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Paola and Vanessa woke up at 6:30 for school. Paulina made eggs for them. Soon afterwards Yasmin, Yoselin, and Aracely woke up. Paulina made panqueques for all of us, and we enjoyed them very much with the maple flavored syrup. It was a nice hearty breakfast. We chatted and then Paola and Vanessa had to leave for school. As we ate breakfast, we got out our little photo album and showed them our photos. There were pictures of our home, family, friends, vacations, etc. There were pictures of us shoveling snow and raking leaves in the yard. When we got to the picture of us at the Patriots footall game, we gave Humberto the Patriots cap we had gotten him (3 time world champions!) and he was very happy. Craig made him promise not to wear it in place of his Panama hat on tours though, as he looks so styling in the Panama hat! Yasmin and Yoselin drew pictures for us in the notebook. Yasmin liked to draw churches and houses. I asked if she could sign her name to one of the drawings. She went to get her school notebook, and carefully copied the letters of her first, middle, and last names. Soon Humberto had to take Yasmin to school and she started to cry, not wanting to leave. We gave her hugs and kisses and told her that school was very important, and that we'd see her soon.
After Humberto and Yasmin left, Paulina got out their photos and showed us photos from their wedding and the children's baptisms, etc. It was nice to see a part of their family history. We looked up words in the dictionary and communicated well despite the language barrier. Humberto came back after dropping Yasmin off. He had some paperwork to do and then he had a single client doing the same tour on a collective boat, so we opted to stay at home with Paulina and the girls. We took showers. Yoselin and Aracely stayed close by us, and Yoselin was fascinated as I put in my contact lenses. She peeled open my eyelids and stuck her eye right in front of mine to look at the lens inside my eye. Craig and I each gave her a piggy back ride ("atuto"). We tried to give one to Aracely as well, but she was nervous. Paulina showed us a photo of Humberto when he used to box. "Mike Tyson!" she said, and laughed. The sun was very bright, and there was a ring around it. We took a picture of a butterfly in the yard. There was a barbell next to the house that looked like it was straight out of the Flintstones. We had to get a picture of it. We gathered our things and headed off to the market with Paulina, Aracely, and Yoselin. We walked a ways down the street but we were running a little late and then hopped into a tuk-tuk (#59, with "Cola" spelled out in iridescent letters on the windshield) to pick up Yasmin at school. Paulina and Aracely went into the school to get Yasmin, while Yoselin and Craig stayed in the tuk-tuk, and I took some photos. We got back into the tuk-tuk, which seemed to be a treat for the girls, and it drove us to the market. It was nice that Yoselin was able to enjoy the ride today, as she had been fast asleep for last night's ride home from pizza. Yoselin carried Yasmin's school backpack as we walked around through the market stalls of brightly colored fruits and vegetables. Paulina carried a basket over her shoulder, into which she put her purchases. First, she bought some plaintains. She carried Aracely while Craig and I held hands with Yoselin and Yasmin. Aracely helped Paulina to pick out some delicious-looking red peppers. Meat stalls lined the perimeter of the market, and we stopped for some fresh ground beef. Paulina bought some strawberries, which a woman weighed for her on a double-pan tin scale. Paulina also picked out some pitaya,the fruit we had sampled on the street in Santiago Atitlan. The girls were thirsty, so we went into a little bodega. Paulina let Yoselin and Yasmin pick out drinks from a refrigerator, and they chose cherry and grape Gatorade, respectively. Paulina asked the shopkeeper for a plastic baggie and a straw, and she poured some of the red Gatorade into the baggie. She handed this to Aracely, who clutched it in her fist and drank it with the straw. As we exited the market, we passed stalls selling all kinds of things, including shoes, toiletries, and clothing. Craig eyed the shoes and wondered if he should buy a pair if the christening was to be scheduled for the next day his sandals or sneakers just wouldn't do. We walked back to the house, Yoselin holding my hand and Yasmin holding Craig's. The girls were once again hyper and all over the place, climbing on walls and dangling from bars on windows. Yoselin's hand got tired and I offered to carry her Gatorade for her. We passed a bulldog and Yoselin did a great facial impression of it, sticking out the lower part of her jaw. This would become another source of lots of laughter for the rest of the trip. There were a lot of cars and tuk-tuks swarming around us, and Paulina turned down Rancho Grande, explaining that it was less busy and safer for walking with the girls. Yoselin spontaneously thanked me for carrying her juice. We were quite warm after the walk home. The girls sat on the living room floor drinking milk out of little packets. Paulina brought kitchen chairs outside where it was cooler. Paulina presented us each with a pitaya, cut in half, with its hot pink flesh and little black seeds glistening in the sun. Everyone ate them with a spoon, except for Aracely. Hers was cut into little wedges and she bit right into it. Craig and I sat on the chairs and the girls sat on the pavers along the perimeter of the patio. They squished in close together so that they were each protected by the little bit of shade that the roof provided. Soon Paola and Vanessa arrived home from school and