This morning I met Sergio for our daily lesson. We spent about two hours going over things in my Spanish book, my choice. After that we walked all around the town again. I bought us both frozen bananas with chocolate and nuts. They were about 30 cents each. I also bought a fruit in the market that I have never had before. They are small round greenish-red fruits (I can’t remember the name of them.) They taste like a combination of a peach and a mango.
Tonight I went to a party for a lot of foreigners all working on construction projects here. I was invited by someone staying at my home stay. It was at a Guatemalan's house in San Pedro. The house was two small rooms, an open kitchen and an outhouse, definitely very basic. It was interesting to be invited inside the home of a middle-class Guatemalan. The party host earned about $8 per day, which is better than most. Many of us spoke Spanish to each other because it was the common language amongst us all although for most of us it was a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th for some Europeans). We had fresh tortillas, Guacamole, and a few other things, which were muy bueno! Many of the travelers lead very amazing lives and are very passionate about traveling and learning about new cultures. I must say that there were a few British blokes that spoke Spanish with such a strong British accent I don't think anyone understood them! It was kind of funny. Especially after the alcohol was flowing! The only think I didn't like about the party is that Latino guys are really aggressive and I have to be really straight forward with them. I never thought I'd be one of those girls that rejected men so rudely, but it is required here. The group, we call ourselves "extranjeros" or 'the foreigners," are going to meet up for a BBQ tomorrow night and next week we will be taking some Salsa classes from the sassy Ms. Gloria, a Salsa instructor in Antigua.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
What a shame- Que penas!
This morning I took the “chicken bus” in from San Pedro to the center of the town to meet Sergio, my Spanish instructor. He is a really amazing person. Sergio has taught Spanish for about ten years and seems to know every language rule related to Spanish. To me it seems like a very unique, but really amazing opportunity. We will wonder the streets and study at coffee shops or go on outings in the town for about the next three weeks. Sergio and I will be together for 4 hours a day, 5 days per week for the next 3 weeks. I will get to know him better from our conversations than many people I’ve known for years. I get to pick what we do and what we study.
I met Sergio through Gary and Ann who have known him for quite some time. He was Ann’s instructor a few years ago. Although Sergio has not told me, Ann told me that his 6 year old son has a condition where he can’t walk and can barely talk. Since there are NO services or amenities for people of disabilities here, Sergio must carry his son everywhere that they go. Ann says Sergio’s son is getting too big to carry, but the family doesn’t know what else to do. Ann also told me of a story about a boy who is wheelchair bound in a farm in the mountains that she has visited. He has never left the house. The only thing he can do is roll around the small house and look out over the balcony. It’s such a shame because I don’t think things need to be this way.
We walked around town and he showed me several churches built in the 1500s. The oldest church on this continent was build here if I’m not mistaken. Sergio gave me a ride back to Gary and Ann's town on his motorcycle. It started to rain and there was thunder and lightning, but it was REALLY exciting! Soon today I will be helping Ann with the after school program and then I will be moving in with my host family in Antigua.
I met Sergio through Gary and Ann who have known him for quite some time. He was Ann’s instructor a few years ago. Although Sergio has not told me, Ann told me that his 6 year old son has a condition where he can’t walk and can barely talk. Since there are NO services or amenities for people of disabilities here, Sergio must carry his son everywhere that they go. Ann says Sergio’s son is getting too big to carry, but the family doesn’t know what else to do. Ann also told me of a story about a boy who is wheelchair bound in a farm in the mountains that she has visited. He has never left the house. The only thing he can do is roll around the small house and look out over the balcony. It’s such a shame because I don’t think things need to be this way.
We walked around town and he showed me several churches built in the 1500s. The oldest church on this continent was build here if I’m not mistaken. Sergio gave me a ride back to Gary and Ann's town on his motorcycle. It started to rain and there was thunder and lightning, but it was REALLY exciting! Soon today I will be helping Ann with the after school program and then I will be moving in with my host family in Antigua.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Life is in your face
I just ended dinner with Gary and Ann (the founders of Avivara) and my second full day here in Guatemala. I bought a sweet pineapple at the market for less than a dollar, which I cut up as part of dinner. The door bell rang during dinner and Ann talked to a woman for quite some time. Apparently, 3 of the children that she has in her afterschool program have a dad whose liver is failing and he is barely 30, a result of too much drinking and pesticide exposure. Without money to go into town for dialysis, he will die. No one has the resources so basically he will die in the near future leaving behind 3 young kids and their mother. Everyone here seems to have a similar story. Birth, life, and death are much more apparent here. Gary walked me through the cemetario yesterday where there were mounds of dirt were little ones had been buried. Families just stick little wood crosses in the ground where their children have died. It is just a part of life. The death rate for children in Guatemala is 8 times higher do to malnutrition, unsanitary conditions, and a lack of health care.
