Sunday, June 08, 2008

Rain, Tuba bands in the night and scantily clad men!

I must digress from writing about Chiapas to tell you about the activities that began with the wondrous rain that started about 3 yesterday afternoon and continued til about 8PM. A blessed rain that the people have been praying, dancing and chanting for, so they can plant their fields. Halleluia! It certainly cooled things off and it was in the mid 50's during the night. Sleeping was perfect, until 6:01AM - I know the time exactly because I was blown out of bed by the first volley of fireworks, bombs, about 10 feet from my bedroom. Scared Velcro as much as me and she went into hiding...............
THIS was the culmination of the drums, the dancing and the swords that I wrote about a few days ago when I said, "Que pasa?" I don't know if it is a celebration for rain or what. BUT it sure got my attention for an hour this morning. I finally got up, went upstairs to look out the dining room window and there was a gaggle of teenagers lighting rockets and fireworks, continuously- did I mention for an hour? A friend of mine on the other side of town called a while ago and she said all she could see up here was smoke - yaaaaaaaaaa - me too. But then I climbed to the roof to see ALL the activity - the tuba band which consisted of 5 horns, 2 drums and a tuba. Their repertoire was the same melody (I use that term very loosely) over and over and over again - the people with all their candles and the statue of the Virgen at the edge of the canyon with flowers everywhere. It took my breath away to look down and see this beautiful, innocent display of devotion right outside the walls of my house. I witnessed this once before and wrote about it in "The Virgen and the Tuba Band" in a blog on 7/14/07.
So, after all the excitement was over I DID go back to bed and even fell back to sleep - an almost never experience. When I finally got up for coffee and to cook my Sunday breakfast of homemade biscuits, eggs and bacon with fresh orange juice, I heard another commotion outside and walked to the window to see. Yikes about 30 scantily clad men in shorts and tank tops - runners! Be still my racing heart.
Geez, never a dull moment in my little hilltop hideaway! ALL this before noon............

3 comments:

Billie Mercer said...

I was just talking to someone who is visiting SMA for a month. She said she had worried if they would be bored but they had found something going on all of the time. And so it is, even in your little corner over looking the Presa.

1st Mate said...

I've really got to go to SMA sometime, you have the most fascinating events. Much more interesting than fishing tournaments and biker conventions, which is what we get here.

Babs said...

Come on down First Mate - there is ALWAYS something going on here!