Allison what a wonderful photo journal of your stay with Elvira's family. - Kelly Moore, Tue, 13 Nov 2012 9:32AM
It looks like you're having so much fun Allison! What a wonderful celebration that clearly is all about enjoying life. I am impressed by how many chickens that woman was cooking at once! The food looked tasty! - Jenny Peek, Sun, 11 Nov 2012 12:36PM
1 The Q'eqchi' Maya celebrate a 3-day long holiday at the beginning of November. Nov. 1 - All Saints' Day Nov. 2 - Day of the Dead Nov. 3 - feasting on all the food the Saints and the Dead didn't eat. Early last week, my co-intern Amy and I asked my coworker/friend Elvira if we could go home with her to experience the holiday with her family. She excitedly invited us to spend two nights at her home in Chicoj Raxqix, a village relatively close to Coban.
2 We left our thatch house after work on Oct. 31st. Our boss gave us a ride into the nearest town, Chamelco, which saved us walking 1km and an 8km taxi ride. We then took a bus into Coban, walked about 10 blocks, and caught another bus that took us to the end of the paved road on the way to Chicoj Raxqix. We then had a 20-minute walk on a gravel road to get to her village, and then a 100-meter dirt path to Elvira’s house.
3 When we arrived, Elvira's dad, Arturo Ac, started introducing us to the family. Arturo and Clara have had 10 children, but the oldest two died of malnutrition during the violence in the 80s. So Elvira is now one of 8. The oldest three are married and live in their own homes, two of which are right next-door, and the third is a four-minute walk away. By the end of our two days there, Amy and I had met all her living grandparents, siblings, nieces and nephews, and I definitely felt included as part of the family. In this photo, the 2 kids on the inside are Elvira's youngest siblings, and the 2 on the outside are her niece and nephew.
4 Elvira's mom, Clara, doesn't speak Spanish, so we weren't able to communicate as much as we could with Arturo. But she asked us (through Elvira translating) if we liked Guatemala, and I was able to say in Q'eqchi': "Yes! The mountains are beautiful. The caves are beautiful. The forests are beautiful. The people are beautiful." I was pretty proud of myself for that; I think it's a pretty good summary.
5 Arturo told us that he is very proud of his four children who are in school. He said that because of his lack of education, he is unable to find employment other than farming his own land. He said, "the ideas are there" (i.e. he's not dumb), but he cannot read, and he isn’t fluent in Spanish (although he was telling us all of this in Spanish). He said what he CAN do is help his kids get ahead. He said it is very hard to pay for all of these kids in school, and his work is hard, but he is happy. Especially when his 10 grandchildren are around.
6 Isabella, Elvira's oldest sister, lives with her husband and 5 kids in a house just below her parents' house. Neither of Elvira's older sisters completed middle school, but Isabella's husband works as an agriculture teacher at a trade school, so they have enough money to have electricity (available in that village to anyone who can pay for it), a refrigerator (lime green, looks like it's from the 60s), a stereo, 10" tv, and a foot-powered sewing machine. And he brings home fresh milk from the cows at his school, which is what they used to make the delicious atol drink (warm milk with sugar, cinnamon, and either oatmeal, rice, or flour).
7 The young men of Elvira’s family built an archway to decorate the altar in their house for All Saints' Day. The arch was constructed of bent branches woven together, anchored in 2 coffee cans full of rocks. It was decorated with leaves, plantains, oranges, and white flowers.
8 The altar was covered with foods offered to the saints, and the amount of food on the table grew throughout the day. By the end, there was bread, tortillas, chicken, cinnamon, orange soda, cookies, and on Day of the Dead, they added a small bottle of moonshine that was a favorite of one of their grandpas.
9 Elvira’s 94-year-old grandmother occasionally came into the kitchen to get warm by the fire. She's blind, and uses a walking stick to feel her way around. I said "Buenos Dias Abuela", and she started talking to me, using Elvira as a Q'eqchi'-Spanish translator. She welcomed us, said she was happy we were there, and welcomed us to come back anytime so she could get to know us better. I asked her if this was an important holiday for her, since many people she has loved have already passed away. She explained to me that on Day of the Dead, our dead ancestors, who watch out for us and pray for us, come back to visit. This is why we leave food for them on the altar.
