The Markets

One of the most memorable things about my first visit to Guatemala was the shopping.  Almost in every town you can peruse tiendas with brightly colored textiles, hand-made, exquisite, and CHEAP!  You can also find charming ceramics, clothing, jewelry, and any kind of accessory you can imagine.  It’s also fun to bargain with the store owners, which is much more than just accepted, it’s expected.  If you pay the first price they tell you, you are paying the “gringo” price, which can often be an acceptable price to you depending on your own economic situation and how much you want it.  I had a blast, and I still adore the lovely scarves and wraps I purchased.

I will never forget the first time I walked down 3a Calle from my hotel in Antigua and noticed the outdoor market right outside of a ruin with merchant after merchant of their hand-made goods for sale.  I felt like I was in a movie in some exotic place.  I later learned that Antigua is a destination for both locals and tourists to come and enjoy the quaintness and beauty that this town offers.  There are jewelry makers, artisans of every type, painters, sculptors, and all sorts of “cultural” creations gathered in this outdoor market every weekend.  In fact, I still adore this little tradition so much that if you visit me, chances are this will be one of our definite activities.  Parents and children come to Antigua dressed in their town’s typical attire to play music for the people, you can easily find a lady to braid your hair with string in the park, and I’ve often stumbled upon impromptu street theater from time to time. 

During my second visit to Antigua, I heard about the “market” where the locals shop.  Of course there are regular clothing stores, grocery stores, stores with home goods, trinkets, collectables, and truly all types of things for sale.  But, “el mercado” was this elusive beast where you supposedly find anything for the BEST prices…as long as you know what a local would be charged and your bargaining skills.  You can truly find anything here.  At first glance, it’s a lot of pirated movies and music, a circus of men walking around with fake watches, and some really tacky clothes (think Eminem’s ex-wife Kim Mathers, and you’ll know what I mean).  When you make it further to the back, there’s farmers from everywhere selling their produce that they probably grew in their back yard.  If someone has a lime tree, they sell limes.  If someone has an avocado tree, they sell avocadoes.  I’ve already given you some idea on the new fruits I’ve been able to try, but it doesn’t really stop there either.  You can find underwear, dishes, candles, wrapping paper, cell phones, belts, jewelry, umbrellas, meat!  In fact I have not had a need yet that hasn’t been met after a trip to “el mercado.”  If the selection of products doesn’t overwhelm you, the people will.  People are yelling at you as you walk by to entice you to buy from them.  Children, women, and men are walking around shoving things in your face to pique your interest.  Cars, yes cars, are driven through the center honking at all the people to get out of their way (seriously…it’s a market, not a street).  If you look like an easy target, I imagine it would be very easy to get away with pick-pocketing someone here too.  Children are helping their parents by carrying huge bags of corn meal or rice with a rope strapped around their forehead to hold the weight.  People run into you without so much as an apology or a glance.  The locals don’t know that it’s not clean to put their hands in the corn, rice, beans, or whatever and throw it around in their hand like it’s pocket change as they negotiate the price.  In some parts, you will see hanging meat for sale with flies everywhere or barrels of dead fish not in ice.  It truly is an experience, and I learn more about it each time I go.  It’s difficult to impart the attraction.  It’s like going to the movies to watch a scary movie.  I like the adrenaline of it.

As I continue to learn about how things here in Guatemala work, I’ve begun to ask myself if these charming markets or adrenaline pumping centers of commerce are part of the problem.  You see, the reasons why the items in these markets are so inexpensive is because nobody pays taxes on them.  I’ll go into this in greater detail in the government piece, but from what I understand there is a 12% flat sales tax only here (meaning no income tax for the general public).  That really only applies to legitimate stores who pay rent and so forth.  In each town I have visited in Guatemala, you can find people selling anything and everything on the streets, and there is no way to document these transactions, and the enforcement of any kind of law here is laughable.  In fact, that’s exactly what happened when I decided to test this theory when I asked someone selling me some fruits for a receipt.  Again, I will go into this more in the next piece, but if you own a business you are allowed to deduct your purchases from the taxes you owe on the products you sell.  This is documented with a number called a NIT (pronounced NEET).  It’s somewhat similar to our social security numbers, and while I don’t own a business, my boyfriend does.  It’s easy for me to remember numbers, so I’ve been giving his when I make purchases.  When I told this particular lady that I had a NIT, she told me quite frankly that I should be shopping somewhere else then.

I’m torn for various reasons.  First, I don’t want to pay more money for the same product when it’s cheaper and easily available somewhere else.  I do enjoy well-made clothing and shoes, and I probably will never buy clothing there, but I have bought lots of fruits and vegetables, and one time I needed to wrap a present.  And yes, I did buy 2 pirate movies Just Go With It and No Strings Attached for Q25, which is mas o menos $3.  I’m not an angel.  On the other hand, I don’t want to contribute to what I see as a potential problem.  The other thing about which I’m torn is that the produce I buy in “el mercado” is produced locally without chemicals.  These people seriously are selling fruits and vegetables grown in their own back yard, and they don’t even know about or have the economical means to purchase fertilizers or pesticides nor do they have vehicles to transport their goods to market.  The fruits and vegetables, and I’ll even go so far as to say the meat (although I haven’t been brave enough to buy any) is as “green” as you can get.  The soil here is extremely fertile, and the weather is totally ideal for farming.  There is a reason why Guatemala is known as the “Land of Eternal Spring.”  I am tired of all the big companies and government-entities (supported by lobbyists working for big companies) lying to us that our chemical-ridden food supply is safe.  Unfortunately, we have exported our obesity (more on this later) and these lies to other countries, and you cannot find an organic food section in the regular super markets here.  Thus I’m conflicted.  Thoughts anyone?

