the swing of things

     kaBOOM... popopopopopopop ka-BOOOOM.  This is a dramatic re-enactment of the sounds I woke up to this morning at 3:00 am.  It was followed by every dog in the city starting to whine or bark, and then more booms and pops spaced oddly at about every 10 minutes until about 7:00 am.  While my initial thoughts of 'Oh shit, we're ar war with Honduras!' would make for a much more exciting blog, it turns out that is was just another religious community celebrating their patron 'our lady of some miracle'. While this highlights how little I still know about this country, it also serves to illustrate the fact that I'm learning my way around little by little.  No longer will I hear those explosions in the middle of the night and fear for my life, just like I will no longer wonder what is at the other end of town (La Ciudad de Felicidad orphanage) or how much it costs to mail my computer charger home ($50!).  Everyday that passes I have a few less "first time" experiences, and become a little more comfortable here. 
     As of tomorrow I will be done working at the library where I have spent my first few weeks and met my first Guatemalan friends.  I'll be moving on to work in a clinic preparing for a group of doctors that comes to Esquipulas every year to give free medical services to the people.  I will also be beginning my first english classes for the community here next week.  I'm not sure what that will be like, so far we've just read through a few pages of an english primer with a monk, and he seemed like he wanted us to do that 5 nights a week.  While I'm here to help, 5 nights a week after working all day seems like a little to much for me. 
     We took a trip to an orphanage called La Ciudad de Felicidad (the city of happiness) the other day and possibly picked up our third project that we will work on while we are here. I was very impressed by this orphanage, and would like to write more, but as I'm sitting in the computer lab right now and don't have a whole lot of time, nor do I have a way to add pictures due to my battery-less computer, I'll dedicate a whole post to this place later. 
   For now, suffice it to say that I'm beginning to get busy with work, and I have developed the beginnings of a social life (I have taught cribbage to a few of the monks so we play nightly, and go out for drinks on Friday nights with my library friends) so I am beginning to feel more comfortable here.  I'd like to write more, but I find it difficult to come down to the computer lab very often, and cannot upload pictures, so until I get my computer fixed, the posts will be few and far between. 
I hope this finds all of you in good health and great spirits! 

OH NO!!!

My ability to blog may diminish quickly.  I realized awhile ago that my power cable for my computer was starting to get hot, but I just realized that it has actually MELTED!

I'll see if I can come up with any desire to go to the computer lab and write, but that just seems annoying to me.
Let's hope the Guatemalan mail service is working super hard for the next few weeks until I can get a new one!

La Vida Guatemalteca

     I've decided that a short note describing my average day here is in order.  Our schedule is fairly rigid, which helped in getting used to the wildly different lifestyle at first, but is now beginning to wear me out.  Laudes is at 6:00 sharp every morning (prayer is about the only thing that always starts on time here), followed by an awkward free hour which I filled with nap time for the first week, but now either fill with a run or by reading (usually reading).  Breakfast (consisting of black beans, tortillas, awesome coffee, some sore of eggs, and cereal) is at about 7:30, or whenever we arrive. I usually chat with the monks for awhile about anything, ranging from the average number of maids per nun in 11th century England (this morning) to the best cockroach traps (yesterday, after which I saw a cockroach).  I can't tell if they're actually knowledgeable about everything or if they just speak Spanish so fast that it seems that way to me.  After breakfast I usually commit 20 minutes to reading the Guatemalan newspaper.  I thought American news was depressing, but the three most recent headlines have been (in order): "landslides trap travellers," "Two police dead, 5 drug traffickers captured in parking garage shootout," and "crooked police caught robbing semi trucks."  Esquipulas is a very small town (high in the mountains where the landslides can't get me), which many people have told me is very safe (and which seems very safe to me as well)... so no need to worry about me!  
     I usually arrive at the library where I work now between 8:00 and 8:30.  Work there generally consists of hanging out with the people who work there, "adjusting" to Guatemala, and occasionally cleaning books.  There is another awkward 30 minutes between the end of morning work and lunch (black beans, tortillas, some sort of meat, some sort of vegetables, and soup), which begins around 12:30.  We get an odd hour after lunch free, which I fill with a nap, and work begins again at 2:00.
     Work in the afternoon is much the same as the morning, and ends at 5:00.  There is then another odd hour and a half free before Vísperas, which start at 6:30.  Dinner (black beans, tortillas, some sort of meat, some sort of vegetables, and soup) is directly after, followed by the desire to go out and explore, a desire which is usually repressed due to the fact that they lock the doors to the monastery at about 8:30.
     On Saturdays we only work mornings and play soccer in the afternoon, an Sundays we don't have work.
     I'm quickly adjusting to life here, to the point where I want to branch out and explore what Esquipulas has to offer.  Once in a while this desire makes me feel trapped here in the monastery, but most of the time I realize that life here is good, slow, and easy.  I know that eventually I'll get used to the pace of life here, and I'll probably have to start a blog describing how hard it is to live a normal life.

