Weird fanmail

Wow, it has been a long time since I responded to my fanmail. I think the last time was even before I left for Guatemala. I guess there has just been so much…

Matthew Root, former Commy strongman, writes:

Dear Jordan, I love reading everything that you write about on your blog and I am disappointed by your lack of entries in the month of February. While struggle to write a my seminar paper this year, I just can´t help but think about your seminar paper and how good it was. Anyways, my insightful question is, How are you?

Man Matthew, I had thought that Penny Moon´s absence from your life this semester would help raise your self esteem, I guess not. I suppose she is not the only one who makes fun of your ridiculous hair. As for your question, my insightful answer is that I am good and happy.

Peter the Great , Russian Tzar, writes:

Dear Jordan, I can´t believe you are still in Guatemala amongst all those Catholics and Mayans. Anyways, I heard from a friend that you have grown a ¨really manly beard,¨ is that true? Don´t you know that all the cool people shave? I banned beards in Russia in my time so that we could move up in the world. Obviously you have been infected infected by that creole curse (just by being born in America), making you inferior and doomed to always be behind us Europeans of pure blood.

First of all, Peter, today people make fun of you for your ridiculous beard tax. Beards have nothing to do with anything. Second of all, if you look at any mural of the Spanish conquest (who are way more European than Russia is) all the Spanish had beards. Duh! Third of all, I think you starting this no beard thing for Russians has started it on an irrevocably self destructive path. Putin, current leader of Russia is beardless, and he is obviously sub-consciously suffering from a beard inferiority complex and is trying naively to try and assert Russian power in Europe through strong arm military and economic pressure which will, in the end, only make Europeans that much likely to reject Russians as Europeans. So your beard policy has, in effect, had the opposite effect from what you were hoping.

…. Anyways, My beard is only ¨really manly¨ if you think of it in comparison to the facial hair exhibited by people such as Kyle and Alex Unruh (Alex can still pass off as a High Schooler). Thankfully, because of my close contact with these two very special people, I can feel kind of good about myself. I have also run into some envious Guatemalans. It is not full (some parts are thicker than others), and it is strangely blond, but I think that in a few years a beard might not actually be a bad look for me. The experiment has been worthwhile.

Moctezuma, last Aztec Emperor, writes

Hahaha, silly European blooded, weak stomached ¨American,¨ I have read your entries on Diarrhea, and I couldn´t be more happy. Remember the small pox that killed between 60 and 80 percent of my people while your ¨conquistadores¨ played us for fools and ¨conquered¨ us here in America. Well I´ve got news for you! I´m back and your loose bowel movements are my doing…. Let every traveler to America beware, I am alive and well!

Thanks Moctezuma for trying to keep a 500 year old fight alive in your letter. Actually, my stomach has been doing quite well here. I finally had about 24 hours of diarrhea about a week ago, but it wasn´t too bad. I want you to know, Moctezuma, that you really don´t need to be trying to take out your revenge anymore. In some ways you´ve won. There are a lot of Mayans still around me. Richard Rodiguez in his insightful book Days of Obligation writes about how he sees ¨Indian faces¨ everywhere, but wonders, ¨Where are the conquistadores?¨. The virgin, La Virgen de Guadalupe appeared to an indigenous person, and now, the strongest base of Catholocism in the world is characterized as exhibiting very strong ¨folk¨tendency, that is, they do things that aren´t Catholic per se… it is their own religion, not the Popes. Maybe you should start focusing on my productive things than amebas.

Jordan
ps: I recently received peanut butter and nutella in the mail. Bannanas with peanut butter and nutella is delicious. Tortillas with PB and Nutella is delicious. Soon I will try putting all four together, and it will be delicious....

The Other Day in Carcha

two men were caught trying to rob another man and they were stripped nakced and parated down the street. My mom told me that one jumped in the river to try to get away but pepole went in after him. I do not know if these men were delivered to true authorites.

Meanwhile on the news yesterday was a story about a man getting shot in the city and the police not doing anything about it.

One polititian calls for radical change in the government and a renewed effort to respect human rights. These rights, he said, immediatly (magically through the powers of a free trade system) bring wealth to the country. Sounds great, and despite the fact that he claims that this is how China found such success (WAY OFF, IDIOT) the whole new respect for human rights jargon sounds pretty good.