One major difference here is that I see young children everywhere. It seems like half the women here are carrying a baby in cloth on their back or are pregnant. Ann told me that if I was in their culture I’d have 5 kids by now.
I love watching life here. Women are holding their babies and washing their clothes in the center of town. Kids are running about and helping parents carry firewood (which they all do on their heads). The days and nights are full of sounds… the truck selling oil for homes which is done over a loudspeaker, firecrackers that frequently go off, dogs barking, motor bikes honking in order to sell goat milk and eggs, roosters crowing and a particular type of bird that makes a really loud shrieking sound. Also, here everyone greets each other. Every person you walk by, and people are always on the streets, you must greet with a “buenos dias” or a “buenos tardes.” The sense of community is very strong.
Although we have pretty much all of the amenities we need here, Gary and Ann are considered “the rich” and that isn’t typical. Many don’t have running water. Gary and Ann are one of the few in this village that has an oven. I can’t get over the fact that so many still live like people did hundreds of years ago.
Tomorrow I move in with my host family. I met the mom, Teresa, this morning and she seems very kind. Half of the building is outside and half is inside (typical for Guatemala.) I will pay her $55 per week for a room and 3 meals a day except Sundays. I will also have a Spanish teacher for a few weeks. We will spend 4 hours a day together in the mornings wondering the city and learning Spanish. He charges $60 a week for 20 hours. That’s about $3 an hour. For this country, that is a great wage.
Today I worked in the after school program with Ann and a little with Gustavo. I loved meeting the kids and my Spanish was just about at their level so I was learning too. I really liked it and I look forward to more of these days.
As we speak, it is raining really hard and thundering. Part of this house is open to the elements so it is really neat to see the rain fall through the middle of the house.
My schedule once I move in with my host family will be:
• 7:00 am- Eat breakfast provided by my host mom
• 8:00am- 12pm Meet with my Spanish teacher for lessons for the first 3 weeks
• 12 pm- Eat with my host family
• After lunch- Take a ½ hour bus ride to the town Gary and Ann are in to work on nonprofit related things, help at the afterschool learning center, or go out to villages with Ann and Gustavo
• 7 pm- Be back in time to have dinner with my host family
• 8 pm- Journal, work on nonprofit stuff, or relax and talk to the locals, and salsa dancing possibly!
One major difference here is that I see young children everywhere. It seems like half the women here are carrying a baby in cloth on their back or are pregnant. Ann told me that if I was in their culture I’d have 5 kids by now.
I love watching life here. Women are holding their babies and washing their clothes in the center of town. Kids are running about and helping parents carry firewood (which they all do on their heads). The days and nights are full of sounds… the truck selling oil for homes which is done over a loudspeaker, firecrackers that frequently go off, dogs barking, motor bikes honking in order to sell goat milk and eggs, roosters crowing and a particular type of bird that makes a really loud shrieking sound. Also, here everyone greets each other. Every person you walk by, and people are always on the streets, you must greet with a “buenos dias” or a “buenos tardes.” The sense of community is very strong.
Although we have pretty much all of the amenities we need here, Gary and Ann are considered “the rich” and that isn’t typical. Many don’t have running water. Gary and Ann are one of the few in this village that has an oven. I can’t get over the fact that so many still live like people did hundreds of years ago.
Tomorrow I move in with my host family. I met the mom, Teresa, this morning and she seems very kind. Half of the building is outside and half is inside (typical for Guatemala.) I will pay her $55 per week for a room and 3 meals a day except Sundays. I will also have a Spanish teacher for a few weeks. We will spend 4 hours a day together in the mornings wondering the city and learning Spanish. He charges $60 a week for 20 hours. That’s about $3 an hour. For this country, that is a great wage.
Today I worked in the after school program with Ann and a little with Gustavo. I loved meeting the kids and my Spanish was just about at their level so I was learning too. I really liked it and I look forward to more of these days.
As we speak, it is raining really hard and thundering. Part of this house is open to the elements so it is really neat to see the rain fall through the middle of the house.
My schedule once I move in with my host family will be:
• 7:00 am- Eat breakfast provided by my host mom
• 8:00am- 12pm Meet with my Spanish teacher for lessons for the first 3 weeks
• 12 pm- Eat with my host family
• After lunch- Take a ½ hour bus ride to the town Gary and Ann are in to work on nonprofit related things, help at the afterschool learning center, or go out to villages with Ann and Gustavo
• 7 pm- Be back in time to have dinner with my host family
• 8 pm- Journal, work on nonprofit stuff, or relax and talk to the locals, and salsa dancing possibly!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Starting my adventure: the plane ride over
I’m on the plane right now headed for a layover in Texas and then on to Guatemala. I feel several emotions. I just put down the book I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, a book I read as an undergraduate at UW nearly 6 years ago. Within pages, a flood of emotions came over me, reminding me of the oppression and torture of the indigenous in Guatemala. I quickly remember why I chose to volunteer the next 3 months in Guatemala rather than some vacation destination like Costa Rica or the Mexican coast where I could sip Margaritas and learn Spanish all the same.
