Fronted By Love

So, 2010, I’m trying not to ponder life so linearly, and here you are challenging me to think chronologically. Well, the world is not chronological. Yes, we all “see” chronology on a clock, but there are still the billions of perceptions of time that affect even the linear perception! Anyhow, whatever 2010. I love you. You’re a big deal to me. Especially since you shared with me:

• The death of my mother in February. The most profound sense of loss I’ve ever felt. But, the silver lining is all of her light being released to the Universe. She lives in you, she lives in me.
• Quitting teaching, a profession I’ve had a love/hate relationship with for nearly 20 years. Who needs hate in their life? Time for something different.
• Living in Guatemala for nine weeks. Simply, one of the best learning experiences of my life. I will always look upon that time and the people I met there with incredible nostalgia.
• Establishing a relationship with God/Goddess/The Universe/InsertNameHere. As a lifelong agnostic/atheist, this is rather significant. This has been clearly marked by the death of my mother and I continue to learn what it means to me. Still, in spite of being unemployed and without health insurance and unsure what 2011 holds, I have an inner peace that’s always been missing from my life. I’m not claiming to know much on a higher power and I’m still wary of the motives of organized religion, but I’m wholly convinced that God = Love. No room for judgment or fear. Just a simple mantra to approach everything in life from the side of love, and it’ll make the world/my world a better place. Whether to believe in the external power of prayer or not, the conscious act of sending love out makes me feel better. So I’m trying to be more conscious of it and more regular in my actions. Here are my hot prayer topics for 2011:
• Clean water for everyone--check out water.org
• Women’s rights, gay rights, animal rights--the more respect we have for our fellow earthlings, the less fear there will be
• Finding sustainable, clean energy to power us all
• Peace on earth--there’s a lot to be said for making love and not war and we have to believe it’s possible

There you go, 2011. I have faith in your possibilities.

That’s where we’re going

That’s what we’re doing

That’s how we’re feeling

Fronted by love

I'm Home...Now What?

I guess I'm not quite done here. I like writing about my life occasionally, so I'll probably keep this up. Thanks to everyone who kept up with my Guatemalan adventure. It was really good for my soul and I feel like it's given me some great perspective. I'm not done with adventures!
I'm a list maker, so here's today's "Pepe's Transition" list:

• One of the first things I did when I got home was take a shower. A nice, long, hot, shower. I think the world would be a perfect place if everyone on the planet could afford this luxury.
• I went and played some basketball today, or at least some shooting around and running up and down the court. I really love that sport and had missed it. I haven't done anything aerobic in months, so it was fantastic to be out in the sun and to sweat. When I got home, I took a cold shower. It sure is great to have alternatives.
• I really need to stop converting prices here into Quetzals or I'll go crazy thinking about how expensive everything is.
• I've been loving my milk and cereal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day. But I am actually starting to miss beans. Not to worry--I'm going to a Mexican restaurant tonight with friends.
• I feel like I'm losing my Spanish already. So I've been keeping the Spanish-language channels on in the background, hoping for some osmosis at least. MUST KEEP WORKING ON IT!
• I now find US money to be boring. The bills are all the same colors and the coins are tiny. I don't have the other Quetzal bills with me, but they're different colors and the Quetzal coin is nice and big and lets you know where it is when you need it. The other coins are fairly worthless, but so is the penny.

That's today's "Pepe's Transition" list. If I may jump on my soapbox though, I'll jump to a "Pepe's Hopes for the Planet" list. These aren't breakthrough ideas, but my time in Guatemala has made these thoughts stronger for me:

