¡Adios Guatemala!

Tomas, Carlos y Maria

Food for Thought

 Pitaya (very good)

Laecha

Mamon

Hot cakes and honey and fresh OJ in San Martin

Vegtable Soup at the school (with my hot sauce)

Chile Relleno at Todos Santos (excellent by the way)

¡TODOS SANTOS CUCHUMATAN!

And the beautiful Lago Atitlan from Panajache

Fotos de los niños y uno con el profe

 Gabriela (Gabby)

El Voluntario

The children call me ´profe´ for ´professor´ but to Magda they call me ´El Voluntario´.  (Genesey calls me ´Manuel´).  Some of the children have been asking Magda how come El Voluntario has not played with them.  So we make a mental list of the children that want to play with me and then I play with them at a later time.  Some like to draw, some love legos, others like puzzles.  Most like music but they want to play the guitar (instead of the other instruments on hand like bongos) but we only have two guitars.  I made a couple of videos of the children singing and ´playing´guitar but have had trouble posting them.  Keep in touch for the posting of these videos.  In the late afternoon there are these two boys that always get picked up last (no dad, mother has a stand at the mercado, son indiginos) and we play soccer until mom comes.

The children arrive at 7 am and play until 8 am when school starts.  I usually sleep until 7 or 7:30 depending on the noise level, shower, eat breakfast, and report for ´work´at 9 a.m.  This morning at 7 a girl knocked on my door wanting to play.  I was in my sleepwear so I did not open the door.  She told me later that she was the one knocking on my door.  We will play tomorrow.  

Yesterday in the afternoon there were the two boys (Carlos and ...) and two high school age girls that come here and help out with the kids.  Magda and her son Fredy were here too.  Everyone else had gone home.  I went out and bought half a tres leches cake and we sat around enjoying the cake.  You should have seen the kids´ eyes light up when I told them I was going to the panaderia and did they want any cake?

I helped the organization create their own blog.  It is at elbuensamaritanoantigua.blogspot.com  Pictured is former voluntar Erin from Canada and another voluntar from the Chech Republic.  

San Pedro La Laguna/San Marcos La Laguna/Todos Santos

While I am here, I would like to go to Todos Santos Cuchumatan in the mountains of Northwestern Guatemala near the border of Mexico and two villages around Lake Attitlan: San Pedro La Laguna and San Marcos La Laguna.  I decided to go to Todos Santos this weekend.

It would be a long trip.  To get there I need to take a bus to Chimaltenango and take an onward bus to either Huehuetenango or more likely, Cuatro Caminos.  At Cuatro Caminos I would take a bus to Huehue, spend the night there, and then take another bus to Todos Santos.

So around one p.m. on Friday I took off.  I took a bus to Chimal.  I got off the bus on the side of the road and waited for my bus to Huehue or Cuatro Caminos.  The first bus that came along was for San Pedro La Laguna.  I took that as a sign.  Change of plans.  I went to San Pedro.

I arrived in San Pedro and got a hotel with bano privado for forty quetzal -- around 5 US dollars.  The main tourist strip runs parallel to the lake.  It is total Hippielandia.  It was almost another country.  Bob Marley is their God.  They make jewelry and compete with the indiginos on the street for jewelry sales.  I was chomping on my falafel sandwich for dinner and after about the fourth obscure Bob Marley song coming out of the restaurant´s stereo, I felt like saying, ¡People, there are other reggae artists besides Bob Marley¡  But the place is great for vegetarians.  There are three Israeli restaurants on the strip serving falafel.

In the morning I took a lancha to San Marcos.   If San Pedro was another country, San Marcos is another planet.  It was an island unto itself.  It was probably levitating a couple feet off the ground.  Population is about four thousand people, mostly Maya indiginos.   But the beach near the water is controlled by English speaking New Agers, most prominently, Las Piramides, a retreat.  Here is their website:    http://www.laspiramidesdelka.com/

This New Age community is a tropical paradise.  The ´streets´are narrow cobble stone and dirt walkways.  Too narrow for cars.  Small home made quirky signs direct from you here to there.  Dogs everywhere lying in the sun asleep.  If you need yoga, channeling, Reiki, massage, crystal therapy, a tarot card reading, aura cleansings, or other ´new age´ therapies, or training in the same, this is the place.  The place had a mellow vibe.  English was the norm, Spanish rare.  Very relaxing. 

I stopped by Los Piramides.  Their buildings are wooden but pyramid shaped and situated in the four cardinal directions.  The plants in the garden had pvc pyramids over them.  The young lady at the reception desk said no one does limpias and I was advised to go to Santiago, another village on the lake, for that.

