the m in guateMala

mayan ritual

2006-09-08T15:30:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-05T15:25:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-02T12:12:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-02T11:38:00.000-05:00

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...

buena vista social club

2006-08-27T11:47:00.000-05:00

last night, after spending 9 hours on a bus (to and from guatemala city), i went with gladis to see buena vista social club perform here. the concert has been generating a lot of excitement here in xela because 4 of the original members were playing.

the show was in the ballroom of a hotel, and the place was packed. there weren´t enough seats for everyone, but most people seemed content to stand. there was also a bar serving drinks and cuban sandwiches, which were yummy!

the event started at 7, but wasn´t very well planned (virginia, it was your worst nightmare!), so the opening group went on around 8:30. they were pretty good, and they sang luna de xelaju, which is the local anthem here, and i´ve never heard it! they also had the gallo girls dancing for them, which the crowd really liked--especially when they each grabbed a gringo from the audience to dance (or try to...). after the opening group, we waited and waited and waited. then, around 9:30, the power went out (classic xela!, see below):

about 15 minutes later, the electricity decided to cooperate again, and the band finally appeared around 10. here they are!!:

the music was beautiful, and the crowd was thrilled. but sadly, in between each song, there were more technical difficulties and loud feedback...by 10:45 they´d only been able to play 3 songs. and i was TIRED. so gladis and i ducked out early to get some sleep. but i had a great time, and i had the good luck to see these living legends perform.

when chickens fly

2006-08-27T11:27:00.000-05:00

yesterday, i rode the bus with mariam to guatemala city to see her off at the airport (and help her lug her insanely heavy bags). we had heard from our friend marilyn about the campero airport phenomenon, so we wanted to witness it and participate in it in our own tiny way. "what is the campero airport phenomenon?," you might be wondering. well, in a nutshell, it´s this: as you´ve gathered from our ravings, pollo campero is deeee-licious, and we´re not the only ones who think so. so, when guatemaltecos are taking a trip to the u.s. (or other places lacking in campero), they first head to the airport campero to load up on chicken to bring to friends and family abroad. you think i´m kidding right? just wait...

the guatemala city airport is currently undergoing major renovations, so pollo campero has a portable trailer set up in the parking lot (run by a generator!). mariam is pictured in front of it above. after checking her bags, we set out for said trailer, and passed several groups of travelers carrying giant bags of chicken. picture bags and bags of kfc buckets...now picture more bags. some people even brought empty suitcases to put the chicken into for easier transport. it was incredible!

lacking an extra suitcase, mariam and i settled upon a 2 piece meal and some nuggets, which were delicious. they also seemed to be the perfect way to say adios to guatemala. we ate our snack outside the airport, cried a bit, said goodbye, and i hopped in a taxi for my return bus ride to xela.

¡hasta pronto!

2006-08-25T17:31:00.000-05:00

my bags are packed, my ticket is confirmed, and margarita, michele and i have bought our seats on the 6 am bus to guate tomorrow. today is my last day in xela and i have to say i'm going out with a bang. really. the poor strawberry shortcake piñata we celebrated with at school today makes a lot of noise as she goes down. :)

like this whole trip, today was full of people and sweetness and lots and lots of affection. i skipped aerobics but somehow still made it to school late, which gave johanna (michele's teacher) enough time to drag strawberry schortcake in on the low. i had my class and exchanged gifts of appreciation with sury (note my new necklace above), along with quite a number of tears, though we did our best to stem the tide. at the break we beat up shortcake and ate the candy she yielded, along with fantastic guacamole and tostadas.

julia made us a delicious goodbye lunch of milanesa (which is sort of like chicken fried steak, to totally debase it), along with my favorite vegetable soup and one of her very impressive jello molds. for dessert, we drank some of the homemade chocolate, with cookies that i couldn't touch because i was so full. i got lovely gifts all around, and people just said the most beautiful loving things to me all day long.

it's sad to leave, but it feels so good to know i have made some relationships here that will last and last. there are many new friends, like sury, my incredible teacher, margarita and julia who opened their home and family with immeasurable generosity, margot, who suffered the moving debacle and sweetened this trip from day one, kelly whose smile i will miss but hope to see stateside, and reina who i will see in brooklyn so soon! there are also people we met on the road (hello hannah, lisa, and tanya), and new yorkers like lee and amanda who we got to hang out with pretty much for the first time in a hundred years. i feel full to the top with all kinds of good things, and as hard as tomorrow will be, i feel like i am taking so much with me.

this is where i sign off, but stay tuned over the next few months for michele's updates, anecdotes, and capers... they're sure to entertain and we can all glower with envy from afar together. see you/talk to you soon!

pizza & beer

2006-08-25T16:09:00.000-05:00

yesterday afternoon, we went out in search of xela´s best pizza (with margarita as our guide of course!). poor julia had cooked up an amazing feast of jocom, but none of us were feeling hungry...until an hour later. we´ve tried to explain that in new york, we eat pizza like guatamaltecos eat tortillas. and thus, mariam and i were craving some pie, which we haven´t had in a record 6 weeks. so we set out for giuseppe´s, a pizzaria near the park.

to make it a real quasi-new york experience, margarita and i ordered beers (corona and gallo, respectively). but mariam, with all her refinement and class, practically squealed with glee when she saw manischewitz on the menu. (see her absolute joy below)

the pizza was delicious. different than new york, of course, and maybe a bit different from any pizza i´ve had, but delicious nonetheless. check out our progress:

after stuffing ourselves to capacity, we left giuseppe´s and headed for la luna to meet up with friends from new york. on our way there, the heavens opened up unexpectedly and drenched us with a ferocious thunderstorm. like always, we had no umbrella, so we huddled in doorways waiting for the rain to stop. at one point, there was a huge bolt of lightning, and the power went out around us....the three of us screamed in unison and then literally grabbed hold of each other in a hug of terror. it was hilarious! but the rain finally slowed, and we trudged through flooded streets in soaking wet clothes to have another lovely evening at la luna.

¡feliz cumpleaños a mi!

