Melissa's Travels

So, wind up your time machine, we are going back in time. For more neat stories of Annies visit, see her blog at http://neotropical.blogspot.com

So first of all, Annie and I wait for a milk truck that never comes so have to have a horrible 3 hours hike to my house from where the bus drops you off. But while we were waiting for the truck, this policeman stops by and is fascinated by the army pants of Annies that I am wearing. He keeps saying that they are authentic and where did you get them. He then asks us if we have a camera, and I am a little freaked out now, because it is 4am, and not a whole lot of people around. Annie gets her camera out and he grabs an old automatic rifle out of his car. What ensues are some pictures of my in the army pants and bandana posing with this gun, and then he wants a picture of us together and while he is standing next to me he starts holding my hand. I was just confused and tired and it all seemed very surreal. Probably those pictures are going to put me on some weird CIA list:)

So Annie and I are working, and one day when we come home, Thursday the 22nd, Dona Isabel tells me that Don Franciscos mother has died that morning, very suddenly from a heart attack. She was also the mother of Dona Lucia, where Jane lives. So there is a vela that night, where all family and friends stay up all night with the body. We decide to go and then Annie can just leave from Dona Lucias house to get Tara.
My family is very upset as she lived very close and they were all close to her. Someone actually got ahold of the rest of the family from Condega to Esteli, all 13 of her children and their familys, and all 9 of her siblings and when we get to Dona Simoncita house, EVERYONE is there. From family, to the community, to people from other communities out of respect, all in all about 200 people coming and going. There are just tons of people outside on the patio and surrounding areas, and they have a generator running lights outside, and women in the kitchen keeping people supplied with coffee and sweet breads. The atmosphere is a mixture of somber and party like, with people not having seen each other for awhile and lots of joking going on, and of course groups of young guys huddled in corners drinking rum, and checking out girls that pass by. I hang out with Dona Isabel and her son Francisco and his wife Letvia and their child Brian and Jane a lot. And Annie and I play this joke on two year old Brian that he as a frog in his belly. He goes all crazy about it and for the next three hours he keeps looking at his belly and trying to look in his belly button, and then pretending the frog jumps out and tries to show it to people and tries to squash the imaginary frog with his foot. To this day he remember and when I am wearing a frog t shirt I have he point to his belly and starts pretending the frog has jumped out again and tries to show me where it went. He is super cute and very imaginative.

The coffin was laid out into the front room, and Jane and Lucia and other church ladies have decorated these white sheets with ferns and flowers, and there are two big flower arrangements in from, one from UCA, and one from her sons. There are candles, and photos, and a group of valient church women who stay up singing the WHOLE night. I mean from 6pm to 6am they did not stop singing. I ended up crashing out around 1 for a fitful 2hrs of sleep, and wake up to a house of groggy people who are still going about and cooking and getting ready for the burial that day. Everyone is in a half stupor of sleep deprivation and grief, and Dona Lucia especially is crying a lot. In fact three days later when I stop by to see Jane, she just opens the door and falls into my arms, and just cries. She was very close to her mother, and is normally very reserves,so I didn't know what to do, I just held her until she stopped crying, and then she wiped her eyes and offered me coffee.

I missed the burial to go to Esteli with Annie and get her to the bus, but later on saw some creepy photos they took of her in her coffin and in the grave, which some of her grandsons, including my friend Marlon, had spent the day of the vela digging. Imagine digging your grandmothers grave. Difficult to say the least. Apparently they cement the whole thing up and the burial is very short, so Jane told me. I will meet annie and Tara in a few days to go to Margaritas despedida, and then in nine days from the the death there will be the nueve dia, another all night full family and cmmunity celebration. I also have tons more stories, but it just took me an hour to write this, so I have to go.

Lots of love
Melissa