First week and independence day: contrasts

A week and a half in, and I'm beginning to get an idea of what my life is going to be like here in Guatemala.  The transition has not been a spectacularly easy one, especially given that I'm not only transitioning into a new place and culture, but also to the monastic life.  The pace is slower here in the monastery than I'm used to, and is taking some getting used to, but I think that I'll like the easier life once I get used to it.  Guatemala is turning out to be a pretty cool place, but very different from Minnesota.  For one thing, they speak Spanish here.  While I also dabble in Spanish, I've found that constantly thinking in another language makes me tired... really tired.  This is fine, because early bed times are considered a good thing here, considering that I have to be at prayer at 6:00 every morning.  The food is also different.  Even though I spent most of the summer eating tacos and re-fried beans as a result of my sister's decision to serve tacos at her graduation party, the food here has had a less than desirable effect on my digestive system.  Nonetheless, after logging many hours in the bathroom, I'm beginning to adjust to the food, and have even completely made the transition from bottled water, to purified "tap" water.

(I'm sorry to any of my environmentalist friends reading this blog, but they made us drink all these bottles worth of water before they let us switch to tap)

Aside from the obvious differences of language, food, and clean water, there are also a few differences that I had not prepared for nearly enough before coming here.  The main one being the location of Esquipulas.  not only am I quite a bit closer to the equator than I was in Minnesota, I'm also quite a bit closer to the sun (between 3 and 4 times closer).  While this has the obvious effect of increasing the chances that my pale gringo skin gets burned (a lesson that I have already learned once) it also means that I have to contend with a nasty little bugger known as altitude sickness.  The worst part is that we're not high enough here for the altitude difference to rear its ugly head in normal daily life, so it stayed well hidden until I decided to wow all the Brothers here with my soccer skills.  I had about 1 minute of decent play, 10 minutes of huffing, and then the dizziness kicked in.  My team noticed and moved me to goalie, right before the other team mounted 2 killer offensive attacks putting them up 2-1.  While I'm sure the Guatemalans didn't expect much from a little gringo like me (and I definitely did not deliver) I'm determined to run daily until I can come back and at least run around the field with them.

While I have noticed many differences between Guatemala and Minnesota, there are also a few similarities.  This Wednesday was the Guatemalan independence day, which they celebrated by having the day off work, lighting fireworks in the streets an entire week before independence day, and with a parade the morning of. 

 I couldn't help but draw the connections between our countries as I was watching (and walking) the parade and slowly growing dehydrated.  

One difference I did notice is that in Guatemala, I couldn't find a bad location to watch the parade from... even behind a large group of Guatemalans, I was able to see just fine, strange.  Another similarity that I have notice between Guatemala and the United States is that women here also see to love me (yuk yuk yuk)

Actually most people seem to pay a little more attention to me here than I am used to.  It doesn't happen quite as much when I'm wearing a hat, but when my luscious blonde hair is flowing free, I've noticed many people stop what they are doing and just watch me walk by.  Some days I feel like a mix between a monster and a superstar (Lady Gaga?).  One last similarity I saw on the parade day was this:

                             

In case you can't tell these are little kids dressed up as deer, doing a dance.  I'm not sure what category of similarities this little gem belongs in, but it simultaneously reminded me of boyscouts, and deer hunting season, like some sort of rain dance for many deer to hunt.

All in all, my first week and a half in Guatemala has been very successful.  I have met some really nice people who want only to help me experience their country, and am getting along fine... if only I can get used to the idea of black beans with my breakfast cereal.

My New Home (a virtual tour)

I'm midway through my seventh day here in Guatemala, and starting to get the hang of life here.  This first week has gone by in a blur of new sights, new experiences, and barely understood spanish.  I'll start this entry with a brief description of the city I'm living in.

Esquipulas Guatemala is a city of about 18,000 people, with another 23,000 living in the rural areas around town. 

It is a major pilgrimage site in Central America because of the thousands of healing miracles that are attributed to the "tierra santa" (sacred earth) in the area.  One of the monks told me that over 1,000,000 people make a pilgrimage to the city every year!  Because of this the city has over 5,000 hotels (most of them are just houses with rooms for rent).  The picture below was meant to be a picture of a street with a bunch of hotels, but in the chaos of the picture it's impossible to see that there are 6 hotels on this block alone.

Pope John Paul II called the city the "spiritual center of Central America."  Esquipilas is home to the "Black Christ of Esquipulas," a crucifix in the basilica that has been stained black by the constant burning of candles in the church, a tradition that was stopped a few years ago. 

Esquipulas is in the lower of two mountainous regions in Guatemala, at around 3000 feet elevation.  In this picture of the main road taken from the basilica steps, the mountains in the background can be seen but, as always, they are covered by clouds.