El diablo esta in los detalles

I think I have finally driven my teacher crazy.  I am finally learning the imperfect subjunctive in Spanish class, which opens up a whole new world of expression for me.  It’s quite liberating actually when you have been trying to express yourself adequately not knowing exactly how to conjugate the verbs properly or the correct structure of the sentence you wish to say.  Now that I have learned much more advanced grammar, I am more interested in getting all the tiny details in the stories or articles I read rather than simply getting the idea.  It’s very easy to read something and gain an understanding of what is being said when you only know 60-70% of the words.  I’ve been living on this standard for the last two months, and now I’m ready to really “hunker down” to learn this language!  When I’m in school I speak Spanish nearly all day with confidence and ease.  However, when I spend the weekend in the city with my boyfriend and we go out or we spend time with his daughters and their friends, I realize I still know only a tiny fraction of what I need in order to be fluent.  After a weekend of feeling frustrated, illiterate, ignorant, and perhaps even stupid, I decided to really focus and study harder during the rest of my time here in Antigua.

When you learn a new language, you realize that you’re learning much more than simply conjugations, translations, and grammar. One example of many is that you realize the sense of humor of a culture can be quite different from your own in a different language.  I have lots of examples of things my teacher has said or other teachers have said amongst themselves as jokes that she and they think are hilarious and I simply don’t understand the humor.  It’s not just me either.  Almost all of the students in my school are from the States, and we look at each other sometimes wondering at what are they all laughing? 

This morning I was running a little late, and I arrived at school 5 minutes after 8:00.  When I sat down at the table, my teacher said with a huge smile that she was thinking perhaps I went to the city because I was a little late.  She followed this up with a huge belly laugh that lasted a good minute.  You see, she knows I have a boyfriend in the city.  She often uses this to make jokes, but honestly I don’t understand why it’s so funny to her.  When I come to school wearing nice clothes, which is almost every day because I prefer to dress a little more formally than the average American, she laughs and has an almost creepy smile on her face and says: Oh, you must be seeing Guillermo (my boyfriend) today!!!  Again, this is followed by a huge belly laugh.  It’s getting a little old, and to be honest it makes me feel a little dirty.  I just don’t understand why she thinks it’s so funny. 

This is one of the reasons I am now combing each article, story, or workbook exercise for the exact meaning in English so I can absorb much more than just the grammar.  It is also the reason why I said I think I’ve finally driven my teacher crazy.  I found myself asking her all day today, “Si, yo entiendo, pero porque?” I felt like I was a 5-year old asking why, why why.  I had an exercise for homework last night of 5 short stories, and in each of them I had 10 verbs to conjugate.  It was a great exercise actually because it was a mixture of all of them: present, past, imperfect, present subjunctive, imperfect subjunctive, etc.  The first short story was about a guy who bought a necklace for his wife for Christmas.  He didn’t want her to find it, so he was looking for a hiding place.  She came home and when she asked what he was doing, he yelled at her forcefully that she shouldn’t look at him like a thief.  I made a few mistakes conjugating, but what really aggravated her was that I kept asking why he was so upset.  Then we read many newspaper articles, and when I would come upon a word I didn’t understand, she would respond with a general idea of what the word represented, but that wasn’t good enough for me.  I asked her why she thought a person felt that way or did whatever it was that they did.  I could tell by the end of the day she was ready for a break from me.  When I returned from lunch, she told me that some students wanted to play Scrabble.  I’m the Scrabble champ at school, and normally I never turn down an invitation to play, but today I said I’d like to study more.  I saw the look on her face, and it it looked like what I felt last weekend when I couldn’t understand all the people around me. 

I’ve realized that when you are trying to learn a new language, it’s vital that you understand your own very well, at first.  Then you get to a point where you almost need to forget your language before you can truly capture the new one.  Too many times I try to translate literally or structure the sentences as if they were in English.  That simply doesn’t work, and often you end saying something completely different.  I am determined, however.  That means that I must go now and complete my homework.  Voy a hablar con ustedes mas tarde!

Banking

The banks here in Antigua have ATM machines, but the machines are owned by third parties.  If you go into a Citibank, for example, there is no Citibank ATM machine.  I needed some money even though I’d read about some problems a particular bank was having with people getting their debit card numbers and pins stolen.  I purposely avoided this bank and chose Citibank first because it was familiar and second because the ATM machine is located inside the bank with 2 heavily-armed guards standing in the doorway every day.  I figured it would be nearly impossible for someone to install the scanning devices (or whatever they use to capture this information) in this particular machine, so I felt safe.  The next day my bank called saying someone in New York had withdrawn $500 from my account using a copied ATM card.  I was very lucky that Chase caught it so quickly and returned every cent within a week.  Since I have to talk to Mirna for 6 hours every day, and I figured she could help spread the word so others don’t go to the same bank, I told her the story.  In response to my story, this is what she told me:

Her brother used to own a tienda selling typical artisan things, but the economy hit him hard a few years ago.  He needed to sell all of his inventory and other things in the business, so he advertised a going-out-of-business sale.  It wasn’t very long until he found a buyer who wanted to buy everything.  Her brother had a strict “no checks allowed” policy, but in this one particular instance, the guy hypnotized her brother so he would accept his check.  When he went to deposit the check, there was no money to back it up, and the guy had already taken all of his things.  He lost everything, and it was all because this other guy hypnotized her poor brother into accepting a check.  The moral of the story is never trust anyone, according to Mirna.  It’s getting more and more difficult not to laugh when she says with all seriousness things like her brother was hypnotized.  I promise you, she really believes this.

