Soledad's Goodbye Party

Soledad (Sole) is a 20-something nurse from Sevilla Spain. She only has one name-- like Madonna--no last name. She is on the left in the photo above, right behind the pig's right ear.

Sole worked on our project in Puerto Barrios for a year. She is warm and friendly, but not annoying like most warm and friendly people. She works hard during the day, then socializes at night. She drinks like a fish. Everybody loves her (including me). She is trying to learn English. She knows plenty of words, but her accent is so strong that I cannot understand her. It took me a week to figure out she was shouting "motherfucker" when she had trouble locking the office gate.

Sole planned her good-bye party for the Saturday before she left to go back to Spain. She invited everybody she knew in Guatemala: staff from the four Centros de Salud, hospital employees and their family, neighbors and random friends she made walking down the street. Half of the Guatemala City team took a 6 hour bus ride to Puerto Barrios. On last count there were 75 invitees.

The whole household helped get ready. Sole bought 10 bottles of rum, a few bottles of whiskey, a couple of bottles of vodka and gin, and seven cases of Gallo (cerveza). She made Mojitos in a massive water-cooler type bottle. I juiced a tub of limes. Norma dismembered and cooked an entire pig, which guests ate with salsa and guacamole, rolled up in warm tortillas. We peeled and boiled a wheel-barrow of yucca.

A friend of Sole's from Livingston set up a tent outside in the yard. He hooked up a stereo, which blasted Salsa and meringue all night. Everybody danced. I have no idea how many people finally showed up-- I was passed out upstairs by midnight, hours before the party ended. I woke up early on Sunday morning to go apply for a new passport in Guatemala city. Legend has it that party guests slept on the floor overnight, then got up and partied for another 12 hours on Sunday. The pic above right shows guests dancing on the second day of the party.