Sunday, October 26, 2008
Laguna Chicibal
Yesterday, I went with a bunch of people from the school to Laguna Chicibal, a lake that sits in the crater of an (extinct) volcano. Its a 6km hike from the town to the lookout point, but on the way up we caught a pickup part of the way. After the lookout point, we walked down 500 stairs to the actual laguna. The Laguna is considered a sacred place for the locals and we got to see a group of men performing a Mayan religious ritual on the side of the lake. The clouds kept coming in and out so one second it would be clear and the next we'd be in a cloud. The walk back up the stairs was a challenge, but overall it was fun and I had a good time with everyone.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Concepcion Chiquirichapa
Hi! This weekend I went on a youth (jovenes) mission trip to Concepcion Chiquirichapa with the church of my host family. My host brother organized it so I had heard a little about it while he was planning it. Last wednesday I asked if everything was all ready for the trip and he asked me if I wanted to go. Very excited at the invitation, I said yes. The trip went from 6:00pm Friday until 2:00pm Sunday. There were about 40 of us, ranging from 15 to 30 years old. At first I was a little concerned because I only knew my host brother and he was busy running the whole weekend, but there was someone, named Mirna, who I had met the week before at a prayer group that meets in my house, so I hung out with her. And of course, I met other people as the weekend went on.
We met at 6 at the church for a mass and after loaded a bus. Chiquirichapa is about 30 minutes away, and we sang the whole way. At first it was kind of hard because I didn´t know any of the words, but it was still fun and Mirna wrote down the words to some of the main prayers for me. When we arrived we ate and then gathered in the chruch for a service. This was better because they gave out the words to everything so I could understand everything better. And a lot of the religious vocabulary, I had already learned in Spanish as I was reading the bible. I could follow some parts of the masses and services but it was hard to keep my attention so the part where the priest was speaking turned into more a time for me to think a lot, which is good in its own right.
The next morning we met a 6 for a mass after which we ate and then were divided into groups to go house to house. This wasn´t a mission to convert people, just to visit houses of catholic families in this impoverished community to pray for/with them and try to inspire hope. Chiquirichapa is a Mam community (a Mayan subgroup) where they primarily speak Mam and speak Spanish (if at all) as a second language. Like many communities in rural Guatemala, this community suffered a lot durring the civil war and remains pretty poor. So for the mission, each group of 3 youth from Xela was paired with a group of 3 local youth and together we went from house to house. In one family that we visited, there was a woman who had just lost her husband the week before and was very very appreciative that we were there to pray for him and for her family. Something that I found interesting (but at this point of living in Guatemala not surprising) is that one of the things that the girl in my group leading the prayers included in what she said was prayers for the wellbeing of family living in the united states. Almost everyone (if not everyone) I´ve met in guatemala has fmaily in the united states and as far as I´ve heard from my teachers, very very very few of guatemalans in the US are there legally. Maddy, if you´re reading this, I met someone whose father is in Morristown! NJ and Virginia come up often as places where family members live.
In the afternoon, we did a via cruces, where each group acted out a different scene (en español es estacion pero yo no se in ingles) of the crucifiction of jesus. While each scene was being acted out, someone would read a description of what it was, and then how this part of the story relates to our lives, now, and then some prayers, and then we´d sing. Between each scene we would walk a little while up a hill for the next scene. During this time I got to talk to a lot of people and ask a lot of questions. It´s hard to believe how much I learned this weekend.
At night we had another service, in which the priest asked people if anyone wanted to come up and talk about their experience that day visiting the families, etc. I decided to go up and thank everyone and tell them how much I had enjoyed it. I only said a few sentences (I wrote it first and then read from what I wrote) but I was happy that I didn´t wimp out when I wanted to do it but was scared to get up in front of everyone (and of course, speak spanish to them).
The next morning was sunday, so we had a full mass service (at 5:30am). The church was packed with people standing in the aisles and additional seating behind the altar (where the priest is?). The service was in Spanish and translated into Mam also. The priest asked me if I wanted to speak again like I had the night before about my experience and I agreed, so I got up in front of the whole church and thanked them for inviting us and that it made me happy to visit with the families in the community. After breakfast, we had a meeting (about half Xela youth and half adults from the community) where the priest explained the progression of writings and reasons/uses/etc on fasting from the old testiment through the new testiment and then through catholic church law. Afterwards, we packed up our things and went back to Xela. I´m excited to see Mirna and some others again this weekend when they come to my house for prayer meetings.
