home away from home - mi cielo

I still feel like I am severely behind in my blog entries and my time in Guatemala is coming to a close - next week is my last week of classes and then I'm home the week after that!

I haven't even updated about my new new family who I moved in with after I got back from the Mountain School. I'll have lived with them for six weeks next week, which is longer than any of the other families I've stayed with here. There an older couple, Blanca and Alejandro, and are hands down my favorite family I've stayed with through the school.

The house is modest but bright and clean, and my bedroom is huge but well furnished, so it doesn't feel that way. I think they did something akin to a renovation to turn the back part of the house into accommodations for boarders. My bedroom has both a full and twin bed for families and groups, and they have a second bedroom as well - in my time here we've had two other students stay with us for a week. The bathroom is quite possibly my most favorite bathroom I've come across (although my favorite shower is reserved for the Antigua post). It's just nicely done in gray tile and is very clean, with ample shelf space for my stuff. I also don't have to share it (unless there's another student) and I really kind of like that. It means I get to leave my stuff in the bathroom, and that feels more like home.

Blanca and Alejandro are extremely laid back and really understand the personality of travelers and the young crowd they mostly see come through the school (although our two other students were both older women closer to my parent's generation than mine). They seem more liberal in their politics and religion than the average Guatemalans I've met. I like listening to their stories of other students who have come through. Blanca explained that, for the most part, they just let the students set their own schedule and do what they want to do. "Sometimes, though, students need some mothering." She's gone and stayed in the hospital before with a student who got really sick, shooed off a would-be suitor of a young woman who got in over her head with her new-found freedom, and let folks cry on her shoulder after breakups or bad news from home.

I got some Blanca mothering when I made the mistake one Wednesday night of trying to keep up with the drinking habits of some of the twenty year olds and woke up very rough the next morning (I actually think I might have still been drunk). Blanca took one look at me and just about burst out laughing because I looked so awful. But she was sweet and sympathetic - encouraging me to go back to bed and let her call school to tell them I wouldn't be in (I dragged myself to school anyway where my teacher admonished me to take a nap, and eat some bread and coffee, since I clearly couldn't study). I got the full Guatemalan hang-over treatment for lunch which is egg soup - sort of like chicken noodle but with a few eggs poached in it. Alejandro kept trying to convince me that all I needed was a strong shot of tequila or just a glass of beer (evidently the hair of the dog philosophy is the underpinning of hang-over treatments here). My stomach insisted that I decline.

Aside from providing great hang-over support, they're just really nice folks. Blanca's daughter lives about a block away and has two daughters of her own, Melany who is 9 and Emily who's 4 and they're over here sometimes before or after school. Alejandro's granddaughter stays with us most days of the week, she's in her 20's and attends university, studying dentistry. Blanca and Alejandro got together later in life, after Blanca and her ex-husband separated and Alejandro's wife passed away. Blanca always calls Alejandro "corazon" (heart = my love) or "cielo" (heaven), which is really sweet.

Blanca is also a fabulous cook. She spent 3 years in the states (up near Boston, coincidentally) and has a flare for "adventurous cooking" as she calls it. It's just that her palate has been influenced by another culture, but, for me, it's a perfect blend of home and here. The pace of life is also just more relaxed in this house compared to the other two I've stayed in. My first family always served breakfast at 7:30am, no matter the day. Blanca is happy to have a lie-in herself on the weekends, and I'm usually out late on a Friday anyway, so we just do breakfast whenever everyone gets up. It works out great :)

I also enjoy that we eat all of our meals family-style, and chat over them. It just feels very homey. Two weekends ago, Blanca invited me to the baptism and 1st birthday party of her daughter's nephew. I had helped make some of the party favors - these really cute little babies out of styrofoam and craft foam. Blanca is a self-taught painter and loves arts and crafts projects. She teaches private art classes and works on her own projects in her free time. She's the go-to family member for crafty-projects. The day of the baptism/party was quite fun. We were in charge of Blanca's granddaughters for the morning since they're too young to be expected to sit through a full Mass and Baptism. We showed up to the church just at the end of Mass (fun fact, the Lord's Prayer has the same cadence and rhythm in Spanish as it does in English). The Baptisms took place right afterward - they actually did about 8 kids in the same ceremony - and after that we headed over to an event hall in Zone 3 for the party. We sat with Blanca's aunt and cousins who kept complimenting me the whole time. "I like your scarf!" "Your eyes are such a gorgeous color!" "Your skin is so smooth and beautiful!" with that kind of praise, who wouldn't have a great time? It was just like every other large family party you've been to. Emily, Blanca's youngest granddaughter, fell asleep in one of her aunt's laps and couldn't be roused for anything - not even the two pinatas towards the end.

Next week I'm taking them out to dinner for Pizza as a thank-you for hosting me, since it's my last week. I am really going to miss them when I go.