The Congress of
Emotions… via Giving Thanks
“A
Road whose very Preparation scared
The Traveller who yet must be prepared.
Who then this Travel to Result would bring
Needs both a Lion's Heart beneath the Wing,
And even more, a Spirit purified
Of Worldly Passion, Malice, Lust, and Pride.”
The Traveller who yet must be prepared.
Who then this Travel to Result would bring
Needs both a Lion's Heart beneath the Wing,
And even more, a Spirit purified
Of Worldly Passion, Malice, Lust, and Pride.”
From the Mantiqu ‘t-Tayr by Farid ud-Din Attar
It is delightful and fulfilling to
verify that some of our notions regarding time, and the relationship between culture,
and actual people, are nothing but fallacies once you are in the midst of
community, as defined by Martin Buber, that is, when community is decidedly “the overcoming of otherness through living
unity.”
No doubt, Kat
& I have experienced a great deal of intensity in both sensation and
emotions, in a good way, since we first landed in Managua, five months ago. At
first, it might seem that living intensely, or what we commonly regard as
intensely, is in fact overwhelming. To further explain this point, we shall
make use of the following example: One of the many, perhaps apocryphal
anecdotes about Gautama, the Buddha, tells us that a certain follower approached
him and asked him: “Master: what is the
chief characteristic of the most spiritual being?” to which Gautama only replied:
“the day has many hours, and those hours
are made of smaller chunks of time, and so on and so forth ad infinitum.” And fell back on his silence. The
master spoke, closed his eyes, and dismissed the neophyte.
What we can
infer from the aforementioned anecdote is that the most spiritual being is that
who is perpetually aware and sentient of all that is happening around. This is
in fact what we have been experiencing since we first landed over here: an endless
chain of good people, meaningful words, situations, events, discoveries,
celebrations, travels, food, change of sceneries, etc.
Basically, our
universe has been as shifting as your eyes right now, going from one word to
the next as you read this note. For helping us attain this depth in existence
we can only be grateful to each one of you, since it is because of your love
and support (in one way or another), that we have managed to experience life so
fully, and in such a fashion as to feel like the most fortunate and happy of
all newlyweds. To further exemplify, here are a few updates since we last spoke
to one another through these forum of our diaries:
-While Ario has
been working to improve the academic skills of Chico (one of the youngest
nephews), and working on his novel, Kat has been volunteering at the Preschool
run by Yeca, and even gave some English classes to the enthusiastic munchkins
there. Unfortunately the last two weeks of the school year Kat got pink eye and
therefore wasn’t able to see the kids till the very end, but we did attend
their end of the year celebration. The school year in El Salvador begins again
in mid-January.
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| Chico's Volcano school project |
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| Maternal (2 year olds) class getting ready to perform at the end of the year celebration |
- Kat’s visa
renewal- Since the most that Kat can be in El Salvador is 90 days (and the neighboring
countries, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua all have a deal which makes it so
that we have to leave not only El Salvador, but go past these countries as well
to be able to reenter and get a new visa) we decided to request a visa renewal
in October. Arriving with rose-colored glasses at the last minute, we were
disappointed when we had to bring back the next day passport pictures, our
marriage certificate (which of course we didn’t have and so instead had to provide
the authorities with an affidavit certifying that in fact we are married –oh! Bureaucracy,
you have the same face everywhere…), copies of Ario’s ids, and bank statements to
strengthen the application. After all sorts of last minute travails and
tribulations, luckily Kat did get a visa renewal, although for only 60 days, so
next week we will be visiting Belize for a few days so that Kat can return to
El Salvador and get another 90 days visa. Life is giving us lemons, and we are
headed to a beach in Belize where lemonade under the palm trees can only mean
bliss. (As a side note we must add that, in preparation for failure on this one
task, we were ready to transform Kat into Katalina, and we were going to
pretend that she was from Chalatenango,
one of the provinces where people with features similar to hers come from in
the country. Since the province was heavily affected by the war, many city
halls were destroyed , and thus records lost (providing us with the perfect alibi
for Katalina’s lost papers, if she failed to produce them). Fortunately, we did
not need to forge Kat a new identity as Katalina Macazar (a hybrid between
McAvoy & Salazar).