Paola ate a pitaya while sitting with Yoselin and Yasmin. Both Paola and Vanessa had worn their new necklaces to school today. Vanessa was wearing a white and black checked school uniform, and she quickly changed her clothes when she arrived home. The girls helped their mother to prepare lunch. Vanessa separated an egg into a plastic bowl. Paulina needed to use the electric hand mixer and brought it into the living room to plug it in. Vanessa, Yasmin, and Aracely looked on with interest and helped with whatever they could. Paulina stuffed the red peppers with ground beef, coated the whole thing with egg, and fried up a nice batch of chiles rellenos in a red sauce. She also made home-made guacamole with fresh avacado and lemon she had bought at the market. While Paulina and Vanessa were finishing up the cooking and Craig looked on, Paola excitedly started talking about the tienda (store), and she, Yasmin, Yoselin, Aracely, and I took a walk to the store down at the end of the street. I carried Aracely. Paola bought some pizza flavored snacks for them to share. When we got back to the house, lunch was alost ready, but Paulina needed one of the girls to go to the tortilleria to get fresh tortillas. Paola asked me to go with her, so we walked together down to the tortilleria, across from the store where we had bought the snacks. The stucco wall was painted with the word "Tortilleria". We walked in an unassuming doorway. In a mostly empty room, a woman was standing with a basket of fresh tortillas wrapped in textiles. A griddle stood in the corner. Paola paid for the tortillas and the woman opened up the layers of textiles and put a stack of fresh tortillas into a plastic bag. We walked back to the house and Paola gave the tortillas to Paulina. Aracely was drawing pictures in one of my notebooks on the living room floor. We ate lunch, which was absolutely delicious. Paulina is an excellent cook. Everything was so fresh, and it was made with love. Yasmin and Yoselin sat with us outside. Yasmin asked me a question that I didn't understand. I looked at her, uncomprehending. Yoselin whispered in my ear "No" and prompted me to repeat her. I did so. Yasmin asked me a second question. Yoselin prompted me to say no again. Yasmin clapped her hands in frontof my face and they both laughed because I was startled and blinked. Ok, I got it now. We played a similar game as children..."Are you afraid of [something]? No. Are you afraid of [something else]? No. They clap in your face and you blink, which means you are actually afraid of said thing. Yasmin and Yoselin took turns doing this to each other and to me, and we each tried our hardest not to blink. I was getting better at it, and then Yoselin clapped so close to my face that she actually accidentally hit me in the nose. I laughed and said that she cheated - that if she was actually was going to hit me in the face, then of course I would blink! We all laughed hysterically. Then we started answering "yes" to the questions, which immediately took the wind out of the asker's sails...you were admitting to being afraid, so there wasn't much incentive to try to prove that you were actually afraid. It was a lot of fun, and kept their attention for a long time. Aracely then found an ant on the ground and picked it up. She giggled as it ran along her hand and arm, and Yoselin enjoyed watching it as well. Yoselin peeled back my eyelids and showed Rocio my contact lenses. "Lentes de contacto," said Rocio, knowingly. They both peered into my eyeballs. We all sat on the bed for a while. Rocio and I were looking up words in the Spanish/English dictionary. Craig, Yasmin, and Yoselin were looking at our wordless picture dictionary. The girls would point at all the pictures, one at a time. They would tell Craig the Spanish word for it, and he would say the English, which they would then repeat. Rocio was very interested in our things, but in a very respectful way. She would always ask before touching anything. She was intrigued by the case for Craig's mouthguard. Craig took it out of its case to show her and we explained that he wears it to bed to prevent him from grinding his teeth while he sleeps. They noticed the small packets of pretzels leftover from our flight. We offered them to them and they were very excited. They shared them and everyone semed to really enjoy them. The girls seemed to have a taste for salty foods. We also gave them the Oreos that were left over from our bag lunches on the lake. Soon it was bathtime. While various girls bathed, we entertained the others (and they entertained us) in the living room. Paulina came through the room holding Aracely, who was wearing a towel and whose hair was all shaggy and wet. She was adorable, and I got a photo. We sat outside and the girls played with out hats and glasses. Yoselin wasn't as brave today, and cried when Paulina combed her wet hair. Yasmin, Paola, and Vanessa sat at the kitchen table doing their homework. Humberto (who was back from his tour) was helping Vanessa with her homework. She was doing fractions, and each page in her math workbook was numbered in Mayan. Paola and Yasmin also sat at the table and did their homework. Craig watched them working on their homework and gave them encouragement Meanwhile, Rocio took me on a photo shoot. We walked over to the garden and took some photos there. We also went to her grandmother's house, and she took a couple of pictures of her abuela (Humberto's mother) who looked very dignified in her traditional clothing. We walked out to the street and were joined by various other young relatives: Julissa and little Neli, Luis in a green shirt, and Junior in a blue striped soccer shirt. I wanted to get a photo of all of them in front of Humberto's office. Paola took