Lunes y Martes

Now I’m in the plane. It’s crazy how it tugs at the heartstring to leave here. It’s a little hard to walk on the plane and leave it all behind but at least I’m headed your way. After sitting in the seat I remember how the flight here seemed to take so long because I was so enthused and now I feel the opposite emotion. By the time I fly out of Atlanta I’ll be fully looking forward to seeing you all.

   So here goes for Monday’s report in Guastatoya and more  goodbyes.

   By 7 in the morning Eddies and his in-laws were packing their van to head to the airport. Clarks family was packing theirs to begin their trip to Belize. We returned our keys at Hotel Santa Fe. I got my phone after unlocking the van and messaged you all. The rain the night before had left the whole town fresh and sparkling with colour.

   After everyone loaded we went to el nuevo mercado in Guastatoya. On Monday morning it’s bustling. The meat shops were cutting meat, while chickens were getting cut into pieces with a large knife. I went looking for bananos manzana. They’re the little variety. No one had any. I guess I missed them this time. Ronal or Luis shared some with Dad, Wes, and Royce when Ronal took them to his coffee farm.

   We went to Central Park then in Guastatoya. It has a huge ceiba tree in the Center of it and many beautiful flowering trees and plants. It also has many shady places to sit. Flor and I and sometimes all us youth spent wonderful relaxing times at that park. It also has a Sarita icecream shop nearby which has good soft icecream Eddie would treat us to back in the day.

   They say it’s one of best maintained central parks in Guatemala. First we walked to a panadería and got some champurradas (resemble toasty sugar cookies, good with coffee) and other sweet breads. Then we got coffee and some milkshakes and ate  there by the plaza. Then some of us had to use the washrooms. The plaza has the kind where you pay a quetzal for you a small folded stack of toilet paper before you go in. Or you go without I guess.

   Then we drove parallel to the old narrow gauge railroad to get to Felipe’s and Jaime’s up in La Libertad. I didn’t recognise where to go towards the end because the road is all asphalt now and goes all the way past or around Felipe’s house. Plus his house has changed a lot. I commented on that when we got there and how I recalled sitting where we could look over the edge of the mountain and how Hermana Rosalia had her kitchen there on the side. Venizio told me right away to come and he took us through the house to the kitchen. Corina was making tortillas too in almost the same spot on a big circular plancha over the fire.

   Well, now I got ahead. I didn’t know how far the  new road went so we parked on the far side of the soccer field and walked to Hermano Felipe’s house. I asked a lady in the store which house it was for sure. Hilari was standing by the soccer field as we got close and ran to the house like a small deer saying “ They’re coming!” We were coming, all ten of us across the soccer field. We should have just played a game quick.

   Corina met us, and welcomed us with a hug. Hilari and Merly shyly shook hands. The two girls sat on the couch and resumed playing Dos. It was the game I'd given them with their bag of dresses. I was glad they knew how to play it.

   Felipe came out, he’s a short man wearing cream coloured khaki type pants and a cotton shirt. (When he sits on the church pews, his legs swing.) His pant legs are usually rolled up a few times because he’s so short. He wears sandals. Has gray hair and a short beard, and twinkling eyes. Whenever he hugs,  he hugs tight and holds my head and touches foreheads and then kisses my cheek and then hugs again. I guess it’s a Hermano Felipe hug. He met all my family and then Corina told us to sit, she was making tortillas and would bring hot ones with salt. We also met and talked with Venizio and Selvin otra vez who stayed nearby. Jaime was in work at town with the electrical company.

   Then Corina brought cups and cold té de tamarind. I’ve bought tamarind juice before for you girls to try. It’s that brown tea that I tell you they make out of those sticky seed pods. I was telling them I’d wanted my family to try this and then as I was telling my family about the seeds pods Corina told me they have two tamarind trees. She asked if I’d like to take some peeled tamarind pods home but I told her I couldn’t on a plane. But what I did bring from her was two tamarind pods still in the shell. Corina's tea was delicious and she told us how she made it after Dad asked.

