The 'parking lot' at our house at the start of our party
The Village Council Party
The last full day in our village also happened to be Belize's 30 anniversary of independence. The area representative gave money to each village for a village party. I had to pull myself away from packing and cleaning, and pull away my Commadre (Orianna's mother) who had been helping me scrub and clean all morning, to go to the village feast of chicken and rice at the chairman's house (Andres).
Santiago walking with Greg to the Independence Day feast
There were many hugs and talks of leaving. Women would rotate beside me taking their turns saying goodbye while the men were much more loud and vocal hailing greg from different ends of the house until Greg came to them. The chairman, who was standing at the rain barrel filled with ice and juice bottles would just announce to the whole party, "Eat Kevina! Eat Greg! It will be a long time until you eat food like this. We will miss you, what will you do when you're gone??" He would go off on little rants like this every few minutes or so. After we finished eating it was back to our house where the preparations had already begun for the second feast and party. You see, the village council met and decided to throw us a going away party. The picture below shows some members of the village council hanging out with greg, after the village party, waiting...or really not waiting for the second party to start.
The after party, or perhaps the pre party, so I guess the in-between party
My sisters
Ricky, Fermin, and Junior
Chatting with Sheldon's Godmother
Brother's unite! George and Cicley stopped by for final goodbyes
The Choc family came by (most of them) to bring us a sign the
two eldest daughters and mother made. It says Goodbye
Mrs. Kevina and Mr. Greg. We hope to see you soon.
Both our Godchildren and our Commadas were there all day and night. Evericio, Deyvon's father, had a funny story of our Godson. They went into town that weekend and Deyvon was insisting on a pair of 'shades' or sunglasses. His father had said no until when Deyvon perssisted by saying, "Like Wiyosh!!" (like Godfather). His father said he couldn't help but give him it then. Later on the bus in the evening he took off his shades and gave them to his dad. Evericio said he just folded it up and put it in his pocket. Deyvon complained, "no no like Wiyosh!" as he pointed to his collar for his dad to hang the glasses on his shirt like Greg always does. He kept the shades on the whole night of the party too.
"Like Wiyosh"
Our Godchildren Orianna and Deyvon
With Saturnina and her boys, Steve (with Greg) and Sheldon
Oh Morpheous
The night of the party, our house empty except odds and ends, the children had full rein of the space. Helmets were worn by different children all night. Lindsford wore the shirt Greg gave him, and it was common to see goggles, or our socks or any other little odds and ends walking around the party, usually worn incorrectly. Most times when I would stick my head in my house children would be running in circles, crawling under the bed, or sitting on the floor playing cards with helmets on. One time my door was shut, and I was sitting outside eating when the door opened and a sleepy faced 3 year old looked up at me rubbing his eyes, the bed (an old rice sack) in the middle of the floor. Babies were hung in their lo'pops from our rafters, it was no longer our house.
Just like his Godfather
Presenting us with our gifts:
Late at night, okay like 8:30 (our usual village bedtime) the village council rounded us up to present us with a 'small token of appreciation.' Since this party was hosted by the village council everyone who was there were our very bestest friends. So looking out into the crowd that gathered for the presentation I was so happy that they did this for us so that I could see all my best friends under one roof one last time. Evericio, our Compadre, was the Secretary of the Village Council and so presented a little speech and our gifts. They thank us for helping raise up Silver Creek, for teaching their children and them, and for bringing computers and internet to the village. They thanked Greg for his computer doctor skills, and for all the help he's given to Silver Creek and Big Falls, how he never missed a fajina (village clean up) and was always helping the men planting or with whatever they needed. They then presented us with matching professionally made shirts that had happy 4th anniversary, Silver Creek Village Council, on the front and the Belize independence day on the back. We also got matching hats with Belize on them. We both cried and Greg managed to say a thanks and how much we'll miss them. I however, couldn't even get out a little squeak so just left it at that.
Our Compadre presenting us our shirts and hats
I took a picture of the crowd looking at us
Accepting my shirt and hat
Greg accepting his
They had these shirts made for us!
Talking to Mr. Santiago and Vera about trying to live in the states
Let the dancing begin!!
After the presentation the focus became dancing. Mrs cecilia looked over to me and said, "Come Keveen, lets go dance." So we danced, and danced, and cried (but kept dancing) for two hours. We danced cumbia, Mrs. Cecilia's favorite and stood facing each other swaying back and forth like the traditional kekchi dance. At one point Cecilia started bawling I quickly gave her a hug and she just kept dancing and crying. I told her we could stop dancing but she just shook her head and swayed to the music with big tears falling on her cheeks.
Greg joined us for a little bit
Dancing with my Goddaughter
Dancing with Cecilia and Morpheous
Dancing the traditional harp dance with Steve
I will miss my little sister!
We danced until late late at night. The party went until the last beer was drunk and the last soda was passed out. People started to say their final teary goodbyes and slowly the party started to come to an end. Children littered the floor, sleeping from exhaustion, limbs flung akimbo with helmets, and socks on their hands. Greg suggested we slip in our house and go to sleep. At that point no one even noticed, it was 10:30. The party ended and the last thing I heard was my host dad, Santiago crying and sobbing, "Oh but brother Greg! Brother Greg is leaving us!" and Mrs. Cecilia consoling him and bringing them inside their house for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment