It is Saturday, andI have not eaten much, just a couple of buns and a few slices of cheese since having my small bowl of soup on Wednesday. Yesterday was a very hard day as my body cleansed. It was once again a celebration for all here in Ecuador. They call it “El dia de Los muertos” – the day of the dead. Each family gathers at the cemetery of loved ones passed, play music and have a meal. They bring their instruments, sing and generally celebrate the life of those who have passed.
I chose not to go because I really felt I needed the time alone. It was a good call……Patrick went and took lots of photos showing the many people all walking around, or on the graves with no concern for the bones buried there. “It is not the bones we care about – it is their spirit”, this was what he was told. Soon he too began to accept the reality that the bones hold nothing, it is the spirit that contains the life that passed. He said that all but 2 people in the thousands he saw there were happy, enjoying the celebration. Here cremation is too expensive, so burial is the way they go, the natives on one side of the graveyard with a very high wall dividing the land, and the Spanish on the other side of the wall. Even in death there is segregation! I forgot to ask if the Spanish celebrate this day, but I am thinking not – I am thinking from my catholic upbringing this would not be acceptable behaviour. But then in my mind the segregation is not acceptable behaviour. To each their own. I may have been raised with catholic beliefs, but that is not who I am.
For me I was very glad I stayed home, because a few hours after they all left I became sick and ended up in bed shivering and in pain. I spent the rest of the day there, still unable to eat, and just let myself rest. This morning as I write this, I find I am feeling much better, still not very hungry, but more ready to face the day than I have been all week. The medicine works in mysterious ways…..
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