The other thing that surprised me was the lack of care shown by both the teachers and the banks themselves.  We talked about this in one of our afternoon conversation activities, and the teachers basically told me not to go to any ATM machine at a bank around the central park in Antigua because they’re purposely targeting “rich” tourists.  Apparently this is common.  I think I’ve said before that Antigua is a very international city with a lot of Europeans and North Americans either passing through or staying a while to study Spanish.  They couldn’t seem to understand my point that this really isn’t a solution.  Maybe I’m too much of an idealist, but I was surprised at the ambivalence and willingness to accept a bad situation as it is.  I explained that back in the States if a similar situation had occurred, the bank would begin a new PR campaign demonstrating “sincere” lament for what happened and exactly what they would be doing differently in the future to correct it.  That doesn’t happen here.  The government here is wrought with corruption, which in turn gives the rest of the population a license to do the same. 

The other thing that is very different is that people go to the bank for almost everything financial.  The lines wrap around the block, and I dread it when I have to go to change some dollars into quetzales, the local currency.  People go to the bank to pay their rent, school tuition, electricity and other utilities, deposit their salary checks, pay their credit cards, and of course perform currency exchanges.  Mirna is surprised when I tell her I can deposit a check by taking a picture of it with my phone.  She is amazed at technology, and I am teaching her a lot.  She thinks my iPhone is magical, but then again it really is.  I guess I will have to get used to going to banks again to conduct transactions, which isn’t the end of the world.  I think I will still be able to pay my cell phone bill over the internet…boy I hope so!  We’ll have to see.  Right now I’m just using pre-paid, which is a new experience too .  Mas luego, lo prometo.  Adios por ahora.

Education System

I started writing something else before this piece, actually 2 other posts, but before I finished them I realized one in particular was becoming too long and difficult to follow without having any of the knowledge I’ve gained in the last 6 weeks.  Therefore, I decided to break it up into a few major categories: education, government, the markets (and by markets I mean the manner in which you can purchase and sell things here in Guatemala), and the dangers of living in a third world country.
I’ve been fortunate to be able to learn more than just a new language during my time here in Antigua.  I read the newspaper every day, ask a lot of questions, and one of the “games” we decided to play in the afternoons is invite a couple other teachers and their students to have a discussion about a particular topic.  I like these a lot because I use them as a way to learn from other teachers and not just my own about how life works here in Guatemala.  I’ve come to realize as I learn more complex grammar that it is becoming more and more difficult to have advanced conversations with my teacher.  I know that sounds arrogant, but I certainly don’t mean it as an insult to her intelligence.  I believe intelligence is much more a reflection of a person’s ability to gain more knowledge and knowledge is really just information.  It is a fact that I was fortunate to have a much more in depth education, and she will be the first to tell you that the public education system here is broken.  She is a product of the public education system here and works very very hard to make sure her children can go to a private school.  In fact, some of the things she says are so off-the-wall I’m thinking about starting a book called Sh*t Mirna Says…
I worked in the education sector in the States for 9 months providing financial education and planning to teachers.  During that time, I learned a lot about the ratio of children to teachers, salaries of teachers, experience levels, etc.  If you have a beef about the public education system in your state…listen to this. 
Here in Guatemala the current President, who is ending his term this year. made the public school system free.  At first glance, that sounds like a terrific plan.  Before Alvaro Colom, current President, made public schools free, there was a one-time registration fee for each student.  Principal (Pre-School & Kindergarten) cost Q40 for one year; Basico (Elementary & Jr. High) and Secondario (High School) cost Q150 for one year; Universidad San Carlos (Public University) cost and still does Q200 each semester.  The problem with this is that the number of teachers were not increased.  I have no way of verifying this next piece of information, but according to Mirna, the teachers in the public schools make much more money than the teachers in the private schools.  This seems opposite to me, but it really doesn’t matter.  The point is that the number of students per teacher has nearly doubled, and nobody seems to care about this.  Right now, there are 60-80 children per teacher in the public schools in Guatemala.  Enrollment was certainly increased, but the quality of education of each student has significantly decreased as a result of Colom’s “generous gift.”  The children who may have had a chance in the past attending a public school really have none at all now.  In my opinion, he took a bad situation and made it worse.  The really bad thing is that he really did it just to win votes.  More on this topic later.
You don’t have to work in education to know that 60 children, worse 70 or 80, for just one teacher is an impossible task for that teacher.  I’ve heard and read newspaper articles on public schools that are having a very difficult time getting some teachers to even show up to the school to teach.  Each time, the article stated that the teacher’s salary has not been affected by such behavior.  When you take into account that the teachers themselves are products of the past public education system, it almost seems hopeless.  I have a lot of respect for Mirna for trying so hard to make sure her 2 children have a better life and better opportunities than she did.  Being a single mother is hard enough, but I imagine being crippled by your economic situation and sacrificing all that you can to make sure your child has a chance in a system such as the one here in Guatemala is infinitely more difficult. 
One final thing before I go…I feel so incredibly fortunate for all that I have had and for being able to recognize just that.  I’ve stated before that common sense is not all that common when you don’t have a basic education.  There may be things wrong with your school district, but there’s a lot that’s right about it too.  Don’t forget to look at those things.  When I went to Santa Maria de Jesus (the place where the streets were used as a trash can and the water holding tank for the people was in the cemetery), we visited a school.  These kids were thrilled to see us, and they couldn’t stop giggling when we said hello or asked how many years they have (that’s how you ask how old you are in Spanish).  I have to admit they were pretty fun.

