An Interesting Weekend-- finally a real and less scattered post

Today I divided my time between studying Q´ekchi´ and reading about the presidential race. I still hope I can vote, but right now the chances look bleak. I am just starting to learn bits of Q´ekchi´in a more structured manner as I am actually devoting a little bit of time to it now. It is a lot of fun trying out my limited Q´eqchi´in the office and teaching the equivalent in english.

Anyways, the weekend:

After a short bout with a little bit more of stomach problems I went on a trip with missionary friends to a gathering of jovenes (a loosely defined Spanish word that means young people, you will be happy to know that many of you, who might not be called young in the US, would be jovenes here). Well, this gathering really was for the very young, so, despite the looseness of the word, there were no fifty year olds participating in it. I got there right at the end of the lessons that had lasted all day on religious themes. One of which, my missionary friend and maybe my most valuable cultural informant told me was the respect of elders. Apparently many young people don´t respect many of those older than them because they already are better educated than they were (as a result of the civil war that lasted untill 1996). Many older folks, actually tend to feel the same way, that is, that they cannot command respect from their kids, because they don´t have the education. At least they are placing value on education I guess. I also was cued into a little bit of Q´ekchi´ youthful awkwardness concerning boy/girl relations which was interesting. Last generation a boy would ask his father to talk to the father of a girl that he likes, Saturday we saw a boy purposfully sit next to a girl... in the past this would not have happened. NOw youth here just aren´t sure what to do. Cultural practices are always in flux everywhere, but here it is more pronounced because there are some changes happening of the large differences between the old culture and the incoming Latino culture. The issue of cultural change pops up everywhere here (at least to me, as an outsider looking in) and it is hard to know where to stand. Is a little more autonomy for youth good, or do we lament a the destruction of culture? By wanting ot preserve Q´eqchi´culture does one simply make them into dolls which we dress up for our pleasure (to use an analogy one of my fellow students at CASAS, and before at BC, used)? But what about girls being married and pregnant at 15 years old, is not not ok to encourage that to change?

Sunday, I rode about an hour on bumpy roads and then hiked about an hour to reach a wedding in a beautiful aldea of two 19 year olds. It was, for once, a clear day (gracias a dios), and so we could see all around the church and hill after hill of countryside, milpa (corn and bean fields all in one) and coffee. It was beautifl. In the church the service alternated between extremely loud music (my missionary friend tells me sarcastically that loud music is proof that the holy spirit is there) preaching and at one point me, being a gringo connected with the honored missionary friends, apalogizing in Spanish for the fact that I don´t know how to speak there language and that God bless them and the marriage. I also sat in front and received a coke to drink throughout the maraton service (though not as marathon as a Cambodian wedding, that´s for sure. This was really an easy 10k. TO say the least, sitting up front was very embarrassing, and yet still nice.

The couple sat deathly serious the entire time.

After the service and after a select group of people prayed for the health of a sick baby we walked down to the houseof on of the families. We had arrived there before getting to the church. Where, after our substantial hike we received hot coffee (not what I was hoping for) and a delicious Guatemalan treat which I forgot the name of. Anyways we returned here, where we were greeted with more coffee (this time I refused). Soon we were sat down and slowly everyone was served hot chocloate, which is particularly delicious here, and that everyone drank out of the same gords. I should also note that we were very much crammed into a small space. After a while we were served food, a soup of with three huge pieces of meat. Since I was among the slightly honored my bowl was loaded with grease... and can´t believe I was able to finish it. To achieve this feet I tried to remind myself of all the extremely greasy pizza I have eaten and asked myself, what, really is the difference. The idea is that we are served mroe than we can eat and that everyone take some food home in order to bless our families. Pretty neat. Finally things ended and we started on the 40 minute or so walk though muddy paths which zigzagged through coffee, milpa, and cardamon (the other cash crop), and the occassional bannana tree. In the end I can say that the whole thing was beautiful and extremely fun.

It is raining quite hard again today, but I think I might get going. I´ve already written quite a bit, but I certainly could write more about all that is going on here in Guatemala.

tin cua´ak (I will eat (corn tortillas))

hope all is well with all of you as always
Jordan

I feel like blogging

Why do I feel like blogging. Is it because I really, deeply, feel the need to keep however few of you actually read this thing informed. Is it because I like this keyboard in which I can{t find the question mark (no). Is it because I just need to journal. Is it because I had a very boring job today at work and need to do something moderately creative. Is it because there are so many new and excting things to talk about. Probably some of all of these, but its anyones guess.

sorry family Dodger fans.

A couple more things I really like about where I live
two pieces of sweet bread- about 14 american cents
6 small bannanas- about 14 american cents}
Ermelindo- the cute little boy who lives with me, gives me high fives and sometimes falls asleep on my lap.
Toullos-like corn tortillas with beans cooked right inside- about 20 cents, though I think I was given a little gringo tax on that one. delicious though.
also, fried bannanas which I need to eat more.

actually, food might be one of the mroe difficult things for me here. There are lots of great snacks, but I need to get mroe accostomed to the main meals, which still arent{ qutie doing it for me. But as my sicknesses get further behind me, I think likeing the food more is coming too.

RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD


and I mean that only in the literal sense. It is raining a lot here and some places are flooded. I went to teh one tourist spot in Carcha yesterday and was amazed at all the flooding. I could see the top two steps of a slide... it was sitting in the middle of a raging river. I guess the attraction is ually calm, pristine pools where one can lounge and hace picnics, not right now. All the rain can be kind of depressing, but right now, I am used to it. I would like to see the sun though.

Man, there was so much more I thought about writing as I sat at a desk codifiying all the furniture in the office and everynow and then laughing out loud when I thought of an episode of The Office or George in one of his office work situations.

but I need to get home, because dinner is probably already ready, and it is probably dark outside already too.

Jordan

First Week in Carchá

finally there!

I am not going to take a lot of time to write right now, hopefully, but here are a few thoughts after my first week in the town where I will spend the next 10 months or so.

It´s beautiful! It rains all the time, and it shows in the deep green which covers the mountains which surround the town.

Thank goodness for Eastern Mennonite Missions missionaries who took care of me after I foolishly drank some fresco made from unclean water. Yes, I apparently have a wednesday night curse, especially if Thursday I am planning on traveling.

The house is high up on a hill and I have a beautiful view of the town. Pretty amazing.

walking down the mainstreet one is likely to meet someone they know, even if they have only lived in Carchá a week.

The Dave Mattews version of ¨burning down the house¨pretty much rocks.

It is necessary not to have preconceived ideas of what a bathroom is supposed to be.

The tortillas here are huge, and I have no idea how my host father eats soup, yes soup, without a spoon, but with tortillas.

I should learn some Kechi.

My work has been ok. I feel like I have helped some, and I think I may be on the cusp of really beraking into some more friendships here, so that is exciting. I think I will look forward, however, to starting my real job at the school in January too.

ok all for now,

Jordan

Of Seepless Nights and Diarrhea

This was a letter home

Thanks for the inspiring words Jos, indeed, it turns out that I have found yet another adversary in the outside-of-the-US world, and that´s white beans and Chorizos. Turns out they have to be made very carfully and often make people sick. And they really did a number on me. For the very first time I am on antibiotics for a stomach infection. Wednesday, after a meeting with my CR, we went to lunch and I partook of said meal. I spent the rest of the day happily at home getting ready to leave the following morning. I ate a good dinner with a special addition of tres leches. The first warning sign was the the tres leches wasn´t as good as I usually find it. I felt like I was too full and had eaten too much even though I knew I hadn´t eaten that much. Anyways after a while I was in bed reading and feeling strangely cold. It had rained a fair amount in the day so I figured it was just colder than usual. First I closed my windows. Next I closed the blinds. Next I put socks on. Finally I put on my favorite REI cold weather long sleeve shirt (Christmas gift of Dick and Mar I think). I even tucked the blankets underneathe my body to stay even warmer. Pretty soon, I was shivering in bed and my heart periodically would beat extremely fast to try to warm me up. Eventually I got up and put on my smart-wool socks. I had some random ideas about what was going on, none of which was the thought that I had food poisoning. I had just read a passage from Niebla where the protaganist talks about how umbrellas are beautiful and elegant closed, and ugly opened. Much better to simply comprehend thatn to use. Then he says how currently we only think of God as being like an open umbrella and that one day we will all widen our vision to God and simply comprehend Him. I thought, well God, I´m sorry, but tonight I´d appreciate you being an open umbrella for me. haha. I ended up going to the bathroom two or three times in the night I think, but none were diarria untill the morning after I had gotten up. I finally got to sleep and ant points in the night I woke up way to hot, but most of the time I shivered profusely. In the morning I told my host mom I had a fever, my head hurt me, and that my stomach felt very weak... and so I definately could not eat the oatmeal she so nicely made for me. I did have a banana though and I was grateful I had brought along the extra strenght Tylenol stuff that the doctor gave me in Cambodia for Dengue fever that dissolved in Water and made me throw up the first time I took it... .my head really did hurt.

Anyways I ended up staying at home. That day I spent a lot of time sleepign and I didn´t even have the desire or maybe ability to focus to read more than five pages. I rested and went to the bathroom. . . Amidts 10s of people hanging out in our house eating lunch. Awkward, but at the time I was looking out for number one, so to speak. Yes, a vague pun intended, but I am not srue where diarrhea falls on the number scale. The same time as a

-Jake Harder walked into the room and now it is a little while later after we have talked, isn´t that cool!-

The same time as a woman who has some sort of medical training noticed that I had gone to the bathroom four times sicne she had been there and began talking to my host mom and telling here that I must have an ifection and needed antibiotics, the MCC country representative, Irma, called for medical advice... turned out the preson she called was the same as was dining at my house. So that evening I got antiboiotics and a rehydration salt sort of thing to dring. Yesterday I read a lot of my new favorite book, Niebla, by Miguel de Unamuno, and slept and watched baseball in peace and quite. Since then I have gotten steadily better and am now haning out with the Harders (Add another mark the long list of random people I know that I´ve seen here in Guatemala) and my favorite CASAS employee, Rigoberto.

