Yesterday we had a fun morning at school with presentations on typical sweets from Guatemala. It was part of our class assignments to present. I being the not so great student opted to be an observer lol. However, Maggie did an amazing job but I’ll let her tell you more about that. After the break Nicole informed my teacher that she was kidnapping me for the rest of the day. We wandered and got coffee and sat in a garden and played cards and enjoyed just hanging out in the city. We picked Luca up and had lunch in one of our favorite spots. MJ’s friends arrived with 5 of their kids so we headed to their house for some pool time. MJ took over watch and Nicole and I went to get pampered again. Nicole got a mom’s night out and we headed to salsa lessons then dancing. You know you’re old when you have no desire to drink yet rather just enjoy the music and be in bed by 12:30am. I had forgotten how quiet the city gets at night (aside from the few drunk college boys strewn about the streets). I love the feeling of being in a small city like this where you run into people you have met at every turn. It’s nice to see familiar faces. It gives you more of feeling of belonging when you’re an outsider in a very different place.
I haven’t had the chance to blog in a few days. We’ve been so busy that my little down time I do have is spent blogging with Luca, which I’d take over doing my own blog any day. Wednesday I got Guatemala (the funk) but started meds the same day so it never hit me hard. I also used it as an excuse even though Nicole and I planned it the night before I got sick lol) to play hooky from school. Nicole and I haven’t had any time to just have fun and wander so with Maggie and Luca in school and MJ in charge of them we were free to do as we pleased for a few hours. So we decided to pamper ourselves with amazing massages and Nicole even convinced me to go into the sauna where I am pretty sure the the vix vapor rub that was in the magical bottle of water we doused the furnace with cleansed my soul. Between the heat and the cold shower I have to admit it was pretty invigorating. I then conceded to and embraced the hippiness of this town (and my best friend) and went to a vegan place for lunch (you know the give and take that comes in all friendships, I make her try sketchy places and she makes me eat vegan) Not only was the restaurant gorgeous, it was delicious. We picked up Luca from school and headed out to see some sights of the city. I took Luca to one of my favorite spots; the basketball courts by the ruins. I spent almost every afternoon with Michael and the boys at this court after school. Such a fun contrast of kids playing basketball with ancient Mayan ruins as their backdrop. We wandered through a convent that was destroyed by two different earthquakes and last used as a prison. The last two pictures in this post (while they are by far the least attractive pictures of ourselves) have to by my favorite taken by Luca. All I hear in my head when I see those pictures are “bad girls bad girls whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you” (sing it with me). I am so lucky I was able to drag my bff on this adventure and introduce her to a world I love. It’s fun to be in a place with so much history and totally worth playing hookie from school.
As I sit here in Parque Central I find myself pondering how pigeons got the market on all of the park fountains. No matter where you are in the world, if there is a park with a fountain, there are pigeons. How did they win the Aves bidding war ? Was there one? Did nature somehow randomly allocate them here? Why are fountains their preferred domain? Was it the opportunity to crap on passersby what made this prime real estate? Are the other fowl jealous? Or is this considered less desirable housing in the aviary world? Questions I have, none important, but questions nonetheless…
Nicole writes…After nature’s colon cleansing came to an end I talked Michele into skipping school (thank you Maggie and MJ for taking care of Luca) so we could wander for the day. I had an amazing $25 (fee+tip+Uber ride) hour massage with an incredibly strong yet tiny lady named Elsa. We followed it by a steam in the sauna with a solution much like vapor rub cleansing and purifying what felt like the depths of our souls. I kindly declined the colonic offered by the spa explaining I had my very own unwelcome and free experience just a few days ago. We lounged and got coffee before having a delicious vegan lunch (its a vegan hippy heaven here) and then watched Luca play basketball along side the ruins. After walking through the convent of the barefoot nuns (and as Luca interpreted it- where Jesus lived) I can’t wait to get home to hang more laundry on the line (truly 😂)
Luca writes…I woke up at 6:09am. Then I woke up and had breakfast. Then we went to Spanish class. I learned the word profession today and it means what job you do. After lunch we went to the basketball court. And then I made a few basketball shots. And then me,mommy,and Tia went to the place that Jesus lived. Then after that we went to get a shirt for me.Then we went back to our house. Then we had dinner. I ate a hamburger with chips. I took a shower 🚿 then I brushed my teeth. That’s our blog/story!
We apologize for our delay in post. Our wifi wasn’t quite strong enough to push out all the content we are living. Thanks to Nicole (our keeper of the laundry) she was able to work with our house caretaker and they put in a brand new internet line for us today. This was both helpful for our blog but also for Michael-John who still has to work amidst our beautiful surroundings. We have had impeccable care and response from our host and couldn’t be more grateful.
So here I sit once again in the tensions of the opposite. While language school has given me both a purpose and an excuse for being in Guatemala, it is also my least favorite part of the trip 🙃. It’s not that I don’t want to learn Spanish, it’s quite the opposite, I want to learn. But for me it brings out all of my learning disabilities that I worked so hard to compensate for/and hide as child. Try having a speech and language issue combined with dyslexia and learning another language…. welp that’s me. Talk about insecurities on display. But that’s ok, that’s what we are here for right? To sit outside our comforts zone in a country where we know no one, where we don’t speak the language, and don’t quite yet fully understand the culture. To sit with the tensions of the opposite and want be here yet dread having our insecurities put on display. I spent yesterday with my teacher who is tougher than tough and exactly what I need if I am ever gonna learn. She might not be the easiest but she is a straight shooter like me and doesn’t seem to give 2 flying… insert word… about my IEP that I so desperately need lol.
Also it’s day two and we bearly cracked the book. We’ve just been talking… for what seems like hours. We’ve discussed culture, her family, my family, jobs, abuse, relationships, domestic violence, poverty, and well the list goes on. To be clear every part of me is exhausted and simply spent from such intensive conversations in a completely different language and though I long for a vocabulary card or two instead, I know that this is the only way to force learning for myself.
Our school has moved and they now have two new locations, our house is in a different part of town, so in many ways it’s been a very real reorientating experience for myself. Yesterday I had my first real taste of familiarity when we all decided to go to Salsa y Mas studio for free salsa lessons. Upon entering I was greeted by one of my old instructors who remembered me and also remembered Michael and Kianna. He even commented about playing basketball with Michael everyday after school. It was nice to see a familiar face. It was even cooler that my brother and Maggie joined in and learned along side me. Side note, I was very impressed with my brother’s abilities and honestly kinda shocked.
Today we were blessed to have our grounds keeper Felipe and our housekeeper Dona Clara tend to our house. There’s this mix of emotions that comes from being taken care of by others. On one hand it’s like wow do I really need all this care, and the other hand I am so happy to be providing employment for those that are local in the community. This came up in class today when we talked about the cost of living and wages here in Guatemala vs the US (ugh see what I mean, this ain’t no Duolingo). The conclusion was it’s all relative in cost when it comes to wages and cost of living, However the biggest difference is the ability to gain employment. Work is hard to find and the type of work offered is hard….. and I mean physically hard. So while I feel silly to have 2 people coming 3x a week to tend to a house we are perfectly capable of caring for, I am thankful for the ability to provide income to others.
There was another pause in my day as the realities of home where brought to my attention. My heart is broken for the families of MSD as they are forced to relive the most horrific moments of their lives, and for what seems like a very cruel and pointless endeavor, because facts are facts and they are well known. My heart aches for those families I worked closely with and its been extremely difficult for those of us that worked with the families to watch them suffer yet again. I am angry for them, I am sad for them, I hurt for them, and today many of us have cried with them and for them. My heart is heavy.
I just finished blogging with Luca, which has become a highlight of my day (and I think maybe his too). While I started this post this am before anyone else was up, I finish it tonight by the fire in the Sala. I am beyond ready for bed as the today has been draining in many of ways.
Luca writes…I slept until 7:15am. Then we got ready for Spanish class. Then we walked to a new Spanish class at a different place and it was bigger. They had a roof above or desk in case it rained. It did rain and we got wet because we sat at the picnic table with an umbrella. All of the teachers, Maggie, Tia and me were playing games. We played a game with opposites in Spanish. I won the first game, and Maggie won the second game. Nobody won for the teachers because it started raining and all the cards flew away, luckily we didn’t lose them. Then we walked back to our house and ate lunch. I tried a sandwich that Tia gave me with fried salami, eggs, and bread. It was a little bit good. Then we took a tuk tuk to see the city from above. Then we walked through the slippery dirt and took the same tuk tuk as last time to the chocolate museum. I tried chocolate and it was good. I peeled the chocolate beans. Then I tried an empanada (it’s a piece if bread with beef inside of it) and it was a little bit good. Then we went to Tacool (taco place) with Maggie and Michael-John. And then we ate steak, pork, and steak with guacamole (i ate the food like a chomping machine) Then we walked back to our house, and I took a shower. Then we watched the fire that Michael- John made in the sala. The smoke came through the chimney. The fire went out. That’s our blog.
Nicole writes…I am one with the laundry. I am one with the garden. In a past life I was a woman named Estela toiling all day at the pila. Thankfully, I did not have to wash anything traditionally and had a modern washing machine to do the hard part. Rearranging clothes on the line brought me a peace I didn’t think was possible and I am secretly lamenting bringing an appropriate amount of clothing because I now won’t have as many opportunities to do laundry lol
Apologies in Advance 