Guatemala Journal

Guatemala Journal

December 29, 2005

It continues cold in Xela, and even though it is the dry season, there was thunder and rain today. The clear days are best because the sun warms everything up pretty quickly, but the last few days have been overcast and really cold for a Southern California girl. This morning I put on a camisole, slacks, turtleneck shirt, cotton cardigan, fleece vest, zip sweatshirt and gloves for the walk to the school at 8:00am. I was able to shed the sweatshirt by midmorning, but the last few days I was still wearing all the layers including my gloves at our break at 11:00. Spanish instruction is 5 hours every day. This week I meet with my Maestra from 8:00 to 1:00. Last week I met with a different teacher in the afternoon from 2:00 to 7:00. Most of the time is spent in conversation. It sounds ridiculous, considering my Spanish skills, but we have talked about what the Lutheran Church thinks of Mary Magdalene, the syncretism of the Mayan/Catholic religion, Jewish festivals, the position of the Catholic Church on the poor in Guatemala, and whether Mary was really a virgin. We have also discussed the simple questions that illustrate new verbs and verb combinations: How old are your daughters, what do you wish for?
On Tuesday when my maestra asked me what was in my purse, I realized that I didn´t have it with me, which is unprecedented. We went back to Lila´s house to see if it was there, but it was not. The last time I remembered seeing it was in the internet cafe´. I had put it next to the laptop I was using. The room was so dark, the screen so bright, the conversation with the South African couple who let me use their connector to download my pictures so diverting, my black purse so small, it was easy to pack up my the bag with my flash drive and walk away without my purse. I was in a panic. I expected that it was gone for good. After all, this is Guatemala, and everyone just wants to rob rich Americans, right? We hiked over to the “Gospel Internet Café” where I was sure I´d left it, and they recognized me when I walked in. They had my purse, and everything was in it, my dollars and queztales, my id and my passport. I guess the Gospel part is not just a title.
As much as living with a family drives me crazy, the food has been wonderful. Lila is a good cook and turns the simplest ingredients into delicious meals. This morning I had banana pancakes with honey, yesterday a big fruit salad with fresh bananas, pineapple and melon with my toast and honey. Lunch is the main meal and on Monday we had Carne Asada – the Guatemalan style turns out to be two tortillas piled with grated cabbage and pimento pepper, thin grilled steak and homemade salsa. Tueday was a vegetable broth you ladle into bowls and then fill with rice and avocado, then after the soup you eat the cabbage, potatoes, corn, and chunks of carrots that have been cooked in the broth. There are usually tomalitos to go with everything – thin slices of masa that are heated up in the banana leaves in which they are refrigerated. A few days ago Lila made fresh tortillas on the stove to eat with fried chicken and vegetable salad. But sometimes the combinations get weird, like the afternoon we had chow mein, noodles with thin slices of peppers and cabbage, served with tortillas.
Next week I will be in the mountain school. I was prepared for it to be really cold, but it turns out to be in the Boca-Costa, the mid-coastal area, a lower altitude than Xela. The Boca-Costa is where coffee grows and the mountain school is in a village that grows coffee. Only 10 students study there at a time, and live in a dormitory in the school. We will take our meals with local families, and work with them in the organic garden when we are not studying or doing homework. I am looking forward to sunshine and warmer weather.