Weekend in the City

I truly love Antigua, and I am enjoying my time here very much, but I have to say as soon as I reached the city last weekend, I was grateful to be there.  Last Thursday was technically a holiday here, as is every June 30.  It is Army Day, and in all honesty I did not learn much about the significance of this particular holiday, but I imagine it's similar to our Labor Day.  The government declared the holiday to be celebrated this year on July 1 so everyone could have a 3-day weekend, and so I headed to the city Thursday evening.

View of the city from a helicopter - yes I took the pic!

Although I grew up in a suburb and my high school years in what many would call "the sticks," I am a city girl through and through.  I thrive on the people, and somehow being around interesting architecture has always energized me.  This, by the way, is one of the reasons I love Antigua so much, but this piece is on the city.  Cities bring many modern-day amenities that are easily lost or forgotten in beautiful far-away settings, but I have to admit it was really great to be around tall buildings, people, malls, grocery stores, and the like.  Antigua has 2 grocery stores, but it's really hard to call these "grocery stores."  They're more like tiny warehouses stuck between centuries-old buildings, and there's really no rhyme or reason to the product placement, and really it's just "different."  In fact, it's so different that the first time I spent a good amount of time in the city, I was very interested in seeing the grocery stores there because I was really only familiar at that point with the ones here in Antigua.  My guide that day was laughing at me a little bit because as soon as I saw a real grocery store in Guatemala City, it was ummm...just like those in the States.  There's a regular produce section, an imported foods section, health/beauty supplies, and all the rest of the food nicely lined up in aisles and organized efficiently.  In fact, Wal-Mart Mexico just bought the largest grocery store chain here, which used to be called Hiper Paiz, and so now I shop at Wal-Mart again...

Giant Map of Guatemala in Zone 2

The point of this entry is to explain to you what life is like in the City.  I'm not 100% sure, but I'm guessing that the city has a population around 2 Million.  The city is separated into zones, with zone 1 smack dab in the middle.  The rest of the zones follow a sort of spiral-like pattern and go all the way up to zone 25 even though zones 20, 22, and 23 don't exist yet.  It's kind of confusing for me still because you will be driving down a road and zone 9 will be on one side of you and zone 14 will be on the other.  I could have this totally wrong, but the point is that from the ground level, it's difficult to understand the pattern.  Zone 1 is the old historic zone where you can find the old National Palace, which is a very beautiful building, and nearby there is zone 2 where you can find a giant map of Guatemala with every point of interest marked.  It's like a 3-D topographical map scaled to size where you can see all the volcanoes, lakes, cities, mountains, and it really is quite interesting.  I will be living in zone 15, and when other Guatemalans ask me where I'll be living, they are always quite impressed that I will be living in zone 15.  I have to agree it is a very nice area, which is very clean and pretty, so I will take their words for it and consider myself fortunate.  In zone 10, which borders zone 15, you will find Zona Viva!  This is the part of town about a 5-10 minute drive from the airport where there are lots of hotels, bars, restaurants, and other shops.  I've hung out in Zona Viva quite a bit, and I'm hoping to find a job in this area so I won't have a long commute every day.

Speaking of shopping...weren't we speaking of shopping?  Well anyway, I like to go shopping, and I have to say I'm impressed with the malls here.  There are tons of brands with which I am familiar, and lots more that I am growing to adore.  Actually, many of the stores here are from Spain.  I find that there is still quite a Spanish influence on the culture here besides the language.  There is even a Spanish grocery store, which I had the pleasure of visiting last weekend and bought some fantastic prosciutto!  Coming from Chicago, I had some of the world's best shopping at my finger tips (one very charming part of winter in Chicago is shopping along Michigan Avenue during Christmastime!).  I was pleased to find a Zara (Spain), Pull and Bear (Spain), L'Occitane, Bershka (Spain), Guess, etc.  The funny thing though is that almost everything is imported, so the high import taxes make clothes and shoes more expensive here than in the States.  I guess I'll have another reason to go shopping when I visit my friends and family!

My favorite part of the weekend besides spending time with my boyfriend was having the privilege of meeting some more members of his family.  I was a little nervous at first because his mother only speaks Spanish, but somehow we made it work.  I also got to meet his younger sister and her family, and we had a very lovely visit.  Her three children have been learning English since practically pre-school, so they were very cute and tried to speak to me in English.  The oldest daughter had spent some time in Joplin, Missouri last year for an exchange program, so she was excited to learn that I am originally from Missouri.  We had a really wonderful time, and I am so happy to have met such wonderful people.  One thing that is interesting about the Spanish language, and I guess culture as well, is that his mother is already my suegra, mother-in-law.  Although there is no in-law paper binding us together I now have an entire other family already!  It brings a warm feeling to my heart, much like the, "Bienvenidos a la familia," I received from my suegra upon departure.

Disfruta!  Hopefully I'll be able to sneak myself into a few of the upcoming pictures.  Adios por ahora amigos.

What if your child was also your half-sibling???

As I told you a few days ago, I read from the newspaper every day out loud to my teacher.  I get to choose which article, and on the front page I noticed Miss Universe was in Guatemala working on an AIDS project.  I am considering working for UN-AIDS here in Guatemala after I finish my studies, so I was interested to read about the problem here.  Miss Universe, by the way, was from Mexico.

