A 6th Love Language?

"The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman is a popular book. It speaks about how we communicate love is 5 basic ways: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. In our 8 months of being here in Guatemala we have discovered that Mr. Chapman missed one important love language: the string of blackcat firecrackers.

You see - Christmas Eve, the country blew up at midnight. Seriously, it was much like a scene out of a war movie. New Year's Eve was a repeat - many firecrackers at midnight then again at 6am, 12noon, and 6pm. Mother's Day we began to hear firecracker's at 4:30. Really? The one day each year to celebrate mom's and we do that by waking them up at 4:30 with a string of blackcats. Then there are birthdays...... everyday their are birthdays, and every day we hear a string or 2 of blackcats.

This past Wednesday was by birthday, my first Guatemalan birthday. I woke up to find that Lee had left a cupcake cookbook for me to find. I love to bake. During the 6am hour our friend and coworker went through the apartment across from us, lit a string of blackcats and then threw is onto our balcony. (We live on the third floor) About the time the smoke cleared the girls set off a string downstairs. We spent the day with the group from Texas Tech Wesley & Trinity Church in Lubbock in Antigua. We were back in plenty of time for supper, and Kendon & Wendy took our duties for the evening so that we could go out to eat. Wendy called and said that before we left we needed to drive by the dining room so that she could give me some instructions about some medicine that she needed us to buy. Poor Lee, knowing the whole situation tried his best to get me to move a little quicker - after deciding that I could check email a little later we went. We showed up to a dining hall full of kids (waiting on me) with cakes (all decorated, with candles & plenty for everyone). After they sang the Guatemalan birthday songs, 2 more strings of blackcats were lit, and the candles were blown out, I was handed a whole stack of homemade birthday cards from the kiddos.

To top all of that, we got to eat Pizza Hut that night!

What a great birthday.

Here are a few pics from the day:


This is the blackcat "leftovers" on our balcony with the smoke from the second string.


This is what was left of the second string as we left for the day.