Guatemala 6/22/2025 |
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Sunday, June 22, 2025 - Ian's 10th BirthdayWe slept late after last night's festivities. We woke up and had cereal, bananas, and coffee for breakfast. One of the kittens that had been born feral around the house last year was now all grown up, and we saw her on the corrugated metal roof looking down at us. That always gets the dogs' attention.Aracely, Joel, and Elsa came over, as did Vanesa, Danny, and Emiliano. We had leftover pepian, chicken, rice, veggies, and grape juice for lunch. They had ordered catering for 100 people and 60 people had shown up at last night's party, so there were plenty of leftovers. Here there are no RSVP's; they invite people, and those who are available attend. Since it is a tourist town, everyone works different schedules, and many have to work on weekends and nights. Paulina packed up some of the leftover food and sent it to people who had been unable to go to the party, so nothing went to waste. They gathered all of my presents from the dining room and brought them out to the patio. It is tradition here that people do not write their names on gifts, so you don't know who gave you which gift. I opened my gifts, which were lovely:
Then, with my birthday festivities concluded, it was time to celebrate Ian's 10th birthday! Ian is obsessed with dinosaurs. We gave him a Lego set of dinosaur skeletons. It is technically for ages 16+, but we know that he follows directions well and works diligently, so we had no doubt that he could build all 910 pieces of it! Aracely and Joel gave him a "dino grabber". There was a whole cake leftover from the party last night, and they lit a Feliz Cumpleaños candle. After we sang to him and he blew out the candle, they had him take a bite of the cake and he got frosting all over his face. We each enjoyed a piece of cake, and Ian started to build his Lego models with some help from Aracely. Aracely disappeared for a minute and then reappeared with a young boy. She asked if I remembered who it was. It turned out to be her cousin Rocio's son Mael. I probably would have recognized him if I had thought there was a possibility that it could be him. He and his family live in Guatemala City now, and we knew that they hadn't been in Panajachel last night for the party. But Juana (Humberto's sister) had returned today with Mael in tow. He didn't remember us, of course (he is only eight years old and it has been several years since we have seen him), but he was very polite. I started to speak to him in Spanish and he said, "Do you know English?" I laughed and said that I do. His English is good and we chatted with him about his baby sister, who is the same age as Elsa. I wrote to Rocio on Messenger telling her how impressed we were with Mael. She sent some photos of the baby and said that she might see us on Tuesday. Mael was wearing a dinosaur T-shirt and wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up, so he loved Ian's new dinosaur skeleton Lego. The two boys sat at the table and worked on it together.  We had some nachos and cheese as a snack. Humberto called Victor and Rosa (who own a taco restaurant next door). He ordered a mixed plate of tacos, and Julisse delivered it. They were delicious and hit the spot. We went to bed at 10 pm, as I would have to wake up early for work tomorrow. |
 Steph's birthday presents  Ian's Lego dinosaur skeletons  Yasmin shows Elsa her cousin Emiliano  Happy 10th birthday, Ian! Photo Gallery June 22 |
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