Guatemala

Wednesday 12/28/2011 - Lake Atitlan and Spending Time with the Family

We woke up at 8:30 a.m. and Craig was giving himself his daily injection when Yoselin and Yasmin came into the room. Being holiday time, nobody was in school. The older girls were in between grades, their Guatemalan school year to start later in the month. Aracely is on a U.S. school calendar and is in the midst of Christmas break. The girls asked to use my computer, and soon Aracely, Eddy, and Paola came into our room as well. They gathered around the computer, watching videos and playing games like Spider and pinball. The kids were very affectionate and hugged us often.

We were called into the dining room for a breakfast of scrambled eggs with salsa and cheese and coffee. The TV was on Vaughan 2.0, an English language learning program which seemed very good. There were programs for adults and children and it was really entertaining and engaging. The kids programs showed how to do craft projects with instructions in basic English. It's a great resource for the family. The family repeated words they heard and answered questions posed by the hosts.

Eddy likes his toy Tonka garage and was playing with it again this morning, as was Yasmin. Paola used the computer at the dining room table. The girls were taking turns taking pictures with both of the cameras. Josue and Neli came over and played with the kids in the dining room. Yoselin showed us a glass bottle which they had filled with water. They had taped a photograph of Craig and I holding a 4-year-old Yoselin to the back of it. The water magnified the picture and it made quite an interesting effect. It was very creative.

Craig and I decided that this was a good time to take showers, so one at a time we excused ourselves from the kids' company. When we were done, Yoselin, Aracely, and Eddy wanted to go to the lake. It was a gorgeous day; the sun was bright and hot but there was no humidity. So we walked several blocks down Rancho Grande to Lake Atitlan, a crater lake ringed by volcanoes. This was a destination for both international and Guatemalan tourists. The family is so lucky to live right next to this gorgeous lake. Boats shuttled tourists to the various Mayan towns which border the lake. Many vendors came up to us, trying to sell us trinkets and tapestries. They just assumed that we were looking to take a boat somewhere, and they kept trying to direct us onto boats going to Santiago Atitlan, San Marcos, Santa Catarina Polopo, San Antonio Polopo, or San Pedro.

As we walked down the cobblestone paths, Aracely said in English, "I am hot. Ice cream is cold." We thought this was adorable and was as good an excuse for an ice cream as any. We stopped at a Sarita ice cream stand and bought each kid a chocolate ice cream cone, and we got ourselves strawberry. After the ice cream I was still very thirsty, so I got a Nevada Mirinda (orange sherbet in orange Mirinda soda). It came in a plastic Sarita cup and I let everyone try a sip. It was very refreshing.

Then the girls walked down to the water's edge, took their shoes off, rolled up their pant legs, and waded into the water. The water was quite rough. We learned later from Humberto that this was due to the seasonal xocomil, a wind that is stirred up on the surface of the lake around midday. The wind gets its name from the Mayan words for "take away" and "sin." They believe that the winds come and carry away the sins of the villagers. Despite their precautions to try to stay dry, the girls got soaked from the choppy waves. Yoselin used the straw from my drink to blow water around and Aracely made mud pies. Eddy sat with Craig and me patiently, taking pictures with the older camera while sitting on my lap. We held onto the Sarita cup, knowing that it would find a home in our kitchen cabinet with plastic cups from Sun Studios, Graceland, and the Soggy Dollar Bar.

While we were walking home, Eddy was thirsty. so we bought a strawberry soda to share. Walking with the kids was always fun (and tiring). They always climb on everything they pass, take the longest route possible around every obstacle, etc. And all of this on streets busy with cars, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, and pedestrians. They kept us alert, that's for sure.

When we got home, Yoselin and Aracely got changed out of their wet pants. We met David and Gisele, a cute young brother and sister who live in the neighborhood. They played outside with Neli and Terry the dog while we went inside for lunch. We had a nice salad and fresh made lemonade. After lunch, Neli, Josue, David, and Gisele gathered with the rest of the kids around the table. They took turns playing on the computer. Aracely took the old camera over to her grandmother's house and got photos of some very tiny adorable kittens. Those must have been the kittens she was telling me about last night. The kids played with Eddy's trucks and garage, while others played Jenga, and dominoes. Cousins Junior and Julisse stopped in to say hello.

Eddy took a nap after lunch, but he woke up on the wrong side of the bed (an expression that Humberto asked us about on this trip). He was a bit cranky and whiney. Aracely was looking at her dad's phone and brought up a calendar. She pointed to December 27th (the day of our arrival) and said, "Come you!" She was being very affectionate today, sitting on our laps and giving lots of hugs.

Aracely went to her school bag and took out some of her school books. She read/recited some of them to me and I was quite impressed. The director of her school had warned us that her reading might be a bit delayed due to the fact that she is learning to process spoken English. English language learners sometimes take about three years to become fluent. After a year and a half, we were amazed at how far she had come verbally, and her blossoming reading skills did not seem to be suffering in the least.

After Aracely was done reading the books, Eddy wanted me to read to him and he turned the pages.At tea time, we had fresh bread from a nearby bakery and rosa jamaica tea. Eddy shared his piece of bread with me. We enjoyed sitting and playing with the kids. At one point, Rocio was outside in the alley and asked us to come outside to say hello. She showed us some photos on her new blackberry. It seemed that as she was growing up, she wasn't spending as much time with her younger cousins. We enjoyed getting a chance to catch up with her.

Before we knew it, it was time for dinner. Paulina refilled our teacups and We had spiced lentils, rice, and peas. It was delicious as usual. Humberto sent the girls to the store and they came back with sparklers and those "pop-pop snappers" (the little twisted paper packets which pop and explode when you throw them at the ground). We all gathered outside and had fun playing with them. The girls stomped on them causing sparks to shoot out from under their shoes. Some of them were surprisingly loud. The girls twirled around with sparklers in their hands, leaving tracers in the darkness. Fireworks are a part of New Year's celebrations here. We had seen many for sale when we were at the market this morning.

When the fireworks were used up, we headed back inside and sat together at the dining room table. The kids watched videos on the computer. One video they watched was from the Galapagos island of Santa Cruz. Eddy misheard us and called it "Santa Claus." I guess we know what's on someone's mind! The kids have all been asking about whether we brought more presents with us. In fact, we did bring more than usual, since we included their Christmas presents. We tried to be coy with them and told them that we might just have a couple more things to give them as the week progressed. Humberto played with Eddy's Tonka garage with him.

Paola got their USB drive and plugged it into my netbook so that the kids could listen to some of their music. Eddy has definitely got moves, and was dancing around in a very cute manner. It was fun to spend this time with the whole family. We had a lot of laughs.

By around 10:30, it was obvious that everyone was gettng tired. We decided to head for bed and let them shut down the house for the night.