Festivities

Fortunately I have had the opportunity to partake in many Guatemalan festivities! First let me correct myself- Mother's Day actually lasts about one week. The actual day is always celebrated on May 10. My host family celebrated by going over to my "grandmother's" home, making dinner, and opening presents. I had the opportunity to "tortillar"- make tortillas by hand! See the photo above!  You start with a small ball of "masa", which is ground up rice, and slap it between your hands while slowly turning it. You have to have the perfect amount of water so it is not too sticky. There is an art to it. About twenty five family members enjoyed dinner with "Grandma".


The following afternoon I went over to my "aunts" house for lunch with about thirty other family members. We ate "Pepian", which is a formal meal that Guatemalans eat on special occasions. It is chicken, rice, and a brown sauce with "a lot of hot ingredients" that definitely upset my tummy. It totally sounds like I have an alien living in my tummy when I eat this stuff. This is not good because it is offensive to their culture to not accept food, especially such a formal dish. I enjoyed the company, especially the little ones. I also had the opportunity to meet two current Peace Corps Volunteers who finished their three month training in Sumpango about one month ago. It was great because I got to ask them a lot of questions about their recent experience. For dinner we went over to my host father's mother's home. They offered another large meal and opened presents. Some of the presents received included new blouses, towels, dishes, flowers, balloons, and cakes. It is not uncommon for schools to be cancelled for Mother's Day. If you think about it, school in the US is always cancelled on Mother's Day as well, right?! hehe. The Youth Development group went to visit a current Peace Corps Volunteer in Pachulum. School was cancelled for the holiday, but we watched skits that the students prepared.

On Tuesday evening we went to my aunt's 32nd birthday party! Another large meal- chicken, vegetable salad, rice, and of course, tortillas. Always tortillas! My family likes to comment, "This is our new daughter, Maggie. She only eats two tortillas per meal". This has changed over the week- I don't eat quite as many per meal. It is not uncommon for adults to eat about six to eight tortillas per meal. Back to the birthday party, next we played games! They had three couples come to the front of the room, blind folded the males, had all of the females put their shoes in a bucket, and the males had to place the correct shoe on their wife. Another game was having three older women walk across the floor, avoiding three eggs that were placed on the ground. Next they had to do it with a blind fold on. When they put the blind fold on the party hostess, my host mother, replaced the eggs with chips! It was pretty funny! Then the birthday girl opened presents. We enjoyed cake (that my host mother made) and "Mora" pronounced just like Maura my little sister! It is a fruit, similar to berries. I love the stuff simply because it is so closely related to Boo Boo! The party ended with lots of fireworks. Fireworks are HUGE here. They are used for EVERY occasion- birthdays, mother's "week", weddings, etc. Try to imagine how many times I might hear fireworks in one day...and throughout the night into the early morning.

We went to my cousins wedding on Saturday. We went next door into our cousins house, saw everyone before the wedding, set off fireworks, then the wedding party left. My host mother dressed me in the traditional Mayan Guatemalan wear. See photo from ¨Walking Tour¨ blog entry. We went to my grandmother's shop and bought some dishes as a wedding gift, then walked to the church. I am pretty sure that it's alright to be late because there were already a lot of people there by the time we got there...and people kept trickling in throughout the ceremony. The church was so loud! Everything in Guatemala is loud! My host mother gave us all toilet paper to stick into our ears (also not rude). While the priest is speaking everyone is talking, children are running around. This lasted about two hours (and we were "late"). Each family goes up and presents the bride and groom with a gift. Then they served "Pepian". I was smarter about it this time around. Next the children started taking down all of the decorations- balloons and streamers. I was a hit because I was one of the tallest people there, so I could reach the balloons for the children! I am looking forward to another wedding next weekend.