What would be the least thing you would expect to find in Ciudad Obregon? Yes, you guessed correctly: Monks from India that are work in a missionary.

When talking to those two lovely gentlemen, they explained me that they have made an over 45 hour journey through the entire world to finally come to Obregon. Well actually, they live along an ethnic group called the: Primas. This is one of original inhabitants Sonora’s. And the town they come from is over 4 hours away. But they currently are attending a church congress.

We probably talked for good half an hour about everything that came into our mind. But something that he told me really made me smile and it reminded me on the problems I sometimes have in Mexico.

In the past, they asked people, if they would want to attend a holy mass. And the Primas always replied “Yes we will come”. Apparently when it was time for the mess no one showed up.

This just reminds me, on the time when I lend money to someone and he said over a period of 4 month: “tomorrow you get it. Don’t worry”.

Just in case you guys will ever read this.

Thanks John for taking your time to talk with me and Estefania. Sadly I don’t remember the name of his fellow mate. But of course a big thanks to you too.

Gracefully Thomas

We have a long weekend, because on Thursday is the day of the Mexican revolution! O.k. Fair question why is there no University on Monday the 17^th, when on Thursday the 20^th the revolution was - I don’t know!

Anyway, me and my host family went to the mayo village la Esquina again. No it doesn’t get boring going to the same places over and over again…or does it?

Since it’s just a 2 hour drive, through the Sonora outback. We arrived quickly at our desired destination.

The last time we went to the village. We experienced something very Mexican: the day of the dead or death day. And this week, we did one - well let’s say two - new things.

First of all, we went to a 15^th birthday in a close village near by. However we also drove with a carriage, which is if you ask was way more exciting!

It’s probably best to show a picture of that carriage first. So, everybody knows what I’m - more like we - drove around. Basically it’s a tired horse, tiny car wheels and car suspension. Hell yeah that thing rocks! Every family that in this village either owns one of those things or has a car…because you see them riding around almost everywhere. Sadly, we got a tired horse. So, that it was just moving very slow. It’ walked not faster then a slow moving grandpa with a walking stick. To the horse excuse, on the carriage were riding four people.

Anyway, we where riding down the road, next to a canal - with dirty, deep water.

As we were riding along. We came to a point where we had to make a U-turn - a fatal turn. While the driver was slowly -driving- the horse backwards, we came closer and closer to the canal… Slowly, very slowly.

A shout: “ALTO“. No reaction. BAM.

Horse slips and gets pulled with the carriage and all the people on top into the cold, dirty, deep, water!

Panic and cursing.

Estefania who was sitting in the back got it the worst, she was till her beast in the water. Me who was sitting in the front, was till my bellybutton under water. For your information I’m about 1,80.

Eww, ewww ,ewwww.

However no nobody moved, everybody just looked at the horse which - luckily - only got his feet wet. If you ask me it did it on purpose. Because one minute before it drove us into the water, it looked at us with a face saying: “Ahh, you didn’t just slap me. Oh, no you didn’t!”.

A few shouts later, we then where ready to get out of the water…which apparently wasn’t to easy, because the canal is steep and the shoes very heavy full of water and mud. While standing there with wet pants, shoes and dirty shirt. I could have sworn to hear the horse laugh.

I would have loved to make a photo of this accident, but since we got completely wet, I rather didn’t want to turn on my camera, since I wasn’t sure if it got wet. Surprisingly it still works 100% perfect, I guess my jeans kept of most of the water. The 549 pesos for the pants seemed to be worth every pesos. Because the divers cell phone didn’t turn on anymore after the accident…

Back in the clinic we all took a quick - cold - shower. When it was my turn to take a shower, I had to remember myself that I only packed one pair of shoes and forgot my spare boxer shorts. Great.

Luckily, somebody in the village was so nice to lend me his shoes, fannies sister was so nice to lend me a pair of pants. And so we went to a supermarket buying new boxer shorts and some sandals for me. Yay, what an experience. Pretty unique, huh?.

The day was here by over. So, that at 9 we finally drove down to the party in a village near by.

The Mexicans celebrate the 15^th birthday of girls. Reason for that is, that they say with 15 the girl becomes a woman. On that day the girls are treated like princesses. In the ceremony, changes the father the shoes of his daughter and puts her high-heels on. This is suppose to be a symbolic for age and maturely . Once she wears her new shoes every uncle gets a chance to dance with their niece and afterwards the friends get a change to dance with their friend or girlfriend…

Good one hour later then, the dance ground is opened for everybody. Almost magically, does everybody grab their girlfriend and starts to dance while a live band plays s famous songs from Sonora. Those parties often go till 5 am. in the morning or till the last person leaves. I guess you can call us lame, because we left already at 12 pm.

That’s basically it. Gotta go - Thomas.

