So my friend Lilly asked me if I would mind hosting her and five preteen girls from her village on their way to a girls' empowerment camp in Camalote. Of course I said yes, cause I love Lil and I'm a helper- it's what I do.
Bright and early (for me), the girls show up and it's a quick hello or 'oos' before I have to head to work. Keep in mind by this time the girls have already traversed a flooded river and taken a long walk through the jungle to catch their bus, that could not reach them in their village. This was all done by 4 a.m.
The girls were not phased at all. Partly, because it's not uncommon and partly because this was their first time out of the village without a family member. (They live a 3 hour bumpy ride by school bus from the nearest town)
After I get off work, I have a few minutes alone before the girls arrive. Not long after that Lilly leaves to get a foam mattress from a friend of ours for some of the girls to sleep on. So here I am, alone with five Mayan tweens. It is worth mentioning here that I speak about ten words of K'echi. Luckily, the girls also speak English and Kriol and some Spanish. So I try to entertain them. I paint some fingernails, try to explain UNO (fail). Ultimately, I give up because they are content all crammed in my bathroom, in front of the mirror doing their hair.
Soon Lilly comes home and we start planning dinner. The girls all agree on spaghetti and as a treat we plan to make cake with chocolate frosting. Lilly and I aren't 100% about the spaghetti. I mean these girls basically live off of caldo, corn tortillas and whatever animal was caught and killed that day- chicken, pig, iguana, armadillo, gibnut- you know, the usual, but they assure us that they've had it before so we go with it. Lilly needs a couple of things for the cake, so I offer to go to the store and the girls want to go along for more snacks.
So, here I am being trailed by the girls. I tried to fall back and let them catch up, but Mayans walk slow and young girls like to chat without supervision. Luckily, I'm not paranoid cause they weren't speaking English, except to ask me a question or two, and they seemed to giggle whenever I'd turn around. OK so maybe I am a little paranoid.
After that we made dinner. Big surprise that the girls did not like spaghetti with sauteed eggplant. So Lilly and I went to the store and got some Ramen, which the girls have had and do like. Avra stayed behind to keep an eye on everything. Thanks Avra!
So we got dinner made, they loved it! Got Shrek started, they loved it! Made the cake, They loved it and I loved it twice!
All in all, the night was a success. The girls had a real slumber party with flashlights and late night gossip and they all fell asleep- two on the sofa, two on the foam on the floor and one in the hammock. I mean it is still Belize after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment