JJ's Travelogue

Thanks to you all who have been commenting. It’s really nice feedback, and makes me happy to hear my friends are actually reading all this stuff.

Yesterday a group of us went for a hike up the volcano behind the town. It’s not an active volcano, unfortunately. There are many of those around, but this is not one. Left at 6:00 am. Lemme tell you something – I’m in pretty good shape. I hike, bike, run. But this hike kicked my ass all the way to Quetzaltenango. It was four hours straight up 4,600 feet. Oh My God I Thought I Was Going To Die.
We had a bit of a view partway up, and one could imagine the stunning view waiting for us at the top. That is, if the clouds didn’t roll in. Which of course they did. So we had a lovely view of white mist. Beautiful. Really. Not being facetious.
Of course I packed trail bars and water and a rain jacket, and… not my camera. But one of the other blokes said he would send me some of his shots, so I’ll post those when they come through. [Update: He never sent them. Bastard. Always follow thru if you say you'll send photos!]

My haircut today was good fun. Had to wait a bit, which made for good people watching and attempted conversation. The barber did a nice job. Took his time. Charged me twice the local rate, but it was still only $7. He said he guessed my age (from my hair) to be somewhere between 30 and 33. Aww, isn’t that sweet. I wonder if he says that to all the gringos.

My family goes to church three times a week. Good grief. Always at night, too. Interesting. Almost every night you can hear the singing and whooping and hollering from some service or other. My family is Evangelical, with a fair amount of local indigenous religion thrown in for good measure I’m sure. There are a fair amount of Protestants and only one Catholic church, the original one at the top of the hill.

Turns out the weekends boom around here. Like on Fire Island. The town really came alive Friday and Saturday nights. There is a Latin fusion band that plays every Saturday night at my bar, and they were fantastic. You know I’m shy and don’t usually initiate conversation, but after a while of watching the band, I did get to talking with the people next to me. Two women – one Dutch, the other from Colorado, but of Guatemalan descent. That made me feel good, to have a real conversation. Usually, I feel quite old here. Although I enjoy hanging out at my bar, they’re all really young. The other night they were showing photos of some party where they were all playing quarters. I’m not kidding.

An Israeli was on our hike, and I asked him why there were so many of them here. It’s an interesting explanation..
You’re probably aware that there is a mandatory draft in Israel, and everyone has to serve in the armed forces after high school. Boys for three years, girls for two. [Generally you don't have a choice of where you're posted, but he got lucky - since he's an only child, he wasn't sent to the front lines. They try not kill off the last of the family line. Snarky comment deleted.] After their service, it’s standard practice for Israelis to take anywhere from a few months to a year or two off to travel before going into University or the work force. (I knew Australians did this, but wan’t aware Israelis too.) He said one way to spot them is they’ll often be scruffy or have long hair – because the army doesn’t allow this, they all let their hair down after getting out. According to him, there are great swaths of Israelis in cheap destinations such as this one. Apparently in some towns in South America, you almost feel like you’re in Israel because of all the signs and shops catering to them.

I also received a plausable explanation why most of the houses look unfinished, and/or have rebar sticking out the top. You only pay taxes on a house once the house is completed. Houses under construction don’t pay taxes. So if the house is never finished, they never have to pay. Sounds plausable, anyway.

Oh, I have a new phone number. I’ve tried all three cell companies here, trying to find one that will allow international texting. I’m stymied – two of them will let me text, but I can’t receive texts back. You won’t get an error, it just won’t go through. So I’ve given up.
Here´s my new number: 011 502 426 714 95.

Arnie says it will be good for me. She knows me well.

Time passes slowly. Not just a Dylan song, it’s actually true here. In New York, I never had enough hours in the day. I always wished for more time. Here, the opposite is true. Today I filled what I thought was an entire day – had a leisurely breakfast at a new spot down by the lake (I don’t get food from la familia on Sundays – mom gets a break), went to the bank, had a whole experience at the barber, took a lot of photos at the market, explored new areas, on and on. I thought it was probably about 5 pm, and I should start thinking about dinner. Got back to the house, looked at the clock, and it said 1:30 pm. What?! Partly it’s the weather – this morning was cold and dreary, raining hard. I headed out wearing just about everything I own. About mid-morning I had to go back to the house to strip off all my layers because it had magically cleared up, and was actually warm. After a few hours of this, it turned dark and grey again, and began to rain. So it makes you think more time has passed than really has.

Hmm, what to do? Go to the bar! I like the feel of this place (Buddha Bar), plus they have free Wi-Fi! Now we’re talking. Plus, I’ve gotten to know one of the bartenders a bit (the one I described before, from Georgia the country), so it’s nice to see a friendly face. Surfed my heart out (as much as one can on the iPhone), checking in on all my fave sites. Had what I thought was dinner, a few drinks, chatted a bit, figured it was probably about 7. Check the watch. It’s 4:00 in the afternoon. What the hell.
Turns out this bar has hundreds of movies available for screening. A group of Israelis chose In Bruges. Good fun. Now I’m pissed (in the English sense of the word) wandering around dark alleyways, ducking into strange internet cafes, writing rubbish.

A few observations as I wait for the barber shop to open up..

Make sure you read the comment from Clair under “First day at language school” – he writes about this town 20 years ago. Wow, how it must have changed! I asked my teacher about La Ultima Cena restaurante, and he said he thinks it’s still there, but wouldn’t necessarily recommend eating there (as one would guess from the name!)

