Day 33: Muerte

Fito's mom died yesterday.

It was really sad, and I felt really bad for him, but it was nice to see everyone coming together for Fito. All of the teachers took a two hour bus ride and a taxi cab to be at the funeral for him.

Spanish funerals aren't that much different from ones in America, but I think there's definitely a different feeling in the air. In America, we have dismembered the nuclear family. We rejoice in leaving our parents and embracing independence the minute we turn 18 and are able to. But here, you live with your family pretty much until you get married. There isn't the same kind fo independence here that we have in America.

There's a preview for an upcoming show called "Parenthood" that I think exemplifies this difference best. In the preview it shows Lauren Graham (of Gilmore Girls) dropping off her high schoolers at school and saying "Be your Best!" while they shrug her off and look completely mortified. One day while watching this, Celeste asked me why this was so embarrassing to American teenagers, because here in Honduras parents do that all the time and it's not a big deal, but that's because family matters here. Families here are like Americans in the 50's. Mom stays home and takes care of the kids, house and cooking, while Dad works and the kids go to school and spend the rest of their time at the house. There are no nursing homes, because you take care of your own family.

It's beautiful really.

So funerals, while mournful, are also a time of rejoicing. You remember the time your were lucky enough to get with this person.

The only time that everyone really cried in unison was when the casket was lowered. In America, after we do this we usually walk away leaving the gravediggers to finish up their job, but since graveyards in Latin America are above ground, you wait for the person to be cemented inside. So, we stood, crying, singing, watching as we became physically separated from our loved one until the rain started. And in that moment, I felt God.

God weeping with His People.