Mayan Nawals

Mayan Nawals are essentially the Mayan equivalent of you astrological sign. My zodiac sign is Sagittarius and is based on which block of the year you are born in. Mayan Nawals, however, are determined by the day you were born so that someone born in April might have the same Nawal as someone born in November. My Nawal is Kame, which as everyone from my ASB team knows has a rather interesting/morbid description.

This is my translation from the book of Nawals in the AMA office:

Kame

Owl. Death, tranquility, silence. Nawal of death.

Symbolizes the end of all things good and all things bad. An excellent day to ask for forgiveness or to pardon others, it is a day of reconciliation. A special day to remember and ask for the rest of the dead in order to supplicate tranquility.

Persons born in Kame were conceived in Tijax, they are pacient, of good practice and attitude, they are bold, intelligent, respectful, they know how to control themselves. Philosophers, spiritual doctors, administrators of justice, psychologists and artists. If they cultivate the Mayan spirit they can come to prophesy the good and bad. They have a tendency for accidental death, vengeance and to be despised by other.

 Yea. so not sure what I'm supposed to take away from this. The end of all things good and bad...

chicken buses and bartering

A chicken bus is really something you must see for yourself. Imagine an American school bus painted an assortment of other colors with a name like “Super Nina” written across the side. Now imagine it packed full of Guatemalans and a few young white travelers. That’s a chicken bus. Despite the rustic nature of this method of travel, I must say that the bus system here – both micro-buses within the cities and chicken buses that travel between cities – is super convenient, and of course, super cheap! My first experience on a chicken bus was the ride to Cantel with Katy last Thursday. To catch one of these buses in Xela you have to go to el terminal, where there is a row of buses heading off to almost any city you need to get to (and if not it’s super easy to change buses in a city on the way). At first I was concerned about trying to find the right bus to get on, but as soon as you exit the market and approach the line of buses, someone comes up and asks where you’re headed and then shows you to the right bus. When I got on the bus to Espumpuja with Katy on Friday I was taken aback by the number of people crammed on there. We made our way to the back and sat three to a seat with a man and his sack of potatoes?? By the time the bus actually pulled out the aisles were also completely packed with people standing and then at the next stop two or three more men got on in the back. One of the men had his arm right by Katy’s face and his backpack was resting on my head until I made an uncomfortable movement that sort of nudged him off of me. The bus also becomes a major selling place for venders prior to its departure from the terminal. Young boys wander onto the bus selling gum and others try to sell fruit in a bag, bread, coconut, candy and all sorts of other stuff. Also, if you recall riding on the bus as a kid, then you probably recall how much more you feel all the bumps and curves in a road on a school bus. Nevertheless, although I complain about the downsides to the chicken buses, I absolutely love them because they take me from point A to point B (which can sometimes be 2 or 3 hours away) for roughly 2 or 3 bucks.

If you ever go to Chichicastenango (which you should!) be prepared to barter. Anyone who has done much traveling has had experience with this. The Chichi market is filled with rows of venders selling blankets, weavings, pillowcases, hammocks, jewelry, sculptures, paintings, bags, shirts, masks, belts, candles and a whole lot more. It’s awesome just to walk around and look at everything because the market is filled with such beautiful colors, as is most of Guatemala. Beware, however, because as you walking it is very likely that a small Guatemalan women will starting following you trying to get you to by one of the many weavings she is carrying on her head, continually telling you “good price, good price.” Also, if you point at something the vendor will immediately start to take it down and ask you what price you’ll pay for it. I always have the vendor name the price first and then basically cut that price in half. One time I did this with a blanket that I was looking at but wasn’t even sure I wanted, and when I turned to leave lady finally accepted my really low price, which I didn’t expect. So then I was like crap, I don’t even know if I want this and ended up turning it down. It’s kind of easy to end up bartering for something you don’t even really want to buy…but hey I guess that’s part of the fun.

Newsflash: Hot showers. Yesterday I had my first legitimate hot shower, like steamy almost too hot hot. Here’s the crazy thing though…apparently Lucy and I had been using the shower wrong this whole time and the cold handle is actually hot! Before you laugh about how stupid I am, however, I’d like to say in my defense that I had tried that before and that when I got here I was told nothing of the sort.

