In which I visit a Mormon church, attempt to climb a volcano, and meet a dog named Tonka

Week 2 in Xela complete and life is good!

At the clinic, we changed executive directors Friday, but I’ve been assured that the education team will be affected minimally. We’ll just keep doing what we do so well – bringing health awareness to the niños. This week, we went to the community of Xepache, about a 20-minute bus ride outside of Xela proper. We presented to grades K-4 on a variety of nutrition and hygiene related subjects – the 6th graders weren’t at school Thursday for whatever reason, and we didn’t make it to our 5th grade class in Xepache on Friday due to the hullabaloo surrounding the announcement of the temporary director and the search for her permanent replacement. However, the lessons we were able to teach were generally well received, and I’m looking forward to starting this coming week with a bang: Puberty and Self-Esteem Monday, Domestic Violence and Human Rights on Tuesday.

I was able to take some photos at the clinic and in Xepache, so here are the 2nd graders getting really excited about washing their hands:



And the view of Xepache from the bus stop:


And the clinic of Primeros Pasos itself, located in the valley of Tierra Colorado Baja:


And finally, a dog named Tonka who visited the clinic with his mom on Friday:


On the home front, I have two new homestay brothers who both arrived yesterday. One is a Brit here for 2 weeks, and the other is from Guatemala City and will be living with our host family for over a year. Already our dinner conversations have started lasting over 30 minutes once the meal is finished, which is wonderful for a) practicing my Spanish and b) fostering increased cross-cultural understanding, an oh-so-lofty but oh-so-fun life goal of mine. My homestay family was saying that one of the main reasons they enjoy hosting pensionistas is because foreigners often value Mayan and Guatemalan culture more than locals do (either because Xelans are so accustomed to it, or because others actively discriminate against it), and that to see the enthusiasm of young people from OECD countries, for example, about Guatemalan food and dress, is refreshing.

A friend from Primeros Pasos and I had great plans yesterday to scale the Santa Maria volcano. There it is on the right, as seen from close to the Xela bus terminal:


Though we did not succeed in reaching the summit, we certainly had an adventure trying. Through some misfortune or another, we ended up following a path that was frequently lacking clarity and necessitated whacking vines or hopping fallen trees or battling underbrush. For the first time in either of our lives, we found ourselves fervently wishing for machetes. When we finally arrived at the end of our path, we were decidedly not at the top of the mountain. Instead, we had been following a trail used by workers gathering firewood, and we arrived at a clearing where two men were chopping logs, who kindly informed us that we were on the wrong side of the mountain to take in the wonderful views offered by Santa Maria’s summit point. Alas. What we did see was pretty beautiful, though:


By the time we retraced our path to the place where we had deviated from the tourist trail, it was already lunchtime so we laid around and ate sandwiches before going home:

My friend Soni, racked out:

We were also IN clouds, from time to time, which was a visual reminder of just how high up in the mountains Xela is:


FYI, being enveloped by a cloud feels cold. And we have vowed to re-try to reach the actual summit of Santa Maria some other weekend.

Also, one of my cousins is based in Xela for his mission with the Mormon church, and since Mormon missionaries conveniently wear readily-identifiable uniforms while working, I had hoped to encounter my cousin just by chance already. While that has turned out not to be the case, I did hail two missionaries from across the street Thursday afternoon, apparently startling them with my enthusiasm. Neither was my cousin, but they did know him and kindly invited me to church Sunday morning, where I could meet my cousin if he was there and deliver him a note with my contact info if he wasn’t. So, I attended a church service this morning and did not see my cousin, but I was able to pass on my contact info to the missionaries who could reach him for me. The Spanish language Mormon service, I think, well qualifies as a new life experience, which after all, travelling is all about.

This coming week should hold more of the same (one or two yoga classes, Spanish lessons thrice a week, school presentations, lots of fresh bread, and copious amounts of black beans) with hopefully a few surprises thrown in, as well.

I’m going to try and stay on a once-a-week or so update schedule, but again, please feel free to contact me in any manner you see fit and remember that you have a standing invitation to come visit!

Hola a todos!
Greetings from Xela, Guatemala!
One week in and all is well. In fact, I give Guatemala points over Switzerland, where I was 0-for-1 in finding a homestay with internet access. Guatemala so far is 2-for-2.
I’m living with 4 generations of women and a little boy, and so far it’s been a fantastic fit. Here’s a photo of me with the man of the house:


Look at his puppy dog slippers and Thomas the Tank Engine pj’s! Precious.

The house is three stories plus a roof, check out the view from the top:


I’m less than a 10-minute walk to the Parque Central, and it takes almost 20 minutes from my homestay to reach the bus stop to go to the clinic weekday mornings.

I don’t have any clinic pictures, but I’ll get some this coming week and post them in another entry. This week, the Education team (5 volunteers strong) presented basic nutrition and hygiene information to students visiting the clinic on class field trips, which turns out to be an ingenious way to reach children less likely to access health care regularly. Our lessons included important information such as don’t sneeze on your neighbor, remember to wash between your fingers when you wash your hands before eating, and that consuming too many potato chips and cookies is not a healthy lifestyle choice.

This coming week we will be splitting into 2 groups and hitting the road – each team will present age-appropriate health-related lessons to students in their schools. These topics will be a bit more touchy (puberty, domestic violence, self-esteem, for example) but Primeros Pasos has a wonderful reputation for providing sensitive, accurate information to school age children so we should have the full support of the teachers and school staff. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I arrived in Xela on Mardi Gras, and Carnaval here is kid-centered in contrast to the scene in New Orleans and/or Rio. The biggest hazard was to avoid little boys carrying paper-machéd eggs filled with confetti. I had success on that front. All through Lent though, Xela hosts markets and parades that shift from church to church each week. Here’s a picture of the extremely safe looking ferris wheel in the street fair:

The market has a mix of practical objects like pots, clothing, and shampoo, crafty objects like piggy banks and textiles, and delicious street food. I’m already a huge fan of the churros and gringas (a quesadilla/enchilada mix of deliciousness).

My only tourist excursion so far has been to Laguna de Chicabal, a crater lake in a former volcano. It was billed as a moderate hike, which I suppose might be true in the sense that no climbing equipment was required, but otherwise our group spent 2 hours walking straight uphill. The view was totally worth the effort though:



Chicabal is a sacred place for the Mam Maya (Xela is in the Quiche Maya region – about 45 minutes away by bus, the country becomes Mam). According to legend, there used to be a lake at the foot of the mountain that supplied drinking water, fish, and a place to do laundry for the area. One day it disappeared and threw the community into disarray. Someone figured out that the lake had moved up the mountain, into the crater of the volcano, and Chicabal became the center of the Mam Maya cosmovision. No one is allowed to fish or swim in the lake, and during certain traditional Maya festival days, no tourists are allowed to visit on account of the Mayan ceremonies going on. I took a few pictures of Mayan altars we passed by:



The lake also becomes covered with fog mysteriously every day, and is haunted by La Llorona, a Guatemalan ghost who you don’t want to see. If she shows you her face, she’s just taken your spirit and you’ll die shortly. The premise seems similar to the ghost in the Spanish Moss at Saint Simon’s Island, actually. Cross-Cultural Ghost Story Similarities for 200, please!
That’s all I’ve got for now, but I’ll try really hard to keep my blog updated, and please skype/gmail/facebook me as often as you want. If that doesn’t suffice, keep in mind that you have an open invitation to come visit anytime between now and August ☺ Besos!