Semana Santa has officially begun. I’ve been told by people here this is the biggest holiday of the year, much bigger than even Christmas. People are certainly gearing up.
During breakfast two little boys came to sell cards, like they often do.
The kids are finished with school for ten days or so. Everyone is happy happy. There was a parade in the street this morning. This often happens, where one of the schools will decide to parade through the streets. The younger children were wearing costumes, the high school aged kids were doing a marching band, of sorts. There was a row of little girls wearing costumes made from chip bags. The costumes were very sparkly in the sun.
I went up to the school to meet the parents where Madi is having a sleepover tonight. She is going over to one of the other villages. This family is doing something similar to what we are doing. They have three kids, are from Berkley, California, here for 10 months. Madi was pumped because how often do you go to a sleepover that requires you to take a boat there. That is pretty cool. So first they are taking a tuk down to the office the dad is using while he is here, on the main drag. Then they are boating it home.
We finished getting all the Guate Visa paperwork together. I picked up the pictures, took all the paperwork over to my friend who is taking it into the city tomorrow. Whenever she goes to the city, she always stuffs important documents, money, credit cards down her bra. Her husband thinks it’s silly. Tomorrow, since she is renewing 8 sets of Visas on this trip, I told her she will be rather busty, so I’m willing to chip in for a bigger bra.
Next Paul and I went to get travel information for Kier’s trip to Honduras. We’ve been talking for years about Kier going with my sister Mia on the medical brigade she helps lead from the med school in Pennsylvania. Last couple of years they haven’t had room for an extra person on the brigade. This year they are willing to squeeze her in. She will spend a week up in a remote area in Honduras working in the clinic with the doctors and med students. The plan was to fly, but she would have to transfer planes in El Salvador. That’s not happening on my watch. I’ve heard scary things about that airport. So, instead she can take a coach bus direct. Done. I remember when my mom put me on the Greyhound bus after the third grade to get to Normal, Illnois in order to get to summer camp in Michigan. My mom put me on the bus with snacks, water, books, and a pillow. She told me if I had to get off the bus for some reason, to always make sure I got back on to the same bus, and to sit on things I didn’t want to have stolen if I needed to take a nap. I suppose that advice will still work. I just had to check with Mia, then I’ll buy her ticket tomorrow.
Paul and I walked up to the market to buy a pineapple and some bananas. Then we went down toward the lake to have a lemonade. Life is amazing here, especially while Paul’s here. Then he went to do his bike ride and work out while I went over to a friend’s house. Ended up there for a couple of hours.
Getting kids to and from their extracurriculars looks a bit different here. I walked with Kier up to her dance practice and salsa. Fast food means going into Mayapan for a chicken pocket, sitting for a few minutes to hear about her day. Then I went to pick up Cali and her chicken egg at the family’s house. We did manage to get home without the egg smeared on the front of my shirt, which is where Cali holds on to my waist while sitting on the back of my bike, as we bump down the streets.
The church service had a new musical element tonight. They’ve added a trumpet (help me). Trumpets should only be played in spaces that small with people in them, when they can be played well. The only way I can justify the sound coming out of that thing is to think some small cute adorable child found the instrument and is trying to make sound come out of it for the first time. If I put that image in my head, I can bear the noise a bit better.
I wonder how Madi is enjoying her sleepover across the lake.
I went into town. Kier went to PanaRock after her practice. The Marco Trio band was playing, and my friends were there. My friends and I danced until the set ended at midnight. All the guys in the band are my age and older, so they are always playing songs we know. My friend’s husband is the base player. His sister is also in town, so we were all dancing together. It was fun. Problem with leaving Kier alone for two seconds is that there is always some guy talking to her. The problem with this is that they are usually between the ages of 23-28 years old. This one was on the younger side or the usual scale, 23. They all know who I am and are scared of me. Works for me. We stayed and talked with everyone for a while. Then we walked home the guitar and drummer. The one guy is Kier’s guitar teacher and they both live close to us. When I could see the house, I said we were fine, but they insisted to walk us right to our door. We appreciated the escort.
