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Published: October 30th 2006
I am now in Quetzaltenango, usually called Xela. Today was a big festival, I´m actually not sure what it is called! It was very fun though, in the main park, people made big pictures on the road surrounding, and all made of saw dust. I can still hear the sound of bombs bursting in the air as I write this--they were really loud, launched right from the park. Then they explode, and make quite that bang.
So, these big murals are made of sawdust, which is mixed and colored. Groups of people work on each one. I think there were about 15 murals in total. I walked around looking at them all, wondering what would happen next. I noticed all the murals were of jesus, or mary, or something christian. Earlier I went and checked out the church and reflected how it is strange so many people embraced Christianity in Latin America. I suppose it is a pretty compelling story...Finally, there were a lot of people in suits and dressed up in traditional clothing going to the cathedral, and so I went over there. A big procession lined up with flags, all about Jesus, brotherhood, and the church. Some people had the traditional clothes: women with multi-colored shirts and dresses, and men with some really colorful hats and shirts too. I love all the color here, people aren´t afraid to be colorful. I walk around in brown pants and a black shirt here, because that is my warm suit. Sometimes when I wear my raincoat and my other pants, I´m all gray. How boring!
Anyhow, the march began. There were little girls dressed up as if for a wedding, all white and frilly, and others in purple. There were older women and some young ladies dressed in the colorful outfits I so enjoy. And many men in suits too...They marched really slowly forward. Finally, out came a big shrine, with a statue of mary on top. It was huge, and took about ten men to carry it. On top of the shrine were tons of flowers, and mary had a dress that went back about ten feet. In front of the shrine were men dressed up crazy and with these smoking incense, it smelled really good. Behind was a band, mostly brass, with a tuba laying down a baseline.
The procession continued on, walking over every mural. Sometimes the band would play, sometimes a group of youths on the side with a guitar would begin singing, when the band stopped. That is the dedication to religion here! It is strong. As the people tromped over the murals, a group came up behind them and started sweeping them up. They put all the sawdust into big bags. So, it took all day to make, but only a little time to march over. Oh well. I am going to ask my host mom the significance of it all.
It was quite the spectacle. I really didn´t know what was going on, as usual, I just kinda stared in wonder. I took some pics, and finally captured the colorful dress of the people. I am now staying with a host family, and they are just great. And guess what? They wear the cool clothes! Ha ha. It´s true though. So, Tess and I are in language school, to start class tomorrow. We began friday night, and went to a dinner of the school. It was interesting, everyone spoke english, and ´didn´t even make an effort at spanish really. Only during the awards did the instructor speak spanish. He gave awards to people who had just completed a week. The students stood up to give a speech, and tried in spanish, but they resorted to english, and the german guy to german. But it seems most of them are starting from a much rougher point than I; I know some, but they began with nothing.
On saturday we hiked up to Lake Chicabal, an old volcano. We went with the school group, about fifteen people. We all had to wake up at 6 am to catch the bus. That´s really early for me and tess, plus we´ve had a cold. But tess was in the tired part of the cold, while for me, my stomach was hurting--just a knot. Anyway, we all squeezed in a van and went up a crazy road to the trailhead.
It was a nice hike, we got to practice spanish with some locals that came along. But all us gringos always spoke english, mostly. Finally we got up to the lookout point, and we could see a few volcanoes. One of them was smoking all the time. We walked down to the lake, down 500 steps. It was nice! The forest was preserved, so it was very tropical although we are at such high altitude. The vegetation was thick, and there was some amazing bamboo. Lake Chicabal is a holy mayan site, for they believe it is the source of the rain god. When we got down to the lake, the silence was nice and tranquil. We all lied around on the lake´s beach for a bit. Tess was hungry, but my stomach was really hurting. I could barely move and I had shooting pains. When we headed back, I stayed behind for a sec, and took an excursion into the woods. Then I felt a lot better, but I was nearly killed with the pain!
Tess, however, was barely surviving. She was exhausted, at the phase of sickness I was at a few days before, but we were doing the crazy hike. When I was feeling all tired, we just took it easy. So it was quite unlucky for her. By the time we got done, tess was about to faint! She was so tired on the bus. We had almost nothing to eat. But I nourished her with some avacado and passion fruit, and she made it back OK. I think she survived!
But now we are staying with separate host families, so I don´t know yet how Tess´s is. My family is great, we sat down to dinner last night and spoke all spanish. I was able to talk about many things. And it is good old mom´s home cooking, guatemalan style! I´m really enjoying it immensely. The mom cooks up three meals a day, and all of them are great! Last night we had a good warm soup, with mano de res--the hand of a cow. Mmmm. Along with tamalitos and warm tea. For breakfast, heuvos with pan, coffee, beans. Man! And I get to practice spanish a lot. The roof has a great view, where I go and study a bit. Everyone at dinner was pretty impressed I knew French, Spanish, And German. And one lady who stays there is austrian, so she could vouch for that. But they said my spanish was pretty good, for I was talking up a storm. They said, well you have plenty of conversation!
Anyhow, classes begin tomorrow, and soon I have to go back for some yummy dinner. I´m liking this home cooking! So here is who we usually have at meals--the mom, Antoniette, and her mom, and sometimes I think their daughter, and also this other kid, maybe a son of someone. I have not yet figured out the mysteries! I´m staying in a compound where the whole family lives together. There are about five houses with a courtyard, and it´s all one big family. Really interesting...
Ready to study spanish? Listo para estudiar espanol? Si claro, porque no? Entonces debo solo en espanol pensar, y usar el pasado y otro cosas. Sure...I can get by, but one thing I really have trouble with is jokes and when someone tells a story, I usually lose them.
Oh one more thing! Tess and I went to the market, and it is madness! It is really fun just to walk around. We ate at a small restaurant there, and made friends with the cooks. We got some great pictures of me with them. You can see how much taller I am. I can hardly begin to describe all the shoes, clothes, colors, flowers (I bought some for tess) fruit, food, people, dogs, chickens, bunnies, kittys, and other things for sale. Also, women walking around with giant loads on their heads. One great one was these two women who had giant seeds on top of their heads. One almost took me out with it! For everything around here is right at my eye level--gringo deterrents. If I don´t watch, I´ll definately get taken out so I´m constantly on the lookout and walking with my head tilted, or ducking.
That´s it for now! Hasta luego!
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Mom
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Far out
Hey, Colin, I'm very much enjoying your adventures through this e-journal, and am happy you figured out how to add the pictures as they are worth a thousand words each, or so they say. Keep the stories coming! mom