Day 26 - 35: Mi Familia Nueva

Day 26 - 38: Mi Familia Nueva

Dreamfood:

• I explored the Mayan ruins of Iximche (ee-sheem-chay) with my Mayan host family.

Culturescape:

• Tortillas. Corn. MAIZ. Corn is the base of the Mayan diet and it's for real you guys. Warm corn tortillas with every meal. There are tortillarias on every corner. I'm eating more corn in Guatemala than I could ever dream of. In fact, when the Spainards invaded Guatemala they asked for gold, and the Mayans showed them corn.
• Most of the Mayan population here is bilingual. They speak Kaqchikel and Spanish. My host mom, Ana Maria, is teaching Caroline, my homestay partner, and I some words in Kaqchikel no mind that neither of us can even speak Spanish.
• Speaking of the Spainards invading, they did a great job ingraining their religion into the people of Guatemala because many of them are devoted Catholics including my host mother. She always jokes about how Caroline and I are sinners because we don't eat meat. (FYI, Caroline is Vegan and I am Vegetarian and that's why we're homestay partners)
• I'm learning SO MUCH Spanish! Ana Maria speaks a little English, but most of our communication is in Spanish. This envrioment is basically forcing me to learn Spanish y rapido! Actually, I've started wrriting my journal entries in Spanglish or Espingles. Ana Maria and I have a special way of communicating, and she understands my broken Spanish. When other Spanish speakers talk to me, it's so much harder to understand. 
• Everyone greets one another; Buenos días, Buenas tardes, Buenas noches, Buen provecho! It's been weird and hard to adjust to, but the more I get the hang of it the more I like it. It's very friendly, and it make me feel like I'm part of the community. Even though I've only been in Tecpan a week and a half, I'm already feeling like part of the community. Less people are staring and doing double takes (we are the only white people in town). The people here are so friendly and welcoming especially if you try and speak Spanish.
• Another thing about speaking Spanish - most people assume that I don't speak Spanish; which is true. Kids passing on bikes will yell "HELLO" and throw out all the other Englilsh words they know, so impressed with themselves. I kind of feel offended, but I also feel like I don't have a right to feel that way since I've learned all my Spanish in the past month and a half. I've thought about how it would go in the US if someone yelled "HOLA" or started speaking Spanish at someone who looked hispanic. It would be taken terribly, but it's such a different situation here; it's a different context. Native English speakers, in my experience, don't think it nessacery to learn another language. The assumption these people make about us is mostly true. I mean essentially, every time you speak to a stranger - you are assuming what language they speak... I'll leave that there.
• Speaking of assumptions, while I was in Iximche with my family, there were many white-looking tourists. I assumed they were like me; from the US, didn't speak much Spanish. But when my host mom asked a man to take a picture of all of us, she spoke in her broken English. The man was lowkey offened and wh¡ent on to speak Spanish with a non-native accent. Turns out, he was from Costa Rica. Assumptions being challenged left and right.

Homestay Heart/Time in Tecpan:

• On day one, Ana Maria introduced us to her pets; Estrea, "Ponkey", and "Boeby" - los perros, and Simon - el gato. She asked me if I liked cats and I said yes, and I wish I had one..."You have one now". I melted. 
• Speaking of Simon, he sits on my lap for almost every dinner and just purrs and purrs. I'm not the biggest fan of cats, but Simonhas won my heart. There's a joke going around that Simon es mi novio with Ana Maria, the nuns that Ana Maria hosts, and my host god siblings. 
• Now about the dogs, I'm a dog person, but not in Guatemala. Ana Maria only has these dogs as a sign of excess wealth; they are poodles... And, these dogs are left chained up most of the day. In fact, Boeby lives on the roof. So, naturally they never shut up. They bark all the time, and sometimes I wonder if they even breathe because the barking is so constant.
• Speaking of noise in general, I've grown a serious appreciation for noise complaints. There are noises at all hours of the day. Noises that would normally concern me in the States but that I have become numb to here in Guatemala. We arrived 4 days before Guatemala's independance day and heard loud noises randomly all throught the day and night. We were told they were for the party, and sometimes we could catch a glimpse of a convincing firework. But, Dia de la Independencia was September 15th....The party is over, but la bombas have continued, and every time I ask - "It's for the party". I've come to the conclusion that it's always a party in Guatemala. 

Academics:

• I've been learning so much about agriculture, the policies around it in the US, and the system in general. It's appauling and I'll save it for a completely separate post since this one has already taken me 3 hours to write... I need to wrap it up. 

