Mi Familia in Guatemala.

Backpacking Addict

This is mi familia in Xela (Quezaltenango) in the Northern Part of Guatemala whom I lived with after university. Not speaking a word of espano, papa Arturo, mama Francisco, Carmen, Paula, Zura, Matias, and Miguel Tacsin fed me much better food than my friends who house-stayed with others, showed me around the parks, universities and places tourists don’t go. We played a lot of cards and somehow manage to communicate for the first weeks through a dictionary and my willingness to help with housework (because sweeping the floor is universal) until Miguel (who was five at the time) and I created our own brand of spangchinlish; all the while mama taught me to make tamales and local Mayan recipes, where I am still convinced I maybe one of five Chinese women in the universe who can do so, as the Chinese population of the last 15 years there were eight including me.

I was meant to stay in Central America for three weeks, I ended up there for six months so much I fell in love with the continent. The photo above is us at the dinner table, and the ones left and below are when I dressed up the girls as 90’s candy ravers and papa decided to try on my much laughed at Silver Jacket.

Xela is one of the heavily affected areas of the Flooding in Central America.

As I said during the Tsunami, Glutter has never asked for donations for upkeep or put advertising on this blog for its existence (and never will) but I would most appreciate it if my regular readers (anyone who comes everyday, or once a week, or through the last six months) could donate a small sum to the charity of my choice every so often.

I have picked Mercy Corps because they have an international donations online, and 92% of the donations go to directly into aid.