Lazy Gringo Saturday

Today was a day of rest for Brooks, Laura and I. We slept in until about 9am (still not really sleeping in to me, but better than our usual 7am wake up time), and went downstairs for breakfast. Sheny had made us delicious crepes, to eat with papaya and banana. After breakfast Laura and I came up to our room, hanging out and figuring out the washing machine for the first time. It was nice to relax a bit, catch up on some reading and e-mails. We had been at the orphanage so constantly last week, it was important for us to slow down at least one day and rejuvenate ourselves for the kids next week. Around 11am, the three of us decided to venture out to the city center of Huehue, and see what it had to offer. This whole week has been a week of celebration in Huehue for the patron saint of the city, Carmen. This was why the kids didn’t have school all week, and there were crazy parades and circuses filling the city. We chose a really amazing week as our first in Guatemala. As we left to go out to the city center, we ran into a large horse parade, which seemed to have literally every resident of Huehue watching. We ended up walking in the parade, again, simply to get to our destination more quickly. And that destination was… Domino’s Pizza. We had originally set out planning to go a nice restaurant at a resort here that Laura and I had seen advertising international food. But then Brooks found out that this restaurant was just past Domino’s, and we simply couldn’t go any further. Domino’s just sounded so good. And it was. Not at all creepy like pizza sometimes is in foreign places, and it was nice having a break from rice, beans, and tortillas. We all shared that we felt kind of bad eating there, like it was just too typical for the gringos to be caught walking into Domino’s. But sometimes you just have to suck up your pride, and be thankful that for $6 you can get a yummy personal sized Domino’s pizza in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. While at Domino’s we saw an advertisement for the new Harry Potter movie, which we decided was our next gringo destination: find a movie theater in Huehue playing Harry Potter. Huehue is honestly not that large of a town, so it may be an impossible adventure. But we’re going to try to figure it out anyway. After lunch, we walked on to the city center, which had previously been a kind of mystery to us. Everyone would talk about “el centro” and “el parque”, and we were so confused about where the center and park were. What we found was a large open space with a fountain, trees, and a large, beautiful church. We walked into the church and I felt as though I was in Europe again. It was a great nostalgic feeling. The space within the center was filled with people selling toys and food and balloons and traditional Guatemalan wares. I’m assuming it was all for the festival, but I would love if that stuff was up all the time. It just adds a level of excitement to the city. As we walked out of the church, the dreaded afternoon rains began, and we decided to start walking home. It was surprising to us that it is raining so much here in Guatemala. Everyone to whom I told I was going to Guatemala always asked, “is it going to be like really hot there?” And while we have had some hot moments, especially during our uphill walks to the orphanage, the afternoon weather has been mostly grey and rainy. Again, I enjoy it a bit just because it reminds me of Oregon, and I am glad I will have some time to ease myself into the warm Guatemalan weather. 

            After coming home from the centro, we spent the afternoon just hanging out in our room, reading, playing cards, and catching up on the internet. Felt a bit sloth-like compared to the past couple of days we have had, but I think it was some much needed rest. Tomorrow morning we will be returning to Kildare’s church for service, the church that we attended last weekend and the congregation that Brooks and his team had built the church for this past Spring Break. It was a beautiful service last week, and I am excited to return again tomorrow, hopefully making more friendships and creating even more of a church community.