"Sorry, I just don't get excited about rocks"

Backtracking – Last Thursday I visited Cantel to interview another women’s circle. It’s surprising how different communities can be…Cantel appears to be quite a bit more affluent than the other communities I’ve visited. Afterwards we came back to the office and helped get everything set up for the festivities that evening. Friday was Juanita’s birthday and we had a whole team staying at the office for one night so AMA was a very busy place. We had two teams here for a salsa lesson and pizza and then we surprised Juanita with balloons and cake before heading out to La Rumba to dance! Hilda and Juanita got pretty drunk which was absolutely hilarious but also well deserved if you knew how hard these ladies work. That night I stayed up until 2am talking with Caleb from the MCV team…that turned out to be a bad decision as I was absolutely exhausted going to interview the women in Espumpuja the next day. While we were in the community, Katy and I found out that it was San Juan’s day which means there is a big celebration in San Juan. Despite the fact that I was about to fall asleep standing up I really wanted to see what a saint’s day celebration is like so Katy and I made a short detour to San Juan before heading home. There were rows and rows of vendors selling food and lots of games in addition to music and people in elaborate dress and masks dancing in the center square. I was literally the only white person in San Juan haha.

Saturday, I tagged along with a JPC group from Uva to visit Tak’Alik’Abaj, the site of some Mayan ruins. We took a 2 hour ride on a chicken bus to the nearest city for about $2 and then caught a taxi up to the park/reserve. Obviously I knew that this site wasn’t going to be as amazing as the famous Tikal, but I was still pretty excited to see some ruins. However, the quote of the day, which Vat is still laughing about, turned out to be “Sorry, I just don’t get excited about rocks.” There were some rocks carved into cool figures like alligators, toads, jaguars, but still, after an hour and a half of touring them I had had my fill of rocks. So, we grabbed dinner at a Mexican restaurant, ran through the rain and caught a chicken bus back home. Oh crazy story, on the micro bus back to my office in Xela, I heard a cat meowing only to turn and discover that the women beside me had a cat in a bag…wtf.

To make up for the rocks, Vat, Lucy, and I went to Chichicastenango yesterday. Chichi is also about 2 hours away and boasts a huge market full of all sorts of artisan goods. I told myself when I came to Guatemala that I wasn’t going to buy very much, but it is so much harder to stick to that when you are surrounded by beautiful and very inexpensive crafts. Luckily, I didn’t bring very much money so I couldn’t go overboard. I did buy a blanket and an awesome weaving for my mom though. Vat and I also became obsessed with the paintings at this one store and are seriously contemplating returning to buy one…they are pretty expensive by Guatemalan standards but so awesome. As it tends to in Guatemala, it started raining, but luckily just as we were leaving. Surprisingly, I found that I felt a little sick on the chicken bus ride to and from Chichi…as Vat and I would say, travel weak. So anyways my day in Chichi was awesome...I will definitely fill you in on the art of bargaining and the joys of riding chicken buses in my next post!

            

felicidad

Happiness! Hola amigos! I haven’t written to you since Monday and this time I really have A LOT to catch you up on. Up until this week I would say that my experience here in Guatemala could be described with mixed feelings. At times I loved exploring the city, hanging out with new friends, and chatting with the women I work with; at other times I felt extremely lonely and seriously questioned whether my work here was what I had expected. Yes, I even had a mental break down of sorts…which after the fact I suppose I can appreciate and regard as a character building experience. However, yesterday, as I walked a little dirt road to Xeabaj II with Katy (looking out over an amazing mountainous landscape), I couldn’t help but think, “This is why I came to Guatemala!” In other words, the past few days have been amazing.

Monday morning at 6am I left for Pacutama, a community about an hour from Xela. There was a team of med school students from MCV working in a clinic there and I stayed in the bunks and ate meals with them, but during the day traveled to different communities with Katy to conduct activities and interviews with the women’s circles that AMA has set up. Monday, I visited Chiquisis and Chajuab. It’s much colder that far up in the mountains so I had to wear yoga pants under my blue jeans and like three layers on top. The meetings with the women’s circles went surprisingly well. All of the women in these communities spoke Quiche so I would speak in Spanish to Katy, who would then translate to everyone else. It feels pretty cool to have conducted a whole meeting/interview in Spanish; even my notes are in Spanish haha. Anyways, I’m finding it really hard to describe everything I want to because there is just so much and I would end up writing a novel, so I’ll have to do some summarizing. Over the next two days I visited four more communities – Chicuatama, Pacutama, Xeabaj I, and Xeabaj II. In each community I had the women draw a map of the community while Katy and I conducted individual interviews. These communities are pretty small so in most cases the women legitimately knew how many families lived there. Some of the communities are literally only a stones throw away from each other and yet they are considered completely separate.

