Life in the Centro

I'm almost all moved in with the host family. Just a few more bags and boxes to get from my house. My host mom, brother, sister and cousin all came up with me to my house to clean up stuff and pack stuff away. I thought they were just coming up to help me carry stuff down but my host mom went to work and started putting stuff in bags and cleaning up stuff. The two volunteers who lived in the house before me left a lot of crap for me to sort through. I'm a little embarrassed for how messy my family probably thinks I am after seeing the disaster that was my house. I have been saving plastic bags to stuff into bottles to make eco-ladrillos (eco-bricks) with to contribute to someone making a bottle project. I have also been saving all of my recyclables, so lots of glass and plastic bottles, paper and cardboard. From the way my house looks, I kind of look like a crazy pack rat. But all is a bit more orderly now. I found some stuff that got a little damp during the rainy season and was growing some pretty gross-looking mold, so it's nice to not be breathing that in anymore. And now I'll just have to get settled in a much smaller area than I am used to.

 And for my first night back here living in the center of town, I am greeted by the lovely, dulcet tones of children screaming "Que muera el diablo!" (something along the lines of "Die devil!"). I got some of the story from Jeimy, my host sister, which is that this week some teens dressed up all in red are passing through parts of the center of town following the cries of "Que muera el diablo" and hitting the people screaming this with sticks. My host siblings and cousin were of course half-terrified and half-excited for the eventual arrival of the diablos at our house and kept screaming from behind the bars in front of the store. Yes, I suppose they are cowards, hiding where the devils cannot get to them, but I wasn't about to go on the street to be beat with sticks either. Interesting tradition. Other than the screaming, there are a lot more noises here that I was once used to but I have been spoiled with country life where dogs bark and roosters crow, but cars and trucks only pass de vez en cuando. Here there is lots of honking and motors running, as well as the sound of motorcycles speeding by and people talking loudly on the street. It will probably take some getting used to, but hopefully I'll be able to start sleeping again.