Day 4

Breakfast this morning was at 7:15, and consisted of mosh, a hot, milky, sweet drink almost like very thin oatmeal; bread; and a mandarin orange. Daniel came to pick me up, and we walked to Maggie’s house to retrieve her. She was waiting at the door when we arrived, and we headed straight for El Nahual, our school. We missed the turn the first time around, but made it there with time to spare. Stephen and Brenna, the volunteer and international coordinators, respectively, pulled up at the same time on Stephen’s motorcycle. Stephen’s entire lineage went to Oberlin, and though he was the one maverick and went to University of Virginia, he still emits a strong Obie vibe. We were introduced to our teachers, and walked upstairs to the big room, with small tables set up all around it. We each took one table with our teacher, and began the lessons. My teacher is Sergio, who is young and from Xela, this city.


Though it gets hot here during the day, it is freezing in the morning. The cars all had a layer of frost, and when we started classes, I had to sit on my hands to keep them functioning. The first thing I did in the class was take a little test, to see where I was, we went through it, (I didn’t do too poorly, surprisingly) and then jumped into learning regular verbs in the present tense. Sergio is very funny, and loves the word ‘joke,’ so he often uses a word in a sentence, and then says, “No, es Jyoke.” We took a long break, and began to get to know the other volunteers and Stephen. He got here to Guatemala on his motorcycle, as he’s done before, and had many stories about crossing borders without papers, and paying off the right people to let him through. There are two women from Australia, one from Canada, and one from Finland, on a return trip here with her boyfriend.

We broke for lunch at noon. I walked back to my house with Daniel and Maggie, and when I got home, my host mother was cooking lunch. At first, she wouldn’t let me help her, so I stood in the kitchen and talked with her. When she started making tortillas, however, I began asking questions, and she taught me how to make them. They are super easy to make, and she has a little press, which makes them even easier to make. When we were finished cooking, we ate with my father, and my sister came in a bit late. With lunch, we drank starfruit juice, and though they taught me the word for starfruit, carambola, I could not remember it for my life. Daniel picked me up, and as we left my house, I realized I forgot the word again, and noted that my family would be sure to make fun of me for that. When we picked Maggie up, we got to meet her family’s dog, a little yappy white dog that always wears a Santa costume, complete with a hood and everything.

We all met for a while when we returned, and picked jobs. They are building some more classrooms in the school, so I offered to help with the construction. For the rest of the afternoon, I worked on building a few walls with the nice young guy who was working on the building. Stephen came and helped for a while too. Building standards are very different here than in the States. Though Stephen and I cringed at a few of the decisions made in the process, I’m sure they will be very nice, safe classrooms when they are all finished. At five, all the volunteers, tired from teaching and supervising children, and doing construction, walked to the Blue Angel Café, a popular gringo hotspot. There we talked about the week, what jobs we’ll have, and the other activities during the week. We also got to know each other a bit more. After the meeting, which was a bit drawn out, I used the internet for a bit, and then Maggie and Daniel and I walked home. When I got back, my host parents were watching Capote, so I sat down and watched most of Capote. They didn’t get to eating dinner (which I had done at the café) until after the movie, at 9:30. I sat with them and ate some plantains with crema, and drank coffee. It was not long after we sat down, that they asked if I remembered the word for starfruit. Much of the conversation for the rest of the night was at my expense, about the carambolas. But, alas, now I have heard it more than twenty times, and will hopefully not forget it. After talking and joking around a bit more, we finished dinner, and I went to my room to do my homework.

Day 3

I woke up this morning at nine, well rested. While I was eating breakfast, Daniel and Jose came to the house. When I was finished eating, we stopped by Jose and Daniel’s house, and then began an adventure. It was hot today, easily in the eighties. Jose took us to the Parc Centro, a beautiful park in the center of the city. It is right next to a huge catholic church that is at least 250 years old, according to my host mom. We walked around the park, people watched for a bit, and then walked through a market for a while. This city is really nice. It has an upbeat, friendly vibe. It is much wealthier than I had expected; it has a very middle class feel. After walking around for a long time, we ended up at the soccer field/basketball court where we had played yesterday. We played soccer for a long time, played with Jose’s friend’s puppy, and when we were exhausted, we went back to Daniel’s house. Because Maggie had my number and not Daniel’s, we walked back to my house, saw that Maggie had called, and she came over. Manuel, my host father, took us on a walk to the school, El Nahual, where we’ll be taking Spanish classes and teaching, starting tomorrow. It is not a short walk, and includes a good sized hill halfway there. On the walk, we caught up with Maggie, whose house has eleven other people living in it, including two babies. No one was at the school, so we saw it but could not look inside. It is on the edge of the city, where new houses pop up often, as the corn fields turn into city.


