The first two weeks

Hola everyone! I've been sending some pretty massive emails to my parents telling them about the trip so far, and trying to upload pictures to another website, and I figured perhaps a blog could be easier. So check, check it. Here are my first two weeks of emails to my parents, all in one convenient, and long, location:

Wednesday, 4/23/08
Heeeeeeeeeeeeey mom and dad!
we are here, safe and sound, with no problems at all!
lupe called us at the airport, about ten minutes before we boarded to tell us that she decided to put us up in a hotel in guatemala city, rather than driving us to Xela, because apparently with road construction that would have gotten us there at about midnight. So Hilda met us there, and she speaks no english, and shes been doing her best to take care of us. The hotel is wonderful, its very small and friendly, the owner speaks perfect english, and apparently its the place to go if youre on your way in or out of Xela. apparently, Xela is full of spanish schools, so this hotel is full of young english speakers. We met a Swiss couple who were on their first day of a year long trip around the world, and this redheaded kid from Colorado who was freaking out because he might have lost his bag, and theres a family from san francisco as well. Its kind of strange, its a beautiful stucco building with gorgeous gardens behind a tall gate and stucco wall thats lined at the top with razor wire. Im amazed with how well i can understand spanish if they speak slowly and with easy words. Hugh is also surprisingly fluent. Oh my god, theres a cat! literally, a girl on crutches just brought a gorgeous gray and white cat into the room. aw. well anyway, our flights all went smoothly. they were pretty empty and on time and not too much up and down. We navigated the airports well, too.. Most everything has english. They even fed us a big meal on our long flight! So tomorrow we leave at 9 30, and god knows when well actually get to the town. The weather so far has been hot during the day, and its a really comfortably cool temperature outside right now. our rooms are still boiling hot from the afternoon though, so well be sweating in our sleep anyway. Ok, im really starting to crash, so i think im going to get in bed. Goodnight, and I hope alls well in Virginia!
Much much much love,
Caitie

Friday 4/25/08
hola papa! Buenas tardes, como esta? Yo se espanol, un poco! (hi dad! good afternoon, how are you? I know spanish, a little.)

We're all settled in now. We took a crazy bus from Guatemala City to Xela. A 5 hour ride, literally on the side of the mountain, with no bathroom stops. I figured as much, so I basically didn't drink anything at all before or during! When we got here Claudia was out, so we kind of wandered around the compound and unpacked a little. The house is really a compound. It's all courtyard. There are many bedrooms for as many volunteers as they have at the time, and one bedroom for Claudia, her 7 year old Louie, and her teenage cousin, Janice (pronounced Ja-nee-say). There are two courtyards, our bedroom is attached to the far one, and the bathrooms, kitchen, office, workspace, and claudia's room are connected to the central patio. It's I guess what you'd call rustic. Most of the house has a roof but no walls or doors. The bedrooms, office, and bathrooms do, but the kitchen and eating and living spaces just have a roof. This morning there were pidgeons in the kitchen sink, knocking over pans. Everything is Guatemala-clean. So there's a little sand everywhere, but... you know... sanitary. We get drinking water out of one of those office water coolers, and Claudia's given me 100 quetzales to go to the supermarcado. The office is really nice, and I can unplug the modem when she's not using it and take it to my room, apparently, and when I'm done, Janice will use it for the rest of the night. It's kind of like camping here. The toilet works, but you never put paper in it, you throw it in the trashcan (that takes so much getting used to. Not just the habit of it, but also the grossness of it.) That, by the way, is customary in all of latin america. Nothing goes in the toilet. Who knew?

Claudia is always busy. during the day she works in the office, and at night she does different things, the gym, plays with Luie, etc. She knows un pocito (a very little) english, and we know un pocito espanol, so we can communicate a little. Hilda is who met us at the airport. She is also good with communication. She is a good teacher, and she speaks with small words. Hilda also works in the office during the day. There is a really nice and well equipped sewing workspace, where women from Xela come in and sew handbags that are sold in AlterNatives. Louie is the cutest thing I've ever seen. He's like a stuffed animal. He's so happy to have a boy here, since it's always women. They wrestle all afternoon and talk about boy things like transformers. Janice is very shy. She's finally at the point now where she'll smile when I see her.

