A Touch of Color

Saturday = War.

We woke up, it was raining. I sent the all call on Facebook: "Rain or shine it's paint war time" (it didn't translate quite as well). We had the finishing touches on some shopping to do afterward, a birthday party to crash (okay, yeah, we were invited) and a Bible study to attend, oh, and pack.
We gathered our gear, bumbershoot in hand and went out into the rain and into Lulu's car. Her and Mike came by the house to give us a ride so we didn't have to walk in the mud and try and catch a bus in the rain. It's not exactly on their way in to come and get us; it's actually a 15 minute route in the opposite direction. We are so loved here and we can certainly feel it.
We made it to the church (more or less on time) and only Oti was their waiting on us. We let her in out of the rain and began making phone calls to rally the troops. After an hour or so we were 7. We put on our white raiment and selected our arms (I picked the two I had). There were enough bottles for everyone to have 3 with a couple left over. I gave the rules talk, that there were in fact no rules but there were boundaries. I counted down from 10 and shot a few pictures of the opening madness before joining the fray. Needless to say, 5 minutes later, we were all well painted.
The cleanup (like all wars), took longer than the war itself, but we were all smiles. We took the after shots of the before and after series, and departed in the light drizzle that became a heavy drizzle but kindly stopped there.
Kimb and I footed it through the Llano to the Zocalo, encountered a few of the goods we had in mind, bought some churros, ate some churros and became a grandmaster umbrella maneuverer (I had the height advantage over some of the umbrella toters, but poles, lines, wires, trees, etc. it was still difficult). At one of the stops a man sized up our painted apparel and asked us what we were protesting, I quickly replied, "The lack of color in the world!"
We were tired but had a few kilometers before we could sleep. We caught a bus to Gerardo's and found everyone out in the driveway under a tarp. The tables were set with food and music filled the space in the air that wasn't filled with rain. We were welcomed to seats, painted though we were, and served a magnificent chile relleno de pollo. It was fabulous. We were only able to stay a short while before Flor came to pick us up for the Bible study, but we enjoyed our time and left a gift for Alma Rosa.
Flor came and we went. Miguel and Lulu joined us and Jose Luis was there. We went through the study, and we talked more about the church in general. I gave some other thoughts, and we shared. Lulu and Miguel left (Migue to the nightshift at Santo Domingo), but we stayed for lasagna prepared by Raul and Pepe (Flor and Jose Luis sons). It was delicious. We chatted and exchanged videos, mine from facebook and youtube and Jose Luis from a dvd from a trip to Las Vegas where their heads were superimposed on a set of dancing guys (really funny).
Before we left they gave us the name of a hotel in DF and told us we should check it out. They also told us to use taxi's and how to get to the airport. They then took us to our beloved Cafe a Pan (coffee shop), where we could get a few kilo's for the road. We made it home and began the second fight of the day. We were very tired but made the final push as best we could, clothes mostly in suitcases and gifts and bobbles strewn about with hopes of braving the boarder. We tried to fall asleep but some things aren't meant to be until very, very late. Our last full day in Oaxaca has come to an end.