Seeing the world through the eyes of Estefania and Thomas

On Saturday it was time, me and my ‘cultura yaqui’ class went out on a school trip to explore the wide open fields of the Sonora desert and visit 7 of 8 big Yaqui villages.

The villages of the tribe Yaqui
The first stop on our list was the original Cocorit. It’s nothing like I expected. I went with an expectation in the trip that the villages would have something in common with the town Cocorit, which I met before. However, they are not even close to be similar. The original Cocorit, doesn’t has any ‘real’ roads. Not a too big population. In a few words it’s small… The main part of every village is build by a church an it belonging graveyard, such as the ‘party ground’.
The main Yaqui villages are: Cócorit, Bácum, Vícam, Tórim, Pótam, Rahun, Huírivis, and Béleb.

Their territory has an extension of 485,235 hectares in the municipalities of Guaymas, Bacum, Obregon and Empalme. This territory has three different zones: the mountain range (Bacatete sierra), the coastal area (the towns of Guasimas and Bahia de Lobos) and the valley.

The church
The most important part in any of those villages and also in Cocorit is the church. Remember the Yaquis adapted part of the catholic church into their lifestyle and religion. The most interesting thing is that the churches are always build ‘far’ away from the rest of the town. The reason for this is first of all the graveyards are located in front or next of the church and secondly, when the Yaquis make one of they big parties not the entire town gets annoyed. The parties get advertised in radio, newspaper and are fairly known.

The churches it self are kept simple, this is most likely do to the fact that all of those villages are fairly poor. By simple I mean they have unlike other churches I visited and saw in my life no colorful windows. But rather kept simple and not in some Gothic style for example. Apparently we didn’t have time or were not allowed to enter in any of those churches. Something that I regret…

A few more words to the graveyard: while traveling to all those graveyards one thing had they all in common: colorful flowers, mostly made out paper, so they last longer in the heat. And secondly white colored grave stones. This is something completely different then in Germany there you’ll see mostly marble stones in dark colors.

The religious practices of the Yaquis are a mixture of Indian and Catholic elements. An important part is played in their social structure by various “fraternities”, particularly that of the magicians and soothsayers, who on the one hand are medicine-men able to drive out evil spirits and on the other take part in religious festivals. Most social and religious rites involve dances, the best known of which is the Stag Dance (”danza del venado”). To the Yaqui and the related Mayo tribe the stag is sacred as the incantation of the forces of Good.

Health - meeting a wonder healer
While traveling down the road we encountered a site, that i would have never imagined to find. While traveling to Bicam, we came by a house of a so called: ‘Curandera’. Those ‘doctors, supposed to heal diseases and pain by giving massages or praying for the person in pain.
And in front of the house we’re over 20 cars with people waiting for their appointment - she even has clients out of the USA.

Later on, we got to experience that feeling of being health by massages on our own bodies. If it really works is something that i cant answer it this point. But it’s definitely a very interesting experience and culture.

While I got my massages, I was thinking: I must be the first German lying in this bed. Wrong, as the woman explained. There was a retired German professor living among the Yaquis and learning their way of life. I guess you never can be the first in anything

Probably the best way to describe the medicine is by shouting: ‘homeopathic’.

The people, the Yaqui
Talking about people and their way they life is probably nothing you should do, so we’ll keep it rather short.
The people, the tribe Yaqui are rather conservative when it comes to meet new people, at least that’s the feeling what I got. While my group was talking to them. The reason for that is probably that the older generation of Yaqui’s has seen a lot and went through some hard troubles. Remember the last fight or tiny revolution is not even 100 years back.

The children learn Yaqui just like Spanish in school. Eventhough most of the people we’ve talked to prefer Yaqui, at least as long as their under themselfs.

Kova head
Chonim hair
Yeka nose
Kumsakam eyebrows
Puusim eyes
Hoopem cheeks
Chau chin
Teeni mouth
Wok pusiam toes

Conclusion
Having met most of the Yaqui villages last week and having met the villages of the mayos. I think it wouldn’t be a wrong conclusion to say that those to tribes life pretty equal.
Both of them have roads out of stones, have trees for shade and have tiny stores selling coke. The mayor difference is most just their believe…

more pictures

here!

Glossary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaqui
http://www.pascuayaqui-nsn.gov/history_and_culture/language/index.shtml

Hello. Once again i write from my mobile device, because some how the internet doesn’t seem to work on the stationary computers. The weather is harsh today, it feels like we’re in the jungle and not the desert.

However, this isn’t the reason for this post. 2 days ago has been Halloween, a widely celebrated ‘holiday’ under children. A day where they can dress up, pretend to be their favorite super hero and most important collect candy! While this old tradition is becoming more and more popular it kind of lets Mexicans forget about a nice tradition in Mexico ‘dead day’.