Short anecdote: As I finished up talking with the women’s circle in Chicuatama, the women started asking Katy a few questions about me in Quiche and then went on to say that they thought I was pretty yada yada. Here’s the kicker though – Karsten, you’re gonna love this – they told Katy that they liked my chin. I immediately started laughing and then went on to explain in Spanish that my brother frequently makes jokes about my chin. Karsten, you win – even a group of indigenous Mayan women in Guatemala thought my chin was worth mentioning.

Also, for any of you that didn’t know, tortillar (to make tortillas) is actually a verb. I made tortillas twice this week and, let’s be real, it’s harder than it looks. These women make tortillas three times a day though so it’s expected that mine shouldn’t be as perfectly round and flat. In Xeabaj I, I ate lunch with a family in their little cinderblock kitchen. The family was incredibly nice and hospitable; they waited for Katy and I to finish eating before they served themselves. The dad asked me a lot of questions about school, my U.S., my hometown. It was almost a little embarrassing to have to say that my house is two stories when theirs is obviously like two rooms. Nevertheless, lunch was really nice and the dad even made a joke about me marrying his son and buying him a visa haha (totally think I flipped the switch, Kelsey).

I’m going to write a completely separate post to describe the interviews and activities I’ve been doing and to of course offer my inspirational/sentimental/women’s empowerment thoughts that you are all probably expecting to hear from me (Polina, this is probably where you laugh and say “you would”), but for now I’ll just mention a few of the other interesting things that happened in the community. Since we were living in a community I had to say goodbye to toilets, mirrors and showers for a few days. Yea haha I didn’t bathe from midday Saturday until Tuesday night. And when I finally did get to clean up, I got to try teamascal (probably spelled that wrong) – basically you heat several buckets of hot water and put them in a small wooden house (kind of like a giant dog house) outside where you essentially just give yourself a sponge bath. That description makes it sound really weird but it’s actually pretty nice because the water is super warm and there are rocks inside that you can pour water on and it makes the whole little house steam up.

I haven’t mentioned this before but there are tons of dogs in Guatemala and Pacutama was no exception. Normally I wouldn’t be scared of dogs but they definitely made the idea of walking outside, by yourself, at night, to use the bathroom much more frightening. The girls from MCV thus created the pee bucket, which yes, I most definitely used. Last, but not least, (and sorry to be throwing this in after a pee bucket story) I want to say how super freaking proud I am of my brother for making it to the final election for Governor at Boys State…you don’t need the title, Karsten, you’ll still always be much cooler than me. Well, this is adios for now…this post really only covers through Wednesday so be expecting another one very soon!

Santa Maria and sudden changes in plans

Friday night at 11:45 pm I climbed in a bus with ten other students to hike Santa Maria. Santa Maria is a mountain from the top of which you have a great view of an active volcano. We started the hike at midnight in order to make it to the top at 5:30, sunrise. Unfortunately, none of us napped as much as we’d hoped to that day so we were all pretty tired as we hiked up the really steep and sometimes slippery path. The difference in altitude in Xela already makes breathing hard when you’re exercising, so breathing as we hiked up Santa Maria was even more difficult at times and we stopped pretty frequently. Of course, it was dark so we were all lighting our way with flashlights…scanning the ground closely to avoid stepping in the huge piles of cow/horse poop that were pretty common along the trail. When we first started hiking it was pretty warm; I stripped down to my t-shirt and actually broke a major sweat. I actually thought of Nate Brown and how sweaty he would have been haha. As we made our way up the mountain, however, it got really cold. And at the very top of Santa Maria it was windy which made it even colder. Despite the cold and the sleep deprivation though, it was worth it because the view was spectacular. While it was still dark we could see the red glow of the volcano below us and as the sun rose we could see mountains on every side of us. It was beautiful and you can count on seeing lots of pictures soon! Anyways the hike back down was a lot warmer and faster. I still can’t believe I stayed up all night doing that hike! After we got back to Xela, David, Vat and I went out to a crepe place for lunch and then we all went home to nap before meeting up that evening for dinner. It was David’s last night in Xela so we hung out and talked for a long time and then went to dinner at a good Indian place in town. I’ve absolutely loved getting to talk and hang out with David and Vat, probably in part because I like to talk so much haha. They are both from Uva, which is also really cool because we actually have the potential to hang out when we get back to Charlottesville.

