Samana Santa (Holy week) was a pretty busy vacation week. Most of the time was spent preparing for the weekend.
Though, I do remember spending a least one day reading leisurely in my hammock.
The first big event of the week came on Good Friday. This is when they build alfombras. If you don’t remember from last year, an alfombra is a carpet type thing made of salt, dirt, sand, saw dust….etc. It usually depicts a religious theme – but has been known to divert to tweety bird.
I spent most of the week preparing for this. We had to go get the dirt (by we I mean Iris, Yessica, Heidy and I) (oh…and by get I mean go flirt with some guys at the construction site…hehehe), then dye the salt the different colors, buy flowers, glitter and all sorts of things.
I guess I’ll go through the stages of building an alfombra, or at least how we did it. First we put up the canopy – ‘cause nobody likes working in the sun for 5 hours. We then nailed together four beams of wood to act as a frame and to keep the dirt in one spot. Next up was putting in the dirt and wetting it slightly. In the center of the dirt we placed the drawing. The drawing is made of card stock paper and is kind of like a stencil. We laid it out see where it would go and mark an outline. We then lifted it and filled in the outline space with fine grained dirt….sand-ish really. Then you lay the drawing back down and start filling in the ‘stencil’ area with the different colors of sand. Once done with this, you lift up the paper and are left with the drawing. Here is where you have to clean up the lines and colors (if they accidentally mixed). After the main drawing was complete, we covered the dirt surrounding it with pumice ash. On top of this is where we stenciled in the biblical verse that has to accompany any good alfombra. In case you are wondering at this point – the drawing was of a risen Christ and the quote was “And if we have died with Christ, we also believe that we will live with Him Roman 6, 8”.
Once done with this, we removed the wooden border, fixed the border with the remaining salt, and put on a flower border. At the base of the drawing we added about a foot of white salt to create an ‘alter’ area and put flowers and candles on it.
Now, I’m not one to boast – but I think we one the competition this year. I’ll confirm as soon as I know.
Now if that sounds like a lot of work – that’s because it is. It was a pretty stressful day for me. I had invited Zach down to participate and he brought some extra volunteers. There were more then what I expected, but it worked out for the best. My problems stemmed from two groups working on the alfombra – the gringos and the Salvadorians. Both have very distinctive tastes. One group would be fighting to have the alfombra one way and the other group the other way. But the fight always went through me. I also had both sides that were comfortable with me – which is a good thing, but also meant they both felt free to pick on me throughout the day. Though, the biggest thing that got to me was how some people would look at it and tell me what to do and how I was doing it was wrong – and these wore people who hadn’t helped in the least bit to arrange it. I nearly shot one or two of them.
But as I say, in the end it worked out for the best and was a beautiful alfombra. (pics to follow when I get them from Zach)
After the stress of that, I had Saturday off to prepare the house for Easter dinner. On Palm Sunday my mother told me she didn’t want me to be alone on Easter. So, on Wednesday I decided to host a dinner. In all I had 9 volunteers over to my small abode to enjoy beef stew with potatoes. Thus I spent Saturday and Sunday morning preparing food and robbing Iris of sheets, forks, plates – you name it, I stole it.
In all it turned out to be a great night. There was more then enough to eat – though I will admit the beef in the stew was a little chewy and fatty – but not too bad. It felt like just the right amount of people (plus two visiting puppies). At night there were beds everywhere – even outside on the patio.
In the morning, I made bagels and cinnamon rolls – which I believe everyone enjoyed – and had others make the coffee and hand out the banana bread. It was a slow morning – since I can only cook six bagels at a time in my toaster oven.
At the end, I sent them on their way (after helping me to return the beds) with the extra bagels and cinnamon rolls. After I left I learned that we returned three of the beds to the wrong owners – what can I say…they were all white! Ricardo helped me fix the mess.
I then promptly cleaned the house and am now writing this while my muchacha washes an incredible amount of sheets, towels and other assorted items. I love her.
