David's latest dispatch: Chichi to Antigua
From Friday, March 21:
This morning started off in a superb fashion in Chichicastenango, with all the hotel rooms benefiting from hot water in the showers (it was a very welcome change from the day previous when the water was downright frosty). All the students went out in the city before breakfast to watch the Good Friday processions, but apparently we were overzealous in our early rising, and we wound up having breakfast and making arrangements for departure to Antigua before the processions began. The Chichi residents put a lot of effort into decorating for their celebrations: purple drapes hung from the street-side windows, a strange effigy dangled from the church entrance, and colorful sawdust designs could be found on many of the cobblestone streets.Our departure from Chichi was more adventurous than intended. We have a lot of supplies with us, which requires a lot of room, and a lot of people too. The usual arrangement is for us to travel in one van, while our luggage and supplies are transferred in another van. The arranged luggage van plan didn’t work out though, and we were left scrambling to find a replacement. Fortunately, a very kind fellow from Tennessee agreed to help us out – he’s a youth pastor for the church that supports the orphanage in Lemoa – and he was traveling back to the USA to be home for Easter. Conveniently for us, Antigua was more-or-less on his path of travel back to the Guatemala City airport.
Also complicating things in Chichi were various fellows in orange vests who were working to direct traffic away from the processions. They directed us hither and thither and yon as we attempted to leave the city, but they too were overzealous and we wound up seeing most of the procession from inside our van as it passed by right in front of us. (This was perfectly fine, except that by that point, we were trying to *avoid* the processions.)
Chichi wasn’t alone in celebrating the day. On our drive, we were stuck in traffic for a bit while a parade in another city passed by, taking up the roadway. And when we got to Antigua 2.5 hours later, the streets were packed with both tourists and locals who were enjoying the festivities.Some were planning to make a trip to Sacalaj (where our grad student is working with the community to provide renewable energy for powering a water well pump), but the meeting had to be rescheduled due to the various delays encountered on the road. So instead, we’ve spent the remainder of the day re-acquainting ourselves with Antigua. A couple of students embarked on a trip up a local volcano, while others worked on homework (yes, we’re still students), and others enjoyed the sunshine and relaxing atmosphere beside the hotel pool.
Tonight is our first night in Antigua since the last trip, and we’ll be here for the remainder of the week.
The end for now,
--David Moluf
P.S. If you want to see what one of these volcanoes looks like, check out this photo from an earlier trip.