Puppets Everywhere

I have lived a puppetless life. Some kids make puppets out of white socks, and other kids make dresses for their Barbie dolls. My Barbies had some great ribbed neck sock dresses. I noticed how popular puppets were in Bali, and had I known how popular they are in México I would have brought some interesting ones from the other side of the world.

We already took a final written exam in Mayan language class, but to complete the program we have to participate in a puppet show. Pablo is a little Mayan boy named Concho and I am a deer. When advised two days ago that we have to make our own puppets for the show which will take place for a group of children on July 12th by today, July 2nd, I turned to my neighbor Theresa for help.

If you have not opened Theresa's blog page, listed below, and have an interest in detailed excellent puppets or dolls, check out WHAT DO I DO ALL DAY. Her work is beautiful! Theresa was kind enough to help me with the puppet project. She brought out a cardboard design and I traced it onto pieces of foamy felt stuff that I found. She dug up a couple of photos and basically drew the outlines of both JConcho and Le Keejo'. On her advice I had purchased the foam, googly eyes and pipe cleaners. These puppets will be used once, so I did not hand sew or get too carried away. They are held together with glue from a hot glue gun. I played with Theresa's designs and you can see the results. I gave little Concho a mustache because Pablo has one. I forgot that JConcho is a little boy! We each have one liners, so other than tolerating the numerous rehearsals in class, we have almost completed preschool in Mayan language after five months. We now know just enough Mayan to bring out a smile from the Yucatecans we deal with on a daily basis or get into trouble if they respond to our "Jach túun máalob k'íin ti tech!" (Buenos días!)