Changes in the plan. This is the only blog I’ll be posting between now and Wednesday because, as I just found out twenty minutes ago, I will be living in a community for part of the week. Unfortunately, Pacutama is even higher than Xela and therefore, is much much colder. However, the good news is that I get to start conducting the interviews and activities for my research. Wish me luck!

Salsa

Update: I now have a roommate. Her name is Lucy; she’s also an undergrad and she will be volunteering here for the next 6 weeks. On the one hand, I’d kind of gotten used to being alone in the evenings and doing my own thing, but on the other I’m really glad to have someone to go visit places with me and to potentially goof off with. She’s really nice and obviously up for most everything because I was able to drag her out to salsa night at La Parranda on her first night here.

            Around 10:00 La Parranda really fills up. At this point most gringos have left the dance floor and are just watching in awe as the locals tear up the dance floor. Without a doubt, salsa is sexy. Yes, I watched jealously as women in tacones (heels) danced effortlessly. There was one older woman who was amazing and despite the fact that she was definitely over 35 and a bit heavier she was so sexy (no homo) when dancing. A salsa instructor and her were dancing at one point and he lifted her up and did a crazy twist thing that you’ve probably seen on dirty dancing; it was so unexpected and scared the crap out of me. Ok so obviously, I did a lot of watching haha, but I also danced! And it’s official, I’m not very good. You know when you’re dancing with a guy at a party and you don’t want to be so you say something like “oh I have to go to the bathroom” or “I’m gonna go get some air, a drink, etc.” well I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I think that happened to me! I danced with two Guatemalan guys and received these two lines, “Voy a tomar agua (I’m gonna go get some water)” and “Voy a charlar con mis amigos (I’m gonna go talk to my friends)” Although obviously that means I make a crappy salsa partner, that’s pretty hilarious. And by gringa standards I think I do alright, I at least have the rhythm down, but if I were a guy I’d want to dance with one of the Guatemalan girls in tacones too. Both guys I danced with were a little creepy…or maybe it’s just that I don’t like dancing semi-provocatively with people I don’t know. I had a lot more fun dancing with Brian, a guy from California I met earlier this week. He showed me some turns and moves without all the bravado and hip thrusting that sometimes accompanies dancing with latinos. I’ve actually had a desire recently to break it down with Blair and the rest of the awesome Maupin 310s, but that’ll have to wait until August!

             Today I just made more preparations for my research in the community next week. I had to go to an internet café to print off some visuals and while I was waiting for things to print I explored a few of the nearby Pacas. What’s a Paca? They are basically really small thrift stores filled with second hand American clothes that you can find on practically every street corner. Nothing else of major importance has happened, but I can say that my Spanish is definitely improving. I’ve been trying to speak slower in order to use better grammar and I’ve been taking the time to stop and correct myself when I say something wrong. Hopefully my salsa skills will eventually improve too!

random/interesting facts : )

Apart from a really long meeting with Claudia that was super helpful in getting my project and objectives organized and going out to dinner with some people from the office, today was pretty boring. However, this current lack of excitement in my life gives me an opportunity to share some random/interesting facts about Guatemala!

*Coffee: Living in Guatemala should mean that you get to drink rich Guatemalan coffee, right? Wrong. All of the rich, delicious Guatemalan coffee that you hear about is exported to comparatively wealthy Americans and Europeans like you and I. Locals in Guatemala tend to drink weak/lower grade coffee with lots of sugar. Thus, as I’ve acclimated to the chilly weather I’ve stopped drinking coffee because yea, it’s not very good.

*Tu: In the U.S. the Spanish taught in schools is generally geared toward the rules found in Spain. Therefore, most of us have no idea that in Guatemala when a man uses the tu form with another man it has a gay connotation. Instead, guys use usted or vos with each other.

*The Zetas: No not the sorority, the drug cartel in Guatemala. Guess what ma? Members of Zeta have been found in Xela! (minor panic attack for my mom) Luckily, they were found by police while hanging up one of their many signs declaring that they are not at war with the Guatemalan people, etc. The Zetas, whose origins actually lie in Mexico, have been the source of a lot of violence in the North of Guatemala recently and were responsible for the recent massacre in Petan. The Guatemalan government issued a siege allowing the military to move freely throughout the North in order to deal with the situation there.