• Water for everyone. Like I said before, a planet where everyone can enjoy a hot shower would be ideal. For now, let's just try to get free, clean drinking water to places that don't have it. The privatization of water is a bad idea, allowing for corporate greed to control something that everyone should have access to. Watch the documentary Blue Gold for more perspective. And ease up on bottled water--enjoy your tap water while you've got it!
• We need to stop producing so many humans. Hey, I'm gay so I'm doing my part! But overpopulation contributes greatly to poverty. There's a guy in Thailand, known a Mr. Condom, who has helped reduce birth rates in that country dramatically. Also, we need to get religions on board with this idea if it's really going to work, because of its influence in this world.
• Close the gap between the rich and the poor. I'm convinced that people try to make the best of the life they're given. Our actual needs are small--food, water, shelter. After that, it's the little things, ya know? So I would never say that rich=happy and poor=sad. But when there are such huge discrepancies in countries, when a hard day's work means a mansion for one person and barely a meal for another, the idea of fairness should start kicking in. Another documentary recommendation for you: The End of Poverty? Greed is a strong human emotion. We need corporations with a conscious. At some point, we have to realize that maximizing profits ultimately only helps the people at the top and sacrifices people at the bottom.
• Get off oil. We're going to have to harness the power of the Sun. Somehow, some way. As places like Guatemala become more developed, energy becomes even more important. Oil isn't going to cut it for much longer.
• Free education for all. There are too many kids in the world that don't go to school at all. There are too many kids that don't get to have much of a childhood because they do nothing but work, particularly girls. Education is the best equalizer around.
• Women's/gay/human rights. There are still a lot of the places in the world where being a straight male automatically gives you power. We're only as good as how we treat other people.

Okay, I'm off my soap box. Did I mention that I'm looking for a job? I need to find one just so I can take a break from watching depressing documentaries. But it's important to know the world!

The Home Stretch

Things have been pretty tranquilo the last couple of weeks. It’s my last week in Guatemala and it’s funny, because I wish I had a stronger sense of sadness about it. But the truth is, I can’t wait to get home. In a poorly timed twist of fate, Scott gets on a plane for Switzerland at the same time I get on my plane back to LA. In spite of missing him for two extra weeks, I look forward to the small things: a bowl of cereal (oh how I miss milk and real ice cream), my couch (I’m sure it’s missed me too), my television (though I am vowing to spend half of my television watching time on the Spanish-language channels), my car (I grew up in Michigan; cars are an integral part of my existence!) I’m also starting to get preoccupied with my future existence. I came to Guatemala to work on my Spanish and to experience another culture. Check and check. But it’s also felt a lot like a long vacation and it’s time to get back to work. Of course, I need to find a job and also figure out if I’m going back to grad school.

I’ve also started to reflect on my time here and a question I’ve been asking folks here is: Is Guatemala a “Third World” country? I guess that’s not really the correct term though. I think nowadays, it’s more appropriate to label it a developing country. It certainly has a lot of developing to do. Last week, I got to see one of the public middle schools here, and it’s in a pretty sad state.
My friend Mike volunteered to teach English at the school for a month. You can’t see it in this picture, but the room is pretty decrepit. There’s graffiti all over the walls and desks, the lights barely work, the students don’t have books, and it’s generally pretty dirty.
The kids were very amable, but the school seems to be pretty loose with its rules and regulations. There were 35 kids on the roll for this class, but only about 20 were actually in the room. My teacher tells me that the private schools are much better, but frankly not very many people can afford them.

I’m going to do one more “reflections” post when I get home next week, but this is all I’ve got for now. This is my last day in Xela, so tonight is going to be a big fiesta with my amigos. Tomorrow morning I head to Guatemala City to check that out a bit, then I fly to my Home, Sweet Home Saturday night. Count your blessings, y’all!

Drag Completes Me

It was a relatively quiet week after the all the Independence day celebrations and the travel to Lago Atitlan last weekend. Until last night. It was a chill Friday night, but when we saw the flyer for the Miss Gay National pageant at the gay bar in Xela, our Saturday night plans were set. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t really a national event, since most gay life in Guatemala is in the capital 200 miles away. There were only three girls competing in front of a crowd of maybe 40 people, and our group was 12 of those. I’ve seen a lot of drag in my life and I can be pretty cynical about it, so my expectations were low. But I have to say, those girls brought it. Their outfits were crazy fun, their dancing was fab, and they had great props.
 
Sorry for the poor quality, but here’s one of the queens being brought into the bar on a motorcycle. They each performed to a couple of different songs and finally last year’s winner crowned the new one. Afterwards, around 1:30 am, the police came knocking on the door because bars are supposed to close at one here. Everyone in the bar had to be quiet for about 10 minutes and apparently the police went away. The party resumed and we were assured that this was normal. Hopefully that’s as close to getting arrested that I’ll encounter in Guatemala.

