Tuesday 11/8/07 [photo of Antigua street near downtown, Volcan Agua in the background.)
Lovely moment in one of the hole-in-the-wall tiendas, yesterday. I wandered in to find this beautiful niche, walls covered in Guatemalan textiles, and a distant garden within the tienda, with wrought iron gate, and in front of it an indigine woman weaving on a backstrap loom. I asked if I could take her picture and got the expected, "one dollar!" response, which I agreed to. Then I sat on a tiled step and watched her and asked about the weaving, finding out she spoke some English. Also found out I had only 75c which she accepted.
In the background was a very dark, old indigenous woman, in full "native dress" with very drawn lined face and every-which-way teeth. She came over and sat next to me and then asked me some questions, also in English! I wanted to take her photo because she was such a perfect, quite beautiful, rather ancient Guatemalteco - but didn´t have any money left. As we continued to chat I learned she had spent time in San Francisco and Berkeley, teaching weaving some years ago! Rather astounding. But such is our world.
On my way out, I admired one of the many huipiles I´ve seen in a gorgeous pattern of orange, yellow and light purple..........this one with roses embroidered all around the neck and down the front......sounds odd, but muy bonito! She wanted $50 for it, but I had only $35.....to my chagrin she accepted it. Now that I think about it there are dozens of these in one bargain place..............and for way less money....but not as gorgeous.
It´s astounding to me that I´m in the heart of these woven creations I´ve adored all my life - I hadn´t really thought about that, chosing to come here.
Also got stopped on the street by two women in indigenous dress, selling necklaces. I usually just pass on by but these were so adorable I stopped to buy one, got talked into two (for about $10). Then the other woman started pushing her less attractive necklace on me. Very pushy and off-putting, as are many of the vendors, although nowhere near as bad as in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. In the Tienda I mentioned, the weaver saw someone looking at her goods and yelled to her daughter to get over there, whereupon the daughter started plying: "BUY something, lady?"
Interesting to notice the husband tending the small baby while the mother worked.
My maestra today talked at length, and length, to me about the educational system in Guatemala, how it was affected by the revolution and war here, and how even now their gov´t just does not have education as it´s priority (hello USA!) Very interesting to hear the details of all this. Tomorrow I want to ask her about going thru the period of the 80's for her personally, and for the country. One of the areas of the biggest massacres was two hours away from Antigua, in the same area as the mud slide that happened recently. I will of course ask with some sensitivity. My housemate said her teacher talked about it at length to her, today.
Bought a camera yesterday - having not-so-prudently left mine at my birthday party in California. Terrible extra expense, but I´ve been so happy wandering the streets taking pictures of la calles, the people, the edificios, the colors of the buildings......and so on and on.........that it‘s worth the extra expense. And the credit card thing went smoothly..... at least if I find noone stole my number.
And so off I go to do so again.
Tomorrow mi maestra will take me to a travel agency to see if I can book a tour for the Lake Atitlan area for the whole weekend, instead of going with her for one day. I´m glad she is going to the agency with me, so that I don´t end up someplace I never intended, or for more $ than I want to spend. My spoken Spanish is still MUY pocito! But I am excited about this possibility. I was going to ask my housemates if they wanted to go with me (or vice versa) but it turns out they are going to Montericco on the beach for the weekend, to watch the release of the baby turtles (tortugas.)
And so it all goes in Guatemala. What a delightful place!
Lovely moment in one of the hole-in-the-wall tiendas, yesterday. I wandered in to find this beautiful niche, walls covered in Guatemalan textiles, and a distant garden within the tienda, with wrought iron gate, and in front of it an indigine woman weaving on a backstrap loom. I asked if I could take her picture and got the expected, "one dollar!" response, which I agreed to. Then I sat on a tiled step and watched her and asked about the weaving, finding out she spoke some English. Also found out I had only 75c which she accepted.
In the background was a very dark, old indigenous woman, in full "native dress" with very drawn lined face and every-which-way teeth. She came over and sat next to me and then asked me some questions, also in English! I wanted to take her photo because she was such a perfect, quite beautiful, rather ancient Guatemalteco - but didn´t have any money left. As we continued to chat I learned she had spent time in San Francisco and Berkeley, teaching weaving some years ago! Rather astounding. But such is our world.
On my way out, I admired one of the many huipiles I´ve seen in a gorgeous pattern of orange, yellow and light purple..........this one with roses embroidered all around the neck and down the front......sounds odd, but muy bonito! She wanted $50 for it, but I had only $35.....to my chagrin she accepted it. Now that I think about it there are dozens of these in one bargain place..............and for way less money....but not as gorgeous.
