La Virgen de Guadelupe & The 3 Quetzales Adventure

“Bombas” or firecrackers– really more like bombs than fire or crackers – exploded all day today; usually causing me to wince, duck, and search for cover. Alas, only ash, and no mushroom clouds shrouded Antigua today. All of this in honor of The Virgin of Guadelupe. Apparently a Mexican Saint that every house I went in today had a mini-shrine for but almost no one knew why she was so special. Though, like I postulated to Emily, “Maybe it's just that she didn't have sex.” What? It's pretty miraculous in this age. Anyhow, all of the little kids here dressed up like indigenous Mayans (Which I think signifies how Guadalupe first appeared to a Mayan.) At La Merced, an enormous, yellow Catholic church there were booths paying homage to the Virgin where proud parents could snap photos of their Mayan-dressed Ladino children.

Of course there were marimba players and drummers there as well. Later in the night there was a procession with a float containing a semblance of the virgin and tons of flowers, carried over pine needles and yellow chrysanthemums. The household shrines had white flowers, little flowers, a picture of the virgin, and a bowl of coals – which I think symbolizes the incense of prayers the family is asking her to pray for their family members. Right outside our house was an alleyway decked out with streamers and torritos, which are these men who wear a cardboard tent with fireworks on the outside and run back and forth, letting the sparklers flare out into the crowd and causing Emily and our Guatemalan family to huddle together, heads turned in for safety.
And now for my tres quetzales adventure! It costs 1 quetzal and 50 centavos (about 25 cents) to take a chicken bus from Antigua to San Juan; so that's what I did. It's not as if I just decided to go on a traveling spree; the week before I had met two sisters at Common Hope, where I translate letters. They were back this week for her (still-in-stomach-type) baby's check-up so we talked again, this time Delmy, the 15 year old sister, invited me to come over to their house and pick nisperos (a fruit that grows here...don't think it's in the states, but the dictionary translates it as “medlar” if you know what that is.) Anyhow, they're these small, sweet, juicy fruits with sizey brown seeds, and I like them!

So I took Delmy and Wendy up on the offer and traversed up the side of Volcano Agua

with the two sisters, through a small orchard filled with nisperos, avocados, guayava, limes, oranges, bananas, jocotes, large wild-poinsettias, and purple orchids twining around trees,

not to mention vines of jasmine and a eucalyptus tree. It seemed like paradise, but it was certainly a good time, preceeded by a stop in their house, sipping Rosa de Jamaica with the family sporadically coming up and introducing themselves to me. Delmy sent me home with a huge bag of nisperos - I don't know what prompted this goodwill but I am certainly grateful.
On Good-will: I've learned a lot, and much of it seemed to culminate today at Common Hope. There I was, just translating letters when I get invited by Delmy to visit her and they buy me my favorite Guatemalan pastry (rellenito: fried plantains covered with sweetened black refried beans!), I draw and play with a little girl whose mom is busy selling nativity sets and they give me one of the clay doves, my boss gives me a lovely blue t-shirt. People just seem so generous and kind down here, and I'm unsure whether it's because... well, I don't know why that is. Sure, I've made a few people cards, friendship bracelets, or drawings down here – but that's just something I enjoy doing. Perhaps I've forgotten other people can be just as kind; in different ways, but still nice with seemingly no reason.

My mind has also been turned to God lately; I just finished “Answers to Prayer from George Muller's Narratives” and have started “Table Talk: Selections from Martin Luther”. They're both pretty old books, but that's the least important thing; both have reminded me that the Bible is far more important than any any any book written solely by us non-divine humans; that's humbling, because sometimes it feels good to say, “Why yes, I just finished a book by Pascal the other week.” or “Oh, I remember reading Martin Luther, I quite enjoyed him.” Rather than “God has really used Ephesians to humble me this week and call me back to righteousness.” Why is that? Pride probably, and the Bible conquers pride but sometimes other books just cause it to swell. I never want to fall into the trap of doing something out of pride, but rather desire to do all things out of Love, with God's constant help!

A Time in Tikal

Mayan ruins are pretty high on most people's lists of "interesting things to see." Imagine yourself and 20 something other people crowded into a small plane, whipping through the air with cities, then roads, then only forest beneath you, then unnatural seeming mounds begin to appear profusely. That was the plane ride. Sure, we wondered about the hills, but the terrain isn't exactly flat here in Guatemala.

Seeing mossy hewn stones stacked to the sky and droves of tourists clambering (or huffing and puffing) up the slippery stairs was interesting in itself.

