Carin's Guatemalan Adventures

America, the Unusual

I ended my last post with a reference to my long-awaited trip to the US to see family and friends, so I feel like I owe you an account of what it was like being assimilated back into the ‘civilized’ (as the Takers call it in Ishmael by Daniel Quinn). I was a little more than ready to be back in home territory after the problems I encountered at the airport in Guatemala City. As some of you already know, I tend to fly stand-by for a considerably low price, because I am blessed to have an uncle that has worked for an airline for over 30 years. However, my luck seemed to have rubbed off this particular week. Evidently, the power, including all airport computers, went down for two whole days before the actual day I was planning to fly. I overheard that all airlines were forced to do everything manual – check-in, assigning seats, ticketing, and luggage. One traveler claimed that his flight didn’t even have a list of passengers, so the airline had no clue who was even flying with them that day…..scary! Anyways, to make a long story short, the day I showed up for my flight, there were 70 people overbooked…and the next day, there were 40 people overbooked. Being the idiot that I am, I waited around for the first day, thinking that maybe I could get on….and after a flight delay of over two hours, the airline finally took me to reclaim my luggage so that I could try again the next day. The whole situation was disorganized, confusing, futile…and just my typical Guatemala. At this point, all that kept running through my mind was, ‘America, here I come!’

So after purchasing an extremely expensive ticket and practically sprinting through US Customs, I was immediately overcome with almost relief. Literally, the first thing I did was search for the nearest water fountain. It was just so nice to be able to drink water freely out of a fountain and not have to boil it first. Just the accessibility of it made me laugh! I then proceeded to the rest room, only to discover afterwards that I had put my paper in the trash can instead of down the toilet. (I continued to do this for almost two days before I got the hang of it.) Walking through the airport to meet my parents, I was giddy just overhearing people speak English all around me. It was strange to not hear Spanish, but even more strange not having to speak it. Even though I knew I was back in the US, I was still thinking in Spanish, so words like Si o No, Gracias o Disculpe, were automatically slipping out of my mouth…I couldn’t seem to stop them.

Another realization at about this same time was that no one was looking at me. Okay, this might sound strange (and probably a little conceited), so let me explain. In Guatemala, you just get used to people staring at you. I’m a tall blond, it’s not like I can blend in with the people here. Being such a novelty, you tend to get attention wherever you go. After being here for nine months, I am used to having all eyes on me. So walking through the airport and not being the center of attention was surprisingly weird, but unbelievably wonderful.

Finally, I was also conscious of how relaxed I felt. In Guatemala, I always sense that I need to be on my watch. But being back on US soil, I just felt SAFE. I could really let my guard down and trust the people around me. I didn’t think about looking over my shoulder, or constantly having to be aware of my surroundings. And, gracias a Dios, I didn’t have to wear a money belt for a whole week and a half! (Of course, this newfound security could have stemmed from my re-acquaintance with my own personal space. In Guatemala, there is no such thing as ‘breathing room’. You are always surrounded by crowds, up close and personal, whether you are trying to buy stuff in the market or just riding a chicken bus. It’s normal to have your knee in someone’s groin, your butt resting on someone’s arm, or making a human sandwich…yea, not suffocating at all. So needless to say, it was just nice not having people all over me!)

Ok, so before I get to the general luxuries that we are all afforded in life, let me mention one more welcome observation….American MEN! I have to admit, it was an absolute high to see men that weren’t short and dark-skinned. (I was beginning to worry one day when I found myself attracted to a Guatemalan ayudante (what they call the guy that takes your money on a chicken bus)….not only was his zipper down and he had greasy hair, but his two front teeth were gold.)

Now onto the stuff that we all take for granted….