Some more pictures:
 
The light reading I’m doing here. It’s challenging vocabulary, so I keep the dictionary close by at all times, but I’m pretty happy with my reading comprehension in general.
My maestra Lily and me sitting on the roof of the school with Santa Maria in the background. She’s awesome and a really great teacher. When you spend four hours a day with someone, you really get to know them. We share a very similar world view and she’s taught me a lot about the culture here too. Of the locals, I’ll miss her the most.
This is the longest set of firecrackers I’ve ever seen and it took about five minutes to finish, filling the entire street with smoke. Fiestas never really end here, so there was yet another celebration at Parque Central that we checked out. Some religious day that again brought out a parade of bands, and of course, firecrackers. This country is obsessed with firecrackers. It’s not unusual for them to go off outside of my bedroom window at six in the morning. Apparently, before that would be rude.
I’m drinking some $.50 freshly-squeezed orange juice. There’s a woman that cleans the school and her kids help out too. Her son Miguel, who is 15 and very sweet, spends most of his day in front of the school making orange juice, so I buy some from him almost every day. He works there in the morning, then takes classes in the afternoon.

I have two weeks left of classes and I’m pretty ready to go home. The rain has started back up and it’s relentless. Still, I can already tell that I’ll treasure this experience, so I’m going to soak up (sorry, bad pun) as much I can for these last two weeks.

17,000 and some words

The weather’s actually been gorgeous here for the past week. I’m not gonna spend too much time here writing, so here are some pictures and captions of my last week. (Of course, as I'm about to post this, the rain begins...sigh...)


Tuesday night, streets of Xela. The festivities were in full swing for Guatemala’s Independence Day on Wednesday the 15th. Bands were in the streets most of the night.


Tuesday night, Parque Central. The festivities continue. People were everywhere. I left around 1:30 am, being the old guy I am. Reports say the streets didn’t start clearing until 4 am.


I like my name, but I didn’t buy any.


There was a pretty good fireworks show at midnight.


The spirit of my boyfriend was here too.


Wednesday afternoon. No classes and most places were closed, so we cooked out and hung out on the roof of the school all day.


Tuesday afternoon. People are lining up for the parade. They love love love parades here. There were about five of them leading up to Independence Day. They also love beauty pageants and Maria de Xela spent hours watching them on TV.


Thursday night. Finally, the fair! It was miles of vendors selling everything under the sun, cheap games, and tons of food, of course. The rides were pretty much the same as any fair. They didn’t have any livestock or biggest pumpkin contests, but that stuff’s not hard to find.


I still like my name, but I didn’t play.


The Ferris Wheel of Death. Usually, ferris wheels aren’t thrill rides. This is a picture of the ferris wheel in motion. The lack of focus isn’t my camera’s fault this time. Powered by a car engine, this is the fastest ferris wheel I’ve ever seen. It goes forwards and backwards at a ridiculous speed. Of course I had to ride it.


Kristyn and I after riding the ferris wheel. Wary, but grateful to be alive.


Naked pictures of women advertising the ride. Gotta love Guatemala.


Friday til Sunday. Lago Atitlan, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It’s a lake at an altitude of 5,000 feet, surrounded by mountains over 10,000 feet. We stayed at this awesome place, Mikaso Hotel, owned by some young French-Canadiens. If you visit Guatemala, go there.


You can sorta see the rainbow in the middle of this picture.


Another view from the terrace of the hotel.


Annie and I rented motorcycles Friday afternoon and drove for 2.5 hours around the lake to the hotel instead of taking the 30 minute boat shuttle. We drove through mountains and had to deal with impending darkness, fog with light rain, and horrible roads. We made it safely there. Unfortunately, on the way back, I had some trouble with a road made of loose rocks and laid my bike down. I was fine and the bike was mostly fine, except a big dent in the gas tank that would cost me $350. That supersucked, but it was still worth it.


So, as I mentioned, the roads are awful. Here’s a mudslide we had to traverse. Traffic was stopped and I thought we weren’t going to be allowed through. I forgot that this is Guatemala and everything is at-your-own-risk. Only motorcycles and four-wheel drive trucks were making it through.

