Monday, June 27, 2011

"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!
            

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