I cannot believe how quickly this trip is coming to an end. We have had some amazing adventures since the last time I wrote!
The Eco-Saunas were WONDERFUL!!! We were supposed to go with the school, but Brit´s friend Gabriel drove us in his car instead. (We also decided to live it up by enhancing our sauna "detoxifying" experience with a bottle of red wine. True vacation style.) We had a five-day weekend, yet again, going out dancing every night. We´ve gone back to La Rumba a few times and know a BUNCH of people there. This place totally feels like home! Our last day of school was Friday and I was already sad, and then on the way to school I greeted the usual people and one of them that day stopped me and asked what my name was, where I´m studying, etc. Unbelievably friendly. I had the theme song to Cheers playing in my head pretty much all day, "Where everybody knows your name..."
Friday was also our despedida at the school and it was SO FUN!!! Some of Brit´s housemates came out (Gabriel, Faustino, Selvin, Edwin) and then our families and teachers came. There were about 15 of us, I think, and we ate fantastic food, drank lots of rum & cokes, laughed, danced and graduated. We ended up staying there as a group until after Ingrid and Manuel left... oops. We were in a group of about 8 of us and went out. Ended up at La Rumba again, danced the night away as usual. I just can´t believe how much my Spanish improves after all these nights of hanging out with Guatemalans :)
Saturday night we got tickets to go see Caramelo Criminal (from Perú, now based out of Germany) and some other bands. It was a full concert of hip hop and reggae that was SO FUN! I have never danced so hard in my life! Brit and I both want to get Caramelo Criminal CDs... What a night.
Another fun thing is that we got two new students at the school this past week, Ana and Carolina, who are from Sweden. We had a blast with them as well! Saturday morning at 6:30am, somehow we dragged ourselves out of bed in time to have Martín (my first teacher) take us in a group with another school to the beach at Champerico. Amazing! It was my first time at a black sand beach. We played in the waves, ate lunch there, and just hung out. I had to wake Brit up as we were leaving because she fell asleep in a hammock. :)
So we just got back a couple hours ago from our VERY short trip to Tikal. We left Sunday at about 2:00pm, headed to Guate where we caught our next bus at 9:00pm to go to Flores. We arrived in Flores after maaaany hours on a bus at about 5:30am then had to wait for guys from the Tikal Inn to come pick us up. It was quite an adventure because we had arrived at the first bus station and realized we had received ZERO instructions. But, it all worked out! Tikal was AMAZING!!! The jungle has some pretty crazy insects... We saw this GIGANTIC spider at dinner that seemed to be about the size of a lime. We kinda freaked, and the server told us not to worry, that it´s the BIG spiders we should be worried about. Yikes!
After we arrived, we ate a delicious breakfast of eggs, friend bananas, beans and tortillas with a big cup of coffee. Then, our guide, Pablo, took us around Tikal for a few hours. We saw the temples which are so impressive... the amount of engineering it took to construct those buildings prior to 800AD is just amazing. Each plaza is constructed so that when someone was standing at the top of a pyramid the entire city could hear, for miles. Craziness. The acoustincs were astounding, along with the sheer SIZE of the temples. We made it to the top of templo cuatro, where you can see the jungle for miles and miles. It was amazing to imagine what it must have been like to look down and see an entire city instead of just miles of jungle because the place was HUGE! They still haven´t uncovered many of the temples because just to begin digging one out takes about 18 months and there isn´t enough money in Guatemala to do it. I also can´t imagine working where there is a chingón de mosquitos everywhere. As we were walking, I was seriously afraid to open my mouth because I thought I would eat one... or ten. Good thing we were prepared with bug spray!
We ate lunch with Pablo, coolest guide ever, and swam in the pool all afternoon. We drank some beers, ate dinner... really, it was all just walking, drinking and eating. REALLY low-key since we were the only guests! Played some cards with our super-nice server, Edgar, with whom we exchanged information for when he comes to the States in a few years. :)
The next morning, we were kind of bummed we didn´t have enough money to pay for seeing the sun rise from a temple in Tikal, but things always end up working out... Pablo came up as we were eating breakfast and asked if we wanted to go do a zipline through the canopy of the jungle. Heck yes!!! It was SO fun! We only paid $30 for a full HOUR (9 platforms!) of zooming over the jungle. Absolutely amazing... Brit also used her feminine powers of persuasion so that we could come back and shower even after checkout. When the guy came back after asking his boss he said we could because we were so pretty. Oy. Nod-and-smile, thank you!
We left Tikal Inn at 2:00pm and at about 3:00 when we were close to Flores, Brit realized we had left our bus tickets at the hotel. Doh! Moment of slight panic, but the guys from the hotel said their next trip was at 6:00pm and would bring the tickets to the station in Flores then. SO NICE!!!
Flores was absolutely gorgeous! It was like a little beach town, but in the middle of the country. It´s an island in the middle of a lake and it is SO HOT! I seriously don´t think I stopped sweating between the first minute in Tikal and like an hour after we left Flores. We did some shopping, drank piña coladas on a porch overlooking the lake... people there were also SUPER friendly and I would like to spend time there in the future (if I can deal with the heat!). Very lovely. Then... last night, back on the bus at 9:00pm. Arrived in Guate at 6:00am this morning, hopped another bus at 8:00am and arrived back HOME to Xela at 1:00pm. What a whirlwind trip!
