Semana Santa

Sorry about the lack of recent posts... but here are 2 new ones from April. They're kinda long, (sorry I haven't learned how to be concise yet) but you can read them over a couple days and it will be like I'm posting more often...

Semana Santa, aka Holy Week, is a big deal here.  It’s the one holiday where everyone gets basically the whole week off of work and school.  For those that can, it’s a week of traveling, going to the beach or visiting local swimming pools.  It’s funny really, because you don’t hear people talking about swimming any other time of the year besides this week, but it’s also typically the hottest time of year here, so I guess it makes sense.  We celebrated the week a little differently from most. 

There is a seminarian here in our parish in Talanga, Oscar, who works with the youth groups in the church and was in charge of the mission trip planned for Semana Santa, and at Fr. Lucian’s request, he invited us to go along.  We didn’t know much about the trip, besides that groups of 2 people were sent to the various villages outside of Talanga to evangelize (kinda) and help the people there celebrate the Holy Week because there are no Priests in those communities.  Now, there were a number of things that terrified me about this trip.  Just the simple fact of living in one of these villages for a week is intimidating.  I know a few of them don’t have electricity, most have limited water supplies, outdoor latrines, and the chances of us getting sick from the food or water are much higher when we aren’t preparing our own food.  We also wouldn’t be going together, but instead would be paired up with a young person from church… a young, Spanish speaking person. The idea that I would only be able to speak Spanish for an entire week was scary, because despite the fact I’ve been here 8+ months, my Spanish is not exactly great.  And then there was the evangelizing thing.  I’m not a big fan of evangelizing, and it’s not something I’ve ever done in English, let alone in Spanish, but I figured I could somehow get around this requirement.  But, thanks to Oscar’s extreme persistence- he probably invited us at least 5 times, with us never giving a concrete yes or no- and his smooth talking, Mike, Sean and I decided to sign up for the trip. 

Mike and I attended the orientation one weekend- a 14+ hour overview of everything we would be doing for the week, Sean still owes us for that one- and when it was all over with, we still had no idea what we were getting into.  We were assigned our partners though, and I was paired up with Dennis- a 20 year old kid whom I’d never met before that weekend- and we were told we were going to El Estero, a community on the main highway about 15 minutes outside of Talanga.

We showed up in our community the Monday before Easter, and found out we would be staying in a Comedor… aka: a home with an attached restaurant.  We definitely lucked out in our accommodations in El Estero, and I was hoping that Mike and Sean didn’t have it too rough either, because I was going to feel really guilty explaining where I stayed.  I actually compared the house we stayed at to a hotel, because it had a TV, flushing toilets AND hot water! The food was also amazing, though we were definitely fed in excess… but in the end, most of my fears turned out to be unfounded.

The first two days in the community, we spent a lot of time walking up and down the highway inviting everyone to the activities we had planned in the church each night.  This was technically the “evangelizing” part, which I was really thankful for- that we didn’t have to carry Bibles from house to house telling the people why they should believe in what we do.  The community of El Estero was probably made up of 50 some homes, most sitting along the highway, but we visited a good portion of those.  The first night we planned an Act of Penance (and by we I mean Dennis and the 4 women that essentially run the church and all the services in their community- I just did what they told me to do J ).  The next night we had a rosary, and the following we held a meeting with the young adults in their community who are trying to organize a youth group.  They were actually a really fun group of motivated kids, and they seemed to have a lot of interest in the group as there were probably 20 kids at the meeting- a lot for their small community.  (I’m not sure who reads my blog, or if anyone will understand this reference… but at their meeting we also played the Honduran version of Big Booty which made my week- and even more so after I beat everyone! haha).  Thursday, Friday and Saturday were the busiest days for us though.  Thursday, with the help of the youth group, we re-enacted the Last Supper, had the washing of the feet, and a Hora Santa/Eucharistic Adoration.  Early Friday morning, as is the tradition here, we had a Viacrucis through town.  I’d been hearing about this all week, but never really understood what it was until the day came.  It’s basically a mobile stations of the cross, starting at one end of the community and ending at the other end.  The 14 stations are set up at various homes along the way, and because of the way El Estero is set up, most people had decorated the alters along the side of the highway for each station.  With the help of the youth again, we acted everything out.  It actually ended up being the most powerful Stations of the Cross I’ve ever seen, and my favorite activity of the week.  When it was all over with, we had spent 4 hours walking 2+ miles up and down a major Honduran highway, stopping intermittently to listen to the readings, reflections and watch the drama.  We were a group of around 30 people, following a kid dressed like Jesus carrying a cross down the highway, so we got a lot of stares, even though the Viacrucis is tradition here.  My favorite was when the two cops on the motorcycle slowed down just to stare at us for at about a minute, and when random trucks would slow down next to our group to snap pictures.  It was hot, long and tiring, but it definitely made you think more about what that walk must have been like for Jesus and his followers all those years ago.

Saturday night was really fun too as we celebrated the Easter Vigil.  It started at 6pm and lasted until 11 as we had a bonfire, a pseudo-mass (w/o a Priest), more dramas, games and lots of singing.  It was neat to see their small church packed full of people, even the men who usually don’t come to mass, and everyone was participating in the games and songs, no matter how silly they were.

I was really fortunate to be paired up with Dennis too, because he was really patient with my Spanish (or lack thereof), and he did a great job planning and leading all the activities, because in reality I wasn’t that much help.  He taught me a lot of Spanish, and he had picked up some English by the end of the week too J.  He even let me break the rules and use my cellphone in the middle of the week so that I could speak some English with someone besides myself.  That was definitely the most challenging part, because in our home we obviously speak English with each other, so I’m not used to the constant Spanish thing… and I think he figured that out when he would wake me up in the mornings and being confused, I would start speaking English to him until I realized he wasn’t understanding.

Semana Santa definitely wins my vote for best holiday in Honduras.  I really began to understand how a number of our Easter traditions have nothing to do with what Easter is really about, as I tried explaining Easter bunnies and egg hunts to confused faces as a number of people asked me about our Easter traditions in the US.  But now I see why Semana Santa here is so special, because Easter is celebrated for its real meaning. I had an amazing experience that week, and despite my fears at the beginning, I wasn’t ready to leave El Estero in the end.

Sorry, the photos are kind of in reverse... starting with things from the Easter Vigil

Lighting prayer candles in the front of the church...

Did I mention I had a pet monkey for the week? Meet Gloria. She's camera shy. We became quick friends- she liked me more than Dennis. She really enjoyed holding hands with you, but she also enjoyed scratching her rear... don't worry, I washed my hands a lot.

Us with some of the women who are the Delegates of the Word in El Estero.

Portraying Jesus on the cross in one of the stations.

More of our great actors...

Walking along the highway, entering El Estero. 

Washing the feet of the Disciples, Thursday night.

The church in El Estero... still in the process of being built. Before they would just meet in the homes of community members for masses.

Pretty flowers :)  Not really related to Easter week...

Hiking through fields to some of the more outlying houses.