mayan ritual

on wednesday night, i went with margarita, gladis, and the other students up to baúl (the mountain pictured below) to see a mayan ritual.



the baúl looks pretty small from afar, but it's actually quite high, and has an amazing view of all of xela. my friends margot and kelli often run all the way to the top of the mountain, which seems impossible and crazy to me, but they really like it. it takes them 2 hours.



the ceremony was conducted in part by xela's indigenous queen, who was just elected and holds office for a year. there is a strange pageant culture here, which i haven't completely figured out. for instance, the other night i watched the señorita deportes contest, but none of the girls seemed very sporty, and the competition had the standard swimsuit, evening gown, speech-about-your-goals parts that all pageants have. but anyway, everyone in town agrees that the yearly contest for the reina indigenous is different and far more serious...the queen is chosen for her cultural knowledge, spirituality, and her ability to represent her people to the rest of guatemala. here is xela's queen setting up the offerings for the ritual:



every part of the circle above represents something important to the community (the purity of the young people, the health of the older people, fertility, etc). this ritual was also attended by all of the other queens from all over guatemala, and each arrived wearing traditional ceremonial outfits from their region.



once everyone arrived, they forned a circle around the offerings, made speeches of welcome and introduction (which i couldn't understand because their backs were to me and i couldn't hear well), and then they each lit their candles from one central flame and lit the center offerings on fire. after each queen contributed to the fire, the circled the flames and danced.



above you can see some more of the regional outfits.



and here again is xela's own queen, who's ceremonial dress was beautiful and completely made by hand. although you can't see it in the pictures, it was also extremely cold and started raining very hard, so we left before the ceremony finished. but i was told by gladis and others, that witnessing one of these ceremonies is typically very exclusive, so i'm glad that i had the opportunity to go!

a strange day

this morning when i woke up and went downstairs for breakfast, this is what i found in the living room:



a four-foot glass case with jesus in it. right in the middle of the livingroom table. julia was in the kitchen talking on the phone, so i was able to snap a quick picture. when julia joined me at the table later, she didn´t mention it and neither did i. i still have no idea what it´s doing there.

after a quick breakfast, i set out for my 50 ft walk to school (which is two doors down), and saw something weird in the street. when i approached it, i realized that it was an olden-type wooden baby doll that had been smashed and set on fire, then left for dead. (that´s her face in the top right and a severed leg in the bottom left corner). ((i took this picture horizontally, but it won´t load right)). very strange.



after another informative spanish class, in which my teacher thoroughly enjoyed my stealthy pictures of our living room santo ("en serio?!", she said over and over), i headed home for lunch. when i walked in the door, i was greeted by several small children (and jesus, who was still on the coffee table) who are often in the house visiting and eating lunch. julia left for the hospital to visit a sick nephew, so she left us to serve ourselves. as you may know, i like kids a lot, and being here has given me the chance to hang out and play with many many babies and tiny people, which has been fantastic. it may have even kicked my biological clock into action...today, however, slowed it down significantly. here's why:

meet ricardo. he eats lunch with us about once a week with his mother and little sister (who is almost 1). he is hilarious and super imaginative, and he has a constant flow of ridiculous stories pouring out of his mouth at all times. when you ask him his name, he tells you he is ricardo guillermo villatoro of the wedding of the cats (in spanish, but that's the basic translation). and he follows it up quickly by telling you that his father is a bombero (a firefighter). today he told us something about when his mother died (don't worry, she was alive and well and sitting next to me) and also a long story that culminated with him peepeeing in his camita. he talks in classic kid-telling-a-story mode, like this (except in spanish): once......there was this guy.....and he......and he......he told me.......etc. but it's weird kid-spanish and it's really hard to understand, even for his mom. his pose below speaks volumes of his personality:



here was another dining guest: i forgot to ask her name, but she was quiet and sweet and sang tiny songs to jorge (next picture).



here's jorge and adriana. he's tiny and precious. in the middle of our meal, both he and baby #2 (below) started simultaneously crying, and were simultaneously set to breast feeding, while ricardo kept telling stories and the little girl looked curiously between the two nursing babies.




here's baby #2. before feeding, she wriggled in her mothers arms, pulled her earrings out, yanked on her hair, and effectively kept her from feeding herself and monitoring ricardo, who ate a tiny bit inbetween stories and getting up and walking out the front door (he came back).



all-in-all, a fun lunch. and even though i like kids, this was a little much for me. there are many families that have at least four kids here, and i have no idea how they manage. needless to say, i won't be having four kids anytime soon. (oh, and by the way, no one mentioned jesus during our lunch either.)

a small cultural difference

i'm not sure if it's really a cultural difference, but it's definitely something to note. like new york, xela is a walking kind of city. everyone walks. and thus i walk a lot. the main part of xela is basically a grid (although mariam insists that it's not), with streets and avenues intersecting at nice tidy right angles. this set up means that you can't see around the corner you're approaching--which seems obvious, and you may be wondering why i'm explaining something so simple, but it's important. i'm telling a story here.

the point? much much much more often than i'd like, i round a corner and nearly collide with a gentleman (or teenager, or small boy) peeing on the side of the road. it happens at least 2-3 times per week. it's like the national pasttime here. when traveling by bus, you pass scores and scores of men on the side of the road peeing. and sometimes, when the bus stops to pick up new passengers, a desperate man will quickly jump off and try to relieve himself before the bus starts rolling again. and the bus won't wait. so usually the guy will start running and zipping his fly while trying to hop back into the door of the moving bus. it's fun for everyone!

but it can also be awkward. i'm a curious person by nature, and so i will often see someone from a distance looking secretive, and i want to know what's happening. (yes, even though i know that there are men peeing everywhere all the time here--you'd think i'd realize, but never!) so i'm looking at him, wondering......and then i realize! aaah! and then i feel embarassed and cross the street.

before writing this post, i checked with others to make sure i wasn't exagerrating this phenomenon, and my observations were confirmed by many people (and with the same shock and amazement). if i get up the courage, i'll snap a picture one of these days, and then you can all share in my embarassment and amusement.

mis nuevos amigos

mariam left a week ago, and as you can probably tell by the significant lull in blogging, it's much quieter here without her. i daresay boring. i didn't realize how much my daily activities would change after her departure, but after a week left to my own devices, i'm starting to figure things out. but don't worry! i've already made some new friends...would you like to meet them_ here they are:

amigo numero uno: ricardo



ricardo is obviously indispensable because he speaks english and spanish.

amiga numero dos: blanca



so smart and funny! we talk about music and tv shows!


and amigo numero tres: the tv



after 7 weeks in the dark, i realized that the tv in my room has cable! and that there are many english channels. so i watched a riveting episode of CSI: Miami the other night. now, many people seem to think that the tv is a bad influence and that i shouldn't hang out with him, but that's just not fair! people are worried that watching english tv shows will ruin my slowly-progressing spanish skills. but i promise i'm reading the subtitles and checking them for accuracy.

obviously, i'm only kidding about my new friendships (kind of), and i still have many real live friends here in xela (like margot and kelli, who i will have lunch with today--i'll post pictures as proof!). and i'm going to try to get back on the blogwagon and make more frequent posts, so stay tuned...