I am a person of privilege. Somehow I was dealt the cards to be born into a white middle class family in Seattle, WA. Today I read about Rigoberta, who has so little. I look at my $80 waterproof R.E.I. sandals which probably weren’t necessary to buy. It would take the average Guatemalan 8 days to buy these shoes. My counterparts (I say this because we are all human beings) are earning mere cents a day doing back-breaking work. Our lives are so different and the only way I can explain why I have so much and they have so little is because I was born into privilege and they weren’t. It’s that simple.
Sure, I could go to the coast and enjoy the luxury of plopping down right in the center of an American-made tourist destination (which is not to say that I don’t do this from time to time and enjoy), but I feel that the only way to remedy the disparity that exists between my counterparts and myself is to learn from them and find ways to not be one more person to use my privilege to further oppress (whether out of ignorance or choice). It won’t be easy to change my habits, but if I have to look poverty directly in the face maybe I will see the faces of my unborn children because no child chooses poverty. I could just have easily been born in a third-world country as could my own children.
I know I will benefit personally from this cultural interaction. My world is fast-paced and often centered around material, entertainment, and the latest “i-whatever” that Apple has released. No matter who you are or what you do, you will be hard-pressed to find time and space to get away from our cultural norms. Being in a different culture gives one the ability to not just see the world as “the way things are,” but to conscientiously understand the customs in ones’ own culture and to decide whether they are helpful or harmful in one’s own life and in the lives of others.
We are all creatures of habit. I will miss my family and my boyfriend Scott whom I spend the majority of my time with. For the past 2 years I have lived in an environment of comfort. My family is within walking distance, I live in the community I grew up in; a world I know all too well. Now I step out of this “environment of comfort” to confront a world I do not know. I believe that the feeling of uneasiness from deep within may be a sign of fear, stress, awkward moments, but it is the window of time that we grow the most. It means we are confronted with a challenge and must adapt. To adapt is to grow and change. That’s why I am here! I just heard the announcement to turn off my laptop because we are preparing for landing. I am full of emotions, mostly of excitement. I now see a new world outside the window and I can’t wait to meet it.
I am a person of privilege. Somehow I was dealt the cards to be born into a white middle class family in Seattle, WA. Today I read about Rigoberta, who has so little. I look at my $80 waterproof R.E.I. sandals which probably weren’t necessary to buy. It would take the average Guatemalan 8 days to buy these shoes. My counterparts (I say this because we are all human beings) are earning mere cents a day doing back-breaking work. Our lives are so different and the only way I can explain why I have so much and they have so little is because I was born into privilege and they weren’t. It’s that simple.
Sure, I could go to the coast and enjoy the luxury of plopping down right in the center of an American-made tourist destination (which is not to say that I don’t do this from time to time and enjoy), but I feel that the only way to remedy the disparity that exists between my counterparts and myself is to learn from them and find ways to not be one more person to use my privilege to further oppress (whether out of ignorance or choice). It won’t be easy to change my habits, but if I have to look poverty directly in the face maybe I will see the faces of my unborn children because no child chooses poverty. I could just have easily been born in a third-world country as could my own children.
I know I will benefit personally from this cultural interaction. My world is fast-paced and often centered around material, entertainment, and the latest “i-whatever” that Apple has released. No matter who you are or what you do, you will be hard-pressed to find time and space to get away from our cultural norms. Being in a different culture gives one the ability to not just see the world as “the way things are,” but to conscientiously understand the customs in ones’ own culture and to decide whether they are helpful or harmful in one’s own life and in the lives of others.
We are all creatures of habit. I will miss my family and my boyfriend Scott whom I spend the majority of my time with. For the past 2 years I have lived in an environment of comfort. My family is within walking distance, I live in the community I grew up in; a world I know all too well. Now I step out of this “environment of comfort” to confront a world I do not know. I believe that the feeling of uneasiness from deep within may be a sign of fear, stress, awkward moments, but it is the window of time that we grow the most. It means we are confronted with a challenge and must adapt. To adapt is to grow and change. That’s why I am here! I just heard the announcement to turn off my laptop because we are preparing for landing. I am full of emotions, mostly of excitement. I now see a new world outside the window and I can’t wait to meet it.
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