Last weekend was a whirlwind of events. Friday was Father´s Day here and boy do they like to celebrate their holidays. Signs everywhere, car windows painted, even ground beef at the grocery store was molded into ¨Feliz dia de papa!¨ Now that´s dedication. My family celebrated with Pollo Campero (a sort of KFC - but do NOT compare the two restaurants to a Gautemalteco) and then we watched Wild Hogs on tv. I made it halfway through before I went to bed early. Wild Hogs isn´t my favorite movie in English and while it was slightly better in Spanish I thought sleep was a better option.
On Saturday I went with two of my brothers and my sister, and nine kids from their church, to Cerro Alux, which is a huge ecological park basically on top of a mountain. It was beautiful but very cold and wet as we were essentially in the clouds. It was fun to interact with kids but also frustrating because its hard for me to understand them. And naturally they were shy and slightly wary of the tall extra-white gringa. But they cheered for me on the swing and gleefully pulled me up and down a hill on a zip line. After a long day of rain, mud, cold and mixtas, it was a relief to go to Melissa´s house where we ate pizza, ¨watching soccer,¨ and avoided Melissa´s soul mate, a.k.a a Michael Jackson impersonator. Now I´ve got your attention haven´t I? Well long story short, and I have her permission to tell the story just FYI, Melissa went on a date with a guy named Brian, slightly against her will but her mom sort of pushed her into it. He also gave her a watch, which I mean come on, when does that ever NOT work? So they went to get ice cream and instead of going to any ice cream store within 100 feet of her house he took her to Antigua, roughly 45 min away, where she found out he works as a Michael Jackson impersonator. Okay so the point of this whole story is that he told her they were soul mates because they liked the same things. So yeah, she´s been avoiding him ever since.
The next day we all went to the beach, minus Seth because he doesn´t really like the beach. Melissa´s parents took us and it was a great day. Without going hour by hour here is a rundown of the day:
- Jammed to Spanish music while hammering Bethy (Melissa´s mom) with questions about the volcanoes, ocean, food, etc. (p.s. Cristy if you´re reading this Bethy said there are a TON of sharks in Guatemala. Just saying.)
- Sang Vamos a la playa, a song we still do not fully understand to this day, nor do we actually know the beat. However, that hasn´t stopped us from singing it yet.
- Drank coconut water with Melissa´s parents hovering saying ¨que rico!¨ roughly every minute or so. It tasted good for about 5 minutes and then I had to force it down. It´s definitely an acquired taste. Some us feigned interest in the actual coconut meat, some actually liked it, and others were not as quiet about their dislike. ·cough· Melissa.
- Burned out feet on the black sand
- Burned out bodies from the hot as hell sun
- Got our asses kicked by the waves. Like seriously, at one point I bit the sand so hard I had sand all the way up my nose. And in other not for friendly places. Now when I say sand I really mean black pebbles. So we all had black pebbles, everywhere, and at some point or another everyone bit the dust, even Bethy who spent most of the time yelling ¨Cuidado mis hijas!¨ (be careful my daughters!)
- Slept in hammocks under palm trees
- Stopped to get ice cream and walk around in Antigua on the way back
Perfect Day
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Never Short of New Experiences
The past two weeks were packed full of lots of different things. Yesterday we visited the Foundation of Forensic Anthropology of Guatemala where they are working on exhumation and identification of the over 50,000 people missing from the civil war. It was a very intense experience, packed with a lot of emotion. We saw some remains and while it was extremely hard to see, it is very important to see as well. It´s important to know what happened here. What made the experience even more real is that we had heard the stories of the women from Chichicastenango whose husbands had gone missing. It was a very emotional experience to say the least, that words can´t describe.
However, I had many new and much lighter experiences the past two weeks as well.
Doctors appointment
I went to the doctor on Monday with Vicky and Christy, and it was interesting to say the least. I realized I am not a fan of having doctors appointments translated even though I did have two excellent translaters. for anyone who wants to know¨baso¨ is spleen in spanish. Howver, the highlight of the doctors appointment was the the waiting room watching Animal Planet. It was really touching to watch that young girl conquer her fear of seals at Sea World. Powerful stuff. And then they took it a step further as she attempted to touch seals in the wild. I have to admit I was slightly disappointment that the seals didnt get fed up with the crazy human trying to touch them and attack her...again. Sadly they did not. The moral of this story is really we should be afraid of seals and not sharks in the water. Especially in Guatemala.
Movie night!