1) Long hot showers without having to wear shower shoes
2) Watching TV (Oh, how I miss Letterman, CNN, CMT, Grey’s Anatomy…basically anything to pass the time after it gets dark)
3) Linked to #2 – Just being aware of what’s going on in the world! Having easy access to the major modes of communication – TV, Internet, Newspapers – to stay on top of current world events…and yes, I did hear that Anna Nicole Smith died last week, thank you very much.
4) A big, comfortable bed with fluffy pillows and a down comforter (I kicked my dad out of my parent’s bed one night so I could sleep on their peace of heaven.)
5) Carpet!!!! (I know this sounds crazy, but you can’t find carpet anywhere in Guatemala…All I wanted to do was roll around in it. To be able to walk around barefoot and not have the bottom of your feet cold and dirty...priceless.)
6) Clean, litter-free streets, parks, and sidewalks – and public TRASH CANS!
7) Convenience and Ease of Life – Being able to hop in your car to get from A to B (Not having to walk half a mile, then catch a ride in a pickup, and then flag down a chicken bus just to get to a meeting that is only 10 miles away), Not having to wait in long lines for no apparent reason, Not having to travel two hours to get money out of an ATM, Stores that are open 24 hours a day/7 days a week (I’m lucky if our local tienda is open for three hours out of the whole day…and who knows when these three hours could be), the list just goes on…
8) Infinite number of Choices – Whether you are browsing at different brands in the grocery store, perusing the menu at a restaurant, or trying to choose a new DVD, we have limitless options for whatever we purchase. Not surprisingly, this isn’t the case in Guatemala…In restaurants, you typically have two meal options, and in most stores, you buy what you can get (which typically means that they carry only one brand) – product competition, what’s that?
9) Diversity of FOOD – Even though I ran into stomach problems while I was home (which means that I have finally adapted to Guatemalan food), I was ecstatic that I wouldn’t be eating beans, tortillas, rice, or eggs for a short while. All places here serve the same things…but when I was home, I went to Outback for a steak, Elizabeth’s Pizza for some pasta, Ghassan’s for a gyro, RuSan’s for sushi, Mac’s for wings, and Red Lobster for some crab legs. Gordita was in absolute heaven:)
10) Having a personal life - I know this is more of a cultural thing, but being able to hang out with friends, go to the GYM or exercise, hang out at a coffee shop, go bowling or to the movies, see BUS play at a local venue, date, etc. The only leisure activities I can find here are hiking and playing in the street with kids.
11) And finally, just being geographically close to friends and family…I had a great trip, and I wish that I could have stuffed everyone in my backpack to bring back to Guatemala!

Returning to Guatemala after my short trip to the US was a lot tougher than I expected. I thought that I was ready to get back; eager to get into a routine again, see my friends, and start work for the New Year. Boy was I wrong! As soon as I walked out of the airport’s exit doors in Guatemala City, I was praying to be back in North Carolina. I didn’t want to face the chicken buses overcrowded with people and smells; I didn’t want to face the hours of traffic and suffocating pollution; I didn’t want to have to speak Spanish again. When I finally made it to my house in Nahuala – which ended up being a two-day affair because of the traffic – I was actually quite depressed for a week or so. I wasn’t ready to be my happy-go-lucky self; to integrate back into the community and make small chit chat, greet everyone again, play with kids in the street, or basically do anything that was asked of me. I just wanted to lock myself up in my house and never leave. I hated that I had to learn Spanish over again…because I had been speaking English for over a month. And, unfortunately, a couple of incidents managed to accentuate this new attitude of mine…

First of all, I’m pretty sure that the owner of my house let someone stay in my bed while I was gone…which probably means that they went through my stuff. Luckily, I kept all my valuables at a friend’s house while I was gone. Also, they turned off my fridge while I was gone (even though I paid them a full month’s rent for my absence)…which means I had to throw everything out, and on my budget, that was quite a blow to the pocket. Of course, my owner denied this, even though the thing was blatantly unplugged. It just sucks when you can’t trust the people you live with!

