Scattered Thoughts

Yesterday I indirectly witnessed my second hit and run. Immediately after arriving at Katie´s school (to learn to make chocolate from scratch) we heard screeching tires. Then the Quiche woman selling cloth outside of the school ran in talking about a car (her Spanish wasn´t too good). A child had been hit and was screaming and a bunch of people had gathered around. The car, in the meantime, took off.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why the PDH (Procuraduría de Derechos Humanos) thinks I know what I´m doing. My second day of work, they sent me on my own to interview someone from the Ministry of Education. Only he didn´t explain the purpose of the interview very well, and none of the questions applied in any way whatsover, so the woman just kind of looked at me like I was dumb. And she talked extremely quickly and was very hard to understand. I felt incredibly incompetent.

This morning we were stuck in a traffic jam on the way back from a court case in Palmar. Someone said a truck had fallen off the cliff, but I´m not really sure. Anyways, while we were waiting I noticed these guys playing PTC on the side of the road (with about 5 feet from the edge of the highway to the cliff). It made me think that no matter where you go, people really aren´t all that different. Boys will always be boys. And then they picked up their machetes and went back to work, and the thought passed.

Today was my first trip to Cafe Luna, and it was pretty much amazing. Ice cream in hot chocolate, it´s brilliant.

Every full moon they have a midnight hike up the volcano Santa Maria. Unfortunately the hikes this week have all been cancelled since Santaguito (a smaller, connected volcano... the erupting one from previous post) is apparently erupting poisonous gases.

Hit and Run

Panajachel, also known as Gringo-tenango because of all the foreigners, was a wonderful weekend trip! It was much warmer and cleaner than Xela, and it was nice to get away. You definitely don´t need much more than a day in Pana. There´s one major street with lots of vendors, and then Lake Atitlan, which was incredibly beautiful! Our hotel was way nicer than I expected for what we paid, and even had a hot shower!!! It´s been almost 3 weeks since I´d had a hot shower. Anyways, Sunday we went to a wildlife reserve. It had the works: swinging bridges, waterfalls, all kinds of vegetation, and monkeys. Then for under $15 you could hike to the top and take a series of ziplines all the way back down, overlooking the waterfall, the volcanoes, and the lake. Definitely the highlight of the trip!

If you use good judgement (and try to keep a guy or two in the group as much as possible) there are only about 3 things you really have to worry about in Guatemala: traffic, pickpockets, and highway robbery. So upon leaving Pana we jumped a ridiculously crowded chicken bus out to the highway at Los Encuentros. From there we jumped another ridiculously crowded (i guess that should just be a given with a chicken bus) bus headed towards Xela. So the bus drivers are insane and try to pass vehicles on windy mountainous roads, so you´ve regularly got 3 vehicles wide on a 2 lane windy road. Anyways, we were passing this guy in an SUV and I don´t know what went wrong, but he started swerving. He swerved directly at us, then overcorrected in the other direction, swerved again, overcorrected again. On the 3rd time, he drilled the side of the bus, directly where I was sitting (I was sitting beside Sharon who was sitting by the window, and he hit directly below her). Fortunately, chicken buses are apparently tanks, and no one was injured. The guy who hit us totalled his SUV, the engine was a wreck, and his glass was all busted out, I´m shocked he got out without a scratch. It was weird how calm and completed detached we were as we watched him swerve at us a couple times and then hit us. Anyways, the driver got out to talk to the driver. Literally within 3 minutes he was back on the bus and we kept driving! It was insane! So we continue down the road and 20 minutes later we get pulled over. At this point I start worrying about problem 3 in Guatemala, highway robbery, but I guess I´m slightly paranoid at times because as it turned out it was only the police. They told the bus driver he had to go back to the scene, so we all had to get out and he had to give us half our money back. At this the passengers started cussing out the police saying it wasn´t the drivers fault, etc. but he wasn´t too impressed. So we all got out and stood on the side of the highway waiting for another bus. The next one that stopped, all the Guatemalans jumped on, and it was too full for us. So then we just had all the Gringos standing on the side of the highway, which was alittle intimidating again due to the problems with highway robbery. But we weren´t there for too long when another bus came along, and even if we had to stand 30 minutes of the remaining hour, it beat standing in the cold on the side of the road. And here I am, back in Xela safe and sound. And that´s the story of how I became a participant in a hit and run.

Chicken Buses and Human Rights

Our trip to the Friday Market at San Francisco El Alto was my first encounter with the infamous chicken bus. A chicken bus is a regular school bus that was retired/condemned in the US decades ago. They all emit clouds of black smog, which is the primary reason Xela is so poluted and they're nearly all painted in wild colors. Their racks on the top are usually loaded down with goods being transported to various markets. True to its name, today's bus did in fact have a basket of chickens accompanying us on our way home, although these lucky chickens were on racks above our heads, and not strapped to the outside. Chicken buses are dirt cheap, it was only $0.50 for an hour trip, but they're quite uncomfortable as they are never never full. They will easily fit 115 people (we counted) on a bus that says it maxes out at 55. They also very rarely come to a complete stop. The guy who collects money jumps out as the bus slows down, rushes everyone on the bus, pushing the slow moving/elderly onto the bus, and then hops on himself at the last second as the bus is pulling away. I'm really not looking forward to spending 3 hours on a chicken bus tomorrow morning on the way to Pana, but for under $3, I'll take it.