I've had two days worth of spanish lessons now. I've absorbed A LOT. I can understand ok if they speak slowly and with small words and with sign language, and I can say necessary things like I need, I want, I can, I know, I have, etc. I have a teacher one on one for 5 hours in the morning. My teacher's name is Carlos, and Hugh's is Sylvia. Carlos is mi amigo. We basically just talk for 5 hours every day. It's exhausting, but so interesting. I've told him about my cats, and my family, and the climate in richmond. I talk about my cats a lot. Most people in Guatemala don't like cats, but Carlos loves them. His favorite cartoon is Garfield, and he has a cat, or had a cat, that looked 'like the lion king.' He asked if my black cats were bad luck, and I said they were good luck to me. He told me his lion king cat's girlfriend had kittens, and the littlest one was black. All of them were taken one night except the black one, because it was bad luck. So Carlos raised the kitten with bottled milk, and he was it's papa. The neighbors didn't like it though, it was noisy or something, and they poisoned it. Carlos said 'it killed his heart (muerto corizone)' so he doesn't have cats now... I think... Don't ask me how I understood all of that when I know very little spanish. Apparently when you're surrounded by it, you just absorb it.

So next week I start teaching. I'm very scared about it. I didn't think I would start so soon. So I don't really have materials to make the real thing, and I'm concerned that the girls will get bored and give up if all they do is practice practice practice with no results. So I'm thinking. Also, I don't know if I mentioned this in my last email, but Lupe called me ten minutes before the plane boarded, and Ben asked me to design jewelry that doesn't use metal. So that turns everything upside down. I'm thinking alot about designs, and trying to be concienscious of expense, but it really is no good to try to change everything with no warning. So I'm going with what I have for now, and after I visit the market, I will think about changing. Claudia and the women who sew LOVED the examples I have. I am not nearly as prepared as Kim was when she did this two years ago, so I'm afraid I look kind of bad compared to her. But Lupe never ordered my supplies, so how can I be? Well, it is my responsibility. anyway. I will use what I have. Kim left many many pieces of wire and beads that I can use, and some tools. On Tuesday I travel to Cantel, Wednesday I am here in Xela, Thursday I am in Xiovaj (shee-oh-vac {that last c is in the back of the throat}), and friday I am somewhere, don't know. Each place has a group of 5 women at the most. I don't exactly have enough tools for 5, but if I include the ones I own I think we can get by. Carlos has offered to come and watch on Wednesday to help me translate and give me suggestions, which would be so so wonderful. So in the mornings, I teach, and in the afternoon, school from 2-7. This weekend I think I have off. So many things i don't know about until the moment they happen. Maybe we'll do something exciting?

And, about your questions, I already have taken care of most of it. Hugh and I registered with the embassy online a couple days before we left, so they know we're here, and you guys are my emergency contact. Also, if we are here longer than 90 days, Lupe has a quick fix. Apparently, all we need to do is cross the border, and when we return we get another 90 days. She says we can take a weekend vacation to Mexico, where there is a nice hotel and touristy market. She says if we go to the embassy, well, it's a 5 hour bus ride to a nasty, unsafe city, and when we get there, they'll give us a hard time about why we want to be here so long. It's easier to 'take a vacation.'

Ok, that's it for now.. Hope everything's will in the Estados Unidos, and I'll continue to be in touch. Maybe this afternoon I can get my little guatemalan phone working. no se. (I dont know). Sorry, I've got some phrases that I know well, and that I use all the time (haha, like 'I don't know') and I can't keep myself from using them. Ok, well have a good week!
Much much love,
Caitie


Monday 4/28/08
Well, the sink is out on the patio, so it's kind of fair game to pidgeons. The kitchen has two walls and a roof, so I've never seen them bother with it. The pidgeons are pretty balsy.. They taunt me, and when I shoo them away they light on the roof and make menacing noises at me. Claudia went out of town this weekend, so we had la casa to ourselves. I spent the whole time trying to make lesson plans and drawings and worrying. I seem to vacillate between confidence and despair. I finally grasped enough words to be able to tell Claudia and Hilda that I don't have the materials to keep the girls busy for the next two weeks.. I have enough for one week, but not for two. So hilda told me we're going to go buy some, and we walked out the door, got in a 15 seater van with 20 guatemalans in it, paid 1 quetzale each, and came out in a giant market with vegetables and the strangest fruit you've ever seen. We got a giant reel of wire for 10 Q (which is something like $1.25) and Hilda got some fruit and toilet paper and we came back. I go to school from 2-7 today, and carlos is going to help me translate my directions for tomorrow. Augh! I wish I could have just stuck to the plan Lupe made in the US... two weeks of spanish lessons, and then teaching. oh well. Ok, well hugh needs to use la computadora. Thank you for taking care of my loom, water spots are no problem. I'm actually more worried about the rust on the frames. Ha, and you can get as mad as you want, but it's just not worth mentioning to my piece of shit landlord. She wants to let her house be a slum, and she wants to run it like a slum. Whatever, it will cost her more in the end. Take care, and much love!
Caitie


Friday 5/02/08
I've had 3 days of teaching now in three different places with three different groups.. one more to go. It's going really well, for the most part they all are really good with their hands and learn quickly. Here's a recap of my classes, because they are so incredibly different.

