Party in the G.U.A.

We are invited to a birthday party for a two year old. It starts at 10:00 am with a mass. 10:30 finds me scouring the market for a gift that is not a toy car, by 11:30 I am back at home socializing with my site-mate and playing with the new puppy. At 12:00 we make it to the party, imagining ourselves very Guatemalan for showing up 2 hours late. We are the first non-family guests there. Good job. So we settle in to normal party activity. Sitting and staring. About an hour later we eat lunch and are told that there is a piñata and a clown coming at 2:30. By now I no longer imagine myself Guatemala and begin to panic thinking of all of the other things I could be doing at home in the hour that I will spend staring at a wall and futily trying to start up conversations. Napping is at the top of my list along with taking my clothes down from the roof before it starts raining at 2 o’clock. At 2 pm we shamefully make our excuses and leave, so sorry to be missing the clown, but defeated by yet another Guatemalan social event . Bag of candy in hand I arrive home and am greeted by my landlady who says she is thinking about heading over at 3 for the piñata. When will I learn?