It's customary for my teacher to ask me my opinion of each article I read.  I am reading each article aloud, and in Spanish almost every single letter is pronounced except for the H, so it does take some practice.  Sometimes I find I need to re-read the article silently to myself to fully understand what the article is saying.  I actually love this exercise because it's so easy to measure my progress.  I read this morning's article out loud and I didn't need to skim back over it to understand what I read.  To make a long story short, Miss Universe was here promoting a new online web page where people living with HIV/AIDS can go to share stories, successes, and generally feel like they are not living with this disease alone.  There is still quite a stigma attached to it all over the world, and I feel probably more here in Latin America.

I think my teacher likes to talk about the articles after I read them to first of all make sure I understand them, but also because she really is interested in learning about life in other countries.  She has never been out of Guatemala except to just over the border in Mexico once.  I explained to her that in the States it's very common for both women and men to buy and use condoms.  We are taught at a young age that the risk of getting pregnant is really the least of the worries of a sexually active young person these days.  I explained that even the parents are becoming more involved in their children's lives and are being more realistic than idealistic when it comes to their children's health and safety.

I think I may have mentioned in a previous post that her neighbor runs a brothel out of her house.  To be honest, I'm not sure if this is the same neighbor that was a witch and cast spells on her mother, but this really wasn't a discussion about religion.  She said that 90% of the men here refuse to wear a condom, and I quickly pointed out that it's the woman's choice as well.  She said it's "machismo" here for the men to not wear condoms, and the majority of men who frequent these brothels are married men.  She said she heard some of the prostitutes talking outside her neighbor's house the other day and one of them was bragging to the others that she had worked 15 men the night before and made more money because she allowed most of them to skip the protection.  This is how HIV/AIDS is spreading in Guatemala.  When these men go home to their wives, of course they're not using protection with them.  But...it gets worse.  WAY worse.

Somehow our discussion became more about the role women play in the campos (in the poor communities, not within the community in which I will be living).  There is a 13-year old girl in her subdivision, called colonias, who needed to quit school and start to work in order to help support her family.  Her mother has a job, and her manager also owned a shop where they sell dulces tipicos (typical Guatemalan desserts and candies).  The young girl started working for her mother's manager making dulces tipicos, and he raped her.  The girl just had his baby about 3 months ago, and the neighbors are all trying to help this poor girl with food, money, clothes and things for the baby, and they are also trying to help her in another way.  The neighbors have been trying to figure out who this guy is who got her pregnant, but apparently the mother is protecting him.  She has told lie after lie to the people who ask because I guess there are a group of people who want to kill this guy (and probably the mother too).  Then it gets even worse.  My teacher reminded me about a lady that we saw while we were walking in the street a few days ago.  I had no idea who this lady was, but my teacher said that she had a lot of respect for her at the time.  Anyway, she told me that this woman had left to go to the market but had a bad feeling and instead returned to her house.  She found her husband (the father of her children) raping her daughter...HIS DAUGHTER.  She immediately grabbed a machete and chopped him to pieces.  She went to jail for a while, but luckily a very intelligent and gracious lawyer (female) fought for her in court free of charge, and she was found innocent because she was protecting her child.  Then I began to hear story after story of these young girls, 12, 13, 14 becoming pregnant with their father's child!  I've heard three separate stories now where a father has violated his own daughter.  In one of these cases, the mother was so embarrassed and angry with her daughter that she kicked her out to live on the streets.  My teacher used to work for a project here in Antigua that gave food, education, shelter, and every other basic need to kids living in the streets so they didn't fall into a life of violence and drugs.  She told me about this poor 13-year old girl who had her own child who was technically her half-brother.  I can't even seem to process this information.  I've been told that among the savages, literally savages, there is this sick and twisted idea that the father needs to be the girl's "first" when she begins to menstruate, and it is not that infrequent that the poor girl gets pregnant.  As if that weren't sick enough, many mother's get jealous and blame the daughter for this behavior.  I don't even have any children of my own, and I want to hurt these people.  I want the guy from "El Secreto de Sus Ojos" to come and deliver his type of justice.  By the way, that's a fabulous movie.  I don't know what the answer is, but I feel like if the government isn't going to protect these young girls, somebody needs to get the job done. 

This type of behavior isn't the norm here, but in some of the extremely poor communities it is happening.  The only answer I keep coming up with is education.  The girls need to be taught to demand respect, and the boys need to be taught to respect them.  They need to be taught that they don't have to live this way.  Honestly though, I'm afraid that one of the problems is these people have been relying on other people to give them things for generations.  I know this might sound terrible, but I'm serious.  These people do not need handouts.  They need the education to help themselves better their own lives.  That's all for now folks...I can't seem to get these images out of my mind and I need to stop thinking about them for a while.

Invierno y Religion

Although Guatemala is north of the equator and technically shares the same seasons as the United States, the people here call this time of year “invierno” (winter) because it is the rainy season.  The rainy season normally begins in June and lasts for three months.  Because Chicago’s winter lasts until May, I left one winter and entered another.  The really great news is that the temperature here in Guatemala does not vary much at all.  In fact if you look at the average highs and lows of Guatemala City in weather.com for the entire year, you will see almost a straight line.  Winter for Guatemalans signifies rain.  The days are typically bright and warm with temperatures staying right around 75°F, and the nights drop down to 60°F.  Right now the late afternoons and nights are rainy, but there are days that it doesn’t rain at all. 