It was otherworldly, being in a stone room or standing in front of an altar that only God knows how many sacrifices were made. It was humbling to realize that all of the ruins looked like the irregular grass and tree covered hills before they were excavated and cleared off. How much more will our greatest buildings be ruled by nature in a few short years after we leave them?

My favorite part probably wasn't the elegant and intriguing, fastidiously piled heaps of rocks, but the things that were alive;
friends

butterflies

and a cute animal I can't remember the name of (but I did risk it and touch his tail!)

Atitlan Adventures

This weekend our group finally went to Lake Atitlan - the trip I was most excited about and the one that seemed the longest away was this weekend. That means our semester is getting closer and closer to being done. Bittersweet.

I've neglected to write about the organic macadamia nut farm we went to (and the corresponding desire to grow a few macadamia trees!)

Our trip to the US Embassy in Guatemala City (where I saw this funny bus - I hope you catch the irony - and considered trying to work in a US embassy somewhere, because every job with travel sounds like fun!)

Watched the sun dip behind the mountains and volcanoes of Antigua - when the earth isn't so flat it's harder to see sunsets. In fact I missed the moon-set last night while talking to a traveling musician from Cancun at Sunset Cafe -- because it disappears so rapidly with a mountain to hide behind!

I'm also getting frustrated with the power lines that intrude into every photogenic landscape - whether that's in the city or so far up in the highland mountains you'd think there wouldn't be any power lines.

Spending just a few days in Panajanchel (the tourist town on Lake Atitlan) and San Juan(a tiny little indigenous, rural town on the other side of the lake)made me want to change the "Antigua Semester" to the "Atitlan Semester". At Uxlabil, our eco-hotel in San Juan, I picked a lime and several juicy oranges, canoed to watch the sun set, and kayaked in the early morning light, found floating volcanic rocks along with a cluster of boulders where I lodged my kayak and jumped into the crystalline (supposedly polluted) water for a swim among the local fishermen and large bass in the water. Wouldn't you want to move here too?

Dark Chocolate

Mint!
Yes, finally an amazing chocolate bar in Central America. The chocolate pictured with me

is an Ixcacao Dark Chocolate Mint one! That's the brand of chocolates that Chocolate Bob makes (by hand! And seriously, it's an amazing operation!) Really I just wanted to brag on what a good use of 10 quetzales that chocolate was. Also, you can see some of the tropical bushes here at La Union - my Spanish school in Antigua. And, the hurricane-side-effect rains have finally stopped today; good thing too since it was causing mudslides in some of the little mountain towns and my Spanish teacher had to wait for an hour while men shoveled mud out of the drains so the bus could make it to work! Yup, life is crazy (the good kind) here.

Labor & Libertas in Guatemala

Labor & Libertas: Work & freedom. This stained glass window was in the Guatemala City Palace. I've been thinking about labor & libertas - a lot of the indigenous people here seemed to have freedom through their work - in the past - working the fields, weaving, making tortillas. But after 36 years of war and 200,000 dead or disappeared - mostly indigenous people - things have changed. The men have stopped wearing their traditional costume because of office discrimination. (Here is a picture of David wearing a traditional Mayan men's outfit - he's also getting "married")

We went from Guatemala City to a tiny little mountain town where indigenous culture still thrives - there were woman grinding coffee beans (the woman also collect the coffee beans because they have more delicate fingers and pay more attention to detail than men do!), making tortillas, girls as young as 5 weaving beautiful blouses or scarves, and all sorts of cool things.

In addition to Mayan traditions like tortillas, Guatemala seems to have a tradition of parades: a parade for everything!

And fireworks almost every day - not the colored kind you can see but the noisy kind that smell smoky and make you think Guatemala has entered another war and is taking the first shot outside your window!

Also, I like the weather here- mostly in the 70s which means you can grow any veggie any time of the year- seriously, how cool!?

This is a banana tree growing in my Spanish school - yes, there are other exotic trees like oranges and one I believe is an apricot (it's hard to tell because you normally buy them shriveled up in a plastic package from Wal-Mart in the states.) We felt the effects of Hurricane Whoever that is rushing towards Mexico - so SO much rain, but at least we are safe and not blowing away.

Organic Fincas and Spanish Lecciones

September 29, 2011
Caoba Farms: Live Well, Eat Well...Most of the time.

A wedge of dirt between nail and skin
a smudge of mud on freckled mejillas
wind of a promise:
paired with a Spanish speaker
moving around each day
payment with veggies
“Today is eggplant I think.”

