The beat goes on

As the third week begins, it is hard to believe how fast these past two weeks went by. Now that we have two newcomers, Becca, who will be staying here until December and Sarah, who is only here for this week, it has been a fun girls trip, helping them adjust, traveling around the country together, these living quarters certainly bring people closer together a lot sooner than later. I can see the appeal of living in a hostel type setting for a while. Sarah is from Cincinnati and Becca is from Montana (some tiny town…that doesn't even have a highway), I can say with assurance that I have never met anyone from either place. Not only am I learning a lot about Guatemala, but also about what its like to live in other parts of our own nation, something I didn't think about before I came on this journey.

Monday was spent on a city tour on the “less fortunate” side of town. After seeing the shanty villages in the middle of the ocean in the Philippines, I didn't think this would really compare. On the contrary, it was worse, but not my much. We went to the public cemetery that was HUGE, I mean these people build giant mausoleums for their ENTIRE family. Uhm, do you know how big Hispanic families are? Because if you do, you’d know they are pretty mighty. You may be wondering, why the heck would they show you a cemetery?! Well, it turns out the layout of the cemetery is exactly like the city plan of Guatemala City. The rich neighborhoods, the German neighborhoods, the Jewish, and the poor. The poorer people just get stuck in a wall and if they cant afford to maintain the grave they dump the bodies somewhere, Id like to refrain from further disturbing details as to the nature of my audience, but lets just say I have pictures. Behind the cemetery, we got a foul whiff of something extremely pungent, all I can think is “oh god we are about to see some dead bodies…I know it.” Nope. It was the city dump. In the middle of Guatemala City is the largest ravine in the city that is currently being used as a landfill, many people live down there sorting trash into things they can sell. To boot there were vultures lurking in every which way circling around the sea of garbage, and I thought I didn't like pigeons. The most frustrating factor of this experience was the fact that nobody is doing anything about the fact that the ravine will soon be filled within the next 10 years, what then? Yes, I am aware that we, as Americans have our own share of problems, hell our government just shut down yesterday, nevertheless, it doesn't make this problem any less frustrating. If I get started on the government here I’d be writing the rest of my trip, so I’ll save you the boring political opinions I have developed and skip to the rest of the day. These people love their ice cream. I am not crazy about sweets so I just go along to watch these people freak out. I just don't get it. My favorite part is the waffle cone. I could just eat that. There are ice cream stores around here like there are Starbucks in the US (which by the way, I have yet to have seen here).

Tuesday was Children’s Day! I was told this is a Latin/South American holiday and boy they do not mess around. First of all, I know its always about some sort of party in the Hispanic culture, but man do they love their clowns. I DON'T GET THIS!? They are just plain creepy. The kids got to do the whole piñata and candy thing at the hospital, which was so fun to see them outside of their usual hospital gowns and actually playing with their mothers who are normally bored to tears. After work we had our Spanish lesson at the Mapa Relieve which is a giant topographical map of Guatemala. Sooooo many volcanoes! I love it. Its such fertile land, great for these beautiful tropical flowers that Ive only seen in bouquets (Birds of Paradise for example) and of course amazing coffee.

One of the best moments of the trip was realizing that Becca and I have an unconditional love for games. She taught me a new card game called “Frustration” and I taught her “Double Speed”, we are both now obsessing over these games. Strangely enough, as we were discussing our favorite board games, neither of us had any games in common! There are so many games I need to find! Sorry but this was basically the highlight of my night.

Wednesday, we went to Antigua to pay a visit to the local coffee plantation. On the way there, there was an intense local fútbol game going on…again, if any of you have seen a fútbol game in any Hispanic country, you know how intense it is. It was beyond crowded in these lawless streets. People were standing on the railing of the walls surrounding the field just to get a look. I absolutely loved the energy. There’s just nothing like it. At the plantation we were given a tour of coffee making process, not bragging, but I already knew how this all went. What I DIDN'T know was that the higher the altitude, the better the environment for the beans….or maybe I did but I just forgot. Either way, it was some useful information before I start my consumption process. We got to do some sampling, the best part and ended the tour with a visit to the next-door Mayan Musical Museum. Did you know the musical instrument native to Guatemala is the marimba? I didn't. It's a pretty nifty instrument and made from the local trees here. After the visit we were also able to try some local cuisine in the market. Atoll (sp?) is a sweet corn drink with some corn added in it, some chipiline tamales that I couldn't resist as it is quickly becoming one of my favorite dishes here.