Cali’s frog blog: Today I had lots and lots of fun. Last night after I took my shower, I had mom braid my hair so that this morning it was all crazy and wavey. When I got to school the kids were saying, “Quien es tu?” Which means, “Who are you?” We had our last exams in language, communication, and computers. After we came in from lunch, I ran the art class. I showed the whole class how to fold an origami crane. Aren’t you glad you taught me that last week Grandpa? Grandpa they all had trouble making the diamond, so as their teacher I had to go around and help them. They kept calling me over after every fold and asking me if they did it right. Even the teacher couldn’t do it. A lot of their birds weren’t able to flap. I think that’s because they didn’t curl the wings properly and folded them instead of curling them. That’s what I think. My friend’s bird had only one wing that was flapping, so it was flying in a circle. There was another bird that flapped. My bird was the best, and my friend said, “Aw, yours is better than mine.” But I explained to her that I’ve been making these for a long, long time, and this is only her first one, so it’s all expected. After we finished making the flapping cranes, my teacher taught us how to make a butterfly. The butterfly actually looks like an airplane, if you ask me. I created something that looks much more like a butterfly, if you ask me. I invented a new origami called “bad guy” which is a little something I invented to give to the boys, to amuse them so they don’t bother me. It worked, too. They were amused. Then we had English we had more exams, then we went home. I didn’t know we don’t have school tomorrow, so now we have vacation for 10 days. That’s nice, but I love my school so much, I will miss it. I’m so glad my mom chose that school for me, because I love everything about my school. And now I’m getting more and more of my Spanish back. I’m so glad I’m at my school and not the other one.
At the family’s house I had my own money today. Yesterday they bought Doritos and all they gave me was half a chip. So today I came prepared. I bought two suckers, one red and one white. One was minty like my toothpaste, that was nice. I left my shoes on this time, until the two boys took my shoes and hid them. They are so annoying almost all the time. So I had to walk around trying to find my shoes and no one would help me. But I looked at the ground before I stepped so that I wouldn’t step in any poo.
I cooked with the mom. We started with fish. First we dunked them in water and oil. Then we hit them with a bat because somehow we needed to make them flat. Then we dunked them in white stuff which I think was milk and sugar. Then we put the whole fish in the frying pan. We did nine fish that way. When you get them out, by mistake one of the tails fell off one of the fishes. When that happened they turned to me and said, “Try it.” I did and it was so yummy and crispy. Then while we were waiting for one of the fishes to go into the pan, I played with its eyeball. I kind of poked it out, then I squished it. Some juice came out. Then the mom gave Yulissa some money to go and buy something. Then I said, “wait!” then I got my money. That’s when I bought some suckers. When we came back I sat on the swing and I wondered if the chickens had laid some more eggs. They have eight chickens that run all around the yard. I went over to the box and found five eggs! They bought two more chickens so that they can get more eggs. They said I could take two eggs home with me when I go home. They know how much I love my eggs for breakfast. Then my mom came. She didn’t want me to take the family’s eggs because they need them. So I put them back but then the other mom said she wanted me to have them. I decided to take one home. That seemed to make both moms happy so it must have been just right, the number that is. Except that now my mom was afraid it would be all over her after we rode home on the bike on bumpy roads. But I was right and the egg was fine all the way home. When I got home I had to clean all the dirt off of me again. My clothes are always dirty when I come home from there, because there is just lots of dirt. I forgot to tell you that before we came home we went to PanaSuper. Mom didn’t have any extra Qs to give me, but my dad happened to ride by on his bike right when I needed him. He gave me Qs and the man that is always sitting at the front of the store. The man doesn’t have a cup, but he still wants money. My dad gives him some Qs every time. But the man puts the Qs daddy gives him in his wallet, and I went in and bought a chocolate bar.
Daddy made us grilled cheese with turkey sandwiches for supper because I was the only one home. Mommy wasn’t sure mayo belongs in a grilled sandwich, but I told dad that mayo is the treat of any sandwich. He laughed when I said that. Mommy said I don’t have a bedtime tonight, yeah! Tonight I made more origami creations. I created an even better butterfly, even my mom said it looked amazing. She wanted to know how I could make such beautiful creations. P.S. I love you all very much.