Turkey Day in Guatemala

We were thankful for many things this year:

- Not being in India (our thoughts go out to the victims of the terrible tragedy in Mumbai)

- The opportunity to travel and study Spanish

- Lovely new friends in Antigua

- Continuing good health!

- Support and friendship from friends & family at home

We had a fun time hosting a Thanksgiving lunch at our little apartment. We were able to find almost everything we needed: turkey, canned pumping, potatoes, etc. The actual cooking part was a little bit like a modern day version of Stone Soup. We invited our neighbors for lunch, and they were kind enough to loan us pots, baking dishes, blenders, plates, utensils, and cups so we could pull off the feast. We had a lovely meal with our neighbors Oyvind & Christin and there sons Benjamin & Leander; Gretchen with her beautiful daughter Ana, our friend Linda, and our Spanish instructors. It was the first time I've celebrated Thanksgiving as an outdoor meal and it was quite memorable. Most of our guests had never tasted pumpkin pie before and were quite skeptical about whether a vegetable could make a good dessert. They were amazed at how yummy it was. Kudos to Larissa for making great pies from scratch! I'll post some pictures soon.

Atitlan

(Note:  I'm just a bit behind on blogging....this trip actually happened a few weeks ago!  Will be doing some catching up soon!)

El Lago Atitlan is truly one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It is formed by the caldera of an very ancient and very large volcano and is blessed with a steep shoreline that prevents construction of structures and habitation in all but a few areas. The result is lush green hillsides running into beautiful fresh lake water and very few structures. One very lovely structure is La Casa del Mundo where we stayed when we visited last weekend.

Our journey started with us receiving a flyer from a travel agency advertising great fares to Panahachel on a "Modern Pullman Coach with air conditioning, individual seats, and direct service". We should have known it was too good to be true. We arrived at the designated meeting spot at 6:30 on Sunday morning and found a few other gringos waiting for the bus. I was inside eating breakfast when the girls came in saying, "the bus is here and the driver says he needs more money from us". When I went outside, I found that not only was the driver demanding we pay more than our pre-paid ticket, but that he was driving a chicken bus! Chicken buses are old school buses that are brought down from the US, painted with lots of great colors, used as public transportation, and generally crammed with twice as many people, animals, and baggage than would ever be legal in the US! This was not exactly what we had in mind. After refusing to pay additional money, and many phone calls back and forth between the driver & the travel agency, we finally threw our luggage on top and boarded the bus. The only A/C was open windows, the so called "individual seats" were benches made for 2 but shared by 4, and the "direct service" meant that we stopped every 100 yards or so for additional passengers! What should have been a 2 hour trip took 3 hours, and the good news is that we got to see lots of colorful local characters. And we arrived safely. As I said to the kids, "sometimes you get to go first class...and sometimes you get to go chicken class!"

Our time up at the lake was fantastic. Casa del Mundo has incredible gardens, lovely rooms, and fantastic food. Dinners are served family style and we visited with groups from Britain, Australia, Belgium, Guatemala, and the US.  We spent the days lounging in hammocks, reading, playing card games, swimming, and eating.  It was a delightful respite.

The house is finished!

The house is finished - it looks pretty darn good and we got it done in 2 weeks! The end product is three rooms with 3 windows, 3 doors, and a bathroom with shower and toilet. The family that will live there consists of a mom & dad (ages 31 & 33) and 5 children ages 18 months to 7 years. They will be required to pay a minimal amount of rent (about $20/month), take care of the house, and have all the kids in school (except for the eldest who has cerebral palsy). They are thrilled to have a new house and wanted to celebrate with us on the final day. Although it is generally very difficult to get time off, both the mom & dad stayed home. The folks from ConstruCasa brought a cake a large bottle of Pepsi to celebrate mid-morning, and the family invited us & the construction workers to share lunch with them. It meant a lot to them to cook a meal for us and we enjoyed it immensely. They made our favorite Guatemalan meal: Chicken Pepian, rice with vegetables and hibiscus drink (which they very kindly boiled for us then indulged in a purchase of ice to cool it back down). It was easily one of the tastiest meals we've had yet!


