21MAR08
De colores,
De colores se visten los campos
En la primavera,
De colores,
De colores son los pajaritos
Que vienen de afuera,
De colores,
De colores es el arcoiris
Que vemos lucir,
Y por eso los grandes amores
De muchos colores me gustan a mi,
Y por eso los grandes amores
De muchos colores me gustan a mi,
Y por eso los grandes amores
De muchos colores me gustan a mi.
Canta el gallo,
Canta el gallo con el
Quiri, quiri, quiri, quiri, qui
La gallina,
La gallina con el
Cara, cara, cara, cara cara
Los polluelos,
Los polluelos con el
Pio, pio, pio, pio, pi
Y por eso los grandes amores
De muchos colores me gustan a mi,
Y por eso los grandes amores
De muchos colores me gustan a mi,
Y por eso los grandes amores
De muchos colores me gustan a mi.
The long and winding road…
The piercing beeping of the phone broke through the black silence and wrapped itself up in the plot of my dream. I sat up startled and grabbed at it. Oh why hadn’t I got a better phone that lit up when it rang so that I could see where that bloody on button was. Hello! Yes, I can be ready in 10 minutes – thanks for calling. I roused the sleeping children – come on, put these clothes on quickly, we have to go. The boys, wide eyed with excitement, peeled off pajamas and pulled on their clothes. We picked up our pieces of cardboard, and our salt and scissors, and walked up to the gate to unlock it. The night was clear and cool, and we shivered a little as we waited for the soft white glow of the headlights to appear. We clambered aboard, and Rita smiled. “You sure you want to do this?” she asked for the 5th time? I smiled, once in a lifetime – why not! As we drove up the quiet street, and parked, I could see the bent figures ahead, the lights creating shadows around them as they worked. Music and voices wafted through the air. As we drew closer, I had to pause and take it all in. The entire street was erupting in bright colours as people worked diligently on their sawdust carpets.
Rita showed us where we could work, and told us what colours they had extra of. They boys and I went to work. We put down out cross stencil, which we had cut out of cardboard in the afternoon, and filled it with green sawdust. We moved it diagonally and covered the green to add the black drop shadow. We filled in a bright golden sun with a red corona and filled in the background with natural sawdust. Our tiny carpet was framed with the extra pieces of cedar bark, left over from Rita’s family’s cross on their carpet. Our final carpet was about 2.5’ x 3.5’.
We walked all the way around and looked at all the carpets. It took about half an hour to make the circuit and see them all. They were stunning. Each one was a work of art. We went one to another, admiring each and watching as people placed cardboard or metal stencils, and filled the area with coloured sawdust, rice, eggshells, beans, pinecones, leaves and other materials. There were many with a cross theme, and faces and portraits of religious figures. They were surrounded by animals and flowers and religious symbols. The average carpet was about 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. Many were larger. Some were like stained glass windows, with each colour separate and distinct. Others were done with sprinkles of colour over other colours to give texture and shadowing effects, and to make the pictures look lifelike. The sky was lightening with the early morning dawn, and I couldn’t imagine how some of these elaborate carpets would be finished in time. We came back to where our carpet was, and Aodhan wanted to do one now. We used the same cross template, but made the cross red. We then outline the cross in green, and then yellow and every other colour. After a while, we made the outline square, and continued with our rainbow of colours. It turned out to be quite beautiful when it was finished, and was about 5’ x 4’. We added white maple leaves on the red corners of the carpet with salt, and then we sat back and watched as tourists came to take photos of our carpets! Maybe we will be on a Honduras postcard, or a Honduras travel add! Ciaran was interviewed about the carpet by a boy, probably writing for a school newspaper or such. We watched as many people came by and photographed our carpets.
The carpets were all finished and they were all stunning. The mournful, lonely music of the procession could be heard in the distance. The large floats being carried through the streets started to be seen over the crowds of people. We could see at the front of the procession, an adult and some children, all dressed in purple, with crowns of twisted branches, to represent thorns, around their heads. Their faces were painted with fake beards and they each carried a large wooden cross. The floats contained statues of religious figures and scenes. They mannequins on the floats were life size and were surrounded by real flowers. The largest float was carried by about 20 men all dressed in long burgundy robes, with white cone hats that covered their faces, and had round eyeholes so they could see. They looked like KKK. The large float with the KKK guys stopped over our carpet for a long time while the priest at the front spoke at one of the stations of the cross. When the floats stop, the people all put a stick with a u shaped piece at the top, under the float and the float sits on these so that the carriers get a rest. After all the floats went by, the streets were a cacophony of colour. No pictures or designs were visible any more, just bright colours all over the road. Children ran with baggies and pop bottles and any other containers they could find the scoop up the brightly coloured sawdust. Ciaran and Aodhan did the same.
I slept for 2 hours this afternoon, and the boys watched a movie. We went back out later to watch another procession come out of the Catedral. This one had Jesus in his grave, his body lying on large rocks. There were other statues being carried on other floats, but I cannot tell you what they all represented. Some were disciples, some were saints, some were other religious figures. One I know was the mournful mother. Each procession tells a part of the story. The first procession on Monday represented Jesus coming to the city. The ones today showed him going to the cross and being taken from the cross to his grave.
We walked with Rita back to her sister-in-laws bakery and Rita drove us home. We were so tired that sleep took us as soon as our heads touched our pillows.
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