Riding Buses, Burning Bulls

Today we woke up at Tukur, a small hotel on the road to La Tinta. After breakfast, we loaded up and started on our way to the Setzimaaj- Senahu area. After a long ride of bumpy, windy roads we finally met up with ADICAY just outside of the community, Los Limones. Los Limones is a potential site for future water projects and our job today was to assess the community to gather a general understanding of what would have to be done in order to create year-long access to clean water.

When we arrived in Los Limones we met with some of the members of the community. Soon we found ourselves walking down a trail towards a potential water source. After a few slips and slides in mud, our group arrived at a stream. After some investigation, we made the walk back to the community, trying to picture in our heads how bring water

from the source into Los Limones. When we returned the whole community met with us in a local church where Ana and Roberto from ADICAY introduced us and informed Los Limones of the difficulty of this project.

Following this we loaded up and began our way to Setzimaaj itself. Just before town we were met by a small group of community members who asked us to walk the rest of the way into Setzimaaj with them. As we rounded a corner, a firework went off and we found ourselves in the midst of a parade, complete with a spirit tunnel of children from the community a marimba, and dancing members of the community dressed in colorful costumes and masks. Once we arrived at the school we were sat down at a table and presented with drinks made from the new water system. The ceremony promised itself to be a long one filled with dancing and music. Unfortunately, it was cut short by a torrential rainstorm. We quickly made our way up to the house we would be staying in and unpacked.

Once the rain had died down we hiked up to investigate the new water tank, ate a dinner of chicken and rice, and made our way to the evening celebration. There we saw children from the school perform a cultural dance and were able to witness my favorite event from the evening, “The Burning of the Bull”.

The bull was made of wood and adorned with a lattice like frame. Placed along the frame at strategic intervals were home-made fireworks. The bull was lit and placed over the head of one of the community members who began to dance around as one at a time, fireworks exploded from the side of the bull. The bull finally lit up in a grand finale in which the top of the frame came to life in a flurry of sparks.

After this we all turned in for the night, however the community had different plans. Throughout the night, music could still be heard, and even after I sat down to write this blog post, I can hear that they are still celebrating.