Tuesday was Cantel, which is the pueblo Hilda lives in. So we get there, and I'm expecting to be in a church, or a meeting place, or even someone's workroom, I don't know. But we get there, and go inside this house, where there is the scariest dog i've maybe ever seen (a young boy had to spread himself in front of it to keep it from eating us) and we go in this dark room, which is very big, but has 3 queen sized beds in it. This family is obviously pretty well off by guatemalan standards. I sit there and watch hilda talk to the matron of the house for probably 20 minutes, and then she looks at me and is like "ok, go for it." at which point i'm like "...... aqui?? (here??)" so some boys rounded up a table and two chairs, and two other teenage girls showed up. The matron is this large, lumbering woman with almost no teeth, and she has a GIANT baby that she's breastfeeding maybe every 15 minutes. The three sit down and I start to teach, and it's going well. One girl is really really good, she learns quickly and doesn't need any help, the other learns with more help, the matron is no good and the baby which is constantly rotating between her back and her breast is screaming like a maniac, I mean, not just crying-other side of the sound spectrum-pierce your eardrums wailing. Another woman shows up, and old woman in her sixties maybe (which looks like 80s here) and hilda tells me this is the 4th girl to teach... But she can't even really see... Also, the older women don't seem to like me teaching them. They require an obvious amount of respect, since they are much older than me and more well-off, and I just don't have the language or the cultural skills. They don't ask for help, and they don't really want to listen to me, or look at me when I'm trying to show them. It's odd. So the older woman eventually kind of gives up, takes the maniac giant baby, and does something else. The other three do pretty well, and I go back to xela.

Wednesday was here in xela. I got lots of time to order everything, and I got myself a nice big table with plenty of chairs and a stool for me to put my extra supplies on, everyone showed up on time, and one of the girls even knew a little english. Class was incredibly smooth, the girls were all from the city, so pretty savvy and modern, they chatted about boys and worked with their hands, and learned really quickly and wanted new techniques. They’re kind of my advanced class. They helped me with my spanish and understood mostly what I meant to say.

Today was in Xeavaj. Which is the other side of the planet, and ridiculously beautiful. It's so high there are almost no trees, or stunted ones. When we started class it was clear outside, and about 30 minutes later I look out and there’s not just fog, it’s a cloud, and it’s licking into the doorway. The cloud is so dense you can see the tendrils moving through the door and dissolving in the warmer air. And then you see it move away and over the lower houses on the hill. It’s incredible. The women there are super traditional, very mayan. They all wear huipils, or hand made blouses, with the same design. Carlos was telling me that their dress is very specific, every pueblo has its own unique huipil, so when you meet another woman in the market, you know where she is from. Also, the patterns on the huipils tell stories. Carlos was saying there’s one in particular in a textile museum in xela that tells a story similar to romeo and Juliet, and equally sad, except that romeo becomes the sun and Juliet becomes the moon. Others have native flowers or birds that are indigenous to their homelands. So. Anyway. These women all look very very similar, and there’s NINE of them. I’m in a very small room, will just a little desk against the wall, and there’s nine women, and only one of them (!!!) speaks Spanish. I actually have a girl with me that speaks Spanish fluently, and then Hilda speaks Quiche (their language), so I got an introduction that was reasonable, and then Hilda had to leave to go to another village for a while. So Lindsay (Spanish speaker) helped me. She’s lived here for a year and a half, working with different groups of women in different places, so she was familiar with how they function socially. It was the complete and total opposite of the xela group. So we all sat on the floor (where else?) in a big circle, and we all shared pliers and worked together. It was kind of amazing. Four worked with the pliers at first, and then four more, and then two more girls would wander in and they’d do it, and they all helped each other and laughed and made fun of themselves. Lindsay was saying that there was one quiche slang word she understood that basically means “crap!” that we heard a lot. And they were very, very good at it. The first and second classes I had probably practiced on one technique 5-10 times, and these women, what with the sharing pliers and there being so much talking and laughing, only practiced twice at the most, and were mostly perfect.

