changes and other random things

first Q´eqchi´sentence- lub´lu li ishk sa ha´ which means She is tired from swimming (we were watching the olympics). Not everything in this sentence is spelled right and it might actually literally mean someting more like she is tired from water, not sure. In Kechi (easier way to spell it) to eat means to eat corn (like in Khmer but with corn instead of rice).

changes-¨teaching english¨the lame pat answer I generally had for asnwering what I was going ot do in Guatemala has rapidly given way to ¨Idon´t know.¨ I will be helping in many ways. Hopefully I can attack one of the core Guatemalan problems and give self confidence and empower many of the younger generation here in Guatemala through my work at the Bezeleel school.

changes-I have actually been enjoying strong Guatemalan coffee regularly. I´m kind of scared, but I still drink at least one cup of water in the morning before having any coffee whatsoever. And I am only drinking a little bit.

random information- In the late nineteenth century, with the encouragment of a liberal Guatemalan government many Germans invested in Coffee in Guatemala. The government declared lands where indigenous persons lived vacant and let foreign investors take the land. For many years the government forced, through various strong-arm tactics, these same indigenous persons to provide cheap labor for coffee growing and harvesting. Bringing the market economy into central Guatemala not only forced many formerly self-sufficient farmers into wage labor through the introduction of cash crops, it also changed the nature of Mayan religion. No one is really sure how it all happend, but the tzuultaq´as (mountian god´s that mayans believed they relied upon for good crops) began to appear in dreams to the Mayan people, looking like Germans. Apparently the Germans ownership of the land was just that much like the tzuultaq´as ownership (to whom Mayans had to pray and sacrifice to in order to receive permission ot plant corn) of land to cause this crazy conflation of ancient religion and current social-political circumstances.
The availability of cheap labor that the Guatemalan government provided also contributed toward kindney stones in the United States.

also- David Janzen can play a mean Canadian folk tune

Jordan