2006 Guatemala Vacation
I took my every-other-summer 3-week adventure vacation to Guatemala this year, June 4-24, 2006. Below is the link to 37 of the 200+ pix that I took. Click on "View Photos Now." Unfortunately, unlike a website, I could only identify the pictures with a short title, not a full paragraph.
http://www.photoworks.com/share/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=AC14643C191&cb=PW
If you REALLY find the pictures interesting, you can check out the the 16-page daily log that I kept (below). Yep, 16 pages. In my Spanish 1 and 2 classes I have a Guatemala thread that runs thru the year. I use several DVD's that cost about $30 each (2 in English, 1 in Spanish-2 level Spanish), and this coming year I plan to show many of these pix, especially Lake Atitlan and the street scenes. In summary, I had signed up with a Spanish-language school, Educación para Todos, in Quetzaltenango, about 5 hours bus ride northwest of Guatemala City on the Pan American Highway. The locals just call it Xela (pronounced SHAY-lah). It is in the western Highlands of Guatemala at 7600 ft elevation, compared to Denver at 5000 ft. Population 200,000. Most of the other pictures are closer to 5000 ft, like Lake Atitlan and Guatemala City. The school had set me up to live with a local family, Etel Lepe and her husband Jorge and four kids. It was WONDERFUL being a member of their family. May-November is the rainy season (they call it winter), LOTS of rain with temperatures 50-75 Fahrenheit. I made a deal with the school: I spend 180 days a year in a Spanish classroom, I don't plan to do it here, I just want my (private) instructor to take me around the area and show me Guatemala. I'll learn plenty of Spanish just speaking it all the time (very few English speakers in Xela). And my extended Lepe family also took me places. With all my guides my deal was, if you take me I'll pay your bus, meals, etc. Some of the pix are CERECAIF, a foster home that one of my instructors introduced me to. My wife's sorority donated over $100 that I used to buy recreational books, kitchen supplies, and shoes for CERECAIF. They may open a website soon that can accept donations from USA. Many of the pictures are from Lake Atitlan and the lakeside communities of Panajachel, San Marcos (where Oscar and I spent the night), and San Pedro. The guidebook said Lake Atitlan is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. I have also seen Lake Geneva in Switzerland and Lake Louise in Canada, and I agree. Dan Fox, Kempner High School Spanish teacher #############################################################################
Guatemala Newsletters, June 4-21, 2006
06/04/2006 Sunday Guatemala City This was an absolutely flawless international trip. Flight left on time, no bad weather, good breakfast inflight, arrived on time, bags arrived promptly, Customs stamped my passport and never asked to see inside anybody's luggage, Victor was waiting for me with a big 2 LUNAS sign, etc. Hotel is a middle class villa, my room is about the size of our office with 3 single beds, but only one has been rented out besides mine, my roommate is out right now. Bathroom across the hall serves 4 rooms. The hotel has this computer for guest use. First 30 minutes is free, then $1 per 30 minutes thereafter. The lady at the front desk says there is very little crime in this neighborhood. Think I'll go for a walk. I'll be leaving tomorrow morning at 0700 to catch the 0800 bus to Xela, get there at lunch time.