All in all, it was an excellent volunteer experience. The folks at Constru Casa did a great job of integrating us into the project, we enjoyed working with the construction team, and were actually able to help out some. Constru Casa is a great little organization - the overhead is very low, they work closely with the Guatemalan social service organizations that already exist, and they basically do great work. We were happy to find a group that aligned with our values so closely. Thanks to Tomas, Cesar & William for teaching us how to build and for letting us get in the way a little bit while we learned.




I think Kelsey Larissa both learned some valuable lessons also. They both declared that they don't want to do any kind of manual labor for a living, and seem to understand how lucky they are to have the educational opportunities that they do (yea! Mission accomplished!!!). They both noticed that the Guatemalan kids work extremely hard just to survive on a day to day basis. And the kids here would give anything to have the "luxury" of just going to school and studying. It's annoying to think about American kids who squander the chances they have....

More work.....

"Before" shot of the type of house we're replacing:


Larissa working:


Ben working:


Larissa and Ben not working:


Kelsey and William imitating cement trucks:


Larissa supervising the supervisor:


More cute long lashed little boys; helpers to the helper's helpers:



Kids happy to be watching their new house grow:


Girls happy at the end of the work day:

v

Climbing the Volcano

Sunday we climbed up Pacaya, the most active volcano in Guatemala. This is the view back to Volcano Agua (La Antigua is on the other side):


Here are Kelsey & Larissa & the guide (Eusebio) with Pacaya in the background:


Hot Lava! I am actually cheating a little with these pictures. While they are indeed pictures of lava on Pacaya, the pictures are from 2 years ago when Ben & I climbed it. This year, it was too darn hot to get close enough for pictures. In fact, Kelsey was trying to take a picture and after about 30 seconds of standing still, she decided she needed to high tail it out of there to a cooler spot. After she descended to safety, she discovered that her lower legs exposed below her capris, were scorched red, as if they had been sun burned! The lava was just too hot too fast for decent photos this year, but this is what it looked like!



One of the delightful aspects of the trip is the little kids who "rent" walking sticks. They start out wanting to charge Q5 (about 60 cents) but will quickly come down to Q2. At the end of the hike, they're staked out waiting to get their merchandise back. Quite the little entrepeneurs. I wanted a picture of this little guy, Carlos Antonio because his eyelashes were about 3/4" long. They seemed as if they were going to obscure his vision, and I imagine as he gets older they're going to obscure somebody's vision!

It's becoming a house!

So, perhaps I should've appreciated the construction schedule the first two days! Our work since then has been arduous and back breaking.....and we each do about half of what each of the Guatemalans do. These guys are strong and are willing to work hard. Our job is basically to tote stuff for the junior assitant who helps the mason. So, we bring the cinder blocks, and mix the cement, and lug the buckets of cement, and haul whatever else needs to be hauled. In the picture of the stack of cinder blocks, we notched the edge of each of those blocks by hand....and hacked holes in the bottom so the blocks could be set around the vertical pieces of rebar.
All in all it quite satisfying to see progress being made so quickly! We will have our three rooms plus bathroom done by the end of this week!

Volunteer House Building

This is our house building schedule so far:

Day 1

7:00 meet director at Central Plaza

7:00 – 7:45 wait for other volunteer who never shows up (we think he mistakenly changed his watch for daylight saving time!)

7:45 – 8:00 drive to work site

8:00 – 9:00 wait for other workers

9:00 – 10:00 look at plan, talk with family about plan, talk with neighbors about plan

10:00- 10:30 take a break

10:30 – 11:00 move trash pile from one location to another so family can burn it

11:00 – 12:00 watch Tomas, Cesar & William make measurements

12:00 – 1:00 lunch break

1:00 – 2:00 watch while more measurements are taken, heads are scratched and stakes are pounded

2:00 – 3:00 break

3:00 – 4:30 start to dig trenches 50cm wide by 70 cm deep

4:30 get on a chicken bus

4:31 nearly lose Larissa as chicken bus takes off just as she’s stepping on

4:32 – 4:45 hold on tight while chicken bus speeds from one stop to the next then slams on brakes

4:45 get off bus and breathe a sigh of relief!

Day 2

7:00 – 7:15 wait for Tomas in front of Pollo Campero (Guat version of KFC)

7:15 buy a paper to amuse us during breaks

7:15 – 7:30 ride bus to worksite

7:30 – 10:00 finish digging trenches

10:00 – 11:00 break. Discover paper is daily record of all of the drug murders in Guat city.