The coasts are of course much warmer all year round, and my teacher believes that a hotter climate makes people more aggressive.  Every day we read an article in the newspaper so I can understand what is happening in my new country, and it does help with pronunciation, apprehension of new vocabulary, and comprehension of what I am reading.  Each time I read about a criminal of some sort, she quips that the person must have grown up in a hot region.  She may be right.  I’m not sure, but I have noticed that the people here have a different way of thinking.   

San Francisco Church

 

Inside San Francisco Church

Last week she took me to one of the churches here called San Francisco.  This particular church is one of the “ruins” and is also the resting place of a real-life saint.  San Hermano Pedro’s remains rest in this church, as they have for over a hundred years.  Next to the church is a museum dedicated to Hermano Pedro, which I will talk about in more detail later.  However in this museum is a sort of living commemoration from people who have reportedly received miracles from San Hermano Pedro.  There are wheel chairs, crutches, letters, pictures, and all sorts of different things that people have given in order to thank him for their miracles.  My teacher was explaining to me that one of her brothers was a recipient of one of these miracles.  She told me that her mother was a very devout Catholic who prayed and prayed when her brother became sick with some sort of stomach infection.  She grew up very poor, and her mother did not have any money to take him to a doctor.  I was confused because I thought she told me her mother is a very strict Mormon.  She then explained what happened.  Apparently her mother prayed to San Hermano Pedro, her brother’s stomach infection miraculously was healed, and for many years she was Catholic.  Then something terrible happened.  A witch moved next door to my teacher when she was young, and this witch cast spells on her mother.  Her mother became schizophrenic and began beating her and her siblings.  She lived this way for many years, until one day her mother was crying because of the demons in her mind, and a couple of Mormons in their typical uniforms arrived at her door.  They had been coming around for many months, and this particular day she finally allowed them into her home.  Ever since that day, her schizophrenia was cured, and to show her appreciation, her mother converted to Mormonism.  My teacher firmly believes all of these events occurred.  

Mayan ceremony being performed literally on the steps of a Catholic Church

If nothing else, Guatemala is definitely a country of faith.  The people here are predominantly Catholic, but I’ve noticed that it really is more a mixture of all of them.  There are even Mayan ceremonies performed within the “Catholic Church” here.  Having grown up in a Roman Catholic family, I’m well aware that this isn’t allowed.  Then there’s the example of my teacher’s family who firmly believe their son was the recipient of a miracle from a Catholic Saint, was cursed by a witch from a different religion, and then cured by another.  It seems the people here have the capacity to believe in all of them!  By the way, my teacher does not consider herself a Mormon.  Apparently the Mormons here are not allowed to drink coffee.  Guatemala is one of the best areas of the world for growing coffee, and it is a way of life here.  My teacher loves her coffee, and it is for this reason and this reason alone she is not a Mormon.  In any case, I definitely am learning a lot of Spanish in addition to the culture here!  Mas luego, lo prometo.

La Antigua

Most of you know that I am living in an old quaint city about 40 minutes outside of Guatemala city called La Antigua, Guatemala.  This was the country's third capital.  The previous capital of Guatemala is located just a few miles away in a very small town named Ciudad Vieja (Old City).  One of the reasons that this area is so beautiful is that it is surrounded by majestic mountains and volcanoes.  Ciudad Vieja was destroyed in the 1500's by an eruption from Volcan de Agua (don't worry folks, it is no longer active), and so the capital was moved here.  Antigua served as the capital of Guatemala for just over 175 years when it was almost destroyed in a massive earthquake in 1717.  In fact, over 3,000 buildings were destroyed and the capital was again moved, but this time to what is today known as Guatemala City.

One of the more simpler garage doors, this one also has a door within a door

Life in Antigua is very tranquil and relaxing.  The people will smile and say good morning, good afternoon, or good night to you as you walk along.  The streets are comprised strictly of stones, and when repairs are needed they are repaired with stones.  Many of the sidewalks are made of stones as well, which does make it difficult to walk sometimes.  The sidewalks are very narrow and barely fit 2 people.  It is very much like a city in terms of the buildings are attached to the sidewalks.  You will not see front yards in homes.  In fact, it is very difficult to distinguish homes from commercial buildings because all you really see is a large wall, windows, and the most beautiful doors you can imagine.  I was shocked to learn that these doors that I have admired for some time now are actually garage doors!  Most are made of wood and have ornate decorations, small peep windows, and many times even a regular size door built into the garage door for people to unlock and enter without their cars.  This is in fact how my garage door works. Many windows are beautifully decorated with flowers of every color.  The windows do have iron gates around them, which I have to admit adds to the charm.  Many times you will find a dog laying in the windows watching the people passing by on the streets.  Because of these iron gates, the already narrow sidewalks will only fit one person if any at all when there is a window.  You have to be careful and watch where you're going because you may run into one (no...not yet...I know what you're thinking!) if you're not paying attention. 

View of Volcan de Agua Beneath the Arc

None of the buildings are higher than two stories, and it is a requirement to keep any new construction to match the Spanish baroque architecture brought here by the conquistadors.  Antigua is a very catholic city, and you can find ruins of old colonial catholic churches on almost every block.  They are literally everywhere you go.  Antigua is a very walkable city, and many days I try to find a new street I haven't discovered yet and stare in awe at the architecture around me.  There is something so regal about a 300-year old building sitting in ruins, many of which still house present-day church services or other community activities, towering proudly above the modern world around them.  I frequently ask myself what makes a building in ruins so beautiful?  I imagine the finished piece was much more exquisite in its prime.  I remember one of the first times I came to Antigua, I was sitting in a French cafe, using my laptop to email my friends and family, staring across the street at a church in ruins.  It was a culmination of so many worlds, past and present, and it's one of the reasons I love this place so much. 