######################################## 06/05/2006 Monday Guatemala City The book Central America says that Guatemala City is a boring place for tourists, and I agree. Yesterday I asked at the "hotel" to change some dollars to quetzales, they didn't have any, but I could walk to the airport where they had a change booth open on Sunday. It's not far, she said. You just follow this boulevard till it runs into the hotel, about 10 minutes walk. Wrong on both counts. I curved this way and that, asked directions, finally got to the bank as the afternoon rain started. Changed $100 and headed back. Got lost, asked directions at a cafe. The owner offered to take me back, he had to ask directions. Keystone Cops scenes. When we finally found Hotel Dos Lunas I gave him Q50 ($6), which is the taxi fare. I already have reservations for the nights of June 14 (wedding) and June 23 (catch plane next morning). At breakfast I met a 16 year old boy (Lawrence) who is on the same bus with me to the same school. He just finihsed high school Spanish 1 in Atlanta. Swell kid. We will ride together. My roommate last night was Jake Sanchez (age 42). He teaches Algebra 1 and Health at a high school in South Central Los Angeles, the mean barrio that rioted after the Rodney King verdict. Jake made good money as an engineer and lawyer, got tired of 17-hour days, and went to teaching for the long vacations. Says his kids love him and learn a lot. He really is very energetic, smart and interesting. What is he doing in Guatemala? Just finished five weeks backpacking alone thru Central America, headed back home, has a graduate level education course that he starts tomorrow. ###################################### 06/06/2006 Tuesday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
D-Day + 62 years. Everything went right on time. Lawrence is a quiet young man, but I did get him to talk enough to learn that his Spanish (after one year) is much better than Kempner's Spanish 2 students. But then, he does go to a pricey private school. He described his teacher's teaching style, it sounds like TPRS, but Lawrence had never heard of TPRS. The bus yesterday was deluxe, but the roads weren't, so it was a swing-and-sway ride for 4.5 hours to Quetzaltenango. Otherwise uneventful. Nobody was at the bus station waiting for us (me and Lawrence), so we called the school. Oscar Gomez walked over (six blocks), the school's one vehicle is broke. So we hauled our luggage to the school and forked over our money ($420 for me for 3 weeks of room, board and tuition). My landlady's daughter (age 9) and niece had walked over to show me back, but my luggage weighed too much for them to carry so we caught a taxi in the pouring afternoon rain. Quetzaltenango is called Xela (pronounced SHAY-lah) by the locals, and it's easier to type, so I'll just call it Xela here. We are at 8000 ft elevation, compared to Denver's 5000 ft and Quito's 8000 ft. The internet says that the temperatures in June are 45-70 Fahrenheit, but it didn't feel quite that chilly last night. But I was very glad that I had gone to the trouble to bring an electric blanket. Nobody in Xela has enough money to afford room heat or electric blanket, and Oscar had forewarned me. I slept like a baby. My home for the next 3 weeks is the most primitive place that I have spent the night since Africa. Plaster walls over cinderblock with large chunks of plaster missing, dim bare light bulbs hanging down from the ceiling by thin frayed wires, wet clothes hanging on multiple lines across the brick patio, no hot water in the shower...... HOORAY, I FOUND A PLACE THAT I LIKE!!!! The couple are Etel (Ethel) and Jorge (George) Lepe. Jorge is a bookkeeper at a local sweater factory. Etel sells lunches from her front door and rents out my room to students. They have four kids: Ricardo 12, Daniel 10, Cecilia 9 and Brandon 4. They are precious kids, active, play well together. They wander in and out of my
room like they owned the place. They treat me just like Grandpa, and I love it! Last night's supper was spaghetti and meat sauce. Etel's oldest daughter Olga and Olga's husband Oscar (not the same Oscar as at the school) came over for supper, as they do most meals. Oscar and I hit it off immediately! Swapping the same corny jokes and laughing at them! He is an outgoing soccer player, owns his own welding shop, the kids worship him. After a while he invited me to walk around town. The frantic traffic had stopped shortly after dark (around 7) so walking was easy. And the air was clean. He showed me the cathedrals, parks, markets, all are places that I will visit again...... When we got back, Etel and the 4 kids were watching one of the 69 channels on their 24" color TV, so I went on to bed. This morning's breakfast