, and walked about three blocks to a private building. It was across the street from one of Antigua's jade museums. The property was owned by a woman who owned the jade museum. We entered past security guards and quickly walked through the entry way and outside in the back. We passed a very nonfunctional swimming pool filled with pieces of wood. Andrew shared with us that what looked like small pieces of tile around the pool (not in good repair) was actually jade and that was the reason for the guards. We were in a large open area with chairs arranged in a circle for a Mayan fire ceremony.

We took our seats and each of us received a large cylinder of tobacco called a puro, sort of like a giant cigar, and a set of multicolored candles (black, white, yellow, red, green, blue, and cream) that looked like thin Chanukah candles. The leader of the ceremony, a social worker by day, was a Maya Kakchikel spiritual guide known as an ajq'ij. We were told a typical ceremony lasts 2-4 hours, but we would be having an abbreviated version. The fire was lit and some kind of alcoholic liquid was sprinkled on and around it, possibly perfume. If we so chose, we were invited to light the tobacco in the fire and smoke it. Several different types of incense are used: small nuggets of copal packaged and tied up in corn husks; rax-pon, a large round ball of pine sap, ocote, small bits of myrrh, frankincense, herbs and sesame seeds. Florida water, flower petals, corn meal, sugar, cacao beans, home brewed rum and puros (rolled cigars of pure tobacco) all make fine offerings to the deities. We were explained about each of the four directions and in sequence moved through all of the them regarding connections with nature. Each candle color had a different meaning. I don't remember them all, but typically: beige for the ancestors, yellow for peace, red for love, green for the Earth, white for purity, baby blue for little boys and pink for littler girls, royal blue for the sky and black for the offering. There was great honor for the grandmothers and grandfathers who seemed to be the sources of wisdom and the spiritual center of the ceremony. The fire is a living, breathing organism that is essential in the web of life. Out of respect for her, no one walks away until the last ember has turned to ash. The intentions and prayers that were infused into the candles, copal and other offerings begin to seep into the souls of all who participated. The Mayan fire ceremony enlivens one's sense of Mayan cosmology, the Mayan Cross and enables the embodiment of all 260 nawales. In the K'iche language, energies of the cosmos and nature are called Nawales. All of this unlocks the cosmic code and the divine messages found within.

The Nawales system is a way of life in which humans are not divorced from nature nor the cosmos. Humans are part of it, nothing more and nothing less. The sun, the earth, moon and stars form the nucleolus of older people within the macro-family cosmos that governs the earth. For this reason they should be respected by their children. Men and women represent continuous duality and complimentary elements of life. For this reason new generations are taught how to live through, recognize and reestablish communication with all elements of universal life. This humanist approach to visualizing the Cosmos conceives humanity as depending on the care of all elements that make up the universe.

After the ceremony was over, we all embraced each other. We were offered the opportunity to share how we felt - for me it was renewal.

We departed to walk to our next destination, our restaurant for dinner. We ate at Posada de Don Rodriguez, a large Guatemalan restaurant colonial style set in a hotel. The hotel has several restaurants' we ate at Restaurante Moro. Dinner for me was a margarita and an Enchilada. The enchilada was unlike the Mexican type we have in southern California. It was a flat fried tortilla with beets, lettuce, and hard-boiled egg and was very good . The restaurant airs live Marimba music in the evening with the thrilling spectacle of talented dancers performing the Baile de los Moros, a Guatemalan folk dance, every night at 8pm We saw the dancers and listened to the music. I was a bit pictured out and didn't take any pictures there, regretfully.

So the end of another full day came to a close.