Labor of Love

This week we've become involved in an interesting project: the village Passion Play.

The play itself is a multi-day affair that starts on Palm Sunday, when a guy playing the role of Jesus rides through town on a burro while onlookers wave palm fronds. Then on Thursday they stage the arrest, Friday the crucifixion, and late Saturday the resurrection. 

Phil and I don't have any religious beliefs, but we still find the whole spectacle both impressive and moving, and we know it means a great deal to both the actors and the audience.

One of the guys who directs the whole thing and makes it happen is our neighbor Lalo (the nickname for Eduardo) and this year we told him we were willing to help in any way we could. The lot where they are assembling the sets and props is just around the corner for us so we are now spending many evenings up there helping out. 

For the folks working on this project, it truly is a labor of love. Our town, Ajijic, is known for having a particularly impressive Passion Play and I think they try to outdo themselves every year.

I'm posting photos here of the construction process for the props, still in very early stages. I'll post more as it goes on and of course will get photos of the many acts of the play itself!

This is the model, carved in styrofoam, of what the Roman temple is going to look like. (The sign says, loosely translated, "Put tools back where you got them.")

These are the Roman columns from last year. All new ones are being made for this year.

The columns start out life as these cardboard tubes. These are forms used to pour concrete columns for buildings. You can see they have been used for that purpose and slit open to remove them from the concrete.

Styrofoam ridges and other details are added.

Our current job is adding a few papier mache layers over the top of the styrofoam using newspaper, diluted white glue and paintbrushes. It usually only takes a few minutes before my fingers are sticking together, but we are getting pretty fast at this after many hours of repetition.

Here are a couple shots of the work area and all the columns being worked on. 

Some Roman soldier's sandals and a helmet from last year. The helmet is also made from styrofoam.

A stack of Roman armor from last year. I don't know who did this leather work.

Shields, helmets and capes from last year. 

La Vida Loca

Today (February 21) is the official kickoff of the local Carnaval celebration -- the big party leading up to Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent starts -- like Mardi Gras up in New Orleans. 

Over in our neighboring town of Chapala, they had the ritual "Quema de Mal Humor" (burning of bad mood) tonight to get everyone in the mood for the revelry. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this since we didn't go -- I was pretty sure that trying to find parking and get close enough to take pictures would put ME in a bad mood.

So to get everyone into the proper mood for Carnaval I'll share some pictures from last year's local Fat Tuesday parade. To me this parade is Essence of Mexico. 

Enjoy!

For some reason, men dressed as women is one of the mainstays of the Carnaval parades, but just about any costume will do -- and a good part of the town participates.

A lot of balloons get used as decorations.

Throwing confetti and flour are part of the celebration. Here Phil shows off his war wounds.

The ladies just can't resist him...

No comment.

What do women dressed as American football players have to do with Carnaval?  Another of those inexplicable things.

If there is a parade, there are horses.

Is he cute or what? He was keeping time to the music on his saddle pommel.

Is it February already??

OK, it's been a while since my last post. I kind of have an excuse. We've been getting work done on our house, which means noise, and dust, and being stuck in a bedroom with the dogs so they don't attack the workers every time they walk through.

Oh, wait. You didn't realize we'd bought a house here? Well, we have. And I will post pictures once the place quits looking like a can of talcum powder exploded in it.

Anyway, enough excuses. I need to get posting more often so I'll do one now while I've got the urge.

This past Sunday, Feb 16, ended the three-day event known as the Great Mexican Chili Cookoff -- somewhat of a misnomer considering it's run by gringos. It's probably the biggest fundraiser of the year and a great chance to pick up art and crafts for a good price. So here are some photos from that.

Lots happening at this time of year so more to come soon!

The venue. This is actually the back picnic area of the local water park.

The mascot. You can see that this has been going on for a long time!

The entertainment.

Some of the exercise options available here. Actually Zumba is the most popular. 

This lady is peddling bellydance lessons

Some of the great folk art for sale. 

One of the recreation options in the hills across the lake. We want to do this, hopefully soon.

We bought this rug to hang on the wall. Hand woven from hand spun, hand dyed yarn.

We also bought this whimsical interpretation of Adam and Eve. I love stuff like this!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

I’ve been meaning to do a blog on our life “south of the border” for some time. In fact, it was one of my New Year’s resolutions. So with mid-February fast approaching maybe I should get started!

For my first post I’m going to go back to the first of the year and the New Year’s day parade. The folks here will find any excuse to put on a parade and New Year’s is one of the most whimsical, with a “float” for each of the ten past years as well as the current year.

Do you know what the following things have to do with the past ten years?

Men in Black
Clowns
Bees
Elves
A guy and a burro
Cavemen
A mime troupe
Medusa

Neither do I, but they were the themes of the floats this year. Below are some photos of floats and spectators in this year's parade. Look close and you may see that Obama came for a visit too...