was pancakes and pineapple marmalade. Lunch today (Tuesday) was arroz-conpollo (rice with chicken) and a green salad and instant coffee. The hot water heater wasn't working so Jorge put a big pot (2 gallons) of water on the propane stove and I had a sponge bath. That's OK. Thank goodness Xela uses propane, because coal or firewood would give everybody in the city lung cancer. As it is, the vehicles belch enough stinking smoke to do that job! Seriously, it gives me a headache until the city goes quiet after dark. It's a serious health problem, like it is in Mexico City. My instructor is Mario, married with kids ages 4, 6 and 9. Oscar had already told him that I did not want to spend any time in a stuffy classroom (something that my own students might say!), so we went out immediately walking around the city. Then we went back to the school and joined the five other students (this school operates on a shoestring) and another instructor for a walk to the local cemetery, dating back about 150 years. On the way we passed a parade honoring St Peter's Day. Religon in Guatemala is a hybrid between Catholicism and ancient Mayan religon. It's interesting, and the people are very devout. Guatemala is about 50% Mayan and 49% Ladino (Spanish-Indian mix). The others are German, Japanese, USA, etc...... The other instructor with us was Brenda, last year she was a social worker for the Government. She told me that most of the Mayan kids attended a couple of years of school then the parents would take them out. They don't see any connection between school and future. They make the excuse that it's too expensive, and that's a real consideration. There are laws on the books that say that education is free and compulsory, but there is only enough money for the government to educate about 35% of the school-age children. The others go to private schools which cost $30 $100 per month per child. I hope to visit some schools while here. BTW, it's pouring down rain outside this internet cafe ($1 per hour), as it does every evening at this time (7 pm) May - October, and many afternoons also. After school (to use the expression very loosely) I went back to the Lepe residence (5 minute walk) for lunch. Oscar and Olga were there, this time with their two precious kids. Almost all kids in Guatemala are precious and well-behaved, not at all like a visit to WalMart in Houston on Saturday. I had asked the Lepe kids if they had any story books that I could read to them, no they didn't, not any! Well, Grandpa checked with Mom then Grandpa and Oscar and the kids headed out looking for children's books. The bookstores had almost nothing, I was stunned. We found a small selection at the MontBlanc shopping center (French name, Italian company). I dropped about $20 for the kids, and another $3 for two Condorito comic books from Chile that I enjoy. Mom and the kids thanked me profusely. I hope the kids ask me to read to them now! ###################################### 06/07/2006 Wednesday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala My scheme to get the kids to ask me to read to them was a raving success! When I got back to the house in time for supper (8 pm) Etel thanked me profusely for the books. She said that after I left for the Internet Cafe the kids all gathered in a circle to read books, swap and read some more. Then after supper the 3 youngest kids all showed up in my room for me to read to them in turns. Grandpa Dan was in heaven! Children's books for recreational reading (Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood) are extremely hard to find in Guatemala. So are any recreational books for anybody. The average Guatemalan (according to Information
Please Almanac online) earns 1/10 what an American earns. So if a book costs $3, that's like $30 to a Guatemalan. That's why Etel was so appreciative of my $20 of books for the kids, that's like $200 for them. That also explains why the "book stores" here have such little selection. Few locals can afford them. Today Mario and I didn't do anything worth writing about. Tomorrow he is taking me to a local tailor for measurements (I have grown too fat lately to fit into my 1990 suits). Then we are going to someplace that I can't pronounce, but what do I care, it's all an adventure. After Mario went home and I went to lunch, I walked to www.xelapages.com to use their website. I got to visiting with the owner, a US citizen who loves Guatemala so much that he brought his family here to live. He urged me to apply for a teaching position at www.ias-xela.org . They pay $100 per month. It's a Christian school that has 20 gringo students and 130 Guatemalans. I thanked him but passed. Just as well. I visited the website later, they have already filled most of their