Oh my how time flies!
Sorry for the lack of info, but things have been a bit nuts (and are only
ramping up), so please bear with me! I jotted down notes along the way to keep
my head on straight; now, looking back, here’s what I have to say for the past
3-4 weeks de mi vida:
Grooves and rhythms
- We lost the groove of site visits L
- Sadly, site visits went from consistent 3/day,
5days/week to spotty 3-5/day, 1-3days/week – I think the massive time
commitment of the work finally sunk in and was a bit overwhelming
(understandably so - my parents can attest that carting me around 5 days
a week can be quite exhausting)
- Despite the delays (due to festivals, other muni
events, illness, etc.), the project is moving steadily forward thanks to
an increase in sites visited per day and I’ve had more time for work on
my computer y claro que si tengo bastantes!
- I got in the groove of morning runs/Zumba J
- 5am starts have been quite nice
- the grade school teachers have finally started
attending zumba and it's blowing up with 10-20 women (and some kids)
there each class!
- Lauren wants me to run the 1/2 marathon with her in
Xela in November - I'm majorly on the fence and we shall see… particularly
given the amount of time I haven’t been running in the past few weeks +
all of the work ahead of me, I think it will need to be a “no”, but I’m
leaving my options open at this point
Interesting encounters
- Spent the weekend of Sept. 20th (holy cow,
almost a month ago!) in Chichi to go to the market
- The Chichicastenango market is very famous for all of
its textiles and crafts for sale and gringos flock from all over to shop
the wares
- While hanging out/working at my Chichi get-away of the
Maya Inn lounge, I met this wonderful couple
- The husband was born in
Texas, wife from Bogota, Colombia, and they now own a restaurant in
Austin, TX
- They were in Chichi to
purchase some textiles and we had a lovely chat about travels in Latin
America, college (they have a few daughters nearing college age), and
what motivates my generation (obviously very broad and general, but it
led to a lovely conversation)
- Ultimately they surprised me
by paying my bill, so I’m eternally grateful, and I was fortunate enough
to run into them in the market the next day to thank them
- As an aside, I have vivid
memories throughout my childhood (and recent years) of going out to eat
with my mom and we (aka she) would pay for the meal of some other
diners randomly selected right before we left – this is certainly a
habit I plan to carry on, because the feeling of asking a waiter for
the bill and finding out it’s taken care of is absolutely wonderful
- Work-related
- During a day of site visits, we ran out of gasoline on
a particularly nasty back-road, but fortunately the muni was working in
the area, the backhoe happened upon us, and we called some other muni
folks in the area to siphon gas from their truck into a water bottle so
we could get the engine running again…
- That encounter ended in a visit to the house of the muni
workers and a lovely lunch of caldo (a light-broth soup with large chunks
of veggies – usually onion, potato, carrot, and wizkil which is like a
squash-ish – and full chicken legs/breasts) and tortillas
- Go figure, we had caldo the next day at another muni
worker’s house (SUPER DELICIOUS with YUMMY YUMMY chile on the side) right
next to where the backhoe guys were broken down, so they joined us for
lunch and we had a spirited conversation about moonshine in Guate v.
moonshine in the US (pun intended)
- They were particularly amused when I told them how my high school theology teacher’s grandfather was a moonshiner during prohibition and paid for 2 generations worth of college education in the family as a result
- Drama drama drama
o For
context, I have yet to work with a Guatemalan who cares about timeliness – up
to this point, I’ve started to operate under the assumption that all organized
times are generally not going to be met and must be given a 15-30min grace
period. As an aside, if it takes longer than 30min after your agreed-upon time,
they probably won’t show up, but they also won’t call to tell you because
calling costs money and they just don’t want to deal with the conflict. This
upset me at first, but usually the “agreed upon time” was a time or meeting I
suggested… Again, the strong desire to avoid conflict means they definitely
agree because they would rather make you happy in person and let you face
disappointment when they are far away from your presence
o The
area I’m currently covering has a Vis. Alcalde who, somehow developed a VERY
firm, military-precision, Swiss-like concept of time and has no problem calling
out other Guatemalans who are tardy which is extremely rude (in Guatemala, the
concept of “it’s not personal, it’s business” does not translate AT ALL). Given
Abel’s (the Muni driver) normative sense of time and Tomas’s (the Vis. Alcalde)
military sense of time, and a clear history of personal dislike between the
two, my most recent work week became VERY interesting…
o Fortunately,
I have a good, separately-established relationship with each man and spent lots
of time taking the blame for tardiness with Tomas and explaining the need for
more time/flexibility, then chatting with Abel and explaining how Tomas’s idea
of time can be helpful while still commiserating that Abel was offended
o Ultimately,
this was an interesting conflict to witness/partake in, because Abel was
willing to show me just how offended he was by Tomas’s actions – this gave me a
glimpse of the true level of offense taken to breaking cultural norms, not just
concerning time, but concerning the way in which the issue was addressed. Tomas
reacted in a way that was normative in the US (perhaps a bit stronger due to
his clear dislike for Abel… but close) and it was extremely offensive to Abel –
further, after repeated interactions, they have a strained relationship that definitely
had a negative impact on our work (Abel used standard passive-aggressive methodology
to be consistently late as a result of Tomas’s outbursts…)
Beyond the frustrations this whole