Una Tarde En La Casa

These school kids were so excited to see us

View of Volcan de Agua from Santa Maria de Jesus

View from the top of the cemetery

Estoy resfriada...in other words I have a cold.  For my first two weeks here I have been suffering from "allergies," and finally they got the best of me late last week.  I put allergies in "" because I'm not exactly sure to what I am allergic, but it's for sure there is something new here bothering me.  All last week my teacher was sick with a cold and cough, but today when I arrived sick she thought it was because it rained on Saturday.  I didn't want to make her feel bad that I probably got sick from her because I completely understand that if she doesn't work, she doesn't get paid.  This morning I could hardly focus, but I did notice it has become much easier for me to speak Spanish and to speak Spanish correctly!  I am remembering to correct mistakes that I frequently made in the past, which does make me happy.  Because I felt so terrible and it was difficult for me to focus, I quickly accepted the invitation to take a small field trip to Santa Maria de Jesus, which is a town very close to Antigua.  For Q3.50 each way, I along with 2 other students and their teachers took a bus to Santa Maria de Jesus.  It's a small village at the base of Volcan de Agua (Water Volcano), which I hope to climb this weekend with some of my fellow students.  This village is somewhat dirty, and is made up of 95% indigenous people.  There is trash everywhere, and they put their water holding tank (not sure of the exact word in Spanish nor in English) in the cemetery.  The cemetery is located on a large hill, and the water tank is located at the top of the hill, so it has to flow all the way down the hill through the bodies to get to the people.  My teachers were explaining to us why this is such a bad idea, and even for the new students, not much translation was needed.  Santa Maria de Jesus does have one more thing to note!  Very close to this town is Central America's only winery!  It's called Chateau Defay, and you can bet that it won't be too long before I pay them visit.  It was started by an American couple a few years ago, and you can read more about them here: http://www.fincadefay.com/

Inside a church at Santa Maria de Jesus

Prepared Food For Sale at Santa Maria de Jesus

It's tough to notice, but this is a picture of their water tank from the top of the cemetery

Zapote

There was also a small market, where I did find some zapotes!  I bought 2 zapotes, some raddishes, a pineapple, and some black cherries for a total price of Q18 ($2.25).  I wrote about zapotes before, which remind me of a sweet pumpkin flavor.  I had one for lunch just so I could cut it up and show you all what it looks like! Que rico!!!  After enjoying my zapote, I took the advice of many teachers and made some hot tea with lots of lime juice and honey. Everyone seemed to have their own "cure" for me, many of which contained different types of liquors. These sounded too much like the ideas we had in college where if you have a cold, you're supposed to drink enough so nothing else could live in your body except your own soul.  I don't remember this working all that well, so the lime juice and honey won!

As I write this, many more subjects come to mind.  In the next couple of chapters I will write about Antigua, more on the school system here, the upcoming presidential election, my first Guatemalan birthday party, some of my classmates, "flashing" my iPhone, and much much more.  Hasta luego!

Mirna

I have to say that I think I won the jackpot with the teacher that I received.  Her name is Mirna, and not only is she very sweet and nice, she is incredibly funny.  I take classes from 8:00 am until noon, and then I break for an hour and a half lunch.  I return from 1:30 until 4:00 in the afternoon.  Besides learning new tenses in which to conjugate verbs and new vocabulary, we practice talking almost all day.  That is over 6 hours of one-on-one talking, and so she knows everything about me and my life.  We've talked about my past jobs, family, friends, places I've visited, things I bought, things I wear, what I ate, where I went...todo!  It's necessary, and in the same regard, I know a lot about her life and family.  For instance, I know that she is in her early 40's, has 2 kids (18 and 10...2 different fathers), has never been married or owned a car, and she lives with her parents, a sister and her daughter, granddaughter, and one on the way, her brother, his wife, and their 2 kids.  They live in a house smaller than the size of my apartment.  In addition to being a Spanish teacher full-time (if there are enough students, that is to say), she is a real estate agent.  She doesn't own a computer, and she makes about Q2,000 per month ($250).  Her 18-year old son is trying to get into a university, but it is difficult because the public universities have extremely high admission standards because they are very inexpensive, and even possibly free.  She does not receive any child support from either father because there seemed to have been a law here where if the father doesn't accept the last name of the baby, then technically it is lawfully not his responsibility.  I'm only in my second week, so I will admit that pieces of this may have been lost in translation.  It just seems incomprehensible that these men can get away with it, but asi es la vida aqui.

As I sit here and reflect on my teacher and her situation, it is easy for me to say that she made her own choices, and therefore, she should lie in the bed that she made.  Did I mention that she used to own her own school, but after 9/11 happened, and Americans and Europeans stopped traveling, her business dried up.  There were no tourists wanting to learn Spanish.  There were no tourists period.  Then shortly after, a Guatemalan bank failed, and there is no such thing as FDIC insurance.  She lost her life's savings, which at the time was about $2,000.  That was a fortune to her.  There really isn't much of a public school system, and therefore most families, even the poor ones, must pay for private schools.  I'm beginning to realize that the real solution to her problems and the problems of millions of other people here in Guatemala is access to education.  From pre-school on, we learn the importance of personal hygiene (dental hygiene is especially lacking here), why it's necessary to recycle, the importance of saving money and how to do it, how to prevent unplanned pregnancies, and thousands of other things that we take for granted.  Common sense is not all that common when you visit a country that doesn't have an established education system. 

