I am going back to last Saturday night for this first favorite. We attended the quincenera of Cielo. This is a big event here in the life of a 15 year old. Instead of a sweet sixteen celebration, in Latin American culture, girls typically have a huge party to celebrate the transition of being a child to womanhood at 15. We were honored to be a part of this celebration with Cielo & witness this cultural even first hand.
The invitation said it begins at 7pm. We arrived at 8pm & this is the view of the room. We were the first ones there! Latin American culture is to be late, especially to a big event like this.
It is a very formal event. These guys were similar to a color guard in the USA.
You've heard me say before how much these girls made an impression on me 6 years ago. I cried when I told them goodbye then, thinking I may not ever see them again this side of heaven. And there we were...celebrating her 15th birthday with her. I had a few tears when she walked into the party.
This is the girls father in the photo with us.
Erika & Isabella
I love watching Isabella talk to a peer, even if it is just small talk....in Spanish!
Me & my girls :)
That is Avery & Brook dancing. I honestly don't know if I have ever heard music that loud before. It was 100% Latino music, and sounded like one really long song to me. I normally do enjoy dancing some, but I just watched this night. The style of Latino dancing is very different from what you would see at a wedding reception in the USA.
The girls were tired & got a little bored throughout the night. Cielo made her grand appearance around 9:30pm, dinner was served at 10pm, dancing began around 11pm, cake was served a little after midnight. The party did not end until 3am!!! We had left our apartment at 6pm, so it took us 2 hours to get there (this was at the furthest southern point of the city). We did leave the party around 12:45am and made it home around 2am. We struggled to stay awake at church Sunday morning!
Oh, and a mariachi band came.
Cielo's formal photo
Cielo with her sisters, Erika & Sol
This is the beginning stages of my packing for Memphis. I had 3 bags almost completely full of school books (to sell) & souvenirs, with no clothes yet!
This is happening today. Look how sweet this is...Brook knows all my favorite things. I love that she included Huey Lewis Music!!
Sometimes, the girls are with me to carry groceries. This is them sharing the load literally, with each carrying a strap of the bag.
Brook even had a "skip to her step". Clara went with us to buy some groceries because our housekeeper volunteered to make us traditional soup, which we had yesterday.
And my favorite sight to see, one that we have all been waiting for, is this countdown to show 0 days until we leave for Memphis!! I had set this countdown to the time our flight leaves Bogota, which is now hours away. Speaking of leaving for Bogota, we received a call at 4am this morning saying our transportation was here. Pray they show up again tomorrow morning at 4am to take us to the airport!
#toomanybagstofitinataxi
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