Thursday 22 July 2010

Looks Like Rain...

The answer is not if, but when. Rainy season surrounded by mountains and volcanos? It's gonna rain! And when it does, boy does it rain... Yesterday the grass hut that I have classes under flooded. The roof remained intact, but our feet got very very wet... The lake is slowly encrouching on the town, being significantly higher than when I first got here and threatening the school (held in a shack) where I volunteer teaching English in the mornings. That said there is very little time in the day for me to notice the rain, especially as it normally rains during my afternoon lessons - 4 hours of one-to-one Spanish instruction, followed by "conversation club" led by a teacher (and yesterday held in a bar) and then evening activities at the school. Followed by evening activities outside of the school - involving many (very cheap, very strong) cuba libres, the occasional "orgasm brownie" (so called because upon first tasting it someone was heard to exclaim "it's like an orgasm in my mouth!") and definitely conducted in English.

At the weekend we kayaked to another town a couple of kilometers across the lake from San Pedro, San Marco. On the journey we encountered many floating stones (well it is a volcanic region...) and many cuba libre breaks. Before 9am. As a flotilla of kayaks in the middle of a lake. When we merrily arrived at San Marco we 'parked' our kayaks and explored the town, which only has paths, not roads (apart from one road that goes through linking all the lake towns). We followed this by jumping off cliffs into the clear blue water (at least it was where we jumped - other places it was full of floating shoes and pumice stones). We returned to the kayaks to find that the glassy clear water that we had encountered on the way over was no more and there were huge waves, and miscellaneous kayaks and paddles floating in the reeds or just not floating anymore... It took 5 of us to refloat one kayak, and once we were finally ready (and the 'fraidy cats of the group had finally been convinced that the waves really were only big by the shore) we set off back to San Pedro in the rain. It wasn't cold, it wasn't too rough, but boy did our arms hurt without the welcome relief of cuba libre breaks!

Another week at school and I'm learning two of the Spanish past tenses now that my teacher is satisfied that my present is grammatically correct... I have also learnt various Mayan folklore about the area around Lago de Atitlan from the father of my family, and origami from the son. Apparently my next challenge is to learn how to make tortillas round from my 'mother' (possibly impossible), as well as how to cook pepian, the Mayan curry. So more than just a Spanish school!

Tuesday 13 July 2010

A Tale of Two Cities (and many volcanoes)

I'm now in San Pedro on Lake Atitlan. I left Antigua after my 2 weeks of Spanish school and numerous “cultural activities” which predominantly resulted in raucous laughter as we attempted (and failed) to gain skills that are part of everyday Mayan life. One Guatemalan cultural activity that I could have done without was the earthquake that woke me at 1:20am. Although small (4.7) it was plenty big enough to scare me!

The drive from Antigua to Panajachel was a windy road through mountain villages, maize fields with children, goats and chickens running through the corn with clouds clinging to the mountains. Rural life here is Guatemala at its' most beautiful with some villages being just a cluster of rooves barely visible above the surrounding maize. Unlike in Antigua, here there were stark reminders of the damage caused by cyclone Agatha only a month ago with many parts of the road still down to just one lane as mudslides are yet to be fully cleared and parts of the road have just washed away completely. One of the more haunting images was a school where half a basketball court sat comfortably intact whereas the other half was buried under mud and boulders, the only reminder that it was ever there being the basketball hoop sticking out of the rubble at a strange angle further down the slope.

Upon arriving in Panajachel I found it to be a town in motion – everyone is there to go somewhere else. It is the most easily accessible town of the lake and therefore acts as a port for the other settlements. I met a couple of English girls and travelled across to San Pedro, one of the other major lake settlements, with them.

San Pedro is a town of 2 parts stretched between 2 ports. At the top of the (very steep) hill is where daily life is conducted. You see very few tourists here and the restaurants exist to serve the locals. The buildings are a similar style to those in Antigua – low, stone and sturdy – with the streets all being cobbled. Unlike Antigua I have yet to see a single local woman wearing anything other than traditional Mayan dress. The men tend not to wear traditional dress because it's harder for them to find employment if they look like a 'yokel', but girls as young as 3 wear the tiniest traditional costumes you've seen!

The other life of San Pedro exists on the lake front where numerous cobbled alleyways and dirt paths run the gauntlet of laid back bars, cafes and hotels, all with hammocks out the front. And right beside the lake a dirt path winds its way through the trees and maize past the backs of the various cafes and bars and past a classroom in a shed, where I will be teaching English 3 days a week, a language school set in sculpted gardens, where I will be studying 5 days a week, and an art studio. At this art studio local artist Gaspar sells his traditional Mayan oil paintings. He also offers an option to get arty and paint your own masterpiece in just 4 hours. Of course this was an option that we could not refuse and after 4 hours of entertainment “I can't paint leaves!”, “how did I get paint there??”, “it so is a circle!”, and much laughter from our patient teacher (normally followed by “I fix” and a few deft strokes of his brush covering any of our sins against art), we had 3 reasonably convincing Mayan masterpieces, complete with our signatures. More expensive than buying? Possibly. More unique? Probably. More fun? Definitely!

Yesterday we travelled by bus along steep winding mountain roads, some where the road has been partially washed away, some still showing the remnants of landslides, both old and new, to a mountain-top village called Chichicastenango (or “Chichi” to people with a less flexible tongue). This village is the setting for Central Americas' biggest market which on Sundays spills out of the central square to encompass much of the town. It is also home to a large proportion of people still practising Mayan beliefs and rituals in combination with their official religion of catholicism. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the church along one side of the central square. The steps of this church are adorned with flower sellers and burning incense offerings. Inside the church are many candles burning alongside offerings down the central aisle and fabrics and flower petals strewn everywhere. Behind the alter a woman appeared to be doing some paperwork using the alter as you would an office desk!