Second of all, Guatemala was going through a money shortage at the time. I could not get money out of any ATM to save my life. They were all empty! Evidently, the government was planning to introduce new money into circulation, but they managed to do it all wrong. People started scurrying to the banks to get all of their money out and hide it under their mattresses. No one knew what was going on, which made it even scarier. It was like I was stuck in the Great Depression or the Cold War. I was finally able to get cash out of the one and only ATM that still had it…after waiting in a line of 30 people or so. Needless to say, I have been taking out huge chunks of money now, just so I won’t be stuck in a tough spot for next time!

Third, during my first week back, I had three meetings in which I was stood up. Twice, the person was supposed to pick me up by car, and never showed, never called…after I had been waiting for more than an hour and a half (hey, I am getting used to the hour of Chapin, I figured they would eventually show up). When I called to ask what happened, they said they drove by my house but I wasn’t there…which was a complete lie. The third time, the meeting was supposed to start at 8 am; I waited until 9:30 (at this point no one was there) and finally left. Then the guy called me and wanted to know where I was at! Unbelievable…Sometimes I feel like I can’t rely on anyone. It’s impossible to believe a word people say without being a little skeptical now.

Finally, I was just tired of being taken advantage of. Within my first week back in Nahuala, I already had someone ask to borrow money, 2 people ask to borrow my cell phone, and then a woman from one of my groups actually conned me into paying their bus fare. All because I am Gringo and Rich!

I guess the story of my return sounds pretty bad (after reading back through it)…but something happened that turned my whole attitude around. I went to visit the family that I used to live with, and when I knocked on the door, the old grandmother opened up the peephole to see who it was. Once she saw my face, she looked like she was about to have a heart attack. She couldn’t really speak. So I went inside and said hello to the rest of the family, and she came running in speaking hurried Kiche to her daughter. Evidently, she thought I was a ghost! When I left for vacation, she thought that I was leaving for good. She had no clue that I was actually coming back. She was so confused it was hilarious… but after talking with her for awhile, I came to the real gist of the situation. After thanking me a million times over for coming back, I realized that she, just like most in Nahuala, was used to people coming into town for a short period of time and then disappearing. It’s almost like abandonment to them…Gringo comes in to help with development, but then gets the hell out of there once their job is through. Sad, but true.

Anyways, this is Guatemala, and I’m glad to be back…there are always gonna be days that are rough, but then something happens (like my encounter above) that makes you stop and smile and know why you are here and what you are doing…

This is the world. It is not chaos but only disorder. Dirt is the norm. Bad water is the norm. Filthy toilets are typical. Stinks are natural, and all dogs are wild. If you walk barefoot, hookworms bore into the balls of your feet. Stretch out your arm and mosquitoes inject sleeping sickness into it. Sit still for a moment and fleas leap onto your body. Embrace your lover and you get lice. Because this is the world. America is very unusual.
--Paul Theroux

Have a great weekend my peeps,
Carin

posted by Carin Robinson @ 7:58 AM

Feliz Cumpleanos a Mi Madre

To a woman who´s had a most incredible life,
A mother of four, an amazing career, and a loving wife.

Raising triplets could not have been easy work,
And putting them through college at the same time was definitely not a perk.

Somehow managing to keep a part-time job,
Juggling so many activities it would make your head throb.

A leader in the church, teaching classes at GTCC, or taking dance with her daughter,
The only thing this woman can´t take on are very large bodies of water.

She loves travelling and trying out new things,
And won´t hesitate to take you under her wing.

Always on the go like the energizer bunny,
But she knows when just to make life funny.

Chocolate and pedicures she could never do without,
And spoiling her two grandchildren is all that she´s about.

A complete perfectionist, organized, and always on time,
Deciding to change professions right in her prime.

She´s what holds our family together, she´s the glue,
Without her, we all wouldn´t have a clue of what to do.

Letting her kids do what they want and never holding us back,
Support was something that we never lacked.

Encouraging us to be who we want to be,
And never questioning our decisions, at least that we could see.

