how i met el presidente and got into grad school all in the same weekend

So last Friday there was this job fair in Chiquimula and ADISO was invited to attend. I hadn´t planned on going, but Carlos asked me if i was going to come too. So i agreed. We got everything ready the day before: banner, brouchures, keychains to sell, photos, cpu, and a bunch of other stuff. Since we don´t have a car and it would have been difficult to bring all this stuff on the bus, dra. Flor said she´d lend us her car. We decided to leave at 6:30 am because there´s road construcion and we wanted to have enough time to set up the stand. I woke up at 5:40 and made my way to the office by 6:15 as milo and i had a agreed. I was the first to arrived and unfortunatley i didn´t have my keys to the office (mirna accidently took them to san luis earlier in the week.) so i sat on the curb for about 20 minutes. Milo showed up and carlos with the truck shortly after. We loaded up the truck and headed out. We passed by the gas station but it was closed. Luckily we had just rented two tents the day before so we had money to pay for gas. I suggested that we go to the other gas station a little out of the way, but what choice did we have. we got gas and met edwin in the terminal. It was around 7:30 and we were on our way. The feria de trabajo was in a girl´s high school and we set up in the gym-auditorium. I was just thinking about how professional we looked with all our equipment when we realized that we´d forgotten the mouse and keyboard in ipala. Oops. Carlos called his little brother (his family lives in chiqui) to ask him to lend us his. The fair was supposed to start at 9 or 10 but they didn´t start letting people in until around 10:30. i quickly realized that job fair means the same in spanish as it does in english. People were coming to look for work and we were without jobs to offer. Domino´s was there and wackenhut and the gas company. The stand to the right of us was a woman´s co-op from estanzuela. I started chatting with a woman as she handicrafted. Appearently the co-op was actually defunct because the former president stole all the money. But this woman and her friend were continuing on. The stand to the left was guatecompras, this governmental entity that monitors the government´s spending to make everything more transparent. Neither of these stands had jobs to offer either. Carlos and edwin took off to give some sort of project presentation to the Environmental Ministry and milo and i were left with the bad 80´s techno music and the few people who passed by our stand. I decided to take advantage of the captive audience and invited people to come visit the volcano and give them brochures and stuff. Then i had to put the smack down and talk to the dj to get him to change the music. I still have the music burned into my mind. It was horrible. A woman who works for a water park in río hondo called valle dorado walked over to us and we started chatting. Later she came back with 2 free passes to the water park. Sweet!! Then she came back a few minutes later with 2 more for milo. Double sweet. I want us to go as an office, but worst case i´ll just ask sindy or ema to go with me. I was told there´s a pool side bar and nothing sounds sweeter right now. Anyway carlos and edwin came back; they said the presentation went well and seemed happy. Edwin decided to leave and go back to ipala. We thought we were going to get lunch but really it was just a can of supercola (which i declined.) carlos brought back tacos de papa with were deliciously deep-fried. I had a couple and gave the rest to milo. We had another small dilemma: the president of guatemala was in ipala on Friday. He was in ipala to inagurate some obras like the new bus terminal and the paving of the road from the highway to chaguiton (halfway up the volcano.) before you needed a 4 wheel drive car to make it up to the aldea, but after the asphalt, any car should be about to make it. (except maybe a taz, right kate?) this is going to be great for tourism on the volcano. Because people are lazy sob´s and why climb up a volcano when you can drive up it in the comfort of your own car? Anyway, the president was supposed to be on the volcano to inagurate the project, but unfortunately the two representitives of ADISO who were supposed to be there, you know representing us, were mia. So, carlos considered going, but he had another presentation to give to INGUAT (the guate tourism board) in the afternoon in chiqui. So we had 3 people at this job fair in chiqui where we didn´t really have any business being, and nobody on the volcano which we co-administrate to greet the president of guatemala. Es típico. Carlos and milo went to eat lunch and i held down the fort. There wasn´t much to hold down, because nobody was coming in. The boys came back and the afternoon dragged on. There was a rumor that the president was going to come to the job fair later in the afternoon but i didn´t believe it for a second. This job fair was a flop. He was going to send some scouts in ahead of time and they were going to tell him as much. Carlos took off around 2:45 to give the other presentation. Milo and i tried not to fall asleep. A little later on some people started arriving. But not just any people. People in army gear who took up sniper positions on the roof and people who had bomb sniffing dogs on leashes. Alright. And then de repente, he arrived. Oscar Berger. (pronouned bear-shay) El presidente de la republica de guatemala. The band played. People stood up. And he started in with his pocas palabras talking about labor and work and i didn´t really listen. He was surrounded by a small croud of people holding up their cell phones to take pictures and record what he was saying. I walked up and snapped a few fotos too and went back to the stand. I called carlos to tell him to hurry up and come back. Milo wasn´t very excited. He´s angsty anti politics guy. I was excited. He began to walk around to the stands. He shook the guatecompras´ guys hands and i put my hand out too. He gave me a kiss on the cheek. I walked around the stand to get next to him. I kept thinking what with chris solarz do? Chris solarz would get the foto. I gave the president a keychain of the laguna and asked if he had been here. He said of course; they had just come from there, inagurating the asphalt project. (oh right.) i thanked him for all his support and said, ¨Gracias a Usted por todo su apoyo.¨. and then we took the foto with my camera. He gave me another handshake and kiss and he was off. I was pretty stoked to say the least. I´d never met the head of state before. Kick ass. Carlos came back a bit later. ¨You missed the president!!¨ i said. It turns out that the guy from inguat he was supposed to met up with didn´t even show up so he went there por gusto. Bummer. We started packing up but had to wait to leave until the crowds had cleared out. We stopped by carlos´s parents house to drop off the keyboard and mouse. His mom is so adorable. And she called me chula (cute) too. I always like it when little old ladies call me chula. When we got going again, the car wouldn´t start. So milo had to push us down the hill a ways and the engine turned over. Somehow the windshield wipers got turned on and carlos couldn´t figure out how to turn them off. It was pretty hilarious, driving around in the blazing chiquimula sun with the wipers on overdrive. I couldn´t stop laughing. Then i reached over and figured out how to turn them off. We were in a pretty good mood. All in all the day had been successful. And it turns out the president just circled the volcano in his helicopter anyway. we were headed back to ipala when carlos got a phone call. After he hung up, he seemed a more serious. I asked him que pasó? It was edwin. The rumor of the moment was that ADEGO, another ngo in ipala that focuses more on agriculture had just been promised half a million quetzales by the president. Not a big surprise. The mayor of ipala, roél pérez is the president of all the mayors of guatemala and of the same political party as berger. He´s also a big tool. He also doesn´t like ADISO very much. The president of the board of directors and my first counterpart ran against him in the last election. And in general people associated with ADISO are not of his political party. So the muni doesn´t help us all that much. And some say they´ve done stuff to sabotage (or sabowtage) us. on the other hand the muni hearts ADEGO so much. They have free office space and get a lot more financial help. And their secretary was La Flor de la Feria (ms. Ipala) last year. (her twin sister used to work for ADISO.) And now they´ve got Q500,000 to work with and we have Q60,000 in debt and no clear way of how to pay it off. ADISO and ADEGO aren´t rivals really. In fact a former executive director of ADISO works in ADEGO and just came in to visit last week. it´s just ugly politics. So the rest of the drive home was a little more somber. Although i said, ¨you know carlos, they may have half a million queztales, but we got a picture with the president.¨ carlos smiled. ¨Tienes razon.¨

