Big and Small Differences

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  Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Thursday, June 21, 2007

Buenas Tardes Amigos!

Good Afternoon and I hope you are all having a great summer.  Itīs hard for me to believe that I have now been in Guatemala for 4 weeks!  June is almost gone and time just flew by!

I can see a big difference in my Spanish speaking skills.  I am conversing faster and more freely with my Spanish instructor and I can say more.  I am able to communicate with service industry people and I can better understand people here when they speak to me.  I am even better at understanding my students in Spanish.  They talk really fast and quiet no matter how many times I ask them to please speak slower.  I have even spoken to myself in Spanish and think in Spanish sometimes so I must be slowly converting to a Spanish thinking brain!

When I see the way that the kids and teenagers here behave it is just like home.  They like to talk, goof off and the boys flirt with the girls by taking their notebooks.  Many of the women here wear the traditional dress of their ancestors, but their children dress in jeans and t-shirts letting that tradition of the past slowly die away.  Many of the women work in the home and it takes most of their time to fix the 3 main meals of the day.  They also clean, do laundry and shop for food.  Some women work outside the home when they are young, but once they marry and have children they are pretty much forced to leave their jobs and be a housewife unless they have enough money to pay someone to work in their home.  Some women have family to watch their children and they have to balance their jobs and all the housework.  My Spanish instructor does this and she has said more than once how tiring it is to prepare meals everyday.  I think this sounds familiar to a lot of women I know back home.

It is harder to shop for food here and prepare meals.  They donīt sell hamburger helper in a box.  You must go to a mercado and see the butcher for meat.  Then you barter with different vendors for fruits and vegetables.  There are small stores with dry goods and other odds and ends.  There are also many bakeries that sell pan (bread).  They eat a lot of bread and rolls because it is very cheap here.  If you have a car you can go to the supermarket on the edge of town and get everything in one place, but most people have to take the bus everywhere so they make multiple stops.  Then they put everything in baskets they carry by handles or on their heads.  Some women hold the items on their heads with one hand and other women can walk with huge loads on top of their heads without holding it up with a single finger.  I am still completely amazed by this!  It is also interesting to see women with their small children tied in blankets on their backs and their hands full of bags.  I think the women here are full of quiet strength and wisdom sparkles in their eyes.

Today I had a very long conversation with my Spanish instructor about discrimination here in Guatemala.  She told me that the PC term for people here not of Spanish origin is Indigenous, but that many people use the term indio (indian).  Women who speak an indigenous language and not Spanish are treated poorly and called indios.  This is why men no longer wear their traditional clothes and why the younger generation all dress more Western.  This is also why the indigenous dialects are all dying.  No one wants to learn these languages.  They want to learn English because this impresses lots of people.  You just get an insulting look if you say you know an indigenous language.  She said that the government now has many schools in the rural areas where they now have teachers who speak the students native tongues so the children there can actually attend school and learn.  Unfortunately, many of the children in the rural areas donīt attend school because their families canīt afford to buy them a notebook. 

My Spanish instructorīs husband is a nurse and he travels to rural areas to help vaccinate the children there.  Many of the people there distrust anyone from the city or government because of the Civil War and they say no to the vaccinations because they believe that the shots will kill them.  They believe the government wants to eliminate their race.  They also wonīt accept cereal or other nutritous food from people who try to educate them about a healthy diet for their children.  ĄQue Triste!  How sad!

I really stand out here.  It doesnīt matter what I do or wear I would still stick out like a sore thumb with my light colored skin and hair.  Most people here have dark brown skin and black hair.  I think it is the first time in my life I have even come close to getting a glimpse of what it is like to be a minority living amongst a majority.  Everyone here believes all Americans have tons of money and they seem to have no problem with cheating or stealing from foreigners.  In the market us ĻtouristsĻ have to pay a higher price than the locals for fruits and vegetables.  It is an agreement between all vendors.  Same goes for laundry.  On the bus if you donīt know what the correct change is they donīt give it to you.  Most of this doesnīt bother me because it is still extremely cheap to buy anything here and I donīt mind contributing to their economy, but it is a little annoying to be classified in a certain way.  Although it does have itīs perks because no one wants to sit by me on the bus unless the seat next to me is the last one available.  I rather enjoy having the extra room.  I am getting used to always drawing stares and attention, but I still dislike the stereotypes that people think about me when they donīt even know me.  A woman and her daughter sat next to me on the bus today and the daughter kept staring at me in wonder especially when I lifted my sunglasses and she saw blue eyes.  She asked her mother a question obviously about me and the mother kindly rebuked her.  I donīt know what the mother said but I could tell that she was friendly and a nice person and she must have said something to her daughter like itīs not nice to talk about other people like that.
  
We also talk about politics.  There is a Presidential Election here in September and there are many different candidates running.  Signs are everywhere around town.  The Spanish instructor I had last week said that many people donīt know anything about the different candidates, they just recognize them by their symbols.  She also said the candidates always make lots of promises but canīt deliever.  Much of this sounded very similar to back home.  I had thought I was getting away from politics by escaping the USA, but I have learned they are everywhere. 

And I am going to delve a little deeper into politics because thatīs who I am.  I am a Democrat and most of you should already know this.  My current Spanish instructor (we change teachers every week) was telling me that the teachers at the school talk about how more people from Europe than the USA come to Central America.  From television and the current governments policies they think of people in the USA as being closed minded, but they see how open minded and liberal all the students are that come here.  She said that when Bill Clinton was President he came to Antigua, Guatemala and everyone in Antigua lined the streets waving flags and cheering.  She said that in March President Bush came and everyone was in the streets protesting.  They couldnīt understand why he was even visiting their country.

It seems to me that all countries have their problems some more than others, but that most people go on living their daily lives even when they donīt understand how their government works.  Some people are nice and offer you a seat on the bus, while other people see you standing in their checkout line and skowl while thinking another stupid tourist who canīt speak Spanish.  Still I am enjoying the sunshine of lately and trying to learn as much about this place as possible.  Everyday my classes get better as I learn more about how to teach to their needs and they learn how I teach.  They are enjoying the games and they all say Goodbye to me when they leave for the day.  I feel the energy of the soul of the people here deep inside me and I marvel at how they push through all the struggles they face.  I envision a better future for all the people here because most of them have hearts the size of Texas and they are very good about caring for one another like a real community.

I miss all of you but am enjoying all your emails.  Send me emails letting me know what you want to know more about.

dianaj25

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