This week is really special in Mexican Culture. Not only is the Panamericana coming into town tomorrow (to which I am going--- YAY!), but they have a special ritual called the Matanza this time of year. Mexicans consider the goat as one of the cleanest meats around. For this reason, they take the utmost care of these creatures. They walk for an entire year in these pastures where the goats can only eat a certain type of cactus and drink cactus water- nothing else. They are really special. So this time of year, the goats are sufficiently grown to be eaten--and that they do. For like 300 pesos a plate. These goats are SOOO expensive. The dish is called Mole de Cadenza (or something like that...), and honestly I hope they don't buy me any because I don't really like Mole (Moh-ley). Mole... ugh. Well, some is good. I had this Mole soup one time and it was SUPER good, but the other stuff is really gross. Regular Mole is like saying, "Here, let me pour really fake, disgusting chocolate on your meat. Would you like to add sugar to that?" Blech. Really, they dump sugar on it. Anyway, if it tastes anything like regular Mole, no thank you. But apparently it is a delicacy, and you can only get it this time of year.
Because of the significance of these goats, they have a party to go with it called the Danza a la Matanza, or the Dance at the Slaughtering. Yeah, rather gruesome. I totally thought they were going to slaughter the goat on the stage. They didn't--at least not the day I went. They have another ceremony where they kill all of them, and I chose not to attend that one. Anyway, we watched this really cool presentation where they dance with a goat on their shoulders like a mink.
The goat had a bunch of leis around its neck. He was fit to meet the queen.
Ay, blasted woman with a basket who danced into my shot at the last second.
Anyway, so this poor goat had to sit there and be carried around by some guy, and it bleated a few times as if to say, "Get me down!" Poor thing. Oh well, all is good and fun in Mexico. The other weird thing was that they were dancing around with Tamales and Tequila too. We decided the three T's of an awesome Mexican party are Tamales, Tequila, and Turkeys. Yes, they do the same thing with a turkey.
This guy was really into it, and he kinda flailed the turkey around a bit, but hey, at least it looked cool. The first time I saw it, it looked like it was dead. The second time, it looked like it was fake. The final time, I saw it move of its own accord, thus making it a live turkey. I have excellent skills of deduction.
We had a great time. The people in front of us did not have a great time because of the Americans with long legs digging into their backs. Yeah, totally not my fault. I felt so bad. Being tall and white here makes you stand out BIG time. I am about a foot taller than most Mexicans. It kinda bites when all the teachers are together because we can't sit anywhere for more than 30 minutes without getting talked to about "a business arrangement to get into the states" or something like that. Honestly, some people. Being white, however, gets you on TV and in the Newspaper. Yeah, we were totally on TV. They took our pictures for the Newspaper (we looked to see if they had a badge, not just some random person taking our picture and asking us for our name), and we're watching to get a copy of the paper here that we are in. They said it should come out in the next few days, so we'll see.
Overall, it has been a good week. It's been weird though- this lady that was sitting behind me in church last Sunday grabbed a lock of my hair and held it for a while. I turned around, and she said, "You have such beautiful hair, Sister." I thanked her, of course, but it was weird. Then the very next day, 2 of my kids touched my hair and said, "So beautiful." I just don't really know how to react to that. I'm glad my hair pleases you. My Spanish teacher taught me how to gratefully thank a person and politely tell them not to touch my hair. That may come in handy someday.
Well, this is hump week for my being here- only 2 months left to go. I am incredibly saddened by this fact. I feel like I need to sit down and analyze my time here and see what I feel like I'm missing. I don't want to leave this place with any regrets, so I better make sure I do everything I can. One thing is for sure- I really want to go to a Luchador match. Better make that happen quick.
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