So, we have a bunch of stuff to fit into these last two days. I promised some of our friends that we would make it to Quixote, a bar owned by one of them, and then La Rumba tonight (as usual). We also had promised Emilio Talvo that we would return to La Fonda del Ché tomorrow and want to go back to La Democracia (the market) to find some music to bring home. That is definitely one thing I will miss-- loud salsa, reggae, reggaeton EVERYWHERE! I´ll just bring it back with me. :)
Geez, we have met so many fantastic people... I almost cried at the graduation on Friday several times. Oy. Well, off to make the most of the last couple days! Woohoo! Hasta la próxima vez...
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Oh, so exhausted!
I am feeling really dedicated right now because I came aaaaall the way to the internet café to update the blog even though I only got one hour of sleep last night. There was a salsa dance competition at La Rumba for students from the dance schools here in Xela. The competition itself only lasted about half an hour and the rest of the night was just dancing. It was ridiculously fun! I danced with one of the teachers for about half an hour and holy cow, he is so amazing! There were more gringos (and thus, gringueros... Guatemaltecos that pretty much only hit on gringas) there than I have seen anywhere in this city. The place was absolutely packed! There was a live salsa band playing for a couple hours at first which was amazing. Brit and I both decided that we are going to take private lessons at La Escuela de Baile Cárdenas next week, and the owner of the school sang in the band. (I´m super stoked for the lessons because it costs like $35 for five hours private instruction-- ridiculously cheap!) So we danced the night away and I got home when it was already light out, slept for an hour and went to school. Yikes. We had also gone out dancing the night before, first at Sahara and then at La Rumba. Dancing queens!
Marielos told me about my sign on the Mayan calendar yesterday, which was really interesting. My nahual is Batz´and the symbols are a monkey and a thread. Roughly, they mean that there is potential to be a leader and have a lot of influence on people. Related occupations included midwife, healer and spiritual guide though she said that the skills carry into whatever profession is chosen. The thread symbolizes the ability to be a "tejedora social," or using networks to bring people together. The symbol is also powerful because in a creation story, the ocean and lakes used to be above the land and it was eight threads that bound everything together. Muy interesante. The sign that represents how my past plays into my life is the dawn, which signifies that it´s during the times of deepest sadness that I find the greatest hope. (Wow, everything sounds way better in Spanish.)
Today Marielos told us (as a group) about her experience as mayor of her town. Out of the 48 mayors in the departamento she was the only woman. She explained about the role of women in the local governments in Totonicapán. There are rules that say all perspectives have to be represented in the organizations that make decisions for each town, but that if there is one woman that is sufficient to fulfill quota. It´s difficult for women to be active in these committees because of several reasons: internalized sexism (she talked about low self-esteem), the fact that women are expected to care for the children and home (people aren´t allowed to work because the job is so time-consuming but women´s work in the home isn´t recognized as such), and also the fact that a lot of times their husbands won´t let them. There are also issues of literacy and language (speaking both Quiché and Spanish) since men are generally much more educated than women here. Marielos stressed the fact that it´s because of women´s work in the home (and during a husband´s term they also work outside the home!) that these organizations are able to function.
Additionally, generally the only women who are elected to the counsels are healers, midwives or teachers because they have gained the respect of the community. (Whereas for men, the qualifications seem to be that they 1) are men, 2) are married, and 3) are "honorable," i.e. not having two women. I know that isn´t good English but I can´t think outside of Spanish grammar at the moment.) The machismo is extraordinarily strong here... that theme keeps coming up again and again. It´s apparently a common phrase here that women "no sirven," or essentially are useless. It´s also EXTREMELY common for men here to cheat on their wives or girlfriends (it´s expected... someone told me that if a man doesn´t have at least 2 women he´s made fun of). On the other hand, it´s expected that women don´t smoke, don´t go out if she is in a relationship and absolutely does NOT cheat on her partner. (If so, she´s a puta-- whore.) Goddamn double standards! It´s truly ridiculous.
The subtle machismo is starting to grate on my nerves a bit, even more than the catcalls 24/7. (The catcalls are more like, "Sssst! Ssssst!" Brit and I wonder if they think that will actually work.) Just as an example, the night we went out dancing with Hugo and Jaime, we walked in and I wanted to go get a drink first but Jaime grabbed my hand as I started walking away and demanded that we dance first. I let that one slide because I was feeling nice. After the 100th time stuff like that has happened where men just don´t seem to believe me that I know what I do and don´t want to do, I feel like I am about to "break some kneecaps" as Brit would say. It´s a common stereotype here that women from the US are "easy," but I sense that it´s more to do with the fact that a LOT of men here do not understand the word "no." Always a good thing to keep our wits about us.
So... tomorrow we are headed to natural saunas. We are headed out on the town again tonight so I better get some sleep now. Hay que dormir...
Marielos told me about my sign on the Mayan calendar yesterday, which was really interesting. My nahual is Batz´and the symbols are a monkey and a thread. Roughly, they mean that there is potential to be a leader and have a lot of influence on people. Related occupations included midwife, healer and spiritual guide though she said that the skills carry into whatever profession is chosen. The thread symbolizes the ability to be a "tejedora social," or using networks to bring people together. The symbol is also powerful because in a creation story, the ocean and lakes used to be above the land and it was eight threads that bound everything together. Muy interesante. The sign that represents how my past plays into my life is the dawn, which signifies that it´s during the times of deepest sadness that I find the greatest hope. (Wow, everything sounds way better in Spanish.)
