Conejo gordito

Every year Nu’Kem has a convivio navideño (like a Christmas party) for all its weavers and their families. In the past it has been more of a subdued event with the women just sharing a meal and some conversation before heading back to their communities. But this last year, Lisa (the girl that works in the store), Estela (a university student from Tactic doing her practicum with Nu’Kem), and I decided to spice things up a bit. We had a soda chugging contest, a competition to get a cookie that was placed on your forehead into your mouth without using hands, and a couple of piñatas (although all in good fun a few women did emerge from the candy scrum bleeding and with twisted ankles) among other games. What turned out to be the funniest and perhaps most disastrous event (depending on how you look at it) was the “chubby bunny” contest.

For all those who are uninitiated to chubby bunny, the contest consists of everyone putting one large marshmallow in their mouth, uttering the words “chubby bunny”, and continuing to add more marshmallows until it is impossible to say anything at all. The winner is the person who can fit the most marshmallows in her mouth. As can be seen in the video, though, what I thought would be harmless entertainment ended up being not so fun for everyone as Josefina subsequently vomited after I stopped filming.

Despite Josefina’s bad experience (or perhaps because of the humor of it), the women love watching this video. Every time there is a large group in the office they tell me, “¡Seño, muestre el video del conejo gordito!” We all gather around my computer, play the clip at least four or five times and laugh until we can’t breathe.

I am planning another party for the weavers at the end of March when my parents and one of my brothers will be visiting. It seems like chubby bunny will be back on the agenda by popular demand. (There is also talk, or more like threats on my part, of a gringos versus Guatemaltecas soccer match). The women are already formulating strategies to pull out a victory, with removing all teeth that can be removed to fit more marshmallows being the most popular one. Once again it should be fun…to watch at least.