Clara and I went with my sister and younger brother to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4. It was actually pretty good. We got McDonalds for dinner and it was the first time for Clara in Guatemala. So naturally she decided to go big instead of go home and get the ¨grande¨ meal. Now when I say she decided to get it, I really mean she said ¨yes¨ to a question she didn´t understand. I, on the other hand, was at the register next to her staring blankly at the worker and eventually saying aqui to the same question. So much better.
The best part of the night by far was when Clara and I realized that some jokes simply don´t translate into Spanish well. In case anyone wanted to know, the joke was ¨I support the missionary´s position.¨ What happened was that Clara and I both laughed pretty hard, but no one else in the theater laughed at all. So either it really didn´t translate or no one thought it was funny. I´m going with the translation issue, but it could go either way really.
San Lucas
On Sunday night my family took me to San Lucas, a smalll town on the way to Antigua. We walked through the market and ate amazing food. When I saw a sign for gringos, naturally I asked my sister what it meant. She promptly pretended to cut off a part of my arm and eat it. This is only one of the several lies she has told me in the brief time I have been here. I´m getting much better at separating the lies from the truth - I wasn´t fooled at all with her gringo comment, north american´s are much too bitter to eat anyway as my brother informed me later - but I did hesistate for a little bit when she told me that it was going to cost me $50 a person to cross the border into El Salvador. But only $20 for Guatemaltecos, of course, because they are just better. That´s when I knew she was joking.
After dinner we went to an overlook where we could see all of Guatemala City, complete with lightning over the mountains in the background. It was nighttime so all I could see was beautiful twinkling lights. Our group has talked a lot about having moments when it really hits you that you´re in a different country and this was one of those for me. It was breathtakingly beautiful - please excuse the cliche - I took pictures but really failed at capturing the awesomeness.
However, I had many new and much lighter experiences the past two weeks as well.
Doctors appointment
I went to the doctor on Monday with Vicky and Christy, and it was interesting to say the least. I realized I am not a fan of having doctors appointments translated even though I did have two excellent translaters. for anyone who wants to know¨baso¨ is spleen in spanish. Howver, the highlight of the doctors appointment was the the waiting room watching Animal Planet. It was really touching to watch that young girl conquer her fear of seals at Sea World. Powerful stuff. And then they took it a step further as she attempted to touch seals in the wild. I have to admit I was slightly disappointment that the seals didnt get fed up with the crazy human trying to touch them and attack her...again. Sadly they did not. The moral of this story is really we should be afraid of seals and not sharks in the water. Especially in Guatemala.
Movie night!
Clara and I went with my sister and younger brother to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4. It was actually pretty good. We got McDonalds for dinner and it was the first time for Clara in Guatemala. So naturally she decided to go big instead of go home and get the ¨grande¨ meal. Now when I say she decided to get it, I really mean she said ¨yes¨ to a question she didn´t understand. I, on the other hand, was at the register next to her staring blankly at the worker and eventually saying aqui to the same question. So much better.
The best part of the night by far was when Clara and I realized that some jokes simply don´t translate into Spanish well. In case anyone wanted to know, the joke was ¨I support the missionary´s position.¨ What happened was that Clara and I both laughed pretty hard, but no one else in the theater laughed at all. So either it really didn´t translate or no one thought it was funny. I´m going with the translation issue, but it could go either way really.
San Lucas
On Sunday night my family took me to San Lucas, a smalll town on the way to Antigua. We walked through the market and ate amazing food. When I saw a sign for gringos, naturally I asked my sister what it meant. She promptly pretended to cut off a part of my arm and eat it. This is only one of the several lies she has told me in the brief time I have been here. I´m getting much better at separating the lies from the truth - I wasn´t fooled at all with her gringo comment, north american´s are much too bitter to eat anyway as my brother informed me later - but I did hesistate for a little bit when she told me that it was going to cost me $50 a person to cross the border into El Salvador. But only $20 for Guatemaltecos, of course, because they are just better. That´s when I knew she was joking.
After dinner we went to an overlook where we could see all of Guatemala City, complete with lightning over the mountains in the background. It was nighttime so all I could see was beautiful twinkling lights. Our group has talked a lot about having moments when it really hits you that you´re in a different country and this was one of those for me. It was breathtakingly beautiful - please excuse the cliche - I took pictures but really failed at capturing the awesomeness.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Chichicastenango
This weekend was a whirlwind. On Friday we left Guatemala City for Chichicastenango, a city with a large population of idingenous people. We stopped at Iximche to see some Mayan ruins which was awesome. It was very weird to know that what we saw is only the top of what was once a huge city. The rest is yet to be excavated. After being in Guatemala for two weeks now we finally ate Pollo Campero, which is similar to KFC, but its huge in Guatemala. Although the food was good, it didn´t sit well with most of us when our bus climbed the winding mountains roads. There is a picture up of Seth that explains the feeling.