Today Marielos told us (as a group) about her experience as mayor of her town. Out of the 48 mayors in the departamento she was the only woman. She explained about the role of women in the local governments in Totonicapán. There are rules that say all perspectives have to be represented in the organizations that make decisions for each town, but that if there is one woman that is sufficient to fulfill quota. It´s difficult for women to be active in these committees because of several reasons: internalized sexism (she talked about low self-esteem), the fact that women are expected to care for the children and home (people aren´t allowed to work because the job is so time-consuming but women´s work in the home isn´t recognized as such), and also the fact that a lot of times their husbands won´t let them. There are also issues of literacy and language (speaking both Quiché and Spanish) since men are generally much more educated than women here. Marielos stressed the fact that it´s because of women´s work in the home (and during a husband´s term they also work outside the home!) that these organizations are able to function.
Additionally, generally the only women who are elected to the counsels are healers, midwives or teachers because they have gained the respect of the community. (Whereas for men, the qualifications seem to be that they 1) are men, 2) are married, and 3) are "honorable," i.e. not having two women. I know that isn´t good English but I can´t think outside of Spanish grammar at the moment.) The machismo is extraordinarily strong here... that theme keeps coming up again and again. It´s apparently a common phrase here that women "no sirven," or essentially are useless. It´s also EXTREMELY common for men here to cheat on their wives or girlfriends (it´s expected... someone told me that if a man doesn´t have at least 2 women he´s made fun of). On the other hand, it´s expected that women don´t smoke, don´t go out if she is in a relationship and absolutely does NOT cheat on her partner. (If so, she´s a puta-- whore.) Goddamn double standards! It´s truly ridiculous.
The subtle machismo is starting to grate on my nerves a bit, even more than the catcalls 24/7. (The catcalls are more like, "Sssst! Ssssst!" Brit and I wonder if they think that will actually work.) Just as an example, the night we went out dancing with Hugo and Jaime, we walked in and I wanted to go get a drink first but Jaime grabbed my hand as I started walking away and demanded that we dance first. I let that one slide because I was feeling nice. After the 100th time stuff like that has happened where men just don´t seem to believe me that I know what I do and don´t want to do, I feel like I am about to "break some kneecaps" as Brit would say. It´s a common stereotype here that women from the US are "easy," but I sense that it´s more to do with the fact that a LOT of men here do not understand the word "no." Always a good thing to keep our wits about us.
So... tomorrow we are headed to natural saunas. We are headed out on the town again tonight so I better get some sleep now. Hay que dormir...
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
I want to live here forever!
Please refer to subject line. I think that is about the 10,000 time I´ve said that here. Yesterday I was casually flipping through a local newsletter that had job announcements (for English teachers or English/Spanish exchange) and housing options... the thought of putting school off for a year seriously crossed my mind. People here are just so amazing and even though the weather is TERRIBLE these days the city is still amazingly beautiful.
I´m loving my new teacher, Marielos, but the negative thing is that I think she can read my mind. I identify with her a lot and it seems that everything she tells me about herself, my response is, "No way, me too!" (in Spanish, of course). Tomorrow she is going to tell me about my sign on the Mayan calendar. :) In addition to being a former mayor, counselor, Spanish teacher and Quiche teacher, she also happens to practice natural medicine and reiki. She started telling me about this weird disease she got earlier this year because of all of the pressure she was under to finish her thesis (and a multitude of other things) and turns out it was shingles. She went to a Cuban doctor that lives here in Xela and he told her that shingles doesn´t exist in Cuba because the levels of stress aren´t as high as they are in other countries. I´m moving to Cuba! (After I live in Xela, that is.)
This afternoon I went to a cultural museum that´s an NGO run by Mayan women. In the museum, they have over 300 traditional "trajes" (outfits) worn by Mayan women, men and kids. The woman who did the presentation showed me all the different styles worn by the different groups (there are 22 languages spoken in Guatemala, and each of the indigenous groups has a different style of dress depending on location). The intricate designs on Mayan clothing are all symbolic, generally of what can be seen. Suns and moons can frequently be seen, along with serpents (representing movement of life), two-headed birds (representing the good and bad sides of every person), 20 rings, each one representing one month of the Mayan calendar, figures with four corners representing the four directions, as well as colors that represent the different elements. I can´t recall what each color represents, but they have colors to represent "el ancho, el alto y el profundo," roughly all around us, above and the depths of the earth. The color white represents the air, or anything abstract that exists yet cannot be seen.
As a side note, I found my way back taking the crazy microbuses all by myself and I am extremely proud. :)
One of the teachers at the school of dance (I love how all of my grammar has turned into Spanish grammar) stopped by Ulew Tinimit today to let us know that they are doing lessons at La Sahara, the same rockin´place we´ve gone a couple of times now. So, another fun night on the town is ahead! I just wish I had some clean clothes to wear. The house I live in has a washer but no dryer, and unfortunately with all this rain the clotheslines on the roof are not drying very quickly (as one might imagine). That´s all, folks!
I´m loving my new teacher, Marielos, but the negative thing is that I think she can read my mind. I identify with her a lot and it seems that everything she tells me about herself, my response is, "No way, me too!" (in Spanish, of course). Tomorrow she is going to tell me about my sign on the Mayan calendar. :) In addition to being a former mayor, counselor, Spanish teacher and Quiche teacher, she also happens to practice natural medicine and reiki. She started telling me about this weird disease she got earlier this year because of all of the pressure she was under to finish her thesis (and a multitude of other things) and turns out it was shingles. She went to a Cuban doctor that lives here in Xela and he told her that shingles doesn´t exist in Cuba because the levels of stress aren´t as high as they are in other countries. I´m moving to Cuba! (After I live in Xela, that is.)