   From there we went around looking at trees Felipe had planted. She gave us each a mango manzana to eat. They’re the little mangos and hers were really good and sweet. Manguitos they call them. We took a few for the road.

   We talked about the crop. Felipe said the boys could go plant corn now that it had rained the night before.

  (It was raining hard when all Berna’s sisters returned to the house from the youth deal) If they don’t get enough rain in May and can’t plant corn then they don’t plant for that year. They plant on the other side of the mountain Cristo Salva. From Guastatoya you can read the whitewashed stones placed on top of the mountain to spell Christ saves in Spanish.

  Felipe doesn’t go up the mountain and plant anymore but his sons do. They used to plant ( and I imagine still do ) by carrying a pouch full of corn over one shoulder with easy reach. With the other hand they hold a forked stick. They poke the stick in the ground and twist with one hand and toss a few seeds of corn in with the other hand and cover with their foot. Eddie used to say that as fast as Felipe could walk, that’s how fast he planted. By the way, that machete chopper I have and use and fret about losing is Felipe’s old one. He wore down the handle all smooth for me. The story is that I bought a new blade and I went to ask him f he'd make a word handle for me and wire it on and he offered I could have his old one and he'd start working with the new one. A precious steal of a deal for me.

   There is a cactus with enormous thorns all along is spines in their patio that’s called Crown of Jesus. It’s sobering to think of thorns that huge being pushed into Jesus’ skin and how head wounds bleed so much. The cactus was blooming when we were there.

   Ennio’s Brenda called Corinas cell while we were there and invited us to their place for lunch. I think it was Brenda anyway, it was hard to hear her on Corina’s phone because it kept cutting out. Ennios live just a bit off the main route on the way out. Sheny messaged and offered to guide us there . I had to hook up to Wesley’s hotspot and message Flor because i went and left my Sunday dress in her car. I’m not sad about leaving it but I am sad I left Carlos and Yuliana’s wedding ribbon in the bag with it. Hopefully I can get one sometime yet.

   So after the invite we figured we should leave after awhile. We said goodbye to the sons and to Corina and then Hilari and Merly who were still playing Dos. The others said Merly was cheating as much as she could get by without Hilari noticing. Royce taught them how to mix cards the fast way.

    Felipe gave me one of his hugs and then asked if he could give me a towel for a souvenir. He walked off to his bedroom and retrieved it in a black bag and gave me another hug before telling me if we never saw each other again here we’d meet in Heaven. Yo lo creo.

   Back down the mountain past the limon trees and under the mango tree and under the llama del truenos trees and banana trees. Llama del trueno is a little like a large mimosa tree with flaming orange flowers in bunches that cover the crown of the tree. It blooms in May when the rains start and thunder sounds. It’s called the Sound of Thunder or Cry/Call of Thunder. There is another with smaller fern type leaves called Llama del Bosque. (Forest) because it stands out so in a forest I guess.

   We drove down to Ojo de Agua one last time where Sheny was loading chairs and a big cooler before she led us to Ennios house. I went down to the small spring coming out from under the road where Flor and I used to carry dishes to wash when there wasn’t water in their pila. I washed my hands and face because I was sticky from the manguito. Someone was filling a huge tank of water at the big spring. I don’t know how they were going to pick up that tank. Sheny thought maybe they’d pump it out into another because usually they leave the tank on the back of a pickup and back it up under to fill it.

   Off over the highway and into a little less packed country is where Ennio lives. That’s where they butcher and process the chorizo now too, the meat for carne adobada is also processed there, I’m guessing. Karin works with the chorizo now. They were still preparing lunch in the bamboo thatch roof camp area so Sheny told us to go see Isaias at his little goat and chicken farm. That picture of Tío Isaias walking to meet us while leading a tame goat is one I wish I could paint. Maybe I’ll just do it from memory without the face. He has many happy fat baby goats in pens and little chickens zipping around loose just down the hill from Ennios house. Tío Isaias milks some goats and makes cheese, (maybe also the milk) for the Herrera family use.

