domingo, 14 de septiembre de 2008

Beibi Shawer

That’s how you spell “Baby Shower” phonetically in Spanish. I went to my first and probably last baby shower the other night. I wasn’t sure if baby showers were a female-only event in Guatemala or not. I figured since I was invited they may have taken some liberties with the with the event and opened it to males, but I was the only one.

But it was interesting to watch and participate in to an extent. However, when I was “giving words” to the mother to be, my novia Meli’s sister, Lourdes also known as Luli and Negrita[1], I felt really awkward for two reasons. One, I had to do this meaningful thing in Spanish, and two, I had to do it while a match was burning out and felt like I was doing some “cultish” ritual in a Christian girls dorm, and I felt like a woman.

Luli said she was surprised by the shower but it didn’t look it by the outfit she had on. Her chocolate blouse, slacks and high heel shoes and olive green cardigan (same colors as the Bailey’s wedding), which accentuated her enormous stomach (she’s due in a month, and she’s 4’ 3”) seemed a bit weird to wear to a family meeting, which is what she was told she was coming to.

The games weren’t as suspenseful as they could have been since everyone knows she’s having a nena, girl, but miraculously that was always the outcome: dropping the egg, popping the balloons, blowing out the candles; got girl every time. Kinda wigiboardish, and again Christian-girl-dorm-cultish.

All in all it went really well. Everyone had fun during the activities, everyone got a least one piece of cake, and two chuchitos, directly translated: little dogs, they are like tomales, but smaller and always have chicken in them, and tea and/or Pepsi. And of course we sang “Happy Birthday” in English, Guatemalans do that whenever there’s a cake, seriously. It was a delightful experience.

[1] which is the Spanish name for my dog since Gabriela is kind of a common name here. So when people ask me what Gabe means in Spanish instead of Gabi I just you can say Negrita in Spanish. Mama Meli, my grandma here, still wants me to legally change her name.

No hay comentarios: