Friday, May 30, 2008

Xpint´s Gift


5/26/2008

I arrived home exhausted today after dropping John off at the airport, my friend Oscar’s birthday, and night of planning for my teacher training tomorrow in Rio Blanco, to find that Xpint had brought me a gift: the most giant disgusting bug I have seen since living in New Orleans. I didn’t realize they could get so big here, given that it never gets much above 70, but apparently they can. I loved when Xpint started killing the bugs inside of my house, because it meant that I didn’t have to, but I am reconsidering this benefit now that he is bringing large ones home from outside. I am waiting in dread for the day when he comes home with a dead bird or mouse and leaves it in my bed.

Airport


5/26/2008

I am scarily programmed to arrive early to everything. I can make a concerted effort to arrive late to an event and still get there 15 minutes early. Given that my mother was freaking out about my brother’s safety upon his arrival last week in Guatemala City (a notoriously unsafe area), I planned to arrive 15 to 30 minutes early, which resulted in my arrival 2 hours before his flight got in.

Guate’s airport is undergoing major renovations. An excellent plan, considering when I arrived in country (over a year ago now), the airport was nothing less than a hole in the ground. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to be done. The waiting area contains no seating and nothing to do besides sit on the floor (if you are as disorganized as I am and always forget to bring something to occupy your time).

Fortunately, the airport is a great place to people watch, especially tourist watch. They come stumbling out of customs, weighed down by their giant backpacks and suitcases, dazed, confused and easily trapped by the first person to shout ANTIGUA! SHUTTLE! ANTIGUA! Much to my chagrin, I am constantly looped into this group and had to fight off several overly eager drivers who relentlessly tried to convince me I wanted to go to Antigua, Panajachel or Chichi. I thought it was quite obvious I was waiting the arrival of someone considering I had only a purse and I arrived by taxi, not through the arrival gate. Clearly they missed the memo.

While the tourists are fun to watch (and to make fun of), the most interesting part was watching the arrival of people who had obviously been gone for years, at best. Something to the effect of 1/12 of Guatemala’s population lives in the United States. Children here grow up without meeting their father, some women spend more than a decade without seeing their husbands, and mothers spend an eternity hoping their children will one day return and they will be able to see them again before they die. It is an amazing site to watch a family greet a member who has been gone for such a long period of time; to watch children meet a father who they have no real memory of. You can see the joy in their eyes, and the relief in their smiles.

On top of this, the airport is a place where you can see all spectrums of Guatemala’s population converge and mingle in one place. Given that racism is still so common here it is a rare sight to see every group, from rich Guatemalan’s dressed to the nines to indigenous families, the women in their traje with ribbons braided into their long hair. It gives you hope seeing such a wide array of cultures grouped in one place all happily focused on one thing: welcoming people home.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Rainy Again

5/12/2008

My new site mate is from Seattle, so I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised today when walking home from the gym in the rain and cursing my luck at having forgotten my umbrella and having left my clothes out on the line she states her excitement at this sudden downpour.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the rain in the first place. Not that I don’t mind the occasional storm, but when it happens everyday for six months it gets a little depressing. While the change in season will bring back things that I love: greenness and lack of dust… the list of things I don’t love is considerably longer: always having to wear waterproof shoes and carry an umbrella or raincoat, my clothes never drying and smelling like mildew, being trapped indoors, mold, not being able to hear yourself think… I could go on, but I don’t want to be too negative. I can only attribute Andrea’s excitement to her lack of exposure to rain without drying machines and houses that properly drain.

Xpint on the other hand shares my chagrin. Effectively trapped in the house due to his aversion to anything wet, he spent the afternoon running circles around the living room and biting everything (literally everything). So this rainy season might not only cause me mental distress but physical pain. This afternoon has already resulted in a few new future scars.

Spring



5/7/2008

Springtime is here again, or if you’re Guatemalan: wintertime.

The rains are beginning to start up again, and while I am already irritated with the thought of mold, smelly clothes, and never being able to leave the house without my umbrella … there is one benefit. Things are beginning to turn green. Preparation began weeks ago and now the clouds and fog are rolling in and all those empty brown cornfields are slowly changing color. It is weird to think this is my second time witnessing this process.