Thursday I started working with the Human Rights organization down here. It's really interesting... we had a conference with a couple men from a nearby community who are having problems with the municipal leaders. I got to help create the game plan on what to do about it, and if they stick to schedule (which is a huge if down here) I think it'll be fairly effective and I'll get to see the whole thing through. I'm really not sure why they want my input and advice though, it's not like I have any experience, but they seem really excited about having me there, and getting me involved, and they're wanting me to go with them to visit the communities and everything, which I'm really excited about. The school is trying to talk me into being their coordinator again, and they're pretty insistent even though I told them I'm really not interested. They said to take a week to see what kind of commitment the Human Rights is going to be, and then see if I can schedule them both.

Plans for tonight include a salsa lesson, dinner at an Indian restaurant with everyone from my Spanish school, and Omar's concert at the Brooklyn Cafe, then we're off bright and early tomorrow morning to visit Panajachel at Lake Atitlan.

Church is like a Potluck

You really can´t visit a Latin American country without attending a Catholic church. So this morning Katie and I went to mass at San Pedro. Now I´ve been to very few masses in my day, but this one seemed alittle different. At the beginning, when the priest comes in and kisses the Bible and has the incense and everything, I expected it to be a very solemn occasion. But this priest was really moving! They were playing really upbeat music, and the incense was billowing smoke which had the effect of a fog machine. I have to say though that I got alot more out of it than I did Jubilee. The priest was talking about I Cor. 12, with the church being one body with many parts. He compared it to a potluck (my liberal interpretation, he actually said fiesta) where everyone has their own specialty and something they´re good at, but it´s not complete with only one person´s contribution, you need everyone to pitch in and do different things. He also talked about how the church can be so focused on form that they neglect the really important things. We go to church on Sunday, but the rest of our lives don´t reflect that we are Christians. We sit around waiting for miracles but don´t want to have to work for anything, like the student who prays for an A without having to study. Anyways, he had some really good points, and I enjoyed most of it. Communion was a free for all where everyone just headed to the front of the church. Including this one woman (American?) who brought her camera up and started taking pictures of the altar, the crucifixes and even everyone taking communion. Seriously, who does that?? Have some respect! I was pretty disgusted.

Laguna de Chicobal

This morning my friend Katie and I (and a group of people from her school) went to Chicobal, a volcano that has a lagoon. The trip was pretty scary. We took a bus up a dirt road through the mountains that I wouldn´t have driven without fourwheel drive. My personal favorite are the signs that post the prices... 1Q for children and locals, 5Q for nationals, and 15Q for foreigners. Then we hiked up to the lookout spot, and about 10 minutes after we got there Santaguito started erupting (no lava, just billowing smoke). It was really amazing! The other lookout ¨tower¨was over the laguna. Also, unbelievably beautiful! But scary too, as the lookout tower consisted of a few poles tied together with thin planks laid across, that weren´t even attached. There was a sign that said a maximum of 8 people were allowed on the lookout stand at a time. Then we hiked down to the Laguna which is sacred Mayan land. It shouldn´t have been that hard of a hike, but climbing back up from the Laguna was ridiculous because of the altitude.


Other miscellaneous thoughts on Guatemala:

It´s cold!!! Whoever decided to call this country the land of eternal spring should be shot.

The people here our crazy: I met someone who is currently in the process of forging a plane ticket in order to get a visa into Brazil.

I love my home stay! Dona Veronica is amazing and tells the best stories. One day I should dedicate a whole blog to her worst homestay guests ever (she´s been doing this for 11 years so she´s about seen it all).

School Coordinator

So on my 3rd day of class the director asked me if I would be the international coordinator. Yeah, that´s right, I pretty much own the place. I told them I´d help them out this week while they look for a replacement since I can´t start my volunteer work until next week. So it´s only temporary, but it´s still pretty neet to be able to sign emails as the international coordinator.

Let´s see, besides that I´ve visited the museum of Mayan clothing, which was not so interesting. I learned how to make tortillas from scratch, and I went to my first Salsa Lesson which was alot of fun, but slightly embarrasing as Katie and I were the only ones who not only couldn´t salsa, but also didn´t speak Spanish all that well.

At the fair referenced in the last post, we watched a traditional Guatemalan dance, visited the church of the Black Christ, and went on the ferris wheel, which was forever old and scarier than any roller coaster I´ve ever been on. It didn´t occur to me until I got to the top that I hadn´t seen a single other person on the ferris wheel, I guess even the Guatemalans didn´t trust it.