That’s my week. It was crazy and fun and awful, all at the same time. I’m feeling quite poor now, so the adventures will have to come cheaply. But that shouldn’t be a problem here.

Worth the Pain?

Vale la pena? Unfortunately, my crappy camera doesn’t quite capture how amazingly gorgeous this view is. It just took every last bit of my willpower to get there. The volcanoes and mountains of Central American offer some of the best hiking around. Much of the terrain is manageable for amateurs and relatively safe. Volcan Tajumulco, at nearly 14,000 feet is the tallest peak in Central America, thus one of the most popular hikes here. A group of 17 people from my school, led by one maestro, decided to make the journey to the top of Central America to see Sunday’s sunrise. Since I love to go to the tops of things, I jumped at the opportunity. The plan was to leave Xela at 10:00 PM Saturday, arrive at the base at 1:00 AM, hike for 4 hours to the top, wait for sunrise, then hike back down and head home.

First, since I failed to bring a winter hat or gloves to the tropics, I had to rent some. There’s a group here in Xela called Quetzaltrekkers that does weekly hikes to various local volcanoes. They have lots of warm clothing to rent. We could have gone with them also. They were leaving Saturday morning and planned to camp on the mountain for the night, then wake up to catch the sunrise. But we planned to hike up Saturday night and avoid carry the camping gear. I tried taking a nap Saturday afternoon, but I guess I was too excited, so that didn’t happen. So off we went at 10 Saturday night. We had a couple of private shuttle vans take us to the base of the mountain. The trip took about two-and-half hours and since we were driving on Guatemalan roads, there would be no sleeping on the way either. I wasn’t worried though, I was feeling great.

We arrived at the base, probably about a mile below the summit altitude-wise and several miles of trails to the top. We all bundled up, gathered our flashlights, water and snacks, and joyfully started our ascent on schedule at 1 in the morning. We were fortunate that it didn’t rain, except for some spitting now and then, as we didn’t have to worry about the cold nearly as much. Our leader had told us to all keep together, so with 17 people of different hiking ability, it made it slow. The first hour was almost entirely a dirt road. Why we couldn’t have driven up that far, I’m not sure, but it was pretty easy. Then we got into a meadow, which switched to a forest, which switched to another meadow, which switched to another forest, which switched to another meadow. We were now about 2.5 hours into the hike and we had a beautiful view of the lights of the surrounding towns below, plus we could see the top of the volcano. It still looked far away, mostly because it was. The temperature had dropped to the 30s, but I was sweating. Still, I started to notice the lack of sleep. My legs were beginning to burn a bit. The altitude was making me feel drunk. And the terrain was getting steeper. There were a couple of people who would have preferred to stop right there, but most of the group maintained a go-get-em attitude.

The next 1.5 hours finally produced some casualties. It had been four hours of hiking and we were supposed to be at the summit already, but we still weren’t really close. About seven people couldn’t go on anymore, but that wasn’t going to stop the rest of us. We didn’t manage to stay together, fracturing off into smaller groups. There was a group ahead of me, and a group behind me. I was exhausted, but determined. Eventually, Raji and I were on our own. She was the wind beneath my wings. Around 6 am, the sun started to come up and we were close to the top. Due to the clouds, it wasn’t quite as spectacular as it could have been, but it was amazing. Finally, around 6:15, we joined another group at the top, and the other group was right behind us.
It’s tough to tell, but that’s the horizon meeting the Pacific Ocean behind us, about 150 miles away. It was freakin’ cold up there though, so we didn’t bask in the beauty for too long. We all reconvened just down the mountain and ate some banana/apple/yogurt breakfast. My old legs were not happy that I was still walking on them, but we couldn’t wait to get back to the vans. The hike down took about 2.5 hours and by the end of it, even the young people were exhausted and bitching.