Though, I do remember spending a least one day reading leisurely in my hammock.
The first big event of the week came on Good Friday. This is when they build alfombras. If you don’t remember from last year, an alfombra is a carpet type thing made of salt, dirt, sand, saw dust….etc. It usually depicts a religious theme – but has been known to divert to tweety bird.
I spent most of the week preparing for this. We had to go get the dirt (by we I mean Iris, Yessica, Heidy and I) (oh…and by get I mean go flirt with some guys at the construction site…hehehe), then dye the salt the different colors, buy flowers, glitter and all sorts of things.
I guess I’ll go through the stages of building an alfombra, or at least how we did it. First we put up the canopy – ‘cause nobody likes working in the sun for 5 hours. We then nailed together four beams of wood to act as a frame and to keep the dirt in one spot. Next up was putting in the dirt and wetting it slightly. In the center of the dirt we placed the drawing. The drawing is made of card stock paper and is kind of like a stencil. We laid it out see where it would go and mark an outline. We then lifted it and filled in the outline space with fine grained dirt….sand-ish really. Then you lay the drawing back down and start filling in the ‘stencil’ area with the different colors of sand. Once done with this, you lift up the paper and are left with the drawing. Here is where you have to clean up the lines and colors (if they accidentally mixed). After the main drawing was complete, we covered the dirt surrounding it with pumice ash. On top of this is where we stenciled in the biblical verse that has to accompany any good alfombra. In case you are wondering at this point – the drawing was of a risen Christ and the quote was “And if we have died with Christ, we also believe that we will live with Him Roman 6, 8”.
Once done with this, we removed the wooden border, fixed the border with the remaining salt, and put on a flower border. At the base of the drawing we added about a foot of white salt to create an ‘alter’ area and put flowers and candles on it.
Now, I’m not one to boast – but I think we one the competition this year. I’ll confirm as soon as I know.
Now if that sounds like a lot of work – that’s because it is. It was a pretty stressful day for me. I had invited Zach down to participate and he brought some extra volunteers. There were more then what I expected, but it worked out for the best. My problems stemmed from two groups working on the alfombra – the gringos and the Salvadorians. Both have very distinctive tastes. One group would be fighting to have the alfombra one way and the other group the other way. But the fight always went through me. I also had both sides that were comfortable with me – which is a good thing, but also meant they both felt free to pick on me throughout the day. Though, the biggest thing that got to me was how some people would look at it and tell me what to do and how I was doing it was wrong – and these wore people who hadn’t helped in the least bit to arrange it. I nearly shot one or two of them.
But as I say, in the end it worked out for the best and was a beautiful alfombra. (pics to follow when I get them from Zach)
After the stress of that, I had Saturday off to prepare the house for Easter dinner. On Palm Sunday my mother told me she didn’t want me to be alone on Easter. So, on Wednesday I decided to host a dinner. In all I had 9 volunteers over to my small abode to enjoy beef stew with potatoes. Thus I spent Saturday and Sunday morning preparing food and robbing Iris of sheets, forks, plates – you name it, I stole it.
In all it turned out to be a great night. There was more then enough to eat – though I will admit the beef in the stew was a little chewy and fatty – but not too bad. It felt like just the right amount of people (plus two visiting puppies). At night there were beds everywhere – even outside on the patio.
In the morning, I made bagels and cinnamon rolls – which I believe everyone enjoyed – and had others make the coffee and hand out the banana bread. It was a slow morning – since I can only cook six bagels at a time in my toaster oven.
At the end, I sent them on their way (after helping me to return the beds) with the extra bagels and cinnamon rolls. After I left I learned that we returned three of the beds to the wrong owners – what can I say…they were all white! Ricardo helped me fix the mess.
I then promptly cleaned the house and am now writing this while my muchacha washes an incredible amount of sheets, towels and other assorted items. I love her.
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