Rural Guatemalan Fair

Parking: 5 Quetzales

Entrance into the fair: 5 Q

Purchase of ball: 5Q

Being able to tell your friends you own a ball made out of a pig´s intestines: Priceless

Jubilee

Sunday morning I went to church with my homestay. It was called the Jubilee Christian Church- Ebenezer Ministries, whatever that means. Apparently it was some kind of evangelical denomination. The service lasted 3 1-2 hours! They opened with a song, complete with a band, trumpets, and nine girls dancing- don´t worry their heads were covered. The second song was 50 minutes long (literally... there was a clock in the church). The dancers traded their head scarved for tamborines with long ribbons and the women in the audience started waving their scarves around their heads (think lasso style). I was so tired of standing and clapping, I don´t know how those girls danced for that long without a break. Although afterwards someone brought them napkins to wipe off the sweat.It was incredibly difficult to hear over the drums and trumpets but they had a 3 minute chorus of ¨A Jehova¨and several long choruses of ¨Libertad¨. The 3rd song was called On the Wings of a Dove, and by the end most of the people were crying, and it ended with everyone making up their own version of the song. Anyways after 2 hours of standing, singing, and clapping we got to sit for the hour and a half sermon. We had a special guest speaker from Cuba who surprisingly had an understandable accent. It was very interesting, and although there were definitely things I didn´t agree with (in the sermon, I recognize that different cultures need to be able to express their faith in their own ways and our church would not make it down here) I liked that it was completely run by Guatemaltecos. In conclusion, I´m really glad I went, but would like to find a different church before next Sunday.

Xela vs. Heredia

Well today was a much better day in Xela. The highlight was going to the Xela-Heredia soccer game. It was quite the experience and I got to sit midfield less than 20 feet from the field. I have never heard so many people chant swear words in unison for so long. My vocabulary was definitely expanded. Guatemalans take their soccer games very very seriously. It was almost as fun watching the crowd as the game. They would try to throw fireworks (the kind that keep burning for a long time) onto the field, and succeeded several times in getting quite close to the players. The would also throw cans on the field. And sweet looking little old ladies turned out to be much more vulgar than any of the men. There were also smoke bombs and actual fireworks. It really amused me that they found it necessary to use riot guards to escort the refs at half time. Why would you attack a ref during half time? Especially when your team is winning 1-0?

As for the game itself. It was very theatrical, anytime anyone came near on defense, they´d fall down on the ground and grab their shins. You do have shin guards people (I saw them, it´s not just an assumption). They also struggled with basic trapping. My favorite is 5, Luis Rodriguez. He´s consistently solid, can trap the ball and doesn´t try to draw fouls for no reason (he also happens to be a full back). We managed to win 2-1 so it was a good night for the ¨Super Chivos¨ or literally Super Goats, how fantastic is that name? And yes, I bought the jersey, I couldn´t help myself. The Guatemalans were excited about the gringa ¨Super Chiva¨ as they called me.

Thanks for all your comments on yesterday´s blog, I appreciate the feedback. I want to do the right thing, but I don´t want to be stupid about it.

Disillusionment in Xela

I'm staying in Quetzaltenango also known by its Quiche name Xela. It is the 2nd largest city in Guatemala with all of 150,000 people. It is now day 5 in the country and I apologize for not putting up anything about the first 4 days. I had a great start but I'm alittle disillusioned with the city right now. There are way more foreigners than I expected... i picked xela to try to avoid that. It's alittle impersonal being in a city, and it's really polluted. My problem is I need to spend less time with the gringos and find a way to make friends with the locals.

Anyways, the real issue of the day:
Last night I was walking down the street with some of the gringos I'd met the day before. We passed a Quiche woman lying down in the street with a man sitting on a step beside her. She looked unconcsious or close to it. We kept walking until she screamed and we turned around and he was hitting her and trying to drag her body down the street. There were 6-7 Guatemalan men standing around watching and in my group there were 4 guys and 1 other girl. They also stood there watching and one said we should keep walking there was nothing we could do. I asked if they were seriously going to walk away and do nothing. One of them walked up to one the Guatemalan men, tried to ask something then walked away. He started kicking her and I couldn't take it anymore and walked back down the street. For those of you who would be mad at me, I could not live with myself if I had walked away and left her. I also had 4 guys with me who would have had my back. Anyways, when I reached them he sat down on the step so I knelt beside the woman and took her hand. He started crying and told me she didn't speak Spanish, only Quiche and that she was his "woman" (don't know if this means wife) and she wouldn't go home with him. He said he had her shoes and was trying to get her home but she wouldn't move and he kept saying over and over that he didn't know what to do. He hit her again across the face, and I told him not to and he stopped and said okay. I asked if he wanted help and he said yes. He was still crying and mumbling when the police showed up shortly after. Once the police got there and started asking questions we left. I was shaking, I was so angry. How do 10 grown men stand around watching a woman taking a beating? Is this machismo? Not having the guts to do anything but stand around watching like a coward?

I realize that what I did was unsafe and that God was really there watching after me. And I've already been thorougly lectured by my homestay mom on how dangerous it was, ,what could have happened, what the circumstances could have been, why not to help, etc etc etc. At the same time though, how can you justify walking away? I can't see Jesus leaving some woman lying in the street. And again, I did have a group with me. (also, for those worried about me being here by myself, my homestay was shocked and said that does happen in the villages alot, but not in the city, it was extremely abnormal)

Anyways, I guess I'd like a few opinions on whether I did the right thing or was just being completely stupid, but please avoid the lectures, i've already heard it.