charge and placed everyone carefully for the photo. It was really cute how serious she was about the positioning. Paola had a few quetzales, and we walked down the street to the corner store. It must have looked very funny, as I was the lone gringa adult with seven little Mayan kids hanging off of me. Paola bought some gum and shared a piece with me. I asked the woman who ran the tortilleria across the street if I could get a picture of her shop. She agreed (though promptly ran inside) and I got a picture of the kids standing outside the shop. We walked back to the house and met up with Yasmin, who had finished her homework. She was proudly showing off her notebook, saying she had to draw her family. She had drawn six people. One of the boys asked in Spanish if she had drawn the gringos as well. I thought this was very cute. I guess we were a part of the family! Humberto showered, and headed off to the parish to ask about the possibility of scheduling Aracely's baptism for tomorrow (as it would be the last day of our trip). We were all a bit anxious about this and were praying that it would be able to happen. We wanted so much to be her godparents. Paola and Yasmin played hairdresser with Craig, brushing his hair and decking him out in sunglasses and hat. They then sat both of us down on the bed and gave us props (water bottles, sunglasses, hats) while they took pictures of us. Aracely took a nap. Craig was going through his bag and realized that a package of cough syrup had leaked and made a big mess. We took all of the sticky items over to the sink and washed them off. That occupied us for a while. Humberto arrived back from his meeting at the parish and didn't seem very happy; I saw him talking to Paulina, and although I couldn't understand the Spanish words, her expression said it all. He explained to us that they only do baptisms on one Sunday per month, and it had already passed for July. It was obvious that Humberto and Paulina were very disappointed, and our hearts sank as we heard the news. This was so special, we couldn't just give up on it. Craig and I discussed our options, and told Humberto and Paulina that if they really wanted us to be the godparents, we would come back for the baptism. They said that they definitely wanted us to be Aracely's "padrinos", but that they couldn't expect us to make the trip again so soon. We told them how much their offer meant to us, and that we would do whatever was in our power to make it happen. Humberto and Paulina were suddenly more cheerful. We looked at their calendar and discussed possible dates. Humberto had been so disheartened during his trip to the parish, thinking that this was no longer an option, that he hadn't gotten the specific baptism dates for each month. He planned to go back tomorrow so that we could have the actual dates before we left, and then we could try to pull something together once we got home. Humberto went to his office to do some work. We all sat at the kitchen table. Vanessa pulled out a brightly colored children's magazine focused on the importance of voting (Guatemala's elections were coming up in September). There was a board game in the book. The game required dice, and there was a die printed on the page to cut out and tape or glue together. Instead of cutting up the magazine, Vanessa got a small piece of notebook paper and wrote the numbers one through six. She then tore the paper so that each number was in its own little square. She wadded up the paper into six little balls. The girls took turns shaking up the balls of paper, dropping them onto the table, and picking one. It was ingenious! Talk about a creative way to solve the problem. Many American children wouldn't be so resourceful; they would just view themselves as unable to play the game if they didn't have dice. Yasmin sat on Craig's lap, and she, Vanessa, and Paola played several rounds of the board game. Aracely woke from her nap and joined us at the table. Paulina put out some bread and biscuits. We all enjoyed them while drinking a deep red rosa jamaica tea, which was very sweet and flavorful. Even Aracely enjoyed the hot tea. We showed them some U.S. coins and dollar bills. Aracely took the bills and dealt them out, as if she were a young banker. It was really cute. They showed us some Guatemalan coins, and Vanessa showed us her coin collection, which included coins from Costa Rica and other countries. Humberto came back from the office and had a cup of tea, and we all had a nice chat. Yoselin asked me "floracita o escudo?" She was pointing at a coin, which had a flower on one side and a shield on the other. Aha! Heads or tails? We did a few coin tosses, and Craig and I laughed that we finally knew what "Escudo" meant. We had seen it in our travels as both a beer brand and a model of automobile. We had assumed it was a brand name that didn't have a meaning, like "Pepsi". Now we knew that it is an actual word that means "shield". Paulina made dinner - black beans, tasty Guatemalan cheese (which we had enjoyed on our last visit in 2004), and more fresh tortillas from down the street. It was delicious. We were certainly eating well on this visit! Yoselin did her bulldog impression by sticking out her lower jaw. Yasmin used her fleece as a baby sling for the teddy bear. She put my bandana on the bear's bottom as a diaper and said "Bebe!" Paola took my earring out without me even knowing it and tried it on in her room. She then came back to the table and replaced it into my ear. The girls went to bed and we chatted with Humberto and Paulina until around 10:30. Once again, I had lots to write about in the journal. I stayed up writing in bed and then went to sleep at 11:45. |
             
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