It's kind of fitting that the first time I visited Guatemala and fell in love with the people and the country was when I came here on a Rotary trip to help support a school founded in the jungle of the east coast of Guatemala called Ak' Tenamit.  I continued to support this school because its mission was congruent with who I am as a person and what I believe.  They have been receiving recognition from all over the world for the work that they have accomplished, but Guatemala is in need of 30 more Ak' Tenamits at least.  To learn more about this school and its needs, feel free to visit them at www.aktenamit.org.  This isn't an organization that gives away anything.  They teach children to help themselves, and it is only this kind of education that will ever help a people raise their standard of living.

Anyway, if any of you have an old laptop that you don't need anymore, or feel compelled to help in a different way, check out Ak' Tenamit.  Anyway, thanks to those who are still reading.  Talk to you all mas tarde.

Por fin...el fin de semana!!!

For my non-Spanish speaking friends, the title of this post is Finally...the weekend!!!

View of my home from the street

This was a great week.  I tried many new things, made some new friends at my school, and I have settled in nicely in Antigua.  I have lots to share, so let's first start with my apartment.  I am so lucky to have found this place.  The landlord, Margarita, is so nice and helpful.  This is almost like a very big house or small building divided long-wise into thirds.  She lives in the first townhouse, un hombre lives in between us, and I live in the third townhouse.  All you really see from the street, Callejon (little street) del Burrito (donkey) is a long wall with a few windows and a big wooden door big enough to be a garage door.  In fact, it is a garage door that opens out into the street instead of lifts up like a normal garage door in the States, and in one of those doors is a smaller door with a lock that I normally enter like any other door.  There is a small driveway that leads to the back of the place where there is a grand garden, a pergola, and a couple of parking spaces.  Each townhouse has a nice small porch with a couple of chairs and a sofa underneath the balcony from the main bedroom.  I have a small eating area and a large kitchen overlooking a small living room.  The tv, cable, and internet are included in the rent as is all the furniture, dishes, etc.  There is also a full bathroom on the first floor.  I have a very charming spiral staircase that leads to the second floor where I have a rather large master bedroom with sliding doors out to the balcony, a second bedroom with 2 beds, and another full bathroom.  The place is decorated very well and has combined modern technology with quaint features.  I have to say my most favorite part (and the thing I feared most that I wouldn't have) is the hot water.  I can take long hot showers if I want to, and I have, but I do try to be conscientious and not wasteful.  I even have one of those "rainshower" shower heads.

My townhouse

The entrance of the garden (door is behind me) with the pergola in front

View when you first enter

My kitchen (concina)

This is obvious

View of my townhouse from the pegola

Mountains in the background

My bed

Sliding door onto my balcony

Second Bedroom

I'm really enjoying my school and my teacher.  We talk all day in Spanish, and so far it has been mostly review.  The most fun and interesting part of this week was when she took me to the market.  There are a couple of supermarkets here in Antigua, but they are still very tiny in comparison to the supermarkets in the states.  It is on "market days" on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday when you can find so many different kinds of fruits, vegetables, grains, breads, and even pirated music and movies.  They have textiles, clothes, shoes, dishes, and just about anything you can think of.  I bought a phone charger there Monday for my temporary Nokia telephone for only Q25, which is about $3.50.  I told my teacher I wanted to find some chicos and zapotes, which are my new favorite fruits, but I also said I wanted to try lots of new things.  So yesterday we went to the market.  I bought lichas, pitayas, chicos, nances, and a couple of really great avocados that are a tiny bit different than the ones you find in the states.  They tasted the same, but were more round and the seed fell out easily.  We couldn't find any zapotes, but I will keep looking because it's almost like eating pumpkin pie!  The lichas almost look like animals to me with the spines coming out of them.  Either that, or they look like they could be a character in a cartoon or video game.  I didn't know how to eat them at first, but my teacher showed that you just pierce the flesh with your thumb nail and peel back the skin.  It's actually very easy, and there's a white fruit in the middle with a small seed inside.  The pitaya has such a beautiful dark pink color inside.  They taste almost like a kiwi!  The nances are ok.  They look like tiny apples with a decent size seed in the middle.  They are not very sweet, and remind me of a green apple because they have that crisp taste to them.  They're not my favorite, but I am glad I tried them.  One of the teachers at my school said that nances make a very good wine.  Maybe I'll try the wine next time.  Chicos are incredible.  They are very sweet, and I would have to say the flavor is almost like that of a date.  It is very sticky, and in fact, it is from these fruits that the Mayans first invented chewing gum (Chiclets...from chicos).

Lichas

 

Pitayas

 

Chicos

 

Lances

 

 













































I have been on a mission all week to find chuchitos.  Mission accomplished.  I brought some of my school friends with me to a panaderia for lunch, and we each bought a couple of chuchitos.  They are very similar to a tamal.  It's made up of mostly ground-up corn baked in a plantain leaf with some carne inside.  On the outside is usually a sort of salsa or some other type of tomato sauce.  Que deliciosos!  We bought a couple of chuchitos each, a Gallo (local beer), and walked to the Central Park where we ate and drank for lunch.  You don't need to worry about having a beer in public, which I have to admit is pretty cool.  Since I'm pretty familiar with Antigua and the surrounding area, I am going to take them up Cerro de la Cruz tomorrow.

I have learned a lot and practiced for hours every day speaking Spanish, and it still surprises me when I realize I spoke Spanish all day long.  I look forward to learning more verb tenses, but I seem to be getting along nicely.  I have more to tell you all, but I think I'll save some of it for another day.  In the meantime, yo creo que yo tengo mucha buena suerte.  Adios por ahora.