Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Las Aventuras de una volcandiosa.
Sorry for the infrequent updates. Every time I think I'm going to have a while to update, something else comes up. This is not a complaint.
I had a fabulous weekend. I decided to stay here in Xela in order to go to the Buena Vista Social Club concert which was Saturday night. Friday night I went to yoga, then to the big dinner my school has every Friday. Afterwards several of us went out drinking and dancing. You can buy an entire bottle of liquor here, which is a great idea for a group of young people. We chose rum, then went to a bar called Coco Locos which was playing a mix of hip hop and merengue. Two of the teachers from our school, young guys named Carlos and Luis, came along with myself, Kim and Ellie (my roommates, both Va. girls) and brother Dave's clone Abraham. Luis and Carlos are both fantastic dancers, showing me what an enourmous difference it makes to have a strong lead. I did pretty well with the merengue, better with the hip hop. Saturday Carlos, Abraham, a few others, and I went to one of the towns most effected by Hurrican Stan last year and helped move some cement block to rebuild houses. Volunteering Guate style requries a lot of patience on the part of Americans because we're used to clear directions and fast work. Here we walked around and looked at some of the other houses for about an hour before doing about an hour's worth of work. Carlos and his cousin Carlos are deeply involved with Vides, and international youth service organization. This particular project was funded by sales of food at a street stand. The families were supposed to be rebuilding the houses themselves, but a few have had health and money problems so Vides is pitching in to help so they can finish by the October deadline that a major charity in Spain has set.
Saturday night we went to Buena Vista social club. It was gringo a rama, since the tickets were pretty expensive. Most people were sitting down but we stacked our chairs up and danced the whole time. Salsa being much more difficult than merengue, I needed to apologize to Carlos for being a very bad dancer, to which he kindly replied that I was simply bad, not very bad. The music was phenomenal. They were having sound difficulties, and another roommate Andres put it very well. Rather than ruining the concert, it simply made us appreciate each song all the more.
After a whopping four hours of sleep, I got up at 6 so Andres and I could catch a minibus touristica to Chichicastenengo, a town about three hours away with an enourmous outdoor market. I bought many presents, mostly not for myself (go me!). It is expected that you bargain, so I did. Not too ferociously because I believe more in fair trade than in capitalism (and yes, I believe the two can be mutually exclusive) so I wanted to pay what I thought the work was worth, not what I could get them for. It was fun. Later Andres and I went to La Iglesia Maya, a church which has cathlolic masses in the mornings and Mayan ceremonies in the afternoons. There are Mayan alters going all down the aisle of the church, and a woman charged us a ridiculous 50 quetzales for a crappy explanation of the altars. We then hiked up to another alter on nearby hill and paid 10 Q for a much better explanation. basically, Mayans burn candles and sacrifice beer, cigarettes, and chocolate for healty babies and to combat alchoholism. I'm talking to my teacher about the sacrificing cigarettes thing tomorrow, I'll fill you in. Also chickens. Female chickens.
This morning I unsurprisingly woke up with a nasty little head cold which I hope doesn't last very long. I spent the afternoon in bed, and plan on skipping the discussion on Guatemalan politics (crap!) to rest up some more tonight.
- comments