On Monday morning it was raining. strange. Really strange. It never ever rains this time of year but here it is sprinkling at 8 in the morning. I walked to the office. I was the first one there. I now had my keys and opened the door. There was some mail on the floor. Light bill. My newsweek from peace corps. V-day postcard from mara. (thanks mara!) letter from unc chapel hill. I read the postcard, threw away the newsweek, and opened up the unc letter. Don´t tell me my application is missing something this late in the game. The letter started out something like this . . . ¨we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into unc chapel hill´s graduate program.¨ what?? i´m not supposed to be getting these for at least another couple months, right? The letter was dated feb 2. i did a victory lap around the office. Then i started calling people. I called alexa (left a message) and my sister (woke her up) and my parents (woke them up). What a great sign. I was so happy. All that gre studying, all those applications, all those emails, all the difficulty of doing it from guatemala, all seems so long ago. When i think about all i did between june and january to apply to grad school, i can´t believe it. nor do i have the energy to do it all over again now. To all my friends who have applied to grad school or are going to, i salute you. because it sucks. A lot. But believe me when you get that first letter of acceptance, it´s suddenly so worth it.

turbulance

Wow i´ve been out of touch. it´s been a rough couple of months. After i got back from new year´s, i got some horrible news. nidia´s father had been murdered. my friends had been trying to call me but i didn`t have phone reception in lanquìn. appearently he went missing on the 30th when he went out to their lands and didn`t come back. they sent out a search party on the 31st and i think nidia is the one who found him, killed by his own machete and gun. i visited the family as i soon as sindy told me the news. they were doing surprisingly well. they are an extremely religious and well-respected family. everyone said that the whole town was at the funeral. i really don`t know what the motive was. and given the shoddy police investigations around here, i doubt i ever will nor will the culpret be brought to justice. there were 3 murders in the last week of 2005 in ipala. a neighbor`s brother was shot in a drive by and a guy from chaguiton was killed. again, i really don`t know the motives.

i didn´t feel like doing anything after being gone for so long. School hadn´t really started yet and everybody was biding their time until the feria (january 20-26). I was so excited for the feria. Ipala´s patron saint is san idlefonso. But mostly i was stoked for a week of continuous dancing and street fries and churros. In the second week of january i got really sick. Your standard poops and pukes. It was the first time i´d ever gotten sick in ipala. I guess it had to happen once. I think it was some bad spinich i ate. You see spinach is a little difficult to get; it´s this really shitty 35 minute bus ride to chiquimula, a really shitty town. The spinach i had looked like it was about to turn so i decided to risk it. bad idea. ema and i met up to go running in the morning and although i wasn´t feeling well, i didn´t want to back out on only our 2nd day of exercising together. So we went for the run, i came back, showered and all that and then started to feel worse. I puked a few times in the afternoon and somehow made it to the store down the road to buy more toliet paper with out pooping my pants. What a relief. Ema came by and i asked him to go by me some gatorade and some crakers. He´s such a peach and pulled through in spades. I didn´t sleep much that nite for running to the bathroom every few minutes. I went through around 5 pairs of underware and put a beach towel down on the bed just in case. The next day Selma sent over some atol de plántino (a plantain smoothie) and i highly recommend it for anyone who needs to stop themselves up. i was feeling better but still pretty weak. i went over to the neighbor´s house in the evening because i was bored in my house. Although i didn´t really feel ready to eat real food yet, selma had made me a sopa del monte (weed soap), although of which monte i can´t remember. It had chicken stock and onion and i don´t remember what else. And it did not go well. The result was the worst, most painful gas i have ever ever had in my life and those of you who know me well know that i can be pretty gassy. It was odorless and soundless but so so painful and constant. It was like someone had but one of those acordian fire stokers in my mouth and kept pumping my full of air. I had to excuse myself and go home. I could´t sleep. I tried yoga positions. I tried going to the bathroom. I tried pepto. Nothing. Earlier i had been really proud of my body for taking care of itself and getting the elements responsible for making me sick out, but now i was just pissed. I kept saying to myself ¨what is this supposed to do¨ and ¨it´s time to come home.¨ finally i was able to get to sleep. The next day i was exhausted and didn´t leave the house. in all i was house bound 4 days. But it all passed and i went back to work on Monday.

