The Good Life

I didn’t realize until I started writing it all out that we actually had a very busy and exciting week. We saw lots of people, and I got to watch Brooks take two very important steps in his life, including his baptism and getting his first tattoo. And for my second to last week in Huehue, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way; my days here are numbered and I am ready to continue to enjoy them to the fullest. 

Monday we finished our San Cristobal de las Casas trip with a seven-hour bus ride back to Huehue, heading over to the orphanage in the afternoon (like I’ve said before, just leaving for a weekend makes me miss the kids). Tuesday evening we enjoyed breaking a piñata with our host family, which conveniently occurred when we were already Skyping my sister. We brought the computer down with us so she could see the festivities, and a precious 3-year-old neighbor boy, José Pablo, was completely mesmerized by my computer and Skyping with my sister. It was hilarious. 

Wednesday was a beautiful and fun day at the orphanage, where we had a party to baptize Brooks. Brooks had left early in the morning to go to the orphanage, and filled up 400 water balloons and set up a large inflatable pool we borrowed from our neighbors. Mom and I came over at 10:30am for the baptism ceremony, where Brooks spoke a few words, Hermana Sandra prayed, myself and some of the older kids read Bible verses for Brooks, and then the defining moment, when Pastor Ubaldo and a friend of his baptized Brooks in the pool. It was a beautiful ceremony, and then what made the day even better was our announcement after the baptism that everyone needed to change their clothes, because we were going to have a massive water fight. The weather all week had been cold and overcast, but on Tuesday the sun shone brightly, as if God was smiling on Brooks’ baptism and us. We pulled out all the balloons, and Brooks yelled “1, 2, 3, go” and pure chaos ensured. All the little kids and some of the older kids jumped into the pool, water balloons were being thrown at all angles, pastors and volunteers were being thrown into the pool, and once all the water balloons were gone, the kids started grabbing buckets and filling them with pool water to throw at others. It was incredible. After the intense water fight, everyone changed again, and we enjoyed popsicles Brooks had bought to share; the kids loved it. After popsicles (dessert before the meal, right?), all of the lunch tables were set outside in a long row, and we enjoyed a lunch of chicken, rice, tamales, and lemonade together. Needless to say, it was a fun and beautiful day, probably one of the best we have ever had at Fundación (which is saying a lot, because we’ve had some pretty incredible days there).

Thursday morning we invited our tienda friends out to coffee with us, which changed from coffee to ice cream pretty quickly and desirably. Our friend Leidy, one of her sisters, her sisters’ two kids Valeska and Greta, and the mom/grandma joined us. This family has been so kind and generous with us during our time in Guatemala, giving us free ice cream and always greeting us with kind words and friendly conversation, we were so glad to finally have the chance to be generous with them in return. We all went to Pops in Paiz, ordering four banana splits, two ice cream sundaes, and one Coca-Cola float. We enjoyed conversation with them, and smiled realizing we were so blessed to know this family. Friday morning we had a repeat of good company and good food when we went out to eat crepes with our friends Guisela and Ubaldo. We spent pretty much the whole morning talking about the orphanage, and again I felt like I was basking in the glow of enjoying the company of incredible people.

Saturday our day started with a bang when I joined Brooks to get his tattoo. He had met a guy through the man that runs the pharmacy at the orphanage, Wilder, and decided it was time for him to get his tattoo. He had asked one of the older boys at the orphanage, Jhony, to design something for him, and he came back with a beautiful cross and verse tattoo. Saturday morning Brooks and I walked over to the orphanage, got Wilder and Jhony, and walked over to the house of the man that would be doing the tattoo. This tattoo experience was so Guatemalan it’s not even funny, but I think Brooks wouldn’t have had it any other way. We met his wife first, who told us to wait because he was still working on a car at his second job, a car wash. We chatted with the wife a bit, who was very nice, and who we learned was selling ceviche out of the back of her car and asked if we wanted to buy any. From there we followed the man into his house (a few minutes late of course), and walked to an upstairs balcony that had nice couches set out on it. He already had Brooks’ design, and had shrunk it down a bit. After looking at the design again, he then started setting up his “shop”, which consisted of pulling out the tattoo gun, needles and ink, and setting it all up on his coffee table. He stenciled Brooks’ tattoo on, and the whole tattooing process took place on his balcony, with Brooks laying down on one of the couches. It took about two hours in total, but the finished product looked great. It was a tattoo experience to remember. From there we headed home for lunch, and afterwards my mom and I left to wander the city center of Huehue. We went to the outdoor market and checked out some Christmas stalls, but unfortunately there’s not too much to see in the Huehue city center; in an hour or so, we saw most of it. At 4pm we joined Brooks and Cony in the central park where they were having a grand opening for the park, complete with a mariachi band and many city officials. We hung around for an hour, but after nothing happened an hour after the scheduled time, we decided to skip out and get some dinner. Cony joined us for dinner, and we had amazing pizza at a place called Lakaf (finally seeing the nicer restaurants of Huehue). After dinner we said goodbye to Cony, and walked on to the orphanage; they were just finished up with a visit when we arrived (their third visit of the day, what? All complete with lots of cake and lots of candy). After enjoying the end of the visit with them, we decided to start the beading party we had planned. My mom brought tons of beads from the States, donated by her beading group, and she thought it would be fun to have a quiet beading party with some of the girls. Well, this of course in not what we got. Most of the older girls had left for church that evening, leaving us with some younger girls and a lot of boys. Although we decided to open it up to some boys, we didn’t realize how that translated to everyone else until mom and I found ourselves in a room full of 25 loud 5 to 12 year old boys. We had Brooks take away and occupy the youngest boys, and some girls started trickling in to balance out the numbers a bit. Although it was hectic and loud, we had no idea how much the boys (and the girls too) would love beading. They ended up making some very beautiful bracelets and necklaces, with really cool designs and tiny, meticulous beads. Mom and I were utterly impressed, and so content with how it all turned out. Many even asked if we would be doing it again the next day. After cleaning up from beading (we surprisingly didn’t find too many beads on the floor), mom and I headed over to the Pequeñas room for the night to sleep.

Sunday we awoke at the orphanage, went home for breakfast, and rested a bit before heading out again. My mom wanted to see Paiz, the second largest shopping center in Huehue, which is really just a grocery store in a mall-like building surrounded by small, somewhat deserted shops. I had decided to get my haircut there, more out of curiosity than need (and because it cost Q40, around $5). I was amazed to walk into one of the nicer looking salons, to realize I was the only customer, and to be done with my cut and wash in about seven minutes. She did a pretty good job actually, and it was definitely worthy of the experience and the $5. After shopping around in Paiz, we went back home for lunch. We took naps, and while I was sleeping Brooks worked on our massive Pen Pal collage project (more to come on that in a later blog). We spent most of the afternoon doing mundane things and making sure the Pen Pal collage looked good, but it was an enjoyable afternoon.

With the clock ticking down on my departure, part of me wishes I could just fast forward to next Monday, past all of the sad goodbyes. Although this next week is going to be a good one, with my dad coming, Christmas with our family, and our Fundación Christmas party coming up, it doesn’t change the fact that I hate goodbyes. This is simply weird, leaving, and I wish I had more profound things to say about it; at this point, though, I am mostly in shock that December came so soon and that my six months passed by so quickly. Luckily, I’m almost positive I will be back again, meaning the “adios” came be an “hasta luego”, a much easier end to such an amazing experience.