This morning - of Miercoles Santo (Holy Wed.) - there was suddenly a commotion in the street above my house: the large things they whirl over their heads that make a grating sound, dirge-like sounds from the trumpets and saxophones and the thump of the big two-headed drum: a procession! I left my weeding to go out in the street in the t-shirt I wore to bed plus decent pants...(no bra, hair uncombed)...just to see what was up and ended up sitting there for two hours..
A family just down the street who carry two of the oldest names here - Quiacain and Chavajay - were evidently hosting this event, and had a plastic tarp spread over their small garden.
The procession arrived very slowly--while I and my new pup and several neighbors sat on the sidelines to watch--the noise-makers, the band and drum, and probably 40-50 men in straw ten-gallon hats (a few wearing traditional embroidered pantalones) accompanying an older woman in a bridal-like veil, who carried a swinging incense-burner, and behind them probably 50 women with their traditional checkered shawls and behind them a motley crew of hangers-on, children, more men.
They all went inside the garden and sat. Various men and a few women made some sort of speech or prayer, in Tz'utujil, and the large audience rumbled their replies....a sound reminiscent of the ocean.
Eventually the family started dishing out "atol" (a corn drink, served in an embellished coconut shell) to the people in the garden, and then emerged with these round-bottomed vessels to serve people in the calle, even us. The drink is fairly thick, salt-less, sugar-less, with spices of anise (which grows all around here) and a slight picante bite. Many people came to get the drinks. They must have served at least 150 people.
Evidently the man of this family is currently in charge of the "Cofradia de Santa Cruz," one of the many cofradias or Catholic brotherhoods in the pueblo. So he pays for much of this, but all members of the cofradia also help with money outlay, setup of the scene, and cookingof the atol.
More praying and eventually they came out with the canastas of fruit and veggies that I had heard would end the hour-long event....but wow!....30 women bearing plastic baskets on their heads full of mostly plantains but other fruits as well , then 50 men bearing the same (tho because of the cowboy hats and because they're men, they carry them on the right shoulder)....and then 30-40 more men each carrying a large pod produced by a plant that I think grows on the coast....it looks rather like two primative canoes glued together, face to face....with long prows...about 6' long. I have seen them before in Antigua, and have always been fascinated with the pod - it is used in many ways in the alfombras (ceremonial carpets constructed in the streets for the processions of Semana Santa, including the cross-carrying Jesus to pass through)....the cascara itself cut and used as a "vase" for flowers, the long creme-colored branches inside used whole, or just the tips with their little creme-colored seeds or these seeds separated from the branches and piled together in shapes and designs along with all the other forms of fruits and vegetables to create these amazing carpets. (see photo attached to older post on Semana Santa.)
I don't know where these pods were headed---tomorrow night is when they make these beautiful alfombras all night long. I am hoping to find someone I know making one so I can take part for the first time. But I know the many canastas of fruit were headed to decorate the stanchions they erect over the way of the procession.
As these activities gather together toward Friday - Viernes de la cruxificion - (for instance my painter friend and his group have for weeks been painting the first "anda" or "float"--except that it is carried by hand, or shoulder.) that will be in the procession, one can't help but get caught up in the wonder of it (much as I hate some things that the Catholic Church represents.)
It's truly beautiful and there is testimonial to wonder and faith.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
What's different about living in Guatemala?
Of course it depends on where you live...if you're in the Capital, I imagine that you have most amenities but one constant concern would be security. Maybe someone living there could set me straight on that...I know there are many beautiful sectors of that huge city. In Antigua, you have all the European/US/S. American influences...in music, art, food...but it is a small city, so this is still somewhat minimal. Primarily there you have the sense of antiquity, since it is the oldest large city in Central America...originally capital to the area from above Chiapas, Mexico, to Costa Rica. It is a truly beautiful town, and you can live there comfortably, though I found it cheaper to live just outside Antigua, itself.
At Lago Atitlan, the differences between towns is more marked. San Pedro la Laguna has - to me - a lovely combination of rural and indigenous influences, and some amenities from the US/Europe. This is important to me primarily due to my food allergies - I need some foods that are NOT corn tortillas, beans and cheese. I also love to have the use of the internet, and now have it in my house for about $26 per month, instead of going to a local internet "cafe" (which could be a room in someone's house.)
But what is different about living here? Randomly: public toilets are amazing - you never know what to expect. You can pay 1-2Q and get a small bundle of toilet paper as you enter, wade thru the 1/2 inch layer of water on the floor and find a bowl without a seat, and a bucket to put water in the toilet afterward. That's the fancy toilets. The others, you never know...but an abundance of water OUTSIDE the toilet and none inside is pretty common (think: hold up your skirt, your packages and your purse while you try to manage everything else.)