2006-08-23T17:18:00.000-05:00

yesterday was my birthday, and we lived it up here. margarita and julia woke up at 7 to sing "las mañanitas" to me (while rubbing the sleep from their eyes), and then my mom called at 8 to sing like elvis (as she does every year)!

mariam got me an amazing pair of knock-off puma wrap arounds...they're super space-age and green like an alien. they're the trendiest shoes i've ever had and i'm obsessed with them (i'm wearing them now!). i also got a super chivos hat (hot sheeps!....no, it doesn't say hot sheeps, or else i'd be bringing one home for everyone). check out my style:

(there're the shoes!!!!)

we celebrated at lunch with margarita and julia, and then again at dinner with the entire extended family of our school. the more clever of you out there have already figured out what this means: two cakes! here they are:

i also got many flowers and other gifts (foot lotion, a mug, a notebook, a chalina, and a hand-colored precious moments drawing from a coloring book!)

here are more pictures of the festivities:

lunch: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, lemonade, CAKE!

here's the party at dinner time

gladis, the director of our school

the chicas

tons of arroz!!!

tio leonel

julia getting her groove on!

i had an excellent birthday, but i missed everyone back in the states. however, i received a barrage of emails and ecards (which i'm replying to as quickly as possible!), so thanks for all of the love!

lago de atitlan

2006-08-20T17:41:00.000-05:00

to celebrate michele's upcoming birthday (august 22nd! email her! michelecjames@yahoo.com), and to have a little break from xela, we traveled to lago de atitlan this weekend and vacationed with a capital V. at the suggestion of a number of people (thank you javi, joe, and whoever else...), we booked a room at hotel la casa del mundo (link above, in title) and stayed for three nights.

after a nearly three hour bus ride from xela, we arrived in panajachel and took the lancha across the lake to la casa just in time for the family style dinner. the food that night was a little lacking, but we met a pair of friends who were chatty and funny, which more than made up for that. sasha, one of them, is starting social work school at columbia in the fall and has already secured an apartment in park slope. i see a spanish conversation group in our future! we chatted a while, then spent about an hour watching a furious and gorgeous lightning storm illuminate the lake and volcanoes, which was amazing.

friday and saturday we spent our time sunning, eating, and reading back issues of the new yorker out loud. we also finally got up the nerve to swim in the lake-- it's clean and huge, beautiful and deep, so it's kind of inviting and intimidating at the same time. we were glad we got in, though-- it's gorgeous, and a real experience being in there with the expanse of the lake and the shadow of the volcanoes all around.

we met great people on this little trip. first, hannah pratt, a washington state teacher in training who's had an amazing life and seems to really be going places (pictured below). she has a photographer sister libby who just moved to brooklyn too, so we may even get to see her again.

then we met two women from australia who had come to guate after a dragonboating competition in toronto. tanya was sick for part of the time but surfaced eventually, and lysa made that last night's dinner warmer, livelier, and more fun for her great conversation. they were fantastic.

we didn't get to go kayaking, but we did read alot, eat alot, and talk alot. the swimming and tanning took center stage too. i know we're already on vacation and that this post might not do much to endear us to all you worker bees still out there in the states, but we just had to share. if you're looking for a place to relax all day and fall asleep to the sound of rain on the lake, this is it. again, the invitation to drop what you're doing and join us still stands. in case you need any more coaxing, pictures form the weekend follow, below.

a self-portrait of us on the balcony in front of our room

michele surveying the lake

balcony, part deux

swimming (we're so far!)

morning cafe

chairs on another of the many balconies

hammock time

reading lakeside

look how blue it is! that´s where we swam!

michele hanging out...look how long her hair is now!

nosotras and the chocolate factory

2006-08-17T17:17:00.000-05:00

on thursday, we made chocolate. what i mean is, we MADE chocolate. like from scratch. like from cocoa beans. it's possibly the coolest thing we've done here so far, aside, of course, from our campero pilgrimages. it's an incredible process, and it really makes you appreciate that cup of cocoa much more. here's how it went:

we bought 5 pounds of beans, 10 pounds of sugar, and 2 sticks of cinnamon in the market, then took it all home to start. sury, mariam's teacher, is some kind of chocolate-making expert, so she supervised. we started by toasting the beans, mostly on a large baking sheet kind of pan, right on the stovetop.

we took turns tending to the pans, turning and tossing the beans every so often till they went from light brown (sort of like raw almonds, but big and misshapen) to looking sort of burned. we were assured this is ok.

after toasting, we deposited the beans into a big bucket on the kitchen counter, where the two of us, our two teachers, the director of the school, and two of the teachers' daughters stood around peeling them for about an hour.

it took a long time, but it was fun to cook and chat together. when they're peeled, they look kind of like overgrown coffee beans. we threw in the two cinnamon sticks, then took the whole mixture, including the 10 pounds of unopened bags of sugar, to the molino (the grinder), to have it all ground together. here's a picture:

in the end, it looks like a huge brown lump, and you have to really smack it around for a long time to get it pliable and smooth. we did a lot of that, then formed little balls of it into thin patties, which we left to dry overnight. that's what you see in the picture at the top of the post. we made designs in them with fork tines-- mostly swishes and swirls, but a few aspired to the lofty hights of te amos and their names.

the next morning we crowded around a pot of boiling water waiting for the chocolate to melt. here they sort of beat it with an item that's similar to a wooden whisk, to get it frothy and creamy. it's beautiful, and i know i'm biased, but it's hands-down the best hot chocolate i've ever had ever. if you're lucky, maybe we'll bring you some...

guate¡amala!

2006-08-15T17:22:00.000-05:00

tuesday, after classes, we headed over to the templo minerva, a structure in the heart of town that is usually empty but this week is hosting an exhibition called guate amala. it's a pun, see? guate (like guatemala) amala (love it!). if you click on the title of this posting it will take you to the website of the project, which is great. basically it's a movement to instill and increase national pride, improve guatemalan life in general, and unify guatemaltecos. the exhibit was great-- beautifully put together, moving, inspiring, and chock full of information on how to get involved with non-profits from every imaginable front. the best part is that it was almost entirely staffed by very enthusiastic young people.

every exhibit had a few huge captions to form the general feeling they wanted to convey, and these were some of the most powerful parts of the show. here are some, below:

we only spent a couple of hours there before we headed for home, but we were really impressed and i (mariam) am still buzzing about it, days later. in the chocolate-making post, you can see my guate¡amala! t shirt. dorky, i know, but i really fell in love.

your new role models

2006-08-14T18:59:00.000-05:00

are nada michael (pictured below) and tracy davis (the genius behind the camera), who ran--not walked--to pollo campero in washington d.c. immediately after reading our post (if you´ve yet to read said post, scroll down!). now these ladies clearly possess both brilliance and dedication! who´s next?!

excursions--zunil

2006-08-14T13:04:00.000-05:00

a while back we went to zunil, also nearby xela, about half an hour or so by bus. when we got there the road was completely full of mounrers, as there was a funeral going on, and it was really interesting to see. the men and women are completely separated during the funeral procession, with the men carrying the casket through the streets from the church to the cemetery and the women in a group walking behind. their beautiful clothes were such a contrast to the church, which is painted bright white and was brighter for the sun shining on it.

