Farsighted Fly Girl

Guatemala is famous for the colorful carpets or alfombras , that cover the cobblestone streets of most towns during Semana Santa  or Easter Week. But I was thrilled to arrive in Guatemala City a week after the Easter festivities to find that there were still some carpets left. Some churches were still hosting processions and the carpets are an important feature. The one above is for Saint Francisco. Although the Easter week procession rituals date back to 14th century Spain, the carpets are actually a Mayan tradition. They were created from local materials for kings to walk upon. Today, colored sawdust is typically used to create the more elaborate carpets but flowers, grass, berries, leaves and fruit are also featured. I was excited to see these school girls finishing up a carpet and standing by to join the procession. They were clearly proud of their work and it was wonderful to actually witness the process of creating the carpets. These boys were squirting water on ...

It's New Year's Day and for a girl  like me, raised on the Southside of  Chicago with Creole heritage, that  basically means one thing: a heaping meal of black-eyed peas, greens (collards, turnips, mustard) and corn bread. Now gumbo usually accompanied these dishes when I was a child but that's not part of the New Year's requirements. Tradition has it that for a year of prosperity and luck, you must down as much black-eyed peas, greens and cornbread as possible. It tickled me when I strolled into our local grocery store on New Year's Eve and spotted this prominent display pictured above, of back eyed peas and corn bread on sale as soon as I entered.  For those not familiar with the custom, it probably looked like a crazy deal designed to get rid of leftover Christmas dinner dishes. But people who follow the tradition know that the peas represent pennies, the greens, dollars and the cornbread, gold. Frankly, I can't stand black-eyed peas and when m...

There's a voracious vibe hanging in the air. Eyes flicker with the sentiment of more! more! more! It must be Christmas time. It's difficult to uncover the real, charitable focus of the season under all the materialism but you can find it if you decide not to be distracted by all the other nonsense. I don't enjoy shopping at all but I do get a kick out of choosing gifts from my favorite charities.  Instead of trolling through aisles filled with plastic doodads and electronic gadgets, I browsed through vaccines, mosquito nets and water kits for children all over the world. The Unicief  Inspired Gift program allows you to purchase these life-saving supplies on behalf of a friend or family member. They also get a card with a photo and description of the gift. I also perused chickens, rabbits, pigs and goats for the perfect present. Women in war torn countries learn to rebuild their lives through animal husbandry, farming and work initiatives provided by Women For Women...

For my Creole family, New Year's always involved gumbo, souse, black-eyed peas and turnip greens. I'd have nothing to do with any of these, save the greens because in New Year's lore, the peas represent the coins you'll recieve in the new year and the greens symbolize the dollars and who doesn't want more dollars? Once I discovered the Caribbean New Year's tradition of black cake, and sorrel, I added these delicacies to my New Year's meal. An evoulution of the English plum pudding, black cake is similar to fruit cake only more moist and with ground up fruit.  The fruit is soaked for months in rum, sometimes even a year and the mixed with spices, molasses and brown sugar. It's heavy and fragrant and I confess that I eat it all year round, not just on New Year's. Sorrell is a spicy, vibrant red drink made from the hand-picked sepal of the sorrell or roselle plant, which is a species of hibiscus. I also drink it all year round. Traditionally, the le...

Okay, so I'm not over Christmas yet. I just started feeling it last week and now it's over. Blogger was also not cooperating during Christmas week and I couldn't post these lovely pics. So this will be my last holiday post. Silver bells and twinkling lights might signal the holiday season up North but in Barbados, the vibrant blooms of yellow Christmas Candle pants means that the season has started. The island doesn't get any snow but the delicate white blossoms of the Snow on the Mountain plant cover the hills just as prettily. Both plants bloom only during the winter months when temperatures drop into the cool low 80s.