Anyway, Friday was a half day of school, followed by Family Day, which was the kick off to the weekend. Parents, siblings, alumni and past teachers all came for games, food, and tours of the school. One of the games was to throw wet sponges at teachers' heads. I didn't sign up to participate in that one... There were pony rides, and bounce houses and all kinds of typical fair activities. One not so typical thing-- giving out dyed baby chicks as prizes :( I'm not a fan. Poor little guys-- they were being carried around in paper bags with breathing holes and were chirping their scared little brains out. One of the teachers was holding one and the thing was so scared it pooped on her. And that led to the inspiration for my sole picture from the Family Day fun.
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| This guy wasn't dyed, but most were a bright, unnatural hue of pink or purple. |
Next up was Saturday morning at Futeca. A sports complex that's owned by one of my student's parents. There were soccer competitions all day between students, alumni, and even teachers. I was glad to cheer them on but have been forever scarred from playing soccer since a week playing it at a sports camp when I was in middle school. It was fun to watch everybody play yesterday. Soccer is obviously huge here, and everybody got into it. And I tried a new food-- heart attack on a bun, otherwise known as a shuco. The choices for the day were hot dog, hamburger or shuco. And typically, at any American bbq I would choose a hamburger over a hot dog just about any day of the week. But I'm not really a fan of Guatemalan ground beef/burgers. They remind me of catfood or somethings. So I opted for a shuco, which I was told was a hotdog with guacamole (and avocados happen to be one of my favorite things on the planet). But little did I know a shuco was much more than that... grilled sandwich bun, double hot dogs (meaning two), guacamole, cheese, and bacon. Now that is a production. It was good, but I couldn't finish it all. Here's a pic of the female teacher soccer team playing the high school seniors.
And Saturday night was the big fiesta. A huge formal dinner at Gran Karmel-- an incredible ball room type place. It was totally different than anything I've really experienced in Guatemala so far. But there were Guatemalan touches to be sure. It was very fancy. I got to get all dressed up which was fun. I wore the fanciest thing I had here, but it was technically no where near as formal as it needed to be. Sometimes you just have to work with what you've got. And my host mom helped me out. It felt like prom or something. She would check in as I was getting ready-- asked what jewelry I was going to wear, and then what coat... Hmm, all I had was my North Face-- to which she quickly disapproved and said I could borrow one of my host sister's nicer jackets. Next up was my purse selection-- which also was unfitting. She lent me a little black clutch to use instead. And then when I was all ready, she wanted to take my picture in the living room area. I'm telling you, just like prom.
Then we took a taxi to the location, which was beautiful, and got ready for a fancy sit down dinner. There were maybe 200ish people there? Students, Parents, Alumni, Teachers, and some of these people had traveled from other parts of the world to be there. They also had an orchestra playing music and fancy flower center pieces and formally set tables. But as I said, definitely Guatemalan touches. Never have I been to a formal dinner of this stature where grape and orange soda were served... until last night. Also, the water glasses still had price tag stickers on the bottom :) And rather than showing your ticket to get in, you had to hand it to the waiter before they would give you the food. As formal and fancy and seemingly extravagant as it was, we could still definitely tell we hadn't left Guatemala. The food was delicious though-- steak and chicken, rice, bread, and an incredible salad, which was by far my favorite part of the meal. I miss salads thoroughly. Dessert wasn't really worth writing home about. After dinner there was a presentation and then time for chatting and dancing. All in all it was a fun evening. It felt pretty neat to be a part of something that has been a special piece of many people's lives.
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