La Familia

While in Santiago Atítlan, Jeff and I are staying with a lovely family of sisters Lolita and Chonita y sus padres. The family has lived in Santiago for many generations and is quite well known in town. In addition to running the homestay for UVA students and volunteers of other international NGOs, the sisters also manage small convenient shop and embroid beautiful clothing for weddings. The father is in his sixties, but you'd never be able to tell just by looking at him. For someone who has worked his life away on a farm, he looks pretty darn wrinkle free. He leaves the house around 4 in the morning, rows a cayouko to his farm, and tends to his coffee and avacado plants. He comes home right before lunch with fruits or fire wood from his farm.

La Madre embroidering a new pair of pants for her husband.

Their home sits on top of a hill and has a perfect view of Volcán San Pedro. Our second-floor suite has a bedroom, adjacent kitchen/dinning area, and a small bathroom next door that is under our private staircase to the rooftop. While simple, there is plenty of space, privacy, light, and comfort. The bathroom is seriously compact, Jeff feels a littlle claustrophobic using it. However, it is beautifully tiled and has all the hot water we want in the shower (after Xela, we definitely appreciate both qualities). The big bedroom window overlooks the prolific lime tree in the courtyard and of course, San Pedro. The courtyard wraps around one side of the house and has more fruit trees, a big washing basin, and a fowl coup. Yep, rooster, hens, and geese all right behind the house.

Jeff in action

I can wash my feet in the shower while seating on the toilet if I ever feel inclined to do so.

Every morning, Jeff and I wake up to the sound of one of the sisters clapping her hands together, making the family's daily supply of tortillas. She is still at it when we come downstairs to sit in the itty-bitty kitchen for our breakfast. Our Guatemama in Xela never made her own tortillas, so this is a treat for us. Their hands work so fast, completely second nature. Each tortilla looks exactly the same as another, perfectly round and thin. After a few minutes on the wood stove, the black tortillas (made with black corn) come to the table and disappear into our eager tummies.

I love eating by the stove fire, chatting with the family, watching as they cook delicious foods, and listening to Chonita sing. The kitchen fills with family warmth. Sometimes though, they are busy with other thing and leave after setting our food on the table. Strangely, this is when Jeff and I start to feel the lack of space in the kitchen, notice the fully - occupied strip of sticky fly-trapper hanging in the middle of room, and other oddities in the kitchen.

The women of the family are all wonderful cooks! For breakfast, we always have a big portion of fresh fruit cocktail consisting some combination of banana, watermelon, pineapple, or papaya. Along with fruit, we also get pancakes, french toast, or mosh. I LOVE mosh! It is a big bowl of hot oatmeal that the sisters serve with lots of bananas and vanilla cookies. We always feel so full after breakfast.

Chonita working at the table where we also eat our meals.

After a long morning in clinic or the ED, Jeff and I race home to lunch. Today, We had an awesome roast of beef with squash, carrots, corn on the cobs, and potatos as well as a vegetable soup. In the past, we've had delicious chow mein, tacos, hearty soups, and some of THE BEST fried chicken I've ever had. It's so hard to come back to work after such meals.

Dinners are simple and small, nothing too memorable. Jeff and I always end up snacking or going out for more food later in the night. All in all, we appreciate that there is a lot of vegetables and fruit in our diet, and that the food is amost always delicious. We also love that meals are ready when we come home or wake up. Oh my goodness, almost forgot to mention that the sisters wash our laundry and bedding weekly for no additional charge. How spoiled we've become. :)

Crazy amount of rain almost everyday here. This specific storm closed the roads to Gautemala city yesterday. We hope the roads will be open for us to travel and fly back to the US tomorrow!