*Mano Duro: The IRON FIST. This is the campaign slogan for one of the many candidates for Guatemala’s presidential election, which is going to take place this September. Despite the fact that Guatemala is only the size of an average American state, it has 20 or more political parties! There are posters hung almost everywhere, but posters for el mano duro seem to be especially prevalent. Apparently, the man behind the mano duro was also the brain behind many of the military tactics used during the Guatemalan Civil War to raze and kill entire indigenous communities. How do the Guatemalan people feel about this? I’m honestly not positive, but think about it…how many Americans really take the time to do good background research on most of the candidates they vote for?

*Toilet paper: Guatemala has bad pipes, so all toilet paper must go in a trashcan beside the toilet.

*Spanish schools and volunteering: Xela is packed with Spanish language schools and volunteer opportunities. This volunteer hotspot basically exploded during the past ten years though because prior to the end of the civil war in 1996, no one came to Guatemala. I’ve talked to a bunch of foreigners taking classes here and it’s actually pretty amazing how much Spanish they learn in just a few weeks. An average Spanish school here costs $200 a week, which includes four hours of one on one Spanish lessons a day, several activities and excursions with the school and a homestay with a family/three meals a day Monday through Saturday. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. I’ll probably come back to a different Central American country at some point to spend a few weeks at a Spanish school…any other takers?

Since I have to get up at 5 am tomorrow to help prepare for a team’s arrival, I better head to bed! I’ll give you more random facts later…if you want them. Now that I know people are actually reading this, if you have requests or certain things/topics you want to hear about just let me know!

just nod and laugh

Another day, another cold shower. I got up this morning and hiked up/ran down El Baul, took a cold shower, and ran over to XelaPan (a bakery/panaderia) to buy breakfast for everyone in the office. When I got back, I had breakfast with Hilda and we talked for awhile about her family situation/baby’s daddy problems (don’t worry it will never compare to morning coffee with you, mom). As she was telling me all of this, yes, in Spanish, I suddenly realized WHOA! I think I’m in the circle of trust. What I mean to say is that I feel like I’m starting to get close with all the ladies at AMA, who I imagine by the time I leave will be like family. As for the rest of the day, I will be reading, fighting off sleeping, and preparing interview questions and other materials for the community I’ll be visiting later this week. Since it’s been awhile since I’ve written though, I need to fill you in on my weekend.

I slept in a little Saturday and then hung around the office for a few hours just to be certain that the demon that possessed my stomach the day before had departed. Then I just set out walking to explore Xela, which is after all the second largest city in Guatemala. To summarize, I basically spent 2 hours just walking around and figuring out the layout of the city a little better. A little piece of information about tonterias (cat calls) – you can’t avoid them. In no way, shape or form have I attempted to dress “cute” while I’ve been here. I went out wearing shorts, a t-shirt, hair up, no makeup and I still got a few comments and one very inappropriate hand/mouth gesture. Who has that ever worked for besides Mike Kerrigan? Really? When I wandered over to the Teatro Municipal, there was a big group of scouts there practicing emergency first aid aka creating makeshift stretchers and carrying off the smallest scout. Which reminds me, my very own brother’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor was this past weekend. CONGRATULATIONS KARSTEN!! You are undeniably the cooler, smarter version of me….I’ll go ahead and add better looking too because I’m sure you’re thinking that. Spark notes version of the rest of the day: spent a few hours wandering around with some random Guatemalan girls I met, saw a woman with 6 fingers, saw some Guatemalan transvestites setting up for the Gay Pride March taking place in Xela, and watched a couple of episodes of Northern Exposure (old TV show) with Ben. For all my ASB loves, I had the opportunity to smoke pot with Ben, but didn’t….sorry I’m not sorry for letting you down. I knew at least Grace would find this hilarious though so I had to share.

Sunday was a lesson in patience. David (a med student at Uva) and I took a shuttle to Los Fuentes Georginas - natural hot baths heated by the Zunil volcano about 30 min outside of Xela. The area surrounding the pools was absolutely gorgeous and there was a trail winding down through the forest, which was really pretty. The only downside to the day was that the shuttle showed up an hour late that morning to take us to the springs and then, it was 2-3 hours late picking us up. At first, I was pretty pissed off about it, but realized that being angry was pretty senseless (I’ve got more to write about this later) and was just going to ruin what was actually a really fun day. It turned out just fine because David and I just hung around, grabbed a drink, explored, and talked while we waited. And the shuttle ride back was fun because there were two guys riding with us who are songwriters in LA/really random interesting people. When we got back to the parque central there was some sort of benefit concert going on so we listened to that for awhile and then headed over to Dos Tejanos to meet up with some other people for dinner. The whole AMA team actually ended up coming to dinner at Dos Tejanos too so I just hopped from one table to the next.