THen there is news on one station about how the news in the best paper available in Guatemala, The PRensa Libre, was started by the CIA ans still carries a strong bias against certain political canidates. One in particular is very popular among many people I have talked to. He did good things for the people. He also, however, stole money from the state.

In order to exacerbate all this confusion, the educational system is far from being adequatly funded....

What is one to believe in Guatemala??

saber

Jordan


me playing soccer on valentines day. I made one awesme goal. If you look closely you can tell I am in the middle of an.... interesting... experiment with facial hair.

Boxes

The other day I dreamt that I choked a rooster to death with my bare hand.

““ Reverse” “Racism”” ??
All the quotations aren´t just to be funny. But partially.

The other day I was asking some girls at the school who would be willing to have a Canadian girl accoompany them during a normal day of classes, work , and socializing. Some were excited. Soon they began to ask for thin ones, tall ones, blond ones, pretty ones, beautiful ones. I told them I didn´t have control over that. Ok, so that´s not racism, but it is definitely a box taped down by ignorance and ideas about white women shaped by TV… though probably not many would have TV´s at home… not sure. I didn´t really mind because they are quite young and their ignorance is sort of understandable. On the other hand, it would sort of be like the Canadian girls asking for ¨really short ones¨or ¨ones with gold stars on their teeth and can´t stop smiling¨ "I want one who wears traditional dress" "I want one who carries baskets on her head." When you don´t know, but have only seen; when you haven´t communicated, but have only dreamt, these people for all that we have decided to respect and love are still just dolls in the theater of our imagination.


And I am not sure that there is a lot to do about that.

Jordan

ps. despite what this post might idicate it is a beautiful day topping off a fun week and here in Guatemala I am everyday realizing that it is going to be difficult to leave.

pps. sorry I have spelled cynicism wrong... as if anybody would even know in these days of ¨spellcheck¨and other cheap cheats... hahaha

Starting at Bezaleel

I have now completed two weeks of work in the library at the Mennonite Education Center Bezaleel. It is good to know that this will be my final big change before going back to the states. I´ve gone from orientation in PA, Orientation in Guatemala City 2 weeks, living with host family and taking Spanish classes in the city 1 month, living with a family in Carchá 3 weeks before moving in with my real host family, working in Fundameno office 2 months, working with a work group for 2 weeks, before finally starting my assignment which my job description talked about.

The first two weeks have been good. I have made friends with teachers and students. Most everyone is very nice. I work in the library checking in and out books and, most importantly, helping out students with homework when they ask for it and, when they don´t, forcing them to explain to me what they learned. A lot of times after, for instance, copying down a page out of a book, the students don´t remember a thing of what they wrote, in part because they didn´t know all the words they copied down and didn´t bother to look it up or even think about it (because they are just copying). The director is trying to stop this copying stuff. So I try to keep students on their toes and make them think about what they are supposed to be learning. I am also starting some English lessons with a couple motivated students.

I haven´t gotten to start any sort extra curricular activities yet like I was hoping to. Students don´t seem to excited. On the other hand, every now and then, while giving a more in depth look at the liberal revolution of 1871 in Guatemala to a few students learning about it, a crowd literally gathered to listen in. Another time I was helping students to understand a little bit about the economic crisis in the US and how it might affect Guatemala.

Yesterday, after an assembly in which we welcomed 35 Canadians who were touring the school I was hanging out with a bunch of older students waiting around for the next class period to start when they asked me for a story. Somebody said they wanted to hear Obama´s story. I didn´t know much about that so I gave the basic outline, I had about lost the attention of the group when I suddenly felt a little bit of inspiration. I talked a little bit about the discrimination African-Americans faced just 40 years ago, how, not long ago, if you would have claimed a black man would be president of the United States, people would have laughed. I drew a parallel between blacks in the United States and indigenous groups, particularly the Kekchi, in Guatemala. Obama wasn´t in a better position growing up than a lot of people in the states growing up, but with hard work he did a lot of amazing things and now he is the president of the United States, the boss, “el mero mero” to use a slang expression. This story had about 15 students held in rapt attention. I was pretty happy with myself and pretty amazed that the presidents story could be so inspirational.

For those of you who have been wondering, I finally got together with the Cahills (that includes Rob Cahill who grew up 3 blocks away from where I did). They live in a pretty cool place in Coban and we entertained ourselves with good conversation and some very good food that they provided.

Ok, that´s all,

Jordan

and this is a picture of me with some of the work group from Nebraska. We had fun and everyone loved the yellow color we used.