That same Monday mom called to give me some bad news. My grandpa phipps had passed away. it wasn´t unexpected. I went over to the neighbors to tell them. When they asked me how old he was, i told them 90. they told me at 90 that his life was a blessing from god. I tried to think of it like that too. How lucky i am to have grown up with him and to have known him so well. But it´s always hard losing a loved one. Plus grandpa was just so cool. Picture johnny cash, but instead of a guitar, he´s got a table saw close at hand. So the next few days were a whirlwind. I decided to take advantage of the trip home and pack a bunch of shit up to take de una vez. Ema was really great. Driving my around and keeping me company. I left ipala at 3:30 in the morning on the 19th and he drove me to the bus terminal. I had been told that the pullman left at 3:30 which is why i got up so early; my flight wasn´t until the next day. But at 3:30 in rolls in a normal camioneta (tricked-out school bus). I was so pissed. But not really. I got into guate and was checked into the hotel before 7 am. Sarita came and joined me at tikal futura. It was really nice of her to see me off.

My trip home was a whirlwind too. Kim came home. The funeral was on Monday. It was a nice and simple service. I of course cried the whole time. You know how sensitive i am. It was nice to see my cousin deann and her sons. Her husband wrote a really nice poem about grandpa saying that he hopes he´s just like him in his golden years. The rest of the time at home i enjoyed visits from joe and p, and shannon (I´m always up for a trip to the yakima valley museum and a sleepover at the o´connor house) and eating a lot and finishing up financial aid stuff for grad school. And it was time for me to head back to guate.

I was only in ipala 2 nites and i headed out to antigua with sindy to go dancing. It was such a different experience going out in antigua with one guatemalan friend then with a big group of north americans. We had a good time and we danced a lot which was the goal. We had been talking about making this trip happen for such a long time, i´m glad we finally got the chance to do it. the next day was the superbowl. Go hawks. Although it didn´t turn out as i´d liked, i had a good time and my steeler´s fans friends were good sports. Well all of them except for mirna.

My training group started rolling into antigua for our close of service conference which began on Wednesday. They put us up in this really nice hotel and although i´d planned to take salsa lessons with gabriel and do all this other stuff, basically i didn´t leave the complex. (it was kind of far from the central park.) the cos conference was really good, but so compressed and emotional and difficult. We were all trying to reflect and process the events of the past two years, personal and professional. And we all knew this was the last time we´d all be together as a group and probably the last time some of us would see each other. And it was hard for me to be around noel for so many days in a row. I havent had the opportunity to have distance from him and i was excited that this was the last time we would have to be around each other and that hopefully one day, we´ll want to be around each other again and it will be so much better. I just don´t like how we are treating each other right now and i don´t like how i feel when i´m around him. So the conference ended on Friday and we were all so exhausted. mirna had planned a birthday dinner at casa santo domingo, a five star hotel. So we all got dressed up and ready and it was such a nice nite. We had a valentine´s day secret gift exchange. Meredith and i had each other! It was so perfect. And then we went dancing at the casbah. One last dance up on stage with dave and a random gay guy. And then alexa wowed everybody. I swear nobody was dancing; they were all watching her.

Alexa and I decided that we couldn´t leave on Sunday so we decided to stay another day with bob, meredith, and sarah. It was a very chill day, lots of eating and hanging out. Right before we were about to go to bed, alexa and sarah closed the door to the room sat down on the bed opposite me. they looked serious. ¨we have something to tell you and it sucks but we wanted you to hear it from us . . . noel is dating rachel.¨ i wasn´t shocked because in december i had suspected that there was something going on between them and i think 6 months being single has got to be a new record for him, but i was still really upset of course. After the crying and the not so much anger but disgust, we got ready for bed. I didn´t sleep at all. And i was a mess at breakfast. Bob joined us and i kept crying and i couldn´t eat. Bob is so sweet. He asked me if i had any questions. I said no, that i thought i knew noel well enough so that all my questions were already answered. I was really ready to get out of antigua. It always better once i get on the bus. It´s so hard to leave, but once you´re on the bus it´s all down hill. Especially once i take the bus to guate, catch the cab to the zone 4 termial and get on the pullman to jutiapa. Once i got on the pullman i felt so much better about everything. The conference was over. I´m almost out of here. I´m happy in ipala and have great friends there. I love my peace corps friends who are the only reason i´ve gotten through this experience. I have amazing friends and family waiting for me at home. I´m going to grad school in the fall (i don´t know where yet, but somewhere), i´m about to finish this ridiculously hard chapter of my life and nothing will ever compare to the struggles i´ve had here, and more importantly, i´m not in an unhealthy relationship that makes me sad and moody all the time. I win!!!!!

It´s been nice being back in ipala for a long stretch of time. I was gone over 3 weeks except for that one day between coming back from the us and leaving for antigua. I´m eating better and i´ve started jump roping everyday. I have a ton of work to finish up but feel good about having enough time to do it all. My very last site visit from flavio is on Wednesday and then i will never have to deal with him again either. Good ridance. Ema asked me out to dinner for día de cariño (feb 14) although here it doesn´t have to be as romantic as in the states. It´s really common for friends and family to celebrate together. However, i am pretty sure he´s developed a crush on me and to diffuse the situation i invited mirna and her friend, chino, and sindy to go with us. we ate at cafe alhambra, my favorite place, and they had people singing live. The propblem was that the music was really loud, the female singer was wearing a tiny sparkley tube top and tight pants and sticking her boobs in everyone´s face (not ideal if you are out with your boyfriend for a romantic valentine´s day dinner) and she sang a lot of broken-hearted ranchera songs, which for me was great, but for actual current couples not the best choice. But we had a lot of fun. I think it was one of my best valentine´s days ever. No, it definately was.

