A Funny Moment

Tuesday 8.10.10

Today I witnessed possibly the funniest thing I have seen since arriving in Guatemala over 7 months ago. My host sister Sely, age 13, and her friend Vicky had been horsing around in her room when they decided they were hungry. There was not much to eat in the house so the mom asked them to go across the street to buy some eggs to cook. They brought back about a dozen eggs in a carton, but not the type of carton we have in the US. This carton is flat, one-sided, and blue and probably fits 8-10 eggs by 8-10 eggs in each one. After they had unloaded the eggs from the carton into the official egg-holding basket, Sely proceeded to beat her friend on the head with the empty egg carton. Naturally, after only a few seconds the mom started yelling at her to stop, which she did with a giggle and a “what? It doesn’t even hurt!” She tore up the carton into four or five small pieces and put them in the fire. The Abuela, who had been seated next to the fire for this entire escapade, saved one of the pieces of carton from the fire and, as if trying to prove Sely right, started beating herself over the head with it. “Ow, hahahaha!” she said after she had done it once. She repeated herself three or four more times, “no, it doesn’t hurt, hahahaha!” she giggled as she tended to her forehead with her available hand. She smiled and giggled and beat herself a few more times before she became bored with her new activity and placed it back in the fire.

I wish things like this would happen every day.