the church itself is gorgeous. another remnant of the conquest of the spanish, but still it's a beautiful place. inside the ceilings are draped with lace that hangs down to the side aisles, and the day we visited it was full of flowers from the funeral. i lit candles and said some prayers in there, and felt alot of peace being in such a space.

zunil, like a few other guatemalan cities, also boasts an indigenous women's weaving cooperative that makes incredible textiles and clothing. in many cases women are prevented from working outside the home by their husbands, and eventually the idea developed that they could work from home and sell their items in a store staffed by those who had different opportunites. in this way, the women are able to earn a little money and a little independence.

this particular coop was founded (and, it seems consistenly supported) by a peace corps volunteer named janet (i think). javi, we think this might be the PC volunteer whose memorial you attended last year-- we thought of you while we were there...we entered and were able to walk around a little bit, to the patio out back where the women eat together in the sun and into the thread room, which is just a feast of color. there must literally be thousands of skeins of thread in there, all stacked together like a kaleidoscope. it's sort of dazzling.

one of the women was gracious enough to show us how the weaving is done (with a loom that attaches to anything sturdy in front of you and is anchored by a wide leather strap around the hips), and it was mesmerizing to see how fast she worked. it was also interesting to see how different it was from the huge stationary loom the man from salcaja used, in an earlier post below. the moment was unfortunately ruined by an idiot taking a picture of her, without asking and with the biggest brightest flash i've ever experienced. it was pretty embarrassing.

we bought a few things from the coop and after another visit to san simon (this time sans crystal ball), we hopped back on the chicken bus and headed home.

excursions--fuentes georginas

2006-08-13T15:32:00.000-05:00

yesterday, we hopped in the trusty pick-up, which i will now officially name blanquita the sucia, to head for fuentes georginas, which is a hot spring way up in the mountains outside of xela. we rode in the back again (which i love, because you just can´t get away with it in the states anymore!), and got to enjoy the amazing landscape here. check me out below, enjoying the ride. yes, i know it looks like i wasn´t enjoying the ride...and the truth is, the exhaust and pollution in xela (to which blanquita contributes a good deal) is starting to get to me. in fact, during a yoga class last weekend, all of the crazy sun salutating turned my sinuses upside down and i got a splitting headache, almost fainted, and had to lay on the floor outside the class. i suspect that this episode resulted from a steady build-up of diesel fumes in my nasal passages, but who can say for sure. but i digress....in fact, i did enjoy the ride. mostly because i covered my nose and mouth with two layers of clothing the entire way there.

fuentes georginas is across the valley from xela´s active volcano, santa maria, which regularly erupts and spews clouds of noxious gases into the air. adventurous types can hike up to the top of the mountain, but we´ve heard that it´s freezing and grueling, and we´re not that adventurous anyway. but it´s beautiful from afar:

upon our arrival at the springs, we were in heaven. we were above cloud level, and the surrounding mountains are covered in jungle and farmlands. the people here are amazing, because they manage to carve fertile farmlands out of these mountains...on the way up we saw many farms on the slopes--some at more than a 60 degree angle. the fields looked difficult to stand on, we can´t imagine how challenging it must be to plant and harvest vegetables from them! after driving up a long, winding, and extremely narrow mountain road (so narrow that margarita honked before rounding each curve to warn oncoming cars), we arrived at fuentes. here is the entrance:

and here is the pool! the water was warm and soothing, and we lounged around until our fingers and toes became unrecognizeable in their pruniness. also, if you look toward the back of the pool, you will see a waterfall-like area. there are actually openings in the bottom of the rocks here where the (extremely hot) water flows out of the mountain and into the pool. this is the best area to hang out in because it´s the hottest and freshest water. and, you can get a cup from the restaurant (at the left) and drink the spring water, which tastes lemony and is excellent for digestion and general health. we drank cup after cup!

this was by far one of the best trips we´ve taken during our time here. we both love to swim, so this was the perfect way to spend a saturday. check us out as bathing beauties below:

we´re already trying to figure out when we can go back!

love (and fighting) makes a family

2006-08-12T17:24:00.000-05:00

alternative title: why margarita is the best

it´s been a busy weekend! two days ago, we had a blow out with julia.

you´ve read about her incomparable cooking skills (iron chef, move over) and ability to tolerate accidental spanish insults, but there are things we haven´t told you. julia is a typical stay-at-home mom in many ways: she spends much of her day cooking, cleaning, and selling avon-like products to friends and neighbors. she´s also extremely overbearing... it´s a smothering sort of love. here´s what happened.

8:30 am, friday

(on the way out the door to school)
mariam: "julia, i know your son is coming over this weekend and that we have to change rooms, but can you wait for us to come home and move the stuff ourselves after lunch? everything´s all over the place and we´d like to just do it on our own so we can remember where everything is. is that ok, or do you need to do it earlier?"

julia: "oh, it´s no problem for me to do it, i LIKE to help!"

mariam: (yes, we guessed that.) "oh THANK YOU! but we´d really rather do it ourselves. it´s a good opportunity for us to take a look at how much stuff we´ve accumulated and where all the things we aren´t using are, etc...is that ok?"

julia: (begrudgingly, but appearing to agree) "sure, ok, esta bien."

(exit mariam and michele, front door.)

FOUR HOURS LATER

(mariam walks in a little late for lunch, to find michele fuming and margot, our old housemate and new friend, half amused and half sympathetic.)

mariam: "hey guys, what´s up?"

michele (steam rising from the top of her head, speaking through clenched teeth): she moved our stuff.

mariam: no.

michele: yes.

(lunch ensues. michele seethes, mariam gives the cold shoulder, not taking seconds, speaking in one word sentences. poor margot tries to keep the conversation going. eventually, mariam goes upstairs. shortly after, michele follows, then margot, who has come upstairs to wash her hands. the three talk together, debating the right approach to take. margot thinks julia wants the truth. michele wants to make nice since she has to live there for three more months, but she also wants vengeance. mariam thinks it´s a good opportunity for multicultural social work practice. we half-decide to tell her how we really feel. then: enter julia, back steps. margot is cornered in the bathroom doorway, an innocent bystander stuck witnessing the battle.)

julia: "i hope you guys aren´t too upset that i moved you into the other room."

silence

mariam: "actually, julia, a little bit. (i decide dumbstruck is the best route) i just can´t understand why you would move our things after we agreed together this morning that we´d do it after lunch. what happened?"

julia: "i just wanted to help. i thought it would be helpful. it had to get done today, because tomorrow we´re going to the fuentes, and you wouldn´t have time."

mariam: "i understand that, but we already know that walter is coming on saturday afternoon and that we´re leaving saturday morning. it was in our plan to clear the room before the end of the day today. didn´t we agree to that this morning?"

