A rainy weekend

All the rain from the past week, along with the rain that continued this weekend, turned the carretera, highway, leaving Xela into a muddy mess. Carving the main highway into the side of a mountain makes for breathtaking views, but it is also, unfortunately, only one rainstorm away from avalanchas de lodo (mud). Needless to say, our weekend trip to Lake Atitlan and the markets of Chichicastenango was postponed and I spent the weekend in Xela.

Ashley and I decided five weeks of complete Guatemalan immersion topped off with spending four days wading through slushy brown streets accompanied with a constant drizzle meant it was time for a nice long day of blanket-assisted relaxing with some familiar comforts from home. And thus the idea of American-food-movie-watching day was born.

We spent the early afternoon browsing the aisles of a corner supermarket waiting for that aha moment of the perfect snack we’ve been missing. Mine, of course, was bacon. And yellow Gatorade. We also stopped by a local produce stand to grab some avocados to complete the ultimate craving of the past five weeks—bacon, avocado, and tomato sandwiches!

Ashley has the perfect set-up for lazy afternoon cooking adventures. For the three months she is down here, she is renting a small house complete with a living room, kitchen, and Wifi all to herself. We fried bacon, sliced tomatoes, snacked on oranges, sunny side up-ed eggs, peeled avocados, brewed tea, and laughed the afternoon away catching up on all-things American we had been missing.

Conveniently, Netflix just extended their coverage to Guatemala last weekend which meant we had tons of movies at our downloadable disposal. We decided to challenge ourselves a bit with a familiar movie in Spanish subtitles and ended up with Anchorman. It was pretty hilarious to see how un-funny the jokes became with the all-too literal translations. After a little more snacking we also watched Once and we both had an incredibly hard time understanding the Irish and Czech-accented English of the lead characters after spending so much time used to Hispanic accents.

Ashley’s friend Julio came over later with his acoustic guitarra and we spent the next few hours trading off Youtubing, playing, and singing songs in Spanish and English. In my opinion, the best memory of the entire day was belting out and cracking up to one of the few English songs Julio knew, “Save Tonight.” It’s been so long since I’ve heard that song, I almost forgot how fun it is to sing at the top of your lungs! I also found out that it is super hard to sing in a language you only half-way know.          

Saturday night we went to El Cuartito to meet up with another friend and were surprised to see another one walk in after us. So Ashley, Allison, Pedro, and I spent the night eating nachos, tasting Gallo—Guatemalan cerveza, and discovering how small of a world it is to meet such random people in a place that feels like half-way across the world with so much in common.

Church today was an incredible blessing once again. I found myself sitting in the section of the ancianos, the Spanish term for older people, today instead of the jovenes. The older ladies always have a kiss on the check and warm hug to greet me every Sunday and today I got to know one of them more personally. Señora Julie—or Mama Julie, as everybody calls her—sat next to me this morning with her petite coat and giant purse.

To my surprise, she asked me if I spoke English. I was so caught off guard, that I answered “solamente un poco” thinking she asked if I spoke Spanish. Even though she was asking in English. Once my brain finally sorted out the strange mix-up, I told her I did in fact speak English and could only speak a little Spanish.

She didn’t just speak English. She spoke English really well. She told me how she used to live in California with her husband until he passed away from a heart attack. She told me how they had only been married for five years when he died. She told me how she came back to Guatemala to be with her family.

And then she shared her song book with me, her strong voice showing me where the notes were while her finger pointed to where the words went. During the fellowship time of the service, women young and old came up to Mama Julie and shared hugs and kisses, and I was so glad to have gotten the chance to know just a little piece of the heart of this wonderful woman who has touched so many lives.

When the service ended I asked how I could pray for her this week and she shared with me that her niece passed away this past week and her in her family were in need of comfort. If you would like, you can pray for her along with me! 

I spent the rest of this rainy Sunday hanging out with my host family, catching up with people back home, and praying for sunshine tomorrow. And my American-flavored weekend wrapped up with an unexpected but welcome dinner of steak and potatoes, spiced up with salsa picante and tortillas of course!