Cemetery visit
These were our last few days of class. We went to some new bakeries, prepared for our trek, met our friends from Taray, and stowed all of our luggage for our trek.
On Friday Ricardo took our class on a field trip to a local cemetery. The style was very different from American cemeteries. There were rows and rows of walls with niches. The niches were labeled like in a city – each wall had a name and then within the wall they were labeled with a grid like on a chessboard (for instance F5). The caskets are slid into the niches and then in front of the niche was a lapida, which was a glass-enclosed case in which they made a diorama of important things for the dead person. Most contained fresh flowers, but they also contained soccer balls, toy cars, woven objects, tools, and little dolls, Every one was very personalized and according to Ricardo, most people visit their dead relatives weekly. There were also a few mausoleums for the more wealthy. The Incans and the Catholics believe the body needs to be intact to go to the next world, so there was only a very small section for cremated remains. The cemetery was in a poorer section of town where there was no running water and the houses were very makeshift.
We also had to say goodbye to our family on Friday since we had to leave very early Saturday morning. We will miss staying with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment