This week, Karen and I fixed a wall of a terraced garden bed, planted about 500 beets, made a low tunnel (like a mini greenhouse to protect the fennel from the frost), and started digging out blackberry roots so we can plant one of the greenhouses. The new WWOOFer brought a hackey sack and a frisbee, which has been fun. I´m pretty terrible at hackey sack but at least have been improving.
The most exiciting news recently in my life is that today I bought a watch for $30 pesos (US$2.50) that says ¨Japan Quality, Made in China¨on the back. I don´t have high hopes, but so far so good.
Living with two Brits, I have started saying ¨proper¨as in ¨Are you going to make a proper fire?¨ Picking this up may be because it actually is better than just repeating the word twice, which is what I realized I sometimes do (or say ¨real¨but proper is better). Por ejemplo, ¨was it a date date¨versus ¨was it a proper date?¨ I don´t think I´ll get to saying ¨Crikey¨or ¨Bloody hell¨but maybe if I were staying longer, I would.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Corrected phone number and address
Sorry, I forgot to include a very important ¨1¨in my phone number in the previous blog. I´ve changed it on there but just so you know, if you want to call from a telephone or calling card from the states call:
011-52-1-434-1121-321.
And for anyone who wants to send me anything, you can send it to the following address until January:
Stephanie Charpentier
La Democracia Spanish School
9 Calle 15-05
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, Central America
I won´t pick up my mail there until around Christmas, but I´ll still get whatever you send.
011-52-1-434-1121-321.
And for anyone who wants to send me anything, you can send it to the following address until January:
Stephanie Charpentier
La Democracia Spanish School
9 Calle 15-05
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, Central America
I won´t pick up my mail there until around Christmas, but I´ll still get whatever you send.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Mexican Phone Number
Hey all, so this is likely the last time I´ll use internet until I leave the farm, so I would love to hear from anyone who wants to call me. It costs me about $4 to make a call just to say ¨call me back¨and then hang up, so I would love it if you could call me on Skype just because you feel like it. It´s best to call after 5 pm Eastern time and even better after 8 or 9pm.
From Skype: Set the country choice to Mexico (which will automatically input the country code). Then type in 1-434-1121-321 and hit send. If it doesn´t go through, just try again because the signal goes in and out so if I don´t pick up, it probably never rang. But it does work (I´ve tested it from Skype) so just don´t give up.
From a phone/calling card: Dial 001-52-1-434-1121-321. And the same thing goes as above about trying again (and again).
The primary cell phone provider in Mexico is a monopoly and charges criminally high rates to make calls. But I have free incoming calls and it´s not that much from skype.
Other than all that, some things I´ve been doing lately:
-preparing beds with fish emolsion (think decomposing fish parts) and bio-char
-planting purple mustard, parsley, beets, cabbage, fennel, etc
-feeding ducks, pigs, geese, chickens
-making compost
-hearding the pigs back in when they dug under the fense and escaped
-baking bread (today we made focaccia bread to use as pizza crust and a rye molassas loaf)
-digging a wallow for the pigs
It´s great because I´m learning a lot about permaculture and how everything works and fits together, not just working.
A new WWOOFer is coming today which will make 5 of us. He´s also Canadian, but I haven´t met him yet so I don´t know much more.
Hope everyone reading this is doing well. I miss you all (and thanks for taking the time to read this)
From Skype: Set the country choice to Mexico (which will automatically input the country code). Then type in 1-434-1121-321 and hit send. If it doesn´t go through, just try again because the signal goes in and out so if I don´t pick up, it probably never rang. But it does work (I´ve tested it from Skype) so just don´t give up.
From a phone/calling card: Dial 001-52-1-434-1121-321. And the same thing goes as above about trying again (and again).
The primary cell phone provider in Mexico is a monopoly and charges criminally high rates to make calls. But I have free incoming calls and it´s not that much from skype.
Other than all that, some things I´ve been doing lately:
-preparing beds with fish emolsion (think decomposing fish parts) and bio-char
-planting purple mustard, parsley, beets, cabbage, fennel, etc
-feeding ducks, pigs, geese, chickens
-making compost
-hearding the pigs back in when they dug under the fense and escaped
-baking bread (today we made focaccia bread to use as pizza crust and a rye molassas loaf)
-digging a wallow for the pigs
It´s great because I´m learning a lot about permaculture and how everything works and fits together, not just working.
A new WWOOFer is coming today which will make 5 of us. He´s also Canadian, but I haven´t met him yet so I don´t know much more.
Hope everyone reading this is doing well. I miss you all (and thanks for taking the time to read this)
Sunday, November 9, 2008
La granja
After leaving Mexico City, Karen and I took a bus 5 hours west to Patzcuaro, where Lisa and Ian picked us up from the bus station. They´re married and in their fifties (I think). Lisa is from the states and Ian is British. They have been living in Mexico on this farm for 4 years, before which Ian was a photographer and Lisa a fashion designer. They bought the farm and100 books on permaculture (which is sustainable, efficient agriculture) and have been figurin things out since. They grow vegetables that no one else around grows and sells them to a fancy restaurant on the coast. They have 4 dogs, 9 cats, 24 chickens, 40 sheep (who aren´t on the farm), and around 30 geese, and a bunch of ducks. So far I´ve been preparing new beds and planting. I´ve planted purple mustard and a special type of fennel.
There are two other WWOOFers besides Karen and me: Damian and Amy. Damian is from Quebec and has been WWOOFing for 3 months in Mexico and Guatemala. Amy is from England and hasnt worked on a farm before but has traveled extensively. And for those who this means something to: she worked in Elephant Nature Park for 6 months, two years ago. We all share a really comfortable room. Damien arrived two days before me and Karen and Amy got there one day after. I think we´re a pretty good group.
So the bad part about this farm is that we´re speaking English most of the time. Lisa can communicate well but Ian doesn´t know much and Amy doesn´t know any. Karen, Damian, and I speak Spanish with each other sometimes, but it´s definitely not the same as living with a bunch of spanish speakers. The best part about this farm, besides that Lisa is really willing to teach as much as possible about farming and permiculture, is that she is an amzing cook and has actually cooked professionally. So each meal is better than what I would usually get in a restaurant. And she´s teaching us to cook. So far, we have made (and I have recipes for) apple cake, a salad dressing, mexican scrambled eggs, rye, caraway, and molasses bread, and clam fritters. There is almost always homemade bread and/or cake in the house.
Overall it´s good so far. We work Monday though Saturday 8:30am-2pm and then some at dusk. There´s not really time to go into Patacuaro, where I am now, after work because its 30 minutes away and you need to take a taxi. Zirahuan is the little town of 500 people that is 1km away from the farm, and which has access to this huge, clean lake, but there isn´t much there, nor is there internet. (This means that I can probably only use internet once a week.) Karen, Damian, and I are strategizing on how to meet people in the town. We might volunteer to teach English a bit, though it´s not an amazing way to learn Spanish. There´s some local antagonism to foreigners who live there, I think mostly because this area is becoming like Florida, just full of retired people who don´t try to mix with the local comunity in positive ways. So I don´t know exaclty what effect that will have on our experience there. I´ll see.
There are two other WWOOFers besides Karen and me: Damian and Amy. Damian is from Quebec and has been WWOOFing for 3 months in Mexico and Guatemala. Amy is from England and hasnt worked on a farm before but has traveled extensively. And for those who this means something to: she worked in Elephant Nature Park for 6 months, two years ago. We all share a really comfortable room. Damien arrived two days before me and Karen and Amy got there one day after. I think we´re a pretty good group.
So the bad part about this farm is that we´re speaking English most of the time. Lisa can communicate well but Ian doesn´t know much and Amy doesn´t know any. Karen, Damian, and I speak Spanish with each other sometimes, but it´s definitely not the same as living with a bunch of spanish speakers. The best part about this farm, besides that Lisa is really willing to teach as much as possible about farming and permiculture, is that she is an amzing cook and has actually cooked professionally. So each meal is better than what I would usually get in a restaurant. And she´s teaching us to cook. So far, we have made (and I have recipes for) apple cake, a salad dressing, mexican scrambled eggs, rye, caraway, and molasses bread, and clam fritters. There is almost always homemade bread and/or cake in the house.
Overall it´s good so far. We work Monday though Saturday 8:30am-2pm and then some at dusk. There´s not really time to go into Patacuaro, where I am now, after work because its 30 minutes away and you need to take a taxi. Zirahuan is the little town of 500 people that is 1km away from the farm, and which has access to this huge, clean lake, but there isn´t much there, nor is there internet. (This means that I can probably only use internet once a week.) Karen, Damian, and I are strategizing on how to meet people in the town. We might volunteer to teach English a bit, though it´s not an amazing way to learn Spanish. There´s some local antagonism to foreigners who live there, I think mostly because this area is becoming like Florida, just full of retired people who don´t try to mix with the local comunity in positive ways. So I don´t know exaclty what effect that will have on our experience there. I´ll see.
Bienvenidos a Mexico
I know it´s been a while since I last wrote. My last week in Xela (the last week of October) I tried to spend it with my friends, rather than on the internet. Karen and I left Xela Nov 2 for San Cristobal de las Casas, an old colonial tourist town in Chiapas. We were going to take a night bus (16 horus) to Mexico City, but a one-hour flight was about half the price at $39 US, so we opted for that. Turns out, Mexico City is BEAUTIFUL. Really. We stayed in the historical (touristy) part of the city where there is a huge cathedral and a palace around a huge public square, all in magnificent European architecture. I hadn´t actually read much about Mexico before arriving so I was stunned when I stepped out of the subway.
The next day Karen, an Irish girl named Charlotte who we met in our hostel, and I went to Teotihuacán, a huge city of Aztec ruins. There are a number of pyramids there, and one of them, the Sun Pyramid, is the thrid largest pyramid in the world (including the pyramids in Egypt). We climbed its 250 steps and it was pretty awesome. Unfortuneatly I don´t have pictures up yet, sorry.
Being in Mexico City also made me realize how much I love subways and how much I miss it. I never would have expected it, but its true. I was also taken aback by how comfortable the first class buses here are, with more leg room than in any bus or airplane I´ve ever been on and really comfortable seats that recline a lot. I read in a guide that Mexico has one of (if not the) best bus systems in the world. I belive it.
The next day Karen, an Irish girl named Charlotte who we met in our hostel, and I went to Teotihuacán, a huge city of Aztec ruins. There are a number of pyramids there, and one of them, the Sun Pyramid, is the thrid largest pyramid in the world (including the pyramids in Egypt). We climbed its 250 steps and it was pretty awesome. Unfortuneatly I don´t have pictures up yet, sorry.
Being in Mexico City also made me realize how much I love subways and how much I miss it. I never would have expected it, but its true. I was also taken aback by how comfortable the first class buses here are, with more leg room than in any bus or airplane I´ve ever been on and really comfortable seats that recline a lot. I read in a guide that Mexico has one of (if not the) best bus systems in the world. I belive it.
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.
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