The rest of the night with the AMA team was sooo much fun. Everyone had a few drinks (except Katy and I – still very protective of my stomach) and we all sat around and talked and laughed. Like Ben says, the team that parties together, stays together. It felt really awesome to be chatting, laughing, and taking pictures with a table full of Guatemalan women because most foreigners working in Xela are working with foreign organizations and don’t necessarily get a chance to mingle with locals (apart from homestays if you’re studying Spanish). However, a table full of drinking Guatemalan women also = fast Spanish and a heavy supply of jokes I often don’t catch. I just nod and laugh…I usually get the general idea so I can at least be sure that I haven’t laughed at a joke that’s at my own expense haha. And I think that’s the best thing you can do, when a creepy latino calls out to you, when your bus shows up hours late, when you don’t get a joke, when it rains on your parade (which is does EVERY DAY here) - just go with it, just nod and laugh.

Exhalamos, perro

Breathe, downward dog. If you want a Spanish lesson in body parts, go to a yoga class. I went to a class at the Xela yoga house and found it interesting enough to write a whole blog post about. Where to start, well the instructor is a Guatemalan woman who has braces, a sweaty/oily face and is working on growing a mustache. To top it off she was wearing Richard Simmons-esque fluorescent teal track pants. A week of yoga classes costs 35Q, which is around $5. The class was held in a tiny room with green walls and almost everyone there was a foreigner. Not surprisingly, some of them seemed pretty hipster…especially the unshaven tattooed girl beside me. The class was really good though, and I got to laugh inside a little bit every time the instructor said Chatarunga because it sounded so funny.

Afterwards I struck up a conversation with a girl named Whitney, who seemed pretty close to my age. But alas, no, she is 24 and a grad student at UNC. It seems like most of the other people working here are around that age; I haven’t met any other undergrads besides the ones that come on teams with AMA. We agreed to meet up at a café in the park called el cuartito…which actually turned out to be awesome because Warren and a bunch of other Uva students showed up. Dorothy, another rising second year from Uva that I know, is actually here in Xela as well. I got lots of phone numbers    : ) and now have hopes of having a social life. However, my night quickly became terrible, and I mean TERRIBLE.

I don’t know what time exactly, but at some point during the night I woke up shivering, with a stomach ache and headache that literally made me want to cry. I basically spent the next 12 hours throwing up (so I’m not sorry for telling you that) and sleeping. I have NEVER been this sick. I slept on and off (between throwing up) until 4 or 5 in the evening. The AMA ladies were really nice and went and bought me coca-cola, Gatorade, some magic electrolyte drink that tastes like pineapple, and antibiotics (that’s right Natalie, Guatemalan not Mexican antibiotics haha). The culprit of these 12 hours of pure torture? Probably the street food I ate yesterday. It’s a shame because I was really looking forward to more cheap street food. Regardless, I also had a Mojito last night and since that’s the last thing I had before getting sick I never want to look at one again (I’m sorry Sarah, I know they’re your favorite). The moral of this story- don’t eat street food.

la vida economica

La rumba! That’s the name of the club I went to last night with Kirsten. It was sooo much fun just to get out for a night because lately I’ve been stuck in the office since it’s not very safe to walk by yourself at night. However, now I have a phone and a few friends in town so hopefully there will be lots of nights out in the near future. I might go to the free salsa lessons that they hold at several clubs around town because at the moment I’m pretty horrible. Anyhoo, this morning was super exciting because I got to go running!!!! Kirsten and I met at 6:30 and ran el Baul, which is a nearby mountain hike. We had to walk the uphill part because hills + much higher altitude = an inability to breath. On the run back this guy ran right behind us the whole time, slowing down and speeding up when we did…not sure if he was being creepy or if he was just trying to be manly and keep up with us. Then, after taking a FREEZING cold shower, I walked to the park, bought breakfast and sat in the center square and people watched. Afterwards, back to the office to work (and play).

