|
Our hearts are overflowing with love for our compadres as our visit concludes and we prepare to head home tomorrow. The girls are growing into such lovely and compassionate young ladies! Eddy has matured quite a bit, and we fell in love with baby Ian immediately.
Today the older girls held down the fort while Humberto and Paulina took baby Ian into Guatemala City for a doctor's appointment. He was very ill when he was only a month old, and he and Paulina had to spend 40 days in Guatemala City away from the family while he got treatment. They left this morning at 3:30 a.m. in order to get to the hospital in time to "get a good number" to ensure their place in the queue. Paola and Vanesa got Aracely and Eddy ready for school. We ate breakfast (cereal with bananas) while the girls watched music videos on YouTube (Snoop Dogg sure is funny in Katy Perry's California Gurlz video...boy are we old!) While I was working, Craig went into the kitchen and saw Vanesa cooking. She suprised Craig by speaking in perfect English, saying "I am your chef today." She cooked us a delicious chili con carne for lunch. Paola asked Craig about whether he is working or not. It was too complicated for him to explain in his limited Spanish, so he typed up an explanation about how he stopped working last August because of his MS, and then used Google Translate to translate it into Spanish. He explained his day to day challenges, as well as the hardships that being reduced to a single income provides. But he told her that they are a priority in our lives, how we view them as like our own children, and how we intend to continue to visit as often as we can. Paola read it as her eyes welled up and she gave Craig a giant hug. She is such a sweet and empathetic young lady. The family had not fully understood the gravity of Craig's MS, as it is not an illness endemic to this area. Yasmin and Vanesa read the translation as well, so now they will have a better understanding of why Craig has been resting a lot when we are here, and why he has difficulty walking on the uneven cobblestone streets, etc. After I finished work for the day, Paola, Yasmin, Craig, and I picked Aracely and Eddy up at school. We then walked down to the lake together, where Aracely and Eddy played at the playground. Jeremias met us when he got out of work, and we all went to Sarita for ice cream. Ice cream is very reasonably priced here. We are able to let the kids choose whatever they want from the menu, and still feed 7 of us for the price of 2 premium ice creams at home. When we got home, Aracely and Eddy did their homework. Eddy had subtraction homework, and Aracely had geometry and Kaqchiqel. Humberto, Paulina, and Ian finally returned home after a long day with great news: Baby Ian's condition had improved since his last appointment, and it seems that he is finally on the mend. As it is our last night together, we took the family to eat at Paulina's sister Isabela's restaurant around the corner. We absolutely love her tacos. We invited Jeremias as well. Yoselin helped her aunt in the kitchen. We all ate our fill of Isabela's delicious food: chicken tacos, hamburgers, fries, strawberry shakes, etc. The kids zoomed in on faces in photos on their cell phones and then held them over their own faces. It was hysterical.We laughed so hard that our faces hurt. Vanesa surprised us with even more English. She spoke in perfect grammar. We couldn't believe that she had waited until our last day to gather the courage to speak to us in English. We were so surprised and proud of her. It turns out that she studied English over the course of 6 months in Quetzaltenango (Xela), and she still practices every day. These kids impress us more and more each day! Aracely gave us a Minion sticker "so that you will remember me and us." If only she knew how much they are always on our minds and in our hearts! Dinner for 11 people (with lots of add-ons, side orders, etc., as well as 8 beers and 8 strawberry shakes, and several sodas) came to $80 USD. Amazing! When we got back to the room, we wrote Facebook posts, packed, etc. We were up until 1 am again. |
 Yasmin, Aracely, Eddy, and Paola  Steph, Craig, Aracely, Paola, and Yasmin  Aracely, Isabela, and Eddy  Dinner at Isabela's restaurant  |
|
 |
|
 |