I also got to ask Lindsay some things about AMA since she was with me. Apparently, Claudia does the bookkeeping and coordinating, phone calls and emails and writing, Hilda works with all the women’s groups, there’s a woman named Silvia that coordinates the sewing project in the workroom here, and then there’s me. I’m apparently an employee of ama, working with Hilda in the women’s groups. Hilda meets with one group of women every day in different places, and they facilitate mental health, physical health and preventative health ( like how to wash vegetables or what water to drink) and every group has a different weaving project that gets sold mostly in alternatives. then Hilda helps facilitate how they can set up their small business, manage their money (ie, not just give it all to their husbands) and how they can help themselves with the money. It’s all very interesting, and I can’t get it out of Hilda or Claudia because of the language. Also, interestingly, Claudia is a single mother, her boyfriend left her after she had Luie, and Hilda is also, she escaped an abusive marriage. So theyre kind of the right people to be coordinating projects to help women.

Ooook. I need to do a million other things. More later.
Love you!
Caitie


Saturday 5/03/08
I uploaded some pictures onto an online picture host. With the connection here it takes forever, so there's only a few. The URL is
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26252691@N03/sets/72157604868243475/
feel free to share that if you like.

My last day of teaching was harder than the rest. It was in Espunpuja, which is the same community we were in last year. The village is in a valley, so we got of the bus, hiked down to the bottom of the valley, and then walked halfway back up the other side. When we got there it was another "well, you're here, go do something" situation, and I had to find a suitable place to work and all that. All we had was a large table against the wall of somewhat of a porch. It was covered in dust and dirt, which is obviously no good. Also, at any point in time there were between 3 and 14 women there. all coming and going, i have no idea who's done what, I don't know where the girl I was just teching went, it was just kind of chaos. Another problem, there wasn't enough room on the porch for everyone to stand where they could see. The women don't even speak Spanish well, so half the stuff I said bounced right off. And it was another situation where I'm young, they're matrons, they don't have to listen to me if they don't want to. Which is fine, they can do something else, I'm only here if they want me to be, but it's tough. At times I had no one to teach at all, or the same two over and over, and then the moment before I pack up to go, this older woman picks up pliers and is like "ok. I'm ready. teach me. now." and I'm trying to tell her "sorry, gotta go, next time, sorry" and she just wasn't having it. It was terrible, I had to take the pliers out of her hands. It was kind of a wasted day. I think it might take up to a month to figure out who actually wants to work with me, where I can work, and then get them to focus long enough to actually learn something. Also, from beginning to end, there were 6 buses involved. It's exhausting.

So yesterday I did that, then school, then went to bed immediately. This morning we got up at 5 because our spanish teachers were taking us on a hike to a lake in the mountains. It was definitely the hardest hike I've ever done, and I was trying to keep up with Hugh and a champion salsa dancer the whole time, so I spent a lot of time huffing and sweating and catching up. It was gorgeous though, and totally worth it, though I'm really not sure I'm going to be able to walk tomorrow. You can see all those pictures on that website, with descriptions.

I really need to figure out how to eat here. I think I'm making spaghetti noodles with butter on them for dinner... which is kind of sad..

Tell me how Roanoke, Montana, Meg, and Whit are,
love,
Caitie


Sunday 5/04/08
Carlos told me the altitude in Xela is something like 3,500 or so feet. How high is Leadville? Xeavaj and some of the other places we've been to are definitely much, much higher. None the less, my muscles are DEAD from that hike. Hugh told me this morning I look like the tin man needs oil. Other than thin air, the altitude hasn't bothered me much. No stomach cramps like I got in Leadville.

Generally, I'm so busy during the week I just don't eat much or cook much. The habits this week have been a big breakfast in the morning before work, and I'm really bad and I'm going to get sick sometime from it, but I try not to drink much water in the mornings, because there's just no where to go. When I get back I down a whole bunch of water, eat a pb&j (the jelly here is fabulous) and go to class. Halfway through class we get a half hour break at around 4:30, and Carlos and I usually go to Xelapan, which is this bakery near the school that has all these amazing pastries and bread-stuffs. Then I come home and if I'm hungry will cook some sort of dinner, but usually I just go to bed. The grocery store only sells basics- butter, sugar, noodles, cereal. You have to go to the market for veggies, and the "carniteria" for meat. Also, when you buy vegetables here, you have to soak them in a cleaning solution so you don't get sick from the pesticides, and we haven't quite figured out that process yet. Last Monday Hilda gave us some strange fruit that Hugh only saw her rinse off, and we haven't exactly felt right since. The market is incredibly intimidating if you don't know spanish. at least for me. Haggling is expected, and you're stupid if you don't. And the little old ladies with handfulls of garlic chase you down, insisting that you need to buy this for 4 quetzales. Hugh did buy some onions recently, though. He somehow ended up with a pretty big bag of onions, the same size you'd get in a pre-measured bag at kroger for 3.50 or more-for 2 quetzales, which is something like $.30. The pastries I can get at xelapan are usually between 1.5 and 4 Q, and a loaf of bread from there is about a dollar. There are a lot of taco places that you can get 3 tacos for less than $2, which is enough for lunch. Other than eating out, I don't have much use for money here. AMA pays for my travel on the buses, helps with groceries, and then lodging is free. This week I think Claudia is taking us to the mall hopefully. I need a pair of hiking boots. So tell dad money is fine, I've used maybe $30 in a week and a half. So no worries.

