November recap

Ok so I win the award for being the worst blog entry writer on the planet. Cuantos dias han pasado desde que escribí! Here are a few highlights of the happenings in my life since the last time I wrote:

Retiro en San Felipe
The 11-16 of November the YAVs we reunited at last for a retreat at La Finca Santa Elena in San Felipe, Retalhuleu. Santa Elena is a working coffee plantation and we had the opportunity to take a tour and learn about the coffee growing process and different social issues that it faces. We spent a morning picking coffee with the plantation’s workers. I picked 20lbs worth of berries in three hours and would have only made the equivalent of one US dollar for all my hard work. The experience was very successful in opening my eyes to the inequalities of the coffee industry and made me appreciate even more every cup of coffee that I drink. According to the owner of the farm, the best way to be socially conscious when buying coffee, aka help out the coffee pickers down here in Guatemala, is to choose coffee approved by the Rainforest Alliance. He also said that Star Bucks does a good job taking care of the “little people” so you should feel good the next time you drink a mocha latte! (I’ve heard differently about Star Bucks from other sources but for the sake of this entry, Star Bucks is good.) AND, you should make sure to keep a look out for sun dried bananas from Finca Santa Elena, coming soon to a Wal-Mart near you, they are to die for! So, in summary, the retreat was educational and fun all rolled up into a really good time and it was nice to see the other girls again.

In between the retreat and the next big event, I started taking piano lessons, did things such as play basketball and sing Christmas carols at work, and went to a CEDEPCA meeting in Guatemala City where I found out I’ll be translating for a mission group in El Salvador in January (so excited!).

Thanksgiving
I’m not going to lie, Thanksgiving was hard. I was so excited because I love Turkey Day but pretty much no one cared or even knew what it was. I spent the day being secretly envious of all Americans enjoying their mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. But then Sarah and I met for a grand makeshift Thanksgiving Dinner Extravaganza at Pollo Campero, Guatemala’s version of KFC. I had never been so thankful for fried chicken and French fries in my life! And they even had pecan pie! We both strung off a list of things we were thankful for and dug in. After dinner I called home and got to talk to everyone which was fabulous. So even though it was hard to spend Thanksgiving away from home and family and traditions, it turned out ok thanks to greasy fast food restaurants and calling cards.

Quiceaños
The fam. took me to my first quinceaños. A quinceaños is a customary coming-of-age type party to celebrate a girl’s 15th birthday. The best word that I can think of to describe it is extravagant. The party began with a huge lunch where the birthday girl wore a prom-type dress and entered the room accompanied by her 14 attendants, one for each year that she has lived. The family made speeches in the girl’s honor, everyone ate and had a good time and then smashed the birthday girl’s face in the cake. After the lunch we went home and changed into our formal evening attire (they decked me out in a blue cocktail dress and high heels). Then the real party started! The place was beautifully decorated and we were seated at very elegant tables to eat a delicious dinner (that did NOT include tortillas!). The birthday girl was announced and entered, again accompanied by her damas, dressed in an elaborate gold ball gown with her hair and makeup all done up. She looked gorgeous and far from being 15! Her attendants wore matching dresses and they all performed a dance before dinner. After dinner we sang Happy Birthday and danced the night away. I don’t even remember what I did for my fifteenth birthday but this party sure took the cake!

Then there was more work and had vacation Bible school where I scolded a kid for the first time in Spanish!! A little girl kept sticking wads of paper in between my toes and after the 10th time I fussed at her. She looked kind of upset but five seconds later she was sitting on my lap and asking where my baby was. Oh six year olds!

I think that pretty much sums up the month of November. I can’t believe its December already!