Devon

I've been in Devon for a week catching up with friends and family. Of course I had to go for a swim in the sea with my sister. We even managed to convince a few others to join us - including a large shark!

Inspire-d

I've been in England!!!
It was cool to fly in over London, and appreciate the autumn colours (I'd forgotten about them!), and walk out into the reassuring chill of England!
I came over to go to 'Inspire', Latin Link's supporter conference. It was really great to see all the striders and steppers from last year again, and catch up with them, and to get a feel of the variety and the unity within the Latin Link community.
Afterwards, I was a part of the Short Term Coordinators conference - bringing together (nearly)everyone within Latin Link who works with the short term programmes. We talked about lots of stuff, and had a great time bonding! (Although we probably could have done without the fire alarm in the middle of the night!)

Flying Kites at Sumpango

Today is the 1st of November - in Mexico they celebrate the day of the dead - there are similar traditions here in Guatemala.

Amongst the Kachiquel mayan people here, it's traditional to make giant kites to fly on 1st November. People go to the cemeteries where their ancestors are buried, and clean and put new flowers on the graves / tombs (there's been extra flower markets all over the place for the last week.) And they fly kites from the cemeteries, symbolically attracting the spirits to earth - for this day when they believe that the dead and living are reunited.

In some towns, giant kites have become traditional, and now form an important time when groups within the community compete to make the biggest kites that can fly for the longest. They are huge and colourful creations. Here's a few.

It's a bit of a village fayre atmosphere, with competitions in different size and age groups.

The kites can take months to plan and make, and many are put together on the day. They have a bamboo frame, and are made of tissue paper in intricate designs.

For the really large ones, there is then a complicated arrangement of pullies etc to stand the kite up ready to fly.




Some have political messages...

(Freedom against racism)

(From the heart of the earth, to the whisper of the wind, to the rediscovery of our identity)

(Migrants, undocumented, documented or illegal, but they are our brothers and cry blood)

Others with designs depicting the natural environment in Guatemala, or the traditions of the people.