This afternoon I went to a cultural museum that´s an NGO run by Mayan women. In the museum, they have over 300 traditional "trajes" (outfits) worn by Mayan women, men and kids. The woman who did the presentation showed me all the different styles worn by the different groups (there are 22 languages spoken in Guatemala, and each of the indigenous groups has a different style of dress depending on location). The intricate designs on Mayan clothing are all symbolic, generally of what can be seen. Suns and moons can frequently be seen, along with serpents (representing movement of life), two-headed birds (representing the good and bad sides of every person), 20 rings, each one representing one month of the Mayan calendar, figures with four corners representing the four directions, as well as colors that represent the different elements. I can´t recall what each color represents, but they have colors to represent "el ancho, el alto y el profundo," roughly all around us, above and the depths of the earth. The color white represents the air, or anything abstract that exists yet cannot be seen.
As a side note, I found my way back taking the crazy microbuses all by myself and I am extremely proud. :)
One of the teachers at the school of dance (I love how all of my grammar has turned into Spanish grammar) stopped by Ulew Tinimit today to let us know that they are doing lessons at La Sahara, the same rockin´place we´ve gone a couple of times now. So, another fun night on the town is ahead! I just wish I had some clean clothes to wear. The house I live in has a washer but no dryer, and unfortunately with all this rain the clotheslines on the roof are not drying very quickly (as one might imagine). That´s all, folks!
Monday, June 2, 2008
So this is what it´s like to live at the bottom of the ocean
De veras, I think I know now what it´s like to live at the bottom of the ocean. Thank goodness the rain stopped for a bit today, but walking to school this morning was absolutely MISERABLE! I live at the bottom of a hill, so I had to walk a looooong ways through water up to my ankles in my sneakers (which, 8 hours later, are still not dry). The rain is intense! Apparently, we´re in the middle of a storm named "Arturo," don´t know if you all at home have heard anything about this. The rain started yesterday evening and is supposed to continue at least through tomorrow. Ugh! I am a tad worried because of what Elena (house mom) told me about the rainstorm in 2005. Mudslides killed an entire village of people and even here in Xela where storms hardly ever are as strong as they are elsewhere suffered greatly. The water systems were flooded with trash so people couldn´t drink tap water or bathe, the roads were closed so no food could be delivered to the city, the electricity was out and there wasn´t any natural gas. Elena said for two weeks they were showering with a drinking rainwater... yikes!
But anyways, this storm is supposed to end tomorrow. Lucky for us.
Friday night was awesome. We tried to find a fundraiser for this organization, Entremundos, that organizes volunteering in Xela and the surrounding area and also publishes a newsletter about human rights in Guate. We couldn´t find it during our excessively long taxi ride, but the driver took us to this GREAT little place called La Fonda del Che. The walls are absolutely COVERED with Che images and it is fantastic. They had live music first by the owner, Emilio Talvo, who plays all over the world, and then another man who works there. (The mojitos were fantastic, too.) At the end of the evening, we were about to walk home when we looked out the door and there were all these creepy people hanging out. So, we changed our minds and asked the people there to call us a taxi because they had offered to do so earlier. Instead, Emilio drove us both back to our houses. All he asked in return is that we do the same for him when he finally gets his visa approved to come to the US. Such a great place! We are planning to go back ASAP because they have música en vivo from Tuesday through Saturday.
Saturday, Manuel took Brit and I to a pueblito called San Andrés Xecul. It´s a town up close to the mountains about an hour from Xela. We had to change chicken buses twice to get there, and we are soooo glad that we had Manuel to escort us. It was ridiculously confusing. It´s interesting to note that all of their chicken buses here (which didn´t have any chickens, to my surprise) come from the United States and they look as though they were used during the 1960s. Anyways, San Andrés Xecul is a very traditional town with a really fascinating church that is painted in brilliant colors. It is also decorated with images of some of the martyrs during the Spanish invasion. (Side note: I asked Manuel why all of them were white and he said it´s because they needed a color to contrast with the yellow paint on the church.)
The other fascinating place we went was to the home where San Simón is kept. Martín had told me before about San Simón (though specifically about the one in Zunil, really close to Xela) and he is a truly interesting saint. I wish I could recall the specific history, but he was a Spaniard who had helped the indigenous people in some fashion (by warning them of the oncoming Spanish) during the invasion. The Spaniards found out what he did and killed him, so he became a martyr and later a saint. The image is really interesting because the saint (a muñeco... like a doll, kind of) is dressed in a REALLY nice suit and is surrounded by all kinds of offerings. The real San Simón liked to party, so the family that cares for the saint gives him fresh cigarettes (always has one in his mouth, which they sometimes light) and at least with the San Simón in Zunil, they actually feed him whiskey several times daily as a part of the ritual. People go to him to ask for help with whatever they need, sometimes to keep people safe and sometimes for them to get hurt... this one had a flag of the United States behind him and Manuel said it was probably because one of this family´s relatives was in the U.S. for work (very common).
I am getting really tired of writing so I´ll talk a teensy bit about my new teacher and our upcoming plans and call it a day...
I got a new teacher today, whose name is Marielos. She is amazing! We started off pretty much right away with reviewing grammar, but got off-topic quickly. We talked about how the municipales are governed in the town where she is from. 80% of the land in Toto is actually owned privately by the people, which is definitely NOT the case elsewhere in Guate, and 20% is owned by the municipalidad. It´s governed by a group of 12 (I think) people, who traditionally have been men who are married (kind of like how our political system is run). Marielos (of course) is a woman who has never married, which is very rare here. I asked her about that, and her response was: "When you know so much about power and how it works, it´s difficult to be in such a relationship."
