Mi Casa es Su Casa (My Home is Your Home)

Happiness IS . . . walking into Kristen's casa (which is a restaurant on the bottom floor, with a spiral cement staircase up to the sleeping quarters), chatting (in spanish) with her mom and sisters, and feeling quite at home coming in and out any time of the day.

Happiness IS . . . hearing Kristen's voice each morning say "Hanita!" as she walks right into my house and climbs the cement staircase to the roof, where the kitchen is, and joins my sisters and I around the firepit stove while my host mom (Olga) prepares my daily breakfast of a banana pancake and locally grown Guatemalan coffee!! Yesterday during lunch, my little sister Sindy was dancing around the kitchen with a green halloween mask on. In her surprise, Kristen tried to say "Miedo!" (which means Scary!), but instead, she said "Mierda!" (which means shit). That sent the whole family off in laughter for a long while! We are good entertainment for them. Kristen's family in particular delights in giving her a hard time and we feel all the more at home.

Happiness is NOT . . . Chicharron (pork rind). When it comes to food, I'm up for just about anything. HOWEVER, last night was the most difficult meal I have ever eaten. I was served a plate of beans, eggs and a big slab of "puerco" (pork). As I cut into the pork, I realized that it wasn't meat, it was skin. In the US, pork fat is sometimes used to flavor baked beans, but I had never experienced eating it as the main dish. No one in my family was eating with me last night, so I tried to politely ask them in spanish if I was supposed to eat the "puerco" or if it was only to flavor the beans. With my limited vocabulary, I got the hint that I was supposed to eat it, so . . . I started to choke it down, even though the texture was completely unappetizing to me. About halfway through, the neighbor's (live) pig started SQUEALING like crazy. That's when I had to call it quits. No mas Chicharron para mi!

I can´t begin to tell you what a small world I live in. Just moments ago, here at the internet cafe, I ran into a man by the name of Anthony Lobaido. (Megs and T-ra, can you believe it????) The first time I met him was in San Pedro, Belize in fall 2004. MEgan, Tara and I were sitting out on the balcony of Ruby´s hotel, when Anthony nearly fell down the stairs in awe of Megan´s striking beauty. He was in Belize doing a story on military training in the jungle (of which he actually participated in the training). Adventure is his life, and he is currently in San Pedro, Guatemala shooting a mini-adventure series for the Discovery channel. You can imagine the surprise just now when I recognized him, asked him his name, and then before he could answer, it came to me and I said "ANTHONY LOBAIDO!" He was stupefied. Kristen and I are meeting up with him tomorrow.

As Kristen and I are entering more fully into our spanish immersion, it is quite SHOCKING to sit back for a moment and realize that we are carrying on conversations in spanish and surviving each day IN SPANISH! It´s AMAZING!! On the other hand, as our spanish is improving, our english is muy malo (very poor). We are forgetting how to say things in english. For example, yesterday we could not remember the english word for "piña" (pineapple). Our friends here tell us this is a good sign! :)

We send you our love! We have two more days of language school (and homework)and then are headed to Xela, Guatemala to visit the friend of a friend. And so it goes.

La paz (peace),
Hana T.