After our walk, we went to Daniel’s house, played cards, and ate lunch. We then walked Maggie home, by way of my house so that Maggie and Daniel could get sunscreen. I went home with Daniel, played some cards with Daniel and Jose, and then went back to my house to take a nap. At five, I decided I should get out of bed, and took a shower. I didn’t know where my family was, so I sat on the couch and read for a while, until Sonya invited me upstairs to watch TV with the family. We watched Die Hard dubbed in Spanish, which I’m certain added to the quality of the film. When the movie was over, we ate dinner. During dinner, Gabby was flipping through the channels, and I heard something on Fox about a shooting in Arizona. We watched long enough to learn most of the story, but I got angry at the reporter for trying to beat up on the sheriff, so we turned it off. We talked for a minute about Fox news, went back upstairs to watch another film, but I didn’t last long. Since I have to wake up at seven tomorrow, it is bedtime.

Day 2

After a chilly night on the air mattress, we woke up at 6:30. I stuck my head under the cold shower, got dressed, and ate a breakfast of coffee, toast and nutella. We went up on the roof to see Guatemala City in the morning, and some of our hostel friends were up there, about to go to bed after a long night of bar hopping. Manuel took us to the bus stop; we bought our tickets to Queztaltenango, or Xela; and had an hour to wait around. At 8:30 the bus arrived, and we boarded. It started out about half full. We left the station, drove for maybe six minutes, and then stopped. The driver disappeared, lots of people came on, and lots of vendors came through selling tamales, key chains and sodas. After about 20 or 25 minutes, the driver reappeared and we got on our way. We stopped several more times in Guatemala city to pick people up and to host beggars and vendors. After we left the city, we started heading up. We drove through towns, through farm lands, and up lots of mountains. It was stunning. About three hours into the drive, I picked up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me, and had my first real conversation in Spanish of the trip. Though my grammar is awful, we managed to have a good chat, and as she got off the bus I felt much more prepared for my homestay. Though we were strongly advised to do this trip during the day time, there were parts that I wished it had been dark, places where the road just fell into the cliff below or where the cliff above had just toppled onto the road. About five hours after we boarded the bus, we arrived at the bus stop in Xela. Maggie’s host father and adorable little brother picked her up first, and my host mom and sister picked Daniel and I up about ten minutes later. It was not a long drive to our first stop, Daniel’s home stay. He is staying with my host mother’s mother, father, and nephew, Jose, who is eleven. We then drove about three blocks more and got to my family’s home. It is beautiful. It is two stories, with a third story terrace, a view of most of the city and a volcano or two, and it is very roomy. I put my stuff down in my room, and took a tour of the house. By this time, everything was in Spanish. My host family consists of my mother, Sonya, my father, Manuel, and my sister, Gabby. They spent fifteen years living in Jersey City, so my sister actually learned to read and write in English first. She is an English teacher at a high school in the city. However, her mother insisted right from the beginning that she was to speak no English to me, so everything was in Spanish. After the tour, Gabby and Sonya prepared lunch alone, despite all of my offers to help. I stood in the kitchen and we talked about where I’m from, their stories, etc. Manuel then joined us, and we ate lunch. They are all so kind, excited for me to learn Spanish, patient, and funny. After lunch, Daniel and Jose came to retrieve me. Jose is very talkative, very patient with us speaking Spanish, and a great eleven-year-old kid. It did not take him more than a few minutes to start treating us like older brothers. He took us to the cancho and we played soccer for a long time with just the three of us, and were then joined by another kid for a while. We shot around, played some basketball, and talked for a few hours.


