A Curious Encounter, and Several Successes

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Dear Friends,

Much has happened since my last hectic email.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for your generous donations. We were able to raise more than I had anticipated, $120. With that, we were able to make donations to both the man in Jolocmu, as well as the Spanish School´s children´s charity program. Much thanks to all. I am honored that so many of you trust me with your donations, and flattered that we exceeded our goal.

After I wrote last, Jin and I headed out to Soloma. It was described in the Lonely Planet as a friends, gregarious place, where the locals speak English, and there is suprising wealth. Many local cowboys from the area make their way to America to work on ranches, landscaping, or other manual labor type jobs - this makes sense with the article I sent before. While some of these things were true, others were not as they seemed.

When Jin and I arrived in town, after 6 hours of buses, the greeting was suprisingly luke warm. Upon entering out-of-the-way towns before, I am usually greeted with curious looks, and general friendliness. But this place was different. People seemed to be curious as to why we were there, in a cynical kind of a way. At every hotel we looked at, the proprietors either held in their laughter, or let it out right. It was as if they thought we were foolish for even being there.

After we found one hotel that sufficed, we made our way out to the square, to find out about this man. Here, the story got even worse. A man who spoke English found us. He was drunk, and wouldn´t leave us alone. He had peeling scabs on his face, as if he´d ben fighting. He asked for money, and told us that the town was all about money, and with out it, they kick some ass. We had already established that we were trying to get to Jolocmu, and he led us to the buses. The bus drivers asked about our reasons for going, and then the laughing started again. I said I was looking for someone who was got hurt in America, when I mentioned making a gift to him, their eyes tightened as they laughed more. It was as if they were saying, "so, you´ve got money to spare, eh?" I tried to expres the gravity of the situation, but their laughter only continued. I asked if they´de heard of the man, but they hadn´t. When I showed them the picture from the article, they immediately knew the story, and they started to laugh again. Were they laughing at us? Or his injury? Jin and I couldn´t be sure, but we were starting to feel very uncomfortable. Finally, they started asking the hard questions, in rapid fire. Why exactly were we here? This didn´t seem right to them. We had attracted attention by this point, there was a crowd of half a dozen men gathered around us, none of them smiling, one wen as far as to ask if it was I who had hit him with my car.

The drivers had originally told us that the buses leave in the mornings, but as the crowd grew, one got a twinkle in his eye and said, "I could take you guys right now, if you want."
"No Thank you," I said, "we´ll wait for the morning."

It was at that point that Jin and I thanked the men and walked away. We felt that we had made ourselves targets, that somehow, the situation had gotten quite dangerous. We were not travelers with a goal of charity, but naïve tourists, who may have been respondible for this man´s injuries, and either way had money to burn. In the words of Hunter S. Thompson, the urge to flee came suddenly. But we were comitted to staying the night, and decided to go to the church, to try and find some answers. It no longer seemed safe to go, hardly safe to stay. But it was at the church the best answer came. Tomorrow was Sunday, so Jin and I waited after early morning mass and found the priest. We wrapped a smaller donation in the man´s picture, and wrote instructions that it be given to him. If there was anyone in town who we could trust, it was the priest. After this, Jin and I hurried to the bus station, and as they say, got the Hell out of dodge.

While this experience goes far beyond anything we expected, it has gotten much better from there. After leaving Soloma, we mdae our way through Huehuetenango, a working class town filled with genuinely friendly people, English speakers who didn´t need alchohol to make contact, and then moved to Quetzaltengo, locally known as Xela. We spent the night at an absolutely delightful hostel, run by a family who quickly told us that we could use the shower at any time, because, we were all family. After I write this letter, I am going to see my Nora and Rolando at the Guatemalensis Spanish school, to give them the rest of the donation, for their charity. Lizzie and I made a donation to them two years ago. They are wonderful, heartwarming, and will put a positive spin on this whole experience.

From here, Jin and I will travel to Coban, and then head to the Mayan ruins that dot the Guatemalan Jungle. From there, we will head cross-country to the black sand beach of Monterrico, for a little RxR before we leave this great country. Thanks for reading folks, and thanks for everything. I hope to write again soon.

Love,
Carl

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