Michelle on her first “tuk-tuk” ride
This morning I went to the Guatemala City airport to meet Michelle Hogg. She arrived a bit late (due to the need to de-ice her plane in Houston!), but none the worse for her trip. Michelle is a speech pathologist from Lexington, Kentucky, who wanted to come down for a week and work with us over her spring break. It always gives me great joy when someone wants to spend their vacation working with us.
I had not met Michelle before, but felt completely at home with her before we even were out of the airport traffic. I was so happy to have someone to bounce ideas off of, and someone who had more insight into communication disorders than I did. It promises to be a good week.
Not wasting any time, after we arrived at Mari’s, got Michelle’s baggage settled in her room, and ate a quick lunch, we left to introduce Michelle to the kids at Hermano Pedro. It was great fun introducing her to each of the kids, and I had particular questions for her about many of them. It astounded me that she was not totally overwhelmed by all this after her long journey, but she was a great sport about it all, and gave me some valuable insights into the kids.
We arrived back at Mari’s just
in time to accompany her and
Father Enrique to
a “velacion” at the church in
Santa Ana. Each weekend
during lent, a different church
holds a “street fair” and a
Biblical display in their
church. I couldn’t help but
think of this as a “Fish Fry
Guatemalan Style” with a little bit of a religious slant. The display in the church was of the Resurrection, and it was incredible how many people could pack into the place to see it.
After visiting the display, we went outside where we ate our share of street food. Mari has given me some tips to doing this with a reasonable amount of safety, and she often knows people who are selling food at these festivals. Tonight we ate a luscious sandwich of sliced hotdogs grilled with onions, and topped with tomatoes, mayonnaise and more onions. I think this was the first hotdog I’ve eaten here in Guatemala and it was yummy. We also ate corn on the cob (Father and Mari ate theirs “loco” style with mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard—yuck; Michelle and I settled for the less traditional, but tamer topping of “limon y sal” (lime and salt).
Though I have to admit I enjoyed the crowd and chaos of this annual celebration, I think one “velacion” a year will be more than enough to satisfy my exploration of this Guatemalan tradition.
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