Artículo 26 de la constitución de Guatemala: la libertad de locomoción

So wha´ happened was i was over at the neighbors´ house last nite watching back to back episodes of laguna beach with my 21 year old ¨hermanito¨, ema, (he really is a champ to let me come over EVERY DAY to watch lb). I had to explain to him what the subtitled phrases ¨amigos con derechos¨and ¨amor platónico¨ meant. Even after my explanations he was puzzled (the friends with benefits really threw him for a loop) but i told him that it all gets messed up anyway and its best to avoid these kinds of complicated relationships. anyway we started talking about school. He is studying ¨derechos¨ or rights (ie going to law school) and had a makeup exam yesterday. We were talking about how it went and he pulled out this copy of the guatemalan constitution to show me some of the laws he has to study. Por casualidad he opened it up to article 26: freedom of locomotion. That´s right. You read it correctly. All guatemalans, regardless of age, sex, race, whathaveyou are garuanteed the freedom to do the locomotion. just imagine: ¨todos están haciendo el nuevo baile, vamos nena, haz la locomoción. Yo sé que vas a gustarlo si lo das el chance, vamos nena, haz la locomoción.¨ i almost peed my pants. He asked me what was so funny. I asked him if he remembered a kylie manogue song from the early 90´s called the locomotion. he said vaguely. I told him it´s funny because it says in the guatemalan constitution that everyone has the freedom do a dance, kind of like the macarena. He got it and started laughing. Ahh, these are the precious moments. I then spent about an hour trying to pronounce rio de janiero correctly, or at least saying it in spanish which is a lot closer to how it should sound than the whack ass englified version we learn in grade school geography class. And i spent that same hour try to teach ema how to say quarter correctly. I have yet to meet a guatemalan who can say it and i must say it provides lasting entertainment watching them try.

Ema´s band is practicing next door right now. The band´s name is necropsia and consists of my neighbor emanuel, my coworker milo, and my landlords´ son che. They actually arent that bad. They do mostly covers but have a few original songs. A month ago carlos´s (my boss) uncle and brother organized a free concert in the park called trova rock and invited various people to come play. They also asked the audience to bring toys to collect for christmas. I took the fotos that became the audio visual display. I remember carlos´s words exactly, ¨lindsay, can you go take some pictures of some poor kids for the concert.¨ needless to say i didnt feel really comfortable going around looking for poor kids so i made milo and mariana (the swiss girl, have i mentioned her? Whatever it doesnt really matter) come with me. we got a few nice ones, of course when parents weren´t looking or from safe distances. Anyway the concert was a lot of fun and i was so proud of my chicos!! I felt like a proud parent. And milo wore the jimi hendrix t-shirt i´d bought for him in the states as a birthday present. They played a few times throughout the nite and then finally at the end, ema was on lead vocal-guitar and said ¨me gustaria agradecer a la gente aquí, gracias a mi amiga lindsay, . . .¨ it was so cute and i couldnt help the smile radiating from my lips like a 1000 puntos de luz. I´m already excited for the next show whenever that might be. Appearently they might get to play during the feria this month during the motocross competition. Oja la. Oh and about those toys, well ludwin (carlos´s uncle) didn´t really have a plan of what to do with toys, so he dumped them off on us (adiso) to give away. so Friday, jan 6, día de los reyes (the thing about living here is i´ve learned about all these christian holidays that americans dont seem to know about or celebrate anymore) we climbed halfway up the volcano to the aldea de chäuiton to give toys away to the kids up there. We played some games and asked some questions. Mostly manuel and milo took charge because i don´t like kids and i don´t play games. I think everyone walked away happy.

The weather has been crazy these past few days. Freaking cold. Last nite when i went to bed at 11 my thermometer said 61. i´ve been wearing my scarf and hat and coat inside. Last nite i slept in my sleeping bag. And it rained on the fifth. It never ever rains this time of year. But as sindy pointed out its the canícula. The first 12 days of the year indicate how the weather is going to be for the corresponding month. All i can say is people are going to be fucked in may and i wont be here to have to deal with it.

Did i every tell you about the man with no legs and an arm and a half who cleans the bus terminal? Well he doesn´t have legs below the knees and his face is messed up and he has one hand i think. I´m not really sure. Anyway he´s a city employee and sweeps up the litter from the bus terminal on a daily basis. He´s probably the hardest worker in ipala. We´re friends. well not like bff i know his name friends or anything, but we say hi or rather adios to each other regularly.

I´m with her, she´s from queens, her mom´s from france

I forgot to mention that i caught the bouquet at beth´s quiche wedding. Twice. I caught it the first time and this guy was like, she throws it three times, and took it away from me. alright. Beth threw it again and i caught again. This time he said, well alright i guess it´s over. You can have it. Sweet.

