October 17

Hola again from Antigua.


Not a whole lot to report right now just wanted to update-- James is away for the next few days so I'm moving into a homestay with Maria-Elsa's family. My room there is amazing, I'm really impressed by how nice her house is. Apparently we're getting another student tonight as well from the US who speaks no Spanish. Maria-Elsa tried to tell me it was a girl named "Rose" but when she spelled it R-O-S-S I had to tell her that I hated to break it to her but that was going to be a guy named "Ross". She was quite dissapointed, I think she wanted me to have another girl at the house to hang out with.

Work has been going terrific, I'm finally getting somewhere on my grant projects and hoepfully will have most of the big one done by next week. Yesterday one of the other volunteers came into my office and kidnapped me to perform in a choreographed dance in front of 200 elementary school kids. As one of the few gringos in the group my dance skills were definitely not up to snuff with the Guatemaltecos. Especially when dancing to songs such as "I'm a Barbie Girl" and "Mamboo #5" (I have no idea why in the world they like this music). Somehow us gringos muddled through and it was all worth it to see the giggling little kids and also our quite-amused coworkers. Another experience I will never forget :)

I set out today on my own in the main part of town looking for the post office to send some postcards,and although I failed in my sending mission (Post Office closes at 12 on Saturdays here as well) I did find some interesting things. For one, I saw a poor woman in indigenous dress with a huge basket on her head get bumped by a car that was backing out of a parking space. Her basket and the things in it went flying, and she went over to yell at the driver. As I ran over to help I couldn't help but note the ultimate irony of culture clash within the same country: the modern ladino Guatemala in a car versus the traditional indigenous ways of life. I guess we know who is going to come out on top of that cultural clash in the end.

And I also finally found where the Guatemalans eat. Wait for it-- McDonalds! I stopped in out of curiosity/an overwhelming urge for a diet coke, and low and behold the place was packed with Guatemalans- only Guatemalans. It also turns out that prices at McDonalds are pretty much the same here as at home- .99 cents for a diet coke that I could have gotten for .25 cents at a local tienda. Same price for the fries. So why do Guatemalans eat at a relatively expensive McDonalds when they could eat really great food at a local restaurant for just about the same price? Another mystery. I'll have to ask Maria-Elsa tonight. I have a feeling that its for the same reason the teenagers watch badly dubbed MTV shows and old NSync videos on TV. Sigh.

This morning was a beautiful day and James has some great pictures of all three of the volcanoes you can see from here (on days when the clouds aren't so low that they cover them). As soon as I can steal them from him I will post.