I’d have to say it was the most difficult physical activity I’ve ever done. I had completely underestimated how difficult it would be. Particularly since I had a similar view just two months ago in Hawaii. A volcano that Scott and I drove up. But I’m also proud of myself for doing it. I was so tired when we got back to the vans that I slept most of the way back to Xela. I got home around noon, showered, and only allowed myself to sleep for three hours, before getting up and getting some food. I did nothing but watch the Twilight series in Spanish all day. (I’d kill myself to have to watch them in English, but they’re really good in Spanish because the dialogue is slow and basic And I’m totally on team Jacob!) I still haven’t made it to the fair yet, but tomorrow is Guatemalan Independence Day, so it’ll be spectacular. My legs are still sore, but it’s a good sore, ya know?

Halftime

Yesterday was my mediotiempo here. Four-and-a-half weeks down, four-and-a-half to go. On one hand, it feels more like it's been four-and-a-half years. On the other hand, I think I was hugging my Boo at the airport, I blinked like Samantha from Bewitched, and time fast-forwarded to now. Conversely, sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever make it back to LA, but I’m sure it’ll feel like just another blink when it’s all done. Also, I took something of a midterm exam, not for a grade or anything, but just to check in on my progress. Alas, I’m still depressed about how much Spanish I don’t know. I think I’m going to vote that the rest of the world should have to learn English for the sake of my brain. Where's that ballot?

One of the pastimes of some maestros here is ping pong. There’s a table at the school and this group of four plays doubles every day. Thus, they’re really good.
Now, I’m not a great ping pong player, but I can usually hold my own with most people. Not with these guys. They don’t really like playing against me because they’re so bored by it. I haven’t been this beaten down since I’d play against the Chinese kids in my college dorm. (Yes, Daryl/Steve, you usually beat me, but not 21-5!) I think I’m just going to have to live with being a Pepe of all trades, master of none.

Annie de LA and I went to brunch a couple of weeks back. Here’s the menu.
We both ordered a number four, of course. Even though it’s pretty much the same meal I get from Maria de Xela nearly every day. It was yummy and filling, naturally. Speaking of Maria de Xela, I still love her, but I’m not as enamored with her cooking anymore. While I really like all of the food, it’s pretty much the same every single day. Mush with banana or corn flakes, one huevo, frijoles, and tortillas for breakfast. Arroz, pasta, this potato-like vegetable called guisquil, tortillas, and either broccoli or chicken for lunch. Carb heaven! Dinner is more frijoles, tortillas, and platanos. Again, all stuff that I like, but can a gringo get a burger once in a while? I'm kidding. Mostly. It’s a good thing I’m a creature of habit myself. Occasionally, I buy banana bread or other pan to take a break from tortillas and I occasionally hit up different restaurants, like the one from the picture. And in spite of the ingredients, I couldn’t pass up the chapin desayuno.

Maria de Xela likes having a man around and I try to help out where I can. I removed a big rock from her garden. I change the agua pura bottle in the house. I kill gigantic flying insects in the house. I removed the old TV from the shelf and put up her new one. One little problem with that--when I reconnected the old cable wire, the connector was messed up and the TV wasn’t very clear. She thought the problem was with her cable company, but the TV just needed a new a cable. So I bought her one, thinking it’d be an easy fix. The cable from the TV goes outside to a connector. Problem one: I couldn’t unscrew the rusted connector and I needed a wrench. Which she doesn’t have. The next day, she had borrowed a wrench and I proceeded to switch out the cables. Problem two: the cable connector wouldn’t fit through the hole in the wall. So I had to cut the connector to remove the old cable, cut the connector on the new cable to put it through the wall, and reattach the connector inside the house. Finally, one day and one hour later, I got them connected and gracias a dios it worked. Unfortunately, now she thinks I’m some kind of handyman, which should be making you laugh right now. Her phone wasn’t working last week and she dragged me up to the terrace to look at the phone wires there. I didn’t see any problems. Fortunately the phone started working soon thereafter. Then the other day, she pointed out to me how her faucet is leaking. Since this is clearly out of my league, I just shrugged and returned to eating my tortilla and frijoles.

I’m not sure if anyone is watching world news, but all that rain I was complaining about last week is killing people. The big highway from Guatemala City to Xela, that’s less than five years old, is washed out in various places. Basically, I think they didn’t really have the money to properly build a highway on the side of a rainy mountain region in the the first place, and now they’re paying for it all over again, but now with lives. The school was supposed to receive about 10 new students on Sunday, but most of them were stuck in Guatemala City. Eventually, they all made it here, taking alternate routes that lasted 12 hours instead of the normal four via the highway. Oh, and it’s still the rainy season here for two more months.

