Graveyard

During the week our interpreter will take us to places around the city, so we can experience the culture of the Colombian people. Yesterday he took us to a couple places where we had awesome views of the city. The city of Pasto is located in the middle of the Andie's Mountains. When you are standing at a good vantage point of the city it is awesome to see the city with the multicolored houses and the green mountains in the background. The other place he took us was a graveyard. It was such a neat experience. Once a week the families of the deceased come out to the graveyard to buy fresh flowers to put at the headstone. Some will even decorate the entire grave with flowers. My pictures will not do it justice. (side note: Tatiana thought it would be fun to pick the flowers off of the grave to give to me, but she seemed content when I redirected her to the dandelions growing beside the sidewalk. By the way, our Colombian children do the exact same things with dandelions as my Amish students in Ohio. Her face looked a little jaundice by the time she was done.) :) Most of the graves are raised anywhere between 4 to 6 inches. So the families come out once a week to mow the one grave, so interesting. Our interpreter who has a Colombian wife said they will come out on Mother's Day to eat the favorite meal of the deceased while sitting around the grave.