Gracias a Guatemala
To My Second Family in Guatemala:
Today is a day for us all to give thanks,
Even if we sometimes complain about how much Guatemala stanks.
So what if the Chapins like to rip off Gringos,
And why do they have to have 24 different lingos!
Let´s not forget the wonderful traje smell,
And the countless chicken bus rides straight from hell.
It´s sad when you have to wear a wallet in your sock,
And you sit at your site bored as a rock.
Daily diarrhea seems to be just a country norm,
And why are Guatemalans convinced you catch gripe after a storm?
So tired of the Tipico – Frijoles and tortillas,
And riding in camionetas that never have any sillas.
I can´t leave out the litter and waste that fills every street,
And how I can never get rid of my dirty Guatemalan feet.
The vicious chu-cho´s that surround every block,
And folks that can´t figure out how to move one hour on their clock.
Or the bolo´s that can hardly stand up on their own two feet,
And for those with mosquitoes, that have to always wear deet.
The rainy season that seems to last months on end,
Missing toilet paper and people peeing along every bend.
Lame excuses and fijese ques,
Waiting in useless colas for days upon days.
Guatemalans that refuse to learn something new,
When really all they want is money or a visa from you.
Having to always be home by dark,
Falling asleep to gallos or a dog´s bark.
Nothing is convenient and time is just a joke,
Sometimes I can´t even find a freaking coke.
These are just some of the annoyances that come to mind,
But on this day we´ll forget the stuff that gets us in a bind.
And focus on the things that we love and hold dear,
the culture, the gente, and the endless possiblities that are here.
Because whether we realize it or not, we are lucky beyond compare.
And the experiences that we are having now are more than a little rare.
So let´s all give thanks to Guatemala, our true love,
And for keeping us sane, to the great Lord above.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Carin
Dia de Los Muertos
Ok, this might be one of the last blogs that I write until after January….until I can buy a cheap laptop from the U.S. Not a great excuse because things have been pretty crazy for me this past couple of weeks…not even sure where to start.
One of the comments my Aunt Robin posted last time was whether they celebrated Dia de Los Muertos here in Guatemala. Boy do they ever! All of Guatemala celebrates the Day of the Dead on November 1st, but there are two particular towns that have really big celebrations. One of the towns is near Antigua, and this town happens to have a giant kite-flying festival on this day. (You can pretty much see kites flying all over Guatemala during November though, it´s a pretty big thing everywhere.) I didn´t go to this festival, but I happened to see the kites that they fly! They are huge!! They are about the size of a small parachute, and they use bamboo for the kite´s frame. I heard that this year they couldn´t even get the kites to fly….because the wind wasn´t strong enough to carry the weight of the kites. Sad!
The second celebration is in Todos Santos, in the northwestern part of the country. I left Nahuala on Halloween to head to this festival, which is about 6 hours from where I live. It´s a pretty rough, bumpy ride to get there because the roads are not well-developed in this region. (This is also the same region where a chicken bus fell off a cliff rounding a sharp curve and killed over 30 people.) Anyways, a volunteer that is located in Todos Santos threw a Halloween party at his house, so about 30 volunteers, including myself, dressed up for Halloween and had a ball! The following day, we headed out to watch the famous horse races. Every November 1st, this town holds an all-day horse race, running back and forth from one side of the dirt road to the other side. Thousands of Guatemalans and tourists travel here to partake in the activities. What´s unique about this type of horse race is that the participants take a shot of liquor after each race, from one side to the other. It starts at 8 in the morning and goes all the way until 5 in the afternoon. By the afternoon, these guys are so drunk that they can hardly stay on the horses. Some are even strapped on so that they don´t fall off! And the ones that aren´t strapped on, sometimes fall off and get completely trampled by the horses. You could say it´s a little dangerous…and pretty stupid if you ask me….but it´s something to see!
The night of November 1st and during the day on November 2nd, most Guatemalans visit the cemetery to celebrate los muertos. Most towns will have huge celebrations in the cemetery, feasting on huge meals, littering all over, and dancing right on the graves…an interesting way to respect the dead…
Though Guatemalans do not celebrate Halloween, I ended up throwing a Halloween party for the kids that live in my neighborhood. We made paper decorations, scary masks to wear, and a piñata filled with candy. We played silly ghost games all night and ate candy until we felt sick. I think I´m going to have to make this an annual event…
Since my last post, I have also moved to another house. I still live with a family, but I now have my own space that is a part of a family compound. It´s two rooms, one is my bedroom and one is for my kitchen. I have a refrigerator and a gas stove, and a real twin bed with a great mattress!! I have a toilet and sink right outside the front door, and I share a shower downstairs with the family. The floors are covered in tile, and the walls are painted a bright teal green, and I have a great view of Nahuala right outside of the windows. The family compound is filled with kids! I am not quite sure how many families live with us…I am guessing about five or six…and then there are probably around 15 kids, mostly girls around the age of 10 or 11. I have had just a couple of problems with the family though….like things of mine disappearing or moved about. The lady of the house comes in to take out my trash and clean my floors, and I am beginning to think the kids must come in while she is tidying up. Hopefully, this will stop once the novelty of me being in their house wears off. I´m lovin it though, it definitely feels like home! I have had lots of romantic nights by myself surrounded by candles because the power is always out. And if only I knew how to cook for myself;)
Since Turkey Day is right around the corner, I have about 15 volunteers coming to my house in Nahuala for the big meal. We are having fresh turkey…which translates to, we are actually killing two male turkeys that a neighbor of mine happens to own. And then the lady down the street is going to clean and prepare them for us. I will let you know how this goes!