11:00 – 11:30 stand around wondering if the materials are going to show up

11:30 watch as hillside above our excavation collapses

11:30 – 12:00 re-dig the trenches

12:00 – 1:00 lunch

1:00 – 2:00 finish re-digging trenches; move dirt from one pile to another

2:00- 2:30 stand around wondering if materials are going to show up

2:30 – 3:00 break

3:00 – 3:30 sit around wondering if materials are going to show up

3:30 decide materials aren’t going to show up; go home

9:00 Celebrate Obama victory!!!!!!

Day 3

Rest Day When the director told us about having a Wednesday rest day, I was thinking, “I don’t need no stinking rest day”. Waking up this morning with every muscle complaining about shoveling, I was kind of appreciating this rest day! Even though it doesn’t sound as if we were working too hard, those few hours of digging trenches did me in!

They say it will take us only 2 weeks to build this house. At this rate, it doesn't seem possible, but I'll update!

Our New Apartment

We’re in our new apartment. It’s not as quaint or traditional as El Solar which was an old hacienda converted to apartments and full of antiques. But what the new place lacks in charm, it more than makes up for with the great neighbors, generous light, and a very pleasant outdoor space.   So far, we’ve met people from Norway, Guatemala, and California. The folks from the US that we’ve met are down here going through very lengthy adoption processes. Apparently, the Guatemalan government used to be fairly liberal with adoptions but has recently made the process much more arduous. Some of these families started the process thinking it would take a few months. They are encountering one hurdle after another requiring more than a year to resolve in most cases. One couple has had to get three different DNA tests from both the birth mother and baby to prove the child was not kidnapped. And that’s only the beginning. I feel for these families, but they all agree that if they have to be “trapped” someplace, these apartments in Antigua are a good place to be!

Barriletes Gigantes - Giant Kites

Yesterday was Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Day) in Guatemala. The guatelemalans honor their dead by cleaning, decorating, and visiting the gravesites. We went on an excursion via minibus organized by the school to Sumpango. It’s about a half hour drive from Antigua on a highway that is remarkably nice compared to all of the other roads and infrastructure around here. As an aside, it’s an odd experience to have such a mixture of very modern and very antiquated infrastructure. On the one hand there are cell phones and great highways and internet access while on the other hand trash is picked up by carts and food delivered by little old ladies who tote it on their heads. It’s as if some aspects of the infrastructure development were completely missed! But to get back to Dia de los Muertos: it is a very important day and in our drive to Sumpango, it seemed as if every person from miles around was present to participate. Cars lined the highway and roads leading to the cemetery, reminding us of a big music festival or sporting event. In the cemetery, families were hanging out at the gravesites, eating picnics, drinking, and socializing. Ice creams carts rolled up and down the rows of graves with the proprietors dinging the bells incessantly. Hawkers sold bunuelos, toys, and candy bars. Very colorful and noisy, but not a solemn event whatsoever.

Another particularly Mayan custom associated with Dia de los Muertos is the kite festival. This tradition originated years ago with a Mayan village that was experiencing bad harvests, sicknesses and other unfortunate events. The spiritual leader of the village told the people that perverse spirits were disturbing both the dead and the living inhabitants of the village. He suggested that they build kites to chase away the evil spirits with the noise from the crashing of the wind against the paper. The villagers made kites, flew them and their luck changed. Since that time, the tradition has been passed down and each year kites are flown to chase the evil spirits away and send peaceful message to the heavens.

In the village of Sumpango, the tradition has grown to include an International Kite Festival where barrileteros (kite builders) compete for prizes based on design, size, and flying ability. The kites are built by hand from bamboo, tissue paper, and glue. Each team travels to southern Guatemala for the bamboo and spends 2 or more months building their design. We saw some beautiful creations in Sumpango. Many of the kites measured up to 6 meters across and had elaborate and colorful designs depicting Mayan themes integrated with modern messages about climate change, environmentalism, etc. After the judging for the designs is completed, the teams attempt to launch their kites. It was thrilling to see these great beasts trying to catch the wind. The crowd of thousands cheered and groaned with the successes and failures as one after another tried to make it up. Some of the giant kites flew for a few seconds then turned upside-down and crashed, some folded in half instantly before even making it off the ground, and one or two actually launched and flew for hours. When one of the early kites folded up, one of the guys in our group blurted out, “Hecho in Mexico (made in Mexico)” which amused all of the Guatemalans around who instantly became friends with the funny Americans. The giant butterfly (above) was absolutely stunning, but unfortunately delicate - it was crumpling even before the team tried to get it off the ground.

