Birthday parties, Chichi style

We have gone to several birthday parties in Chichicastenango, and they all have a very common order of events:

1.  The party's starting time is apparently only a suggestion.   The people who arrive on time (and there are always a few, including Veronica and me) just sit and wait for at least an hour for things to get started.  The party is often outside with large tarps (made of sturdy plastic sacks sewn together) spread between wooden posts covering the seating area.  Lots of balloons and streamers decorate the area.  Mostly cousins and children from church are invited, and it is assumed that the entire family will come with the invited child and stay for the party, so there are always seats for many people.

2.  There is often face painting offered as people are arriving.  It is normally just for the kids, but I joined in because not many people had come yet.  At this party the clown was doing the face painting.

3.  Let the show begin with a clown!  The clown does magic tricks and challenges with the kids and adults, getting many people involved and always involving lots of laughter.

4.  Moving on to the piñata, the clown will invite the littlest kids to swing at it with a long stick first, not blindfolded.  Then the older kids are blindfolded and spun around a couple of times, and they have three chances to swing.  Usually the girls go first, then the boys.  The piñata hangs from a rope that two men pull up and down and back and forth, making it harder to hit.  Eventually one of the rambunctious boys finally opens a hole in the piñata and candy starts to spill out.  At that point everyone dives in with the shopping bag they brought for the occasion, children and adults alike, while the clown finishes ripping open the piñata and dumps the candy all over the ground.

5.  Then everyone gathers again and a family member or pastor prays for the birthday child and the cake is brought out.  We all sing "Feliz Cumpleaños," followed by a funny pronunciation of the English song "Happy Birthday," followed by a Spanish traditional song to the same tune, "We want cake, we want cake, even if it's just a little, we want cake!"  Everyone counts loudly to the age of the child and then shouts, "Mordita, mordita, mordita...!" (which means "Take a bite!") and the birthday child leans down and bites the cake, coming up with a face full of frosting and ending in lots of applause and laughter.

6.  While the cake is being cut and served onto plates for the whole crowd, the birthday child is stationed up front and the guests who brought gifts line up to give their gift, hug the special person, and have their photo taken.

7.  Then everyone eats cake and a tostada with tomato sauce and crumbled white cheese, with hot tea to drink served in styrofoam cups.  (We actually don't eat at events here, because of the possible uncleanliness of the food.  Our friends know this, so they usually run to a local snack store in the neighborhood and bring us each a bag of Lay's potato chips and a bottle of Gatorade.)

8.  Little by little the guests leave to go home.  Happy birthday!

Church Christmas party

Our church also had a Christmas Party for our children and other guests.

Singing during worship time.

Our pastor, Gregorio, leading worship.

Parties are always more fun with
a clown leading the games!

Christmas parties

Our dance team Arise! participated in ASELSI's Christmas parties again this year.  The ASELSI workers handed out backpacks full of school supplies to 400 needy kids.  The children were chosen from elementary and middle schools in the area by the school directors who knew that these were the poorest families.  Each day, 200 children and their parents (divided into 3 groups the first day and 2 groups the second day) were invited to a local church in two different communities about 20 minutes from the town of Chichicastenango.  There was a show for each of the five groups, with dances by the local church youth as well as my Arise! dance team, a skit about Christmas, a clown act, and a salvation message.

These ladies are spreading pine needles
on the floor of the church, which is a
common decoration here.  It is a way
to honor the guests that will soon arrive.

The first day in Chicua there were three groups that entered the church to watch the show and then went out to receive their backpacks.

Arise! dancing as shepherds who were
excited to see the baby Jesus.

One of the groups eagerly watching
the Christmas show.

Waiting between shows in a house next
to the church watching a YouTube
video challenge!

ASELSI chartered a bus to take their
employees (and us) to and from Chichi
each day.  Two moms, Alicia and Clelia,
also came with me to help.

The second day in Chuabaj the church was bigger so there were only two large groups that day.

Practicing when we first arrived
early in the morning.

Ready for the shepherd dance
 "Jesus Is Christmas."

Ready for the dance "Still Rolling Stones."

Waiting between dances in one of
the church's Sunday school rooms.
The papers are packets that I made to
keep the kids busy: word searches,
mazes, dot-to-dots, etc.

Carport

The first job our new construction crew worked on was our carport.  It has been a very nice addition to keep us dry in rainy season!  The entire driveway and parking area is designed to fit about 7 cars total, just in case we might need it for visitors or future ministry vehicles.  The street our land is on is very narrow, with no extra width for parking.  It is also safer to keep cars inside our locked gate at night.

Putting on the trusses and beams.

Installing the coated steel roofing and
transparent panels to allow more light.

Our car is happy.

We sometimes see a complete rainbow!

Goose on the loose

One morning when we woke up we found a beautiful goose in our yard, just standing there!  We suggested to our workers that they catch it and see which of our neighbors it might belong to.  However, they were wary of doing that because, due to the dishonesty here, someone might have claimed ownership falsely.  They didn't want us to get in trouble with the community.  A goose like this is worth a few hundred quetzales, or about $20-$30, which is a lot of money here.  So instead, our workers tried to chase it out the gate.  After a funny scene of grown men chasing a goose, it decided to fly up to the ridge of our kitchen building!  It disappeared after a while, so we hope it found its way home!

Ladies' conference

I (Heather) went with 9 other ladies from our church to a ladies' conference in Zacualpa, a small town 1 1/2 hours away.  Our pastor, Gregorio, also pastors a church there, and we were invited to join them!  There were over 150 ladies in attendance from many different churches around Guatemala.  It was a good day of worship and learning about how Jesus can heal our hearts.

We rented a mini-bus to transport us
there in the morning and back in the
late afternoon.

The church was beautifully decorated.
The ladies up front were being thanked
for helping serve at the conference.

These wonderful ladies from our church are
so funny!  We laughed so much during the
drawing for door prizes that even the
conference hostess commented at one
point, "Oh, that group from Chichi!"

Huge puddles

Now that rainy season is in full swing, one section of the dirt road that we travel on to get to town is full of huge puddles.  Last year they tried to "fix" the problem by filling the low areas with gravel and dirt, but that just moved the problem down the road farther.
     In the photos you can see a large truck, a small tuk-tuk, and a medium pickup truck, but traversing the puddles is actually hardest for the many people that walk or ride on motorcycles.
     Each year the communities that are located on this heavily used road ask the government of Guatemala to pave it, but no progress has been made yet.