Fourth of July

Sorry I have been a little slow on my blog posting – I haven’t had access to internet in my house for a while. 

As PC volunteers we get vacation days on only two American holidays: the fourth of July and Thanksgiving. We also get Guatemalan holidays. For this fourth of July VAC  (Volunteer Advisory Council) planned a basketball tournament, soccer games, and a pizza lunch in the morning in the Santa Lucia office. They also rented out a bar in Antigua in the evening for us where we had a talent show, dinner, fireworks, and dancing. It was definitely one of the top two fourth of July celebrations that I have ever experienced (I’m not sure if anything can really top Vegas). Most volunteers dressed up in the most ridiculous red, white, and blue clothing that we could find. There was so much American pride. I did not play basketball or soccer, but I definitely ate pizza and enjoyed watching the sports. The basketball teams were organized by the departments in which we work and a staff team. Quiche (pronounced k’iche not like the food) ended up beating the staff team in a couple very close and competitive games. They are not many volunteers from Totonicpan where I live, but most of my closest friends here live in  Xela (pronounced Shey-la) and I am there a lot so I am an honorary member. Xela scored zero points in the whole tournament.

At the bar I participated in the talent show as a part of the Xela Xit Xow team. ’X’ in Mayan languages are pronounced like ’sh.’ Does our name make sense now? We did the Napoleon Dynamite dance but to the mashup of Beyonce's song Girls (Beyonce & Beastie Boys - Girls on Girls (Captain Cuts Remix and in typical xit xow fashion we did not do that much rehearsing, but 
it was entertaining to watch.

Our country director ladies and gentlemen

The Xela Xit Xow

Mark saluting the flag