Day of the Dead

Halloween has started gaining a little steam in South America, but not nearly enough steam for candy corn to be readily available here. The much more traditional celebration here is of the Day of the Dead. Last night our language school had an interactive cultural event, where some of the students researched and presented about the customs associated with the holiday that runs from tomorrow at noon till Monday at noon. We had a model table replete with Andean traditional foods, flowers, and decorations. And learned all about the reasoning behind the practices, such as the children who go from house to house to pray for the lost loved ones in exchange for payment in candy or bread, similar to trick-or-treating. To bring a little bit of home to the occasion, I made pumpkin bars.

On a much more serious, and very sadly ironic note, one of the street kids that some of my friends from the language school works with, killed himself yesterday. He was the second suicide from this group in 10 days, and the 4th untimely death in as many months. To support my friends, I attended the teenager's funeral. Near the entrance of the cemetery there was a platform to lay the coffin on in front of this huge Jesus statue, and a Catholic Bolivian woman who will pray for the deceased for a small price. The caskets are not buried underground but housed in large walls. When we reached his site, ~20 of his friends from the streets, a few other missionaries, and his alcoholic mother who has apparently not cared about him, or for him, in years, gathered to honor him with words, prayers and pan flute music. It was touching and heartbreaking to see these teenagers so hardened by glue-sniffing and living under the bridge, so tender in their loss.

I pray that his mother and his girlfriend can find peace and not guilt through this pain. And I pray that God will continue to use this as an opportunity for the missionaries to love on these kids.