It´s astounding to me that I´m in the heart of these woven creations I´ve adored all my life - I hadn´t really thought about that, chosing to come here.
Also got stopped on the street by two women in indigenous dress, selling necklaces. I usually just pass on by but these were so adorable I stopped to buy one, got talked into two (for about $10). Then the other woman started pushing her less attractive necklace on me. Very pushy and off-putting, as are many of the vendors, although nowhere near as bad as in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. In the Tienda I mentioned, the weaver saw someone looking at her goods and yelled to her daughter to get over there, whereupon the daughter started plying: "BUY something, lady?"
Interesting to notice the husband tending the small baby while the mother worked.
My maestra today talked at length, and length, to me about the educational system in Guatemala, how it was affected by the revolution and war here, and how even now their gov´t just does not have education as it´s priority (hello USA!) Very interesting to hear the details of all this. Tomorrow I want to ask her about going thru the period of the 80's for her personally, and for the country. One of the areas of the biggest massacres was two hours away from Antigua, in the same area as the mud slide that happened recently. I will of course ask with some sensitivity. My housemate said her teacher talked about it at length to her, today.
Bought a camera yesterday - having not-so-prudently left mine at my birthday party in California. Terrible extra expense, but I´ve been so happy wandering the streets taking pictures of la calles, the people, the edificios, the colors of the buildings......and so on and on.........that it‘s worth the extra expense. And the credit card thing went smoothly..... at least if I find noone stole my number.
And so off I go to do so again.
Tomorrow mi maestra will take me to a travel agency to see if I can book a tour for the Lake Atitlan area for the whole weekend, instead of going with her for one day. I´m glad she is going to the agency with me, so that I don´t end up someplace I never intended, or for more $ than I want to spend. My spoken Spanish is still MUY pocito! But I am excited about this possibility. I was going to ask my housemates if they wanted to go with me (or vice versa) but it turns out they are going to Montericco on the beach for the weekend, to watch the release of the baby turtles (tortugas.)
And so it all goes in Guatemala. What a delightful place!
Later: I was eating a piece of delicious rum cake in the French bakery I found today, sitting in a delightful open but ornately-barred window and looking out on the cobblestone street, the lovely broken down building across the way, the vendors, the scooters.......thinking that if I could afford it (and I will ask) I could totally see living in this place: Volunteer maybe 3 days a week. Teach English to earn a little cash, maybe. Walk around. Read, draw, maybe write a little, take a weaving class, or one of the 30 salsa classes I've seen posted in doorways and windows. Go back to my imagined adorable little apartment above the street with a balcony decked with bouganvilla (everything here still bountifully blooming, and they say that winter´s coming earlier than usual) and outfitted with the wonderful handmade pottery and furniture that´s available here. And always within sight, in the poorest areas even, are the green green mountains, and even in the center of city blocks are trees, trees, trees and flowers. Lots of trash in the streets the only real drawback. Interesante. Muy. I like my teacher very much........She´s a quite modern Quatemalteco yet totally into her culture, una Catholica but respectful of the indigenous beliefs and customs (like killing chickens to their saint Maximon, whose shrine I will see at the Lake.) Perhaps I could find good acquaintances, if not friends, even among the locals. But we´ll see.....and I have only been here 3 days. :-) And did I say, every so often a big old chuch bell rings???
11/10 Well now I have to write about finding out a few things I DON'T like so much about Guate. One is the incredible stench in the calle outside my homestay where there is a gymnasium (which looks like a residence, like everything else)...I suspect that el banos are overflowing from unaccustomed numbers of people. But that's the only place that odors have been a problem. Today I searched out the Nino Obrero school - described by my sister’s acquaintance from Canada - and toured the school (all 4 rooms where 60 kids spend their day during the vacation of Sept-Dec (I believe).....wet floors, crappy metal furniture, clean kitchen.........very nice teachers very eager to have me help, but I found - as I do everywhere - that unless the other person understands some English, I'm pretty helpless to explain or understand anything beyond the minimum.
I never realized how much I count on my familiarity w/ my surroundngs, and my language, to feel in control and on top of things, and how quickly that vanishes, here. I really feel like an idiot a good bit of the time.