A common re-use of a plastic coke or water bottle, even by the public utility system, is to cover wires to keep them out of the rain. Many people also use this in place of something to expand or extend the light, so you'll find the light bulb - usually the coiled energy-efficient fluorescent type (who knew?) - encased in a plastic bottle with the bottom cut off.
Plastic bottles are also used to direct water from the rain gutter into a smaller tube to direct the water away from a walkway or whatever. Lots of inventive uses for things of this type.
Houses and even stores are kept quite dark for energy (money) saving.
Showers: forget hot water. Unless you have an on-demand heater - in the fancier homes - or a gas heater, in some hotels - get used to a tepid shower. Or so I thought: very recently I figured out if I take my showers at 10 am, when the sun has been on my black plastic Rotoplas tank for a few hours, the additional heat provided by the tiny electric showerhead (don't touch it while wet!) is sufficient for an almost-hot shower. A great pleasure.
If a truck or car breaks down in the street, expect it to stay there, no matter how much traffic passes, until the owner or someone he hires gets his tools out, crawls under the vehicle and gets it going again. I don't think there are tow-trucks! And noone seems to mind, or complain. Everything her is taken with a "grain of salt." -- "No importa." "No tenga pena." "No hay problema." "No te preoccupas." Common phrases (it's not important, don't worry about it, no problem.)
Money: first you get used to the exchange rate with Quetzales/dollars - it was 7.55/1 when I first came to Guatemala; 3 years later it's more like 8.05. So my money goes a little further!
But there's more to it than that: 100 quetzales is about 13 dollars ....but for 100 quetzales you can buy two nice meals in a nice restaurant, or a pair of good quality used shoes for 75q, 50 q pays my cable bill for my tv (ok only about 30 canals and mostly in Spanish, but...I get Animal Planet and Discovery as well as CNN.) By the way, I found out that the So You Think You Can Dance series I watched so avidly was 6 years old. Wanna watch your favorite old series?
My rent for a really nice 2 bedroom house with a nice smallish garden is $185 per month....but there was no real kitchen, just a 4-burner "camping" stove on a plastic table and a tiny refrigerator....no shelves or cupboards til I put them in (two beautiful wooden cupboards "to order" cost me about $100.) There is no water in the "kitchen" but the bathroom is out the door and down the terrace and around a corner....15' away. And the bathroom itself is a trip - it's outside the main part of the house (as is true of most houses built by local folks) - and is so small, the sink is the size of a large dinner plate, the toilet is just past it, and behind that is the shower. The whole thing about 4' x 8'. I had to put up a curtain to keep from showering the toilet. And of course there's a hole in the roof enough to wet my head as I sit on the toilet when it rains. But the house itself is pretty gorgeous, and my terrace is a lovely place to sit in the evening, with a small view of the lake, a slight breeze, and all the sounds of the frogs and crickets.
From my terrace I can see men working in the corn and peanut fields just outside my garden fence...some in bare feet and traditional clothing. I rent a piece of land about 30 x 40 for $12.50 per month for my veggie garden. Hard going; hard to figure out what grows well here. There are banana trees growing down the road in several places, but the only things that do well in my garden are the "Spring" veggies and fruits in California. Go figure.
Transport is easy here. A tuktuk (3 wheeled motorcycle-with-cab from India) will take you where you want to go, with just about anything you want to carry, including lumber, plastic chairs for someone's party, whatever.) A pickup truck has a regular route thru this town and off 10 miles or so to San Pablo, where "my" classroom is. You stand up in the back with all the other folks for a couple of quetzales.
If I want to go to one of the other towns around the lake, a public boat is the only answer (unless I want to hire a private one.) 20Q to go to Pana (Panajachel.) This morning, 15Q to Santiago to buy some things to take to California to sell....to bring money back here for my projects.
These reflections on differences are just for starters, but I have to GO to Santiago early this morning because the afternoon is filled with activity: our food giveaway for the parents of the kids in our drawing classes, rush home by tuktuk because water only comes to my house and gardens 3 times a week (4 hours total) and today that's at 3 pm, then rush back up town to attend a weekly board meeting for another project I help.
The painters' project (a website I'm in the process of creating) is at www.paintmyfuture.org,
Ta'a Pi't Kortees is at www.taapit.org. Check them out!
At Lago Atitlan, the differences between towns is more marked. San Pedro la Laguna has - to me - a lovely combination of rural and indigenous influences, and some amenities from the US/Europe. This is important to me primarily due to my food allergies - I need some foods that are NOT corn tortillas, beans and cheese. I also love to have the use of the internet, and now have it in my house for about $26 per month, instead of going to a local internet "cafe" (which could be a room in someone's house.)