positions! Apparently I'm not the only gringo to think that Guatemala is wonderful. ##################################### 06/08/2006 Thursday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala Breakfast this morning was Kellog's Corn Flakes with freshly-boiled hot milk. Tasted different. Lunch was pasta soup with avocado, and boiled chicken. At school yesterday Oscar was feeling sick at his stomach. This morning he called in sick (Educación para todos is a 5-person school). Mario had to attend a meeting in Oscar's place, so he pawned me off on Brenda. Not a bad deal. Age 26, attractive, single, losing hope of ever marrying. I mentioned her on June 6. Anyway, I never got to the tailor today for a measuring. Maybe tomorrow? And I didn't get to talk to Oscar about books, but that may become irrelevant, see the paragraphs on the foster home below. On the bus ride to San Andrés she was telling me why she quit the job as social worker for the government. On one occasion she was visiting some rural families and got chased by a pack of wild dogs wanting her for lunch. Her job was like Child Protective Services. She would follow up on reported child abuse and sometimes take the kids from the parents and place them in foster homes. Then a few months later she would re-visit the family to see if the child could be safely returned. You can imagine the response of the parents and sometimes neighbors to a social worker and two cops ripping a kid from Mom's arms. On the second life-threatening occasion, Brenda was paying a return visit to evaluate whether to return the little girl to the parents. She expected trouble so she got two local cops to drive her to the rural Mayan village. But the cops refused to walk up to the house with her. Foolishly she walked up alone. The whole neighborhood swarmed her, started punching her on the shoulders, calling her names, demanding the kid back, etc. She speaks enough Mayan that she understood one man who said he was going to get some gasoline. She told the mob that she would go get the kid from the police car if they would let her out. The trick worked. She walked as calmly as she could to the police car, jumped in and they hauled ass. Lot of good the cops were, huh? San Andrés Xecul is a 100% Mayan town in the mountains. It must be at least 1000 feet higher than Xela (8000 ft). We climbed into the cloud forest and the temperature dropped maybe 15 degrees. It was awesome! I took pix, which I will get developed when I get back to Houston. San Andrés is famous for its near-worship of San Simón. This is a mixture of Catholicism and ancient Mayan religon. The statue of San Simón is moved to a different home each year. The host family dedicates a room to his statue and erects a pseudo-altar and has to allow visitors, even gringos. Brenda and I climbed several hundred feet up the mountainside to the current home. The wooden statue is sitting in a chair in the corner. An old man was singing chants to him in a mixture of Spanish and Qui'che Mayan dialect and offering the statue booze and cigarettes, because that's what San Simón is presumed to like. For $1 we could attend. For $2 we could attend and take one picture, which I did. San Andrés has very few gringo visitors. The market place has genuine local products, some very good fresh produce, and some local-made clothes that the local women wear. I bought Arlene a beautiful bright blouse that's universal size. The buyer has to hem it up to her bust line and sew in her own sleeves. $25. Our next stop was the town of Cantel. Brenda has a friend who works at a commercial foster home. The
owner of the house and business is Dr Lourdes Murgía, technically the president of CERECAIF which technically owns the house. She and her husband are from Monterrey MX but emigrated to Cantel because they fell in love with the town while on vacation. (That happens a lot in Guatemala!) We visited there for about 45 minutes, I ended up leaving a $10 donation. Lourdes told us how she and her husband got started in the foster home business. They vaguely knew an Indian couple with 8 kids there (that's about average for Guatemalan Indians, 6-8 kids; other families have 2-3). Mom got sent to prison for selling drugs. Dad fell sick with tuberculosis. Before he died he farmed out six of the kids to relatives and cajoled Lourdes and her husband into adopting the two youngest. This started them on the road to foster homes for larger groups. Currently they have 53 in one house with several employees. They get funding wherever they can, the Government of Guatemala, local churches, and maybe she can get some USA churches or other organizations to help out. They have a proper compound under construction outside town with a Boys' House and a Girls' House. They take