The only exciting thing that has happened since is that I went on a tour today of Xela and found out that the cathedral in Xela (where my host family goes) is the second oldest church in Central America (after the one in Salcaja which I´ve seen)...right now its actually only the face that remains and the actual church is newer, but I still thought that was cool.
I guess the other exciting thing was that I found a hoodie from Mahopac, NY in one of the many many stores that sell clothing from Goodwills in the states. I aslo saw a guatemalan girl wearing a hoodie that said ¨scarsdale basketball¨which made me laugh a bit.
I´m sorry this was so long, but I´m very happy and excited so it was hard to not write a lot.
We met at 6 at the church for a mass and after loaded a bus. Chiquirichapa is about 30 minutes away, and we sang the whole way. At first it was kind of hard because I didn´t know any of the words, but it was still fun and Mirna wrote down the words to some of the main prayers for me. When we arrived we ate and then gathered in the chruch for a service. This was better because they gave out the words to everything so I could understand everything better. And a lot of the religious vocabulary, I had already learned in Spanish as I was reading the bible. I could follow some parts of the masses and services but it was hard to keep my attention so the part where the priest was speaking turned into more a time for me to think a lot, which is good in its own right.
The next morning we met a 6 for a mass after which we ate and then were divided into groups to go house to house. This wasn´t a mission to convert people, just to visit houses of catholic families in this impoverished community to pray for/with them and try to inspire hope. Chiquirichapa is a Mam community (a Mayan subgroup) where they primarily speak Mam and speak Spanish (if at all) as a second language. Like many communities in rural Guatemala, this community suffered a lot durring the civil war and remains pretty poor. So for the mission, each group of 3 youth from Xela was paired with a group of 3 local youth and together we went from house to house. In one family that we visited, there was a woman who had just lost her husband the week before and was very very appreciative that we were there to pray for him and for her family. Something that I found interesting (but at this point of living in Guatemala not surprising) is that one of the things that the girl in my group leading the prayers included in what she said was prayers for the wellbeing of family living in the united states. Almost everyone (if not everyone) I´ve met in guatemala has fmaily in the united states and as far as I´ve heard from my teachers, very very very few of guatemalans in the US are there legally. Maddy, if you´re reading this, I met someone whose father is in Morristown! NJ and Virginia come up often as places where family members live.
In the afternoon, we did a via cruces, where each group acted out a different scene (en español es estacion pero yo no se in ingles) of the crucifiction of jesus. While each scene was being acted out, someone would read a description of what it was, and then how this part of the story relates to our lives, now, and then some prayers, and then we´d sing. Between each scene we would walk a little while up a hill for the next scene. During this time I got to talk to a lot of people and ask a lot of questions. It´s hard to believe how much I learned this weekend.
At night we had another service, in which the priest asked people if anyone wanted to come up and talk about their experience that day visiting the families, etc. I decided to go up and thank everyone and tell them how much I had enjoyed it. I only said a few sentences (I wrote it first and then read from what I wrote) but I was happy that I didn´t wimp out when I wanted to do it but was scared to get up in front of everyone (and of course, speak spanish to them).
The next morning was sunday, so we had a full mass service (at 5:30am). The church was packed with people standing in the aisles and additional seating behind the altar (where the priest is?). The service was in Spanish and translated into Mam also. The priest asked me if I wanted to speak again like I had the night before about my experience and I agreed, so I got up in front of the whole church and thanked them for inviting us and that it made me happy to visit with the families in the community. After breakfast, we had a meeting (about half Xela youth and half adults from the community) where the priest explained the progression of writings and reasons/uses/etc on fasting from the old testiment through the new testiment and then through catholic church law. Afterwards, we packed up our things and went back to Xela. I´m excited to see Mirna and some others again this weekend when they come to my house for prayer meetings.
The only exciting thing that has happened since is that I went on a tour today of Xela and found out that the cathedral in Xela (where my host family goes) is the second oldest church in Central America (after the one in Salcaja which I´ve seen)...right now its actually only the face that remains and the actual church is newer, but I still thought that was cool.
I guess the other exciting thing was that I found a hoodie from Mahopac, NY in one of the many many stores that sell clothing from Goodwills in the states. I aslo saw a guatemalan girl wearing a hoodie that said ¨scarsdale basketball¨which made me laugh a bit.