But what is different about living here? Randomly: public toilets are amazing - you never know what to expect. You can pay 1-2Q and get a small bundle of toilet paper as you enter, wade thru the 1/2 inch layer of water on the floor and find a bowl without a seat, and a bucket to put water in the toilet afterward. That's the fancy toilets. The others, you never know...but an abundance of water OUTSIDE the toilet and none inside is pretty common (think: hold up your skirt, your packages and your purse while you try to manage everything else.)
A common re-use of a plastic coke or water bottle, even by the public utility system, is to cover wires to keep them out of the rain. Many people also use this in place of something to expand or extend the light, so you'll find the light bulb - usually the coiled energy-efficient fluorescent type (who knew?) - encased in a plastic bottle with the bottom cut off.
Plastic bottles are also used to direct water from the rain gutter into a smaller tube to direct the water away from a walkway or whatever. Lots of inventive uses for things of this type.
Houses and even stores are kept quite dark for energy (money) saving.
Showers: forget hot water. Unless you have an on-demand heater - in the fancier homes - or a gas heater, in some hotels - get used to a tepid shower. Or so I thought: very recently I figured out if I take my showers at 10 am, when the sun has been on my black plastic Rotoplas tank for a few hours, the additional heat provided by the tiny electric showerhead (don't touch it while wet!) is sufficient for an almost-hot shower. A great pleasure.
If a truck or car breaks down in the street, expect it to stay there, no matter how much traffic passes, until the owner or someone he hires gets his tools out, crawls under the vehicle and gets it going again. I don't think there are tow-trucks! And noone seems to mind, or complain. Everything her is taken with a "grain of salt." -- "No importa." "No tenga pena." "No hay problema." "No te preoccupas." Common phrases (it's not important, don't worry about it, no problem.)
Money: first you get used to the exchange rate with Quetzales/dollars - it was 7.55/1 when I first came to Guatemala; 3 years later it's more like 8.05. So my money goes a little further!
But there's more to it than that: 100 quetzales is about 13 dollars ....but for 100 quetzales you can buy two nice meals in a nice restaurant, or a pair of good quality used shoes for 75q, 50 q pays my cable bill for my tv (ok only about 30 canals and mostly in Spanish, but...I get Animal Planet and Discovery as well as CNN.) By the way, I found out that the So You Think You Can Dance series I watched so avidly was 6 years old. Wanna watch your favorite old series?
My rent for a really nice 2 bedroom house with a nice smallish garden is $185 per month....but there was no real kitchen, just a 4-burner "camping" stove on a plastic table and a tiny refrigerator....no shelves or cupboards til I put them in (two beautiful wooden cupboards "to order" cost me about $100.) There is no water in the "kitchen" but the bathroom is out the door and down the terrace and around a corner....15' away. And the bathroom itself is a trip - it's outside the main part of the house (as is true of most houses built by local folks) - and is so small, the sink is the size of a large dinner plate, the toilet is just past it, and behind that is the shower. The whole thing about 4' x 8'. I had to put up a curtain to keep from showering the toilet. And of course there's a hole in the roof enough to wet my head as I sit on the toilet when it rains. But the house itself is pretty gorgeous, and my terrace is a lovely place to sit in the evening, with a small view of the lake, a slight breeze, and all the sounds of the frogs and crickets.
From my terrace I can see men working in the corn and peanut fields just outside my garden fence...some in bare feet and traditional clothing. I rent a piece of land about 30 x 40 for $12.50 per month for my veggie garden. Hard going; hard to figure out what grows well here. There are banana trees growing down the road in several places, but the only things that do well in my garden are the "Spring" veggies and fruits in California. Go figure.
Transport is easy here. A tuktuk (3 wheeled motorcycle-with-cab from India) will take you where you want to go, with just about anything you want to carry, including lumber, plastic chairs for someone's party, whatever.) A pickup truck has a regular route thru this town and off 10 miles or so to San Pablo, where "my" classroom is. You stand up in the back with all the other folks for a couple of quetzales.
If I want to go to one of the other towns around the lake, a public boat is the only answer (unless I want to hire a private one.) 20Q to go to Pana (Panajachel.) This morning, 15Q to Santiago to buy some things to take to California to sell....to bring money back here for my projects.
These reflections on differences are just for starters, but I have to GO to Santiago early this morning because the afternoon is filled with activity: our food giveaway for the parents of the kids in our drawing classes, rush home by tuktuk because water only comes to my house and gardens 3 times a week (4 hours total) and today that's at 3 pm, then rush back up town to attend a weekly board meeting for another project I help.
The painters' project (a website I'm in the process of creating) is at www.paintmyfuture.org,
Ta'a Pi't Kortees is at www.taapit.org. Check them out!
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