Next question: No, I'm never alone in the villages. It's part of Hilda's job to travel to these places anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm just accompanying her. I'll ask her soon. But no, there's no way in hell I could navigate the busses by myself. Most times we end up standing on an unmarked corner, and miraculously a bus shows up. I have no idea if they work on a time schedule, or if the same guy drives the same bus the same route all the time. Sometimes we get off, walk through 5 or 6 blocks, Hilda buying tortillas or supplies at the markets the whole way, and then suddenly we're on a bus. No idea.

When I'm out Hugh is either at school, or studying, or the bank, market, store, etc. I'm low on food and desperately need to change my dollars into quetzales, but I just haven't been able to figure out the system or find the time.

And yes, trying to help people who don't need help is interesting. I'm fortunate in that I'm not trying to unload anything on them, I'm trying to teach them something interesting and useful. Really, most of these women have very full lives and for the most part have enough of everything to live comfortably. I think what I'm trying to do is give them more independence from the men in their lives, who don't always have their best interests in mind, and foster growth for the future, so that their daughters can also be more independent and lead fuller lives. That's the idea at least. and I can understand how a 50 year old woman, who is not aware of anything else being better or worse than her life, can think I'm not very useful to her. I think what I need to establish in the next week or two are roll lists, so for the Espunpuja group especially, I can know who's done what, who is always taking the class, etc. And also to make it clear that if they don't want to learn jewelry anymore, that is perfectly ok, please pass your pliers to the next girl in line. The Espunpuja group especially eludes me. I just can't think of a way to make that place work. Even if I can narrow down enough serious women who want to learn, and keep them focused, there's no good area to work. I wish I knew more spanish so I could tell Hilda these things. Maybe I'll email Ben. Yes, definitely I'll email Ben. Otherwise, I think the other three groups have potential and can move past the practice stage relatively quickly.

No, Dad didn't really tell me about Grandma.. I'm sorry to hear all of that..

I haven't gotten any emails from anyone, but I haven't asked for any. I keep emailing matt asking him how my cats are, and I don't know if he's procrastinating or what, but he won't write me back. He's really the only person i need to hear from. So it doesn't bother me no one has written me. If I want to hear specifically from someone, I'll write them specifically. Also, it's not often I have the internet for long. The whole house shares the internet, including the office and a 16 year old girl, so I try not to ask for it much. Claudia and family seems to go to San Marcos almost every weekend, so if I can get her to leave me internet for when they're gone and I can have the whole two days to catch up, that's fine with me.

The weather here is starting to shift into the rainy season now. Almost every afternoon for the last three days it's started pouring, and clears out by night. I hear there's a reason the sidewalks here are so high off the street...

I love hearing these things about roanoke. and Give Meg and Whit and Jess love for me. Stay safe, and keep counting down the days till Montana.
much love,
Caitie


Sunday 5/04/08
While I'm gone Hugh is either at school, or studying, or at the market or bank or wherever. There's so much stuff in town here, places to eat, coffee shops, etc. It's just hard to know what's going on, where to go to get a good cheap lunch, where to meet other gringos like us, where to find other volunteer work. There's a HUGE base of foreigners here, and a huge amount of different kinds of volunteer work. This week, I'm hoping Hugh will come with me to at least a few of my villages. His teacher has conflicts with working in the afternoons, so some days he can't. Otherwise, he's just getting the hang of things.

Money is fine. I hardly spend any except on snacks, and a lunch sized snack at Xelapan-the bakery close to school, is around Q3.50, or what, $.50? It's really friggin cheap here. Money is fine.

And it's fun and hard work both. I'm really concerned about some of my classes, and that part is hard on me. Not speaking the language is no fun at all, but learning it is. I can't really describe the feeling, except to say that it would be really cheesy, when I've got some crazy woman breastfeeding a giant screaming baby, while 4 9-year-old boys poke me and try to touch things when they know they shouldn't, and a homicidal dog is fantacizing about gnawing on my bones-and I have two girls with giant, sparkling smiles, who really want to learn, and are really happy when they do something right. I guess you could say it's rewarding. And after this experience, well, let's just say I'm getting possibly the most challenging teaching experience of my life out of the way early. So it's fun. And it's not. But it's definitely interesting.

