Bruno and "Tay keare"

Spending time at Irla's house, learning to weave a traditional tejido on a backstrap loom, was one of my favorite activities while in Antigua. I made daily trips to San Antonio Aguas Calientes where Irla and her family live and basically tied myself to a tree on their patio to work on my weaving and hang out with their family.

They have two dogs, rambunxious but sweet Bruno and old, blind Dalmatian mix "Tay keare".

At first I thought "Tay keare" was perhaps a Kaqchikel word or something in Spanish that I had never heard of. Then I realized what they were actually saying: take care. The dog´s name is Take Care. When they bought him as a pup, the sellers waved good bye and said, "Take care of yourself, perro!" (although this was en español). So they dubbed him Takecare.

Irla´s dad, Luis, was the man behind this great name. He is a charming and playful guy who clearly loves learning new things, although access to new information is limited to chats with neighbors, visitors and a fuzzy connection to the Discovery Channel from his room. I bet he would go crazy over some internet access.

Luis and Bruno

Some years ago, Irla met a Japanese traveler interested in studying traditional Mayan weaving. He became a good friend of the family, and since then, Irla´s has become a staple stop among Japanese tourists in Guatemala. She hosts house guests, teaches traditional weaving and gives cooking demonstrations in her home. She showed me a picture of her published in a Japanese tourism magazine.

As a result of this cultural exchange, her dad Luis, a Guatemalan man who speaks Kaqchikel and Español, can greet you in English and say, "I´m full" in Japanese. What a world.

Many days while I was working on my tejido, the family would invite me stay for a homemade lunch, eaten around 1 o´clock. We would all sit around their wobbly table with a big hole in it and chat while we snacked on hot elote, slurped soup and ate piping hot tortillas no bigger than the palm of my hand with fresh slices of lime. I drank special agua pura and everyone else had Coke or a mysterious orange sugar drink. We said, "Buen provecho" both before and after the meal, and thank you to each person before getting up from the table. If you weren´t careful, Bruno would without a doubt try to steal your seat. He loves sitting in chairs.

Irla, Sherlley and Derek

I loved these lunches because of the stories that were shared, especially by Derek (Irla´s highly imaginative four year old son) and her father Luis. It was sometimes a challenge to understand him because I often wasn´t quite sure which language he was using.

He taught me some of my first words in Kaqchikel, and I taught him new phrases he wanted to learn in English, like, "Thank you, I hope to see you again" and "Dig in, everybody!" He told me that during his two years with the army, he met some gringos who used to call him "baby face."

Derek, an outgoing and highly adorable four year old, told some great stories at lunchtime. He typically drank a cup of coffee for breakfast, so he was rarin´to go by lunchtime.

"Once, when I was little, I climbed all the way up a tree and then I FELL! I fell down out of the tree and I fell into a hostal." (As I wondered if I had understood his story, Irla muffled a laugh and quietly told me that that hadn´t in fact happened). Another day he announced, "Last night, I had the best dream! I had a dream that dad bought me new shoes, and that I had lunch at McDonalds!" 

Bruno sitting in a chair

Inspired by Luis and this great family, Johnny and I have a name picked out for our future dog: Cuidese.