No Leaving it Behind

I have come to the expected moments that everyone seems to experience while abroad. I have begun to panic just a little, for the fact that I only have just over a month left here and I feel like there is so much left still to experience and accomplish. I want to keep learning and using Spanish, I want to know more of Guatemala and see all there is to see, I want to continue learning as much about myself as I do every day here, I want to strengthen and build my friendships that I have made here. Then I step back and realize that everything I have had the opportunity to learn and in all of the ways I have grown, I will take this with me, there is no way to leave it behind.

As I sit in Café Baviera, my new favorite (with fantastic music), I simply want to take in all of the joys in life. It has so much to give and yet I too often find myself soaked up in everything I want to take that I cannot find. Changing my lifestyle and surroundings here in Guatemala has definitely opened up my eyes to a greater world need – structural, economical, social, environmental, and the list continues. I may have thought I was not immune to the suffering and hardships of other people, which I don’t believe I ever was, but being surrounded by it for longer than just a short time, constantly being approached with empty hats asking for money, or having adorable little girls and boys come up to me on the streets trying to sell bracelets and candy, really touches my heart. The feeling of helplessness overwhelms me, and the best I can do for them at that moment is look into their eyes and give them a genuinely loving look from inside.

Continuing with our group excursions, we travelled to El Salvador for the long weekend of March 10-14th. The first night on our way there we visited Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala City. They put on a program for us where we learned about the Mayan calendar cycle and social practices in everyday life; saw a short drama performed by a few students, and Rafael Rosales (director of Las Cruces film about the internal conflict in Guatemala) presented a clip of his film. We then ate dinner at Frida’s, a nice Mexican restaurant.

The next morning we met with the Human Rights office of the Archbishop of Guatemala. We then went into the garage where Monseñor Gerardi was assassinated. Then we were off for our 6 hour trip to San Salvador, El Salvador. Once there we met with a professor of Pastoral Theology from the Jesuit University of Central America (UCA) about the pastoral reality of the preferential option for the poor today in El Salvador. For dinner we went up where there was a gorgeous lookout of the city, and feasted on some traditional El Salvadorian food of papoosas. Basically the best way to describe these would be like a pancake quesadilla with your choice of meat, beans, and cheese inside. Then back to our “hotel” for the night. I stayed in a room with 6 other girls, and had I known what it felt like to live in an orphanage, I’m pretty sure this would have felt the same. It was pretty funny, and the 7 of us couldn’t stop singing Annie songs the whole time we were there.

Friday, March 12th was the 33rd anniversary celebration of the martyrdom of Fr. Rutilio Grande and his companions. We participated in the pilgrimage to the place of “Las Tres Cruces,” where there was an Ecumenical Prayer said and we were part of the big procession. We then finished off the pilgrimage to Plaza Rutilio Grande in El Paisnal, where they had Mass and an offering of flowers. The weather is very warm and dry in El Salvador, as well as the sun being very intense. Needless to say, after a 1 ½ hour walk in the direct sunlight, we were hot and tired. The rest of the afternoon after we returned to San Salvador, we went to the mall to cool off and relax for a while (and of course get some ice cream). For dinner I tried calamari – very tasty, and a choco-banana shake, which I am going to be making a lot of when I return home.

Saturday we visited Divina Providencia, the site of Archbishop Romero’s murder. We toured the chapel where Romero was killed and toured the house he lived in. It was a moving experience, after having learned about all of Romero’s work for the poor of El Salvador, then imagining his murder in the church during mass. Lunch was at a place called Cooperative El Jicaro, a place of local development and eco-development and tourism. We dined on fish and shrimp. The next day we had a long, 10 hour bus-ride back to Xela.

Last week wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary for us, though St. Patrick’s Day was a good time. We went to a nearby bar/lounge where they served green beer and green jello-shots. There were a lot of “gringos” there, especially since Guatemalans really don’t celebrate St. Patty’s Day – when I ask them about it, most of them didn’t know it existed or had only heard about it.

This past Friday some of our group travelled to the highlands about an hour outside of Xela just outside of the village of Totonicapán to a nature preserve/community owned forest called Aprisca. It is an eco-tourism draw, and one of the few places in Guatemala where kids can come learn about the forest and nature. Molly, an alum of St. Ben’s is working there as part of the Peace Corp. I felt right at home there, like I stepped into the north woods of Minnesota – the fresh smell of pine trees brought me right back home. We also learned about herbs that are grown there and Mayan remedies. There were 8 of us that spent the night (there are a few cabins there). It was a really great, relaxing weekend. We had the chance to play some fun “camp games” like human knot, ninjas, and relay races. Of course we had a campfire and sing-along that night, and roasted some pink, strawberry-flavored bunny marshmallows (otherwise known as Angelitos here).

The morning brought another walk through the woods with some binoculars and a bird-book. Then a trip to the market in Totonicapán. Despite the number of times I have visited them, I remain overwhelmed at the markets here. Imagine a truck-full of plantains, piles upon piles of fresh fruits and vegetables (all sold for a very minimal price), fresh fish, seafood, and meats hanging for display – which leaves a disturbing smell in the air and me without an appetite for a while, barrels of dried beans and rice, and more. Then once we made our way inside, this is where they sell the brightly – colored indigenous clothing, shoes, pottery, and much more.

On Saturday we are off to the island of Roaton in Honduras for Holy Week! Bliss. Hopefully all goes well!!

