hair like spanish moss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-oNUff37YE

I have listened to this album over and over again these past few months. This particular song is one that has accompanied both my desperation as I have experienced periods of lost faith in humanity, and also extreme peace while getting to know a country with an innate beauty that is sufficient to make Tolkien and Lewis' fairytale lands shudder in doubt.


I have four days remaining in Nicaragua, and how do I feel?
As though one of my feet is in North America, one is in Nicaragua, and the rest of my body is hanging flippantly from an airplane somewhere over the Yucatan. Its horrifying to realize that an event which I looked forward to for so long is almost over... yet incredibly relieving to think that soon I will be able to speak English again ALL the time, use washing machines, have personal space, go out after 6 p.m. without feeling as though I am going to be jumped, and begin eating food that is not greasy rice, beans, or fried chicken.

This past week I experienced a Nicaraguan wedding in my home- my host sister got hitched! The night beforehand, we began cooking and decorating the house for the reception and continued doing so until the early morning hours. Some people did not sleep at all! We prepared food for almost 200 people over big bonfires in our backyard. The decorations included quite a few white balloons, paper ribbons, and plastic straws attached to make pretty shapes. The following day,the bride, wedding party, and many family members and guests walked eight blocks to the church where the fiance and audience waited patiently. (We arrived 30 minutes late- truely Nica style!)

Yesterday was Purisima- the day of celebration for the immaculate conception of Mary. At nightfall, I went to the centro with Beth and Nadji to watch the events in the central park in front of the cathedral. There were thousands of people crowded together drinking beer, watching random fireworks from every which direction, and being entertained by the Gigantona dance- a whole bunch of scarecrow women built really tall dancing wildly in a group. This picture was actually taken in front of my house, but it depicts what a Gigantona is.



As we stood happily watching this grand cultural event and hoping the news channels would catch us on t.v., the outer sections of the crowd began to shift. At the western edge of the crowd, someone had put on a metal box somehow covered with fireworks that were rapidly exploding in surprising sections of the crowd every which moment. The masses split as this wild, metal "bull" began running towards the front of the cathedral. Positively horrified, most of us began running eastward. Unfortunately, another metal-bull-firework-man was lit up and running into the crowd. As you may imagine, this caused the people from the east side to run towards the west... and we all met in the middle as one frantic herd of sheep. Worried I would be hit by one of these rapidly approaching fire balls, I grabbed Nadji's hand and yelled, "RUN!" The running was more like a vicious moshpit of arms shoving towards safety. One of those shoves hit home and knocked me down to the sticky cement earth. Lying there helplessly, I could see through the thinning crowd of hurried feet to the explosion of light running towards me. I thought I was going to either die from being trampled or from a light ball or gorgeous fireworks. But I didn't. I escaped with a mere scratch on my hand.
Later last evening, we walked around Leon happily with the locals collecting loot from the homes of celebratory Catholics who had put up beautiful decorations of the Virgin Mary. The tradition is to sing a song about the immaculate conception, then yell, "who has caused so much happiness?"... and then to receive free food, candy, laundry soap, shampoo, brooms, hats... or whatever else the families give! Around 11 p.m., hoards of people left on busses to the beach to finish the party. I opted not to go. Rather, I laid in my bed listening to the fireworks that went off straight from 12 a.m. to 1 a.m. What a crazy town this is!