(we go back and forth like this a little bit and then she gets exasperated. so do i.)

julia: "it´s such a simple thing. it´s not a big deal. i´m just being a mother."

mariam: (button pushed) "but julia, I DON´T HAVE A MOTHER. this is a big adjustment for us. we know you do it all out of love, but in new york, we´re used to doing everything for ourselves. it´s just different. "

(mariam is shaking inside. michele says later that she was so anxious she couldn´t feel her feet. julia: commence waterworks.)

julia: (quietly) "i´m sorry. it´s my fault. i shouldn´t have helped you. i shouldn´t have done you a favor. i´m wrong." (one tear rolls silently down her cheek. exit julia to bedroom, door open and crying volume on medium. margot makes a beeline for the door, free.)

mariam: (concentrating on remembering how to talk to people social-workly and doing her best to resist the onslaught of guilt: YOU MADE HER CRY!!!): "julia, we really appreciate everything you do for us and we know you do it all out of love, but it´s a big difference and we´re trying to adjust. we love that we get to live like a family here, but if we´re not honest about our feelings, that makes silence, which ruins the relationship we have. we value the relationship we have here and want to protect it, so we have to tell you how we feel."

(julia returns the cold shoulder given to her at lunch, ignoring most of what i say and continuing to beat herself up to make me feel bad. it works. eventually, she half heartedly accepts my apology for making her upset, and we leave. i feel awful. when we come back hours later, she´s gone to mass, another arrow meant to make us repent. margarita is left to make dinner, since we obviously have no idea how to feed ourselves. we are anxious that margarita hates us for making her mama cry.)

michele: "hi."

margarita: "hola chicas. have a good day? we´re having sincronizados (quesadillas) for dinner."

mariam: "where´s your mom?"

margarita: "at mass."

mariam: "escaping us?"

margarita: " i think so."

mariam: "margarita, we feel awful for what happened. it´s just that we talked and she--"

margarita: (interrupting) "--she was wrong. you asked her for something, she said ok and then she did what she wanted. i know. she does it to me all the time. we fight about things in my room all the time. occasionally we have a big blowout and she´ll leave my room alone for a month or so, but then it´s back to normal. it makes me crazy."

michele: (relieved) "we didn´t mean to upset her, but it´s just different."

(we talk a little longer, complain about the need for privacy and independence etc etc, and eat our ham and cheese quesadillas. eventually, julia comes home. it´s awkward. after a few minutes of pain, margarita suggests we drive up to el mirador, basically xela´s look out point, sans necking teenagers. we skulk out, pretending everything is fine, and chatter our way up to the place, which turns out to be beautiful. here are a few pictures of us up there. note the look of escaped convict glee on our faces.)

beyond campero

2006-08-12T17:12:00.000-05:00

ok, we are obsessed with pollo campero! many of you may remember when it opened in nyc and it was all we could talk about for weeks (if not, click the link below to see the daily news article on the phenomenon).

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/212786p-183226c.html

luckily for us, guatemala is the home of this amazing restaurant, and we have been taking full advantage of their many locations here in xela (and i won´t try to tell you that p.c. was missing from our where-to-study-spanish decision). we´ve only dined there 3 times so far....mostly because our aerobicos maestra would really disapprove and because we have superhuman restraint...but we keep forgetting to take pictures. so we have to keep going back. obviously.

today, we finally documented our joy, and you can see it below. we snacked this afternoon on a 9-pack of camperitos, which are delicious morsels of chicken breast--so juicy, so savory!

here i am, in pollo heaven:

and here´s mariam in a pollo frenzy (and not from the pox this time!):

she managed to calm down for her final bite:

if you click on "beyond campero" above, you can look at their website...and maybe find a location near you! they´re already in texas, california (where our many friends should now run for the door), virginia, maryland, d.c., (nada, go NOW!) and nyc. if you don´t live right in one of these places, it´s definitely worth the road-trip!

la guarderia

2006-08-12T17:10:00.000-05:00

most spanish schools in xela are connected to a community organization or social justice project where students can volunteer. our school works closely with a guarderia just outside of xela, and we went there yesterday to meet the kids and play. what a great time! the kids are unbelievably adorable and extremely affectionate (you have to watch out for group hugs, where you suddenly find yourself encrusted in small children clinging to your arms and legs).

(these were two of our favorites: jose and natali)

yesterday, we had the happy job of delivering new pairs of shoes to all the kids. a french canadian student who left here last week raised money for the shoes and took all the sizes. so we bought them and brought them to the kids, who literally jumped up and down with excitement when they saw the shoes. they got new sockas, too, and one precious kid (jose, above) kept his newly-stockinged feet on a piece of paper very patiently while waiting for his shoes (even while most of the other kids made total mayhem around the bag of shoes) , all to keep his socks clean.

they all loved mariam´s camera, and wanted to pose for pictures (and of course see them immediately!). mariam also gave some self-photography lessons,

and documented the modelling sessions that took place after the kids felt comfortable enough to ask us for our glasses (about 5 minutes).

natali was by far my favorite! we ran and ran and ran, then pretended to sleep. and she refused to pose nicely for the camera, offering us her fist instead! but how adorable is she?!

other notes & updates

2006-08-12T17:01:00.000-05:00

1) margarita let me try to drive the infamous pick-up truck. it´s diesel and lets out tons of thick black smoke when accelerating, it doesn´t have power steering or brakes, it´s got a manual transmission (but the clutch isn´t that difficult), and i only drove it about 20 feet because the streets here are too narrow and people (including margarita) drive the wrong way down one-way streets, but still, it was an event.

2) mariam and i have been studying in cafés and trying to write some postcards (while enjoying more limonada!) the mail here is infamous for being terribly slow, so we´ll see if your postcards get to the us before mariam does...

3) we snapped a picture of our good friend the rooster, who wakes us up every morning, for your eyes only. soon we´ll name him. please email us with suggestions.

4) we´re using skype now to call people for super-cheap or free! look it up, it´s great! and if you sign up, we can call you on your computer! www.skype.com

5) mariam´s pox mystery continues...she had to go get some blood taken for more tests, and a complete moron tried (many many times) to find her vein. here is the result of her efforts (OUCH!). we both almost fainted in the "laboratory," which looked a bit like someone´s not-too-clean living room, but she stayed in pretty good spirits about it.

more adventures next week... stay tuned...

more photos!