The temperature fluctuates at least 20 degrees throughout the day, which is a real p.i.t.a. I’m constantly wishing i had either more or less clothes on, or with me.

My request to change teachers for next week went over well. My current teacher agreed – I suspect he was as frustrated as I was! In the end, I was pretty sick of his impatient attitude. I already feel better. I chose a woman (by nature more patient? Terrible generalization, I know) who a fellow student recommended. She said they just talk, and occasionally even go on outings in the town.

I’ve signed up for a hike up the volcano tomorrow, leaving at 6 am! However, it’s not sure to go – it needs a minimum of 5 people, and currently there are only 3 of us signed up. Rain, too, could cancel the hike.

I’ve learned that the kids go to school in two shifts: the younger ones in the morning, and the older ones in the afternoon. So my 11-year old sister has breakfast when I do, around 7:15 each day, while her 13-year old sister sleeps in. Around mid-day, it’s like the shifts changing in a factory town – you see all the kids out in the streets, trading places. It also means that the older ones are walking home at night with no streetlights, which feels odd but I guess it’s normal for them. [It gets dark at about 6:30 or 7:00p each day]. I assume the shifts are because they only have so much room and/or teachers at the school. The older one got in trouble last night because she got a really bad grade on an important test in natural sciences. Mom was pretty bummed out.

A typical day for me: It gets light around 5:30 or 6, and by that time things are going – construction, cooking, cleaning. Crazy people. I get up about 6:45, wash up, go downstairs for breakfast. So far it’s been: granola w/ yogurt, pancakes, cereal, or cream of wheat. They don’t have much in their cupboards or refrigerator. Not many fresh things, either (milk, for example, is powdered. so i’ve learned to take my coffee black with sugar), except there are always bananas and avocados around. I have bananas cut up into every breakfast meal. They’re much smaller than the ones in the States. We also cut up avocado into most lunch and dinner meals – yum! I never knew how good avocados could be in soup, for example. Mom also puts lime into a lot of things, which really adds a great flavor – to soup, salad, etc. The family doesn’t have a dining table, and never eats all together (even dinner), which surprised me.

Around 7:45, I head to school. A pleasant 10 minute walk. Grab a cup of joe (which is generally strong and good everywhere), and meet my teacher down by the lake for our lessons. Bang my head against some grammar for two hours, then we take a short break. Chat with other students, buy a snack from a local woman, then head back to learning. At 12 noon we knock off, and I head home for lunch. Lunch seems to be the biggest meal of the day. Today mom made a wonderful soup w/ rice and chicken in a tomato and chile base. Other days it’s been fried potatoes with salad (mostly iceberg, with some tomatoes and cukes), some kind of pasta with red sauce, etc. Generally hearty but simple.

At this point, I walk around town, go to a internet cafe, run errands, etc. Generally try my best to avoid doing my homework. Tuesday thru Thursdays, there is an optional “conversation club” at the school, which consists of a few of us sitting around with a teacher, chatting in Spanish. Or failing miserably, in my case. This has been helpful to me, although I’m sure painful to the other, more advanced students. Then at 6 pm on those days, there is a different activity at the school. On Tuesday we saw a quasi-documentary film (“Las Cruces”, with English subtitles) about a town during the so-called civil war in the 80’s. I say so-called because it was really the U.S. government, under the direction of the United Fruit Company that started, and financed, the atrocities. The Guatemalans would not have turned on each other if the U.S. hadn’t pressured them to, just as in Nicaragua and the rest of Centro America.

Anyway.. Wednesday was salsa lessons, which i did not partake in. I thought i might build up the courage, but in the end chickened out. It was pretty busy, just about all the students (15 or 20) were packed in there. Last night was a talk by one of the survivors of the war – he was kidnapped and took two bullets. Witnessed a lot of hell, I think a couple of his family members were “disappeared”. Unfortunately I didn’t understand a word he said, so I left at a certain point.

After the activities, I head home for supper. Again, it’s usually just me sitting at the kitchen counter with mom and maybe one of the girls. Haven’t seen much of dad, and I finally asked why – he drives a tourist bus like the one I took here, so he’s often gone for long stretches between cities.

After dinner, I retire to the patio outside my room and dig into my homework. Last night it took me three hours to write about 50 sentences, and I don’t think I retained much – as witnessed by the verbal test I got this morning. Thus my need to change teachers.

I usually crash around 10pm, maybe watch a bit of a movie on the iPhone first, or read a bit. As you can imagine from my schedule, it’s been fairly lonely.. so I’m looking forward to this weekend. I’ll try to hit up some of the local bars and actually interact with people.

Here are a couple more photos of this town.

I have no idea

On my way to school

Girl with mom´s weavings

Just wanted to share this wonderful note from mi amiga Christine:

I feel so excited for you, and really just in awe of what you are doing.
Now I will send you blessings which I will compose on the fly:
May everything inside and around the world, the universe (including the aliens), everything that has life (including rocks and buildings and spoons and forks and all “inanimate” objects), even including the thoughts and ideas of living beings past, present and future, and including everything that is you, may all of that give you joy, and love, and adventures, and beauty, and every wonderful thing that one human life could possibly experience.

Wowie zowie, what awesome words! That will keep me going for a while!