I had a breakfast of hot cakes and honey.  The juice was fifteen Q  but a shot of tequila was ten Q.  Tough decision but I went for the OJ.  It is off season and a few places were closed.   I contemplated staying the night but instead just explored the area and departed for Panajache.  On the lancha to Pana,  we passed a bunch of other villages picking up people and dropping them off along the way.

I was tired and decided to head back ´home´.  Instead of the chicken bus, I bought a ticket on a shuttle and was home in three short hours.

When I got home, Magda was wondering if I had gone all the way to Todos Santos and back in two days.  I told her the story of Chimal and the first bus coming along.  She said, didn´t you hear about Salcaja?  Salcaja is a town near Huehue.  The news reported that eight police officers were killed by narcotraficantes in Salcaja and the military had been called out and President had run over there to give a speech.  Los militares had secured the area around Huehue, Cuatro Caminos, Todos Santos, et cet.  No big deal, been there/done that with los militares in Colombia but there is a reason for everything...

Here are some photos of this weekend trip.

Main street, San Pedro

View of Lake Atitlan, San Pedro

San Marcos

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Day 1

This was my first day at "work". In the morning I was asked to help Genesey with her numbers.  Assignment: write "1" about 25 times on one page and "0" and "1" 25 times on another page.  I gathered Genesey had talked back to the maestra and was sent out of class.  I asked if we could do it in colored pencils and the answer from the top was no.  Black lead only.  Note to self: don´t refer the la directora as "la policia".

Genesey did the drawing (above).  We did the numbers for about an hour and I made a best friend for the rest of the day.   And a friend of her younger sister.  The younger sister was about 4 years old and was real friendly but when I asked her name, her face would go from a smile to no expression.  I asked her if her name was "sin nombre".  Both are being raised by their Grandmother.

Magda took me to look at the swimming pool for my future use. It is in the nearby town San Felipe.  It is a private pool but don´t let that fool you.   I have learned some Spanish I did not know before, "no es aclimado" means, it is not heated. It is outside and even though it was closed today, they let us in and I stuck my hand in the water and it was ok temperature wise.  Magda´s son offerred to lend me his mountain bike so I can ride.  Of course, Americanos no usan bicicletas sin guantes.  I will have to by some biking gloves.

In the afternoon I mixed a little cement with the worker who was making a small brick addition to a wall.  I had to sift the sand and mix the cement.  Fortunately, there were some young boys who thought this was "play" and not work and I got them to help me sift the sand and mix the cement.

Walking back from the pool I had a chance to ask Magda about the local culture and customs.  Magda and people like myself are not Latinos but Ladinos.  I may not even be considered a Ladino myself.   The Mayans are not Mayans, they are "ethnicos" (ethnics) or "indiginos".  To call them "Indios" is a racial slur.  Apparently, the Landinos are in the habbit of saying things like, "Usted limpio su cuarto como un Indio" and they know that it is now politically incorrect and they have to change.  Ethnico men are macho macho macho.  There is something that goes with that but I could not read between the lines of what Magda was telling me. I will have to ask her more directly next time.  Some of the Ethnico women marry French men, Italians, Americans, etc. and live part time in Guatemala and live part time in, for example, Italy.   There is something between the lines of that statement that I did not catch either.  Finally, the question you have all wondered, why don´t Ethnico (or Landino) women wear wedding bands when they are married?  The number one answer is....they can´t offord the rings....the number two answer is...the rings are uncomfortable.... 

This weekend I plan to go on a long planned trip to Todos Santos up north near the Mexican border.  

Cerro de la Cruz

Instead of going to visit a small village around Lake Attitlan, I decided to stay around Jocotenango this weekend.  I wanted to experience being in a small town in a foreign country with nothing to do.  Experience the silence of doing nothing.  Of course, I did not ´do nothing´.  On Saturday I walked to Antigua (2 km) and then once in Antigua walked some more (you could walk the circumfrance of Antigua in one or two hours). I went to the plaza and watched the tourists.  Then I took a bus back (about 5 cents).

This morning Murga and her sons borrowed a car and took me to the Cerro de la Cruz, a place that overlooks Antigua. It was built by the government on top of a mountain and has a performance space, restaurant, aviary, and sculture garden.  It was beautiful.  We walked around and had brunch with all of the fixins -- omeletes cooked to order (I want that job -- omelete maker), black refried beans, pancakes, fresh squeezed papaya or orange juice, and for the carnivores, bacon or sausage.   The attached photos are of the four of us (her sons are Dany and Fredy) eating our brunch along with some photos of the sculpture garden and views.  When I got back I walked to Antigua again and took a bus back home in the evening.