2006-08-12T16:55:00.000-05:00

mariam continues to take lovely pictures of xela and surrounding areas...here´s a small sampling:

xela´s cemetery

2006-08-12T16:49:00.000-05:00

after class one day this week gladis (the school's director) and sury (mariam's teacher) took us on a trip to the cemetery, which is an amazing place. most people here are buried in mausoleum-ish structures, but very colorful and often covered with flowers. it's not the happiest place in the world, but it's very beautiful.

the most striking thing about the cemetery is the really stark economic division: while most of the general public has a space for only 10 years (pictured above) and are then transferred to the graves of other family members, the rich around here have huge and extravagant tombs, with marble sculptures, wrought iron scrolling, and gold leaf letters. the saddest (and least surprising, i guess) is that most of these structures are the tombs of foreigners from various parts of the world, mostly germany, france, italy, and of course spain.

near the center of the cemetery is a section where hundreds of women and men who died during the civil war are buried together. their grave is marked by two sentenses painted large on the wall:

at the very back of the cemetery, past a set of gates, is the poorest part of the cemetery (pictured below), reserved for families who simply bury their dead and mark the site with a cross painted on the wall. it's difficult to move from place to place here and not feel heavy.

the social divisions here are as complex and deep-rooted as they are at home in the us-- there are tensions between different parts of the indigenous and non-indegenous communities, the extranjero community, and discrimination exists within each group as well. add to that the mixing between groups and the history of conquest and you can see how messy it is. the three funeral processions we saw in the hour and a half we were there really highlight the differences between groups: some groups wear the same clothing they might wear on any other day, while others favor solid black western style clothing. how rich, important, or well-known you are dictates whether or not the priest attends your burial. you might have a mariachi band or a group of women wailing with abandon.

for all it's class implications, the cemetery is also a place where people seem comfortable. we saw lots of couples and families sitting in the shade or walking down the center road, which is lined with trees on either side, and at the front there is a grave of vanushka (see her tomb below), a young gypsy woman who died of heartbreak and has become a pop culture patron saint of love. her grave is covered with notes from xela's girls and boys begging for her help in winning someone's heart, and sometimes, breaking someone's leg to clear the way for themselves. :)

a couple more photos:

everyone loves egypt!

cookin with julia

2006-08-11T13:08:00.000-05:00

two weekends ago we had a cooking class at home with julia, where we (sort of) learned to make jocom, the traditional dish of xela. it´s basically a thick greenish stew-like dish with chicken and rice, and it´s delicious. the best part is making the sauce, which is a million different green things (mostly miltomate, which is like a tiny tomatillo) liquified in the blender with stock-soaked bread. the two pictures above are: 1) michele peeling miltomates, and 2) the contents of the sauce, pre-blending.

cooking with gas, i mean, fire.

for large meals, julia uses the giant wood-burning stove on the patio. you can´t really see this in the picture, but the beige-ish pot has 13 pounds of chicken parts boiling away. the large, more shallow pan we filled with rice and vegetables (don´t worry! we´re slowly but surely compiling an entire cookbook of julia´s recipes!).

here´s us posing for the camera. no, really, we did help

and here´s (almost) the final product: rice on the left, chicken in stock on the right. from here, we poured some of the stock in with the sauce ingredients, and blended well. then we removed the chicken pieces from the stock, and poured the freshly-blended sauce over it. and viola!the cooking took several hours, because we were preparing the jocom to serve to residents at the local asilo de ancianos, a residential nursing home. so we finally left the house with the jocom in two huge pots (secured with plastic bag covers and rubberbands), bouncing around in the back of margarita´s pickup truck for the duration of the 20 minute ride to the home.

the residents of the home were so sweet and seemed grateful to have some new folks to chat with. one gentleman even taught us a few phrases of mam (a local mayan dialect). we served the food and had lunch together, chatted for awhile, then headed back home. on our way out, some of ther residents gave us gifts of flowers picked from the garden and candies from their stashes. all-in-all, it was a fun afternoon, and it gave us more insight into real life here, rather than what we typically see as turistas.

gooooollllaaaaaazzzo!

2006-08-06T16:19:00.000-05:00

last night, we went with margarita and her boyfriend jaime (see below) to see the local futbol team in action. xela´s team is called the super chivos (the super sheep!), and their fans are famous throughout guatemala for their dedication, passion, and insanity. there is only one word for what we saw last night: loco!

where to begin? let´s start at the very beginning. we arrived early, and had excellent seats right at the half field mark. however, we were not the first people there. the pep bands had already taken their positions around the stadium. the super chivos have 8 "pep bands," which seem to be makeshift groups of fans with instruments who cheer on the team and rile the crowd. when the super chivos took the field, it was absolute mayhem. the pyrotechnics were astounding. there were two small fireworks displays launched from either end of the field. but there also seems to be a byob (bring your own bottle rockets) rule here, and the fans participated in the fireworks display con mucho gusto. most of the folks in the pep bands brought large sparklers (see photo below), which they lit, waved around, and then hurled over people´s heads onto the field. other people actually had bottle rockets and began shooting them into the sky, at the field, and into the adjacent sections of fans. still others brought their own arsenal of small fireworks and launched then from their seats, with half of them failing, and flying into the crowded stands. the people of xela also have a love affair with firecrackers, and we estimate that they lit approximately 5 million last night. all in all, it sounded like a war, and everyone had to wait for the clouds of smoke to clear the field before play could begin.

when the game began, so too did our informal spanish class where we learned muchas malas palabras. we only understood half of the names that the fans hurled at the referees, coaches, and the other team´s players. also, everytime the goalee from the other team kicked the ball, the entire stadium called him names in unison. charming. then the pep band led us in songs about his mother. it´s not a friendly game.

at half time and at the end of the game, the refs have to be escorted from the field by an armed guard of 6 police officers in full riot gear (check them out below). apparently, they have had major problems with fans throwing coins and other projectiles at them. during the game, i saw a fan hurl a string of firecrackers at one of the refs on the sideline. they missed, and he didn´t even flinch...it´s just par for the course here. however, they have taken some safety precautions here: the field is ringed by a high fence topped with barbed wire, there is a security team consisting of men in yellow shirts carrying large sticks, and the game schedule has a friendly reminder to bring passion to the game, but refrain from using violence.

our favorite part of the entire game was a large sign posted on the other side of the field (shown below). "hot sheeps"! there´s not much to add here.

needless to say, we had a fantastic time at the game, and the super chivos won 3-0. they have an away game next week, but are back the following saturday, and we can´t wait. if you´d like to learn more about the team, click on "gooooollllaaaaaazzzo!" at the top of this entry to see their website.

spanish update: michele

2006-08-02T18:50:00.000-05:00

in reality, mi hablo feo. i´m really trying, and i´m pretty sure that if i was in high school or college, i´d be nearly done with a semester´s worth of work. i´ve learned some verb tenses (present, past, imperfect, and some of the future), i´ve learned pronouns, i´ve learned indirect objects, i´ve learned many bonitas adjectives. i´ve read fascinating stories about "old Jose" and his amazing garden in the wilderness, i´ve created an ingenius game with flashcards and dice. and yet, i can´t say anything correctly.

