do y'all know the phrase, you get what you put into it?

i got a huge surprise. i came home after a long day of traveling to the capital to do some shopping, and cabal, i got a phone call from doña ana. perfect timing.

(in spanish of course) do you want some tamales? she asked.

sure why not, i replied. how can i say no to tamales. tamales are, after all, my favorite food in guatemala.

ok, i'll bring them over, she said.

i'm thinking, what? she's never been over here, and noone comes over. very few locals come to my house. i shrugged it off.

well, doña ana busts through the door, with her daughter ligia (she's pretty much my age, my cooking partner in most of the gourmet meals we cook in the comedor). behind her follow doña chave, doña soila, doña chata, and the two little ones. and they did not arrive empty handed. they came prepared with not only tamales, but black beans, some crepe-like things that ligia made, birthday cake, and a 3 liter bottle of coke! i asked michelle if she know the phrase, you get what you put into it? well, i just got it all back!

after singing happy birthday, the guatemalans have this silly tradition for the birthday person to take a bite from the entire cake. but they don't tell ya what they do next...

look at Ligia's hand if you don't get it...if you still don't get it, check out this one, even better one...I came in with the assist, since Michelle had already seen what had happened to me...

here are the rest of the pics...
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i can't say that many peace corps volunteers can share a story as this one. maybe half. and there are about 150 of us here in guatemala. this is all the community integration payin off. and yes, this prolly cost them some change, maybe about ~$30 (US Dollars, just for y'all). that's definitely no small chunk of change for them. they don't even do anything for their own birthdays. and it must've taken them all day to make all that stuff. it was an honor. i haven't had a surprise birthday party since 1998, and this was definitely my favorite birthday party!