I´m sorry this was so long, but I´m very happy and excited so it was hard to not write a lot.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Mi neuva computadora
Not much has happened this week, since I´ve been back. I´ve been going to class, teaching kids English, going to Yoga class, buying pastries, and reading a lot (I´ve been reading the bible in spanish), and talking with my host family. These six things probably account for at least 90% of my awake time this week. Seriously.
I brought back with me a baby computer, an Asus EeePC, which at 8.9" fits in my purse. The interesting thing is that it runs on Linux, so my new goal is to learn to use Linux. I´m up for the challenge. So far, I haven´t done huge things, but I´ve found the beauty of occassional frustration is the accomplishment that comes at the end. And it comes with some fun games, including a falling math equation game where you have to shoot them with the correct answer, sudoku, and a prenguin racing game. There´s wireless at my school, in most cafes here, and at the farm where Karen and I will be going.
This week I´ve been studying with Yesica (like Jessica). She´s great. We´ve been reviewing everything I´ve learned so far and basically just talking for the whole time. I´m going to have her next week too.
And, I love my host family more than ever.
I brought back with me a baby computer, an Asus EeePC, which at 8.9" fits in my purse. The interesting thing is that it runs on Linux, so my new goal is to learn to use Linux. I´m up for the challenge. So far, I haven´t done huge things, but I´ve found the beauty of occassional frustration is the accomplishment that comes at the end. And it comes with some fun games, including a falling math equation game where you have to shoot them with the correct answer, sudoku, and a prenguin racing game. There´s wireless at my school, in most cafes here, and at the farm where Karen and I will be going.
This week I´ve been studying with Yesica (like Jessica). She´s great. We´ve been reviewing everything I´ve learned so far and basically just talking for the whole time. I´m going to have her next week too.
And, I love my host family more than ever.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Surprise!
Last Tuesday I hopped on a plane to NY (with a week of planning) to surprise my sister, Erica, who just had a baby. Erica had been kind of bummed that neither Beth nor I would be around after Jonas, my nephew was born. Beth had the idea of coming home to surprise her and my dad suggested to me that I come home too. I was in NY Tuesday through Sunday and had an amazing time hanging out with Erica, Mike, Maisie, Jonas, Beth, and my parents. I also got to see my aunt Barbara and my uncle Randy. Jonas is doing really well and Maisie is adjusting (...). I know she will be an awesome big sister and someday she´ll realize how boring her life would have been had she been an only child. I also got to see Meghan, Amy, and Madalyn in NYC for dinner. Although I´m still happy to be in Guatemala, it was so great to spend time with family and friends. I really love and miss you all.
And to my family, I can´t wait until Christmas.
And to my family, I can´t wait until Christmas.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
La Florida, Atltlan
A bit delayed, but here is an entry about my trip with Karen and Angela to the coffee plantation La Florida and then to Lago Atitlan
We left for Colomba, the nearest town to La Florida, around 10 am Sunday. We took a chicken bus which took only abuot an hour. After arriving in Colomba, we met up with somone from La Florida who got us on the right pickup truck (a common mode of travel in more rural areas). After the 45 minute ride, we then hiked for 45 minutes before arriving to the plantation. By then it was after 2pm and we put our things in the dorm (a dimly lit room of four beds with straw matresses) and then went to the families who gave us our meals. Karen and I were put with a family with 5 boys ranging from 2 to 7 years old. The house consisted of a room with two beds, a kitchen area, and a bar-style table across from the beds where we all ate. The room had a tin roof and concrete floors. The boys- with an incredible amount of energy- were constantly doing cartwheels and flips onto the beds. The food was simple but good: frijoles (beans), huevos (eggs), tortillas, and soemtimes cheese or pasta.
For the two mornings that we were at the finca, we ¨helped out¨in the fields. The first day, we removed weds twisted around soy plants and then deshelled macademia nuts using rocks. The second day we picked a bit of coffee and then collected macademia nuts. Turns out raw macademica nuts taste like coconut and are delicious. In the afternoon, it was always raining and there wasn´t much for us to do except entertain/teach the millions of kids running around, so we ended up napping and studying most of the afternoons. It was still an enjoyable experience, but it made Karen and I change our minds from volunteering there for a month to WWOOFing for a month and then doing volunteer work that related to our skills and interest if we were going to volunteer.