Upon our return to San Pedro I went to my Spanish school and was introduced to my host family for the next two weeks – a lovely young family who own a restaurant and laundry on a cobbled laneway 5 minutes from the school. They have 2 small children: Theo, who's about 7 is shy now, but his father Mario assures me will very soon talk non-stop and ask continuous questions, and a baby that I have yet to meet. And so this is me for the next few weeks, I start Spanish lessons this afternoon and start my voluntary placement tomorrow morning!

Tuesday 6 July 2010

Mas Sexi! Mas Sexi!

Well I'm still in Antigua, still in language school (for a few more days at least) and very much enjoying the local culture, and being laughed at as I try to participate. So far I have tried my hand at making some local food, most notably the small round tortillas that are a feature of every lunch here (at least one of mine was round... ish...). I tried my hand at merengue and salsa dancing, finding the latter much easier than the former - our instructor rotating her hips during merengue (whilst chanting "Mas sexi! Mas sexi!) in a way that simply makes the British mind boggle and the North Americans take out their neighbours whilst attempting to copy the moves. All I can say is that people born in Guatemala must have some sort of extra joint somewhere that allows them to do the move now known among language school students as "Mas sexi!".

Last week I learnt about a burger eating, porno moustache wearing sort of symbol for a deity or "saint" who takes offerings of cigars and alcohol - somewhere a cross between Catholic mythology and Mayan ritual. And at the weekend I did the tourist essential trip, somewhere between naive and idiotic, of visiting the lava flows of the VERY active Pacaya volcano (one that last erupted approximately 1 month ago). We took photos of the lava flows blocking tracks and roads, and clambered over the steaming rocks, finding that despite the continuing rain and rumbling thunder (at least we hoped it was thunder!) our clothes were drying from the heat emanating from under us. We found a hole where we could see red glowing rock and toasted marshmallows over it. Until our stick spontaneously caught fire that was. Gotta love the freedom that lack of health and safety rules give you!

A few more days of conjugating verbs and I'll be off to pastures new, but for now? Well I'm enjoying some other Central American traditions of spontaneous power outages when it rains, lack of running water after 10pm and random militia swarming the streets for no apparent reason. Think I might stay home tonight...

Friday 2 July 2010

Hablo, Hablas, Habla, Hablamos, Hablan

So yes, I'm at Spanish school in Antigua, and spending my holiday learning to conjugate verbs. When I got to Antigua the accent and speed of speaking made it very obvious that I would need to speak more Spanish. As did the complete lack of English speakers. This being the most touristy town in Guatemala, and understandably so, makes my lack of Spanish skills seem all the more pressing. Fortunately my Spanish comprehension has come along in leaps and bounds, and I am even capable of dealing with a call centre in Spanish after only one week of lessons. Unfortunately I'm not capable of getting what I want out of the call centre (them to actually deliver text messages sent to me to my mobile phone...), but I'm certainly capable of explaining the problem and hearing “no es posible. Espara por favor”. For those of you familiar with Spanish this won't be a surprise, for those of you not, I'll give you one guess. Seriously, you don't need more. So I have one more week of Spanish lessons planned in Antigua, and I'm now learning the past tense, meaning that me and my teacher may be able to move on from topics such as: her ex-husband refusing to pay child support; Fairtrade; why telephone companies try to mess you around in Guatemala; and the problems macho men have in this day and age, and instead start discussing what I did on the weekend.

And mostly what I do in my free time (when I'm not taking lessons in how to make tortillas or in Salsa and Merenge) is take photos, because Antigua es uno puelbo muy bonito. All the streets are quaintly cobbled and reminiscent of colonial era towns in Spain, just built on only one or two stories. This means that the new cars drive slowly (so as not to destroy their suspension I would guess), the old cars drive fast (presumably to even out the bumps because their suspension no longer works) the mopeds ride fast and not necessarily in the right direction down the one way streets, and the chicken buses drive at breakneck speed, never actually stopping to let passengers fall off or on.

The houses are all brightly coloured, and of course shop-frontage or signage is practically non-existent. Whereas you may see the word “tienda” painted down the side of the stone door frame, or over the mantle, you will actually have to enter the shop to find what it sells, in most cases hidden behind bars with just enough space to allow you out of the afternoon rain. Antigua having so many tourists mean that it has the advantage of a dedicated tourist police-force, resulting in a rather safe feeling atmosphere and a rather strange bubble effect where many gringos seem afraid to actually leave Antigua.

Another major feature of Antigua are the sheer numbers of churches and ruins (although I'm pretty sure that these are far outnumbered by the number of language schools!). At one point Antigua was the capital of Guatemala. The capital was moved to Guatemala City after an earthquake razed Antigua in 1773, resulting in the virtual abandonment of the city. This mass movement of people meant that there were no longer enough bums for all the church seats, and many of them are still in ruins. Those that were re-built have been rebuilt in a slightly more sensible style for somewhere surrounded by volcanoes and rather earthquake-prone: short, squat, and none of these silly fancy spire things that Europeans seem to want on places of worship.

The general theme I have found of Guatemala is that the people are friendly and talkative, and really don't care whether you speak Spanish or not, they will still chatter away quite happily at you, and all you need to bring to the conversation is a smile and the occasional “si”. If you tell them that Antigua is beautiful they practically glow with pride. A bella city, bella people and bella handicrafts, combined with bella food and a bella setting it tells me that I have to leave and see some of the “real” Guatemala before I get too comfortable! And learn some more vocab...