Annalisa in Guatemala: 6:00 PM

This evening Seño Lili, Fernando and I sat down to a dinner of shrimp salad (a new favorite of mine) and beans (because no meal is complete here without them). Mattihus came in late from hanging out with friends and announced that he was going to eat after us. He proceeded to plop down in front of the TV in the living room. Typical teenager, right? I was still pealing my shrimp (they cook them with the shells on) when Fernando and Lili had cleaned their plates. As soon as they were out of their seats Lili yelled to Mattihus, “venga mi hijo, come sus frijoles”, “Come eat your beans.” “No ha cebolla?”, “There aren’t onions are there?” was his response. Mattihus doesn’t like onions in his beans. “No mi hijo”, “No” she yelled back and then softly said to me, “Si hay”, “Yeah there are” and smiled. Mattihus came into the kitchen grabbed his plate and said, “There is a really good soccer game on between Mexico and Brazil” as he walked back into the living room with his dinner in hand.

Lili sat down in his place at the table and kept me company while I finished my dinner. After three minutes passed loud sappy telenovela music began blaring in the living room. “That doesn’t sound like a soccer game” I yelled to Mattihus. Lili giggled and yelled, “What’s the score?” You could hear static as the channels were changing in the living room and Mattihus yelled back, “Mexico is winning 1-0.” Mattihus is 15 and is obsessed with telenovelas but would never admit it to your face. He’ll be watching one and as soon as anyone walks in the room he will flip the channel to a soccer match. I’ve also caught him swinging in the hammock at Jenny’s house glued to the TV at the 6:00 telenovela hour. His latest poison, the telenovela Mañana. I’m pretty sure you all know what a telenovela is. The spanish version of a soap opera but with more sap. I’ll admit I’ve fallen victim to telenovela obsession. It was a short and sweet affair with Sortelegio. My addiction wasn’t to the plot but rather the lead character Alejandro played by the delicious Cuban actor William Levy. Google image him and you’ll see why. Smokin’ hot.

After I finished my dinner Lili went through the living room to the bedroom and I sat down next to Mattihus to watch the soccer game. It wasn’t long before he grabbed the remote and switched the channel to Mañana. Loud sappy music ensued once again and on the screen the scene switched back and forth between a flashback montage with children running through green pastures laughing merrily and a sad woman crying in a lonely barren old farmhouse. Lili opened the bedroom door, just a crack, and yelled to Mattihus, “How’s the soccer game?” He quickly changed the channel back to FoxSports, got up off the couch and walked out of the house. He couldn’t take our teasing. I presume he went to Jenny’s to watch Mañana in peace from her living room hammock.

p.s. update on my soccer team. We recently won a quadrangular tournament and took home the Q400 ($50) prize. We then lost a game at the Ahumado feria but redeemed ourselves on Sunday with a 7-1 win over the Gomera women’s team. I'll leave you with a few pics from the Ahumado feria, a team shot from Sunday's match... and a photo of two of my teammates kids giving kisses during the 3 hour van ride to the game. So cute.