10 One of Amy's goals during her time in Guatemala is to kill a chicken. Unfortunately, she missed her opportunity by just a couple minutes on our first morning there. As we were walking toward the outhouse, Elvira's sister Magdalena held up a dead chicken, and Elvira said "look what we just killed!" At 6am. But Amy DID get to help pluck its feathers, which I documented with a lot of pictures of her making really funny faces.
11 As soon as we were done with breakfast on All Saint's Day, the family started preparing lunch. Arturo carried in a potato sack with 3 more dead chickens inside. He cut all the chickens into big chunks (just small enough to fit into the pot) with a machete.
12 Elvira's family raised turkeys and at least 3 different types of chickens.
13 Mid-morning on All Saints’ Day, we walked to the corn mill with Elvira. I was very impressed that Elvira carried the heaping basket of corn on her head, without any hands and without a cloth keeping all the kernels inside, down the muddy slippery path. She made it look easy.
14 Elvira's mom Clara cooking chicken soup, called caldo. When serving us caldo, Elvira apologized that they didn't have any utensils to offer us. They don't have spoons or forks (they just use tortillas), and they use carved out gourds for serving drinks, and even an elongated gourd for stirring the huge boiling pot of caldo.
15 For lunch on All Saints' Day, we had a caldo with potato and guisqil squash, and of course tortillas. To drink, we had hot cocoa (real, local, ground cocoa, made with water, not milk) with anise and cinnamon.
16 Chicoj Raxqix's only church is Catholic, made of concrete floor and walls, with 4 simple but nice stained glass windows. For their All Saints' Day service, they arranged 4 benches into a semi-circle at the front of the church, facing the altar, so we could all sit in a circle. Because the Catholic priest only comes to Chicoj Raxqix about once every other month, the community elects a layperson to act as the minister. But it was women sitting on the benches who decided (on the fly) what hymns to sing and what prayers to read. With only a few small windows, it quickly got very dark inside (no electricity), so for the second half of the service, they were using flashlights to read their hymn and prayer books.
17 When we originally asked Elvira how her community celebrates All Saints' Day, she said "Everyone cooks a lot of food and everyone gets invited to everyone else's house for a meal." And that's basically what happened. After church on All Saints' Day, the minister invited us to his house (shown here is his home's altar) for more caldo. The next day, we were invited to Elvira's maternal grandparents' house, where there was a line to sit at the table and be served more caldo. Luckily, doggy bags were always provided.
18 If you were ever thirsty and just wanted something to drink, the only option was a pot of coffee that was never empty, sitting somewhere on the fire table. This was even the staple drink for the 2-year-old. When 6-year-old Brenda got a cup of hot cocoa in a ceremonial painted gourd, she immediately grabbed a plastic mug and poured the cocoa back and forth until it was cool enough to drink.
19 During down time, we played a lot with the kids of the family. Their main toy was a plastic bag that they blew up and tied into a balloon, and then it was the universal game of "keep the balloon from hitting the floor."
20 Elvira’s little sister and nieces also taught Amy how to craft a caterpillar out of pine needles.
21 Chicoj Raxqix has an elementary school with 80 students and 3 teachers. According to my math, at least 10% of the students are Elvira's siblings, nieces, and nephews, and many more are cousins.
22 CCFC's influence is painted on the walls of the school! There are murals that depict "reforestation" and "caring for our environment"
23 Amy and I had been struggling to decide whether we should try to pay the family for their hospitality; not wanting to take advantage of a family barely making ends meet, but also not wanting to offend them. Then we got the idea to take a lot of pictures and put together a photo album for the family as a thank you gift. By the end of our time there, adults and kids alike would rush over to see the photos we had taken.
24 While the women cooked, we often just hung out in the kitchen. Elvira's 94-year-old grandma would come in and sit on the bed in the kitchen. We helped make tortillas, and laughed when 6-year-old Brenda's were better (albeit smaller) than ours. Amy held Diana, this baby who is a month and a half old. Dogs and chickens were constantly coming into the kitchen to find scraps to eat, and then were constantly being chased back out by whoever noticed them first.