It was even a hoot going to the bathroom even: some enterprising town folks put up a cardboard sign that said, “Sanitarios”. For 1Q each (about 12 cents), we were ushered into the courtyard by one of the children. While we were waiting there in line, another man gave us TP, and afterwards, granny showed us where to wash our hands. Our compatriot Dr. Joe quipped that he’d never had a team assist him in going to the bathroom before!

Those who know me well know that crowded dusty festivals are usually last on my list of to-do events but I surprised myself by finding I didn’t want to leave when 4:00 came around and it was time to meet the bus. It was a very fun day and an event that is well worth experiencing.

Pupusa y habas

We have a couple of new favorite treats: pupusas and habas. Habas are roasted broad beans. I know, it doesn't sound that great, but they're crunchy and when spiced with chilies and lime, they're super tasty. Of course, I'll eat just about anything with chili & lime....chips, almonds, corn nuts...you name it! At least I can justify these as possibly being just slightly more healthy. Pupusas are filled corn tortillas. Apparently, it's a Salvadoran thing, but a number of the restaurants here make them too. We tried frozen ones tonight that were so scrumptious we're anxious to try the fresh ones.

So, we solved the light problem the low-tech way. Realizing that our apartment was covered up with antique candle holders, we decided to make good use of them. And since everything is so soggy from the incessant rain, we figured that the risk is acceptable. Our newly learned Spanish skills helped us find some pillars and tapers to buy and now although the place looks a little bit like a church, it's better than its previous cave-like appearance.

We had a lovely afternoon and climbed up the hill north of town where a very large cross overlooks the city. The Lonely Planet Guide from a few years ago says it's not the best part of town, but from our apartment we could see that there were a bunch of people up there. Climbing up the hill, we saw a couple of tourist police and once we reached the summit, we saw groups of families, kids with nuns, and old grannies wearing high heels. Didn't feel too threatening, and it was a great relief to get ourselves out of the apartment! On the descent, Larissa tried to count the stairs of the path and we think there are about 322. She had a few difficulties such as skipping #45, and going from 309 to 900. Perhaps her math teacher (me) needs to get back with it...

Fin de Semana

I sadly said goodbye to my Spanish teacher, Sonia yesterday. I enjoyed the week of classes with her immensely; it was quite nice to have someone just to talk with! The owner of school, Humberto teased us every day because whenever he passed, Sonia and I were chatting, not working in the grammar book. He accused us of talking about clothes and makeup and boys but little did he know that we were solving the problems of the world. We covered health, politics, immigration, narcotraficantes, food, adolescents, and more. At least that's what I think we talked about - I certainly hope that I didn't come across as some whacko Idaho survivalist or something! Sonia said I speak very elegantly....but that is partly because I don't know the idiomas! Once I learn the short cuts, I won't have to use long convoluted phrases to say what I need to say!

Y'know, I think part of the problem in learning Spanish is that I don't know what many of these verb tenses even mean in English. What the heck is a past subjunctive anyway? Or a pluperfect subjunctive? Anyone? Anyone? I thought not - I think I'll be sticking with these more than sufficient tenses: present, past, future, and a little conditional or imperfect thrown in occasionally when I feel like speaking "elegantly"!

Three solid days of rain inspired me to get to the gym for some exercise today. I've been avoiding it because the music they play there is very very very unappealing to me. But at least it's very very loud! I made a great discovery today though. Every Saturday afternoon, they give Salsa lessons in the gym. During the lessons, the music is still very very very loud. But at least it's Salsa. And that's much more tolerable.

I've added links to Kelsey & Larissa's blogs if anyone wants to read the teenage version of our adventure. They are titled, "My Extended Summer Vacation", and "My 6 month Summer " respectively. Good to see they're taking this experience seriously from an educational perspective!