Human Highlight:

My new mom, Ana Maria, of course.

Fun Fact:

Guatemalan men wear too much cologne.

BE happy.

I've learned that sometimes I just need to let go and let myself feel happiness. Not everything has to be so serious.

"I'm numb to the booms." - Matty

Click here to see a video about my time in Guatemala!

Keep thinking,

Meg

Day 13 - 25: Compounded in the City

Day 13 - 25: Compounded in the City

You see some sh*t in the city...

Dreamfood:

• Last Tuesday, me and a couple others turned a dead bar into the hottest club in the city that night. We just showed up, moved all the tables and chairs then created our own dance floor and just lit it up! It was so fun.
• I swam in and climbed a rainforest waterfall at Sabana Grande
• I saw the most beautiful blue butterflies flit about the trees there as well

Culturescape:

• A lot of the citizens of Guatemala are upset with the political situation. I know this because we've started working on our media projects, and my project is about the government corruption and how the civil war and genocide influenced that. But, as I've started my research along with my partners, Lucas and Claire, I've gotten to learn more about Guatemalan culture...
• Asking someone who they voted for is socially not something people do (learned that the embarrassing way)
• Guatemala City is interesting... It's set up in zones. The centre of the city is zone 1 and it continues outward in a spiral pattern all the way to 36 or 37 I believe. Each zone has a kind of theme. Our home base is in zone 2, and when we are out walking near our base, it feels like any other city, but once we take a taxi or a bus we see how different the zones are. There's zone 10, a big commercial tourist area, but then right next to it are large shantytowns where people live in cardboard houses and are starving to death. It's really interesting to see the separation between zones.
• Day 15 we had a city tour. Now, this tour wasn't a 'tourist tour', it was a cultural tour. Juan Carlos, the CCS president of Guatemala, took us to Cemetario General (I think it was this one) which is set up in streets just like a mini version of the city. For the richer zones, there were more expensive looking tombs, but for the poorer parts, there were large above ground tower things with just enough space for a casket. They were all stacked atop each with numbers for the empty ones; 17A, 12C, 14E. People would actually have to rent out these spaces for their deceased loved ones. 
• Near the end of the tour, Juan Carlos took us to an view that overlooked the city dump. It was right in the middle of these beautiful mountains and the mound of trash seeped into the river that split them. There were people rummaging around in the trash, and if I had to estimate I'd say there were maybe 50 people scrambling around the trucks as trash was being dumped on top of them. He told us these people would collect recyclable materials and sell them to plants and that they made less than $2 a day. It was shocking to witness. 

Learning curve:

• Staying in a hostel like situation with 28 people where you're only aloud to leave in groups of 4 is a reality show situation and it's really draining and hard. Everyone's patience is at 0, and we had a group intervention the other day. It's better now, but this is a really stressful living situation. Thank the lord we are leaving tomorrow because I don't know what would've happened had we stayed any longer.
• Interacting with people post-depression is different. I'm having a hard time navigating the social field because I'm a different person now and I don't completely understand what that means yet.
• I continually regret taking French in school because I feel like I'm missing out on so much since I don't share a language with the people here. 
• Assuming things is part of daily life. Not all assumptions are bad; they're actually beneficial to us and that's why we make them. They help us to navigate daily life and manage our natural curiosity. But, assumptions can hold you back. Not everything is what you think it is, so remember to try everything because you never know what may happen...

Scare Cam:

• A fellow TBB student, Tess, came up to me on a hiking trail above that waterfall and says "Do I have something in my eye?" As I went to check, I watched A BUG crawl from one side of her eye to the other! I got it out but will be forever scarred...
• We also encountered a snake along the river there and I tried to kill me.
• As my friend, Lucas, and I were walking down the street interviewing people today, we heard loud noises come from behind us. We turned around to see a man with the biggest whip I'd ever seen just hitting the ground. It was terrifying until we saw the herd of goats that was following him...
• Just today, I was walking in a park with Peter, my program leader, and suddenly a large branch just cracks and falls to the ground just one foot in front of us. We. Almost. Died.

Human Highlight:

My new friend, Lucas De Lorenzo Eberley, for pulling through some tough stuff this week.

Fun fact:

Car alarms sound like a siren you'd hear in a movie when something goes terribly wrong in a science lab. It's a very concerning sound when you don't know what it means.

Now, to wrap it up...

BE patient.

This has proved crucial to emotional survival in my living situation.