Anyways, now it looks like I´ll finally be leaving for my assignment Sunday afternoon. I felt good enough to leave today, but since the place I will be working for doesn´t work on the weekends id doesn´t make sense for me to go.

So that´s the sad story of how I suddenly fell sick the night before I was finally supposed to leave for my assignment. I do believe I have to be the last SALTer to actually start there job. My fellow SALTers here in Guatemala left on Monday, I didn´t go because my placement still wasn´t quite ready for me. So you can imagine that I was already itching to go before I got delayed another 3 days... oh well.

Jordan

Language School is Over

I know I haven't really written anything about language school, but now that it's over I figure I should write something really fast. I received one on one classes with an extraordinary teacher, Marta Calderon. A lot of the time we just talked, and hung out, so often times it didn't even feel like class! We studied the subjunctive tense a lot, however, and I now feel a lot more confident with it. Funny though, how sometimes you still make a lot of elementary mistakes. I've been really bad recently mixing up the gender of words, or not agreeing them. THis is maybe the hardest thing for me when I'm speaking, hopefully just by continuing to read, talk, and listen my mistakes will decrease. For some reason recently I've caught myself saying Yo me gusta a time or to... really stupid. And the other day I said tenes hombre. I am also kind of getting the hang of vos too, which is nice because that's what young men here use with young men. If they use tu, apparently it sounds like you are homosexual... definately not a good thing here in Guatemala if you want male friends. Luckily as a foreigner people are forgiving!

My family has been wonderful. I get good food and I've really enjoyed hanging out with my host dad, Noel, talking about all sorts of things, from sports to politics to religion. We are both into the playoffs this year. Congratulations to all the blue blooded Dodger fans in my family. You guys are looking pretty good. A lot of people visit the family, so I meet lots of random people too, which is great. And a lot of them are nice and want to take the time to include a gringo in the conversation too.

I just finished the book El Senor Presidente by Miguel Angel Asturias. It's a very difficult book and I am prett proud I finished it and understood it. Though I am positive I do not have a level of understanding that allows me to fully appreciate it. I am just happy I was able to appreciate it at all. Let's just say it had a fair amount of words that weren't in my dictionary, and that can be frustrating. I did about a 15, 20 minute presentation on it today, and at times I felt pretty terrible, but other times were alright.

I've also had a lot of fun witht he other students here. Besides the two other MCC'ers, David and Raquel, who are always a lot of fun, there are four others, Tina and Cari: former Bethel students like me, Jennifer one of my brothers best friends, and Audrey, who, despite the fact that I didn't already know her has also been fun to get to know. The despite the fact part was a joke. We have had fun hanging out at CASAS, going to a soccer game, getting lost, shopping at a great market, worshiping at a Catholic church built on Mayan ruins in which people still mix in ancient religious traditions, visiting Mayan ruins, and playing some intense games of spoons... to name a few.

So I will be going out to my placemeant between Monday and Thursday. Finally. I hope I am prepared for it. I am definately ready to start though. THe family I was going to live with there is not quite ready though, so I am going to live with a different family for about a month and then move in with yet another family. That my not sound like the best situation, but the way I see it, it will just give me more close friends in Guatemala.

On a more somber note, recently we have been inundated by sombering news having to do with violence here in Guatemala city. It is quite bad, our CR from Colombia says it is much more dangerous to live here than there... so keep Guatemala in your thoughts and prayers. Guatemala's biggest problem is gangs. There are lots of single parent househoulds, and here doing that is even harder than it is in the states. The reasons for all the single parents here are complex, I think, having to do with culture, government policies, a violent recent history, and poor economic conditions, that I really don't know enough about to write anything worth your while. Anyways, kids end up growing up on the streets and joining gangs for support. Not a lot of public systems are set up to prevent kids from going the gang route. They end up doing things like killing a 26 and 24 year ould bus driver and aydante for not paying the taxes the gang had imposed on them. Or giving death threats to a community organizer. Meanwhile, families outside of the city are forced to move off of their land becaues of rising prices. They then have to try to squat on unused land of large landowners. The get evicted from there and have nowhere to go... all the while knowing that the land they were evicted from was gained by the large land holders because of unjust land policies enforced by liberal- not in the sense of politics today in the USA- dictators... all in the name of 'progress.' Yes it can be a sad story, and I haven't even mentioned the still recent cival war here.

But anyways, things are still good for me personally here.

My little while or strong feelings of nostalgia for the past have moved on and write now I am very happy to be here doing what I am doing. I can be a pretty nostalgic person sometimes, but I think I generally do a good job of staying present in the moment. That is not to say I don't want any of you, if you ever feel the disire, to write me a note and pull me back to Kansas, California, or wherever, please do!

Anyways, hopefully, I can put some pictures here sometime of Guatemala, I don't have my camara cord though, oh well.

Hope all of you are doing well!

Jordan