Since I'm an aspiring graduate student living out of the country for six months, my parents kindly requested an extension for filing my taxes, so April 15th was not, in fact, my tax day. It was, however, my father's birthday and the day I returned to Xela from a 3-day vacation in Antigua. Both excellent reasons to celebrate!
Also a cause for celebration, mi novio of three years finally made it to Guatemala. I met Scott in the Guatemala City airport Monday afternoon and we took a shuttle to Antigua. Isabel and Jose, my homestay parents from last summer, graciously received us as guests and prepared us excellent Guatemalan breakfasts (refried black beans, eggs and tomatoes, chili sauce, fresh bread, cream cheese, orange juice, and coffee) each morning. To say that staying with them was delightful is an understatement.
Scott had never been to Central America before last Monday, and Antigua is a small enough, tourist-friendly city that his culture shock was mostly mitigated. Consequently, we got right down to the serious business of enjoying our vacation. For our first adventure, we visited the ruins of the San Francisco church, a former convent abandoned after a series of earthquakes tumbled the walls and convinced the city leadership to move the capital from Antigua to Guatemala City in the late 1700s. San Francisco is also the home of San Hermano Pedro's tomb, housing the mortal remains of the first Guatemalan saint. Here's a snapshot from the interior courtyard of the monastic ruins:
And now from another angle:
I thought the colors and the lighting were spectacular. Even though I spent four weeks living two blocks away from San Francisco last May, I had never visited the inside of the ruins, and I'm very glad to have finally checked that box.Antigua also has its own mirador point overlooking the city, somewhat similar to El Baul or La Muella, two easy dayhikes I enjoy in Xela. I took the photo below right as the sun was beginning to set, and you can see the entire town of Antigua (about 12 blocks by 12 blocks in total) and the partially obscured Volcano Agua providing a dramatic backdrop.
Our final day in Antigua started with a bike tour of a nearby coffee plantation, something I highly recommend to anyone visiting the city in the future. The bike company (Quijote Cruisers) operates out of the front room of Isabel and Jose's house, and there's a dog named Estella who helps clients pick out their cruiser bikes. This is what an Antigueño coffee finca looks like:
The finca we toured sells to Starbucks and they use organic, eco-friendly methods of agriculture, including planting macadamia trees to naturally shade the coffee plants. Here I am whacking a macadamia nut shell with a rock, cave woman style, to get the nut inside. Our guide told me that squirrels have a better technique, but I feel like they have more practice cracking macadamia nuts than I do, so I'm okay with that.
After our 2 hour bike and coffee adventure that morning, Scott and I cleaned up and headed off to Las Capuchinas, another colonial ruin, except for this complex was a convent instead of a monastery. Here Scott is gazing over the former great hall:
The architecture is stunning, and I decided that if I had to be an 18th-century nun, living and working in Antigua's convent wouldn't be so bad at all.
It's high mango season in Guatemala, and I've been savoring the chance to buy them fresh and cheap in the markets. My technique, like with the macadamia nuts, clearly needs work since I can't eat a mango without covering my hands and face with pulp and juice, but I did convince Scott to carry two mangoes around Las Capuchinas until it was snack time. We had a mid-afternoon refacción in the garden (see below:)
Thursday morning, we took a 2.5 hour shuttle from Antigua to Xela and go settled into Entremundos, an NGO/pension house 3 blocks from the Parque Central. Entremundos is a partner with Primeros Pasos and they do a lot of really cool volunteer/development/sustainability work on their own. I'm excited to become a part of the community over the next four months. Also importantly, Entremundos has wireless, hot showers and an OVEN. Ovens are a rare commodity in rental housing around Xela, and I have already baked a squash casserole. I have big plans for brownies and other such delicacies as well.
Friday morning, Scott and I both headed to the clinic for his first day AND a big announcement - after a month or so of searching, Primeros Pasos has named a new director! Everybody is really excited about Margarita, la nueva directora, and I'm looking forward to working alongside her in the coming months. She is originally from the Valley and has been a practicing social worker for years, both traits that can really benefit the clinic's scope of operations. And though I've only interacted with her briefly, I hope that I can learn from her experiences and perspectives as a woman working in health care and development.
After the clinic meeting and announcement, the education team (currently consisting of myself, Scott, and the education director) hitched a ride with a medical student who has a car to distribute medicines to the students who visited the clinic last week. This was my second time handing out parasite meds in this school, and I was still struck by how excited the students were to receive anti-parasite drugs in front of their classmates. Instead of a stigma, it was a source of pride for the students receiving our attention. At the very least, the niños' excitement signifies an openness and willingness to discuss health issues, qualities often lacking in other public health intervention situations. And if the Guatemalan students aren't embarrassed to get anti-parasite meds in public, then there's really very little reason for anyone, anywhere, to be ashamed to receive healthcare treatment.
In my volunteer work on the clinic's development side, I'm still mastering Salesforce.com but I have grand plans to enter/organize all of the 2009 donations by the end of this week. Stay tuned for updates there. Outside of the clinic and a mini-vacation in Antigua to celebrate the boyfriend's arrival though, la vida quetzalteca continues as usual. A Dutch friend of mine turned 23 this week and we celebrated her birthday with a piñata Saturday afternoon - at one point, the majority of the party guests were speaking in Dutch amongst themselves and I had to remind myself that I was in Guatemala. Globalization, indeed.
The kindergartners are visiting the clinic this week as their field trip, there's a costume benefit party for Primeros Pasos Thursday night (the theme is nerds vs. monsters, if you have any dress up suggestions), and I've penciled in three different yoga sessions, so the next few days should be wonderful as well. The first two months in Guatemala have been fantastic and I'll be very fortunate if the trend continues! Besos until next time,
Katy
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