"Never been here before; I'm intrigued. I'm unsure,"

This is a quote from the song Pure Shores by All Saints.

Click here to see a video from my time in Guatemala!

Keep thinking,

Meg

Day 1-12: Bienvenidos a Guatemala!

Day 1-12: Bienvenidos a Guatemala!

The adventure begins...

Dreamfood:

• I stayed right on the water of the most beautiful lake in the world, Laguna Atitlan.
• I swam in the natural hot springs and beautiful waters of of said lake.
• I (sort of) hiked the mountain I saw from my hotel room everyday where there was the 'mayan man in the mountain'. (the view from the first checkpoint is the featured pic)
• I hiked to the top of Volcan Pacaya and roasted marshmellows from the natural heat.
• I danced with a belly dancer at a hookah bar in Antigua, Guatemala.

Culturescape:

• Tortillas are everything.
• I experienced Dia de la Independance. There was a parade in town, San Juan la Laguna, and it was surprisingly progressive. They marched with banners displaying thing they didn't want in a government; corruption, injustice, unrest, etc. 
• I attended a staged traditional Mayan wedding. Where I learned....
• Weaving is a big part of their culture. I also went to a place where women worked together to make natural dyes and then use the natural dyed cotton to weave beautiful creations.
• Most modern Guatemalans are Christian, more specifically catholic. But, there are still some trying to preserve their Mayan culture. 
• Mayan wood is cut at the point when the moon is the fullest, and they would only take what they needed. This is done because they believed that the earth was it's strongest at full moon and therefore could handle the loss of wood. Afterwards, they would perform a ceremony to thank the earth and to apologize. These ceremonies were performed out in nature. There are still some that practice tis today, but they are often discriminated against because it is seen as witchcraft.
• Many Guatemalans in the towns I've been to (San Juan la Laguna, Antigua) especially women still wear their traditional dress. A fun fact is that each has a representation of respect for their spouse in their clothing.
• So, most Americans would believe that the women here are 'discriminated against', but that's not how this culture sees it. In this culture women and men both assume specific roles in the family. The women cook, clean, and take care of children. The men work long days as farmers. Now, the woman's job is considered harder and she is highly respected for that. They send the man off to do the dirty work out of respect of women not despite. These values are deeply rooted in Mayan culture.

Learning curve:

• I definitely am in need of improving my Spanish, as most people I'm interacting with are not bilingual. 
• Taking freezing showers is the new norm.
• As well as, throwing toilet paper in the trash can, NEVER in the toilet.
• Sometimes street food literally can kill you. Two people have gotten really sick already.
• Wearing sunscreen in really important when taking malaria medicine.
• I thought I would have a different role in this group but I'm learning to accept mine now.
• Kitten is phonetically 'chi-key-ta' in Spanish
• This program is A LOT. I'm lowkey overwhelmed.

Program/Academics:

We started many different seminar 'units' during orientation.

• 'Who Am I?" - This seminar is all about finding yourself and we get to do that with other people doing that same thing too. We started this seminar off with 'rivers'. Rivers are basically your life story and everyone drew out their river and shared. It was an amazing way to start off just knowing who all the people I'm about to spend 7 months of my life with are and where they cam from. 
• 'What is Development?' - We've done a few of these where we explore this question. I'd honestly not thought a lot about it before this program, but now it's hard to ignore. TBB teaches you to always answer with a question. Who is responsible to develop whom? Is 'development' just modern imperialism and ethnocentrism?
• We also did a lot of talks about safety and explored the harder topics that follow that like being a woman traveller and how we can't ignore that it is different and there are extra precautions you need to take as a woman.

Overall:

I'm so ready. This group is now my family, and there's so much ahead of us. But, I say....

Bring it on.

Human Highlight:
Peter, my 'mento' and program leader, for helping me through some tough times during orientation.

Fun Fact:
In Guatemala, a common response you hear to "Gracias" is "Para ce vide" (unsure of spelling???) which translates to at your service.

"BE wise"

This actually a quote from our CCS president of Guatemala, Juan Carlos, when talking about safety which is a lot of what we did during orientation.

But, I've learned how important it is to make wise decisions about safety. Especially food wise because we've already had two people down from food related illnesses. We are also about to move to Guatemala City; the most dangerous place that TBB has taken students, so I will definitely try my best to make wise decisions there.

"There are only two emotions; love and fear" - Oprah 
(quoted at the end of a development seminar by Matty)

Click here to see a video from my time in Guatemala!

Keep thinking,
Meg

(posted 10 days after it was written due to technical difficulties)