Semana Santa - Leon, Nicaragua

Semana Santa in Leon has been interesting, but not nearly as insane...by way of lots of people...as I was prepared for. Not being Catholic, nor a particularly informed Christian, I'm unable to interpret much of what has been happening around me. What I do know is there has been a procession every morning for seven days. The first six days there was basically just one procession a day, usually in the morning, with people carrying platforms with statues of Mary, various saints and Jesus carrying the cross. 

Yesterday there was a six am procession, a late-morning procession, an early-afternoon procession and then the Grand Finale. Around 5pm a procession moving even more slowly than earlier processions and containing a statue of Jesus reposed on pillows, rather than carrying the cross, moved through the city and ended at the Cathedral. After what have must of been a two-hour mass, the entire procession worked it's way in reverse back to the whichever church Jesus can normally be found.

A few things struck me as, well, odd and disturbing. First and foremost that there were vendors selling everything from hot dogs to glow-in-the-dark lasers to brightly colored blow-up animals intermingled with the band, the priest and Jesus. Everyone in the States asks what the Easter Bunny has to do with Easter and I think he's pretty darn inoffensive in comparison. 

The second oddity were the number of homes along the procession route who had living people laying in front of their homes made up to look like a deceased Jesus. Just laying there. Motionless. For hours.
 









The city of Leon has been a rather toasty place to spend the week, what with the temperature hovering right around 100 and humidity fluctuating between 60-80%. Yet I have managed to get out on a few early-morning wanderings about town. What has struck me the most is the vast number of homes that still bear scars of the revolution. It is impossible to walk any complete block in the city and not see the spray of bullet holes across a building.



The most annoying thing about Nica is the plastic. Of course this is a world-wide problem, but here it just amazes me how senseless it is. If you stop at a street vendor and purchase a Pepsi in a glass bottle they will pour it into a plastic baggie and give you a straw. Even if you promise not to move and drink the soda right there. Yesterday I had a chicken wrap that was enveloped in butcher paper and a snug fitting baggie, yet they still wanted to give me another bag to carry it away in! 

Nearly everyone you see on the street has the chewed off corner of a plastic bag stuck in their mouths sucking out any number of cold or frozen beverages. And every piece ends up on the street until the cleaning crews come through in the night. It's seriously enough to put me right over the edge. Or maybe it's just the heat.

Making the Most of It

Lupines Blooming at Lago Quilotoa

The power of language and the words we choose to form our thoughts is something I find utterly fascinating. A month or so ago I started noticing that when people asked how I liked Cuenca or Ecuador my response was less than enthusiastic. In fact I found myself saying things like, "Oh it's alright. I can make it until my teaching contract is up in November." My mind was on constant repeat uttering, "Tough it out. Make the best of it."

Thankfully on the rather long bus ride from Baños to Cuenca I rediscovered Eckhart Tolle and The Power of Now. As I sat watching the patchwork-quilt of fields pass by dotted with brightly dressed indigenous women, I listened to Eckhart's discourse on the beauty of living in the present moment. Not a new philosophy for me, but this time I heard something new.

To paraphrase Mr. Tolle, the mind is always busy creating a story of how a situation is going to play out and we get so hooked into following the story that we aren't able to see events as they are unfolding. We're just looking for the events that we've created in our story.

His words hit me. No, slapped me across the face yelling, "Wake up!" You see, when I first decided to move to Ecuador I was just going with the flow. Several people had mentioned I should check it out and, having nothing better to do, I decided to see what opportunities might arise. I hadn't yet created a story. But then the insidious mind kicked in and said, "You'd best create some sort of plan." Thus began the researching of towns which led to the creation of Cuenca, The Perfect City by Shantel Beckers.

When Cuenca didn't live up to my expectations I became disappointed. That disappointment, fed by the constant grumbling of my dissatisfied mind, grew until I found myself planning my escape from Ecuador.

Today I'm happy to report that I've changed my mantra from Make the Best of It to Make the Most of It. Rather than comparing the Cuenca of my story to the Cuenca of reality, I'm simply embracing what is. I'm allowing the plot to develop and unfold day-by-day without expectation of where it's going to take me. By simply plugging a different word into my daily mantra, I'm back to enjoying the adventures of life in Ecuador!