Coffee beans are grown in the mountains just south of town, and the coffee here is really delicious.  It is about 100km to the Mayan Ruins of Copán, a site that I hope to drive a motorcycle to while I'm here.

  The monastery that Kenan and I are staying (Abadía Jesucristo crucificado) at is connected to the basilica in town.  The basilica is the centerpiece of the town, and has been standing for 400 years, through multiple earthquakes that have leveled the rest of the town! 

The monastery is huge.  There are only 18 monks, but 40 rooms all exactly like ours. The rooms, as you can see in the picture below, are pretty spartan.

Not much, but definitely all I need.  I even have my own bathroom!  There is a shower, with a terrifying contraption consisting of a giant head with poorly spliced wires connecting to it.  If it ever gave any indication that it worked, I might be a little nervous, but it appears that hot water is more of an abstract concept here than a concrete reality.  

The monastery is complete with all the necessities though, a dining room, which I have only seen about 25% full.

There is even a game room, but the pool table is treacherously off kilter, with plenty of sinkholes to suck your perfectly shot balls dangerously off course.

While it seems that most of our BVC compatriots are staying in guesthouses, Kenan and I are staying inside the monastery.  This has its pros and cons, but at times can be a bit taxing, as almost all of the inner part of the monastery is supposed to be silent, as are most lunches and dinners (I'm not exactly the silent type of guy).  Most of the monastery is really beautiful though, as you can see below in the picture of the courtyard right outside my room.

 

Given my affinity for the woods of Minnesota, I think the local climate and flora and fauna might take some getting used to.

 As you can see, the trees are quite different in this rain forest than in the minnesotan boreal forests.

 The monastery we are staying at is also home to a school, a barn with quite a few Cows,

 

a citrus farm,

a beekeeping place, a few soccer fields, 

what I think is supposed to be a fish pond, but the brown water and barbed wire laid over the top of all of it seems to suggest something else...,

and a library, where I now work.  

All in all, this place seems really nice, and though I still feel a bit out of my element, I could see myself calling this place home before long.

"Kenan, we're not in Kansas anymore" "Good... Kansas is boring"

I sit in my grandma’s house staring at her 10 liter cooler, my friend’s words echoing in my head.  VD is a friend of mine now in med school, doing something productive with his life.  Off to save the world by getting straight A’s in med school and becoming the world’s best neurosurgeon while I sit in Northern Minnesota listening to Rick James and staring at a 10 liter cooler.  Yesterday VD had to call me on the way home from his ungodly-early class.  They had discussed Typhoid Fever, a disease that is not nearly as wiped out in rural Guatemala as it is in Minnesota, and one phrase, read directly from his textbook, caught my attention: “Diarrhea up to 10 liters.”  3 weeks ago I couldn’t spell diarrhea with much certainty, and now I have 4 pill bottles devoted to that nasty little word.  Somehow during this discussion I forgot to mention to VD (and also to my mom) that I began taking my typhoid vaccine a week later than is recommended.  Speaking of phrases that keep popping into my head, there’s another one that I can’t seem to shake.  While talking to the volunteer there the year before me about the commodities at the monastery I’ll be staying at, he told me that there is a computer lab, but that I should leave before 10:30 pm because “that’s when the dogs come out.”  I joked that my dog used to like to go out around that time to, and he shot me a serious look and told me that these are not house dogs, nor are they guard dogs, but attack dogs, and if they see me, that I wouldn’t be fast enough to run away.  Feeling completely unprepared for what lays ahead, I pack my parents Jetta and leave my grandma's house for the first part of the journey.

3+ hours by car, 5.5 hours by plane, and 7+ hours of idle airport sitting later, we landed in Guatemala.  Outside the airport we were picked up by a few of the monks from the monastery.  The next 6-7 hours were a tour of guatemala city of sorts as our "guides" had different errands to run all over the city.  Tired as we were from hours of traveling and minimal sleep, this errand running quickly became "try to nap" time.  My initial impressions of Guatemala were less than spectacular.  From the men armed with combat shotguns outside nearly every store (see left) to the guard towers with machine gun toting guards, the almost complete lack of pavement on some streets to the very, very sick dogs unleashing foul streams of feces upon unsuspecting automobiles, Guatemala seemed like more than I had bargained for.  

After our makeshift tour, we began what was supposed to be our four hour drive home.  Because of the incredible amount of rain that Guatemala has received in the las months, landslides had covered the normal route to Esquipulas, and we had to take a longer route.  Aside from the odd herd of cows processing down the street in front of us, and the landslides which covered the roads we were on mere hours after we passed, we got on our way.  Not far outside of Guatemala City the landscape changed and Guatemala became more and more agreeable.  Over the next 5 hours we traveled from around 200m elevation to around 900m.  The weather became cooler and the views became more amazing.  After what seemed like years of traveling, the van stopped for our first view of our new home.