On Saturday we talked to idigenous women who survived the extremely violent civil war. The stories they told about their husbands who were killed or are still missing were heart wrenching. It was definitely an eye opening experience. To support themselves and their children after their husbands died, the women began to weave BEAUTIFUL blankets, tableclothes, scarves, purses, hats, you name it they make it. Needless to say we bought a lot. Later that night we played a pick up game of soccer with some kids in the neighborhood we were staying in. We also visited the Catholic church in ChiChi which is actually where the Popol Vuh was discovered. Crazy. The Methodist Mission home we stayed in was awesome as well. As Clara pointed out, it was like camping, in a good way of course. We ate our meals mostly outside and were up at dawn for breakfast. The temperature was ¨freezing¨ for our leaders Christy and Andrea but for the rest of us it was like a warm spring day in Goshen, Indiana haha. It was a great place to stay. Sunday morning we went to Mass at the church and spent time in the famous market where we also bought a lot of stuff. The market was huge, beautiful, and there was no person space whatsoever. It was a lot of fun but very overwhelming and I think we were all ready to go home. Plus I suck at bardering.
As the weekend went on things got crazier and crazier so we started a list of things that we did not in anyway expect to happen this weekend.
1. to see tigers, and african and mountain lions in Guatemala. There was a traveling circus that was in ChiChi and we stopped by but quickly realized it was very sketch and left.
2. For Seth to catch a pony. With one eye. The pony had one eye that is, Seth did not catch it with one eye....he´s not that good. Again this was at the sketchy circus.
3. To see a Catholic Wedding at the famous church. We tried to blend in but tall white folk don´t blend into the crowd, though I did try to blend into the white walls. That was more realistic.
4. For a camera to be stolen (along with other peoples money), sold, switched to Spanish, and then returned all within roughly 10 hours.
5. For Christy to laugh so hard at dinner that she spewed her food/tea all over the floor. There are pictures of this but they aren´t up yet. Stay tuned. Honestly what I said wasn´t THAT funny. (The next night she enforced a ¨spanish only¨ rule. If you spoke any word in english you had to pay 1 Q. I lost four).
Overall and emotional but great weekend!
On Saturday we talked to idigenous women who survived the extremely violent civil war. The stories they told about their husbands who were killed or are still missing were heart wrenching. It was definitely an eye opening experience. To support themselves and their children after their husbands died, the women began to weave BEAUTIFUL blankets, tableclothes, scarves, purses, hats, you name it they make it. Needless to say we bought a lot. Later that night we played a pick up game of soccer with some kids in the neighborhood we were staying in. We also visited the Catholic church in ChiChi which is actually where the Popol Vuh was discovered. Crazy. The Methodist Mission home we stayed in was awesome as well. As Clara pointed out, it was like camping, in a good way of course. We ate our meals mostly outside and were up at dawn for breakfast. The temperature was ¨freezing¨ for our leaders Christy and Andrea but for the rest of us it was like a warm spring day in Goshen, Indiana haha. It was a great place to stay. Sunday morning we went to Mass at the church and spent time in the famous market where we also bought a lot of stuff. The market was huge, beautiful, and there was no person space whatsoever. It was a lot of fun but very overwhelming and I think we were all ready to go home. Plus I suck at bardering.
As the weekend went on things got crazier and crazier so we started a list of things that we did not in anyway expect to happen this weekend.
1. to see tigers, and african and mountain lions in Guatemala. There was a traveling circus that was in ChiChi and we stopped by but quickly realized it was very sketch and left.
2. For Seth to catch a pony. With one eye. The pony had one eye that is, Seth did not catch it with one eye....he´s not that good. Again this was at the sketchy circus.
3. To see a Catholic Wedding at the famous church. We tried to blend in but tall white folk don´t blend into the crowd, though I did try to blend into the white walls. That was more realistic.
4. For a camera to be stolen (along with other peoples money), sold, switched to Spanish, and then returned all within roughly 10 hours.
5. For Christy to laugh so hard at dinner that she spewed her food/tea all over the floor. There are pictures of this but they aren´t up yet. Stay tuned. Honestly what I said wasn´t THAT funny. (The next night she enforced a ¨spanish only¨ rule. If you spoke any word in english you had to pay 1 Q. I lost four).
Overall and emotional but great weekend!
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