On a brighter note, September 15th is, along with the cumpleaños de mi hermana, Guatemala’s Independence Day. The big event here in Xela is a week-long fair. I’m super-excited about this, and I hope the weather will cooperate a bit. Having grown up with the Ionia Free Fair, me gusta mucho fairs. Plus, I missed the Orange County and LA County fairs this year. I’m terribly curious about it and I’ll make sure to recap and post some pictures next week.

Besos y’all.

Random Ridiculousness

The main mercado here takes up several city blocks. One city block is the entire indoor area, then there are sidewalk vendors around it and many other streets. It’s like a super-duper-giant Walmart, but cheaper. It’s a shoppers paradise. New stuff, used stuff, hanging meat, fresh fruits and veggies, cooked foods, knockoff designer clothing, shoes (lots of shoes!), toilet paper toothpaste...name it, it’s there. What amazes me is that since there’s no place to store this stuff (for the street vendors anyhow) they pack all of this stuff up every single evening and haul it home with them.
I’m not much of a shopper, so the only thing I’ve actually bought from there are bootleg DVDs. A buck twenty-five for a three pack. Sorry for not fattening your pockets, Hollywood friends. I’ve been watching tons of movies in Spanish. I understand the gist of the movies, but mostly because I have eyes, not because I’m understanding the majority of the dialogue. But it’s good exposure for me. The DVDs are of various quality. On one DVD, in Shrek 4 you could hear audience members talking and the camera kept going in-and-out of focus. Then How to Train Your Dragon was regular DVD quality, but in English. Then, Toy Story 3 had poor video, but the audio was fine. On another DVD, all three movies were perfect quality. It’s a bit of a crapshoot, but it’s tough to complain for the price.

I know I’ve talked about this before, but now they’re telling me that September is the rainiest month of the year. Help, I’m drowning! It has rained every single day that I’ve been here. And nothing dries out, so the mildew tends to stink my room. However, usually there’s a few hours of morning or afternoon sun, which I relish. Yesterday, there was no sun. The rain (and cold) were relentless, even in the south, at the ocean.

The water was warmer than the air. Notice all that white, frothy water? That’s because those are some loud, angry waves. You can’t go out very far, as there’s a very strong riptide that’s known to sweep people away often. It’s all black, coarse sand, since this land was made from volcanoes. In spite of the crappy weather, we had a nice time, and the other folks said the fish, which is tough to find in Xela, was really good.

Along with the weather, the many bus drivers here are still ridiculous. The ocean is about a 3.5 hour bus ride away from Xela. Of course, many of the roads are awful, but that didn’t stop our driver on the way home from practicing for the Indy 500. He should know that they don’t run that race when it’s raining (or on bumpy dirt roads) for a reason. The only time he slowed down was when the road had turned into a river, causing us to detour through a one-lane jungle road for a couple of miles. He was also ridiculously cute (what’s with cute guys being dangerous anyhow?), so I forgave him a bit. Still, I was glad we had to change buses at the halfway point.

On Thursday, teachers and students from the school were invited to a corn feast. There’s a tiny pueblo of indigenous people the school built stoves for many years ago. This place is literally in the middle of huge corn fields. (Oh, and our driver had to give pay some a group of men to pass on “their” crappy dirt road to get to the pueblo--my first extortion!) So now the indigenous group holds an annual gathering for the school, with a big serving of corn-on-the-cob, and a variety of condiments to choose from: lime, salt, queso, ketchup (salsa dulce), salsa verde, mayonaise.
About 15 students and teachers made the trip, and I don’t think there are many more than that in the pueblo. At the beginning, the host guy talked for a while, thanking us for coming and other stuff in Spanish I couldn’t quite understand. Then a maestro from the school stood up and said thanks and more stuff I didn’t quite get. Then the host guy asked for a student to say a little something. In spite of ducking for cover, I got chosen. I’m not afraid of public speaking, but I did get a little tongue tied with the Spanish. I meant to say “Thank you for inviting us to eat corn with you.” But it came out more like “I like ice cream.” Oh well. I do love me some corn, but I could only manage to eat three pieces. A couple of people had a little competition and managed seven pieces each. I’m sure they paid for it later. Afterwards, there was some awkward seventh-grade type dancing with the locals, then the rain told us it was time to go home. Overall, one of my favorite experiences of this trip so far.

