On to Coban

The day after the fireside in Carcha, we took a short bus ride to Coban, about a half hour away. We were able to make it early enough that we had some free time to get out and explore the city. This was something I had been looking forward to. As a missionary, I had passed through Coban a few times for zone conferences, but missionaries by definition are not tourists. Though I had been able to spend a few hours here and there on preparation days, I had never been able to just wander around and look at things.

Under the suggestion of a local, a group of us went for a short walk up the street to the base of a hill, at the top of which was a very old Catholic cathedral. Some of the missionaries who had served in Coban knew that there was a great view at the top, so we decided to go and take a look. Carved into the hill were white stone steps, with whitewashed adobe walls alongside them. About every ten feet or so there was a niche in the wall about two feet square. Scattered on the floor of these little cubes we'd find pine branches and other bits of plant and herb, and stuck to the walls and ceiling with bits of melted wax we'd find feathers and locks of hair. The locals explained to us that this was a leftover Mayan tradition--the people do this to protect their children and animals from danger and disease.

I mention this because it's a good example of a really interesting cultural clash that goes on in Guatemala (and, I'd assume, many other Central and South American countries). When the Spanish arrived, towing Christianity with them, they tried to force the indigenous populations to accept Christianity, and they were partly successful--the Mayas had to change their culture and traditions, but it's not easy to change such a long history of deep-seated beliefs. What the Spanish wound up with was a people who practiced both Christianity and their native Maya religions, at the same time. After a few centuries, the majority of people sincerely converted to various Christian denominations, but even so, there are still many Mayan superstitions and traditions that the people practice, including members of the Church. However, I don't think these traditions are generally any more harmful than throwing salt over your shoulder or knocking on wood. They really only become a problem when the people put more stock in them than in their Christian faith.

And that view? It was pretty good. This pic doesn't show all of Coban, which has more "city" to it than this photo makes it seem, but it's still a nice view.

Besides our walk up to the Cathedral, I also had fun wandering around the market with a few other members of the choir and see these things through their eyes. To me, the market was commonplace--they sold fruits, vegetables, chickens, chunks of butchered cows, shoes, that sort of thing. But the members of the choir who hadn't been there before were pretty shocked at what they saw. I should have taken some pictures, but like I said, it was commonplace to me.

Around late afternoon we met up at our hotels to get rides over to the church where we would have our first fireside in Coban. The local missionaries were there, setting up chairs and preparing the building. Some of the elders from Carcha had gotten permission to come back to watch the performance tonight, and even an hour before we were going to start, people had already started to arrive and stake out chairs. I was especially excited to see three sets of sister missionaries walk in not long before we were to begin. As excited as I was to see the elders I had worked with as a missionary, it in no way compared to seeing my fellow sister missionaries. 

We rehearsed and then waited around for the fireside to start, and it was somewhere during that time that I realized that there were more microphones than usual being set up--and more cameras. Two local news networks had sent cameramen to record our performance, with plans to air it a few days later. This news made me triply nervous but also really excited. The whole purpose of our trip was basically to do missionary work: to share our testimonies through music, to invite people to hear the doctrine of Christ in their own tongue, to get the word out. And Coban had sent a news crew to cover us? Fine by me!

We had a great concert. By now, we'd done the program several times, and I think it was about as solid as could be. I felt like the Spirit was really strong. I don't know what set me off this time, but I do remember that I was crying again by the time the concert was over. A bunch of people I don't know came up to me and gave me hugs and said thank you, and one of the local reporters chose that particular moment to shove a microphone in my face and ask me how I was feeling. Ha! All I could think was that I probably had mascara running down my face. :) So I just said that it felt great, that the emotion of it had made me cry.

I just hope he had a better interview than mine to use. :)