   Then he told us he walked too slow but we should all go see Ennios house. It is a beautiful family home with maybe ten different types of wood. All the wood is natural colours. Some is really dark like mahogany, some is cedar, some is cypress. Some are lumber names I have on a list that I want to look up in a dictionary yet to see what kinds they are. The dining set is dark mahogany. Around the windows is pine I think, a light coloured wood. The banisters going up to the floors are cedar posts with mahogany railing, the steps are dark wood, the main living room is open up three floors and the ceiling is mahogany or something like it with beams and planks. The house is block and stucco and painted orange and is spacious . We stood on the second floor balcony and talked about all the trees he had planted around, some were ones he’d left during construction. There was one large shade tree with a huge crown that he said was 100 years old. They’d planted a twin to it that was 10 years old. It was slowly growing but definitely still small. He hit the trunk of the ancient tree thats only 8 years older than Felipe  (I have to translate it’s name yet, it’s a hard wood they rarely use because it’s difficult to cut) during construction and took a look at its root. He says it grows a tap room and grows straight down the size of the trunk and spreads out like the crown of tree.

   From the balcony we could see the spread of the aloe Vera farm twisting around and up the hill and on out of sight. The man that owns the aloe Vera farm or actually owns that factory that processes the juice certifies the ground and surrounding land as organic.

   Ennis pointed out his own large salvula plant and we walked down the wooden stairs and across the cool tile floor back out into the sun where he got a large knife and showed us how they insert the knife and pop off a large salvula leaf. Then they fillet it just like a fish. The meaty inside that wrap in a cloth and let the orange blood of the plant drip off and all that’s left is pure transparent scentless aloe Vera. They put it all in big bags and import it to be processed further. The little bit of orange blood that comes when they fillet the peel off sort of stinks but once it’s clean of it there’s no odour. Then he showed me the difference between llama del trueno and llama del bosque. That’s why I sounded so smart before. ;-) we looked at and ate chojotes. I have no idea what that is in English but it resembles a sour crunchy crabapple mixed with a plum. Wes thought it too bitter. They were selling them all over in Panajachel by the lake but I never asked to try one there because I didn’t want to buy a whole bunch.  Wes had tried it when he went with Ronal. Ennio has quite a few different varieties of it planted. He also has an orange tree of the variety they make naranjada with. That’s a drink that we all loved here. It’s best with soda water to make it fizzy.

   Our agriculture tour didn’t end when we got to the bamboo hut where lunch was. Ennio chopped open an old hard coconut and we drank the juice. It’s not very sweet when it’s older but I really like it. It only had a cup and a half of juice on it. The white coco part was tough and hard, Then he chopped open a young coco that was just beginning to form it’s white meat. It was so full that when he poke a knife into its inside the juice spurted out. It’s juice was a lot sweeter. Then he found a coco that was still young enough ti have turned a thick layer of soft white coconut. The kind you can shave and roast with sugar to make elephant toenail candy like the Brazilians make. He showed us how the seed was starting to sprout at its top and the roots grow out the bottom of the nut. It resembled a giant green lima bean with water inside.

   Then we gathered around the tables in the hut. Ennio has five beautiful daughters. (Another, Kristi, is married in Nicaragua. She’s the one who was in Paraguay while Papas were.) there were still a few other youth gurus out, American teachers etc. Brenda and her girls and Clara and Shen had prepared dobladas for us all. Dobladas way better than any from any other place. (Tienen que ser cocinadas por los Herreras) they need to be made by an Herrera to taste the best. That’s how I’d told my family and I was glad they got some. Plus they agreed with me they were the best. They served the fried taco type dobladas with jalapeño/onion/lemon pico and a tomato salsa. There was also iced horchata to drink. Fran, we’ll have to make it again like you e been begging to. Or you could drink pop.

   We visited quite awhile after. Ennio is easy to visit with. Soon though it was time to leave. I’d already hugged Sheny goodbye another time because she needed to go home to work. Ennio’s are thinking of attending Carlos reception whenever it will be. That would be really neat to see them there. I wish you girls could get to know their girls.