during our pulgas ordeal, we were all eating dinner and discussing mariam´s many bites and julia´s many cleaning efforts, when i decided to make a joke. i like to make jokes and am sometimes adept at joking in english. i´ve even been known to crack an arabic joke or two (which were mostly funny because of my arabic, but whatever). mariam was apologizing to julia, and trying to assure her that the house wasn´t the problem, she (mariam) was the problem. this is where i raised my hand (as i do when i´m about to start speaking, because i.........speak.......very.......slowly, and have to stop for several seconds between each word to think, so it´s important that i get people´s attention in advance). i had a twinkle of mischief in my eye, because i was about to be very funny in another language, and i think that everyone recognized that it was going to be a special moment where i would finally display some product of my many hours in class. here´s what happened:

mariam (in beautifully eloquent spanish): the house is not the problem, i´m the problem.
me (looking merrily at julia and nudging her arm in comraderie): you the problems here, and you also all the problems at my house in new york also.

i delivered my one-liner with a look of satisfaction, waiting for congratulations from all around. but julia just sat there with a stunned look on her face. this was because i accidently said tu (as in you, julia, you are the problem) instead of ella (as in her, mariam, she is the problem--ha ha ha ha ha!).

(in case even my english translation of my spanish is completely unintelligible, what i was trying to say was, ha ha ha, yeah, mariam´s the problem here, like she´s always the problem...even at home! ha ha ha! oh, that´s rich!)

then....

me (to julia, with desperation): oh! lo siento lo siento lo siento! i no... i no say to you. i wants talk with her...her...mariam.... you no problems. lo siento!

margarita, mariam, and margot (the other student in our house) laughed and laughed. perhaps i was funny after all. but i really solidified my position with julia as the least favorite gringa in our household...a title which i am still trying to shed. but i think i´m finally making progress, because mariam and i started having english lessons with margarita this week, which is making julia exceptionally pleased. and margarita basically sounds in english like i do in spanish, so i think she has more compassion for me these days. and despite all of my salf-depricating english jokes, i am learning a lot of spanish quickly. and when i get back, if you are one of my many friends who doesn´t speak spanish, i will use my new language to make jokes about you freely.

hanging out

2006-08-01T18:53:00.000-05:00

one of the lovely things about homework is that you can easily say you can´t do it at home, which means you get to sit in cafes for hours, people watching, snacking, and dreaming while waiting for your homework to do itself. we spend alot of time this way here, and though the cafes are full of gringos (and in fact, made for gringos in many instances), they are a major part of xela´s culture and we have a lovely time there. there are a few places that are quickly becoming part of our regular routines... where the waiter comes in and says, "dos capuchinos regualres, si?" because that´s what we´ve ordered the past four days straight.

it´s cafe la luna where that happens, the closest cafe to our house and a good place to meet other travelers and study. it also happens to have good coffee, not a small feat around here since nearly all the delicious guatemalan coffee you can buy in starbucks is grown and harvested for export only. luna is the site of an old chocolate factory, and it´s still renowned for it´s hot chocolate, which is rich and unbelievably sweet. the factory is long since closed, but the cafe itself has relics of the factory days, as well as an amazing array of antique shoes, bags, hats, maps, photographs, soda bottles, typewriters, appliances, and posters representing the history of xela. the tables are decoupaged in newspaper clippings about the benefits of milk, the construction and destruction of an old train line, and the latest fashions from the capital. here are some pictures of luna: the main room and our table in the no smoking zone (the yellow room).

another great place to read or hang out is the north south bookstore, where we order the limonadas and naranjadas we can´t seem to get enough of. they have a great collection of books in spanish and english, many about guatemala´s history, the war, and mayan civilization (javi, nearly every book you suggested to us is for sale here, but they´re so overpriced!). they also have these great little sticks of chocolate that are handmade by a local woman who sells them to the store-- my favorite is the cardamomo... nada, maybe santa will bring you one?

another hangout is entre mundos, a local organization (linked at right, above), which is a sort of clearinghouse for volunteers. michele says i´ve already said that before. so what. they also run a series of talks on tons of different subjects concerning guatemala, central america, and social justice, which is great. so far we´ve attended one on the history of the civil war, and wednesday we´re going to hear an ex-guerrillero talk about his experience of torture by the military and the community of survivors he is a part of. they also run a whole string of talks about cafta, which we´re excited to learn more about.

as i also said before, they throw a great benefit party about once a month... below, a snap of the crowd, with margot on the bottom left and the top of my head right near her to the right. frizz city. photo courtesy michele james.

the crafting continues

2006-07-30T18:45:00.000-05:00

have you been fearing that we'd leave behind our crafty ways as we journey through central america? well fear not folks, because we've been busily working on our latest endeavor, which is a photo project. there is so much beauty here and so much to see and remember that we think we're going to run a border of pictures around some of the rooms in our apartment. here's the beginning of what we've seen through the lens...

excursions--las cumbres sauna

2006-07-27T18:50:00.000-05:00

last weekend, mariam´s teacher sury invited us to join her and her daughter yosseline at las cumbres saunas, which are just outside of quetzaltenango in zunil. when julia heard about our plan, she had her bags packed and was waiting by the door in ten minutes flat. and, she decided that we should take the family pick-up truck so that we didn´t have to worry about the hassle of buses, which meant that we got to ride in the back, choking on exhaust and enjoying amazing views all the way there (check us and yosseline out below!).

here´s one of the amazing views: although we weren´t riding in a bus, we got to see many up close as they tailgated us, then passed us as we rounded blind curves.

finally we arrived at las cumbres, which is like a mini-resort with incredible views of the mountainside, amazing hotel rooms with huge hand-carved wooden bedframes, and a great restaurant where we had lunch before returning home. here´s a pic of las cumbres inside, and one of us at the entrance.

people go there primarily to spend an hour in their private saunas, which cost 25Q per person for an hour. we shared a room with julia and margarita, who bought some eucalyptus to keep in there with us too, to clear out our entire respiratory system. the steam comes from the volcano underneath the town, and it is volcanically hot. we were frying in there and had to keep taking little breaks, but admittedly, it was nice to be able to breathe normally for an hour. the pollution here, as we´ve said, i know, is beyond comparison. when we were done with the sauna we took cold showers in our bathing suits and took turns squealing and making a big fuss, then it was off to lunch: two big parrilladas (mixed grill) to share among the six of us, with soup, papas fritas, seven different kinds of meat, and of course, a steaming stack of tortillas. we also got a pitcher of limonada simple, which is for sure the best lemonade on earth, and which we are quickly becoming addicted to... more on that later.