Brain Overload

We're noticing a disconcerting set of symptoms: it seems that the more Spanish we learn, the more English words we forget. Today I couldn't come up with the word for "Wasabi", and Kelsey couldn't remember "Speed Skating". It's almost as if our brains have limited capacity and something has to get dumped to make room for every new word that goes in!

Temblor?

I awoke early this morning to rattling windows and a gently shaking bed. After deducing this disruption wasn't from late night fiestas, I started to think I was feeling my first earthquake. As my little heart started beating faster, the shaking stopped, only to resume a few minutes later. It was not very dramatic, just gentle shaking. When I asked my spanish teacher about it later, she said that it probably wasn't an earthquake and explained that many of the buildings in Antigua shake when large buses or trucks drive by. This was not reassuring to me. I then started to wonder "if that type of disruption is occurring merely as a result of a truck driving by, what's going to happen if there really is an earthquake?"

We're in our third day of spanish classes at the Christian Spanish Academy.  The school is just a few blocks from our apartment and so far I'm very impressed. We each took an assessment test and were placed with our own private instructor. We spend 4 hours a day with at our table under the umbrella with one on one instruction and conversation. The girls both enjoy their teachers - they are really animated young women who like to take Kelsey & Larissa out to buy bread or ice cream and have plans to play basketball tomorrow! My teacher is also a great match for me - we have a very good time chatting about all kinds of things. And this is the first situation in which I'm not getting in trouble for talking in class because it's part of the learning process! Larissa is in level A, Kelsey in B, and I'm in C. We're all doing some amount of review of material that we've learned already. In my case, since my last Spanish classes were more than 25 years ago, the review is just fine!!!!

Ben went back to Driggs this morning for some business and we sent with him our wishlist:
1. washcloths(they don't provide them and the one I brought never dries so gets disgusting pretty quickly)
2. Extension cords and a wireless router. There's only one internet connection and of course we each have a laptop we want to plug in!
3. Lamps or stronger light bulbs. The apartment is a very quaint renovated hacienda...but it's a little dark and gloomy at night.
4. A toaster oven. There's no oven here and I'm running out of things to cook on the stovetop.

(I probably won't actually get that last one but can certainly learn how to be more creative!) Other than that, we're really not craving anything that we're not able to get here. There's even a Subway, a Burger King, and a Domino's Pizza if we should feel the urge for fastfood!

George Foreman

It's the simple things that are important. Tonight we toasted George Foreman for inventing the Mean Lean Fat-reducing grilling machine. One of that last things we did before embarking on our trip was to go to the Driggs Thrift Store to buy a $3.00 George Foreman grill to bring with us. Wow was that a great purchase! Since we don't have an oven (another 'hassle' I neglected to mention in my previous whine), it's great to have a grill. Kinda pathetic how my concerns have completely narrowed into the very basics of survival: Can I purchase food? Can I make dinner for the family? Can I keep them healthy? If I wash these vegetables in the water, will that be worse or better? (Thank goodness for vinegar & its assistance in bug killing!)

So far, so good as far as keeping healthy goes. We're not being hyper-paranoid and use sink water to brush teeth, wash dishes, etc. And we realize that anytime we go out to dinner, we have no idea what kind of hygienic precautions they are taking. I'm hoping that our immune systems can keep up with what I guess is the constant onslaught!

We also gave thanks tonight for the fact that we have consistent hot water, electricity, and internet. In our experience, none of these things can be relied upon in India and it minimizes the hassle factor to not have to worry about these basic survival issues.

Today I missed a great photo-op: I saw a Guatemalteca woman about 4'10" tall, dressed in a colorful skirt and embroidered blouse. She was navigating through a large crowd of people. In her left hand, she was carrying a brightly colored bag full of something that appeared to be somewhat heavy. Balanced on her head (with no support from her hands!) was a bundle of something that was larger than a bread box. In her right hand, she was holding a cell to her ear and chattering away. Talk about multi-tasking! And talk about anachronism. Wish I could have captured it!

