Buenas Tardes! I'm doing quite well, although I'm pretty worn out from our busy schedule! I can hardly believe it's only been two weeks since I arrived in Guatemala and only a little over a week since I last wrote, so much has happened...
I will begin with Sunday, the day we moved in with our host families. My host mother's name is Margot (who has the exact same birthday as Mom!), and she lives with her youngest son, Luis, who is twelve. She has two older sons who are married with kids. I really like my family--they are very friendly and informal. And they have a very cute dog named Elvis, who is a medium-small black furry dog with a white triangle on his chest and stomach. I believe Luis and I played cards for almost 2 hours on Sunday afternoon...! I went out in the afternoon, and when I came home, there was a young woman there who I hadn't met before. She turned out to be the wife of Margot's middle son, who were living there temporarily with their 3- month old son.
To get into the house, you have to step over a foot-high cement ledge. Once you enter from the street, you walk through a little room that may have been a store once. It opens onto a long, rectangular, red stone-tiled courtyard with clotheslines strung across it. There is a tall cement building forming a wall at one end, and an 8-foot high or so stone wall on the other end. I have my own room, about 10 x 10, with a door that opens onto the courtyard. There is a covered walkway about 2 ft. wide between my room and the adjacent brick building, which runs the rest of the length of the courtyard. It contains the main living space (2 large beds and a TV) and a bathroom, which opens into the walkway. At the other end of the walkway is another courtyard with clotheslines strung across it, but this one is hard-packed dirt with three trees growing in it, including an apple tree! To the right isd a large concrete 3-sink wash-basin under the 5ft. overhang. Immediately to the left is a door into the kitchen-dining room, which is directly behind my room. The building extends to the back wall of the property, with another small room beyond the kitchen (I'm not sure what it contains). All of the decorations around the house were Christmas- themed, because, as Margot told me, in Guatemala they celebrate Christmas from December first through February second! The whole place is a bit dirty and dusty, but it's in good condition for the most part!
On Monday I started Spanish classes at the Proyecto Linguistico Quetzalteco. Classes begin at 8am, which means I eat breakfast at 7:30 before walking the 5 minutes it takes to get to the school. Breakfast usually consists of a combination of two or three of the following: platanos (like bananas), black beans, eggs, fresh bread, cereal, or pancakes. The class I am taking is conversational Spanish, and the objective is to become more fluent in Spanish, which means I have lots of oral presentations and exams... My class is one-on-one with my teacher, Maria, but we get together at least once a day with the three other girls that are taking the same course.
After class ends at 1pm, I go home for lunch and to hang out or do homework until our next scheduled activity. On Monday, our group met with the mayor of Quetzalenango. He's a nice guy, bu doesn't really seem to be in touch with the people. In terms of food, plátanos and black beans are really the main staple at almost every meal, and there are almost always tamalitos (tamales without any filling) or thick, small tortillas on the table. Besides that we may have soup, breaded or egg-coated vegetables, rice, chicken, spaghetti, or eggs. I'm glad that I actually like most of the food, unlike some people who are having a very difficult time adjusting to the diet.
Tuesday afternoon, our group took a crowded local bus to the town of Salcajá, about 20 minutes away, to observe the traditional indigenous weaving process, which is still done completely manually and is very complex. We also visited the oldest Catholic church in Central America, which was built in 1524, and tried out the two different alcohols that salcajá is famous for: caldo de frutas and rompopo.
On Wednesday we had a presentation on the history of the Maya people, and on Thursday we heard from two ex-guerrillas. I've read and studied a lot about the guerrillas, even wrote a paper on them last semester, and so it was really exciting for me to meet and hear from them in person! When I told my teacher about it they next day, she proceeded to tell me about her involvement in the guerrillas for 18 years!
Saturday afternoon we had a presentation from a Mayan priest and priestess about the Mayan calendar, and today a professor came and talked to us about Mayan spirituality. Yes, I am aware that I have skipped over a few days--that's because we took a trip this weekend to Chichicastenango, and to write about it would be whole other long email by itself! Hopefully I'll get around to that later this week.
This afternoon after the presentation, I went to a thrift store and bought myself a sweater and a pair of pajama pants. I've woken up cold almost every morning, despite the fact that I wear both of my long sleeve t-shirts, long johns, boxers, and two pairs of socks to bed, and that my bed has three blankets on it. It's usually between 50 and 55 degrees F in my room when I wake up. Hopefully this will solve that problem!
Well, that's all I've got the time and energy for right now! I love hearing from people and would be happy to give you some more details and specifics about anything you may have questions about!