steamed up and full of beef, we rode through the mountains back to the house, where everyone quickly fell into their beds for an afternoon siesta.

excursions--salcaja

2006-07-27T18:41:00.000-05:00

we take many little trips here--every day after lunch there are actividades, often little excursions to local towns and sights. the day after we arrived we went to salcaja, which is only a ten or fifteen minute bus ride away and is also where mariam's teacher, sury, lives with her family.

salcaja (which has an accent on the last "a" that i can't seem to make appear here) is famous for three things: tela tipica, ronpopo, and the oldest church in central america. that's the church above. it's our first stop, but unfortunately, it's closed. gladis, the director of our school and our aerobics companion, tells us that during holy week the church is repainted and becomes the site of a huge and rich festival. as is the case throughout central america, holy week is a very colorful and ritualized affair, complete with reenactments of the crucifixion and long hours of prayer, as well as food, music, gifts, and new clothes for the children. the more i hear about it over and over again, the more i want to come back one year and experience it first hand. until then, there's always sunset park.

from the church we visit a series of stops along the tela making road. to explain: tela tipica means traditional textiles-- salcaja is the place where many traditional guatemalan fabrics are dyed, knotted, unknotted, woven, and sold, in a long and extremely detailed process that we were lucky to see part of. for all of my fibercrafting friends out there, know that i (mariam) was in craft heaven. it was really so cool. in the pictures below, you can see the hilo (thread) being dyed and knotted, the huge loom used to make the tela, and the funny and lovely man we talked to about how it's done.

of course, the man who showed us the loom is related to the woman who runs the ronpopo shop, so when we're done with him he points us in her direction and we head over to taste and buy some. ronpopo is a strangely delicious concoction of egg yolks, milk, sugar, spices, and alcohol, and although our host julia is extremely religious and frowns upon drinking, it turns out ronpopo is her weakness. and by weakness i mean a tablespoonful at dinner. :) we buy some for her and share it among the 5 of us at dinner, which results in many silly jokes and lots of hysterical giggling, which is wonderful. we do a lot of laughing here.

excursions--san andres xecul

2006-07-27T18:38:00.001-05:00

on tuesday (the 25th), we set out for san andres xecul with one of our teachers. san andres xecul is a town in totonicapan known for its beautifully painted catholic church, remarkable not only for its technicolor facade but also for its incorporation of mayan spiritual figures. the church is gorgeous and the town itself is sort of cool and spooky at the same time. to get to toto, you take a chicken bus from the terminal in xela and then "transfer" to a pickup at the bottom of the 4km hill to the church.

so there we are, with vilma, one of the teachers at our school, standing up in the back of a tiny datsun pickup truck (circa 1979) while an 11 year old drives stick up the winding mountain road. while we were waiting for the truck bed to fill up at the bottom of the mountain, we asked him if he was driving (jokingly, because we clearly assumed that an adult was going to show up and take the wheel) and he laughed and shook his little head "no"--like, of course not you silly señoritas. then he just jumped in the cab and took off. that's him above, with the bunny ears.

we get to the church and look around and there are all these women inside cleaning-- sweeping around the altar and dusting the pews, and i am reminded of fridays at the church in east brunswick. we say a prayer and light a candle and then step back outside into the afternoon light. it's a weekday and there are no gringos in town, so we garner a few looks, but mostly we walk around unnoticed.

after the church, we walk half an hour up a (very steep) hill to another smaller chapel, which looks catholic on the outside but is more often used for mayan rituals. out back, a woman is sitting in front of a fire while a man nearby recites a prayer in a language similar to k'iche. vilma has lots of disdain for all of it and doesn't hesitate to tell us so. her disdain reaches a fever pitch when we go up to visit san simon, who resides in a chicken coopish room at the back of a green house that we have to climb through vines to get to.

the priestish guy there makes us pay 10 quetzales to walk in, which is nothing really, but vilma hates him for it and pretty much teases him outright about his crystal ball and ability to see the future. it's very awkward and i'm glad when we leave. san simon is much beloved in this area and is daily gifted cigarettes and liquor from locals in need of his protection or wisdom. he travels from house to house each year, and moves on october 28th, his feast day. that day there is a huge festival in toto, which is well attended by people from mexico and el salvador, as well as many chapines. it's possible there will be a gringa named michele in attendance this year, too.

mi hablo bonita un dia

2006-07-27T18:38:00.000-05:00

if you've read david sedaris' book me talk pretty one day, then you have a good idea of what i'm going through as i try to learn spanish. up until today, i could only use the present tense of verbs, which really limits your ability to communicate accurately. and, before coming here, i had never studied spanish before.

here's what some of my conversations sound like:

me: in past, i try to learn arabic, but no.
(someone responds in spanish)
me: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, it is much difficult
( response in spanish)
me: i do not know still if spanish is much very difficult, but i think yes
( response in spanish)
me: in past, only i study germany. yes yes in school second and on the university.

etc. etc.

meanwhile, mariam is having conversations with her teacher about how misogyny is embedded in language.

despite the steep learning curve, i'm picking up quite a bit, and should be able to have a conversation with a six year old by the time i'm done here in four months. wish me luck!

nuestra visita a la mercado de pulgas--a saga

2006-07-27T18:36:00.000-05:00

ok, so the pollo pox mystery has been solved. many times. in fact, every day we have a new diagnosis. here's the scoop: day one, mariam wakes up with lots of itchy little bites on the arms and legs. chicken pox? had 'em. shingles? not gross enough. fleas? fleas?! yup, that's the diagnosis our household (margarita the daughter, margarita the gringa, julia, michele and mariam) finally come to. but why doesn't anyone else have them? simple, julia replies: your blood is sweet. ha ha ha.

day two: michele finds four bites on her left leg. we report the findings to julia, who proceeds to fumigate the entire house, soaking the matresses in raid, pouring poison paste in the corners of all the bedrooms and spending 140 quetzales on frontline shots for the dogs, a total luxury here. by the end of the day, michele's four bites have receded to nothingness and mariam is polka-dotted.

day three: mariam wakes up with bigger, itchier weltier spots. julia (not a doctor) diagnoses and allergic reaction to the fleas which no one else still has. we're convinced that the room is absolutely infested and prepare for battle each night before we take to the beds. (see our armor and fearsome poses, below). we tuck our pants into high socks. we tuck our shirts into our pants. it's like revenge of the nerds goes to sleep.

aaaah! pulgas!!!

day four: mariam becomes totalmente hysterical. we go to la luna for our afternoon cafe and homework session and i'm convinced something is eating my hair. i flinch like a crazy person and insist on going home NOW. loudly. (GO! PAY! NOW!) we return home and i sink miserably into a chair at the kitchen table. i'm sour. i'm itchy. margarita the daughter, who is studying to be a lab technician, has the good sense to send for a doctor and soon i'm being examined by luz maria diaz, who came complete with a little black doctor's bag!

the final diagnosis? an infection, with a hearty side of paranoia. 75 quetzales, please.
now i'm popping cipro like candy and trying to laugh at myself. pollo pox solved.

she's a maniac, maniac...

