chichi

okay, i had a very detailed blog, then my computer crashed. this will be the super quick, no detailed blog. my apologies:

wednesday: Our group met with the an army representative. He was a nice guy and all but he said basically everything i would think he would say. He spoke about how the army now provides all sorts of social services for Guatemalans and it acts during natural disasters. He also mentioned how the Guatemalan army is involved with different Peacekeeping Missions from the UN across the world. He didn't mention the civil war much except to say how there were problems, but now they're over. Atrocities carried out were only committed by a few soldiers who weren't taking orders and that human rights abuses weren't a tactic of the army. He then went on to show us pictures of soldiers who were either killed or maimed by the guerillas. I am all for hearing the other side of the arguement and getting a full perspective and obviously he had his agenda for us but i'm not entirely sure i agree with the notion of atrocities being carried out by a few token soldiers when the Scorched Earth Policy was an order by Rios Montt. I'm sure there was pain inflicted by both sides

thursday: some guy thought i was picking a fight with him in a pharmacy; obviously not true and he apologized and then gave me his business card. my professor said how after 12 years guatemalans still have the mentality of the war.

friday: left for chichicastenango, about a 2 and a half hour van ride.

saturday: met with womens cooperative who are widows from the war who now make hand sewn bags and blouses and table runners etc...

sunday: market in chichi was unreal. so many people, so many vendors, super intense / little overwhelming

sunday night: watched super bowl in Xela upon return. pats lost, huge bummer. bar was full on new yorkers, it was a rough crowd for the token boston kid.

this week: meet with business man and former guerilla member.

this weekend: maybe go to lake atitlan? it's supposed to be beautiful, but i have a free weekend to do whatever, so i'm not sure what i'm going to do

class: super hard and getting a little frustrating because i don't really understand what it is i'm learning in terms of how it's translatable into english, and since there is ZERO english spoken, i don't think i will really know. but i have a spanish book written in english, so i'm basically going to live in that book

group: doing well, some people are getting really sick. i'm fine, but one girl has amebas and another has a parasite. yikes!

i'm sorry this isn't great, but the last one literally took me almost an hour to write and i really have lost the desire to write it again.

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