Anyways, she was in the head position (was elected to the head position) and said it was extremely difficult to get the respect of the men. She was given a lot of trouble when she would step up and lead, for example, when the government tried to pass a law thatwould hand them the control of water in the area, which had always been communally governed. None of the men would step up and do it, so she said she directed thousands of people to action. They blocked the highway and sent a delegation of people from the community to Guatemala City. Absolutely amazing! The other part of her job was to regulate marital troubles, which is really interesting for someone that is part of a cabinet of sorts. She has a background in counseling but felt she wasn´t prepared for that part of the job. We talked about the frequency of family violence here, which she says is sadly quite common. I am grateful to have two teachers that are so incredibly different and look forward to learning more from Marielos!
Upcoming plans...
Brit and I talked yesterday and decided that we will pretty much stay in Xela until the 14th. Martín said he may be able to organize a trip to Tikal for us, so we will check with him. Ideally, we would leave the 15th and then just pass through Guatemala City to drop us at the airport on the 20th. The trip would include Semuc Champey, the ruins at Tikal, beachtown Livingston and many other amazing sights, I´m sure.
The road outside turned into a river again so I think I better go... man, this rain is wild!
But anyways, this storm is supposed to end tomorrow. Lucky for us.
Friday night was awesome. We tried to find a fundraiser for this organization, Entremundos, that organizes volunteering in Xela and the surrounding area and also publishes a newsletter about human rights in Guate. We couldn´t find it during our excessively long taxi ride, but the driver took us to this GREAT little place called La Fonda del Che. The walls are absolutely COVERED with Che images and it is fantastic. They had live music first by the owner, Emilio Talvo, who plays all over the world, and then another man who works there. (The mojitos were fantastic, too.) At the end of the evening, we were about to walk home when we looked out the door and there were all these creepy people hanging out. So, we changed our minds and asked the people there to call us a taxi because they had offered to do so earlier. Instead, Emilio drove us both back to our houses. All he asked in return is that we do the same for him when he finally gets his visa approved to come to the US. Such a great place! We are planning to go back ASAP because they have música en vivo from Tuesday through Saturday.
Saturday, Manuel took Brit and I to a pueblito called San Andrés Xecul. It´s a town up close to the mountains about an hour from Xela. We had to change chicken buses twice to get there, and we are soooo glad that we had Manuel to escort us. It was ridiculously confusing. It´s interesting to note that all of their chicken buses here (which didn´t have any chickens, to my surprise) come from the United States and they look as though they were used during the 1960s. Anyways, San Andrés Xecul is a very traditional town with a really fascinating church that is painted in brilliant colors. It is also decorated with images of some of the martyrs during the Spanish invasion. (Side note: I asked Manuel why all of them were white and he said it´s because they needed a color to contrast with the yellow paint on the church.)
The other fascinating place we went was to the home where San Simón is kept. Martín had told me before about San Simón (though specifically about the one in Zunil, really close to Xela) and he is a truly interesting saint. I wish I could recall the specific history, but he was a Spaniard who had helped the indigenous people in some fashion (by warning them of the oncoming Spanish) during the invasion. The Spaniards found out what he did and killed him, so he became a martyr and later a saint. The image is really interesting because the saint (a muñeco... like a doll, kind of) is dressed in a REALLY nice suit and is surrounded by all kinds of offerings. The real San Simón liked to party, so the family that cares for the saint gives him fresh cigarettes (always has one in his mouth, which they sometimes light) and at least with the San Simón in Zunil, they actually feed him whiskey several times daily as a part of the ritual. People go to him to ask for help with whatever they need, sometimes to keep people safe and sometimes for them to get hurt... this one had a flag of the United States behind him and Manuel said it was probably because one of this family´s relatives was in the U.S. for work (very common).
I am getting really tired of writing so I´ll talk a teensy bit about my new teacher and our upcoming plans and call it a day...
I got a new teacher today, whose name is Marielos. She is amazing! We started off pretty much right away with reviewing grammar, but got off-topic quickly. We talked about how the municipales are governed in the town where she is from. 80% of the land in Toto is actually owned privately by the people, which is definitely NOT the case elsewhere in Guate, and 20% is owned by the municipalidad. It´s governed by a group of 12 (I think) people, who traditionally have been men who are married (kind of like how our political system is run). Marielos (of course) is a woman who has never married, which is very rare here. I asked her about that, and her response was: "When you know so much about power and how it works, it´s difficult to be in such a relationship."
Anyways, she was in the head position (was elected to the head position) and said it was extremely difficult to get the respect of the men. She was given a lot of trouble when she would step up and lead, for example, when the government tried to pass a law thatwould hand them the control of water in the area, which had always been communally governed. None of the men would step up and do it, so she said she directed thousands of people to action. They blocked the highway and sent a delegation of people from the community to Guatemala City. Absolutely amazing! The other part of her job was to regulate marital troubles, which is really interesting for someone that is part of a cabinet of sorts. She has a background in counseling but felt she wasn´t prepared for that part of the job. We talked about the frequency of family violence here, which she says is sadly quite common. I am grateful to have two teachers that are so incredibly different and look forward to learning more from Marielos!
Upcoming plans...
Brit and I talked yesterday and decided that we will pretty much stay in Xela until the 14th. Martín said he may be able to organize a trip to Tikal for us, so we will check with him. Ideally, we would leave the 15th and then just pass through Guatemala City to drop us at the airport on the 20th. The trip would include Semuc Champey, the ruins at Tikal, beachtown Livingston and many other amazing sights, I´m sure.
The road outside turned into a river again so I think I better go... man, this rain is wild!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
¡Hay un ladrón!
Wow, someone just ran screaming past the café that a thief just went by on a bicycle. Crazy. Thankfully, nothing has happened to us on this trip! (Knock on wood.)
