Sunday, November 3, 2013

Happy Halloween!

Although Halloween is not a widely-celebrated holiday in Guatemala, the children and youth of the Family Support Center love our annual joint celebration of Halloween and the Day of the Dead.

Jenny and Gabi, working on the apple crisp.
















Adding the crisp to the apple crisp.

On the morning of October 31st, fourteen of the older kids came to Xela for a cooking activity.  We split them youth into two groups.  One group made apple crisp and designed their jack-o-'lantern while the second group made pumpkin cake and also worked on their jack-o-'lantern.  We baked our desserts and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Jacqueline, shredding pumpkin.
Mixing the pumpkin cake batter

The kids traveled back to Llanos and joined their younger compaƱeros for fiambre.  Heavy on vegetables, cheese, and lunch meat, fiambre is the traditional meal on the Day of the Dead in Guatemala.


Some problems with a jack-o-'lantern
The children finished lunch and began their preparations for the Halloween party.  With the help of Carmen Maria, the kids (and volunteers) dressed up as vampires, witches, scarecrows, pirates, and cats. 

Las Gatitas:  Ingrid, Evelyn, Amy, and Brenda

Witches: Ilcy and Lety

Scarecrows: Melissa and Jonathan

We lit the candles in the jack-o-'lanterns, turned off the lights, and invited folks to tell scary stories.  We finished the party with fried plantains, pumpkin cake, and apple crisp.

Vampires: Anibal, Ismael, and Marcelo

Piratas!

Oscar, the lion

Unfortunately we didn't have time to fly the kites that the kiddos made during the week.  October and November is kite-flying season in Guatemala and the kids have been hard at work, creating their own kites for the contest.  Kite flying had to be postponed until the following week.

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