Farewell Dinner, 2010

Several days ago we invited Irma & Ilda's mother, Magdalena, over for Saturday dinner.  We spent Wednesday & Thursday traveling to Chichicastenango with the girls (my apologies for no blog post on that, but my patient readers will learn about it when the situation permits...) and had a blast.  We bought them a few items of clothing, ate in a fancy restaurant, and stayed in a hotel with tv and hot water.  Magdalena was pleased to agree to come to dine, and had a good time with us last year.  We expected that she might bring a few people, as that sometimes happens.  Last year she brought her mother and Irma.

We also invited other good friends -- Ingri, Nyla, Rosa Viviana and Francisca.  Nyla often brings her cousin Manuel, so we thought we might be feeding 9 or 10 people plus ourselves.  Pizza, bread, spaghetti with meatballs, fruit salad and chocolate cake were planned in honor of Irma's 12th birthday.  Just in case, I made a huge pot of beans and bought several dozen tortillas.

That was good planning.  Some guests started showing up at 5 because they had to leave early.  Irma's family was supposed to show up at 6.  They still hadn't by 6:45, so Viviana & I hiked up the path to the road to look for them.  They weren't there.

Shortly after 7, after we had given up hope and were enjoying the mountains of food, Magdalena arrived with our sponsored daughters.  She also brought her daughter Juanita and her baby.  Her mother Candelaria came.  So did Magdalena's sister with 3 or 4 of her children and her sister-in-law with 4 or 5 of her children.  I kind of lost count, but I believe they were 16.  They were late because no truck would stop to pick them up and they had to walk the mile or so to get there.

They are a beautiful family as I hope you can see from the photos.  It was beautiful how all of our friends from the big city of Santiago pitched in to help serve this poor family from the outlying areas.  Culturally, they're so different, and it's common for the elegant city dwellers to look down on their poorer neighbors, but our friends are awesome!