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.