In the morning we woke up at 6am. Mood, excited. We are still an hour off, it’s 7am at home. We all felt so much better. Even though I hadn’t slept much, at least the house was still standing. I cleaned out the front closet and found the mother of all spiders. Honestly, looked like it should rule a small country. From now on I will always check in my shoes before putting them on. We noticed that our neighbor had left us a water, much appreciated! We never take water for granted when we are here. At this house we get our water up the street at a store and bring it home on a little cart that Mia has just for this purpose. I like it that the girls learn that water is just one of the many things we take for granted in our lives.
Since we were up so early, we unpacked what we brought, unpacked the stuff that was here. Madi hung the shower curtain, unpacked the dvd player and hooked it up to the tv. She takes more responsibility since Kier is not here and she is the oldest. We made a list of stuff we need, then we set out. Takes about 20 minutes to walk to the bottom of the main street. Cali being 7 makes a huge difference. Last time she had little four-year old legs and we just couldn’t go very far very fast. What always amazed me how the teeny tiny Mayan kids walk and walk. Honestly some of them look like they are less than a year old, and they are walking everywhere, keeping up with the adult walkers, without complaint.
We got to the Deli, one of my two favorite places to eat breakfast. Cali got a huge plate of pancakes and fruit, they offer syrup now, which made her very happy. Last time we were here they only offered honey with your pancakes. We were all in great spirits, happy to be back. Enough has changed to keep things interesting, enough has remained the same to seem familiar.
We went to the lake, it’s as beautiful as I remember. Most of the stores were closed because it’s New Year’s Day. A few restaurants were open. The internet cafe was closed, but not gone. I found one that was open, no one picked up the phone at home, probably still sleeping from last night. Still can’t get information on how to do an @ sign. So, we still have not made contact with the mother ship.
Girls scoped out their food options, especially my hyper-picky eater, Madi. The store that carries macaroni and cheese, still open. Solomon’s Porch where we did a lot of hanging out last time and also rents dvds has moved to a new location, and we found it (big hooray). The used bookstore with English books, still there, and a brand new village laundrymat! Seriously, real washing machines, not just sinks. The cost is $2.60 for a 30 minute cycle for 5 pounds of laundry. I have no concept what 5 pounds of laundry looks like. Guess it depends also on how heavy your dirt is, too. Washing machines, very exciting. Last time we had a young woman who came in to wash our clothes, and while I understand it was giving her work, I always felt a little bad that she was washing our clothes. I did find a store that sells cell phones, but the banks were closed so I couldn’t change money. The machines also aren’t recognizing my credit union card, when last time they did. By the time I got back to the store for the phones, they had decided to close. Things are a bit random that way.
We walked up Santander, then looked at the school Madi and Kier went to last time. Cali and I had an empanada at one of our favorite lunch places. We had heard there was a new larger type grocery store in town, so we went to check it out. They carry all sorts of things we used to have to go to the next town for, like pillows! Still have to go to Solola for pillow cases. They also carry meat that is refrigerated, so we may not be strict vegetarians this time around. We also found milk in jugs, whereas last time we only had milk in smaller cartons. Madi got some tomatoes, veggie disinfectant. Madi was excited because they also have ice cream, a cereal she lives on at home, a ramen soup she will also eat. We also got a bucket, placemats, papertowels (which almost felt a bit decadent). In Canada we have milk in bags, but here they take it one step further. They have bags of water, juice, milk, ketchup, mayo. Cuts down on packaging costs and makes certain items more affordable.
We also saw our Guatemalan family that my sibs and I have taken special interest in. They have 6 kids, live in one little room, support themselves with a tuk tuk, it seems.
We made a total of three trips into town, I made four. We kept going back to the store that was selling phones, but they remained closed. I was hoping they would reopen at 3pm like some stores do, but it didn’t. My legs are aching, I am clearly more whimpy than a 1 year old Mayan child! We did more unpacking.
Meanwhile there was a huge, huge party going on down by the lake. Thousands of people, most of them indigenous people. They came in from surrounding rural areas by pick up trucks. I haven’t seen that many pick-ups since I lived in Indiana. There were thousands of people on the beach. Turns out not only the tourists buy the wares you see on Santander, the local people also buy things from each other. There were very few tourists in attendance, they mostly stay on the other side of the river, closer to town. This area seems to be more or the local people. A few people were swimming. Mostly they were sitting on the grass in small family groups, all dressed up, eating, looking at the lake, the volcanoes.
One of the popular activities is to have your family picture taken with the lake and mountains in the background. In the front you can pick your scene, and there were many to choose from. You could sit on a huge plastic horse, you could be surrounded by fake geese, elephants, large plastic turtles, each little scene had a theme. Then you pay 5Q and get your picture taken with your entire family. People must do it every year. On the way home one of Cali’s teachers from last time recognized us and said hello.
When we got home I realized I had no clue how to hook up the propane tank to the stove. Luckily our neighbor helped me hook it up so we could do some cooking. The girls wanted grilled cheese and soup. Comfort food. Still lots and lots of fireworks going on tonight. Cali’s teacher says the happiness will go on for a few more days. I suppose for some, happiness is fireworks.
The next door neighbor has a son who is a senior in the school Madi and Kier will be going to. He’s the one who told us school doesn’t start for another week. Madi was so disappointed. But she says she’s going to think about it like an extra week of summer vacation.
Tonight, since the fireworks are more subdued we are getting serenaded. There are small churches everywhere. Our house is next to one, Nuevo Eden. Our last house was also close to a church, it’s just part of the experience. That’s what I need to keep telling myself when the music cranks up. Music update. They are now playing some decent music at the church, drums, guitars, reasonable singing. It’s very Guatamalan, and usually I don’t mind it. Although I’m not nearly as tolerant on open mic night. Perhaps some people simply shouldn’t be singing their faith story, words are adequate.
While we were walking around Madi wanted to put out all the smaller fires we saw along the river. I told her if we put all the trash fires we saw in a day, that’s all we’d do. Just on one walk home we passed 8. There were also a couple of free roaming cows which the girls thought we should either tie up or take home and put in our backyard. Here, could happen.
Cali couldn’t stay awake past 7 tonight. We did do a lot of walking. My legs are sore. Oh, I said that already. Last time it took me a good 2 weeks to get used to the amount of exercise I get here. But we are even further from the main street this time. We’ll see.
Madi Speaks: I was very excited to be back in Pana. Mia’s house is very cute. I was disappointed to find out that school doesn’t start on Monday, but rather in another week. I know that sounds weird, but I’m so excited to go back.
Before we went to bed, we washed our feet for the first time since we’ve been here. We were up and down a few dirt roads, so they were pretty dirty, and with laundry being counted by the pound, I’ll try to keep the sheet washing to a minimum. Tomorrow I’m hoping the internet place will be open so we can at least sent an email home. Then I need to get set up with internet connection, a couple of cell phones, we’ll be good to go. The rest of our list includes getting ant traps, covering the open window upstairs because Cali is afraid a bird will fly inside and not know how to get out (fair enough since I’d be the one getting it out).
Madi and I stayed up a bit and watched a few episodes of One Tree Hill. There were some random episodes here.
Question of the day is from Madi, “Mom, do we have any idea how to get the chicken off our roof?”
Let us know if you have the answer, because staring at or yelling shoo chicken in English doesn’t seem to work.