I never saw eggplants,
except en route to dump my weeds
weeds from the same vegetable
as the day before.
Solitary confinement, or only peace?
a faucet gestured towards
after a plea to wash my hands
one man stepping in to save me
-from wobbling wheelbarrows

At least escorted through the gate today
by a man with a gun I didn't recognize

Surprise-addition of myself to the tourist's view
shaking the clean hand of a clean man
with my grubby digits
a bit ashamed I'd not seen more
-more plants
-more land
-more people
or heard more, but no wind of
-cafes with mountain lookouts
-ancestral coffee plant heritage
-cloud milking like Peruvians
- wages for indigenous workers

-or a breath of English-
which was good for me anyways.

Now that I know, it might be hard to go back
to the way it was before.

My Day wasn't much more than:
Stepping on a round Guatemalan avocado,
Mario- as he patted me on the back when passing,
a diligent indigenous man chopping chives,
the only woman (cutting remolacha sprouts),
spicy nasturtium leaves in my mouth,
Australian accent Dave off to Rio Dulce,
leggy, vivacious plants, surrounded by weeds,
with strength choked out of them.

Lately my life has been filled with 4 hours of Spanish lessons (which get to continue for 7 or so more weeks!! I'll be a native soon!)And that's my maestra Brenda in the picture, wearing the friendship bracelet I made her too!

An orchid exhibit, working at the organic farm, Rainbow Cafe, figuring out the best way to dry fruit, and cinnamon-honey pancakes. Oh, and a lot of angtsy-poetical writing since I don't have my guitar here.

And BEETS! I like them. What a surprise since I've heard mostly bad stuff about them. However, the other night we had the tip-toppest enchiladas with frijoles and rice and lechuga and beets and guacamole. I want to have a sheep, steal its' wool and use beets from my garden to make pink socks!

And a wonderful birthday party at the Spanish school; we sung happy birthday in 4 or 5 different languages. Following the suggestion of the Guatemalan Birthday song (Queremos pastel/ we want cake) we dug right in. There's fruit in the cakes here- it's not fruitcake though.

Guatemala City "Excitement"

Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology jump-started our Guatemala City craziness. It was a slow start - there were a few interesting things in the museum, but for the most part I dislike old stuff caged behind class. The only excitement there was the time I tried to climb up a ladder to stand on a dividing wall and the ladder started to do the splits - held together with a teeny bit of twine!

We went to some fancy restaurant (I'm probably getting the museum and restaurant names completely wrong) - Cacao, I believe. One man and a guitar wandered (together) around our table serenading us. It was a tad awkward to have someone performing a foot and inches from our faces. Like all of the expensive restaurants we've been to our "crew" (usually consisting of David, Emily, and I)was disheartened by the high cost and low flavor of the food. I think my "raviolis" were 95Quetzales - they were made with a squash sauce and some odd herb... not to complain, I only miss cooking!

We visited the Palace (very opulent, ornate, but spiced up with a wonderful tour guide!) and a cathedral.(pictured below)

I realized how any big group chanting (even something as innocent as The Lord's Prayer) seems cult-ish. Our last stop (after in/famous Pollo Campero) was the market. Much of the same stuff as everywhere. I learned how the vendors make extravagant "Guatemala" bracelets. Got stopped on the way back to the bus by the pot-vendors. No, not to buy the stuff - but their psychedelic bracelets caught my attention more than any of the others. David came back - probably to rescue me from accidentally buying drugs.
Oh, and here's the palace:

Sunday Emily and I hunted down my Maestra's church "Rey de los Naciones": King of the Nations. There was a guest speaker. He found it necessary to endorse the sinner's prayer. I dislike it, only because "raising your hand to accept Jesus into your heart" sounds so easy and leaves the hand-raiser with a sense of security from the raise of a hand. I don't think a hand motion or repeat-after-me prayer saves anyone. I think dying to oneself and allowing Jesus to be the Lord (one in control) of one's life - and the savior - is what salvation is more about.

There are so many stunning vistas, sweet old Mayan women, intense architecture, etc that I'd like to share -- but the internet is really too tired for all that now!

Wooden flutes graced with brown lips
clever salsemanship techniques
but not enough to halt a stream of
“no gracias”
it's what we've been told to say.
For some of us it's all we know how to.

But when I can sit and draw
and you can stop selling stuff for a second.
we talk about stuff that isn't stuff.
Where am I from and what am I doing – here?
It's fun to sit in parque central-
most of us rush through here.
I don't want to.