kids from infant to age 14. Today there is some kind of activity away from the house for the school-age kids, so Brenda and I only got to see the little ones. When we walked into the play room my first impression was, These kids are so clean, well-fed and happy! Then immediately three of them pounced on Brenda hugging her. She had rescued them from their abusive parents several months ago. One of the two-year-old boys decided in the blink of an eye that he wanted me. He wrapped his little arms around my neck in a death grip and wouldn't let go. Many of these kids were starved for hugs from adults, and they all took turns hugging me and Brenda, but this one boy still wouldn't let go. Finally I had to peel him off so we could leave. Lourdes asked me to keep a lookout for USA sponsors and I promised I would...... When Brenda and I left she was crying. I can't blame her, I'm crying right now as I type. I had asked Lourdes if she had a web page. It seems that web-page building in Guatemala is where it was in USA ten years ago: Few know how and they command top prices. She got bids in the $1000 range for a very simple website. I told her that I knew people that might could build her a simple website for free if she had some digital pix and could provide some text. She promised to get a CD to me at my school in Xela tomorrow. #################################### 06/09/2006 Friday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Breakfast was rice tamales. Lunch was rice and hamburger patties. Today's instructor was Mariana, age 23, single, studying psychology afternoons and nights at the local university. I've decided that I like having so many different instructors since we swap life stories and I get a broader insight into Guatemalan culture. Mariana is 100% Mayan, like half the population here. Her mom had 8 babies, but 3 died as babies. That's an infant mortality rate of 38%, not uncommon in third world countries. Mariana's 3 older siblings have laborer jobs, no college. She and her sister (21) are breaking the mold, working their way thru college. The sister is taking Business Administration, wants to manage a hotel or fancy restaurant. Mariana teaches Spanish at my school 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. Then she goes to the hospital where she does her counseling internship (AIDS victims, drug addicts, terminally ill patients, and other victims of depression). Then she goes to college classes 5:30 - 8:30 every evening. Then she studies till 1 a.m. Gotta admire people like her. I asked Mariana why Mayans were poorer than the mestizo population (mixed-blood; there are VERY few pure-blood Europeans here). She said they have too many kids and don't educate them. And since almost all Mayans are poor and easily recognized from their typical Indian clothing, they are discriminated against. If a Mayan and a Mestizo are trying to get waited on at a store, the clerk will attend the one that's more likely to have money. Our first stop was the tailor. His shop was the front room of his musty little house. The suits that I saw looked shoddy, but what do I know? I didn't want to tell him that, so instead I said that I didn't know much about suits like which style I wanted or which cloth I wanted, so I would wait till I got back to Texas to let my fashion-savvy wife pick one out with me. Next stop was the marketplace La Democracia. We found a Mayan woman who sews and sells her own Mayan blouses right there. I handed her the huipil (pronounced wee-PEEL) that I had bought yesterday at San
Andrés and explained that gringo heads are bigger than Guatemalan heads, could she enlarge the opening till the blouse could fit over MY head easily. She did, we visited with her and cracked jokes while she worked for about 20 minutes. She charged me $1, I gave her $2 and she thanked me profusely. Next Mariana and I headed toward the zoo. Before we got there I saw a DHL office, popped in and asked how much to send one of my two duffle bags to Houston, about 20 kilos. $300. Thank you very much, bye bye. I don't like lugging all that luggage thru airports, I make a very easy target for luggage-snatchers. But for $300 I will do it. The zoo was small and poorly maintained. Just past the zoo was a very upscale shopping center. I took pix of McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Blockbuster to show my students how American chains have gone global. There was a Spanish-language bookstore there, they had several thousand titles, but they were about twice USA prices, so I didn't buy anything. It started pouring down rain while I was having lunch at the house. When I got back to my room, two of the kids were reading the books I had give them, and the 4-year old was flipping pages and making up his