-Birthday
celebrations! We celebrated Betti’s (Ario’s Mom) with a surprise lunch at our
house. Needless to say, Ario’s mom was beside herself seeing that all those who
love her confabulated with the master confabulator (that is, Ario) to provide
her with such delight. Yessenita
(Edenilson’s daughter) turned 10 years old, and we celebrated at World Games (a
kid-like Gameworld), Vanessa (niece) turned 14 years old and we celebrated with
a lunch for her (she enjoyed her fried chicken from Pollo Campero) and a cake
made by Kat. Kat’s birthday was specially marked by a love for BEING TAKEN CARE
OF, at the famous Royal
Decameron, a posh and luxurious resort with Edenilson’s family. Thank you
everyone for your lovely birthday wishes, cards, and gifts. Today, as you read
this post, Ario’s birthday celebrations are under way, and although siding on
the mellow, reflective side of things, it promises to be yet another excuse for
friends and family to get together and enjoy good food prepared by Betti and
desserts by Kat.
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| Beti enjoying her cake on her face with some of the family surrounding her |
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| Kat hanging out with the clown at Yessenita's Angry Birds themed birthday! |
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| Vanessa's bday |
-On November 18th
Kat went with Yeca and her kids to visit Yeca’s (and Kat’s) alma mater, the UCA
(The Salvadoran Jesuit College par excellence), to attend the Anniversary of
the Jesuit Martyrs
who were killed in ’89 during the civil war. The traditional celebration
includes a candle lit vigil preceded by a sand and salt mandala making contest representing
an aspect of the martyrs’ character, faith, vision for the future, or contribution
towards the making of a more modern and just El Salvador. As you can see from
the pictures, people still feel very deeply about the magnicide
committed by government troops twenty three years ago. Kat was also able to say hi to the directors of the Casa program which she studied through in El Salvador and a couple Salvadoran friends.
-Salvadoran
Thanksgiving: Ario and I hosted our very first Thanksgiving for 30 people.
Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, pasta salad, sweet potato pie, apple
pie and peach crisp filled the plates of family and friends. Betti made a ridiculously
delicious gravy sauce and we put out Raspberry jam (in place of cranberry sauce,
since it could not be found anywhere). The night concluded with people
exteriorizing before one another the multiple blessings in their lives for
which they are grateful, and, of course, Salvadoran style (and we suspect Nonna
would approve), with lots and lots of singing fueled by wine drinking peoples… umm huh!!
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| Showing off Beti's Gravy! |
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| Beti, Ario & Kike enjoying the evening |
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| Chico, Kat & Mima serving the masses |
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| Kat enjoying Sangria and Pie |
-Besides the
writing of a few chapters of his book, Ario has been giving poetry her due as
well. Here’s an example of one of the latest poems that have stemmed from his
pen, please bear with him:
“Seré un sol diezmado, atónito.
Beberé de tu sonrisa
La flor extensa, fluida,
La única madera que me queda
Por devorar.
Beberé salvajemente
Cada trino de ave ancestral
Acunado en tu vientre.
Seré la gleba seca, íngrima
Que descreía de las historias
Del diluvio universal.
Seré sorprendido
Por el clima fluvial
De tu cabellera
Entre mis manos/
Beberé de tu estrella matutina
Y el coágulo de luz
Que yo había eternizado para mí
Será tuyo, como el instante,
Y no quedará en el aire
Ningún testigo, ningún repente,
Ni la sombra, ni la noción del tiempo.
Diezmado, atónito,
Anquilosado en las fauces
De lo indeciblemente ubérrimo
Un sol herido
Voy a ser.”
Approximated translation…
"I'll be a stunned, decimated sun.
From your smile I’ll drink
The vast, fluid flower:
The only wood left for me
To devour.
Wildly I will drink
Every chirping of every ancestral bird
Cradled in your womb.
I will be the dry, lonely clod
That disbelieved the stories
Of the universal flood.
I will be surprised
By the fluvial climate
Of your hair
Between my hands /
I'll drink your morning star
And the clot of light
I had immortalized for myself
Will be yours, as yours will be that moment,
And there won’t be in the air
Any witnesses, nor any regrets/
Neither the shadow
nor the notion of time.
Decimated, stunned,
Stuck in the jaws
Of all that’s indescribably fertile
A wounded sun
I will be.”
May the Spirit of Giving Thanks carry You All nicely into
the Spirit of the Holidays, and may those timeless spirits bring to you all the
warmth, joy, unity, laughter and goodness that your hearts can store in the
company of those who cherishing us allow us to cherish them back.
Welcome to December Family & Friends!!!
As always: Lots and lots and lots of Love from down
South.
The Passion Fruits.
