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Published: June 27th 2006
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I have arrived without incident in Quetzaltenango up in the mountains if Guatemala. I am here with my friend Mia from the nurse midwifery program and Carrie, from the geriatric nurse program. We are here attending Casa Xelaju language school for two weeks before travelling during the third. With Casa Xelaju we do five hours a day of one-on-one instruction and they also provide us with a family homestay.
The family I am staying with has 7, 10, and 13 year old boys, the parents and then four other students. Usually there are maximum of two students but the school is currently accomodating a large group of high school students from minnesota and thus, there are three very teenage fifteen years old girls here as well. in all there are ten of us in this smallish cement house. the houses here don't have heating of any kind and the electricity and water availability, is extremely spordacic. so although i am a kind of cold all the time, all in all it's an adventure and a lot fun. i am from a family of seven and i thoroughly enjoy a lot of people and commotion in the house. in nashville, i
live alone, and initially when i moved i felt like i'd become a hermit or that i lived in a tomb or something. anyway, i've really enjoyed being in a house of ten because it makes me feel very at home even though i'm in a foreign country.
the family provides all of my meals, which has been great although i don't think i've ever come close to eating so many eggs and black beans ..they also eat a lot corn flakes with hot milk, which was a little odd at first, but it's growing on me. the black beans are really great, i swear it's worth the trip just to come eat them. i had my host mother Sandra explain how she prepares them. i think i might be able to replicate them at home, although she said i'll have to acquire a pressure cooker to do it properly.
my spanish teacher and i are working through a spanish for medical personnel book. he doesn't speak any english so we spend a lot of time giving each other confused looks and passing the dictionary back and forth. my comprehension has improved immensely, but i still speak pretty
slowly. so far i feel like it's a good use of time.
Guatemala is extremely beautiful. we are at about 7000 feet and surrounded by volcanoes covered in cloud forests. aside from the stench of diesel near the streets, the air seems very clean. the other day before classes we went to a neighboring village Zunil to visit a women's cooperative, the local school, and this strange village tradition San Simon. San Simon is basically a mannequin (like from a department store) that they dress up in clothes and move from house to house each year. the caretaker for the year provides housing and food for san simon, and people come to bring him offerings. there were a hundred or so candles burning in his little house and outisde there were two small fires where people were sacrificing eggs, cigarettes, candles and liquor to him. apparently they also sacrifice chickens, but not while we were there. there was a stand selling candles, and mia attempted to buy some to bring home, but they wouldn't sell them to her explaining that they were only for sacrifice to san simon, otherwise it was very bad luck.
we take salsa lessons
every evening which has definitely been a highlight. i think we've learned in a few classes here what they would teach over a course of months in the US. salsa is pretty easy for girls...it just the leading that gets complicated. other than that we don't do anything past seven in the evening. the town here is pretty safe during the day, but makes me a bit nervous at night. unfortunately there have been three muggings and beatings of american girls walking alone at night. one of the girls attends casa xelaju, and she is still pretty badly bruised and swollen after being mugged and attacked by four men last week.
after more than a year of being perfectly healthy, upon arriving i had the immediate misfortune of catching a cold. prescriptions here are basically nonexistent and the pharmacist is often the only health care provider that people consult. i went in to find some vitamin C and Halls and they tried to hand me some amoxicillin and a bottle of ''cold medicine'' that contained a lot more drugs than i'd ever care to take. after a few days of miserable congestion i finally broke down and bought the equivalaent of tylenol with a small bit of pseudoephedrine. the box is plain white with the phrase that basically translates ''little sugar coated pills of prolonged liberation'' i'm still waiting for my prolonged liberation....
tomorrow we are off to see a coffee finca and some mayan ruins and that i can't spell. abaj tiklatik or something to that effect. we have another week here and then we are traveling for ten days probably to lake atitlan, antigua and possibly monterrico on the pacific coast.
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