Hope everything else is well,
much love,
Caitie


Friday 5/09/08
Hola! Mi Espanol esta mejor ahora. Estoy siempre ocupada, y muy cansada. Carlos dice que soy lista y aprendo rapido. Esta bien, porque la vida es dificil sin la idioma necesaria.
(Hi! My spanish is better now. I am always busy, and very tired. Carlos says that I am smart and learn quickly. It's good, because life is hard without the necessary language.

I'm not sure if any of that would actually translate, but I try. Everyone who actually speaks english refuses to talk to me outside espanol because they insist I need practice. I have 5 hours of class a day, and I teach spanish speakers for 3 hours a day more... do I really need more practice?? sometimes I just need to friggin understand someone.

El dia de Madre is muy importante here, but it's on saturday not sunday. So yes, I know it's coming. There are going to be a whoooole bunch of festivities here to celebrate tomorrow. There's some sort of fiesta in el parque central, which is 5 blocks away, there's a big chocolate fair in the teatro municipal, there's a park named Parque de Madre, that will have all kinds of stuff, clowns and venders and whatnot, that I want to check out. And Sunday there's a big futbol (soccer) game here that decides whether Xela will advance to the semifinals... It's reallllllly important. Carlos cannot stop talking about it. I'd kind of like to experience that.

Oh, mom would enjoy this: Today this girl that goes to school with us (from new york state) brought these chocolate balls to class, she made them and this is how: She went to the market, bought raw cocoa beans, roasted them in the oven, shelled all of them, put them through a grinder (meat grinder apparently) added some honey, rolled them into balls, and that's it. No milk, no sugar, just honey. Then after that she made some separate flavors, some with sesame seeds, some with flax seeds, and one kind (oh my god) with ground coffee beans. It was chocolate so strong it burned your mouth a little. amazing. So these are the things you can do in Guatemala!

Also, mom might be interested, There are 6 students at the school right now. Me, Hugh, Kristen (NY), and 3 women in their 50s-60s who are each traveling from different places, by themselves, and have husbands at home. And for the most part, they're very very normal. They're all just fans of travelling, their husbands aren't, so they go by themselves. It's pretty cool. I never would have thought there were so many women that age and type, but there really are.

My classes were ok this week. I found out Lupe is coming with my materials on the 21st, so I've got another maybe 2 weeks to teach technique. My Cantel class on Tuesday is just kind of odd. Only two women this time. One's name is Dilma, and she's 20 and super mild and kind and sweet, and has really good hands. The other was that same crazy toothless woman with the screaming baby. The baby was better this time, it kept reaching over her shoulder to yank the pliers out of her hand, and they gave it the cell phone at the stage where you can pick rings, so the baby would hit a button and it would blair at full volume the Verizon theme song... over... and over... and over... But after a while it fell asleep, thank god.

I love my Xela class. The girls are really interested in helping me with my spanish, and love to blow my mind with stuff here that they know I wouldn't experience in the US. They bought me this slushy icee thing on Wednesday. It's basically a snow cone in a cup with sweet milk, vanilla flavored syrup (all natural I'm sure) and fresh coconut and pineapple. They're really sweet. and they move so quickly, they're kind of out of things to learn.

There's a potluck dinner at the school tonight, and Carlos is taking me to the market to learn how to barter and try to find some Basil (apparently, people only use basil here for spells... and I'm totally serious about that) So I've gotta go. I'll be back tonight or tomorrow to finish telling you all about my week.
Much Love!
Caitie

Friday 5/09/08
Holaaaaaaaa.
Here's the rest of my week.