She´s not afraid to make a fool out of herself as Cynthia Mae,
A ´do-er´, assertive, and maybe even intimidating, some might say.

And though her planning might sometimes grate on my nerves,
She still doesn´t mind when living life on the curves.

She´s caring and always has a hand to lend,
My role model, my mother, and my best friend.

I look up to her more than she will ever know,
And my respect for her just continues to grow!

Love ya mom,
Carin

posted by Carin Robinson @ 8:08 AM

I´m BAAACKKK!!

And we meet once again:)

It’s been a wild ride for the past two months, but I am now back in Guatemala and reintroducing myself to this crazy country!

I spent my Christmas and New Year’s in Nicaragua with three of my closest friends. It would take a week to share all of the classic moments of the trip, but I have to compartir some of the highlights. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (with Haiti coming in first). Travel within the country is not a walk in the park…the roads are underdeveloped and sometimes non-existent. Our goal was to hit the Pacific lowlands, and this is how it went…

First of all, we gave our trust to King Quality to provide us with an enjoyable and relaxing 18 hour bus ride that would take us through Honduras and El Salvador, depositing us at our final destination in Managua, Nicaragua. We loaded up on groceries in Guatemala City, knowing that we wouldn’t be served any gourmet meals for the long haul. Now, when leaving at three in the morning, one does not notice when the air conditioner is broken……but once the sun came up, we were literally pouring gallons of purified water on our heads to try and cool off. Since this was a ‘quality’ bus, you couldn’t open the windows…one word people, SAUNA. Furthermore, the most exhausting element of the ride was the routine border crossings. I think we wasted more time getting through them than we did on the actual road! You gotta get off the bus when leaving a country, then you gotta get off the bus when entering a country…and I think that they purposely employ the most incompetent people to run the whole thing. Then you got the annoying locals circling around you like vultures, begging you to buy dollars. Little did we know that when entering Nicaragua, you have to pay an entrance fee of 7 US dollars…they refused to exchange our Guatemalan money and were quick to deny credit cards, so thankfully one of us happened to have some extra bucks hanging around (I’m referring to myself, only because I was taking a trip to the US directly afterwards!) After much anticipation and growing butt sores, we finally made it to Managua around 11 pm; only to find out that the hotel we reserved gave away our room. But no worries, the owner of the hotel took us to his mom’s house where we had a comfortable night stay before heading to the beach the next day.

If you ever get the chance, you must see San Juan del Sur, an impressive cove along the Pacific that is surrounded by gigantic cliffs. We spent our Christmas lounging around this quiet fishing village, soaking up the sun, hamming it up with the expats, and grubbing on some good ole’ seafood. (This hidden jewel will one day be filled with beach resorts and vacation condos…but as for now, it’s one of the best kept secrets in Central America.) Other than my encounter with several jellyfish, and the power mysteriously going out all over town for a couple of hours each night (supposedly, the government does this on purpose to conserve energy), this place was complete paradise….some of the best sunsets I have ever experienced. Crazily enough, I even ran into a girl that I went to high-school with…small world huh!

A little reluctant to leave the beach, we decided that we didn’t want to stray too far from water. Our next couple of days was spent on the Island of Ometepe, in the middle of the Lake of Nicaragua. This lake is the largest in Central America, separated from the Pacific by just a small strip of land. It’s the only body of freshwater on earth that is inhabited by sharks…a special species that can pass between saltwater and freshwater. And no, I didn’t happen to see any…but since I swam in it, that’s probably a good thing. The most dramatic feature of the island is its twin tower volcanoes, with one that is still active and the other cradling a lake at the summit (lava flowing between the two formed an isthmus that created the island has a whole). Since the island has avoided development of tourism, nature here is completely unspoiled. Our first night was spent right on the shore, alongside an ecological reserve called Chaco Verde. Hiking through the jungle, we encountered several families of howler monkeys (howler because they make the most irritating noise…almost as if they were a pack of dogs fighting in the street.) The water on this side of the island was so rough; it was like we were swimming in the ocean instead of an actual lake.

