Cervantes and false eyelashes

This week went by incredibly fast. On Tuesday I got my second batch of enchiladas for the semester, this time from my host family. I think these were the best ones I’ve had so far, probably because they didn’t make them too spicy. We brought the ingredients back from the city, and the women in the family prepared them for us.

Lupe is still pretty sick. She’s been off-and-on sick since June, but it is increasingly more on and less off. I think they’re all resigning themselves to the idea that she’s dying, because no doctors (medical or supernatural) have anything left to do for her. Martina (Lupe’s grandmother) told me that she hopes God will remember Lupe and either take away her pain, or take her home to him. I think that’s a pretty good statement of how we all feel, I think.

On Friday night, we came back to the city early so we could go to a festival in the city of Guanajuato. It is supposedly the Cervantes festival, but now it’s just a smorgasbord of cultural events from all over the world. The four of us went with some of the Young Single Adults from church (I think that title is self-explanatory, for my non-LDS readers). We wandered around the streets for a while, stopping to buy fake eyelashes (see the pictures below) or to watch street performers. We ended up paying to join a recorrido of the city by a group of musicians. They took us touring around some streets, leading singing and dancing, and performing some mini-plays and songs for us. According to the Mexican friends we were with, this is a really classic experience, and I think it was well worth the 50 pesos. After the recorrido, we went to a plaza for some late dinner. I ate some of the most amazing Argentine empanadas. The ones I ate were filled with corn and cheese, but they come with lots of different fillings. By the time we finished eating, got to the bus station, waited for the bus (which was late), and got home, it was well into the wee hours. The whole thing was a good time, though, and worth the lost sleep.


This is me with a bowl of the best enchiladas I think I´ve ever had. I´m sitting at the table in the kitchen (in one of the new chairs--note the intact backing).

This is Martina with a pile of peanut plants from the peanut field she´s sitting in the middle of. My main regret about this picture is that she´s not smiling, because she usually is.

This is me with Lupita, Chepe, Lina, and Paulina (left to right). We´re sitting outside Lola´s house, and all the children are miraculously looking at the camera.

Me with some of our Mexican friends, sporting our fake eyelashes, or fake beard, in Jorge´s case: Jorge, Teren, me, Laura, Adriana, and Ruby (left to right).