More Dia de los Muertos -- and John's birthday

Here are a few more pictures of the diversity of the cemetery here in town:

People leave little cards and decorations for their deceased loved ones, like valentines for the dead

There is a miner's helmet at the bottom of this metal plaque -- we are guessing this person may have been killed in a mining accident (there are multiple gold mines in the area)

It was a hot day, and there was a Catholic mass in the cemetery starting at 11am -- right in the middle of the strongest sun of the day. As I mentioned in the last post, the mood in the cemetery can range from morose to jubilant... in Guadalupe it was somewhere in between.  Families gathered at grave sites, but few were crying, and it was not really a party atmosphere either.

People huddled into whatever shad they could find, including many hand held umbrellas

The chapel in the background is where the mass was held

Inside the chapel at the beginning of mass, over Sister Alicia's shoulder

Annalise found the shade of a tree from which to watch the event

Mom, I am hot and uncomfortable

The combination of burning candles and dry grass caused a few unexpected fires (which were promptly put out)

And let us not forget that today, November 2nd,  is John's birthday!  It is almost certainly the hottest birthday he will have for a long time -- and the most interesting.  Annalise made him a yogurt, banana and granola parfait for breakfast this morning to start out his day.  This afternoon, some of the people from his evening class brought us over a home cooked lunch in honor of his birthday -- fried tilapia and plantains with rice.  It's really nice to see how much good will he is engendering in the community by volunteering so much time to each English (which is wholly by popular demand -- he had not planned it at all).  

 It was really delicious.

Even the kids, who are not usually major fans of fish, ate it up.

The card the gave him reads:  "Happy Birthday Jhonn [sic].  On behalf of your students, with much affection."

The kids and I made him a banana chocolate chip cake with a sort of chocolate ganache as a frosting -- it was not the most *beautiful* cake we ever made, but it sure tasted good.  Happy 54th birthday to John!  Not a bad way to ring in a new year of life.