So i met some us congressmen in antigua. Appearently there was some sort of reception planned with peace corps volunteers at casa santo domingo, the nicest hotel in antigua. Alexa and i were in antigua because we were passing through after the wedding, working on grad school apps and waiting for her mom to fly in later that week. we were not invited to the reception, nor informed of it at all. Some of our friends who were invited told us that it was only for volunteers who had helped during hurricane stan. Not us. so we were at the internet cafe and alexa had to go to the bathroom. I continued typing emails and stuff. She was gone a really long time and when she came back she was all excited. Guess who i just met in the bathroom? Congressman ortiz. He gave me a personal invitation to the meeting this afternoon and your coming too. Alexa, seeing the woman´s bathroom was occuppied decided to use the men´s instead. She then saw a big pair of black hands reaching over the door, and someone demanding, ¨who´s in there?¨ when alexa came out of the bathroom, she said, it´s just me. while washing her hands she made small talk with a man who turned out to be congressman ortiz and it came out that she was a pcv, she was not invited to the meeting, and so he invited her. He asked her where she was from and she told him queens. Funny coincidence the man trying to barge in on her in the men´s room was the 6th district rep from queens. So alexa and and i show up in the best clothes that we had at the time; it was a limited selection because we had just taken all our dirty clothes to the laundry mat. I went with carharts and my boots, alexa choose jeans and a turtleneck. We showed up at the five star hotel at five. All the rest of the pcv´s and our country director were already there. We were excited to see the look on our boss´s face as we rolled in, invited by her, but summoned by a higher power. Alexa exlpained the situation and the congressmen trickled in one after another in their khaki pants and polo shirts. They were from texas, missouri, new york, florida, and wisconsin so i didnt recognize any of the names. Plus i´ve been in guatemala for 2 years. They were mostly democrats and on a whirlwind tour of central america promoting cafta (or tlc as it´s known her). I stood next to the majority whip in the group foto. They all really nice things to say to us; how they were so proud of the work that we were doing, how we were american ambassadors, etc. Although it was politiky reteric, it was nice to hear. Honestly, guatemalans rarely thank us or recognize the sacrifices we make. Luckily my friends in ipala support me and are a little more aware, but i think it´s an exception. So i made small talk with a rep from wisconsin, i don´t remember his name. Or maybe it was missourri. Whatever, it´s all the same. Anyway, he started asked about my work and if it was ¨real primitive¨ where i live. His jaw dropped when i told him that i have a hot shower and a gas stove. When he asked me what my plans where for after peace corps, i told him that i´ve been applying to planning schools. he asked me which ones and i told him and somehow slipped in that i graduated from brown. His reaction was, wow that´s a liberal school. My daughter looked at brown but ended up playing lacrosse at dartmouth. Of course he has a daughter who played lacrosse at dartmouth. He then proceded to tell me about how the congressmen were discussing on the plane how the great thing about being in central america was you can say merry christmas without any problems and how in the united states you have to say happy holidays. ¨Happy holidays, well i say BS to that. It´s merry christmas.¨ i really didn´t know what to say. I kind of wish i was jewish so i could have said so. But instead i just said it had been nice talking to him and ¨Happ- I mean merry christmas!!¨ Then i went to talk to congressman foley from florida with some other volunteers. We called him mr. Pink because he had a pink shirt, pink pants, and loafters on. And he was ready to party. He started telling stories about hanging out with the kennedy family while the rest of us golped down american beers (sam adams ligtht, coors light, michalob light, and other beers i´ve never seen in guatemala before). He then asked what languages the ¨tribes¨ spoke where we lived. I answered ¨well, actually there arent any indigious mayan people in my town; they all speak spanish.¨ then this sharply dressed guy came up to our group. I can´t remember who introduced themself first, but we were all peace corps volunteers and he was in charge of setting exxon´s prices for all of central (maybe it was latin) america. Hmm. This could be awkward. But he was actually really nice. Or maybe that was the sam adams light working it´s magic. Anyway all the congressmen drifted off to their big fancy dinner and we headed to the greek place. alexa exchanged phone numbers with the guy in charge of planning their evening activies so that we could meet up later. Mr. Pink seemed really excited at that prospect. Alexa called tom later on; it seemed that the congressmen would not be leaving the casa santa domingo compound that evening, but there was an open bar set up at the hotel and we were invited. Done and done. We should up and i poured myself a triple amaretto on the rocks and ate a handful of cookes. Alexa put some kiwi in her bag and snagged some bottles of water. There weren´t any congressmen there, just pcv´s stuffing their faces and downing the fancy imported liquor. As it should be. They get this kind of treatment on the time. I can´t even remember the last time i saw a kiwi. Then tom showed up and told us it was time to move on before we devoured everything in site. We headed back to our, much more modest hotel and called it a nite.

Alexa and i headed into the capital to pick up her mom on the 22nd. It´s so interesting to meet people from home. We all came here alone, without any links to our past lives. We know about each others´ past from fotos and stories, but as to how we behave and who we are in our natural environment, it´s a mystery. That´s why it´s so great to meet friends and family from home; it gives a little window into who we are and most of us are eager to introduce our visitors to our pc friends. As alexa said about her mom ¨she is her own show¨ and i understand alexa so much better after meeting her. We had a very pleasant dinner at cuatro grados norte in guate and her mom gave me a box of godiva chocolates. The next day i left for ipala, and alexa and her mom for huehue. Have you every traveled on Friday, december 23rd before? In public transportation? With a huge backpack? In guatemala? It´s not recomendable, but it can be done. I was happy to be back in ipala and had dinner at the neighbors.

Feliz navidad

So on the 24th i made may way to san luis, after being in ipala less than 24 hours. Mirna had invited me over la noche buena and gabriel had made his way to the oriente for the first time. Some of my friends and neighbors were a little upset that i wasnt spending the christmas eve in ipala but i explained that i´d be back for xmas day and the neighbors invited me and my friends over for lunch. I got to mirna´s in the afternoon and we decided to make pupusas for dinner. Gabriel uncorked a bottle of wine, i put on the salsa, mirna made masa, and the festivities began. The pupusas turned out pretty good; gabriel and i even tried to make a couple inbetween salsa lessons. He asked me if i wanted to take classes with him in antigua some time and i was shocked. I mean the man is from puerto rico and i feel like i have 2 left feet every time i try to dance with him. I´m really excited about the dance classes. Anyway some of mirna´s female friends came over and some reggaeton songs and two bottles of tequila later we headed over to omar´s family´s house. After mirna finished her tamales, we said goodbye and headed out. Mirna needed to go visit some more friends but gabriel and i were ready for the dance floor so we headed to salón. There were like 3 people inside but that didn´t matter and gabriel and i danced a couple songs until they cut the music off at midnite so people could go outside and get their xmas hugs. On cue mirna appeared on the muni steps as we walked outside to the sounds of firecrackers and guns blazing. We walked back to omar´s house to give them hugs and decided to wait inside while neighbors shot off pistol rounds into the air. Gabriel commented that in puerto rico there are always accidental deaths as a result of the christmas eve celebrations. We then headed to another house, more food and hugs. Finally we made our way back to the dance floor. But unfortunately the music sucked. It was mostly ranchera, and while i like ranchera, i don´t really like dancing to it. The dance lasted until about 3 and we continued the after party in mirna´s house. Some more dancing and drinking. People started drifting out, and finally we had the house to ourselves. We stayed up talking, a dizzying mixture of english and spanish, through sunrise and went to bed around 6:30. the next day the neighbors called me around 10 to tell me to hurry up and get back to ipala in time for lunch. Gabriel decided to go with mirna to an aldea in san luis instead of coming to ipala, and i was really upset about it at first. There wasnt any public transportation so juan and ema came to pick me up in san luis (about 20 minutes away) i felt really bad but they said it was no trouble and i had a wonderful xmas lunch with the monroy family. I ate too much. And when i tried to help with the dishes, selma told me to go rest in the hammock. Alright. I spent all afternoon at my neighbors, drinking ponche de frutas and looking at ema´s baby pictures. He was adorable!! I went home around 7, made a few phone calls and crashed. All in all it was one of the best christmases i´ve had.