A Kitten and Some Chicks on a Chicken Bus

So, once again procrastinating on my homework to write my blog – works for me! I have noticed that I have not been nearly as good at keeping up with my daily journaling and more frequent blogs, but ‘tis life. A girl gets busy sometimes, especially in another country this will happen. Everything has been going well here in Xela. Everyone in our group went through the seasonal cold, since this is the time of a slight climate change here. My Spanish class was interesting for the few days that I didn’t have a voice, but I made it through and am now feeling happy and healthy again.
I will start with a week and a half ago on Wednesday, was a celebration in Central Park for the Superchivos soccer team of Xela. There was a concert, and lots of people (many venders of course as well). My host dad was very excited to take us all (he is an avid Superchivos fan). So we all took the short walk to the square around 8:30 and hung out for about an hour. It was a great “family outing,” I don’t get to see my host dad very much so when I do get to spend time with him it’s really great. He is really fun to talk to, and we have some great conversations. There was also a live salsa band playing at La Parranda from the Buena Vista social club (a group started a while back in Cuba) – so of course, despite how tired I was, I could not pass up a Wednesday night of dancing. The rest of the week and into the weekend was pretty routine. Out dancing on Friday after the party at the school, and out to the café to do some homework on Saturday. Saturday night we had a fun fiesta at John and Dennis’s apartment to watch the Olympics and cook some Guatemalan food! We made enchiladas, guacamole, beans, salsa, tostadas, carrot-lime salad, platanos, and horchata. Everyone dressed up as Olympian participants or fans, it was a great time, especially since I had not been able to watch any Olympics up to this point (my family doesn’t have the channel they showed on), which was driving me crazy! The best part of the night, though, was getting to pick up Monica from the bus station in Xela! She came to visit Rachel and I for the week.
Obviously last week was craziness, since we had all of our classes and a guest here to entertain. It was such a blast though! We took her out every night to get a taste of the city. A different café or bar each night, with people from our group and some of our friends from Celas. We even made an 11 O’ Clock McDonald’s run – the ice cream there tastes different than in the states, and so good.
A trip to the beach is always a good time, so a few of us decided to go this past weekend. We only went for one night because Monica’s flight left on Sunday. Short but intense trip. So we set out on Friday morning at 6:30 and headed to the terminal where we would board our first chicken bus of the day. Chicken busses are their main form of local transportation here in Guate, they can be described as old school busses, festively decorated with many colors on the outside, and the inside leaves some to be desired, and I’m pretty sure the name comes from their method of seeing just how full they can cram these things. 3, sometimes 4 to a seat on some of them. So we had to take a total of 3 buses to get to our destination of Monterrico. Expecting it to take us about 5 or 6 hours, we didn’t arrive to our destination until after a good 8 hours. We were so exhausted, hot and sticky by the time we got there. Drastic weather change to humid and very warm – which I didn’t mind at all, once we were finally on the beach.
We found a nice hotel to stay at for an equivalent of about $10/person/night – mosquito net included! As soon as we were able we hit the beach to relax and enjoy the water, which had a very strong current so all of us took our turns wiping out while wading. It was such a sense of freedom though, to finally be there on the beach, taking in the vastness of it all. Monterrico is a black sand beach on the Pacific Ocean. The black sand was fun! We watched the gorgeous sunset. Our dinner consisted of PBJ sandwiches, fruit, and some vegetables that we had brought with us from the market the day before. Living classy and cheap is what we do. But it was great! I hadn’t had a PBJ sandwich since I left the states! That night we lay on the beach for a few hours, watching the shining bright stars and listening to the waves crash on the shore - I fell asleep to this for a while – it was perfect.
Facing the early morning the next day, we met a tour guide for a boat ride down the canal at 5:30. We saw lots of wildlife, mostly different kinds of birds, many interesting plants and trees, and best of all the sunrise. It was very junglesque. So we got back and after our breakfast of PBJ we were on the beach before 8:30, talk about good time management! We were able to enjoy the beach for a while that morning until we had to leave at 11am. We wanted to make sure to get back in time before the buses stopped running, since they don’t leave after dark and with our luck, it would have been dark had we not left that early. We ended up with a record time of 5 ½ hours for the trip back – wohoo!
We met some interesting people along our way, as one usually does when travelling; it’s always fun to make new friends. We also had the privilege of riding one chicken bus with baby chicks – Mom, I thought you would like this – they were tweeting the entire way. Another bus we rode with a kitten that was wrapped in a sack, it started to meow, then must have went back to sleep (I hope…). On one bus ride a man (must have been a preacher) stood up and gave us a sermon, making us all feel guilty about spending our money on going to the beach instead of giving it away to the poor people. Strong words he had to say…
Seeing the families, sometimes all in one seat, asleep, was so sweet. Every time we stopped our bus would be bombarded by venders that came onto the bus to sell us anything from fruit, candy, ice-cream, fried platanos, sandwiches, etc. They literally line up outside the bus when it stops, and some hop on, sell their stuff, and then get off at the next stop. I had a hard time watching people through their litter out the window at least 4 times – I guess it’s a culture thing, but it’s still made me cringe to witness it so many times in one day. I was really touched though, one of the buses all of us were standing for a portion of the ride, then one by one, men sitting in the aisle seats offered their seats to us. A simple act of kindness that means so much.
So that was the outline of our crazy adventures last weekend. Times like those that are worth the experience. For time’s sake I didn’t include all of the funny stories, but all eight of us who went definitely have some good times to look back on, and plenty of things to laugh about.