Mah Anashim Osim Kol HaYom?/Que hacen la gente todas los dios?

---

So I wanted to do an entry just on the mundanities, because thats a good way to really know what travelling in Guatemala is like.

So,

Food

I love black beans. Which is good. Because the typical Guatemalan breakfast and dinner is eggs, rice and black beans. Lunch includes chicken or even beef instead of the eggs. Which means I eat eggs instead with rice and beans. 3 meals a day. For the past 2 1/2 weeks. Mom, make me a brisket for Shabbos when I get back and I promise you I'll never forget mothers day again.

Showers

There are two kinds of showers. Cold Showers. And Not-as-cold showers. A cold shower is just a showerhead on a cold water pipe. Any hostel that has this system is also cheap, dirty, and poorly lit. Yay! The Not-as-cold shower is the same, but there is a little electric water warmer as your shower head (see pic). This warms only the small amount in it at a time. It ranges in temp from just-not-freezing to luke warm. There is one variation on this, which is scalding-hot (happened once). In this case, you flip on the electricity, get in until it starts to burn your hair off, flip it off, lather, and repeat. Fabulous.ç

I will add one addition hazard. If you touch the water just as it comes out of the showerhead, you get a mild shock. As if the freezing water didn't wake my ass up enough.

I don't shower often.

Transport

I covered this in my last blog. But basically, its cheap, and it gets there.

Local News

There are, like Israel and NYC, three dailies: two are tabloids which I can understand because they have lots of pictures and easy words. The other is too hard and the only really decent paper. Nuestro Diario is my paper. The stories are about, in order of appearance by page:


* Police shootouts with M18 or another mara (gang)
* Bus drivers shot and robbed by M18
* Bus Accidents with fatalities
* Three stories of international news, with a leaning towards S. America and the ongoing Mexico election debaucle(and a map of rocketings and bombings between Hezbullah and the IDF)
*Guat. State by state news,which is either about local bus accidents or gang shootings
*Human intrest story
*4 pages on the Miss World Pagent or a Brazilian Binkini Show, with text so as to make it seem it is newsworthy.
* 6 pages on the Central American Games, which I had never heard of before.


As the RaDiSh might say, "I wouldn't line my Quetzal (national bird and local currency) cage with Nuestro Diario."

Locals

Friendly, helpful, speak Spanish often only about as well as me because their native language is Mam, Quiche, Quqchi, Tzujtzul, or Catchiquel (theres lots more). Indiginas women wear traditional dress and carry all items in wicker baskets on their heads covered in Guatemalan woven blankets. Every region's clothes are different. Indigenos men wear modern but inexpensive duds, often with a straw cowboy hat or a little stetson with a feather, which cost about $4. Guatemalans are nicer and more polite than Americans by a long shot. Everyone says Buenos Dias or Tardes to me before I do, and if you are bumped, everone says Perdon. Gracias and De Nada are never omitted, ever.

So basically, it's just like Israel.

---

Photos

Desayuno, Almuerzo, Cena
Excuse me, does your cafe have black beans, rice and eggs? You do! Great!

Your Shower
Possibly more lethal than M18 or riding a bus.

Your Locals
It's twice as nice in lingua Catchiquel.

Your Security
Banks have dudes with shotguns in front. So do delivery trucks. So don't f&$% with the ice cream man.

Your Locals part 2
Baskets on womens heads, cowboy hats on men's. Glad I'm a dude.

Your morning cafe
In a country known for coffee, why can I only get nescafe? Oh the humanity...

Comments

[Marnie]

Sounds like you're having quite the adventure. And your pictures are amazing. How come I never knew you played guitar?