Why I adore my Guatemalan family

Host mom wearing her grandson's hat. She's so silly!

So one thing that really keeps a smile on my face is my little Guatemalan family. They are so precious.
First of all, my mom, Mayra, who I’m the closest with, is the sweetest little round lady you’ll ever meet. She has this little chortle like you might imagine a dolphin having when laughing at a good joke. The notes slide down the scale and float through the air to my upstairs window while I’m doing homework and it always makes me smile. When she’s super excited she claps really loudly and does this little hop that barely leaves the ground, or sometimes she pounces on dad from behind, chortling loudly and getting about 3/4s of an inch of air. And she gets really energetic when it’s time for dad to come home from work. When he honks his motorcycle horn from the street to say “open the gate” she get’s this grin that lights up her whole face and her eyes get wide and she shouts “Papa Tere! He’s here! Quick! Get the door,” and follows me chortling and clapping and leaping all the way to the door. Also, sometimes she sings really loudly when she thinks no one is around LOL. And in Guatemala, it’s not necessary that one sing on key (more about this later) so it’s really cute.

Also, since I go by Yuna here, my dad started calling me Yunais, like “you (are) nice. Well that developed into a language called English-Guatemalteco. Essentially you just add “ais” to any Spanish word...the combinations are endless and it never ceases to make us laugh when someone busts out with a new word in our little language.

They made a sign to welcome me home from training!
When I left for a week training session, the family called and/or texted everyday! It was so precious because you could see we all really missed each other. One text, for example, said, “Hello Yunais! How are you? The family misses you a lot in moments like this when we are having dinner.”After dinner we have coffee and sweet bread and sit around and chat or watch movies. Everyone knows I love the muffin bread called cubilete so they offer it to me first and I split it with mom. My dad sent me a text that said, “Ooooo Yunais, a member of the crazy family (that’s what we call ourselves) is missing. I need someone to share the cubilete. Yunais! We miss you.” It almost brought a tear to my eye that they thought of me during dinner. Also, I always imitate a rooster for them so they said even the rooster missed me and called for me, “Where is Yunais?!” to the sound of his cock-a-doodle-doo.

We won an apron in a competition so I made dad put it on! (Pinto (20), mom, dad, Francis (18), Chico (22)

There is also a lot of fake violence: for example, my brother threatens to beat me with a giant trophy every night. He calls it “postre” or “dessert”. He’s always asking me if I want “dessert” and that he’s always willing to share it anytime…all I have to do is ask. Sometimes I turn around and he’s hitting the huge hulking trophy base against his palm like he’s going to bludgeon me to death in any moment. So finally I asked him if he wanted dessert. When he asked what it was, I offered him a mouthful of my sweet knuckles. He politely declined my generous offer. Also, once they told me it was unsafe to walk alone through town in the afternoon but I threw up my karate hands and told them I was a kung fu master. Now mom always karate chops the dad while he’ eating and asks if her form is right. I always tell her to use more force and get him in the schnoz. It’s a great time!!

Also, they do this thing when people are choking where they slap them across the back of the head, really, really hard like we would pound someone’s back. Well, one time I was sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast and I started sneezing (holding it in, without making any noise) and all of a sudden everyone stops talking and my sister jumps up faster that I’ve ever seen anyone move and is pounding me across the head. So I start shouting, “AAhhhh why are you hitting me?!” And then I realize that they thought I was choking. Now whenever they want to make fun of me, they pretend to sneeze, convulsing silently and laughing hysterically.

Here are the earrings they bought me/forced me to wear lol
Lastly, they’re kind of bossy. Whenever they really want you to do something, there’s no denying them. Either they guilt you, “Why are you always rejecting me?” and then you feel obligated to do it. Or, when I returned from a week-long trip, the bought me some pretty gold earrings. The next day as we were leaving for a party, mom says, “Put your new earrings on,” to which I say, “Oh they’re so beautiful but this skirt has silver in it and they’re gold.” To which she says, “No, they match your shirt (my shirt was purple and the earrings have blue in them lol). Go put them on.” And that was the end of that. I wore those blue and gold earrings with my silver and purple skirt like I was commanded and everyone was happy. Or the time I had a stomach ache and they kept saying I needed an alka-seltzer tablet. I told them I don’t like to take medicine because usually illnesses pass on their own. They reluctantly let the issue drop but kindly brought me my favorite tea….which was laced with alka-seltzer….LOL they think they’re so clever!!! Isn’t that illegal or something?

Ok, that wasn’t the last thing, I have to share this: So mom hand-washes all my clothes and I’m responsible to wash my underwear. One day I was hanging up my newly-scrubbed underwear on the line and my dad happens to be standing around talking. He takes a long look at them and finally says, “aaahhhh Yunais tiene las banderas del mundo.” Or “Yuna has the flags of the world….there’s Guatemala (the blue and white ones) and The United States and Argentina….” We all died laughing. The other volunteers in my town thought it was awkward but I just thought it was funny. Now this part get’s a little strange….so I took a picture of them and whenever anyone comes over, the whole family starts shouting that I should show them the banderas (flags). This one family friend came over who’s about the same age as host dad and the family insisted that I bring the camera to show him and his wife the banderas. So when he gets the camera in his hands he does a quick glance and then takes off his glasses…I figure he’s like my parents and can see better without them since he’s getting a little older. OMG, the family ragged on him for like 10 minutes about taking off his glasses to get a better look at the banderas. That was the first time I felt slightly awkward about the situation. Needless to say, I’ll probably just erase the picture off my camera so the fam will stop asking me to display them!

If anyone comes to visit, we’re for sure having dinner with them!