Guatemala 6/29/2019 - 7/13/2019

Friday, 7/12/2019 - Cookout with the Extended Family

This was my last day working remotely on this trip. Tomorrow we would be heading home.

This morning we had banana bread, cereal, bananas, and coffee for breakfast. Humberto and Paulina went shopping while I worked and Craig hung out with the kids. We were amazed at how proficient Ian Ivan (who just turned 4 last month) is at riding a 2-wheeler with no training wheels, even down a ramp and on dirt!

Eddy and Ian riding their bikes

When I was done with work, we had a family lunch: miniature hot dogs, cheese from the Parma dairy bar which we had visited at the beginning of the trip, chips, corn tortillas, home-made guacamole, Isabela's restaurant-made salsa, plus homemade licuados (milkshakes).

After lunch, Craig and I went into our room and packed our things for our return home tomorrow. It started to pour rain, and Eddy and Ian occasionally came into the room to chat. Ian asked again to see the photos of our cats.

Then he asked: "Donde estan los gatitos?" (Where are the little cats?)
Me: "Estan in nuestra casa." (They are at our house.)
Ian: "Es la casa en Guate?" (Is your house in Guatemala [City]?)

Aha! Of course! He thinks we live in Guatemala City...that is where they picked us up, and he has no real conception of an airport. No wonder he said we should have driven here with our cats! He thinks we live a 3 hour drive away! So we explained to him that we live near Boston in the United States and we have to fly for 5 or 6 hours to get to Guatemala City and THEN drive for 3 hours to get here to Panajachel.

We have two "cooling towels" which stay cool when wet, which is quite helpful for Craig's MS in hot climates. As we were packing them away, Ian saw them and asked what they were. We explained that they were little towels. He nodded, "para gatitos" (for the little cats). This kid has a one-track mind!

Once we were done packing, we went outside to the picnic table. The rain was deafening drumming on the patio roof. Rain started to flood the patio from the open sides, and Humberto scooped it up with a small bucket and bailed it into his gardens instead. All I could think of was the song "Buckets of Rain" by Bob Dylan.

The family collects rainwater from its gutters into a large plastic laundry tub. The water was gushing out of the downspout and filled up the entire bucket in a matter of minutes. The bucket was so heavy that they couldn't physically dump it out. Eddy used a small pail to bail enough water out that it could be dumped. Once the bucket was emptied, it filled up to the brim yet again. This was some serious rain! They left it full this time so that they could use the water for their plants.

Buckets of Rain

Aracely and Eddy played solitaire with the deck of cards. Aracely said that she used to play it electronically on the netbook computer that we had given them long ago when we no longer had use for it. We reminisced about the old machine for a while. Aracely says that it still works, and she went to get it. Lo and behold, she brought it out, and though it took forever to boot up, she soon brought up the solitaire game. She said that Cristian had put Windows 10 on it for her, and surprisingly enough, it can (just barely) support that!

Ian got hungry and went to the fridge, extracting the leftover Pollo Campero from last night. As expected, he took out the biggest piece of breast meat, which belonged to Aracely. Luckily she was able to get it back from him, but others weren't so lucky. The kids told us that the only person whose food doesn't get eaten is Paola, because they know she won't stand for it!

At around 7 p.m., we saw Chilo and Allison Margarita enter the gate. This was not unusual, as the cousins often come to play. But then we saw their mom Olga. They were followed by Estela and her daughters Yesmy and Michelle. It dawned on us what was happening: Humberto and Paulina had planned a surprise get-together for our last evening, since we hadn't had a gathering of the extended family during this trip. Juan Carlos, Yolanda, and Fatima arrived as Paulina and Humberto lit the grill. Danny was present, but Cristian didn't come because of the weather. The crazy downpours would be very dangerous on his motorcycle coming from Solola.

Michelle sat with me and wanted to look through the photos on my phone. Then she sat with Craig and took some selfies. She is such an adorable, petite, sweet girl! Estela's daughters Loren and Laisa also arrived. Vanesa, Yoselin, and Yasmin helped with dinner preparation.

We had red wine, cheese curls, and nachos as an appetizer.

Humberto and Paulina fired up the new grill with charcoal. They grilled chicken, ribs, garlic cloves, and green onions. The grill gave off a lot of smoke and we joked that it was good that Juan Carlos, who works for the fire department, was here!

Dinner was served with homemade salsa, picante, and guacamole. It was delicious! The kids ate inside and then played cards afterwards.

Yolanda put some food back onto the grill for Junior, who would be arriving soon. He is in college already, studying physical therapy in Quetzaltenango (Xela) on weekends. It was great to see him again. It's so cool to see these kids that we have known for so long growing into young adults!

Humberto joked that the family's last minute nature made it rather easy for them to keep this gathering a secret from us; they had just decided to have this party earlier in the day, and had contacted family members to check their availability. We are so happy that so many of them were able to make it; and it made for a bittersweet last evening, knowing it will be a year before we see them again. [Update: Although there was no way we could have predicted it, the COVID-19 global pandemic would dictate that it would be longer than the expected year before we could return to Guatemala.]

The party broke up at around 11 o'clock. What a wonderful last evening!