Se fue la luz

For the most part, Guatemala seems to have a fairly solid electricity infrastructure. But, if California can experience the occasional brown out, I suppose it´s only fair to allow that Quetzaltenango can as well. Each of the past three days, la luz se ha sido. In other words, se fue la luz. In other (more english) words, the light left--a simple way of saying the power went out, which becomes especially endearing when said by a sweet, diminutive guatemalan grandmother, and preceded by a gently gasped "Ay dios mio! Se fue la luz!"

Last night, the power shut down as I was trying to cook up an American style dinner of pasta and veggies for my host mom, her son, and Andrè, one of her nietos. With a candle in hand and two burners going, we finished the pasta and ate by candle light in what was one of the most fun evenings I´ve had down here! A lack of real language skills becomes a lot less important when you have lots of interesting things to point at and mumble about! (In trying to teach André Go Fish, I discovered the same is true of card games... although, a stronger recollection of the rules probably would have been helpful!)

Later that night, the lack of power also gave me a wonderful opportunity to erase any doubt in the minds of Quetzaltengans that I am, in fact, a gringo: Just in case the bright orange "high performance" t-shirt, black fleece vest, gray running shoes, scraggly beard, and pasty white skin weren´t proof enough, the headlamp I put on to walk to a salsa class slapped an excamation point on the phrase ¡Yo soy Gringo! The salsa class turned out to have been cancelled on account of the light, but the small children I walked past had no end of amusement at the pale, tall man walking past their stores with a car´s headlamp strapped to his cabeza! On the way back, I carried the light in my hand.

Hasta pronto, amigos!