Let's see... Xela, then Xeavaj. Xeavaj was a little different this week. They're my super traditional Quiche ("Kee-Chay" if you're curious) women. Last week we were in a small, cozy little room and we all sat on the floor, me and 9 women. This week Hilda gave a cooking class at the same time, so half the women were with me and half with her. So I had 5 women, which is ideal, and we were in a big empty, half finished house with lots of room, but no lights yet. So it was really dark, and incredibly cold. My feet were kind of numb afterwards. So this time I wrote down the names of all the ladies I had (anna, marie, pasqual, marta, and I forget the last one) so that I know who's done what and I made notes of who needs more help, etc. My problem, which I'm sure you understand all too well, and I'm just now encountering for the first time, is how to teach someone with a brain like a brick. It's hard enough when I don't know the language, and when I don't want to discourage, but then when nothing I do seems to make a dent, it's rough. There was one woman there who spoke fluent Spanish, Marta, and was super in charge and really, well, bossy. She's young and pretty and she's attended 3 years in a private university in the Capital. I can't remember why she had to leave, or didn't understand completely, but she was pissed about it. That's just kind of her personality anyway it seems. She would translate for me more or less, but she didn't get the technique at all, so I'm not sure if it counted for anything. And she would ask me questions in spanish with words I didn't know, and I'd tell her "no comprende, no entiendo." and she'd just keep saying the same thing over and over with the same amount of urgency, I guess thinking that if she said it more, I'd learn what the word translated as?? I don't know. It was really frustrating. She also needed the most help, she was constantly screaming "Mira!" at me, which means "Look!" at every step, and every time I'd tell her to do something specific (which I know makes sense because carlos translated it) and every time she wouldn't do it. Every time "MIRA!" and every time "no, do this different in the future." and never. sigh. The other women did relatively well. I have a hard time with them because I can't tell them even the simplest things like "Now try it by yourself." One woman, in between me coaching Marta, would ask me to look at something and tell her if it was right. It was so infrequent that I left Marta that I thought every time she asked it was a new piece, but then I realized toward the end that really she just waited for me to approve every single step, so she completed like 2.

We go to Xeavaj in Claudia's truck, though I've never seen her drive it. The roads here are so ridiculously crazy that apparently we hire someone to drive when it needs to be done. The guy we hire is this old Quiche dude with a shaggy haircut and one missing front tooth and probably the worst breath I've ever smelled in my LIFE. Anyway, his name is Gonzalo and he's pretty awesome besides the breath thing. It's a 1 1/2 hour drive to Xeavaj up the mountains, and there's a ton of construction along the way, so it's not easy. It also doesn't help much that every driver in Guatemala is insane, including Gonzalo. So we're constantly jerked throughout the mountains, always 3 inches off of someone's bumper, consistently inhaling chicken bus smoke. By the time we get there, I'm about ready to lose breakfast, and then I get 2 hours to sit it off, and then I go through it again. There is a strange beauty to traffic here though. It's rare that I see a car with evidence of a wreck, and I've never seen or heard an accident so far. It seems that when there are almost no rules to driving, drivers don't have that dependency on laws that make them feel entitled or have expectations of other drivers. When there are no stop signs, no one really feels entitled to go first with the expectation that the other person will wait on them. Motorcycles just weave in and out between bumpers and hubcaps, and everything just seems to flow. If you pay too much attention, you start praying a little bit. I tend to have complete trust in the bus drivers and Gonzalo, so it doesn't bother me too much. But I think it bothers Hugh quite a bit. Gonzalo is Quiche, so he was helping me translate in my class. At first he was just speaking, but then he asked for my pliers, and first try made the technique I was teaching as well or better than me. So I have respect for him! and he was really energetic, and was making all these examples with his fingers and string, and he took over Marta for a little while, so I was grateful. Hilda told me later that he used to teach little kids in school or something like that. Don't know what he does now besides drive us, maybe both.