own stories aloud. I was so pleased! These kids really enjoy reading, they just don't have anything fun to read. After lunch Lawrence (age 16, Atlanta private school) and Brenda and I caught a chicken bus to Zunil, a town about 20 miles away. Zunil also has a wooden San Simón, just like San Andrés did yesterday. When we got to the house some Indian man had paid $5 to drape San Simón's wooden statue over his shoulders and dance with it for 15 minutes. Lawrence and Brenda and I waited patiently till they put San Simón in his chair, and tucked a bottle of whiskey under his arm and a cigarette in his mouth. Then we took pix for $1 each. ############################################# 06/10/2006 Saturday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala Breakfast was pancakes and honey. Lunch was green salad, rice and fried steak. Etel's son-in-law, Oscar, had made arrangements with me to pick me up at 0700 and we would walk across town to where he had a soccer game at 0800. So at 0650 I was sitting at the front door waiting. He never came or called. Etel tried to phone him, but her phone was out of order. So she walked to a neighbor's house and called Oscar. His wife Olga (Etel's daughter) said he had overslept, tried to call but Etel's phone was out of order, so he went on to the soccer game. Etel asked the two older boys Riqui (Ricardo, age 12) and Daniel (10) if they would walk me over there. They were delighted to get out of the house. Ceci (Cecilia, 9) said she didn't want to join us, but I suspect that Mom didn't think that a soccer game was a place for a girl. Kids in Xela live indoors even more than kids in Houston. The traffic makes the streets too dangerous to play. And there are few playgrounds. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to the municipal ball field. The amateur game was already 30 minutes underway. Riqui and Daniel and I sat behind one of the goals. The boys had brought their own worn-out soccer ball and kicked it around on the basketball court. Then they joined me and took turns chasing down the teams' soccer ball when somebody missed the net. During half-time the boys played on the Big Boys' field. Oscar's team won 3-2. After the game, as the next two teams were coming onto the field, we walked over to the dugout where Oscar was. Oscar looks like Pele, the legendary Brasilian soccer hero: Short, crew cut, dark-complection, and pure muscle. He and the team went to the store across the street to have Cokes. I bought Cokes for me and the two boys. It was only 10 a.m. and the city zoo (that I had visited yesterday) was only 10 minutes up the hill, so the boys and I headed that way while Oscar rode his bike home. I currently have taken about 50 pictures in Guatemala. Many of them are of billboards that are in simple Spanish, for my students to translate next school year. ############################################## 06/11/2006 Sunday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Breakfast was at the Market, see below. Lunch was spaghetti and meat sauce. Marivel (Mary for short) is the cousin of my house mother, Etel. Mary had offered to take me to the country for today´s excursion for $2. I said OK and invited my host family. Etel and Ceci (9) and Brandon (4) went with us, and at the end of the day I paid Mary $8 for the day´s outing for the four of us. Etel was raised in the small city of San Juan Ostumcalco, about 30 minutes bus ride northwest of Xela. Mary was raised in a village in the mountains about 1000 ft above San Juan, the village is called La Emboscada (the place in the forest). I think Mary is 100% Maya and Etel is mixed-race. Mary arrived on time at 0715 and we were all packed and ready. We walked down to the mini-bus stop (mini-bus means van) and caught it (a dime a person) to the second-class bus terminal and caught the bus to San Juan (20 cents per person). My deal with my local guides and guests is that I pay all bus and meals and entrance fees (if any) for myself, guide and any guests I invited. Since I make about 10 times what they make, it´s not a lot of money to me but it is to them. Sunday is market day in San Juan. It was a wonderful madhouse! They were selling live chickens and local flowers and whetstones ($1, I bought one for Etel´s kitchen, I´ll sharpen her knives tomorrow probably). And hot food. We had skipped breakfast and by 0830 we were all hungry. In the market they had many food stalls. I have pix, I could never describe it in words! I had a big bowl of vegetable soup with meat, carrots, cabbage, onions, etc, and a cup of coffee. Mary and Etel had cows foot soup, yes that´s the meat that they use. The kids split a plate of chicken and rice. Whole tab was $6! I REALLY wish I could take all my classes there, it was so much