Thursday, January 29, 2009

in the newspaper! famosa!



Mike and I were published in the paper over a week ago. A fairly dry article about foreigners coming to study spanish in Xela. I look about as serious as i´ve ever looked in my life. Must have been studying the irregular verbs in the present tense.

We were waiting for the inaugaration.

Check it out: El Quetzalteco

photo in words

i´ve been a little slack on the posts, but right now the computer i´m on won´t let my camera in.

so here´s a photograph in words:

today, the sun pouring into the courtyard, maria apoligizes for the lack of water. her house is without water for most of the day, but recently, it´s been even more extreme and i take cold showers at seven in the morning, which seems to be the only time the ancient shower head gives up a small stream. the house isn´t heated, so it might be around freezing sometimes, and then the water is too...

maria heats up water on the stove and brings it outside into the patio. just tell me anytime you want a bath like this, she says, gathering her soap and clean clothes by the outside sink. you do need to be clean once in a while!
¨feliz baño!¨i say. she laughs, and pauses at the end of the dark hallway that leads to the patio. she is framed in between the two wooden doors with the sun at her back. ¨feliz baño del mes!¨ she cracks up.

i forget my notebook and come back to the house. through the small open squares at the bottom of the patio doors, i see sun, and the water from maria´s ¨shower¨catching the light as it falls onto the painted cement.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Hugo and Conan

La hora de Conan, we called it. He´s sort of like the littlest dog-cat you´ve ever seen. El Niño, they call him. Niño, no molesta Sarah, Etc.


El Mercado de San Francisco del Alto
















Thursday, January 22, 2009

Links

well, i apparantly still can´t figure out how to link from these keyboards. If you want to read mediodia, i guess you still have to go to my profile ¨about me¨halfway down the page on the right. Then click mediodia. yikes.

San Andres Xecul



Not my photo, cuz my camera died (a real love hate relationship). But here is what it was: Mediodia

Project Warm, meet Plan Frío


This morning, as I laboriously worked out a 300 word newspaper entry in la Prensa Libra, I found out that Project Warm in Bridgeton, Maine, would be pleased to know that in Guatemala, Plan Frío is entirely the same.
Mediodia

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Climbing el Volcán Santa Maria

Started at 5:30am in the dark. Our guide Carlos called the mountain his casa, as he climbs it about forty times a year. He had walking sticks stashed under grass at the bottom, and a jug of water stashed midway up in some brush.
Santa Maria is 3,772 meters tall, and when we reached the top, we saw Santiaguito, an active volcano on the other side, erupting. Most magnificent.












On the way down, the entire indigenous village of Cantal was climbing up. Women in traditional skirts and huipiles, walking in plastic sandals (we´re talking steep switchback trails and thick mud). The smallest walker must have been about three years old. They were coming to pay their respects, burn copal and pray at the top. One of the girls had a 2 liter bottle of orange soda tucked under her arm.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Trip to the Cemetary

The school took us to the local cemetary yesterday. Pablo, teacher come tour guide, took us to a crypt (with a barred door and steps down into a horrible dark) and tried to scare us with a ghost story. Perhaps more grim however, was the admonishement- don´t come here by yourself, even by day. you´ll probably get robbed among the tombstones.

For some reason I can´t figure out how to html to Mediodia on this keyboard. For more exciting-this-just-in from my trip, you can go to my profile (scroll down, it´s on the right-¨about me¨) and then click Mediodia. Thanks.









Xela the town





The most desperately sad part of this trip is that I couldn´t find my film camera before I left. (Do you know where it is? Maybe it´s at your house?) So it´s me and the cheap casio digital, rocking it to the montañas.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Chez Maria and Hugo






Not pictured: tiny gray kitten with a vicious bite. Named Conan, after Conan O'Brian.

Hola Xela



My room at Maria and Hugo's house in Xela. Apparently painted up by their son and a rock band (?) who stayed for months.

In the meantime, here is my blah blah blah on Mediodia