La primera semana - The first week

Hola a todos!

I have been here for only six days and yet it seems like much more. Although it takes me a few hours to get into the rhythm of the lifestyle, once I reacquaint myself with this mode of life, I feel so at home. Life in third world countries feels very natural. Nothing is forced and everything is held together with a constant calmness. The city of Antigua is adorable. Cobbled streets filled with tuk-tuks (rickshaws from India), motorcycles, cars, and chicken-buses (the local mode of transportation). Women wearing beautiful brightly colored textiles while carrying goods to sell in baskets on their heads. Workers and artisans creating art to sell to the numerous tourists. The colonial architecture of the numerous cathedrals and brightly colored stores and homes. Greetings of “Buenas Dias” to every passerby. The occasional stray dog and la policia walking around with arms.

Here are a few gems from the past few days:

- While purchasing a cell phone to call home, a little girl looked down from a second floor balcony and played a game of pickaboo with me. In her sweet 2 year-old Spanish she said “Hola! Adios! Hola! Adios!” as she hid and reappeared behind a chair. Absolutely priceless. Her mother smiled approvingly at us as I played back.

- Feeling like a giant as I walked through the market for the first time with hundreds of Guatemaltecos bustling about their way.

- Driving from the airport in Guatemala City to Antigua, and seeing the massive expanse of humanity and city as we slowly climbed up the green mountains. (As an indication of how modern and large Guatemala City is, we passed four McDonald’s on our short trip through it.)

- Sweating and moving to the rhythm as I learned to salsa dance with a group of Canadian students and professional Guatemalan dancer in a smoky and darkly lit bar.

- Sitting in the CIRMA rooftop classroom with the three volcanoes and tall cathedrals encircling us and thinking to myself, is this real? In the background professors teach about Mayan archaeology, Central American politics and culture.

- Waking up to the sounds of buses passing by, the chirps of caged finches in the family garden and a neighbor’s old mix tape of Ace of Base, Vanilla Ice and local love ballads.

- Hearing tens of different languages while trekking through a steamy and overcrowded bar packed with hundreds of tourists from all over the world.

- Meeting the joyous grandson of my homestay parents who has more energy than a ball of fire: I said ‘Hola!’ and he ran to give me a huge and sincere hug and then demanded a high five; of course prompting me to teach him a secret handshake.

- Eating an amazing traditional Guatemalan feast with eight espanolas that came to eat at my homestay simply because of my homestay mother’s reputation as the best cook in Antigua. (Let’s just say there hasn’t been a meal yet when I wasn’t completely satisfied)

- Feeling the spray of the water of Lago de Atitlan on my face as we cross the 128 sq miles of water from one mountain-clinging village to the next.

- Having a little 9 year old Guatemalteca (Rosa Maria in the picture to the left with me) walk by as I try to put on my newly purchased traditional skirt, and laughing at my inability and correcting my mistake by taking over and dressing me properly.

- Jumping into the freezing cold eco-friendly hotel pool in Santiago de Atitlan and refusing to get out simply because of how beautiful the surrounding lush jungle smells, sounds and looks.

- Following some local ninos to the sacred home of the local diety of sinners called San Simon or Maximon and listening to traditional drums and flute as we paid homage to the effigy of the healing god by leaving a few quetzals, cigars or spirits by his side.

- Winding through mountaintop highways in the “chicken bus” with a group of Guatemalan City high schoolers singing in Spanish at the top of their lungs “we need to piss!” in futile hopes that the driver would pull over.

My homestay family is incredibly sweet. Victoria, the mama of the house is so kind and patient. She walked us all through the house and showed us the cocina, comedor, jardin, y sus cuartos (kitchen, dining room, garden and our room) and assured us that she wants us to be tranquillo here. Sort of a ‘mi casa es tu casa’ philosophy. She absolutely loves to cook (and only cooks natural and traditional foods), and I have already learned a little bit of folk wisdom. She explained to me the importance of the four colors of tortillas. “Eat black tortillas for healthy hair, white tortillas for healthy bones, yellow tortillas for healthy skin and red tortillas for healthy veins.” I told her that I must need to eat a lot of black tortillas, because my hair is much to light. She laughed.

