A Wedding at Church and El Mercado Hidalgo

I went to church today. I found a protestant church called Iglesia de Cristo that is in the downtown area of Guanajuato. I was very excited about the opportunity to meet some more people and spend time worshiping God. Everyone was very friendly, and they all greeted me. A couple of people asked me why I was in Guanajuato, and the man sitting next to me showed me a postcard he had received from a friend in Egypt. The service was great...all 2 hours of it. Granted, we started about 30 minutes late, but still, those wooden pews are not forgiving. There was the normal time of singing, preaching, the offering, and the celebration of communion. The church was celebrating 26 years in Guanajuato, and I guess they had asked the congregation to volunteer to speak about how the church had impacted their lives. I'm pretty sure everyone wanted to say something. Some people also sang a song that had meant a lot to them. The strangest thing though was that the pastor performed a wedding in the middle of the service. That was a new one for me. The husband and wife and their families went up to the front of the church and sat on chairs facing the pastor. He performed the ceremony and that was it. There was no white dress, no bridesmaids, no father giving the bride away. It took me a minute to realize that it was a wedding because there was no warning at all. And while it didn't seem to fit into the church routine, it was obviously a special moment for those involved. Never a dull moment for sure.

After church I went to the Mercado Hidalgo which is the large, indoor market here in Guanajuato. I expected to see a market where people were selling handmade blankets, toys, clothes, and pots. Instead, I walked in the door and was immediately faced with stand after stand of people selling food. You could buy anything from tacos to freshly-squeezed fruit juices to french fries to pork rinds. As I walked past these vendors, I came to the part of the market where they sold fruits, vegetables, bread, candy, and spices.


I soon realized that there was an upstairs where the vendors were selling more souvenir-type things. I wandered up there and walked through the rows of Guanajuato t-shirts, handmade baskets, embroidered blouses, and painted pots and bowls. There was a lot to see and take in, but I got the impression that most of the non-food items were geared more towards tourists. When I got home, I asked my host mom where she bought the fruits and vegetables that we eat. She told me she buys them from a mini supermarket and from the street vendors in the Plaza de Baratillo. She wanted to know where we bought our produce in the US. I wish we had more of an outdoor-market system in the US. The fruits and vegetables are so fresh and delicious when they come from the street vendors.

As I was walking through the market I heard this voice behind me ask "so are you at the university?" In English. Of course I turned around and for a confused second, I stared at the Mexican guy standing there. When he repeated the question, I realized that I wasn't imagining things and we started talking. He apparently studied in England for two years, thus the ability to speak English. He was a Visual Arts major and had recently moved to Guanajuato hoping to find a job. I'm not sure how old he was, probably 23 to 25 years old. He was headed in the same direction I was so we walked for a while and chatted about Guanajuato.

Basically all this is to say that I've started making friends here, or acquaintances at least. People here are very friendly and want to know about your life. And they remember you too. If I see someone on the street that I've met, they wave and say hi with the traditional handshake/kiss on the cheek. Guanajuato is a city where no one has secrets. Everyone know everything about everybody. I guess is the beauty and the curse of living in a bowl-shaped city.