Wednesday was my day of fútbol. First, some students and a maestro rented a small roof-covered field for an hour. I’m not much of a soccer player, but it was fun to run around. Perhaps I’m seriously out of shape, but I’m choosing to blame my wind-sucking on the altitude. We’re going to try to make it a weekly thing, so I may be a fútbol superstar by the time I get back to the States. But it’s tough to not use my hands. I mean, whose idea was this stupid game? So then I went and watched the local club team, Xelaju, for $5. Tom, a Brit, says they’re awful, but I suspect they’re about as good as most US college teams. It was actually my first in-person soccer match. But seriously, whose idea was this stupid game? I liked the excitement of the World Cup, but I don't get it. I might as well watch some long-distance track-and-field, just a bunch of guys running around for a couple of hours.
But everyone else in the crowd sure did have a good time. The stadium probably holds about 5000 people, and it was a little over half-full. There was a big group of people at one end, shirts off, singing songs the whole time. At the other end, there was a band and another group of people chanting and setting off fireworks. As you can see from the picture, there are tall fences with barbed wire separating the fans from the field. Fans yell profanities at the other team constantly. Fortunately, there’s no alcohol allowed inside the stadium. I can’t even imagine. Also, there are no bathrooms, so guys would go to the corners and piss on the walls. I guess the poor girls just have to hold it. Anyhow, there was no score for the first 40 minutes and I was so bored that I was practicing conjugating verbs. Then, quickly Xela scored and the place erupted, of course. A minute later, the other team scored and it erupted again, this time with anger. Then it was halftime, and in spite of the late excitement, I was cold and tired, so I left. I heard the next day that Xela won 3-2 in a barnburner. I’d rather watch a barn burning.

I’ve got more, but dinner calls and I want to make it home before the $@!# rain starts again! Abrazos y’all.

Coffee Anyone?

On Sunday, a maestro took six students to see a finca de cafe. Guatemala has produced some of the best coffee in the world for a long time. We drove about an hour south of Xela to the other (warm) side of the mountains and we were suddenly in coffee heaven. Before we stopped to learn all about it though, we got in a little zip line action.
Zip lines are a big tourist draw here to supplement the farm and it is a nice thrill. We only went on three of the 11 available lines that this particular coffee farm offers, but it was completely worth the $9.

We drove a short distance to the next farm, which is one of the few cooperative (non-profit) coffee farms in the country, making it a very appealing place to work. Thirteen families live there permanently and work the fields by hand. The harvest season is from September through January, bringing in more workers. All of the farms offer this seasonal work to families (women and children too), but apparently many of them exploit the workers and do not pay as well as they should in order to maximize profit. Coffee used to be the main export for Guatemala, but with the big coffee boon of the 90s, Brazil jumped in and drove prices way down all around the world. So much of the land of Guatemala was converted to other crops that are less labor intensive, leaving many families without jobs. Coffee is still one of the main exports of the country, and the organic movement is creating new opportunities for farms here to prosper.
 
Here are some coffee beans before they’ve been processed. The red ones are the “gold” coffee. You can easily peel the skin and there’s a gooey substance surrounding the bean that tastes like honey. The green and yellow beans are the duds. The skins are tough to peel and there’s no sweet gooey goodness inside. Not to be wasted, they’re used to make your instant coffee. (By the way to my Boo and coffee-addicted friends, don’t expect me to bring gold coffee home as a gift. Since most Guatemalans can’t afford it, it’s easier to find it in the US than it is here.) At this particular farm, there are a few crude machines (built by entrepreneuring Germans in the 30s) used to separate the peels, but most of the steps here are done by hand before the beans are sold to roasting companies.
The terrain for the coffee trees is beautiful, with banana trees and another type of bean tree interspersed to provide shade for the coffee. But I can’t imagine walking through this jungle, picking beans by hand. Also, there are these little black blood-sucking bugs that will eat you alive. They’re actually not as bad as mosquitoes because they don’t make you itch, but you don’t even notice them until you see all the blood on your arms. Like this:
Those little red bites ended up covering both of my arms by the end of the day. I had a long sleeved-shirt, but it was hot out and the bites don’t really hurt, so I sucked it up. Or, let them suck it up.

