Semana Santa in Honduras is the largest holiday of the year. It's also the most dangerous time of year to travel. Most people with their friends and families head to the beach, pools, and/or waterparks, so the buses are insanely packed with people, which make them an ideal hunting ground for pickpockets and other criminals. I decided to avoid the buses altogether and stay in site to experience Semana Santa the way El Negrito does it, and I'm glad I did!
Monday, I went on an all-expense paid trip to Zizima Waterpark in San Pedro Sula with the mayor's office employees. They rented a small shuttle to take us all. SPS actually has 2 waterparks, and the other one is supposed to be larger, but I've heard it's more children-oriented and doesn't have big slides like Zizima does.
It was a lot more fun than I expected. I hadn't been to a waterpark probably since high school or middle school, and was excited to go on all the crazy fast twisty slides again.
A couple days later on Thursday, I went over to this woman's house to make ayote en miel, or squash in honey, a traditional dish here made and served during Semana Santa. It's also popular on Halloween, when children go around the streets yelling "ayote ayote ayote!" trying to get some from different houses. The dish isn't exactly made with honey, but rather with sugarcane, which melts, and when mixed with the squash, gives it a very sweet molasses flavor. Before we made that, however, she served me fish soup, which also is common to eat during the week. Vendors sell dried fish, which I believe gets rehydrated for soup, but this lady served me real fish, and lucky for me she also gave me the head! It's a good thing my seafood phobia excludes fish, but I still freaked out a little bit inside, but did a good job of eating the meat on the body. It actually didn't taste very good with the rest of the soup. Very salty.
She kind of just watched me eat, which I guess some people here do, so I just told her it tasted great and thanked her for the meal. Then we had a short discussion about religion and tried to proselytize me... which I of course didn't like, so I tried to ask her questions to get her to challenge her way of thinking (not that I have anything against religious people, I just have a thing against people who try to force their views on others and who are closed-minded). I never thought it would happen, but that was the day I met someone who didn't believe dinosaurs ever existed, and as with other questions I asked her, she didn't really have any real answers for me. It's something you encounter a lot here - people follow their faith blindly without giving thought to historical or scientific evidence, and are taken aback when they discover there are others in the world who don't believe in the same god. She seemed so convinced that I would one day have an epiphany and start to believe because one of the former PCVs here actually became religious during her time here. I'm not sure if she did that to assuage her friends or if she really converted, but whatever the matter, good for her.
Ok so the ayote. You chop it up with a machete, dig out the seeds and other goopy innards, cut the squash up into pieces, leaving the shell on, and you put it in a biiiiiiiiiig pot. Then you get a cube of sugarcane and chop that up too and place the pieces on top of the squash. Then you get your fogon (stove) and boil it for hours and hours until the sugarcane melts and has been absorbed by the squash. Then you eat it cold. It's not bad, but not really my favorite. It's incredibly sweet.
Oh yes, I tried a new fruit called marañón, which is the cashew fruit! It ranks up there with nance's in the way I feel about them. Both are at the top of the list of fruits I despise. I do like cashews though :)
During this week, I also made an awesome new friend. He knows everyone in town and my neighbors are actually his family. Through him I've met more people, been able to see more of El Negrito and what it has to offer, and I have someone who will lecture me on Honduran culture and when I'm doing something wrong, and can teach him about my culture as well. He lived in the states for 3 years and his English is actually pretty good. I've learned a lot from him. I'm usually pretty stubborn when it comes to money issues and love to pay for others or split the cost, but he always pays for everything, and I think my stubbornness got to him one day so he explained to me that if somebody invites me somewhere, that automatically is assumed that the person who did the inviting is paying, no matter the cost. And also usually guys will pay for girls if they are out by themselves. I guess that's good for me! But I still feel bad since it's not shared equally. Another lesson I learned is that if two guys are walking with one girl, they have to walk on either side of her, otherwise it's as if they're pushing her off to "sell" her. Same goes with two girls and one guy. Something I never would have thought about before!
Anyway, we went with my neighbors to one of the new balnearios about 10 minutes away by car. It has 2 fountains and a ledge to jump off of into the water!
On Thursday night, most of the townspeople gathered in the park to watch "Passion of the Christ" (which is a very popular movie here), hang out, and wait for certain groups to get started with the alfombras, literally translated to carpets, made on the streets. I played some basketball and surprisingly made all the shots I attempted in the first game, then two friends and I walked up and down the main road to see the groups getting started on the sawdust Biblical drawings. They start at night after traffic dies down and the roads have been blocked off, working from about 10 pm - 3 or 4 am about. Maybe later, I'm not sure.
On Friday, there was a procession walking through town, starting from the first alfombra and making its way to the Catholic Church right across from the park in the center of town. My friend and I walked around looking at all the wonderful creations done overnight and watched the procession perform its drama of Christ's crucification.
Then on Saturday, a bonfire was made on one of the side streets near my house, and was put out with water to represent something. I kind of didn't catch that part of the story. The bonfire was beautiful though!
People then walked from there to the Chuch again and once they arrived, they lit candles and held a vigil. Overall, a very eventful Semana Santa and I'm glad I got to experience it with my friends in site.
