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Published: February 28th 2008
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Before talking about my trips to "Chichi" and Guatemala City, I'd like to give some information and impressions about living and studying here.
Not knowing exactly how to go about settling in here on my own, I went through (and paid the $150 donation they asked for) the Proyecto Mosaico, which is a German NGO with an affiliate in the U.S. (www.promosaico.org). In addition to giving me a cultural orientation session, they found me a family to live with ($75 a week for a room with shared bath and 3 meals a day except on sundays), a good language school, and a volunteer project here in Antigua. Also, whenever I have a problem, I can call up Eva or Anouk and they will handle it. As a matter of fact, I have asked them to look into organizations for me because I'd like to sponsor a Guatemalan child, thus enabling him or her to go to school. This is one reason why I plan to visit San Pedro, the Common Hope Project, on Thursday. Like the project where I am volunteering ("The God's Child"), it is also said to be very serious and good. But I'm a little afraid that
Women's Meeting
Every Tuesday, a sociologist at the God's Child Project talks to indigenous women about problems bringing up children, keeping them in school, child abuse, etc. both are so big; a child in a smaller organization might need my sponsorship even more.
I will always remember the kids I've been with. They are so affectionate, sweet, and cute. Whenever I go in the afternoon to work in the Library of the God's Child Project, they come over and hug me. And they're so patient when I read to them. I also just love the way the older ones take care of the little ones and the way they stand in line to get their snack at 4 P.M. As a matter of fact, I find the Guatemalan people on the whole very friendly and kind. They say hello to you on the street and smile a lot.
Unfortunately, the new family I'm staying with hasn't worked out as well as I thought it would. The other lodgers are all girls in their 20s. The two Danish girls are very friendly, but the Dutch and Flemish girls aren't. In addition, Jose and Lucky's children (who are in their 20s)don't eat with us and, as Jose is the only man at the table, he rather dominates the conversation and is a bit "macho" and flirtatious with
all the European girls. I feel a bit like "una abuela" (a grandmother) in the crowd! I miss the little kids in the other family. Brian and Kimberly couldn't have been cuter. Also, my friend Margie (with whom I went to Lake Atitlan) has left town, so I no longer have anyone to "play with" at night. There are lots of places with live music I'd like to go to, but not alone, and I've been told to be very careful here walking home late at night. I did have dinner on Saturday night with a fellow student from my school, but he's leaving town tomorrow.
I do meet people, though, especially when I take day excursions in mini-vans. You're usually with 13 other fellow passengers for several hours, so you talk to people from all over the world and of all ages. It's amazing how much and how far people are traveling these days, many in much the same way I am. Makes for very interesting conversations and people have given me some great travel tips about Guatemala and other countries in Central America.
It's now a day later, and I'm back from a day excursion to
Guatemala City, or "la Capital". As I wanted to see it, I offered to pay my Spanish teacher, Reina, to be my tour guide there for the day. She knows the city pretty well because she's at the University of San Carlos (the only public university in Guatemala) there, so we went by "chicken bus" (painted, old-fashioned American school buses) and took local buses and taxis once we got there. Reina is 28 and is putting herself through university and only studying part-time. I couldn't believe it, but her university has 80,000 students!
We left Antigua at 8:30 this morning and got into "Guate" at about 9:15. The chicken buses go whirling down the curved roads at top speed, diesel exhaust trailing behind them. I was rather scared by it all, esp. on the curves, and both ways the ride was very bumpy. But we got there and back safe and sound.
Reina first wanted to show me Zona 10, the part of town where there are many modern office buildings, consulates, international schools, etc. I'll include a photo of Reina in front of the first modern shopping mall that was built in the city, as well as
one of a typical "proetected" wall. You see these wired deterents all over Guatemala, for, as you can guess, the crime rate is very high here. Also notice the barred "tienda". They have these all over Antigua, as well.
After walking around Zona 10 for awhile, we took a taxi to the private, modern university Francisco Marroquin, which houses two wonderful museums: the Museo Ischel and the Museo Popul Vuh. Ischel was the Mayan goddess of the moon and Popul Vuh was a Mayan book in hieroglyphics. We visited both museums. The first one has a great collection of Mayan costumes and textiles, and the second all sorts of pre-Hispanic artefacts. We then walked around the lovely campus and had lunch at the school cafeteria.
After that we took a taxi to Zona 1, where there's the Cathedral, the Parque Central, and the Palacio Nacional. We visted the Cathedral on our own and then joined a free, English-speaking guided tour of the Palacio with one of the guides. The President has an office there and holds a certain number of official events, but most of the time he works in the Casa del Presidente. Apparently, if he ever
wants to come over to the Palacio, there's a secret tunnel he can take to get there!
We took a public bus back to Zona 11, where we'd gotten off the chicken bus from Antigua and visited another lovely museum: the Museo Miraflores, which displays artefacts from the archaeological site of the Mayan city, Kaminaljuya. Got back to Antigua about 6 PM.
It was a very full and tiring day, but I was very glad to have visited the city. It's not attractive, but it was interesting to see it. It's very spread out and has lots of "zonas". Apparently, the further out you go the "chic-er" it gets. It seems many rich people have lovely homes in Zona 14 and Zona 15, whereas Zona 1 and Zona 3 are very poor and dangerous. From the bus, Zona 3 resembled the favellas I saw in Brasil. It was broad daylight, and there were armed soldiers and policemen everywhere we went in Zona 1. I didn't feel threatened, but Reina was very nervous while we were in the "centro". She actually called her mother twice to let her know we were okay, as apparently she was very worried about
our safety!
This will probably be my last entry from Guatemala. I'm leaving Saturday for Costa Rica and have two busy days ahead of me. Tomorrow I'm going to school in the morning, visiting Common Hope's project in the town of San Pedro in the afternoon, and having dinner with two Canadian gals from my school. Then on Friday, it's school again in the morning and working in the Library with the kids again in the afternoon.
Hasta luego!
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EJK
non-member comment
Hello Mom, Great blog entries. It's very interesting to read about all that. Stay safe and have fun. N#1 son