So I´ve been in Santiago Atitlan for a little over a week now and it´s been quite interesting. For one, right now the annual Santiago fair is going on which means the town is pretty much hoppin all the time. EVERYTHING is celebrated with fireworks here in Guatemala, and people set them off what seems every ten minutes. Everytime I am forced to fight my innate instinct to duck and cover. There is a giant ferris wheel in the church square that makes me cringe everytime I see the people rocking back and forth on it. Apart from bringing rides and activities, the fair as also brought out a certain type of rather drunk people. Our previous rule of never turning down someone to dance does NOT apply anymore. But the fair has been pretty cool to experience and the crowning ceremony for the Mayan queen of the town was really cool.
For service Melissa and I spend the mornings at a school for children with disabilities which is fun to hang out with the kids but also hard because in addition to a language barrier there´s also a physical or emotional one too. There are about 30 kids and only 4 professors so it can get a little hectic and the disabilities range from a kid with no hands, down syndrome, a little girl whose left side of her body doesnt function properly, and a girl with ¨emotional problems.¨ Whatever that means. So the profs have their hands full. It´s been difficult to get to know the children but we made huge headway when we gave the girls drawings to color. And there is a little boy named Samuelito with down syndrome who always greets me with a hug and a huge smile. If only everyone greeted me this way!
Our daily tasks thus far have included tracing drawings out of a book to make photocopying easier and making sure the boys don´t beat each other up, which is a very realistic possibility. Our first day one kid got full on punched in the ear and responded by kicking the culprit in the leg. The result was two screaming kids and two dumbstruck gringas trying. We finally were able to deduce that no one appeared seriously injured as there was no blood. We also figured out that first day that kid with no hands can be surprisingly mischeavous.
In the afternoons then we work at ADISA, an organization run by adults with varying physical disabilities, almost all in wheelchairs. They make beautiful crafts out of recycled newspaper and they sell online so you should go check it out. They make all sorts of things from bags, to coasters, and jewlery. The workers are great and we basically get to sit in the shade, do crafts, and joke around with them. No so shabby.
And another plus of the fair that I forgot to mention is that we´ve had time off work so we´ve traveled around the lake to San Pedro, La Casa Del Mundo (a famous hotel built into a cliff), and Panajachel. And Friday we almost had a heat stroke after walking in a parade for 4 hours in traditional Mayan clothing - very gorgeous but very hot. Then we went to play soccer with some guys from ADISA. That was a lot of fun because we finally played a competitive game after watching so much of it on tv. We had to work Saturday but that just meant helping give out wheelchairs to kids and elderly people who otherwise wouldn´t be able to get around at all. It was so great to see their faces after getting fitted into their chair. I did manage to shock the mission workers and wheel chair shop owner with my liberalness. The owner was commenting on how the Presbyterian church is now letting homosexuals become pastors and I replied ¨good.¨ Flipped him out. I enjoyed it.
However, the highlight of the week is the reason for the title of the blog, in case you were wondering about that. Melissa and I happened to watch maybe 20 minutes of a Law and Order episode when we heard that line - ¨this isn´t Guatemela, people don´t just go missing.¨ We looked at each other stunned and just laughed for about ten minutes. I wonder if the writer merely picked a small Central American country or if he/she chose Guatemala specifically. Either way the irony is quite something. It reminds me what many people think of smaller, less developed countries such as Guatemala. And the sad truth that there are 50,000 people still missing from the civil war. In any case it was a strange and odd comment for us to hear on tv.
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