International Hassle

This is when international adventure turns into international hassle. Although I know it will get better, right at this moment, I’d just like to be back in Idaho (snow and all!). We’ve caught the end of the rainy season in Guatemala which means we’re still getting downpours every day. While my skin and hair and nails are loving the humidity (especially after being used to single digit aridity in Driggs!), the moisture has a downside too – and its ugly name is mold and mildew. The room the girls are sleeping in had some leaks and water damage from the rain last week. The air hasn’t been dry enough to air that room out and it’s starting to smell horribly stuffy. It’s so musty, we dragged a mattress into the dining room for Kels & Larissa to sleep on so they don’t have to breathe mildew in the bedroom all night. You can imagine how I sounded complaining about the problem:

“We have a problem. This room is wet. This room needs to dry. It is not ready. My daughters are not able to sleep here.”

The apartment manager, Sofia, promises to get it sorted out tomorrow; I think what I understood her to say was that they’re going to bring in some maquina to remove the water. We’ll see – our experience is that so often in international travel, the response to a complaint is assurance that it will be taken care of….but very often the follow through just isn’t there.

To top it off, we've discovered that Saturday night is serious party night in Antigua. Apparently, many of the wealthy folks from Guatemala City have weekend homes here and they drive up on Saturdays to spend the night in the cooler hill country. Starting about 8:00 pm, we had at least 2 bands blasting us from opposite sides of the apartment. It was so noisy, the drum beats were literally rattling the window frames! I don't know how late they played because I was finally lulled to sleep by the boom boom boom. Ai yi yi!

So now, I’m just feeling a little sleepy and stuck – the rain is keeping us inside and I’m feeling lonely. But, tomorrow the girls & I start Spanish lessons and I know that will help get us out of our isolation. And Tuesday night we’re attending a meeting about how to get involved in Guatemala where we’re hoping to find some volunteer opportunities for all of us to do!

Market Shock

Today’s adventure was to the open air market for provisions. Although there is a large grocery store here in Antigua, many of the items are imported and tend to be somewhat expensive. The city has an impressive and intimidating open air market: about 3 acres full of stalls and tables with narrow paths winding through. Near the outside, one can find all varieties of produce: pyramids of tomatoes or bananas or pineapple, piles of jalapenos and onions and cilantro, stacks of potatoes and green beans and lumpy squashes. As one meanders into the depths of the maze, the market reveals aisles of meat; various animal parts suspended from stalls, heaps of raw chicken, and strings of sausages. We wandered for an hour, getting lost in the twists and turns; stumbling over mangy dogs, hopping over puddles of water, and generally looking dazed and confused. All in all fairly overwhelming, and after finally navigating our way out, we realized that most of our purchases could have been made at the edges. I still can’t figure out what differentiates the vendors – although one may have cilantro and another garlic, they’ll both have tomatoes and onions and seem virtually indistinguishable. My mission is to figure out how Guatamaltecos choose which stall to frequent.
Is it price? Is it quality? Is it buddies? In any case, we ended up buying some beautiful fresh produce: an onion, garlic, a jalapeno, a large papaya, a bunch of bananitas (the small sweet guys), green beans, potatoes, half dozen tomatoes, 3 large chicken breasts and a kilo of blackberries all for less than $10! And we’re fairly certain that we paid too much because we didn’t bargain.

Eating is interesting - I’m struggling to cook in a kitchen with limited supplies. And after the close-up views of raw meat at the market, Kelsey & Larissa declared they were going to be vegetarians while we’re here. They don’t understand that all meat starts out the same (I’m pretty certain slaughter houses are not too lovely either), we’re just sheltered from the disgusting reality of seeing the meat on the animal. It reminds of being asked by a Sri Lanka Villager, “Who butchers the chicken in your village?” How could I begin to describe mass production, Styrofoam trays, and plastic wrapping? I managed to put together a tasty dinner last night: oven roast chicken with onion, boiled potatoes with butter and garlic, green beans and blackberry cobbler for dessert. The girls even dropped their meat objections after tasting the tender chicken; I don’t know what it is, but chicken is really good here. Maybe it has to do with never being frozen or being generally fresher?

We just took an assessment test for Spanish school. I struggled more than I thought I would; didn’t realize how much I am avoiding conjugating future tense by using the cheating tense: “Yo voy a_____ “ (I’m going to _____”.) We’ll start classes on Monday and hopefully the verbs will come back to me quickly!