I don’t think I said that the spanish school room is a huge open building....maybe a converted ware house?....with lots of windows. Small desks are scattered around, here and there, with student/teacher pairs, a small blackboard and lots of books and papers. My teacher and I have naturally gravitated to one of the two outdoor spots; ours on the second level up....a little covered patio with falling down walls and grass and bushes all around it, and a view of the city around the school and the mountains around the town in the near distance. One looks just like the hills around Berkeley where I once lived, and I learn that indeed it is covered with Eucalyptus trees as Berkeley's are.
Off to Guatemala City on the bus this afternoon w/ the tour to the school project which my sponsored-child attends.
11/10 Imagine me in Paradise - what might that look like?
Well this time it´s standing up in a swaying "chicken bus" careening along the highway to Guatemala City with Bob Marley pounding away from the back. These drivers are nuts, and you can´t really see out, if you´re standing, only down over the edge of the road to where there is every sort of thing you ever imagined - a few fancy new architectural wonder homes being built, a garden full of corn and squash, a hut with a tin roof, a bunch of automobile parts, a group of indigines selling stuff, and so on. At every stop some kid jumps on (the kids in Guatemala WORK) selling strange candies and colored marshmallows in a basket......women walk the sides of the highway close to this crazy bus, carrying HUGE bundles on their heads (you see that even in Antigua) and on and on... for an hour over to Guate City and an hour back. Wild.
These buses are bright! red and orange with flames or other paintings down the sides and many lights, and they honk all the time. Quite wild....but I loved every minute, especially standing up on the way over - swaying with the road, the music, and the amazement of being here.
Then we got to the area of the Guatemala city dump, where the kids in the project come from. I can´t begin to describe what it was like, cruising on foot thru these neighborhoods, me and the group leader, a young blond - who had called to the project for a Guate. escort thru these ´hoods - and 4 blond German girls who have signed on as volunteers. Two are under 20 yrs old and have been travelling by themselves thru Cuba, Mexico and Guate.....some interesting stories there. The neighborhoods: well you know what dumps smell like, but imagine that the dump is a half-mile square and that the nearby neighborhoods all smell and look the same. Huge groups of guys with big bags of scavenged stuff sat on the side of the road watching these blond gals in my tour group walk by. Evidently there was a big fire in the dump some years ago, so the gov´t actually no longer lets the kids work there, under age 16, but they still pick up trash wherever they can and sell or steal whatever they can. And the neighborhoods for a mile in all directions are FILTHY...no open sewers that I saw, so maybe it could be worse, but the stench, the dusty air full of god knows what microbes and asbestos powder and whatever.........and in all this kids are playing ball, or a mom is nursing a baby, and everywhere everywhere there are dogs that you want to come right down here and rescue. Mange, fleas, hunger, and every other one pregnant. So in the midst of all this (and I am pretty resilient but I am thinking three times about whether to come down here to volunteer and breathing all this air, at my age, and riding that bus an hour each way and being asked to work 5 days a week (regular volunteer routine.) I think maybe not, tho we did discuss my designing a special volunteer package to fit me, my time, and my skills).....so in the midst of all this filth is a day care with 30 adorable tiny children....in a building which is an old warehouse donated by a Guate. businessman and painted, etc. The caregivers teach the kids to brush their teeth, and wash before eating. They give them all a bath once a week. The kids get several snacks and one good meal a day of whatever foods have been donated to the program. They have a small green area outside to play in, and some toys in the large building, and they all looked cute and pretty happy and I immediately wanted to donate to purchase some indoor climbing equipment, etc etc. Then we walked over to a LITTLE better side of the neighborhood (and I could see some people are trying to, for instance, paint the fronts of their houses, or pick up a little trash, but there are still homeless men sleeping on the street, broken furniture next to a broken tree, etc.) and saw the project's new building for the after-school program - donated by some American couple w- $300,000 to give away (blessings be upon them) and it is BEAUTIFUL, nice rooms, a gorgeous kids library.... and inside kids were playing and singing and learning and all good things. You could feel how different it must feel to the kids. And they teach them to play the guitar, and to cook, as well as giving them time to play and dance and paint and learn alot. This is an after-school and summer program that supports their public schooling (where they are often ignored or turned away for behavior or inability to get their homework done.) This program is beginning to open a hotel in Antigua where the older children will be taught maintenance and waiting tables, etc., with an adjacent restaurant next door as a future project. And then my "godson" - a boy I've supported in this project since I first heard of it - was brought out to meet me. I wasn´t expecting that, and have to say, he was shy and I was shyer. I suddenly had NO Spanish or English. He had made me a birthday card! So we had several sweet but awkward moments, and I will be back to see him and take him out for ice cream next week. (Two more chickenbusses.)
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