fistful

As the firefighters pulled on their protective yellow jackets and pants, and filled their drip torches with a mixture of diesel and gasoline, Nielson bent down and grabbed a fistful of the yellow grass.

To the side, women wailed, beating their chests or throwing fistfuls of rice and rose petals.

After coming out of the water, some picked up fistful of the silver sand and rubbed it over their bodies.

“I hadn’t been to a game there in 30 years,” Susana told me as people gathered to throw a fistful of dirt at my uncle’s coffin, which had been lowered into its grave.

They are reimbursed for expenses - conjuring images of them carrying around fistfuls of receipts and filling in claim sheets - but usually they will be collected from airports or stations.