Chichicastenango
Trip Start
May 23, 2007
1
14
22
Trip End
Oct 03, 2007
Chichicastenango,
Guatemala
Thursday, July 5, 2007
It is a beautiful day here in Xela and it has been a beautiful week. For the past 2 weeks we have had lots of warm, sunny days with little rain. I am enjoying not being cold in the afternoons and nights.
My classes have been fun this week. My students and I are bonding more and can actually converse in Spanish. We donīt always understand one another, but we figure it out.
Laughing is one of those things that everyone does, but some people more than others. Sometimes I am my serious self and I forget to really laugh for a long time. But when that laugh, the kind where your whole body feels the ripples of laughter, finally erupts it feels fantastic and you wonder why you it took so long. So I have been laughing with my students and enjoying my experience to the fullest.
When I first arrived here I had really high expectations for myself. I really wanted to help the people here so I guess I expected that I would teach these kids how to fluently speak English. In the last 2 weeks I have come to realize that this is an impossible goal. You canīt teach fluency in a foreign language in 4 months, especially when they are starting from scratch. This has helped me to focus better on using activities that will at least help them remember the basics so when they take English in the future they will better understand it. It amazes me what they do and donīt remember.
Next week I start volunteering in a daycare center in the mornings. This daycare center watches children up to age 6 for free for single, poor mothers who need to work during they day. The Volunteer Office here used to send volunteers to the local orphanage, but the care there was poor and after trying for years they have decided not to send more volunteers there. They have recently looked into this daycare center, so I am the guinea pig who will let them know about this place. Next week I will be helping watch the really little ones. I hope I remember how to change a diaper properly. Itīs been a long time since those babysitting days. Then in a couple weeks they have an open spot to work with the older children. Weīll see how this progresses.
My Spanish continues to improve. Thank you to everyone who sent me a congratulations on my graduation. I am trying to speak Spanish as much as possible with my roommates. My friend Johanna from Austria and I always speak in Spanish because her English isnīt fantastic but her Spanish is great and I am trying to get better. Her sister is here visiting right now and last night she was asking me questions in English and apparently I was responding in Spanish without realizing it until she said something to me about it. That was great news to me!
Sunday I went to Chichicastenango with my Spanish school. I was sure I was going to launch my breakfast before we arrived, but I made it. We went a lot higher in altitude and I had a headache most of the day. It didnīt help that I had assumed it would be colder and cloudy so I only wore sunscreen on my face. My arms were toasty red by the time we got back to Xela.
We arrived and walked through the packed market with the streets so full of vendors and people that it was near impossible to stay together as a group. Most of us followed our guide up a hill to see the Mayan religious ceremonies. Wow, I was out of breath right away and my heart was racing. From past experience I knew it was the altitude and not my lack of exercise. It was interesting to see the religious rites performed by the Mayan priest. But what was of more comic interest to me was the fact that pagan Mayan ceremonies are performed on the front steps of the Cathedral in Chichi. In fact to convert the indigenous years ago the Catholic Missionaries incorporated lots of the indigenous rituals into the catholicism they were teaching.
After the hike back down we went to find lunch. The whole group of us filled a long table in the center of a tiny restaurant. There menu was way too Americanized and the food was probably the worst Iīve had here. But while we were waiting for our food the children started pouring in. Each child had something different to sell. They would go around and ask each of us to buy from them. Once a sale was made the children milling around the doorway would notice and then more and more kept coming. The couple sitting across from me bought a few things and the children noticed and they all crowded around this couple trying to coerce them into buying from all of them. Soon enough the women came in trying to sell the scarves and cloths they were selling. It was almost too much.
We quickly ate and then got out to the market to shop for gifts to take to family and friends back home. I couldnīt believe how high they start with their prices. I am not good at bartering and I didnīt have to. If you look just a little too long at something they are hot on your tail. They continue to go down in price until they either reach a price you will pay or you are tired of them at your heels harassing you. I bought two things I wasnīt sure I wanted to get as gifts just to get them to leave me alone. I donīt mind paying a reasonable price, but there is no way to now what that price is. They start high so they can go down or to sucker you. If you quote them a price then they say no thatīs too low for 6 months of work by my own hand and not a machine. Just by saying no gracias doesnīt register for them. When I truly didnīt want something I had to say I donīt want it in Spanish. I didnīt know how to say I donīt want that for any price.
But it was a great experience and I felt bad that their demand for money and our demand for cheap gifts has resulted in two cultures being annoyed with each other. It would be nice if you could look and buy and pay them what itīs worth. To not feel guilty that you are paying too little when you have the money. The little English they know is their selling technique and many of them asked for American dollars. As we were preparing to leave we were waiting for the rest of the group on the church steps. A little girl was begging for money. She looked so sad and serious for such a little girl. She allowed me to take her picture for 2 Quetzales.
Another week has flown by and the next few weeks should be just as busy. Tomorrow I am going on another trip with the Spanish school I attended. I am going to Rio Dulce and Livingston along the Carribbean Coast. They have waterfalls, a castle and the beach. The town of Livingston was founded by escaped, shipwrecked slaves so the culture there is completely different than Xela. It will be great to see a different side of Guatemala. And I am prepared for the mosquitos with my Malaria medicine. Guatemala is roughly the size of the state of Louisianna according to my guidebook. This will probably be my last trip for awhile, but I am enjoying traveling in the safety of numbers and exploring during my free weekends. Iīm sure I will have lots of stories when I get back and hopefully none of those stories involve spiders, snakes or other large insects and bugs!
Take care and I hope everyone enjoyed the 4th of July holiday.
dianaj25.
Chichicastenango Cathedral
