The family invited us for breakfast and gave us the choice of coming at 8 or 9. We are up early with the roosters and dogs, so the girls choose 8. On the walk to there we saw a boy leading his five goats down the street. The girls had never seen goat udders before and thought they all had some kind of identical weird growths. Cali thought they had weird giggly butts. Wow, I know they’re little city girls, but…just, wow. I need to get them to a farm or two more often. Wait, they are still called udders when they’re on goats, right? Is the plural of udder udders or uddi. I’m a bit of a city girl myself. Tree, apples.
I assumed we weren’t supposed to arrive for breakfast on time, that would be rude or at the very least unexpected. We were about 15 minutes late, which may still have been too soon. The second oldest boy had already picked oranges from the tree in the shared courtyard to make juice. Eventually all the other kids woke up, except the oldest who is 18.
They made us pancakes and cut a tomato for Madi. As per usual, they didn’t eat with us. The helpings were huge, and then had also bought honey for the pancakes. The juice was too tart for Madi, so I had 2 glasses, and a large coffee. So even before the food came, I was full. But I kept stuffing down the food reminding myself of those small Japanese women who enter professional eating competitions and eat 50 hot dogs. That was my visual to gratefully finished what they’d given me. They seemed pleased that we cleaned our plates, so it was worth it. All the while, none of them ate or drank anything, that we could see. I don’t know if they were eating in their room in the back, but none of them ate. This seemed a bit silly considering how overly full I felt.
After we ate breakfast, the their kids played games on both ipods. Then we must have played 10 rounds of Uno. Kier you have bring Uno down for the family, they think it’s the best game. One of the reasons it works for their family is that kids of many different ages can play, and you don’t have to be literate. At first when we were playing they brought a short table out and we were all squatting around the table. I was NOT going to complain that my legs were going numb and I had to stand up between games to restore circulation to my legs below the knees. I’m Japanese, after all, I have squatting genes. Eventually they brought out plastic stools, which was much better.
They have a pet rabbit, which is extremely tame. It’s not in a cage and has free reign in the restaurant and yard and could easily get away. But since they feed it, it doesn’t go anywhere. I’m surprised that the dogs don’t bother it, it would be a tasty morsel. Madi was missing her bunny at home, so she was holding it nonstop.
The kids stayed at the family’s home while I walked down the street to the internet cafe. When I got back they told me they went on a tuk tuk ride around town and part way up the mountain. I got a call that the window was being installed, so we quickly went home. There were two guys putting it in. Then I rode with the one guy into town to drop off the dvd player to see if it can be repaired and to pick up some cable connectors.
I know I say this constantly, but everyone here has a colorful story. His was extremely interesting. He lived on a boat for many years, has been to many places, loves it here, and there is lots more to the story. He told me there is a diverse group of women who get together every Thursday in a different restaurant, said he’d try to get me an invite. When we got back we went to the neighbors and successfully split the cable into my part of the house. Kids were excited. Now we have the occasional Scooby-doo in Spanish along with the occasional movie in English and a couple of major networks. It’s probably more than we need.
Later in the afternoon I returned to the repair shop to find out the dvd was pronounced dead by a trained repair professional. So dvd players that are made in China cannot necessarily be repaired in Guatemala. Madi is the biggest movie fanatic, so she took the death of the dvd player the hardest. But she has been getting into the mysteries novels that are on the shelves, I think she’ll she may recover from her overwhelming grief.
There were women washing clothes in the river today. I haven’t seen a lot of that here in Pana, but it happens much more across the lake in Santiago. But today there were three women washing clothes there with many small children.
When we went down to the lake the girls were disappointed that the river was higher and Cali couldn’t get across to the piles of rocks in the riverbed. We’ll have to find another way across. It rained a bit for the first time since we’ve been here, but only for about 10 minutes. This may mean she won’t be able to cross tomorrow either.
Cali is creating some kind of 3-D paper scene with shepherds and sheep. She plans to give it to her grandma who likes manger scenes when we get home.
I saw more friends in the grocery store who I hadn’t connected with yet. Makes me realize how many people I got to know last time. It was also restocking day at the big grocery store. They seem to restock the store all at once, people in almost every aisle putting things on shelves. I got the kids more craft supplies since that’s what they are into right now. Both of them are drawing for hours.
New window.
We do have a church service next door to finish off our day, in case anyone is wondering.
Cali’s Frog Blog: Today I still had lots and lots of fun because we went to the family’s house for breakfast. When we were walking there we saw some goats with very jiggly yucky butts. Not as yucky as gorilla butts. When we got to the family’s house I had some pancakes and in Spanish they are panqueques with honey. We played tag with the kids and then Madi and one of the girls and I went on a tuk tuk ride. On the tuk tuk we went to the market. We stayed in the tuk tuk while the dad went into the market. Then we came home and the window guy was putting in the window. We went to our neighbor’s house to get a new plug to connect to our plug for the tv. Then I stayed home with Madi while mom went to see if the dvd player would ever work again, but they said it will never work again. In one week we will throw it away, just in case it decides to start working again. We walked over to the beach but we I couldn’t get across the stream to get to the beach because the water was too high. So Madi got a rock and threw it in, and I got my feet wet because I really wanted to play. I got across but then I wanted to go back home because my feet were so so wet, and I wanted to wash them so so badly. Then we got home and we have new colored pencils because we are drawing so much. Now I am making a shepherd scene. That’s how my day went today.
Madi Speaks: This morning we saw a boy selling goat milk and he actually had the goats with him. He’d get the milk fresh for anyone who wanted some. Their udders were really really full, hung down, were funny shapes, and it kinda grossed me out. Mom said we were both crazy and that it was natural. When we got to the family’s house Cali and mommy had pancakes and I had a tomato. I found out that they have a pet rabbit. It was much calmer than my bunny Bonsai. But my bunny is cuter and has more meat on her bones. I kept feeding it leaves from a certain plant that the kids showed me. We also played many rounds of Uno and the second oldest boy played with us this time. Mom went to go to the internet and we stayed and played in their tuk tuk and pretended we were driving certain places. Then the dad took us for a ride on the tuk tuk all over the town. We went up the mountain a bit to a scenic look-out. We came home because they were putting the upstairs window in and then they fixed our cable. We also found out today that our dvd player is dead (boo hoo). We watched Pirates of the Caribbean on tv. Then we went to the beach. Cali and mom couldn’t get across the river. I tried to pick up this huge rock to put in the stream and practically broke my back. Then I decided to roll it to the stream, but now my back is sore. We left and went home, had mac and cheese for dinner. Until tomorrow.