Holy Week

Holy Week is a super big deal here. I will try my best to tell you all about it. Pictures will be uploaded soon.
sunday morning deanna and I followed a street drama based on Jesus´life here on Earth. WE didn´t get to see all of it, but we saw Jesus´baptism and few miracles. I have a better sense of how crowded it must have been around Jesus because of all the people following this drama. It was hard to see and take pictures. Yes, there were a lot of people following Jesus every where he went and many bumped not only into each other but into him as well! For me, It brought his life into a little better understanding.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I did not do much besides school in the mornings. I did go jogging because the streets weren´t too bad. By Wednesday I had to cut my runnning in hallf because of too many people in the streets.
Thursday after classes I took pictures of a sawdust carpet made by vecinos outside my front door. I also took pictures of rugs made of flowers and pine needles. Some are pretty creative! Then I helped La Union make a sawdust carpet in front of the school. We worked from 12:30 until 7;30! I took pictures of all the steps to make a rug too. Then I went home to rest a little. By 10:30 the processional went over our carpet. A lot of work destroyed in a matter of minutes. At about 11pm I went home to get some sleep. Deanna and I were planning on seeing some carpets at 4am on Good Friday!
Good Friday- Deanna and I woke up at 4am to see the carpets before the processional destroyed them. We saw a cool one made out of carved fruits. Very creative! We even found the processional...not hard to do...There were tons of people and little light so my pictures from that early in the morning are not that good. I went out in the afternoon to take more pictures. Since I had tons of the float of Christ carrying the cross I decided to focus on takiong pictures of the men carrying the float...especially their faces. Yep, it is true, the face can tell you a lot. It was kind of fun trying to get pictures of people´s faces without being right in their face. haha. There were also men dressed as Roman Soliders, two robbers, and pharisees. It was pretty interesting. By three the men carrying the float changed from a purple robe to a black robe because Christ was crucified. There were different floats which I did not go out to see because I was exhausted! There was also a drama about the crucificion which I missed because I lost track of time trying to get good pictures.
Saturday- At 4pm there is another processional with just women carying the Virgen Mary. She is going to pay her respects at Jesus´tomb. It is a small processional, not as big as the ones yesterday.
Sunday- Deanna and I are heading to Cerro de La Cruz which is a hill that overlooks Antigua. There we will be attending church celebrating Christ´s resurrection. Then we will be attending another church service in the church building later that morning. We have plans to eat out at a restaurant then we will probably spend the rest of the day in bed! Its been a long weekend, literally.
The processionals have been interesting. A lot of the festivies around here are more for show and because its fun. I don´t think much thought goes into why we have this time besudes seeing Christ carrying his cross. Not much emphasis on His resurrection at all. It has reminded me consistently this week though what Christ has done for me! He died for us and took away our sins. All we have to do is accept that gift. He rose again because He conquered death. I also see it as we know we serve a true God because He is the ONLY God who has died and conquered death by rising again three days later! Wow! Happy Easter everyone!