Who Wants To Travel To Guatemala With Me (And Help Me Find My Friends)?

I'm throwing back on a Saturday because I'm a rebel and I do what I want. If Throwback Thursday has a problem with it, it can meet me in the back alley 'cause I'll win this fight.

I'm a little feisty tonight.
I blame Facebook for this really.

Facebook did one of those "2 years ago today" things and got me thinking about Guatemala, which is a bittersweet thing for me to think about.

I know it's lame...

... but a couple of years ago, I was in Guatemala for about 5 months...

...and my best friend there was a 5-year-old.

I don't care.
It is what it is.

I have another best friend who's 78 and another one who's 49, so I guess my appropriate-friendship-age-meter is slightly off.

Clearly, I need to learn to play with kids my own age but I think it's too late for that.

Anyway, I lived in Antigua, Guatemala. Down the street from me lived the 3 best boys in the world. Seeing them was seriously the highlight of every single day.

I mean, how can you NOT smile when every time you walk out of your house, 3 kids come running at you as fast as they can from down the street to try to see who can tackle you first?

I hate to admit to being human and imperfect and stuff...but I'll just go ahead and admit that of the 3, I definitely had one favorite.

You guessed it. The 5-year old.

Miguelito.

Maybe you remember him and his brothers from when I told some stories before.

So this video popped up, and so did another one...and it's all in Spanish...

...but you can still totally see his adorable personality without understanding Spanish.

I'll break down the video for you.

Miguelito was FASCINATED by my computer. This video was the first time I let him "play" with it. His family doesn't have smartphones, computers, or internet so he was seriously EXTRA amazed by my computer.

I was trying to Skype my mom, so that's how it all started with him seeing himself on the screen at first.

His facial expression within the first 5 seconds of the video just cracks me up!!

Ok, video breakdown (El video de abajo está en español):

Second 04-06: Miguelito makes crazy facial expression reacting to seeing himself on the computer screen

Second 07: He is already distracted by stuff on my kitchen table and asking me what it is ... if it's spicy and what not...aka...can he eat it? He already knows he can eat whatever he wants at my house.

Second 07-42: More Spanish, so maybe skip it unless you speak it.

Second 43: I ask him to do a funny dance that he does where he imitates Rafael (aka the Rafael dance).

Second 44: He is totally not amused by my request and suddenly acts all shy about doing it when he's all ABOUT the Rafael dance when the camera's not around.

Second 50: Seriously he is SO uninterested in what I have to say...

Second 54: I am really desperate to have his imitation on film because it makes me laugh...so my brain turns it's wheels fast. I know, a bribe!!!

Second 57: I bribe him to dance with 1 Guatemalan Quetzal (it's only 13 cents, but you can see in second 59 he doesn't argue, he just IMMEDIATELY starts dancing 😂). From zero to turnt in .0283 seconds.

More Spanish. Skip some stuff again.

Minute 1:30: I tell him he's cute and he gets embarrassed. Then we talk about muscles and he makes the best facial expression again!

Minute 2:03 - Easily my FAVORITE part Skype is ringing my mom, and he gets a HUGE smile on his face and starts dancing to the beat of the skype call!

So here it finally is:

The reason I want to go to Guatemala and find them is that they moved away. I'm not sure EXACTLY where because addresses in the rural areas are things like "Blue house 2 blocks from the corner store next to the bike shop."

Not so confident in finding them, even though I know the town they went to.

The boys called me ALL the time after I left Guatemala.

I never answered the phone because I didn't want them to get charged long distance fees, but I always called them back.

Well, RIGHT before leaving for Asia... I tried to call.... and their phone was disconnected.

I don't know what happened and haven't been able to talk to them for 7 months.

Needless to say, I'm needlessly worried. I'm sure they're fine with their parents. I hope.

I don't know. I can't help but worry a little.

They ARE really poor, and even though I lived there...there IS very real danger in lots of parts of Guatemala.

The kids definitely told me some stories that don't put my mind at ease when I don't hear from them, let's just leave it at that.

So...who wants to help me find them???

To end on a happy note, and because I apparently enjoy embarrassment...I'm going to keep up the trend of randomly ending with horrible dance videos!

This video is totally shaky because I let a 9-year-old Guatemalan boy who has exactly 0% experience with phones film us.

He was also dancing, so needless to say...it's as shaky as the 2010 earthquake that almost killed my Grandma. But that's a different story.