Luego, we took an excruciatingly long and uncomfortable bus ride along a pockmarked road (but hey, we were just thankful that Nicaraguans don’t stuff people in like our beloved chicken buses in Guatemala!) to get to the other side of the island. We were dropped off in basically the middle of nowhere, and with our backpacks to weigh us down even more, had to hike about three miles to our hostel for the night. We slept at a working coffee plantation that rents out rooms in an old farmhouse (or hammocks if you want to be really cheap). The four of us headed out for a hike in order to search for the island’s notorious petroglyphs…and not only did we get separated from each other, but we all managed to get lost! My friend Olivia and I, oblivious of where the path was taking us, found ourselves among rows and rows of banana trees, with not a single person or house in sight. To make matters worse, my ‘iron’ stomach took a vacation that day…. so let’s just say that those banana leaves came in handy. To conclude this great story, we did find our way out, and we did find the petroglyphs, but after the trouble we went through…they really weren’t too impressive.

To get ourselves off the island, we knew we were going to have to take another tedious bus-ride and then a motion-filled ferry to get to the tourist trap lovingly known as Granada. So the girls and the guys decide to split up…the girls (Olivia and I) chose to take the long bus-ride, and the guys opted to hike it with their backpacks. We managed to pass them on the road, but not surprisingly, they walked up within minutes of our own arrival…the roads (rocky, dirt paths) are seriously that poor, that you can get there just as fast on foot. As for the ferry ride, I felt like we were trapped in the movie Titanic…the boat was swaying so bad that I wanted to start running back and forth to try and balance the weight out….I really thought the thing was gonna tip over (my friend even talked about writing the government to let them know what a safety hazard they have on their hands!)

Granada is Nicaragua’s finest colonial town and Antigua’s twin sister (Antigua being in Guatemala). What makes it a little different is that it resides on the edge of the Lake of Nicaragua. Ringing in the New Year here was quite intense…the streets were all closed down; people were running around setting off firecrackers, music was blaring from every single house…and this didn’t stop until the sun came up. One unique aspect of Granada is the openness of their households. Doors are just left wide open, and you can peek straight into their lives. Families gravitate towards the front door to spend their evenings greeting passersby and enjoying the night air. Maybe it’s because of the undeniable heat, but I found this to be extremely intimate and completely unguarded….something you don’t see in Guatemala. Anyways, while we were in Granada, we enjoyed a day-long kayaking trip to a group of islands called Las Isletas, we hiked up the Volcano Mombachu, and we hitchhiked to a crater lake called Laguna de Apoyo for a day of swimming. Once we wore ourselves completely out, it was time to make the trek back up to our beloved Guatemala.

After spending some time in Nicaragua, we were able to observe some of its differences from Guatemala. First of all, we embraced the clean, un-littered streets and the fresh air. Second of all, things just felt safer, in a way, more civilized… (Yes, I know that is horrible for me to say, and it’s probably completely false). And, of course, just the food and drink in general…same staple products but a lot more cabbage, Nica soup (tomato-based filled with different kinds of seafood), and superb rum (Flor de Cana). BUT during our last couple of days in Nicaragua, my companeros and I began to actually yearn for chaotic Guatemala…we missed the food, we missed the little, old indigenous people, we even missed the chicken buses. Once we set foot back on our ‘homeland’, it was like a sigh of relief. We even raced to our favorite street vendor that night for dinner…how sad is that. We were finally home!

And the funny, mostly ironical, point of my story is that two days after that, I left for the U.S. for a week to spend time with family and friends, bask in complete luxury, and just get away from the third-world for awhile. But following this visit, my return to Guatemala was seen as completely different…

However, more on that in my next post! Promise to write again this week, since I am kinda behind on my stories huh:)

Love as Always,
Carin

PS. Will try and upload pics from Nicaragua as soon as I can!

posted by Carin Robinson @ 8:25 AM