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Published: January 29th 2008
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Guatemala City
picture from the first day of being with the group. This was taking from the National Cemetary well let's see, i believe the last time i posted i hadn't done the following:
We all woke up at around 5:30 in the morning last saturday to hike up Chicobal, which is a volcano in Xela with a lake in the crater. the hike wasn't that bad. it started off being freezing (the mornings here are actually really cold), but once we were about half way up it started to warm up. There were some pretty great landscape shots. When we got to the lake there was an indigenous group singing along the shore, so we didn't want to venture to far over out of respect, but it was pretty great. i took some pictures, so i'll add 'em on.
The next day we moved in with our homestay families. The couple who i'm living with don't have any kids because they medically aren't able to, and they were saying that in vitro is too expensive for them. i asked about adoption but they said they didn't want to adopt a child. I'm not sure for what reason, but it's up to them. So out of protection of privacy, I have been told not to mention names while
start of hike
scenary at 6 am blogging, so i'll just refer to them as Miguel and Rosa. So after I got settled in the house, Rosa asked me if i wanted to go to church. For some reason i had just assumed that it would have been a catholic church. As we're walking along, i can hear the music from the church, and it just sounded like a party. there were trumpet players and a drummer and dancers up at front and everybody was dancing and clapping and singing. I looked around and saw that it wasn't a catholic ceremony, but i didn't really mind. So we were dancing and clapping and having a great time. I said to Rosa that her chuch was like a party and she told me to wait that it would get very sad soon. I wasn't totally sure what she meant, but sure enough, about 20 seconds later, the music changed to this ambiance of reflection and deep thought. Men and women began to scream and cry. by no means were they silently weeping, but literally screaming out loud as if they had just received the worst news in the world. The women were also wearing veils, so i really
Group
getting ready to hike! had no idea what kind of religion this was. So people are screaming, throwing their hands in the air and some were falling to the floor. There was one man whose responsibility it was to hold up a microphone to people as they were lamenting whatever it was they wanted to say. Some were pleading for forgiveness others who begging for salvation. it was REALLY quite intense. Also, there was a video camera projecting the chuch onto two large screens up on the walls. so the woman next to me starting going ballistic and of course the camera zoomed in on her, which meant the camera zoomed in on me. So here i was on this huge big screen in a church with people who are crying their eyes out and forcefully praying in spanish...i was a little out of my element to say the least. Oh and of course we were in the very front row, dead center. I don't think i could make this up if i wanted to. So i wasn't sure if i was supposed to try to console this woman or what, but eventually she ended her screaming and the camera zoomed out. It was
an interesting experience for sure. Later i found out that they were evangelical. the pastor then came up to give a sermon on what was forgiveness and he was walking around asking people questions speaking incredibly fast so that i really couldn't understand him. i was praying to god that he wasn't going to ask me a question, and luckily enough he passed on me, but that didn't stop him from asking everybody around me questions. the best part was probably when these 10 year old kids went up and did this dance that was actually pretty great. but everything else was different sort of church experience for sure.
After church we went back to Rosa and Miguel's house for lunch with this british couple who had been living in the house before me. it was a married couple who had been traveling throughout central america and attending different schools. so they were placed in the home of Miguel and Rosa at a language school. I really didn't mind that they were there before. the British wife was fluent in spanish, so it was good not to have the attention on me right away and i was able to
make funny side comments here and there in spanish. after that i got settled and took a bit of a nap until we had to go to chuch again. that's right, we went again. Apparently they go twice on sundays and on wednesdays. but in all honesty they really are great people who are so easy to get along with and are so patient with me. so apart from the interesting church visit, they have been awesome hosts for me. for dinner the british couple were there again sunday night, which was nice, but they left on monday afternoon for another part of guatemala.
My responsibility in the house has been washing the dishes which is fine by me considering i have no idea how to cook and i'm not really around to clean the house. my face has been getting a little sunburned, i've been putting on sunblock and aloe at night, but the sun is pretty strong. their nickname for me has been el camarón = the shrimp, due to the pink skin.
I had my first day of class yesterday which went well. class starts at 8 am and goes until 1 pm. it's all
with a one on one tutor, which is actually pretty nice, but there is absolutely no english spoken at all. i'm a little behind where i should be at, i'm really just getting to know the imperfect tense right now, but it has been a little hard because there is no english explanation of how to use it, i am just expected to have the spanish pressed into my brain to the point where it will make sense. i'm getting the hand of it, but it's been a little frustrating at times. probably my weakest point so far has been my reading comprehension. i am able to read and have okay pronunciation, but when i have to answer questions immediatley after reading a five page story, i just have no idea what i'm doing. i think my tutor expected me to be a little bit better at where i'm at, but he's been pretty nice about it, which i really appreciate.
today some other students and i watched a movie called Voces Inocentes. it was really probably the MOST powerful film i have ever watched before in my life. it is a true story that follows the life of
stairs
if you think it was scary to go down, going up was even worse this 11 year old boy in El Salvador during the civil war and all the trauma that he experiences during the war. i have never felt so horrible after watching a movie before. If ever you wanted to learn about the conduct of the Salvadoran army during the 1980s from the perspective of a child and don't mind being pushed to your emotional limit, i highly recommend it, but by no means think that it's going to be a feel good story. After watching the movie, we had a discussion with our tutors about what we thought and then they started to explain similiarities during the civil war in Guatemala. We meet with representatives from the Guatemalan army on wednesday, which should be interesting. I think everybody is interested to hear their side to gain another perspective and to hear what it is they have to say. After that though, everybody has signed up to take salsa dancing lessons, so that should be a good way to sort of decompress.
I have a ton of homework that i need to, so i need to get going on that, but i hope everybody is doing well!
p.s. quick explanation
on the Phus nickname: my younger cousin had difficulty saying Joseph when he was younger, so he would say Jophus. well, my sisters quickly turned that into my nickname shortening it to phus creating other names as well (phustov, phustopher, phussy....etc)
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Sean
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Cool pictures Joe, it's cool to get updates on what you're up to.