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Published: November 25th 2007
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Hello from Guatemala again....
Well I am a little over half way through my trip and it’s been hard over the past week once I got settled into this volunteer program. I am not sure why but I am having some restlessness and satisfaction problems. I am not sure if it’s been hard to stop the momentum of my life, if I am just unhappy with some of the aspects of this program, or if it’s other emotional stuff driving the train. I plan to keep staying here though and try to figure it out, I think its really good for me to kind of stay put for awhile and work on this project and my Spanish is really coming along well.
So I am living with this family, and you just have to know about the life.... they are what I would consider middle class Guatemalans. They have a piece of property, maybe about half an acre big, and on it there are several buildings which make up the "house".... the main house is a living room with TV, table and some cupboards and a component stereo and two partitioned off beds. Then they have several other bedrooms, made
of gray cinder blocks with a painted concrete floor, one of them is mine. Then there is the kitchen and bathrooms. All of which are wooden sheds with dirt floors. The shower is an outdoor stall (concrete floor there), the bathroom two outhouses (that are pretty unbearable first thing in the morning). They have several sinks throughout the house, all of them basin size up to your waist, all of them equipped with concrete washboards so you can scrub stuff anyplace there is a sink...this is where you do your laundry, on the concrete scrub board. Its actually really hard work but I have to do laundry constantly because I get so dirty working. The "stove" is a waist high concrete table with two concrete indents where they make a fire and cook over a comal or using metal poles, to suspend pots to cook. Its really kind of wild in a way, they don’t have an oven, and you are always dirty because the yard is always muddy from the constant rain (its winter here, apparently). I use a mosquito net at night (there are rumors of malaria here and a lot of the volunteers are on antimalarials, but a lot of other people have said there aren’t any around the part of the lake where we live...just dengue fever and you can’t take meds to ward that off.... who knows, I just use bug spray and keep my fingers crossed...) Anyway, life is kind of wild here in a way, but really makes sense in other ways. There is no personal space, no down time, no weekends off, no rush, no worry (I am sure there is worry, but it just feels really different than in the states), and no decadence.... except coke, which everyone consumes daily, almost as a medicine. And remember, this isn’t poor Guatemala; I don’t really know that side very well. This is middle class style. I hope I am not sounding negative about their life, because, although I hate the constant feeling of being dirty, its actually really comfortable living this way. You are always outside and surrounded by lush plants (which are watered by the sinks and showers you use, they run into ditches through the property, into the garden), the family and community are incredibly strong here so you are always laughing and talking with people. If you are walking down the street and it begins to downpour unexpectedly (fairly routine during the winter), then you just pop into the nearest house or shop and they let you wait until the rain stops…maybe up to a half hour or more, just sitting with strangers waiting for the rain to pass.
The park I am working at is kind of frustrating at times because it is so loosely organized. In some ways it is fitting for the area, in other ways it is frustrating because its hard to figure out how and when to help...I feel its important not to push my values on these people, but help them with their needs.... which are hard to figure out. I go up and down daily about the program, depending on what I get to work on. I have taken the butterfly garden as my special project but have also helped make rose and aloe vera creams and today shampoo from this sambolla or something plant, which was pretty cool. A bunch of us were going to head to this beautiful place with waterfalls and hikes this weekend, apparently a must see. But there have been mudslides in a near by town and its a little dangerous to travel there, so I am looking to take another trip somewhere...not sure where yet.
Last weekend we went to a couple of local ruins, none of which were heavily excavated (which means they are these big mounds mostly, with rubble piles sticking out of them). One of them was in the jungle and was beautiful for its lushness. It’s hard to figure out how the Mayans kept these places free of plants without metal tools. It’s really neat seeing the ruins, even the unexcavated ones because it’s kind of like stepping back in time. We had to pass through this town to get to one of the sites, which had recently had this vigilante uprising. Down here, people are really scared of child kidnappers. Apparently, they have had lots of problems in the past. This small town had a few people who suddenly came into money and so the town figured they were child kidnappers or drug dealers and decided to kill them, they then killed the mayor figuring he was in on it too, and then when the police came to protect the mayor, they killed them too. I guess 16 people died in total. It was so weird to be there in this sleepy little town that looked so normal and realize how quickly things can get crazy. Its unreal the things you hear about because it feels so safe and peaceful in so many places.... and that’s not me being naive...everyone I have talked to feels the same way. It doesn’t feel dangerous or scary to travel here, no more so than any other place I have ever been.... and it’s beautiful. But there are all these horror stories kind of nebulously floating around.
Anyways, no crazy river crossing stories this week, but I did unknowingly chop down an ant hive one day and was instantly covered in dozens of ants crawling all over me and in the surrounding bushes. It freaked me out. Also, I moved some brush one afternoon and after it had settled a scorpion crawled out of it. So I am a little more careful where I put my hands now. Otherwise, things are a little sleepy here. Thanks again for the emails and support, I love and miss you all..........Sarah
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