Happy two thousand kicks!!

For new year´s i had decided to go to lanquin. I wasnt sure who was going to be there except for mirna, gabriel, and dan, a former pcv who lives in coban. I left Friday afternoon, dreading the trip. I love the verapazes, but i hate the trip getting there. Long story short, mirna and i decided to stay at noel´s place in purulhá. I´d never been there before and since mirna wanted to stay with him, i didnt want to stay in coban by myself. I got there first and called noel from the highway. I was expecting him to come meet me and take me to his house himself, but he thought that giving me directions over the phone was a sufficient greeting. After a little searching i found him at his house. Its a nice place and his new site suits him well. Its all cold and mountainy and green. He´s got a latrine outside the house which i didnt appreciate later in the nite when i almost fell of the barranca trying to get to it. I decided that if i had to pee again, i´d do it behind the house. Mirna called a bit later. She had gotten off at the wrong stop and was a little lost. Noel orientated her by phone (his seemingly preferred method of greeting visitors) and with some luck she found us. we had a nice dinner and i spent the rest of the cold, snuggling with mirna. We woke up at 5 to catch a bus to coban so that we could meet dan by 7. unfortunately we got really lost in the dark while trying to find the highway. Mirna asked a guy that we passed if we were on the right track. He told us that we absolutely were not, that we were in the fincas and it was dangerous and that he would take us to the highway. (i won´t make any comments about how this complete stranger was more a better host than noel. Oh wait yeah i will. Its my blog and i can write what ever i want.) so we finally got to coban and arrived just in time for dan to come pick us up. We were a random group of people, pcv´s, dan´s friend from home who is serving in el salvador, some swedish people, a guatemalan cafe owner, and more randoms were waiting for us in lanquin. i spent the day swimming in the natural rock pools, enjoying good conversation, and devouring a milky way. for the evening celebration we headed over to gabriel`s house. he lives in a building that one day may or may not be a functioning hotel. it`s hard to describe but he set it up nicely with candles and and the bar area was stocked with tamales, tacos, and drinks. we spent the early evening warming up on the dance floor, and in dan i found someone who helped me take my ironic 80`s dance moves to a whole new level. it was magical. we went on to the hotel we were met with acid jazz (needless to say the ironic dancing continued) and at the stroke of midnite we all hugged and kissed and drank champie. it was a wonderful new years. one of the best i´ve ever had. the next day dan was in a hurry to get back to coban for the first week of playoff football. i lounged with the boys and the we realized that it was in fact the last week of the regular season and all that hurry and flurry to get back really was for naught. oh well. mirna and i stayed at carmen`s place as her roommates are out of town and stayed up late drinking tea and talking about strange jungle sicknesses you can catch in the petèn. the next day a friend of a carmen`s gave us a ride as far as el rancho and mirna and i made the rest of the trip back home to ipala with out incident. all in all a great time.