Today we went to the cemetery with our teachers. Apparently it´s a very dangerous place. The family I´m staying with said it´s fine if you don´t go past 3 in the afternoon, but my teacher said he didn´t want to go unless we left right at 8:00am when we get to school. So, Brit, our teachers and I all went today. It was absolutely amazing! There were a lot of tombs that said "Pacheco" (family name) on them. In the largest part of the cemetery virtually all of the names were Spanish. VERY few looked as if they were indígenas and there were a few German names as well. These tombs were essentially monuments to individuals or to families-- HUGE!!! Almost all of the statues were missing heads though... on one, the Angel of Death was missing a hand. Los maras, or the gangs here, go to the cementerio and desecrate pretty much whatever they can, apparently. The only statues that hadn´t been touched were next to a really curious tomb in the shape of a pyramid, made out of marble and the statues were sphynxes. Very interesting. The general population is buried up on a hill and you can see the damage done by the rains (and the earthquakes, too). We heard a couple interesting stories, which I will share.
Yuselfi, the daughter in the family I´m staying with, told me to find the grave of Vanushca first. (It wasn´t hard because she was very close to the entrance to the cemetery.) The story goes that she was a gitana, a gypsy, that met a Guatemalan and they fell in love. They wanted to get married but he was from a very wealthy family. The version Yuselfi told me was that the family sent their son to Spain to marry there, and Vanushca died here in Xela of a broken heart. Her lover is said to have killed himself also. She was born in 1910 and died in 1927, so was incredibly young. The grave says that the remains of her love rest in Spain. The most amazing part was that the grave had incredibly fresh flowers and the entire tomb is COVERED in people asking Vanushca to help them find love or keep love or make their lovers return to them. It´s clear that it´s mostly young people who do it. Some were crazy though, like asking Vanushca to make sure that their exes were never happy again, etc.
The other story behind a tomb we saw was of a taxi driver who brought a young woman back to her house one night. She realized she didn´t have any money, so gave him a picture of her and told him to return the following day at a specific time in the afternoon so she could pay him. He came back the next day and an older woman answered the door. The taxi driver explained what happened, showed her the picture, and the woman told him that the girl had died many years ago and showed him the tomb to prove it. Eesh.
The back wall of the cemetery was incredibly creepy to me... during one of the wars (I didn´t catch which one) the firing squad used the wall to execute the dissenters of the government. Now it is covered in tombs but you can still see part of it. Something I really liked was the huge structure dedicated to a group of people who had tried to change the structure of the government in Guatemala during the last revolution. Martín described them as trying to build a better country. All of them were captured, executed, and their heads were put on display around Parque Central. The monument is beautiful though... it goes something like, "El odio a los tiranos los hizo mártires. El amor a la libertad los hizo héroes." (Or: The hate of the tyrants made them martyrs. The love of liberty made them heroes.)
So the excursion to the cemetery today was very educational. This afternoon we are going up to el cerro del Baúl, to a mountain where you can see the entire city. Another interesting thing Martín told me is that everyone calls the city Xela, or sometimes even Xelajú (Mayan name), but it´s actually Xelajúj, which means "bajo los diez señores." I´m not exactly sure how that translates to English, but pretty much "under the ten men/sirs/algo así." There are ten mountains surrounding Xela that the indígenas believe protect the city. Martín said you can often see the lightning and storms on the other side of the mountains during hurricanes and whatnot and that the storms hardly ever reach here. La Virgen del Rosario is also said to be the patron saint of Xela that covers the city with her manta to protect it.
Like I said, we have been learning A LOT here... so much fun! I still feel a little awkward with my family and I´m pretty much itchy all the time because I have bed bugs (hopefully not after I buy some spray today...) but other than that everything is awesome. I feel SO happy being here. I´m enjoying every minute!
Oh goodness, I didn´t even write anything about Los Fuentes Georginas... Saturday morning we went up to the Fuentes (aguas calientes, hot springs) and it was absolutely, overwhelmingly, mind-blowingly beautiful. We climbed up and up and up into the mountains. The view was absolutely spectacular-- people were walking on either side of the road carrying the vegetables they grow on their backs. I saw carrots, radishes, and a slew of other things-- these veggies were bigger than any I have ever seen in my life! When we got out of the car we could see our breath although it was warm enough to not wear a coat and be completely comfortable. The hot springs were GORGEOUS and extremely relaxing. The whole trip there and back I felt my heart could burst at any second with the happiness I felt... one thing I have learned is that many Guatemalans don´t like to travel and now I know why. This place is amazing! We also saw an altar that Mayan people still use for ceremonies that was farther up from the springs. Absolutely extraordinary.
Well, I am going to go pick up Brit so we can head to the school to meet everyone else for our excursion. Until next time!
Today we went to the cemetery with our teachers. Apparently it´s a very dangerous place. The family I´m staying with said it´s fine if you don´t go past 3 in the afternoon, but my teacher said he didn´t want to go unless we left right at 8:00am when we get to school. So, Brit, our teachers and I all went today. It was absolutely amazing! There were a lot of tombs that said "Pacheco" (family name) on them. In the largest part of the cemetery virtually all of the names were Spanish. VERY few looked as if they were indígenas and there were a few German names as well. These tombs were essentially monuments to individuals or to families-- HUGE!!! Almost all of the statues were missing heads though... on one, the Angel of Death was missing a hand. Los maras, or the gangs here, go to the cementerio and desecrate pretty much whatever they can, apparently. The only statues that hadn´t been touched were next to a really curious tomb in the shape of a pyramid, made out of marble and the statues were sphynxes. Very interesting. The general population is buried up on a hill and you can see the damage done by the rains (and the earthquakes, too). We heard a couple interesting stories, which I will share.