Rather than just sharing my itinerary with you guys, I’m also going to try to share some interesting information about Guatemala! La vida en Guatemala es una vida economica (cheap/economical) for los gringos (white people). As I explained yesterday, produce is definitely much cheaper than it is at home, a mango here costs roughly 35 cents. Anything that’s imported is going to be much more expensive though! I bought breakfast this morning from a street vender in the park and for $1 got a chile relleno with spaghetti and beans (I know, it sounds strange). Even at restaurants you can buy a full breakfast for around $3. And it makes sense if you think about it. When the minimum wage is $1, which it is here, and a business likely isn’t paying for social security, Medicaid etc. the value added from the service is going to be a lot less. Housing is cheap too, Cater pays a little under $100 a month for here rent and that includes internet, cable, water and gas! However, all these numbers are relative and like I said, it’s an economical life for gringos…not for your average Guatemalan. Roughly 25% of Guatemalans live on less than $1 a day and more than half have an income of less than $2 a day (these statistics are a little dated). So, even though I think the food here is cheap, your average Guatemalan is spending more than 50% of their income to feed themselves. And we think we have it rough when the price of food rises (the average American spends like 7% of their income of food). Anyways, in short, you can travel in Central America pretty cheaply relative to American standards (which means all of you should be jumping up and down to travel with me next time I come).

Mangoes and Adam Smith are dank

Mangoes are delicious. And cheap. One of the awesome things about Guatemala is the price of fresh produce.  Yesterday, I bought a head of lettuce, a bunch of carrots, a cucumber, three mangoes, an avocado, and a pound of black beans for roughly $3. There are several markets in Xela with rows of venders selling all sorts of fruits, veggies, beans, and grains. There were several things that I’d never seen before, like a fuzzy red fruit of some sort and another fruit that looks a bit like a potato but is apparently a cross between an avocado and a sweet potato. I’ll let you know if that’s the case when I try it.

I’ve also decided that my dentist is going to be very angry about the amount of coffee and tea I’ve been drinking. When it’s cold and rainy all you want to drink something warm, so most days I’ve been drinking 4 to 6 cups of tea or coffee. Cater, who is the food and health expert around here, told me that because Guatemalans so frequently drink hot drinks, which they usually drink with sugar, diabetes has become a problem in many communities. Thus, I drank my coffee and tea without sugar and instead ate a coconut macaroon that I bought on the way back from the park instead.

Going back to the title of this blog, Ben is definitely a bit of an expert on economics, so this morning he showed Kirsten and I his presentation on the Invisible Hand’s role in economic development. I’ve had several econ talks with Ben and realized that 1) I learned way more than I thought in my Business, Ethics and Society class and 2) Adam Smith is a boss. I guess I should also add 3) I’m a huge nerd.

Lastly, one of the VCU kids, Lucas, used the word dank the other day which I’ve never heard or used before (probably because I'm not a stoner) so I thought I’d give it a try haha. Also why do you have to add an e to the plural form of mango, seriously, who decided to do that?

Hasta luego.

trucks y trabajo

This morning got off to an interesting start. The AMA truck that is supposed to drive Hilda, Roberto and some others to El Refugio wouldn’t start. So, Cater, Kirsten, Hilda, Roberto, Ricardo and I all lined up behind it and pushed. After getting it out into the street, it still wouldn’t start and we were blocking a bus, so a few men emerged from the bus and we all pushed it back into the garage. And then we went again, we pushed it out into the street and kept pushing and kept pushing for like a block and a half until it finally caught. Hilda plopped down on the sidewalk and just laughed and laughed.

            Back to yesterday, I spent the day working in the office, exploring the market and cooking a little. For the next 4 to 5 weeks I’m going to be conducting research about the economy of Pacutama, a community in the mountains of Guatemala. I’ll be spending some of my days in the office researching and designing a series of interview questions and a research method. Then, I will spend a few days to a week living in the community to gather information and conduct interviews. The hope is that my secondary research and the primary data I collect can be used to continue a bigger project dealing with community health and economics.