Flor, fifteen anos, tried to sell me
4 or 5 table runners
they're beautiful, but who uses tableclothes -
except on picnic tables.
Woven in aquamarine, sienna, lavenders, and crimsons
this is too beautiful for a picnic table.

9 years old, she's selling gum – all she can afford.
Why can't we afford to give 1 quetzal for her gum?
I only had 5 quetzales, she had 0 change.
Maria came up, another with table-runners.
(I don't know the word in English)
They all start out trying to sell, but I rarely can buy.
I never really want to...
you (I) can't just ignore the friend I've made,
after 15 or 20 minutes.
I know I saved 5 or 10 people from
the everpresent “no gracias”
But I couldn't save myself.

How can I say no? I told her the scarves were striking:
works of art really – not from sweatshops -
not a shop of sweat anyways – only her own
- and maybe tears too after a long day
unlooking, distant tourists, with money,
distracted by all the sights to see --
through a pixelated, overpriced cyclops
easy to overlook short, wrinkled women
and young, dark, children.

“Hay muchos extranjeros?”
“Yes, but not many sales.”
A seat and a smile and a sale.
A rest y reir y retrato; like a pavoreal – that's what we'd say in the states.
In the states would we say “no gracias” to Wal-Mart or McDonalds or Shell?
Why is n't it harder with 2 brown eyes and 1 simple smile.

Chocolate Dreams and City Fumes

Let me tell you about Chocolate Bob.
Originally from Phoenix, Arizona Bob's lived in Guatemala around 30 years and in Antigua for 2 of those years. He started off his chocolate business with coconut-carmelized honey covered in chocolate. Today he sells fine chocolates in many cafes around Antigua. (Like Y Tu Pina Tambien - that means "and your pineapple also" - there are some fun names down here!)

I learned more about chocolate in the hour or two spent with Bob than I ever knew.

Apparently Chocolate comes from a fruit.
The Cacao tree makes these giant papaya-looking fruits.
Kind of like a pomegranate a bunch of seeds are inside encased in this sweet, juicy, flesh (we ate that part!).
You let these seeds ferment and dry out and then your roast them.
The process gets a lot more complicated after this...

When David and I first walked into his small chocolate factory a giant wheel spinning in a bowl brimming with melting chocolate caught my attention. Feeling cooler than Charlie in the Chocolate Factory we sat down with Bob to learn more about his Chocolate passions and share mugs of the best hot chocolate I've ever had.

According to Bob, chocolate is a science. He's kind of inspired me to grow cacao trees in my bedroom - except I don't really have a bedroom.

All that to say, the folks here in Antigua are extremely friendly, and a lot of them love what they do.

Like Alex, the guy selling flutes in the park yesterday... I was drawing a nearby horse and carriage. When he came up, wanting to sell me a flute I can't play. After a few "no gracias" he sat down and talked. He got around to asking me what kind of pencil I'd need to draw people.
"It depends."
"On how dark their skin is?"
He wanted me to draw a picture of him - I didn't get that until he asked how much he'd have to pay me.
"Nada- Necessito a practicar - dibujas y espanol."
It was great practice for me and a funny experience for us both - tourists would walk by and stare, another artist came over to watch for a bit, and an older saleswoman came up just in time for a joke. He was a funny guy, and at the end took a friendship bracelet off of his wrist and tied it onto mine.
"So you won't forget me, Alicia."

Excitement and Errors in Guatemala

A lot has been happening in Guatemala - first of all- it's simply magical - there are always horses in Parque Central, and horse-drawn carriages with (mostly) tourists in them trotting down the cobblestone roads. Reminds me that someday I'd like a really nice - not car- but horse. Grass is also cheaper than gasoline.

There are a lot of spontaneous (so it seems) musical performances. They usually involve panpipes - an instrument I've tried in the past to master, but have failed. One night our whole group of students from Spring Arbor went to a restaurant Pena del Sol Latino, and there was an Andean-styled musical group performing. The music was haunting and joyful, expressing their emotions so honestly. Of course it was a night I forgot to bring my camera (of all the times to forget!) So, instead of snapping photos that likely wouldn't turn out anyways, I pulled out a brown paper bag and purple pen (the only "art" supplies I had) and began to draw the musicians. There was a young boy walking around trying to sell us "extranjeros" (foreigners) bracelets, scarves, and assorted jewelry. We were all saying "no gracias" to his wares. He had just tried to sell me something when he noticed I was drawing, he paused, and I could feel him staring at me as I drew. It saddened me that he didn't have time to just do something like I did. I've learned that time is a luxury most of us have too much of.