2006-07-27T18:16:00.000-05:00

above is the sign at the entrance to our gimnasio, which is called gimnasio cuerpo activo. it's located at the end of an alley off a little street about fifteen minutes from our house, walking. lest you doubt the importance of a post on our clase de aerobicos, know that we get up at 6:30 every morning to head over there and shake rattle and roll to the beat of various salsa, freestyle, and 90's techno hits. (playlist below for your enjoyment).

and here, below, is a picture of us with our instructor, cleothilde (aka cleo), who we are made to understand was quite a ballerina in her day. she's still a total primadonna. we're not sure if you can see it really well, but you should check out her outfit-- every day its the same thing in a different color: lace footless tights under a high-cut leotard, usually topped by some flashdance-era torn up t-shirt. the kicker? an incomparable collection of thigh-high legwarmers. oh, and fuzzy wristbands, of course, but only one, because she's an original.

she has us do crazy complicated moves on these handmade "esteps," using broomsticks and dumbbells to sculpt us into shape. the broomsticks are my favorite part-- when the class is in full swing, it looks like a roomful of fat harry potter fans trying out their new nimbus 2000s. awesome, really. yesterday, amid sweat and huffing, girls just wanna have fun came on and it was clear that we had been transported to the never before seen footage of the original music video.

for the last 10 minutes of each class, our amiga cleo leads us through a grueling series of sit-ups (the likes of which even tina and jenny couldn't keep up with). between scissor kicks and bicycling on our backs, we lay down and crack up hysterically until we can't breathe-- our own form of ab work-- but we don't think it's made us very popular with the ballerina.

here are some highlights from the class playlist:

"yo quiero bailar" by the mad dominicans
"be my lover"
"you spin me right round" by dead or alive
"mueve la cintura"
"boom boom boom boom (i want you in my room)" by who knows who
"playin' with the queen of hearts"
and of course, "walk like an egyptian"

there's also a crazy techno remix be bop medley including chubby checker (sans fat boys), elvis, and buddy holly. the good news is we can almost do three crunches each!!

los problemas

2006-07-23T11:53:00.000-05:00

on our fourth day here, i ate something muy malo and had horrible stomach pains. both of our bodies are in an "adjustment period" (we'll spare you the details!), but we should be feeling better soon! mariam seems to have developed small pox or pollo pox as we call them, with a bunch of tiny bumps/bites on her belly, arms and legs. tomorrow the doctor should tell us how long she has left.

another challenge in xela is that the power here goes out often. it is random and unpredictable and lasts for unknown periods of time (sometimes an hour, sometimes all night). the power went out on friday night, but it was great--julia and margarita told us some of xela's many ghost stories by candle light. we heard about la llorona, la mujer de vestido negro (who turns out to be death), and some cab driver.

and so ends our first week in xela. more to come, but in the meantime, check out the links to the right-- the first is of our school, which is awesome, and the last is an organization that is a sort of clearinghouse for volunteer projects here. entre mundos also happens to throw a great fiesta, but more on that in another post.

love to everyone and talk to you soon,
m&m

hola de guatemala!

2006-07-23T11:38:00.000-05:00

well, we made it to xela after a night in guatemala city and a 4 hour bus ride through mountains and small towns. after many warnings from various sources about buses here, we started out feeling very cautious, but the ride was pleasant and beautiful. here are some highlights:

we also had some delicious snacks along the way-- a few times along the route the bus stopped to let some women on to sell food and it was dee-licious. tina, the nuts and raisins you made me buy at the airport (for 7 dollars!) were actually a godsend. i munched on them all the way through miami, guatemala city, and the mountains. i can't remember who told us the food here wasn't good (it wasn't javi or angela), but boy were you wrong! we are happily eating our way through several stacks of tortillas and beans and all sorts of fantastic dishes.

but lest you worry about our (recently expanding) waistlines, never fear: we joined an amazing aerobics class (pictures to come!!) circa 1983. our instuctor is totalmente loca--she holds 4 one-hour classes every day and reminds us to walk with our heads up and resist mayonnaise at the end of every class. it's perfect!

xela itself is beautiful--with friendly people and narrow streets full of tiny cars, speeding buses, and stray dogs. the pollution is incredible, but we've been assured that you can't develop asthma in just 4 months. still, i don't know how everyone here deals with it.

after a minor snafu about where we'd be housed, we ended up with the family next door to the school (angela, we're staying with julia "siempre en la calle!"), it's actually a preferable setup, so in the end it's all good. we have a lovely little room on the second floor of the house, next to julia and margarita ( who also share a room), and margot, the other student living here. she's wonderful too. here is our house:

and this is julia y margarita:

and this is our room:

we wake up in the morning to the sound of an obnoxious and insistent rooster. he lives on the tin roof of the house next door and seems to take a perverse pleasure in waking people up too early. still, it's helpful since our clase de aerobicos is a 15 minute walk away and starts at 7. we eat breakfast after we get back around 8:30, then it's off to spanish class from 9 to 1. lunch is after that and then we're free to roam around town in the rain, which comes down like clockwork every afternoon. in general it's pretty cool here, about 65 degrees, but it's sunny too. it's gorgeous-- like a slice of fall in the middle of the summer.

we're learning a ton and enjoying ourselves IMMENSELY-- i think everyone should drop what they're doing and join us. we'll keep sending news of our travels and hope that everyone at home is happy, well, and having a great summer. send us news of your life too!

xoxo,
m&m

on our way

2006-07-16T09:57:00.000-05:00

ok folks-- we're 3 hours from wheels up and our backpacks (yes. backpacks. for 6-17 weeks of clothing. what?!) are packed and in the trunk of tina's car. she's made us a lovely pre-departure breakfast of burritos and coffee, sweetened by a static-y goodbye call from javi, who's traveling on business in berlin. we connect in miami and then will be in guatemala city by 8 pm, which is 7 pm nyc time. wish us luck, and stay tuned for pretty pictures, deep thoughts, entertaining anecdotes, and escapades!

love, michele and mariam
the M in guateMala