   As we drove toward the highway ,Lynnea, we passed a high wall around a house lot that was made with chicken wire and filled with volcanic rock. We looked along the ground for a piece of it for you as we drove but failed to see a small one. I found one for you later but not quite as nice as those.

  We filled up with fuel and slowly drove toward the capital. The traffic was all backed up, we passed the entrance to Jalapa where Ronal bought the cashews im bringing home. Guatemala seems to have a lot of micro climates. Like cashews might grow just around Jalapa but not a little further on towards Sansarate. They process cashew nuts by fire and oil under an outdoor roof. Part of the process is to remove the poisonous shell that’s around the seed that sits on the fruit. We’ll have to research it at home so you girls can see it. I have those napkin rings of the fruit with the shell glued on top. I used them when I taught school. The whole nut seems rare and interesting.

   We found a place to try some steak in the city. It started pouring rain and was kind of cozy under the tin roof. They kept bringing us more and more and more food. Elsie said we’d have to leave to get them to stop and then they brought us water yet. And mints,

   We stayed at the same hotel as Clarks had because we could get an apartment with rooms. It was called Adriatika. A lil expensive and my goodness it was high tech. Scan your room key to get your parking ticket for the underground parking. And to get indoors, and on the elevator. And to go to your floor. The only places you can go when you scan your room key is your floor and the roof 20 stories high. We tried to go to the roof to look out over the city and the elevator would just go up a little bit and come back, we didn’t know what was going on, I was looking at my phone typing in the wifi password and everyone got off the elevator and I never noticed. The doors shut on me, I tried to open them but couldn’t without a room key. (They had the key) Then I tried just punching any buttons and it went up a little bit and came back to floor 9. The doors opened and everyone was laughing at me. I was laughing pretty hard too. Man, that card business gives me claustrophobia. I prefer honest doors one can open and close as they wish to. What in the world would that hotel do if there was a fire?

   We found out the reason we couldn’t go to the roof was because a venue was planned due the next morning so they’d shut down that floor capacity to anyone else except invitees for two days.

   We could see over the city and the airport from our 9th floor balconies tho. Plus the long narrow bathroom window opened and you could step right out into air. So I guess if there was a fire and you preferred to die by falling nine stories you could go that way. At least you’d die on grass in a pretty courtyard near a pool.

   I slept on the couch. It was comfy.

   I got to wake up early near the balcony and watch the city street traffic. A lot of bikes went by in three separate groups.

   Jessi googled Guatemala City and it has an average of 16,900 people living in a square mile. It is crammed. Houses all the way up to cliff edges and then down the mountain.

   If you get behind a chicken bus that’s burning a lot of oil you nearly choke from second hand smoke. At least it’s all colourfully painted and the typical outfits are full of character. There’s always lots to see. As you turn there’s usually about three motos all around you to watch out for and another one just zipping quickly in between or in front. I’m glad Wes was a calm driver.

   Seemed like Waze maps took us down some pretty sketchy streets though. Dad started to open his window as we slowly drove through the worse in thick traffic and Wes and I were like, “uh-huh, not here.” It was just rows of tiny connected rooms with open doors and obviously used for vices.

   We had typical breakfast or continental breakfast at the hotel. I had a traditional omelette with black beans.

   We drove to the artisan market which Sheny had recommended. It was so fun looking at all the artisan handwork and brightly painted things. I got a little wooden chicken bus for you, Anthony. And a few little surprises for you girls and a few friends.

   Then on to La Aurora International where we pulled in at rental drop. Goodbye to the fun white microbus. Because I’d filled two extra suitcases with Bible Story books and gifts we all packed our souvenirs in the extras. One was only a little carryon size. Dad and I taped the big bag shut and it wasn’t even overweight, we could have done lots more typical country shopping there after security yet but I’d gotten everything I needed.

  We ate a bit at the airport and loaded. Said goodbye to Uncle Royce as he goes on to other adventures on a different flight than ours.

   And now I’m on my long way home to the North land and you. See you tomorrow evening. I’m so glad you’re all able to come along to the airport.

#mastuyoquenunca