My host family was so kind to make a trip out of the city to show me how this day is celebrated. We drove once again into a tiny Mayo village, where Estefania’s sister works.

This post is only showing my experience, so please excuse me in case I say something wrong.

Now back to the story. For those that haven’t read my past story about the Mayo village ‘la Esquina’. This town is about 50 people strong and is home to an ethnic group called the mayos. They are one of, i believe, 8 Indian groups left in Sonora. Dont confuse them with the Mayas, they are a different tribe. Just as an information on the side. This village has been struke by the hurricane, just like many other mayo villages.

So, i know we got a bit of the path, let’s better get back on…

As i experienced it, the day of the dead is actually the night of the dead. Since the main event, if i may call it so, starts when it gets dark. This is also the time when you are able to see candles light up over the entire grave yard. Spooky!

Like I said before, the celebration started at night, at least for us. This was when we left la Esquina to drive a bit down the road into an other town, which holds the grave yard.

The graveyard is actually divided into 2 parts, this wasn’t always the case, but after a hurricane, part of it was destroyed, and thats the reason why there is a road dividing the grave yard. Further more, the graveyard is not divided into squares, but it rather seems that there are graves everywhere. And you need to watch out not to step on one by accident.

While we walked through the graveyard we encountered many different people, when Fannie asked one family, if she’s allowed to photograph the grave and the flowers, they agreed, but also asked for a picture of them. Because, they said, it’s the first time after years that they are united again.

While walking further, we actually came upon somebody that was willing to explain us something about that day…

This is what he said:

It’s actually a pre-Hispanic celebration, but when the Spanish arrived they accepted this holiday. So, that more people would be willing to convert. He further said, that on that day you shall go to the favorite place or the grave of the dead person and place his favorite food, drink or flowers next to it. Next, to that he also mentioned that it’s not a sad holiday, but rather involves parties, music and food. This part was hard for me to believe, because in Germany it’s usually the total opposite. You will never see anyone happy on a graveyard…

Link for more information about death day.

On this point, I want to say thank you for this wonderful explanation and thank you that you took the time to explain us everything.

After we’d talked to him, we went in front of the graveyard, where people sold food. Everything ranging from nachos, popcorn, hot dogs and tamales. This was also the first time I ate Tostadas - Yummy!

Tostadas are some kind of circle shaped nacho and on top you put all different kinds of vegetables, cheese, beans or meat.

Coming to the end of this post, I would like to say thank you again for the time that everybody took for us. But a special thank you to Estefania that took those lovely pictures. Even though not all are 100% sharp and pretty dark. I think everybody can understand that we can’t walk around the graveyard with the flash turned on.

While reading this post again, I’ve noticed what always happens to me. That I got kind of off the path - Oh well.

I’m really not sure how to start this shout for help! But the feeling, in me, grows that thinks that there is a monster under my bed.  You might question yourself why does he say something absurd like that? Yes, there is proof, because over the last few weeks I’ve been noticing that my socks got less and less each day of the week, and I don’t mean the socks which I made dirty on daily basis.

Let me say it straight: I think some monster/ human like creature lives under my bed. And it feeds on socks. Dirty socks, clean socks it doesn’t matter as long as it can get socks it’s happy.  Since I’m not stupid I’ve thought the possibilities which I have through. First stay up the entire night, hope to encounter the monster and then fight it - fight it to the death.  The second option I saw was just to live with this creature and buy new socks every few month.

Everybody that knows me knows, of course, which option I chose. Yes the first. I want to kill that little fucker. But as it had to happen, I fell asleep every night and never got a good glimpse at him and neither was able to attack him with butter knife!

So, after a week of restless trying I finally changed my mind and just tried to buy some new socks. Right after university I ran to the bus, entered it and left it in the center again to buy some socks in Coppel.

While buying the socks, I always had the monster in my head. That’s why I didn’t chose the package with 2 socks, not with 4 socks, but chose a package with 6 (six) socks. In the size: “unisize”, for the cheap prize of just 49$ Pesos. Hey, having that monster under my bed is cheaper than having a cat…  Socks bought, let’s get home.

This will be shocking news for you all: When I tried the socks on some time later. They didn’t fit. Stupid Coppel probably wanted to say ‘minisize’. So, now I have socks that don’t fit me correctly and I have a feeling, that the monster won’t eat them either.</em>

 Just a few words to Coppel: I’ve been in many, each time I’m in one I have the feeling that there are more employees then costumers - weird. Once in Nayarit the employees were so bored that they had to take cocaine while working to be not 100% alone, but to have some company - even if just in imagination.

I guess, I have to get back to option 1.stalk the monster and hunt it down. Wish me luck. Updates on this news will be posted. Just like photos once I have a real one.

Best wishesThomas