This Sunday our host mom brought us to see a parade. It ended up being the wrong day, but I got a chance to watch this "San Miguel muralist" at his work. I smiled at the boys sitting nearby and watching him. Art is always so entrancing.

I also got my first ride on a bonafide "Chicken Bus" for a fare of only 3 quetzales - that's around 50 cents. Of course the scenery here is beautiful, and the bus ride was grand- I was doubting the name "chicken bus" (supposedly some passengers will transport chickens on their laps) until the bus ride back from an organic macademia nut farm we stopped at. Sure enough, there was a boy sitting next to me with - not a chicken - but a dove! We talked for a bit - turns out he was a motorcycle mechanic bringing the dove back to Antigua as a gift.

Parque Central is the place for - well, selling stuff we probably don't need to foreigners, but besides that, for fun! Bubbles, tostadas, flutes, stray dogs, and exotic fruits can all be found here.

Some pretty significant cultural things have happened since getting here - voting, which was (ironically?) September 11. Those voting centers sure were packed too - it's very important to all the businesses that all their workers get to vote; they'll give them several days off to bike or bus back to their hometowns to vote in. September 15 was Independence Day - we watched the flag raising in Parque Central and listened to a speech. (My favorite line was "No quiero abburir" which roughly translates "I don't want to bore you." Ha! Famous words from many politicians.)

I love being here, but my heart is really burdened to find some way to help the people around me. There's so much I have - just because I'm from the US - that they don't get. Even education - the government here is so corrupt, my tutor was telling me, that sometimes they don't pay teachers or doctors for three months. She said, "In the end it hurts the children the most." They're not just lacking quality education - there are many that go hungry and are malnourished - this isn't just stuff that happens in Africa. And it's really starting to get under my skin that we, as Spring Arbor students studying abroad, find it okay to spend 120 quetzales on a single meal while so many people are literally starving around us! I don't know what to do, but I'm praying and looking for ways to reach out.

Stuck

Sometimes I feel like this leaf. Stuck. But God is with me always, even when I feel stuck in a rut. I know that, but knowing the truth doesn't always change the way we feel about it -sadly. Soon I will be free to fly on the winds of life though - like that leaf never was.

Gallows, Ferris Wheels, and Kiwi Sorbet

Today was one of the best dates I've ever went on! It was shopping at Sams' and Wal-Mart like usual (3 1/2 flatbed carts of food...

) but then I decided to see more than the grocery stores in Fort Smith, Arkansas. That was when my adventures really started. Robert and John were senior citizen volunteers

on the trolley

and were thrilled to tell me all about Belle Starr and Judge Parker - a female outlaw and a judge with a hanging fetish; apparently he once hung

79 people at once. That was sobering - I've only hear of hanging from the book of Esther where Haaman - ironically - is hung on the gallows he prepared for Mordecai. These hanging stories sounded nothing like that though. Anyhow, I hopped off the train and rushed - barefoot over the dusty Arkansas sun-heated path - to the meeting of the two rivers; one being the Arkansas River. I clambered down sheets of shale rock and reached giant boulders on the edge of the river, after dipping my foot in I seriously considered just swimming across to Oklahoma (on the other side of the river only!) but the water looked incredibly dirty, and I had no idea what the currents were like. (Good thing I didn't, as 2 Arkansas natives told me later).

After walking through the woodsy area of the park I came back out to civilization - I had seen the ferris wheel

start to make its rounds through the city sky. I went over, expecting some ridiculous fee; nope, only $1 for the most fantastic ferris

wheel ride ever! Mike, a guy who worked at the amusement park, chatted with me for a quite a while and told me about a cave in his hometown and the stalactites in Devil's Den park... thinking it sounds like an adventure for next weekend! I've never been in a cave before ;( I walked around and just enjoyed nature, views of not-so-faraway mountains, wide rivers, and historic buildings everywhere.

Driving home I stopped at The Immaculate Conception Church

(gigantic and a feat of design!) Totally walked in on a wedding practice (what, I heard beautiful organ music, what could you expect?!) Moving on down the road almost drove past this teensy-weensy little shop called "Delicias" I had to stop in - the sign read "100% natural homemade ice-cream". If that isn't tempting you must be lactose intolerant! In any case, I settled on Kiwi Sorbet - I asked the man scooping what brand the ice-cream was. "We get the fruit, cream, and mix it all up ourselves." The sign was for-real and it was the best sorbet I've ever, ever had!!

I like life, especially when it involves a lot of time with God and random strangers, whose lives I can pour into for a few moments.