On another note, Guatemalans start celebrating Christmas earlier than any country I have ever seen. They started putting up Christmas decorations about three months ago! I remember seeing the big Christmas tree in Guatemala City´s center back in the first few days of September. And they have been playing Christmas music in the chicken buses for at least a month now. Crazy!
Following Halloween, I headed to Guatemala City to see Shakira in concert with some friends. For myself, the ticket was extremely cheap (20 dollars), but for most Guatemalans, tickets were extremely expensive. This was obvious by the number of people that attended the concert. You would think that someone as big as Shakira would have been sold out…but the stadium was completely empty! I am guessing only about 3 to 4 thousand people were there. She was two hours late, and then she only performed a little over an hour. It was still a great concert, but not like what you would be treated to in the U.S.! Plus, even though the stadium was completely empty, we were still seated so far away we could barely see her….and the bouncers refused to let us move up closer…ridiculous.
And just so my brother won´t worry, I am no longer scared of the dogs in my town! Yes, there are still three dogs that give me a hard time…but I came up with a trick that works every time. I carry beef jerky in my pocket wherever I go, and if they start coming after me, I throw beef jerky at them, and then they are completely occupied. So, I if anyone wants to send me a package, try and keep me supplied with beef jerky…I guess I will need it for the next two years.
As for work, I don´t really want to bore you. I have been doing a lot of fundraising for the radio station, since their 44th anniversary is this week and they desperately need funding. Luckily, most businesses here are not used to organizations soliciting for money within the communities, so they are pretty willing to give a couple of quetzals for the cause. The radio held a marathon this past weekend in Nahuala, so I was busy last week trying to promote the event in the surrounding areas. It was held on Saturday, and there were only about 15 men that participated….of course, no women participated. It was a pretty cheesy event, and I don´t see how these men ran through the cobbled stone streets without breaking their legs. There were only about 30 people around to watch, and they had an awards ceremony at the end with trophies and medals. People here are huge on trophies….they think it´s a huge accomplishment to get a trophy, regardless of what it´s for, and they make sure to display them in their houses where everyone can see them. I have decided too, that I am going to organize a women´s only race here in Nahuala in December, to raise money for the Oficina de la Mujer, the Office of the Woman, which was started this past year, but the mayor here won´t give them any money to work with….sad.
Also, I traveled to a town called Sunil last week, to help distribute flyers for the radio. Sunil is about two and a half hours southwest of Nahuala. They are having their ´feria´ right now, so there were tons of people in town! The radio followed their procession, and we just gave out flyers from the back of a pickup truck. The procession starts off at the church in the city center. They carry a huge wooden platform out of the church, on which whatever Saint they are celebrating is placed on the top. It takes about 20 to 30 men to carry the platform on their shoulders. Marching bands and dance groups follow in their footsteps. The procession follows a trail through town that is marked by millions of flower petals and offerings. This lasted for about three hours!
I have also been pretty busy with my women´s groups. I took two groups to Guatemala City about two weeks ago, to try and sell their weavings to two more businesses. The funniest part of the trip came when I took them all to lunch before heading back to Nahuala. There is a giant shopping mall in Guatemala City, and I suggested that we go eat lunch there…I have a fund that was given to me to help support these two groups, so I was going to pay for their meals anyways. Well, these ladies knew of this shopping mall, but they had never been inside. They were so excited to go in! First of all, they had never ridden an escalator before, so I had to teach them how to get off and on. It was like trying to coax little kids to rush onto the platform! Then, since they were unfamiliar with a food court, they went to sit down thinking that we could just order from a menu. I had to explain to them that you had to choose which place you wanted food from, and then you ordered at the cash register. So we all went and ordered Chinese food (also a first, and they loved it!!) and after the meal, the ladies started walking back to the Chinese counter to give them their trays. I then had to explain that there were trash cans located around the food court to place your trays, and that you didn´t have to return them to the individual restaurant. Finally, I asked if they wanted to walk around a bit before getting on the bus, and they suppressed giggles while nodding vehemently. We passed a perfume counter in the center of the mall, and I had the ladies all sample a different perfume…they were extremely timid, thought that was completely crazy and just kept laughing the whole time!
We then got on the bus to head back to Nahuala, which is about three hours from Guatemala City. At this time, my amoebas decide to start acting up. I ended up having to rush off the bus, stopping in some unknown town along the way, to find a bathroom. I couldn´t even explain to the ladies, I just had to run! I had to wait around for about an hour, until my stomach returned to normal, and then get back on another bus by myself to make the rest of the trek home. Stomach problems are always an issue here…always a part of daily life!
I also went to visit my group that is located in the town called Alaska last week. It took forever just to get out there! Not that many pickups run out that way, so I had to wait over an hour before I finally was able to catch one. Then, the pickup I caught wasn´t going to the same pueblo, so I had to get off early and walk through rows of corn for about another hour. I felt like I was in the movie Field of Dreams. I passed multiple women washing their clothes in the river and placing them in the grass to dry. They were really confused as to why a Gringa was walking through the middle of nowhere. My meeting only lasted about an hour, and then the journey back home was even worse. Again, no pickups, so I ended up having to hike three hours back to the highway to catch a chicken bus to my town. Oh well, that´s the way transportation goes here!
Ok, one more post in December, and then I´m off to the U.S. to live in the lap of luxury for a couple of weeks:)
Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
Love,
Carin