            I’ll tell you all about the markets and food later after I’ve seen and tasted more! Shout out to Karsten- I made guacamole yesterday, get excited : )

poco por poco: getting settled in

It has taken me a while to get around to writing this, partly because I haven’t had the time and/or energy and partly because I haven’t had my thoughts straight to really explain my experiences thus far to anyone else (plus I doubt that more than one or two people are actually reading this). My first day in Guatemala was pure excitement. I arrived in Panajachel where I stayed the first night with a team from VCU. Apart from taking a boat to San Juan to tour a coffee cooperative, I spent tons of time talking to Ben Blevins (exec. of Highland Support Projects) about the different projects I might be working on and about Latin America, economics and politics in general. You can have some very interesting conversations with this guy…and I quote, “Hayek and Friedman were Nazi assholes.” When I came I was under the impression I mostly be helping out with teams and creating a database of contacts for AMA, but Ben informed me that that was “below my IQ level” and that instead I would get to do research for one of HSP’s newer projects, which include a community health initiative, an artisan business, and a project involving carbon tax programs and reforestation. I’ll try to describe these in better detail later. Needless to say after hearing all of this and getting to speak Spanish, I was ecstatic. However, moving to a new city by yourself can change all of that very quickly.

To be completely honest the past two days have been really rough. First, it’s really cold here which can put a major damper on your mood. Xela is in the highlands so it’s one of the coldest cities in the country, around 70 or 80 in the day depending on cloud coverage and much colder at night. The sun is pretty bright during parts of the day, but it is the rainy season here so you can also count on it raining for at least an hour a day. My first two days in Xela I accompanied the VCU team to a Quiche community. It’s even farther up in the highlands, even colder than Xela and covered in fog so that sometimes you can’t see the houses ahead of you. The first day we watched/participated in a Mayan ceremony, which is basically a fire, prayers etc. lead by a Mayan priest, and we helped plant trees as part of a reforestation project there. The second day I was supposed to be working in the office with Claudia to get started on my project but they needed an extra translator (which they realized last minute so I ended up running out the door in the clothes I wore the day before, without having showered or brushed my teeth, WIN) so I ended up going to the community again to translate for Hilda while the VCU teams built stoves for women there. This was actually really interesting because the families in this community don’t speak Spanish, they speak Quiche, so Hilda would talk to the families in Quiche, translate it to me in Spanish and then I would tell the teams in English. Also, because I had already built stoves before I was able to be of pretty significant help to the teams, who are really nice (even though they definitely have a stereotype of Uva students being rich kids with trust funds haha). At one point Hilda and I sat in the kitchen of a family and I just sat and listened to them speak Quiche, which, don’t be fooled, is nothing like Spanish. All of this sounds pretty great now that I take the time to write it down, but it has actually been pretty lonely and unsettling.

This is a crazy busy time of the year for AMA and they have two teams here right now so I kind of got thrown into things really quickly. It’s easy to feel really lonely when you aren’t part of a student team here, you don’t know the city, and you aren’t very close with the people you’re working with yet. Combine that with waking up at 5:50 in the morning, the cold weather, relatively cold showers, long bumpy bus rides, and staying in a big concrete building practically by yourself and trust me you’ll be missing your own bed and your mom pretty quickly. I haven’t gotten a chance to go out and explore and the city so I’ve definitely been feeling pretty stuck, just going wherever I’ve been told to go and I found myself thinking entirely too much, which those who know me well know isn’t that abnormal. Thinking is dangerous. Should I have studied abroad in Valencia instead? Am I cut out for development work? Is ignorance bliss? Basically, I’ve been asking myself who am I and what I want to do with my life. In reality, those are pretty stupid questions because I know I’m going to figure it out along the way. Equally, I know that the first few days of being anywhere can be rough and that things are going to get much better very quickly. I just keep reminding myself that I chose to be here for a reason, largely to learn a lot of these things about myself. God works in mysterious ways and I guess I have to appreciate the fact that I’m realizing my weaknesses now.

On a much brighter note, things are looking better already today. Juanita and I set up my desk in the office and Ben, Claudia and I are going to go over the details of my project. Later, another American working here, Cader, is going to show me around the market and the town so that I’ll be able to go shopping or meet up with people or even go to the yoga classes they have in town haha. Cader lives with Kirsten, who also works for AMA, and they have a lot of friends in town so when things slow down a little bit I’ll be able to hang out with them more, going for runs and hikes in the morning : ) And of course, I’m getting to practice Spanish practically 24/7. My listening skills are so much better already because everyone around me is speaking in Spanish…I make tons of mistakes in my spoken Spanish, but it will get better with time. Well I’m going to leave things here for now since I’ve made this too long already. I’ll fill you in on my project and the city in my next post!