We were originally going to stay the last three days of the week at another finca nearby, but thinking that it would be more of the same, we decided to go to Lago Atitlan to visit San Marcos, San Pedro, and Panajachel. In San Marcos, known for its new age retreat centers, we went to a yoga class, metaphysics class, and a meditation class at one retreat center called Las Piramides. I actually liked it a lot (way more than I expected). After two nights in San Marcos, we went to San Pedro, a hippy hotspot, and spent a night there hanging out with the hippies (pronounced ee-pees). That inspired our next goal which was to find hippy pants in Panajachel--which all three of us suceeded in marvulously. The hippy pants here are almost all made of pieces or patches of material of traditional skirts. I wore mine yesterday for the first time, and am kind of in love, though mine are much more tame than many of my other options. There´s not much more to say about Panajachel except that we went to a place for breakfast where there were dead ants in Karen´s granola and hair in my crepe- which was cold, hard, and plastic-like anyway. After complaining to the waiter, we left without paying. So, if you ever go to Panajachel, you can probably skip Restaurante Taly (or any of the restaurants that are right on the lake, for that matter.) We returned Sunday, refreshed and ready for class on Monday.
I´ll post photos when I can.
We left for Colomba, the nearest town to La Florida, around 10 am Sunday. We took a chicken bus which took only abuot an hour. After arriving in Colomba, we met up with somone from La Florida who got us on the right pickup truck (a common mode of travel in more rural areas). After the 45 minute ride, we then hiked for 45 minutes before arriving to the plantation. By then it was after 2pm and we put our things in the dorm (a dimly lit room of four beds with straw matresses) and then went to the families who gave us our meals. Karen and I were put with a family with 5 boys ranging from 2 to 7 years old. The house consisted of a room with two beds, a kitchen area, and a bar-style table across from the beds where we all ate. The room had a tin roof and concrete floors. The boys- with an incredible amount of energy- were constantly doing cartwheels and flips onto the beds. The food was simple but good: frijoles (beans), huevos (eggs), tortillas, and soemtimes cheese or pasta.
For the two mornings that we were at the finca, we ¨helped out¨in the fields. The first day, we removed weds twisted around soy plants and then deshelled macademia nuts using rocks. The second day we picked a bit of coffee and then collected macademia nuts. Turns out raw macademica nuts taste like coconut and are delicious. In the afternoon, it was always raining and there wasn´t much for us to do except entertain/teach the millions of kids running around, so we ended up napping and studying most of the afternoons. It was still an enjoyable experience, but it made Karen and I change our minds from volunteering there for a month to WWOOFing for a month and then doing volunteer work that related to our skills and interest if we were going to volunteer.
We were originally going to stay the last three days of the week at another finca nearby, but thinking that it would be more of the same, we decided to go to Lago Atitlan to visit San Marcos, San Pedro, and Panajachel. In San Marcos, known for its new age retreat centers, we went to a yoga class, metaphysics class, and a meditation class at one retreat center called Las Piramides. I actually liked it a lot (way more than I expected). After two nights in San Marcos, we went to San Pedro, a hippy hotspot, and spent a night there hanging out with the hippies (pronounced ee-pees). That inspired our next goal which was to find hippy pants in Panajachel--which all three of us suceeded in marvulously. The hippy pants here are almost all made of pieces or patches of material of traditional skirts. I wore mine yesterday for the first time, and am kind of in love, though mine are much more tame than many of my other options. There´s not much more to say about Panajachel except that we went to a place for breakfast where there were dead ants in Karen´s granola and hair in my crepe- which was cold, hard, and plastic-like anyway. After complaining to the waiter, we left without paying. So, if you ever go to Panajachel, you can probably skip Restaurante Taly (or any of the restaurants that are right on the lake, for that matter.) We returned Sunday, refreshed and ready for class on Monday.
I´ll post photos when I can.
WWOOFing en Mexico
One reason why I haven´t written much lately is that Karen and I have decided to WWOOF in Mexico in November and we´ve been spending a lot of time trying to arrange everything. For those who do not know, WWOOF stands for ¨Willing Workers On Organic Farms¨and it is an international program which links volunteers with farms where the volunteers work (and learn about organic farming) in exchange for food and lodging. Most larger countries have their own network but Guatemala does not so we decided to go to Mexico. Right now we´re waiting to hear back from a bunch of farms to see if they have room/need when we would like to go, and if they take people without experience (some do, some don´t). I´ll keep you updated on our plan as we find out more.
Jonas Alijah Charpentier McGuirk
¡Tengo un sobrino! I have a new nephew! Jonas Alijah Charpentier McGuirk, was born 9:26pm October 3 en la casa de Erica y Mike, con una midwife (comadrona). Last I heard, everything is going well and Maisie is proud to be a big sister. Here are some pictures of the fam:
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