Momostenango...

gallo

Last Saturday me and 5 other students we went to the village Momostenango or better to a family close to that. A woman picked us up in Xela and we drove with a chickenbus to her family. She is living there with her husband and 5 kids. There is also the whole family of her husband living. I asked her, it is normal that after the marriage the woman move to the family of their husband.

comb

So she showed us how they weave. First they have to comb the fur of the sheeps, then spinning with a spinning wheel to make a thread out of the fur. We all tried it, and it seems to be to much easier as it is!

spinning

After this she told us, how they color the threads, her family does this only with natural things, insects, plants, fruits and barks. The different intensities comes through the different time of cooking, sometimes  they cook the threads 5 hours, sometimes a week. It is very different!

colors

Then her son showed us how to weave and everybody weaved one line with his help. A huge blanket for example need 2 weeks, something more tiny 2 days.

weaving

Then, tortillas with egg, she baked the tortillas over open fire, but after a while the smoke burned in my eyes and I had to leave the kitchen. She has (for us) a very simple life. cookinf with fire and wood, an outhouse only with some plastic around, the kitchen without a door, very simple, and surrounded by nature!

We drove back with such a chickenbus, very cheap, very slow, very crowded. On the way to the woman they played ska music in the bus, yeah!!! On the way back the motor was too loud, I couldn´t hear something. Of course the few in the nature is great, we saw a waterfall. But sometimes we also saw, that the people throw their rubbish in the nature and don´t care about it.

kitchen