La Palma Girl

Today is Monte's birthday and Reina wanted to throw him a surprise party. We had homemade tamales, compliments of Reina, and chocolate y strawberry cake. Delicious. And great company too.

After lunch, I was off to visit Liseth, Edith, and Flor, three of the girls from church. I went to their house and hung out with them and their little brother Edgar and their mom Anna. We had a good time and it was an excellent opportunity for me to practice my spanish. I was there for maybe 20 minutes before we decided to go visit Anna's sister, Morena. Morena is the woman whose husband died last month. I had been wanting to go see her also. I love going to Morena's house. She has a very beautiful garden and lives on the side of the mountains. Its so beautiful there and much quieter than it is in town.
This is one view of her beautiful garden.

They had been working crafts in the artesian style that is famous to La Palma. I mentioned that I wanted to learn to paint and draw like they do because I think their work is beautiful. Here is a picture of Anna and Morena helping me get started!

Seriously. Up in the mountains, in a beautiful garden, on a beautiful afternoon, learning to paint (color-she doesnt trust me with real paints yet, thats our next lesson!) La Palma style. Amazing day.

While we were working, they served us some very delicious coffee grown and produced in La Palma. (Don Jose cafe) and some sweet bread that was made the same way the artesians made it. She said you cant buy this type of bread at a bakery. It was made with black corn. All of it was very delicious and I felt so blessed to be there. While we were sitting there, Morena shared some stories and pictures about her late husband and his work. She said he used to study with Fernando Llort (famous artist) and that Alfredo, her husband, had started a business selling the local artesian style of art. She is continuing with the art in memory of her husband.
These are the finished pieces that I painted! Loved every minute of it!

This is something else her family makes and sells for about $10 or $12. She gave this to me as a gift. So sweet, but a fairly expensive gift to give. I tried to politely decline, but she was having none of that. So i thanked her for the gift and welcomed into my apartment my first Christmas decoration of the season.

More to blog soon!

Teresa