Yuselfi, the daughter in the family I´m staying with, told me to find the grave of Vanushca first. (It wasn´t hard because she was very close to the entrance to the cemetery.) The story goes that she was a gitana, a gypsy, that met a Guatemalan and they fell in love. They wanted to get married but he was from a very wealthy family. The version Yuselfi told me was that the family sent their son to Spain to marry there, and Vanushca died here in Xela of a broken heart. Her lover is said to have killed himself also. She was born in 1910 and died in 1927, so was incredibly young. The grave says that the remains of her love rest in Spain. The most amazing part was that the grave had incredibly fresh flowers and the entire tomb is COVERED in people asking Vanushca to help them find love or keep love or make their lovers return to them. It´s clear that it´s mostly young people who do it. Some were crazy though, like asking Vanushca to make sure that their exes were never happy again, etc.
The other story behind a tomb we saw was of a taxi driver who brought a young woman back to her house one night. She realized she didn´t have any money, so gave him a picture of her and told him to return the following day at a specific time in the afternoon so she could pay him. He came back the next day and an older woman answered the door. The taxi driver explained what happened, showed her the picture, and the woman told him that the girl had died many years ago and showed him the tomb to prove it. Eesh.
The back wall of the cemetery was incredibly creepy to me... during one of the wars (I didn´t catch which one) the firing squad used the wall to execute the dissenters of the government. Now it is covered in tombs but you can still see part of it. Something I really liked was the huge structure dedicated to a group of people who had tried to change the structure of the government in Guatemala during the last revolution. Martín described them as trying to build a better country. All of them were captured, executed, and their heads were put on display around Parque Central. The monument is beautiful though... it goes something like, "El odio a los tiranos los hizo mártires. El amor a la libertad los hizo héroes." (Or: The hate of the tyrants made them martyrs. The love of liberty made them heroes.)
So the excursion to the cemetery today was very educational. This afternoon we are going up to el cerro del Baúl, to a mountain where you can see the entire city. Another interesting thing Martín told me is that everyone calls the city Xela, or sometimes even Xelajú (Mayan name), but it´s actually Xelajúj, which means "bajo los diez señores." I´m not exactly sure how that translates to English, but pretty much "under the ten men/sirs/algo así." There are ten mountains surrounding Xela that the indígenas believe protect the city. Martín said you can often see the lightning and storms on the other side of the mountains during hurricanes and whatnot and that the storms hardly ever reach here. La Virgen del Rosario is also said to be the patron saint of Xela that covers the city with her manta to protect it.
Like I said, we have been learning A LOT here... so much fun! I still feel a little awkward with my family and I´m pretty much itchy all the time because I have bed bugs (hopefully not after I buy some spray today...) but other than that everything is awesome. I feel SO happy being here. I´m enjoying every minute!
Oh goodness, I didn´t even write anything about Los Fuentes Georginas... Saturday morning we went up to the Fuentes (aguas calientes, hot springs) and it was absolutely, overwhelmingly, mind-blowingly beautiful. We climbed up and up and up into the mountains. The view was absolutely spectacular-- people were walking on either side of the road carrying the vegetables they grow on their backs. I saw carrots, radishes, and a slew of other things-- these veggies were bigger than any I have ever seen in my life! When we got out of the car we could see our breath although it was warm enough to not wear a coat and be completely comfortable. The hot springs were GORGEOUS and extremely relaxing. The whole trip there and back I felt my heart could burst at any second with the happiness I felt... one thing I have learned is that many Guatemalans don´t like to travel and now I know why. This place is amazing! We also saw an altar that Mayan people still use for ceremonies that was farther up from the springs. Absolutely extraordinary.
Well, I am going to go pick up Brit so we can head to the school to meet everyone else for our excursion. Until next time!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Catching up a bit
Today Brit and I talked a lot with our teachers as a group. First, I was telling them about watching this show "Cuentos de la Ultratumba" or something like that (one of those shows about hauntings... I sure couldn´t sleep after that one) so we told ghost stories, and somehow later we ended up on the subject of globalization. It was a great chat but it was SO frustrating for both Brit and I because we HAD to communicate completely in Spanish. When we are on our own, we do a fairly good job of speaking in Spanish mostly but sometimes there are things you just can´t figure out how to say! Learning to talk our way through it was ridiculous but good!
So... Friday night we went out with a friend of someone who lives in Brit´s house and his friend to a discoteca where we were pretty much the only gringos in the whole place. We had a GREAT time, drank some beer, danced our butts off... it was awesome. Hugo and Jimmy were really nice, and it is fantastic going out with Guatemaltecos because they know the best places AND we have to talk all in Spanish!
I have to leave this here because Brit and I are going to get some chocolate caliente at Café la Luna before it gets dark. It is certainly frustrating that we can never go out by ourselves... but that´s just how it goes!
So... Friday night we went out with a friend of someone who lives in Brit´s house and his friend to a discoteca where we were pretty much the only gringos in the whole place. We had a GREAT time, drank some beer, danced our butts off... it was awesome. Hugo and Jimmy were really nice, and it is fantastic going out with Guatemaltecos because they know the best places AND we have to talk all in Spanish!
I have to leave this here because Brit and I are going to get some chocolate caliente at Café la Luna before it gets dark. It is certainly frustrating that we can never go out by ourselves... but that´s just how it goes!
Friday, May 23, 2008
¿Dónde empiezo?
