Will blog again when I have time. At the moment I want to write to my friends in Australia and tell them that I'm not coming back for a while, first.
This is the season of Posadas here - which means that there's a christmas party every day with family and friends (usually both at the same time). I've been to Pilar's giant family Posada on Saturday. They were very cool, and it reminded me of Raquel to watch her play with the children. I seem to be getting along with Anahí (her daughter) better and better - and her father talks to me a lot in Spanish to explain the origins of many things. He has a little of the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding - because he knows the origins of everything - but at home he potters around with satsifaction a lot like [our family friend] Gerald.
After the Posada was the wedding reception (we had to miss the ceremony for the Posada). Very late in the night we had a Taco stand deliver itself to the wedding, after which Pilar and I went home (Anahí had stayed for the end of the Posada, so that she could get all the lollies out of the Piñatas). We had drunk and danced all night. Chinelos played for an hour and half - musicians who sound like wild gypsies venting high-pitched trumpets and clarinets. You dance by bouncing with your arms laterally above your chest, and at the right point in the music you jump three times until you shout. The music never really stops. It just stops for a bare moment to breathe in. The reception was outdoors, in a park opposite the church. In the park were big round tables like an Australian wedding. But at the back was a covered concrete area with the drinks and some food and the dancing - the salsa: the Chinelos played in the field, with four men dressed like dancing kings in paper-mache masks with rosy cheeks and tall and colourful paper crowns. I ran into a few people who didn't know I was back in Mexico. Carlos and Itzel found me in a queue to dance with Sara and Fernando (Sarita and Fer - my friends getting married). Erna - Karla's Mum - asked me what I was doing back in Mexico. It was easier not to explain with my spanish - so I kissed Pilar. Unfortunately Erna didn't understand at all, and I had to explain it anyway. I had a great conversation with her and Karla's grandma later on.
The next day - Sunday - we returned to the camping-site (by then any number of people had stayed overnight there in tents) and had a mini-Posada to finish off the food and smash Piñatas. The most popular Piñatas are round in the middle, with many conical, carboard points like a star. The round part is a big pottery jar - all the lollies and fruit wait inside until it's smashed. Then everyone - everyone - scrabbles in to seize, and more often than not sit on, the lollies until everyone calms down. Anahí is particularly good at this, although Karla kicks ass as well. James is the most enthusiastic, and broke the first Piñata in the first turn of the night.
We went to another Posada tonight, but Pilar and I arrived a little later and missed most of the evening. Anahí has now been to three Posadas for three nights running. I asked her on the second night how many sweets she'd collected during the night in her plastic bag, she told me:
"Enough for a year."
Tomorrow I don't think there are any Posadas tomorrow. But it's the season, so I wouldn't be surprised. I'll probably come back here to James and Karla's house in the evening, so I can check my email. Sara and Fernando have decided to move in here when James and Karla come to Australia. Which fantastic, because this is a great house, and the centre of the community and it would be a shame if that left here for a year. I'm staying here for Christmas night - which is the whole event here. We have an epiphany under the name of Los Reyes here, like in Spoleto, where the kids get presents at midnight. Midnight on Christmas night, they "rock the baby Jesus" occaisionally, but nothing else much happens. Around New Year's we should be going up to Morelia to spend it with one of Pilar's aunts. I might go down to Mexico City ("D.F." = deh-effeh = "district federal") if I can't find Pilar & Anahí's presents here in Cuernavaca. (Pilar's birthday is on the 5th of January - giving us the progression of Dad, Linda, Pilar in January. She'll be 29. Anahí's birthday is on September 6, so she'll stay 11 for a while yet.)
Talk to you both soon, love Zacha.
Love to Tully and Grandma.
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