When we were worn out, we walked back to Jose’s house, and drank some water. We then played in the street with nerf airsoft guns for a while. Since Maggie had my host mother’s number and we didn’t have hers, we walked back to my house, but my family was not home. Jose showed us his bunny and the chickens that live in a little walled in space next to our house. When we tried to get out, we realized that we had shut the door, and were completely locked in with eight or ten foot tall walls all around us. After trying the doors, I hoisted Daniel up over the wall, and he let us out.

We went back to Daniel and Jose’s house, had tea and bread that we picked up on the way and played go fish and spoons. I asked Jose’s grandma if I should call my mother to see where I should eat dinner, and she insisted that I eat at her house, so I didn’t even call. We ate dinner, just the Daniel, Jose and me, while Jose’s grandma sat with us and talked about the volcanoes around among other things. Dinner was exactly what I had hoped for a first homestay dinner: beans, tortillas, and plantains. After dinner, we played some more cards, and then I walked home.

When I got home, my mother was preparing dinner. I explained to her that I had already eaten, and then the entire family proceeded to have a long conversation in the kitchen. After talking in the kitchen for at least a half hour, we went into the dining room for dinner. I did not eat, but we sat there for at least two hours, talking about racism in Guatemala and the US, about the Maya and the American Indians, about Obama, Baltimore, and how to deal with classism and racism. After dinner, everyone went to bed, I wrote this entry, and now I get to sleep after a long and wonderful first full day.

Guatemala Day 1

My alarm went off at 2:30 this morning, and my dad and I were on the road by 3:10. The drive to Dulles, getting through the airport, and the first flight were all easy and pleasant; I had the entire exit row to myself on the flight and slept the whole way. I arrived at the Huston airport with three hours to kill, and only one mission—to find a gift for my host family, as the gift I had brought, homemade jam, was confiscated by Security. I walked around, bought some toys and chocolates, and then settled in at my gate. Maggie showed up about an hour later. We chatted about our breaks, and how excited we are for the next three weeks. We got food and waited for Daniel. He came, sporting a new haircut and a guitar, and we boarded the flight to Guatemala soon after. I sat with Daniel through the uneventful flight; the most exciting part was seeing the mountains of Guatemala from the air. The mountains are beautiful.
We landed, got through customs, and called Manuel, who runs the hostel we are staying at tonight. After we found him, he introduced us to a blonde woman at the airport as “the people camping out in our living room tonight.” This was clearly the start to something amazing. He drove us back to the hostel, all the while telling us about this city—the biggest in Central America at 3.2 million people—about who he is, and about what he’d heard of El Nahual, the language school and community center where we’ll be working. He is young and Guatemalan, started this hostel 9 months ago with his Aussie girlfriend, and never says no. The hostel has already achieved the highest ratings of the hostels in Guatemala City, and for good reason. Since there were no more dorm beds for us, he gave us a room—more like a hallway—with a bed and an air mattress, for the whopping price of seven dollars—including breakfast. The hostel is in the financial district, surrounded by large glass buildings. The city, though known to be dangerous, is clean and very pretty, with trees and parks lining the streets. It was hot and sunny when we arrived. We settled down, made and drank some smoothies, spent a long time at the bank because I had some issues, and then hung out on the roof of the hostel for a while, talking to the other travelers. Around six we asked for a dinner recommendation, and were taken by a friend of Manuel to a restaurant called “El Club.” We were offered steak or fish, and were then served a delicious meal of beans, rice, fish, and steak, with a cup of soup to start. Over dinner we talked about the possibilities of this trip, spoke some Spanish, and got really excited for all of the adventures to come. After paying the equivalent of ten dollars for the three of us, we took a cab back. Manuel sat us down when we got back and outlined what he thought we should do in our spare time these next three weeks, showing us the places we need to see, and the routes, hostels, prices, and all other pertinent information for us to travel on our own. We are now planning on traveling a lot more than originally planned, although that is all subject to change. We played some cards and dice, and I spoke with the volunteer coordinator at el nahual, where we’re going tomorrow.

I am going to attempt to keep up this blog, although I am not sure if I’ll be able to, due to internet access concerns. I will do my best to update as often as possible, and hopefully pictures will come soon as well.

source book, final project

These are images from the forties, taken by Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Employees

Source book (staged narrative?)

Sense of Place