fun and so interesting. Pictures will have to do. After the market we walked to the ´bus stop´. A pickup truck that was headed up the mountain pulled up and the driver shouted out LA EMBOSCADA, so we piled into the back with our backpacks. We stopped at several more street corners and picked up two more Mayan passengers. It was great! I haven´t taken a ride in the back of a pickup truck for years, and it was just as much fun as it was 50 years ago. We were lucky to have sunshine for the first time since I got here a week ago. The air was thin and brisk and CLEAN (unlike Xela´s polluted air). The mountainsides were covered with pine forests, looked like parts of the Ozark mountains in Arkansas (but twice the altitude), beautiful and peaceful. Mary was raised in La Emboscada and knew all 200 people there. Most were relatives. Etel and her mom had lived with Mary´s family for a year many years ago, so Etel knew most of the people. Mary dropped off her backpack, but DUH, I didn´t catch the message and kept mine on. I didn´t know where we were going. We went on a hike thru the mountains! Mary and Etel were wearing slip-on shoes intended for in-house use, but they were more sure-footed than I was in my jogging shoes. And they just trudged up those trails with me and the kids bringing up the rear. Again, I have pix. We visited another house of Mary´s relatives, it was a real Mayan rural home. I was expecting dirt floor and thatched roof like I had seen in Ecuador 40 years ago, but no, this was cinderblock with corregated (sp) tin roof, running water and electricity! Mary has invited several gringos to live there, and some stayed for months with the families. They don´t get many visitors, so the families pounced on me and the kids with all the hospitality you could imagine. They served us Pepsi, showed us the cow and calf and two pigs, we petted the dogs, wandered around the corn fields, even climbed a few minutes up the mountain side again until the old gringo said he was tired. I got a picture of a Mayan wood stove. The kids took me to see their Evangelical church and their school. Then Miss Bashful (second grade) asked if I would buy them cookies, which I did for 50 cents for all four kids. Then we walked down the road to Mary´s mom´s house. Mary plunged in helping fix dinner. The knife was dull so I pulled out the whetstone and sharpened it (my trademark thank-you gift). All that mountain hiking had worn me out, so I went into the Big Room (living room plus dormitory room plus dining room), sat down on an easy chair and fell asleep. Fifteen minutes later I woke up to BAAAH BAAAH. The kids and sheep dogs were bring the herd back from pasture, right thru the living room! I was so stunned that later I asked Etel if I had dreamed it. No, they really did. Mary is single, so she stayed with her family in La Emboscada. Tomorrow she will catch the early bus back to her beauty shop in Xela. The regular pickup ´buses´ had stopped for the day so Mary´s uncle was going to take us down the hill to the bus stop. But first they had to get the truck running. The starter was shot so we all
pushed it out the gate and headed it downhill so Uncle could jump-start it. Wahoo, another ride in the back of a pickup truck! Wow, another successful day! ########################################### 06/12/2006 Monday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala Yesterday in the mountains I saw a local guy in his late 20's wearing very American jeans and western shirt. He was one of Mary's many relatives. He had just returned from being an illegal worker in Los Angeles for three years. He plans to stay here with his wife and kids and other extended family for a couple of years, then sneak back to L.A. for work. He makes about $10 an hour as a semi-skilled construction laborer in LA. He would make $1.25 (minimum wage) an hour here. He sends about half his wages from LA to his family. While in LA he stays with relatives who have green cards. That way he doesn't have to risk giving his home address to the electric company, etc. His relatives bought a car for him, he paid for it but again, he is staying under the radar. His story about getting from Guatemala to LA agrees with what I have seen on Houston newscasts. He goes to the Guatemala-Mexico border and gets a 24-hour tourist visa into Mexico. While in southern Mexico his Guatemalan accent draws the interest of local cops. Some of them will accept a payoff, others put him on the busload of Illegal Aliens back to Guatemala, where he pulls the same stunt again. Once in Mexico he catches a plane to Monterrey, then on to Tijuana. Then he locates a coyote who is supposed to deliver him to Los Angeles for $2000 cash. The coyote takes the truckload of immigrants to a hiding place