It's about time, hey?

Here goes blog #2 from Guate. It’s been about 2 weeks since I last wrote so I am thinking this might be a long one. Enter in if you dare… :)

First of all, here is a picture of my host family, minus Martin whose picture you’ll see a bit later in the blog. From left to right: Caleb, Noel, Jimena and Norma. My mom makes professional style cakes. What she is holding she made for someone’s 90th birthday celebration.
Back to the weekend of the 28th of August. That Friday was my host brother Martin’s 35th birthday. After we hosted the monthly neighborhood block party, as a family we cleaned up and before we knew it the music was blaring and we were all in the living room dancing to music of all types. Salsa, hip hop, bachata, blues, punta, pop…in Spanish, English, Creole…and the list goes on! At one point someone was dancing on the coffee table in the living room. I’m going to leave it up to you to figure out who! :) Let’s just say we burned off all the yummy calories we had consumed that night. Then the next day we had a lovely birthday lunch of Marmaon (still not sure what it was but it was tasty) and Gallina (hen) which is a delicacy here. Check out the picture of Martin and his birthday food below. As a family we definitely bonded that weekend. Again, for these people I am very grateful.

I also got the chance to go visit my host sister’s from the time I spent here in 2007, Alva and Elvia. They are both beauticians so Paige (the other female SALTer here) and I went to La Brigada (my old neighborhood) to get our nails and toes done. What an afternoon we had! We laughed, joked, reminisced and talked about boys…the usual girl stuff. They are doing so well despite the fact that their father died just about a year ago, officially leaving them without any parents. So sad and yet they are such great role-models for the power of a positive attitude and the willingness to share their grief in order to heal. I was overwhelmed with nostalgia that afternoon and enjoyed every moment of it.
This last weekend my host Mom’s sister and brother-in-law came into town from Honduras and from the moment they stepped foot into our house…a good time was had by all! Apparently they only get to visit once a year and I was fortunate enough to be here to get to know them. Just a brief recap: Friday night we went to a restaurant/bar called Goody’s and listened to live music and danced. Saturday we had a big party in the evening to watch the Honduras soccer game (which didn’t turn out to be on tv, but the USA game was. GO USA!). My host sister and I dressed up as twins for the party from our shoes up to our banana clips (see photo to the right; and yes we were wearing banana clips which are in style here right now if you can believe it!). I ate fresh ceviche with soda crackers and, for the first time, totally enjoyed it! This night ended in dancing as well. One of their family friends is an incredible dancer. He has to be about 50ish and danced circles around the rest of us younger’s. To bring the weekend festivities to a close, we all went out for tapas and enjoyed a nice glass of red wine. The place, Tapas y Tintos, was so quaint and romantic and the food was incredible! “Champiñones al Ajillo” was the favored dish. Yum, yum and yum.

Odds and Ends:
*This past Sunday Michelle, Luke and I went to Antigua. It was drizzly and perfect. A day to just blend in, shop, sight see and enjoy speaking English.
*I have been watching a bunch of movies. Of the 8 I have watched, I recommend that everyone sees Australia, Sin Nombre and Ratatouille.
*My sister’s birthday was the 7th of Sept, officially marking the first of many missed important days that I won’t be able to spend with family and friends this year. Boo.
*I officially survived my first funk (meaning bad mood due to being out of my comfort zone). It wasn’t so bad, only lasted about 2 days, and to be honest it’s nice to have the first one out of the way.
*Things I am looking forward too: MCC retreat this weekend and going to the beach the next weekend with a group of girls my age. Details to follow.
*I haven’t really been able, or maybe rather willing, to take my camera with me anywhere due to the risk of someone seeing that I have it and mugging me! I miss taking pictures. However, I have been able to snap a few. Check them out.


I hope this finds each and every one of you in fall bliss. Please step on a crunchy leaf for me. Lots of love from Guatemala.