What a fabulous trip already! It´s hard to figure out exactly where to start, but I suppose the best place is usually the beginning... We arrived in Guatemala City Tuesday morning around 7:00am and were met at the airport by a person who picked us up and took us to the bus station. We were EXHAUSTED by this point after travelling since 6:00pm the day and were happy to have someone meet us there. We found out today, however, that we were COMPLETELY ripped off because she was supposed to charge us US$10 and instead charged us EACH US$25. So it sounds like we won´t have to pay anything for transport back.
Como sea, the drive up through the mountains was absolutely phenomenal once we got on the bus. We passed through rural areas winding up through the mountains. At each stop, people got on the bus trying to sell things. Unfortunately, Raquel charged us an arm and a leg and we still had taxis to pay for so we couldn´t buy anything. (Brit was super-prepared with snacks and all though so we didn´t starve. Thank you, Brit...)
We arrived in Quetzaltenango (Xela) and took a taxi, only to find out that the school had moved location since the last update on the website. A true caricature of our experience with Guatemalan people thus far, the taxi driver waited to see if we needed more help and then some person on the other side of the street yelled across what the new address of Ulew Tinimit is.
We made our way to the school (via nice taxi driver) and met the directora, Ingrid, and then our families came to pick us up. Brit is living with Don Manuel, who works for the school doing maintenence work, and I am staying with Elena, Yuselfi (14 year old daughter) y Jarvis (19 year old son) in their house. Elena´s husband died last year of cancer and she says they are far happier now than they have been since he passed away. There apparently is another person from CO staying with the family but she went to Chiapas and now she´s in El Salvador so I´ll meet her next week.
The first night we arrived, I went to bed at about 7:00pm right after dinner and slept for 12 hours. We started school at 8:00 the next morning so I wanted to be well-rested. We have school for 5 hours each day, 8-1 and it is wonderful! I have spent probably 3/4 of the time with my maestro just talking about life, philosophy, history and anything else that happens to come up. We have formal grammar lessons for about an hour a day (so far). A little bit about my maestro: he is from Xela, went to military school here and decided not to continue. He has worked for the Supreme Court in Guatemala City and was part of a governmental union here. Now he does bicycling tours, organizes some excursions for the school and teaches here and there. He has shared a lot with me about his perspective on Guatemala in our three short days. I will have to share what I have learned another time because I am nearing the end of my session at the internet café...
We went out a couple nights ago to a live salsa band/dance that was absolutely fabulous. Two of the chicos Brit stays with in the house (it´s dorm-style) and one of their friends took us out since it isn´t safe for women to walk alone at night. They were SO nice and we had an absolute blast. We are going out again tonight, no doubt with our "bodyguards," as they called themselves. Tomorrow we are headed to some hot springs and soon I will figure out how to post pictures on the blog. I´ll also be posting some of what I have learned about the history. All in all, this place is absolutely gorgeous, the people are SO nice (it´s customary to say ¨buenos días" or "buenas tardes" to every single person you pass).
I wrote this entry this past Friday (the 23rd, I think) and thought it was lost but HOORAY for auto-saving drafts. So I will continue in a new entry...
Como sea, the drive up through the mountains was absolutely phenomenal once we got on the bus. We passed through rural areas winding up through the mountains. At each stop, people got on the bus trying to sell things. Unfortunately, Raquel charged us an arm and a leg and we still had taxis to pay for so we couldn´t buy anything. (Brit was super-prepared with snacks and all though so we didn´t starve. Thank you, Brit...)
We arrived in Quetzaltenango (Xela) and took a taxi, only to find out that the school had moved location since the last update on the website. A true caricature of our experience with Guatemalan people thus far, the taxi driver waited to see if we needed more help and then some person on the other side of the street yelled across what the new address of Ulew Tinimit is.
We made our way to the school (via nice taxi driver) and met the directora, Ingrid, and then our families came to pick us up. Brit is living with Don Manuel, who works for the school doing maintenence work, and I am staying with Elena, Yuselfi (14 year old daughter) y Jarvis (19 year old son) in their house. Elena´s husband died last year of cancer and she says they are far happier now than they have been since he passed away. There apparently is another person from CO staying with the family but she went to Chiapas and now she´s in El Salvador so I´ll meet her next week.
The first night we arrived, I went to bed at about 7:00pm right after dinner and slept for 12 hours. We started school at 8:00 the next morning so I wanted to be well-rested. We have school for 5 hours each day, 8-1 and it is wonderful! I have spent probably 3/4 of the time with my maestro just talking about life, philosophy, history and anything else that happens to come up. We have formal grammar lessons for about an hour a day (so far). A little bit about my maestro: he is from Xela, went to military school here and decided not to continue. He has worked for the Supreme Court in Guatemala City and was part of a governmental union here. Now he does bicycling tours, organizes some excursions for the school and teaches here and there. He has shared a lot with me about his perspective on Guatemala in our three short days. I will have to share what I have learned another time because I am nearing the end of my session at the internet café...
We went out a couple nights ago to a live salsa band/dance that was absolutely fabulous. Two of the chicos Brit stays with in the house (it´s dorm-style) and one of their friends took us out since it isn´t safe for women to walk alone at night. They were SO nice and we had an absolute blast. We are going out again tonight, no doubt with our "bodyguards," as they called themselves. Tomorrow we are headed to some hot springs and soon I will figure out how to post pictures on the blog. I´ll also be posting some of what I have learned about the history. All in all, this place is absolutely gorgeous, the people are SO nice (it´s customary to say ¨buenos días" or "buenas tardes" to every single person you pass).
I wrote this entry this past Friday (the 23rd, I think) and thought it was lost but HOORAY for auto-saving drafts. So I will continue in a new entry...
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