not so much mayan-cool but guatemalan wierd-boring

so the cake has been cut, the rings exchanged. the wedding was last sunday. it was supposed to start around 3 but it true chapin fashion it begun around 5 or 5:30 i don't really remember because i was already intoxicated. let's start at the beginning.
we showed up in cotzal saturday afternoon, an easy 40 minute trip from nebaj. everyone else trickled in and i was so glad that alexa and i had decided to do the trip a couple days earlier. everyone showed up destroyed from the long bus ride. we went to the salon municipal in the evening to help decorate. the building itself was way ugs. think industrial barn building. but with all the balloons and bows and stuff it didnt look half bad. alexa and i were in charge of the dance floor. we had crepe paper and saw horses at our disposal. this guy from cotzal came over to help. he asked me if this was something traditional from the states. maybe for a jr high dance in a gym, but for a wedding, i don't think so. anyway alexa and i did a hell of a job. then we got tired and decided to head back to the hotel. we had to shuffle beds around because bob was sick (he pooped twice on the walk back from the salon) and i was locked out of my room because alexa had the key and was eating beans at the in-laws' house. anyway, we all went to bed, anticipating the big show the next day.
a lot of us brought trajes tipicas from our towns, including me. i got one made and it'll be my halloween costume for the next ten years. the boys looked expecially cute in their trajes. and the girls look uncomfortable but beautful in their cortes and guipiles. anyway we started drinking and headed down to the salon around 3:30 to get tables. we hid our alcohol behind the dance floor and made it the unofficial bar. a lot of the non gringo wedding guests were evan(gelicos) so we tried to be discrete. beth decided that she wanted mojitos for the wedding toast so we had like 5 one-gallon bottles of rum, soda, and a shit ton of unwashed (and i mean dirty) mint leaves. dave, noel, zach, and i got to work. dave said he'd never made a mojito before. now he was going to make 500. it didn't turn out to be 500 exactly because evans don't drink. (or dance. that's why catholics are more fun. and they get to go to heaven too.) i remembered that i forgot my polaroid camera at the hotel. so dave and i went back (uphill) to the hotel. we passed beth and the husband and the whole procession. we hauled ass to the hotel and ran down the hill, catching them right before the reached the salon. i was sweating. and the photos turned out shitty anyway because the lighted inside the salon was so bad. the ceremony was pretty short, even for being in spanish and ixil. when tomas gave beth her ring, he spoke to her in ixil but with some spanish phrases mixed in. he said "cultural exchange" 3 times in spanish and who the hell knows what he said in ixil. beth went first and talked about how she loved her husband. then tomas went and talked about "the cultural exchange". i thought it was kind of sad. there was lots of aplauding. and lots of presents wrapped in the same paper. when we went to the store to buy toilet paper a woman was getting the guatemalan equivalent of safegaurd gift wrapped for the wedding. then the woman working behind the counter asked us if we were in town for the wedding. we said yes. she asked us if any members of beth's family came for the wedding. we said no. she said that when she first heard the news about the wedding "me puso triste" (she got sad) for beth. we asked why but the answer was pretty much what i expected. because lots of people just want to take advantage and get u.s. citizenship. it was interesting hearing her perspective because of course we all think the same thing, not specifically about beth and tomas but about any guatemalan who expresses interest in getting to know us. what do they want from me and how do i make it clear from the beginning that i do not equal dollar signs and a green card? but beth and tomas seem happy. tomas seems like a nice guy. he's studied in cuba so at least he's lived abroad before. the u.s. will be quite a shock though, especially since he doesn't speak ingles. anyway after the vows, we ate and drank and started the dance party. i had a lot of fun dancing. i realized i hadnt gotten my groove on for way too long. i had a lot of fun dancing with noel; we hadn't really danced since we broke up. i think someone's been giving him lessons or something because he's gotten a lot better and i didn't have to lead. when you spend a year and half dancing with someone you really get used to each others estilo y pasos and it was nice to feel comfortable while dancing. i don't really like dancing with people i don't know because i never feel comfortable (especially if he's guatemalan) and i can never get the chemistry right. anywas it was a lot of fun. we headed home around nine or ten i think. not too late but we were all exhausted. a big group of us caught the 4:30 am bus out of town. dave puked out the window. i tried to sleep but it was way too uncomfortable even using gabriel as a pillow. i got to antigua around noon and took it easy the rest of the afternoon. tomorrow i'm heading to guate with alexa because her mom flys in and i want to meet her. then friday it's back to ipala. i think i'm having dinner at mirna's on the 24th and gabriel is coming to the oriente. i'm really excited to have him in my house. he's such a special person and i am really excited to spend the holidays with him.

the tigers of the north

so saturday i came to the capital to see los tigres del norte. if you don`t know how they are, they are like the beatles of ranchera music. i love ranchera (and banda) and i was not going to pass up the opportunity to see "puerta negra" en vivo. i brought my boots. i brought my washington belt buckle. i brought my love of mexican ranchera. the concert was great. i knew some of the songs, but these guys must have 50 albums. no joke. we left around one thirty, and they were still going strong, taking requests and everything. the show was over three hours long and they played four nites in row at different venues around the country. these guys are truly tigres. mirna has a crush on the lead singer. alexa likes the sax-accordian player. i kinda dug the drummer, although i´ve always had a thing for good accordian playing.
now i´m in nebaj, quiche. our plan was to come up on wednesday, but monday nite i got food poisoning. just your standard pukes and poops. so we had to postpone the trip a bit. not a big deal. we came up yesterday. from antigua it took us 11 hours to get here. the trip included: a tourist shuttle to chi chi (we´re on vacation), crossing a protestors´ baracade at los encuentros, getting stuck for 3.5 hours in road construction, and a finale of the trip that closely resembled a thrill ride at 6 flags. i hate rollar coasters. what i hate more is being on a school bus at nite on a cliff edge highway with a camionetta driver who`s been stuck in traffic and anxious to get home. i honestly had to close my eyes for part of the trip. nebaj is part of the ixil triangle. i thought it was going to be a small rustic town. it´s huge. bigger than ipala by far. the colonial church is pretty nice. and there´s a plaza. and in the plaza, because it´s xmas time, is throbbing andean xmas music and an animatronic santa claus. deeply disturbing. but even more disturbing is that the santa is in fact not animatronic. but it´s an actual person in a suit with a plasic face mask moving jerkily to the music as if he were animatronic. alexa and i had to move in for a closer inspection. he gave us a wave. i really want to take a foto. but i don`t want to have to pay. maybe tomorrow i´ll change my mind.
tomorrow we head to cotzal for beth´s quiche wedding. updates to follow . . .

