Fourth of July

I’ve never been outside the country for the Fourth of July before. For me, it started off like any other day here. I spent the morning in the clinic and then played cards with one of the kids. After, we helped Wendy get ready for our gringo cook out. We ate American food: hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, chips, deviled eggs, and home-made ice cream and cake for dessert. Lee read an excerpt about the history of the “Star Spangled Banner”. It even included a little shout out to New Hampshire (which goes a long way in a room full of Texans). We wanted to have a bonfire in the night, but unfortunately it rained. Instead, after dinner, we brought the grill inside the gym and took turns roasting marshmallows on coat hangers while others played volleyball, basketball, or soccer around us. I’m pretty sure that Josue ate about 15 marshmallows. Every time he came back for more I would ask him how many he had already eaten and he would give me his sweetest smile and say just one. I would look at him skeptically and say are you sure and he would say, I mean two. After giving him another look, he would say, I mean three. Somehow this was so cute that I would always end up giving him another. After, we went outside and set off fireworks in the rain. As a general rule, Guatemalans are pretty hardcore about their fireworks. All in all, it was a really fun day.

Words of the Day:
Fogata- (foe- got- ah)- bonfire
Cohete (co- eh- tA)- fireworks
Angelitos (an- hel- E- toes)- marshmallows
Independencia (in- dA- pen- den- c- ah)- independence
Elote (A- low- tA)- corn on the cob
Maíz- (mA- ez)- corn (the cornel or the crop)