Today there was a big party at the school in Espunpuja for mother's day, so the women couldn't meet. Which actually kind of made me happy. I really needed a break. Yesterday after Xeavaj I was so incredibly tired and frustrated, every time Carlos asked me to make an example in Spanish I almost cried. It was the hardest/longest day yet. Today we had class int he morning since I didn't have to work, which I much much much prefer. All the other students are there in the morning, so the place is bustling. In the afternoons its kind of depressingly quiet. Carlos and I lock up at night by ourselves. To answer mom's question, the school's name is Sacribal (you can probably find a website) and it's director's name is Olga. She's just exactly what you'd expect a spanish school director to be. Big voice, louder than life, speaks slowly, always telling us to tell our friends to come to Xela and learn spanish, etc. There's a desk at the front where Olga does her paperwork and intakes students and whatnot, and then there's a library of grammer and vocabulary books behind that, and a big table for breaks, and a kitchen in the back with a stove, fridge, coffee and tea always. Upstairs are the classrooms. There are quite a few, and every pair of teacher/student gets a room to themselves. Carlos and I go to the back where there is the most sunlight. Hugh and Silvia are in the middle somewhere. There are two large rooms towards the front of the building with a doorway in between that serve as meeting rooms and dance halls sometimes. It's something like 125 per week, $5 an hour, which is wonderfully cheap, if you think about it. AMA pays for me. Usually, the classes run for 5 hours in the mornings, with a 30 minute break, ending at 1:00. The school also has little activities int he afternoon, around three. Sometimes it's a movie about social justice in Guatemala, or a weaving demonstration and lecture, etc. Carlos, being the dance machine that he is, also gives Salsa lessons there to any students who are interested. He's an interesting character. Super DUPER catholic, so it seems like he's constantly wrestling between this artistic passion he has for dancing, and basically to put it bluntly, convincing himself that it's not a sin. He has a girlfriend of 5 years who thinks it's a sin, and he says sometimes that he has to give up dancing one day. We talk alot, obviously. Which brings me to the way lessons are constructed. At the beginning of the week Carlos has a blank chart and we together make a lesson plan for the week of things to learn and work on. Like last week, I was really frustrated with how prepositions worked (por or para, augh!) so he made it the major focus for this week (I still have trouble!) Conversation is part of the plan, it's actually written into it. So we talk about sports, life, religion, politics, culture, family, everything. Every once in a while I interrupt him to ask what a word means and I write it in my vocabulary section of my notebook. When I can, and I can more and more, I tell him about my life, using I guess what's best described as Spanglish. He doesn't exactly know english, he can't pronounce a word to save his life, he definitely can't spell, and he doesn't really know how to construct a sentence, but he has a pretty full vocabulary so he can help me translate words that I use really often. I'm constantly making them up, too, so he tries to catch those before they become habitual! Apparently we change teachers every 2 weeks, so it's possible I'll have a new maestro next week, I'm not sure. Oh, other than 5 hours of classes and afternoon optional activities, there are other things like field trips and dinners that the school does to help create a community for the students and build a knowledge of the specific place that they happen to have landed on. Like last weekend we hiked the mountain to Laguna Chicabal, and Carlos' dance lessons, and there's also a possibility we could go to the market in San Francisco. Also, these dinners they do every friday usually. (not for the last two I've been there, I don't think) but it's potluck, and you work with your teacher to cook something, either their idea or yours, and you go buy ingredients with them and cook it in the school. I did not like it at all!! First of all, I have no idea what the hell I can cook. I've had SO MUCH TROUBLE the last two weeks just trying to feed myself, much less cook for other people. Carlos asks me every day what I ate for dinner, who cooked it, etc, and it's always either pbj or eggs. It was good to go to the market with him, it's not such a scary place. I got the most potent, delicious amazing basil I've ever encountered. It has blue flowers! who knew! And we went back to school to cook, and I have no idea how to cook anyway, much less how to cook with the ingredients I have. I did basil and tomato pasta, which ended up being amazingly delicious, but the road there was stressful and gross and not tasty at all. We ended up with like this watery tomato smoothie at first for sauce, and it tasted disgusting, and then Carlos dissappeared for a while as I freaked out. Not to mention there were something like 12 people in this kitchen all cooking at the same time. Every once in a while one guatemalan ladie or another would tell me exactly which pot to use, or what to add to what to make it work better. But in general I was completely lost and wanted to run away. And then Carlos came back with some tomato paste which completely saved it. Thank god. Big dinner with everybody and then back here. There's some salsa dancing at La Rumba, a club Carlos loves, tonight apparently, and i'd like to check out the night life here, but I'm always just too tired or shy. I appreciate Carlos' interest in helping me acclamate, but I understand that he's my teacher, and I talk to him for 5 hours a day, I don't also need to be tagging around him after class trying to be his best friend. I like him a lot, but we don't have a whole lot in common socially. Otherwise Hugh and I don't really have friends here yet. Obviously the language is a problem, and my schedule. Hopefully soon though. The people in the school say I am learning quickly, but I am perpetually the perfectionist. I still can't understand people if they don't dumb it down, and even then not a whole lot. I can say most of the important things I need to say, but I can't have much of a conversation as far as friendship goes. Of course it will improve, but I am impatient!

Anyway, there are many festivities tomorrow, and I hope to take pictures of Xela and the park and other things around town to give you all a feel for where I am. Whit said in his email after seeing my first pictures that "Perhaps Guatemala is not the turd I expected it to be". Which is interesting, because in many ways it's not, obviously, but in some ways, it does have the unfortunate aspects of turd-ness. For example, not being able to breath when you walk down the street because there are no regulations for car exhaust, or the obvious example, and please I do apologize, that I don't think I will ever poop normal again! I know, it's waaaaaay to much information for an email, and please edit that for grandma. But anyway, yes, more pictures to come. (not of my poop)

I'm glad you all like my emails, I really enjoy writing them. I've kind of quit writing in my journal because I get everything important out here. Perhaps I should look into a simple blog website to post things like this on instead. Know of any? Take care, don't strangle your kids, mom, imagine what they would be like if they were as annoying as they already are AND they knew the power of the word "MIRA!!". And stay out of trouble while you're puttering, dad.
much love!
Caitie