little things

It might be because I have so little time left here, but a lot of moments have been extra sweet over the past week. Here are a few:

1. Being stopped in traffic on a major thoroughfare and growing increasingly impatient, only to have my frustration disappear immediately when I saw the cause of the back-up. Christmas decorations being hung over the street! The moment gets extra points because the tinsel swag had the word "Gallo" in the middle. Guatemala's national beer is never far away.

2. Birthday goodness. This was less of a moment and more of a whole day that felt very right. Phone calls and emails from my family, meals at all my favorite places with my favorite people, Guatemala-version Monopoly (get ready to play when I get back) and a general sense of being loved. Thanks to all of you who made the day so lovely.

3. I found Big Red gum for sale at a gas station for the first time. I love that cinnamon-sugar explosion in your mouth at first chew: the whole pack was gone in about 10 minutes.

4. Yesterday for work I got to put on my lawyer costume (which almost included flip-flops, until I remembered I had left a pair of shoes in Roscoe) and go to the reading of a sentence and pick a copy up. That was cool enough, but what really got me excited was reading through the first couple of pages sitting in traffic on my way home and finding my name and information in the act. I know this is the silliest thing ever but I, foreign assistant allowed at the prosecutor's table with the express purpose of taking notes without any intervention, live on in Guatemala criminal court. And that's kind of sweet.

Dia de los Muertos

On November 1st, I headed to Santa Rosa with my stand-in family (Victor's parents, who I live with, and their extended family) to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). First up was decorating the grave where Candy's (my "mom's") parents are buried with lilies.


Although it wasn't quite the spectacle that my Spanish II book made it out to be, the day was still completely different than anything I've ever experienced in the states. The fact that we spent a good portion of the morning hanging out in the graveyard, and even more so that we were far from the only family doing it, was out of the ordinary. And the colorful graves with fresh coats of paint and adorned with flowers, paper and real, seemed a fitting way to celebrate the life of people who had already gone. Remembering is good. Dedicating a day to remembering as a family is even better.


From there we went to the nearby farmhouse, built fairly close to the pineapple fields that are just now being harvested. Nothing, NOTHING better than fresh pineapple.


I may have mentioned this in my last post about Santa Rosa, but I'm a big fan of the chickens. At least I was, until one stole a piece of my pan de muerto (laughingly called "Dead Bread" by those who find the literal English translation funny) right out of my hand. You only get that bread for this holiday so it was substantial loss.


The other dish of the day is called Fiambre. It's this big concoction of everything: olives, sausage, beets, brussel sprouts, peas, cheese, chicken and twenty or so other ingredients in between. Apparently it grew out of the tradition of families bringing foods along with them when they met up at the graves of their loved ones on Dia de los Muertos and ending up mixing it all together: they've skipped a step now and mix it all up the night before. Considering my dislike of different types of food touching each other on my plate, you wouldn't think I would have gone for the vegetarian version they served Jo and me, but I actually loved it. Maybe it was the fact that the beets turned everything pink.

On the way home we did see some of what the images next to the vocabulary lists in my textbook depicted: people dressed up in masks dancing in the street. I didn't get my camera out for that because the events above were lovely and Guatemalan and enough. I'm so thankful my "family" took me in and let me be a part of it.