graduation day

So last Monday was a rough day. It wasn´t really one thing in particular, just a culmination of things really. Milo and i had been trying to get together a group of kids to do some activities like make recycled paper and stuff, but only one girl showed up. I wasn´t really surprised. i had left milo in charge of some things since i wasn´t going to be coming into the office because of thanksgiving. He didn´t get everything done, not that i neccessarily think it would have mattered all that much. Edwin and sindy had trainings all week, milo had an exam in the afternoon and carlos had to go to jutiapa. So i had to stay in the office by myself during the afternoon without much to do. I felt like it was a waste of my time especially given all the grad school app stuff i still have to do. I called noel to ask him what his holiday plans were. I´ll probaby end up going to mirna´s house in san luis about 20 minutes away for xmas dinner and I´d been thinking about going to lanquín with mirna and some other people to visit gabriel. It wasn´t exactly what i thought i´d be doing; i´d wanted to travel, but don´t have anyone to travel with. And traveling by myself at christmas and new years doesn´t sound all that great. But neither does sticking around ipala. Anyway i wanted to see if noel was going to lanquín because if he was, i was going to make other plans. He said that he hadn´t really thought much about it but that if i wanted to go to lanquín i should. Want he really wants to do is travel to mexico but he doesn´t have anyone to go with, so he might just stick around his site. Sounds familiar and it made me sad to see that we´re both in the same situation. I closed the office around 4 and did some errands. I stopped by my friend´s house to pick up my laundry. She was sad and crying. She´s still involved with her ex-boyfriend, but had been hanging out with this other guy. The two men got in a fight and her ex-boyfriend got a black eye. I tried to tell her that she can´t keep repeating this same cycle and needs to make a clean break. But she doesn´t want to hear it and it makes me sad and disappointed. Then a couple houses down this group of wasted guys showed up (6 o´clock on a Monday) and a woman started fighting with them. She was yelling and a young boy was hysterical, screaming and crying. They came into the street and a man pushed the woman, knocking her to the street. People were watching but nobody did anything to help her. The kid started crying harder. I asked my friends if the woman didn´t have anybody she could call for help. They just laughed at how upset i was. This has happened to me before with them, when i´ve told them stories of getting pick-pocketed or my peace corps friends getting robbed at gun or knife point, they just laugh. I know people and culures have different ways of dealing (or not dealing) with serious things like violence, but it´s really disconcerting that people would laugh at situations like these. I know i´m not an expert and of course my generalizations don´t apply to everyone, like my friends at adiso, but guatemalans have very little respect for themselves or for each other. There i said it. From laughing about domestic violence that happens in the street in front of everyone to the machismo and slutty clothes of the oriente. Hace falta el respeto. So i ran away to antigua on Tuesday to pick up my letters of rec from the country director and hang out with some pc friends. i came back on Thursday, happy to be home, but plagued by more disappointments. This is the cycle of my life. i look forward to coming back to ipala, enjoy my time here, but then something will happen and i can´t wait to travel to antigua or visit a pc friend. Then i´ll get tired of all the bs of traveling and being away from home and run back to ipala. I can´t wait to be someplace where i´m not just waiting for the bomb to drop that will make me want to escape it.

Today (Saturday) was a nice day. I slept in a bit. The metal workshop woke me up at 7 am as usual. Today they did a lot of painting and the paint fumes were really bombarding my house. I burned some incense and lit some candles to mask it but kept thinking about the lung damage i´ve had over the past 22 months of living in guatemala. I got dressed up and walked to the office around noon. Dra. Yulma was having an inaguational lunch at this sala she and her husband built just outside of ipala. Carlos called and was on his way. Only he and i were going to go so we hopped on his moto and zipped off. I was a little worried about my dress flying up over my face, but it was smooth sailing. We arrived at the sala. It´s really nice and i didn´t feel like i was in ipala. There were a ton of tables and chairs, all covered in white cloth. There was a dj and a live marimba band. Carols and i went and sat down by ourselves at a table. I felt like i was at prom or something, it was such a surreal setting. The sala began to fill up with the who´s who´s of ipala – the mayor, doctors, businessmen, etc. Adiso got invited because the dra. Used to be the presidenta de la junta directive (board of directors). Anyway, carlos and i had a nice chat. I hadn´t really hung out with him outside of the office. I really like him a lot. He´s done well in his first couple months as executive director. He´s 26 and i honestly don´t have very many friends my own age - they´re all children, significantely older, or 20 or 21. it makes a big difference. I think we get a long so well because we´re the same age and because we have a similar sense of humor, something that´s really hard for me to find here. Anyway more people came and sat at the table, including edwin; an hour or so later there was the pocas palabras and cutting of the ribbon. then lunch was served and a bottle of johnny walker red label was placed on every table. This is pretty common here. Whisky and mineral water. I don´t care for it, but i can drink it when i put my mind to it. Carlos offered me the bottle so i poured myself a drink. I usually don´t drink in my site in public because i don´t think it looks that great, but honestly i have 4 months to go, i have confianza with the people with i was drinking with, and i´m not going to not drink just because i´m female. Lunch was very nice and very meaty. Carlos continued to pour himself another drink, and another. Luckily we were only about 2 minutes outside of ipala and in no hurry to get home. Just as they had come in, people started to file out. I think about seven people told me ¨que linda, no te reconocí, te van a robar, que hermosa, te enamoré¨ or other such compliments. I mean honestly people, all i did was put on a dress and mascara, and comb my hair. No need to freak out. I continued to be embarassed everytime someone told me how pretty i looked because i don´t really know how to take sincere compliments anymore - i recieve them so rarely - and because carlos was sitting there hearing every one of them. He had told me that i look nice in pink. Since he has a girlfriend of 3 years, i think that´s the closest he can get to complimenting another woman who isn´t a relative. I mean i know i don´t usually try very hard here because i don´t want the attention - especially the whistling, cat-calling, chuching, and ass grabing. But do i really usually look that bad? Maybe i´ll start putting forth a little more effort. Nah. So carlos sobers up (he was blaming the wind for feeling a little tipsy) and we headed out. I was bummed that i didn´t get to dance, but the marimba music had taken over and i don´t know how to dance to marimba nor do i want to learn. He dropped me off at home. It was such a nice afternoon i didn´t want it to end; it just made me realize how infrequently i participate in social events where i actually enjoy myself. Maybe when i finish my apps i´ll start getting out a little more. I doubt it.

4.5 months to go. If you haven´t bought your guate ticket yet, better get on it!!

on the way here i got invited to a graduation ceremony that starts at 5. guess i´ll have to dust off the dress shoes one more time. and also somebody came by the house asking for help translating english class homework. for some reason this has happened to me a lot lately. but the thing is, they don`t want help. they want me to do it for them. they show up, having not even started, without a dictionary, saying they need help or don`t understand. i told him i was on my way out but he could stop by later in the afternoon and i asked him if he had a dictionary. he´s not going to be very happy when i make him look up all the words he doesn`t know (in my dictionary if he doesn`t bring his) instead of doing it for him. asì es.