interaction brought, we ultimately completed heaps of site visits – sadly, our
Thursday visits were cancelled b/c a presidential hopeful visited the
municipality IN A HELICOPTER; this was not only exciting for everyone, but also
very chistoso to me given that I’ve joked with many many many people during my
time here that the best infrastructure solution would just be to give everyone
a helicopter and landing pad…
Encounter w/ Quiche girl
o This one really hit me
for a number of reasons because the timing was perfect – I was exhausted from a
day of visits, had just recently watched clips clips from Emma Watson’s speech at the UN and John Oliver’s bit on Miss
America Pageants and all the money he’s since raised for women’s scholarships
(watch til the end
and you’ll see the shout-out to the Society of Women Engineers!), and had some
nastiness working its way through my digestive tract (see “Illness” section
below…)
o My musings on this
encounter ended up being a bit too long to keep in this post, thus, 3 for 1
posts! See Volume 2…
Illness
- I believe it was improperly sanitized chile with the
caldo (very worth it, that stuff was delicious!) that caused my digestive
system to erupt
- Fortunately, I had a fairly large, lazy dinner of Coco
Crispies and a banana, so my love of caldo and chile was not ruined by
the experience, but Coco Crispies were (a loss I can live with)
- I spent a wonderful evening of what my father (after a
particularly nasty experience with Montezuma’s Revenge when he visited
Guatemala) affectionately refers to as “shitty Russian roulette” that
consists of sitting in the bathroom trying to anticipate which end will
expel the contents of your digestive system next…
- I actually had a fairly pleasant day in bed without any
roulette after my icky night and thought I just had some Coco Crispie food
poisoning, but when the cycle of gurgle-y intestines and the hot sensation
of stomach acid creeping upward started again early the next morning, I
decided not to mess with whatever bacteria seemed to have taken up
residence in my intestines
- Thus began my first official experience with Cipro
- Can’t say it was as bad as I expected, and was,
in-fact, almost pleasant
- The only unpleasant aspect were the very interesting
noises coming from my abdominal region that sounded like an ongoing
battle scene from Osmosis Jones with a side of exhaustion and occasional
cramps/discomfort, but at the end of my 5 day anti-biotic drain-o system
flush, I felt pretty darn good
Onward to Panama!
- Abel/the Muni were SUPER HELPFUL and gave me a ride to Guatemala City where I met up with Enrique Descamps (also amazingly helpful) who helped me run some errands (and he made some stops as well), ate some yummy food at this wonderful Italian restaurant located in a former embassy (it was like going to Florence if Florence was in the tropics), took a quick driving tour of Guatemala City (the safe barrios…), watched Kill Bill Vol. 2 (thus the use of volumes throughout these posts…) and met some of Kike’s (short of Enrique) friends for a bonfire and very pleasant night that included a LOT of languages
- Some wanted to practice English, others were uncomfortable with English and preferred German (this was quite unsuccessful b/c at this point I’m so entrenched in Spanish that switching to German was nearly impossible), or those who had grown up with English in the home and wanted to talk linguistic intricacies
- Kike gave me a ride to the airport on Saturday morning, and I was off to Panama!
Also, pictures (lots
due to lots of content – sorry for the length!)
Santos on our way out of the Azucenas II school
Abel taking some nice photos of the vocanos in the distance during our hike into San Antonio Las Flores
We were hiking into San Antonio Las Flores b/c the roads looked like this...
...but this was the sight we were greeted by once we finally made it
And the hike back out with Santos explaining something about the neighboring communities and the Alcalde Aux. from SALF and Abel listening as we climbed
Community meeting at Tres Cruces II
The soccer field in front of the school at Rio Blanco
Rio Blanco's school kitchen during snack (aka mosh) time
Our lovely encounter with the backhoe when we ran out of gas... There were no stones along the road to chuck the wheels, so Abel kicked off this tree branch
Miguel and Santos after a lovely caldo lunch at Miguel's house, showing me the new Xemonte community soccer field and the retaining walls it needs
At the Xemonte school
And the Chiaj school - Santos lookin good in his suit vest (he was a big fan of looking polished, taking photos, and giving rousing speeches - pretty sure he'll run for Alcalde at some point in the near future...)
Community meeting at Sechum with one of the teacher's moto casually hanging out at the healthpost
A requested ped bridge crossing for la Concepcion Caquil
Dia de los Ninos celebration at the Chijuc school - the mad rush for candy after the pinata broke!
The middle school of Chuaquenum with the students taking a test on the patio
GIANT BANANAS at a tienda on our way into San Antonio Las Flores - for reference, the bananas to the left are normal-sized (about the size of your average Chiquita banana at a supermarket) and the ones on the right I assumed were plantains at first glance since they were (no exaggeration) at least 1'3"
The flowers in bloom next to the pila
Just outside of the house of Jose (a community driver who drove Santos and I around on the DELICIOUS caldo day) who was very excited to show me that he owned a bull - also, the amazing caldo and chile was made by his wife
furry chickens - photo also taken at the request of Jose
The ride into Tres Cruces I was absolutely gorgeous
Exhibit B
The view from the aptly-named new community of Buena Vista Xemonte
The ride into Rio Blanco was also stunning
Exhibit B
El camino - the traversable part into San Antonio Las Flores
Along the way to SALF - honestly I was very happy for this hike, b/c the scenery was gorgeous
otra vez
Xepepen
Xepepen on our way out
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