Holy Times

The 2nd November was yet another Bank Holiday, though I was a bit confused. It was called "All Saints Day" (a universal Christian Feast that honors and remembers all Christian saints, known and unknown), though in reality this is on the 1st November, and what was celebrated was "All Souls Day" otherwise known as "The Day of the Dead".

It is a Roman Catholic day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who have passed away. This comes from the ancient Pagan Festival of the Dead, which celebrated the Pagan belief that the souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family.

The day purposely follows All Saint's Day in order to shift the focus from those in heaven to those in "purgatory" (not a word I use very often.) While the culture in the UK and US is to shy away from discussions of death, Latins embrace it. The day is an opportunity to celebrate the death and the life of loved ones and friends they knew in this world and visiting the cemetery is a popular tradition. At the cemetery, the tomb or burial plot is decorated. The cemetery visit is spent in a picnic environment and Pan de Muertos or "Bread of the Dead" is a traditional bread which is baked and eaten during this celebration. The air is filled with music from bands while the scent of a wide variety of foods wafts through the air.

There is also a Jewish cemetary in Cochabamba which I wanted to visit. There is no equivalent of which I am aware to the Day of the Dead so the cemetary was not surprisingly closed, however a nice caretaker let me in. There are about 400 or so graves, the oldest dates back about 100 years and most of the names were of German origin. According to the caretaker, the community numbers about 80 now in the city and he gave me details of the synagogue.

It was also a busy day for some friends of ours, Carine (from France) and Vincent (from Belgium, see link http://www.vincetmanu.com/), who work for a charity called AVE that supports the children who work in the cemetary. There are about 400 children who help supplement their families' income by carrying out tasks like cleaning graves, selling flowers and running errands in the cemetary. While some of them work full-time, the majority are there in their spare time, at evenings and weekends. They can earn anything from 50p up to £1.50 on a very good day. There are two views: that "child labour" is inhuman and one should do everything possible to ensure it is outlawed, or the latter view that AVE takes, that it can fight for rights for the children and improve and promote their working conditions. The charity also organises positive activities for the children, so that they get to have some fun as well as broadening their experiences and interests. They publish a regular magazine (sold for 7p) and have also produced 3 CDs which contain songs, stories and interviews.

My religious theme week continued the following day. Recently I met Julie in a street near my house, she is a 57 year old English lady from Brentwood in Essex who runs a day centre for children in a poor neighbourhood. She is a bundle of energy and before I knew it I was persuaded to come and visit the centre as well as attend her thursday "Bible Group".

The centre is very impressive, it runs on a shoe string (about £200-£300 per month) and provides games and activities, classes (including religious instruction), clothes, dental checks and other basic medical care for the children who attend. It`s run by a mixture of foreign volunteers and Bolivians and on a quiet day the centre welcomes about 60, at the weekends and holidays it is overrun with about 150 children.

Quite how I managed to be persuaded to attend a "Bible Group" I am not quite sure. Julie was very convincing that her regulars would welcome the opportunity to learn more about the Jewish faith and it seemed something different to me I suppose. I was the only boy (what does this say?) out of the 9 attendees, we were a mixture of Americans, Australians, Germans, English and a Scot. All the girls worked for some kind of social or charitable project in Cochabamba and while I do not share their strong faith, the thing that struck me is that it is very positive if it spurs them on to this kind of work. It was an interesting evening, they were pleasant company and did not seem offended that I did not join in the group praying session. The one thing that puzzled me as a simple Jewish boy was how they distinguished so strongly between themselves as "Christians" and the majority of the local population who are "Catholics" as if it is a different religion.