16 de Junio
The 15th birthday, or quince cumpleaños is the major
one for chicas in Latin America, and last night we helped celebrate the
milestone for Juanita, the daughter of the family we are staying with. The
night before, we received a hand delivered invitation from Bartolo, el padre,
addressed to Maco and Karen. He still can’t get a grasp of our seemingly
difficult names just yet. Although I have had to introduce myself as Marco
while in Latin America, as believe it or not, Mark is very difficult to understand,
and anyway, I figure that in order to fit in, I should really end my name in a
vowel. Kylie’s name is very odd as it ends in two vowels!! How could this be
possible? As many Spanish words change the stem when two vowels are together,
according to past or present tense for example, we figure Kylie would be better
off becoming Kuelo. Or Karen. Or, as most people call me – Kila. KG
Anyway, we think the invite was for us. It would have been
quite embarrassing if a local called Maco and his novia actually knocked on the
door and were turned away.
 |
| Maco y Karen |
The whole extended family began to arrive from 6pm. They
came from far and wide from around the lake, and even from as far as Antigua,
which is 4 hours away. They are very traditional and religious affairs, the
women wear traditional dress, and the local pastor also makes an appearance. It
starts with the preparation, and at this particular time we volunteered to
assist in the kitchen, which is not my strong point, unless you count that time
I successfully cooked a microwave pie to extraordinary crispiness. Kylie was in
her element, dishing off hand made tortillas that were even impressing the head
chef on the night. The feast was ready
to go, chicken, veges, frijoles, salad, tortillas, chilli and soft drinks, and
two of the most enormous and delicious cakes ever seen on the planet. There
were forty guests, but still only one was eaten, which is great news for us, as
they will now be part of our daily diet for another week. More than likely the
cake will be covered with eggs and beans, but it’s worth it.
Before dinner was the usual service, including Pablo on his
guitar, with prayers and some very emotional messages from family friends (even
with limited Spanish, it was still easy to understand and hard not to be very
moved by the words of a fathers pride and love for his daughter), before
Bartolo handed over the keys to a brand new Scooter!! What an awesome present
for a 15 year old. Sure beats the Def
Leppard cassingle I got for mine.
 |
| The Price is Right showcase went off Friday night in San Pedro |
 |
| The handclapping competition was made even more difficult with the addition of flour |
 |
| The candle thief would soon be caught |
 |
| In San Pedro, once candle thieves are caught they are bound together with inflatable blue handcuffs |
 |
| Before they hit the Liverpool pubs, the Beatles were a two piece boy band |
After the ceremony and happy birthday songs in Spanish and
the blowing out of candles, there was dinner, with myself and Kylie recruited
as waiters for the evening. We did a fine job. Much better than the time I
dropped a tray of food at a couple’s table a few minutes before he was about to
propose to her.
The night ended with conversations with the family, which
generally included the inevitable questions on kangaroos and deadly spiders,
and a game of Tenis con globos (Balloon Tennis) with the kids. Check out the
video below.
The families had all departed to return to their pueblos,
saying their goodbyes to all, which included many hugs and handshakes, and left
us with the clean up. A tradition at
Guatemalan fiestas is to cover the floors with pine needles. Not just a few,
but virtually an entire forest full, so much so that Christmas trees in Central
America will be plastic for all families this year until regrowth begins. The
odd thing is, that there is not a pine tree in sight around here, so from where
they came from, no one actually knew.
We left the rest of the clean up this morning to Bartolo,
while we snuck off for a lazy lunch over the lake, which involved $1.50 rum and
pineapple cocktails. Tough day.
There was an odd sight in the sky today, which drew many
local and tourist cameras out, of a rainbow enclosed sun. Locals tell us that
this can only mean one of two things, good or bad weather. Well done.
At the moment, I would say its bad. More due to the
hurricane that’s currently sitting off the coast of Mexico and taking a little dump
on us.
 |
| The giant eye would see an optometrist for his unusual growths |
 |
| The parents were upset that their child care fees included dancing on tables |
Kylie has been busy learning Mayan numbers, which in itself
is a very unique system. Take a look at the picture below, and you can see how
awesome it is. Basically, its dots and dashes that represent corn and beans. As
each bean string has 4 beans per pod, this obviously represents the number 5,
providing it’s in the bottom box on the bottom line. Then each ascending box
contains more corn and beans which are multiples of each other, providing that
each preceding box of corn and beans adheres to the bottom box corn and bean
principle.
Actually, in all seriousness, take the first number, 7897
In the top box, each line is worth 2000, and each dot is
worth 400.
In the middle box, each line is worth 100, and each dot is
20
In the bottom box, each line is worth 5, and each dot is 1.
Have a go yourselves at working out the second box. We will
have a prize for the winner, of a personally signed and autographed postcard
from Guatemala, posted to your address. Leave your answers in the comments box.
Closest answer wins.
 |
| Dominoes, pre wooden times |
Kylie has also been learning of Mayan traditions at school,
as her teacher is Mayan. As well has learning of language and cultural
differences, she had a great laugh about the Mayan calendar. As you may recall,
sometime last year, hippies, religious zealots and conspiracy theorists worldwide
were convinced that the world would end as the 12th of the twelfth,
2011 was the end of the Mayan calendar, so evidently, the world would more than
likely blow up that night just after The Voice, or you would at very best die a
slow and painful death. (Probably by being forced to watch The Voice over and
over).
The Mayans laughed at this. “Twits”, they thought. “We just
start a new calendar.”
Three weeks down, one more to go. That’s Spanish school. We
are going to be very pleased when it’s all over, and not just for the fact that
some of the next stops include Caribbean beaches. It’s tough to learn a new
language, to understand all the differences, the tenses, the idioms et al. It’s
also so difficult to complete the homework worksheets, that have little or no
relevance to getting about and communicating in everyday Spanish speaking life.
For example, how often are you going to ask a local shopkeeper “Tu juegas al
tenis en la piscina?” (Do you play tennis in the swimming pool?), or the bus
driver “ Tu compras su hermano la tarjeta de cumpleanos?” (You buy your brother
a birthday card?), as the worksheets ask.
Or, some friends from your class are planning a party. Juan has invited
you and wants to know who is bringing what. Tell him in Spanish that you can
bring some corn chips and balloons.
What an awesome party
this will be. Perhaps suggest to him
that you should all pool together a few centavos to arrange a stripper.
Even the teachers ask us odd questions. For example, who is
the best girlfriend you have ever had, and why, and do you and your partner
resolve problems.
The teachers aren’t the only characters in this town. There
is a Scotsman hanging about, holidaying here from his job as a prison officer
in Karratha WA. If you have ever seen Karl Pilkington from An Idiot Abroad, well
this bloke is the closest match. He sits outside his hotel room watching a
hippy practising yoga standing on his head, in the rain (“That shouldn’t annoy
me, but it does”), getting electrocuted in his shower from some dodgy wiring,
roping off his hotel balcony with a home made Private sign, even though he is
the only guest there, and signing up to a hypnotherapy course so he can get
people’s pin numbers.
All part of travelling, the people you meet that provide the
stories you tell.
Adios for now,
Maco y Karen
No comments:
Post a Comment