After the finca, we drove a little farther and hiked close to the summit of Volcan Santiaguito, where there’s a lake for swimming. We crossed a mad river, and I wish I could’ve gotten a better picture showing our fear, but it was much scarier than the zip line. We had to build a human chain to make it across.
 

The lake water was tranquil and slightly cold, but we had to do it. A couple of times, we felt like we were getting nibbled on in the water, which was disconcerting, especially after that new piranha movie just came out. But we survived.

The ride home was another adventure. I’ve mentioned the crazy driving here, and I still have no idea how there aren’t more mega-accidents. With the exception of the road to Guatemala City, there are only two-lane highways here and people are willing to pass each other about anytime, regardless of a mountain curve ahead or not. Even the buses do it. I guess when everyone is crazy, no one is. Just another day in Guatemala.

Los Perros

There are stray dogs everywhere in this country. It’s quite fascinating to study their culture. Many dogs just walk the streets alone, keeping their heads and tails down, avoiding any contact with people. Often, they’re in pairs and seem to be enjoying life a little bit more with a companion. But you’ll also see the occasional dog gang either roaming the streets together or huddled up sleeping together to stay warm. They’re really good at using the sidewalks, for the most part, and crossing busy streets without getting hit by a car. While I’m sure they’re full of fleas and many look pretty down on their luck, a lot of the street dogs appear healthy. Los perros survive mostly by digging through heaps of garbage bags that have been placed on sidewalks. This means that garbage is often strewn all over the place afterwards. You don’t mess with the dogs when they’re scrounging for their food. They also don’t mess with each other, as the alpha dogs always get first dibs by fending off others. Though I have seen a dog dash in to grab a garbage bag and take off with it while the alpha dog was busy with another bag.

 
Here’s a pack of dogs sleeping in the rain in the park. I enjoy watching how they interact with each other, though sometimes they get territorial with people too. I was walking alone at night last week and there was a gang of about six dogs hanging out on the sidewalk. Though I was walking in the street and not really paying them any attention, they were not happy with my presence. They barked a lot, which is normal, but then as I walked directly past them, they actually started coming at me, growling. Fortunately, I didn’t panic and just turned my back to them and kept walking. A kid a few hundred feet behind me got the same treatment, though he started running and they chased him a bit. I know that sometimes people carry rocks in their pockets to back them off. That’s the scariest moment I’ve had here, actually, but it’s the only time I’ve felt truly threatened.  Also, I have seen some fights between dogs that are being territorial. When we went to work on the stove project on Wednesday, a woman had her dog walking with us and it kept getting attacked by the other dogs in the barrio. If it hadn’t been rolling with humans, I don’t think it would’ve made it out of there alive.

Of course, there are lots of people that own dogs too, and apparently many dogs do have a casa, they’re just not allowed inside. They are clearly breeding like crazy, as many of the females have teets that are ready for a litter. Though I’m not sure how the puppies would make it for long if the mothers are just trying to survive themselves. The males follow the females all over the place, trying to get a little action. (R-rated warning time a mi famiia!) Last week, there was a gang of dogs in the middle of a busy street, seemingly just hanging out.
Now, let me describe this picture a little more. The two brown dogs in the middle are connected. Not doggie-style, but trust me, they’re connected. The bigger one is the boy. The other dogs are growling at the cars and pedestrians, seemingly protecting the pair in the middle. Some cars honked, but mostly they just drove around the group. Annie and I watched this with bemusement for a few minutes, then stared in awe after they disconnected because that perro was hung like a caballo! Seriously impressive. So, they finished and the dog gang took off.

The perros just seem to be part of the culture in this country, for better or worse. And for the most part, it’s a peaceful coexistence with the humans. It’s certainly a good show.