Hurricane Matthew

    Two weeks ago Hurricane Matthew hit Guatemala with unbelievable force.  Producing heavy wind, and torrential downpour, I personally find it unbelievable that we are all still alive.

Above are pictures of the widespread flooding caused by this tropical storm, and on both sides are pictures of Esquipulas during the storm.




     While non of that acutually happened (the flooding pictures are just super close ups of a puddle and a river), Hurricane Matthew did hit Guatemala, and produced 2 weeks of nothing but clouds and mist.  Today the sun finally made its first brief appearance and I took the opportunity to take a tour of all the different types of fruit here on the monastery grounds.  I counted eight, including avocado, starfruit (which apparently makes you go blind if you eat too much), oranges, cacao, and four other ones that I can't remember.
     This last week, in addition to bringing the sun, has also brought finals week for the students here.  While back in MN, finals week means some monster cramming in the library, I can count on both hands the number of people that have been in the library this week.  With students on vacation for the next three months, I can't imagine the library being a very popular spot, so I am beginning to consider spending my mornings out in the orchard working with the supervisor, who happens to be named Leonidas.

I imagine it will go something like this.

     A funny thing happened this week, which really highlights how far from home I still am here in Guatemala, even though I am beginning to feel more and more comfortable.  However, to tell it effectively, some background is needed.  A few weeks ago, during the Guatemalan independence day I took a motorcycle ride with a friend of a friend of one of the guys working at the library (hey, when you are new in a foreign country, you can't be too picky).  The original idea was that I would film an event for him while he drove the motorcycle.  It turns out the event was not until later in the day, so he just took me on a tour of Esquipulas.  Pretty good deal. Long story short, he likes gringos because he used to work as a clown in Utah, that is until la migra caught up with him.

     Anyways, on this particular day, I was on my way to the City of Happiness for my first algebra lesson with the nuns (surprisingly difficult to teach math in spanish).  The monks here all have a strange distrust of taximoto (taxi tricycles) drivers, so they made me call a driver "de confianza" to pick me up in front of the monastery.  Apparently the phone conversation didn't go as well as I thought or he wasn't as "de confianza" as they thought, and 8:30 rolled around to find me standing on the steps of the basilica desperately fending off the taximoto drivers who were swooping around me like vultures.  Eventually I gave up the hope that my driver would come, and hailed an unknown taximoto.  At the orphanage, I found out that the taximotos are cheaper than one would expect, and the 20 quetzales bill (about $2.50) i had was too big to pay him with.  When I tried to give him the bill and have him come back to get me after the lesson, he wouldn't take the bill, but did promise to come get me.  11:30 rolled around and, once again, this little gringo was left waiting for a driver.  However, fear not! for down the road I began to see a clown on a motorcycle!  It must have been my lucky day after all!  It was "el día de los niños" and my friend from earlier was arriving to put on a show for the kids.  It apparently wasn't his lucky day though, because, once again, the show wasn't until later.  In conclusion to my story, I'd like to offer a riddle: IF one gringo walking the streets=people stopping their car/motorcycle/moped over to get a batter look, what would a gringo riding on the back of a motorcycle driven by a clown cause?
complete.
utter.
chaos.
(I'm not sure if the kids realized that there wasn't two clowns on the bike)

The lessons that can I learned from this story are as follows.
1. The idea of punctuality/responsibility that we have in the USA does not              translate well to Guatemalan taximoto drivers (actually, most Guatemalans for that matter)
2. Apparently neither does our concept of schedules for events
3. Things (taxis in particular) are either way to expensive in the USA, or too cheap here
4. While clowns riding motorcycles are almost always to be avoided at all cost, getting a ride always beats walking 2.5 km home