Day 16 - Feliz Cumpleanos, Abuelita!

And this brings us to Saturday, July 18th - Abuelita's 85th birthday (and Gadi's 26th birthday- I hear he went rafting). We packed up our bags yet again, and headed back to Tio Carlos's house. On the way, we stopped by to visit a couple of women that Sergio knew as children, when he volunteered at their orphanage. One of them has a salon, so she gave Sergio a haircut so he'd look spiffy for his mom's birthday party.

We helped get the house ready for the party, and then waited for the guests to arrive. There were tamales paches (made with potato instead of corn masa), frijoles volteados, munchies, cake, etc. Sergio's family is very friendly and talkative, so it was a good time.

When it was time for cake, I saw first hand where Sergio gets his speech giving tendencies from. Several people took turns giving lovely, moving speeches about Abuelita. I think the challenge is to move people to tears! I don't know if it's a Guatemalan thing, or a Quintana thing, but these folks love to give a speech...

Abuelita loves her birthday. She was so happy the whole night. She even sang. And then she opened presents, and it seems folks know that she likes her sweets and chocolates! I think she enjoyed her birthday.