Her husband Luiz is a retired electrician, and together they have two daughters. They have been married for 30 years and are both in their 50s, but have the bodies of 70 year-old americans. Between them they have bad legs, bad circulation, bad vision, diabetes, thyroid problems, arthritis, liver problems and the weathered, wrinkled skin of people who have had to fight for their prosperity. Neither of them speaks any English, but they are both very patient and good at deciphering the broken Spanish of their frequent guests. Their oldest daughter has a son and lives in another part of town. The other daughter, Maria Luisa, lives at the house and she is in her first year of medical school to become a pediatrician. She is bilingual, which has already come in handy – like when my roommate asked for a “small alcoholic drink” (cervezita) instead of a napkin (servilleta) at the dinner table.

Their home is adorable. It is very clean, neat, colorful and homey. The señor of the 'de Leon' family just repainted the inside of the house and it is bright colors of pink, light blue and yellow. Upstairs there is a small patio which has a view of the three surrounding volcanoes and cathedral tops. I have my own room with a double sized bed, lamp, wooden desk, chair and door which locks. My room leads out to the courtyard with patio, small green herb garden and statue of Mary. They run their home like a hostel and have tons of experience housing tourists. In fact, there are five French-speaking Canadian college students staying here for the next two weeks and an Austrian worker lives here as well. There are eight rooms in all and four bathrooms. To maximize their profits, the daughter sleeps in the same large room with her parents, which is not an uncommon practice here at any age. Living in a home which is designed to constantly have guests will undoubtedly bring a totally unique element to my homestay experience that I couldn’t have gotten in another home. Needless to say, I couldn’t be happier with my living arrangements

As for the school, el Centro de Investigaciones de Mesoamerica (CIRMA), it is fantastic. The actual building of the school is a breathtaking old mansion near the central park of the city. The main purpose of the school is to restore and collect important historical documents, and it housing one of the most impressive photograph and document archive collections of Central America. The first day we got to peak into the climatized document warehouse and were able to see original photographs of Guatemala from the 1840s. The staff is very helpful, and has been attentive to all the students needs. Barbara, the director keeps tabs on all the students, and by ‘all’ I mean the nine of us. There are 8 undergraduate students, one from Berkley, one from Ohio University, six from the UA and one graduate student. It is definitely a mixed group: ages range from 20 to 28, there are 2 guys, 7 girls, two native Spanish speakers, two returning CIRMA students and one married student.

Although I have only met three of my four professors in this short first week of class, I am impressed. My political history professor’s life should be made into a novel. He is anything but a professor. Jose Antonio Cabrera is El Salvadoran and helped turn the government in that country as a guerilla fighter and peace keeper for the United Nations. He speaks Spanish, English and Russian and has helped to rebuild soviet decimated countries like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, as well as South Africa, Angola, and countless others… He has lived in more countries than anyone I have ever met, and has an invaluable perspective on the current affairs in developing countries. But he would preface anything by saying, “This is my opinion, and every opinion is slanted and biased, so listen to what I say with questioning mind.” He has an incredibly playful and unique manner which easily captures whatever audience is around him.

My archaeology professor Erick Ponciano is a professor at the University of Arizona who is working in the Peten (northern Guatemala) excavating Mayan ruins. He is a solid speaker and educator, but it is the material that makes his class so interesting. Not only will we be reading and listening to lectures about the Maya, but we will be going on four class trips to the actual sites of this living history. Next, my Spanish teacher is a local Guatemalan who teaches at the University of Guatemala and has just published his first literature book. On the first day of class he evaluated our Spanish skills and I was where I needed to be, but after the first day in country, I have to admit that I was pretty impressed with myself. It’s like I have shelves of dusty unused language skills that have just had their first breath of fresh air in a decade. I just open my mouth and say what I want and it comes out. I don’t really have to think in English and then translate, it just comes easily. It might not be perfect or direct, but I can always find a way to communicate what it is I want to say. With the help of the four fluent students at the school, I am definitely coming back fluent.

I’ve definitely written enough for a first entry, and if you have read this far, then I applaud you for your tenacity and reward you with some pictures. Check out the photos at the bottom of this page...