in the desert near the US border. They only travel at night. Sometimes they climb over a high cinderblock wall. Sometimes they snake under a wire fence. Then they hustle as far into the California desert as they can get before the Border Patrol helicopter can respond to the sensing devices. Then for three nights they follow unreliable maps and walk north from one cattle watering trough to the next. They hide out and sleep during the day. If it's summer, some die of thirst. Finally they get to a road where the coyote's partner meets up with them in a truck......... Yes, there are more sophisticated coyote operations that leave from Guatemala, but they cost $5500. What happens to illegal workers who get caught by the cops? Forget bribes, American cops never accept them. The Border Patrol sends you back to your home country. None of the Guatemalans wants be flown back to Guatemala, because they would have to start their next border crossing from Guatemala, they would rather start from Tijuana. So they tell the Americans (who can't tell a Mexican accent from a Guatemalan accent) that they are Mexican, don't know how to read or write because they come from southern Mexico where few people know how to read or write. The Border Patrol puts them on a bus, drives them just over the border to Tijuana, and lets them off. Then they contact the coyote again. Today (Monday) I went with my "adopted grandson" Daniel (by coincidence) to his 4th grade class. It is a very small Christian private school, a converted villa a couple of blocks from the house. There are only five teachers, and only 15-20 kids in each class. It was a dream! The kids were diligently working their tests (major tests are every-other-month) while I visited with a teacher. Then a parent came in the gate and the teacher walked out into the courtyard to greet her. Immediately the kids started swapping answers. Some things are universal. I had planned to walk to school with Cecilia (9), but today is her teacher's birthday and teachers get off for their birthday, so no classes for Ceci. But Etel took me and Ceci and Brandon (4) to Cici's school, explained my situation to the Principal who gave us the run of the school. It's the highest rated public school in Xela, there is a long waiting list. All-girls school. I visited a first grade class and a fourth grade class. Both had 4550 girls. The kids were whispering constantly, but 50 of them made so much noise that the teachers had to shout to be heard, and were constantly trying to jerk the kids back on-task. But it was hopeless, and you could see the stress on the teachers' faces. Fortunately the kids were good about sitting in their assigned desks and not throwing things or shouting across the room, which is what my teenage students do when given the chance. The kids were not learning much.
Year-before-last I had about 22 students average in six periods. Last year it was 28 students. There is no legal limit to class size in Texas. This visit was a glimpse into the possible future of Texas schools (45+ students), and it was ugly. ######################################### 06/13/2006 Tuesday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala The taxi pulled up in front of my house at 0600, Oscar banged on the door and we left. Also Olga (Etel's daughter & Oscar's wife, age 23), Oscar Jr (6) and Andy (3), and Mary (Etel's cousin, 36). We went to the bus terminal and got into the chicken bus to Huehuetenango (locals call it Huehue, pronounced WAY-WAY). They call them chicken buses because the farmers tie their chickens' legs together and carry them to the bus, then tie them to the rack atop the retired American school bus. The 3-hour ride to Huehue was just as beautiful as the book claimed. Mountains to 10,000 ft covered in pine forests. The ride rivaled a roller coaster ride. Huehuetenango is at 1900 meters (6200 ft), compared to Quetzaltenango at 2330 meters (7600 ft). Huehue was 10 degrees warmer with sunshine. It is half the population of Xela, so less air pollution and less crowded. I liked Huehue. At Huehue we had breakfast. Most of the food in Huehue is Mexican food, since we were so close to the Mexican border (4 hours drive). I had tacos. Then we took a taxi to the Mayan ruins of Zaculeu just outside town. They were interesting, very similar to those at Iximche that I saw 4 years ago near Antigua, Guatemala. We caught another taxi to the archeological excavation further out. The farmer that owned the land was the guide. He had started digging a water well the old-fashioned way, by hand. He drew a circle 1 meter (39") in diameter and started digging straight down with hand shovel and hand pick. The guy doing the digging would put the dirt into a bucket and somebody else would haul it up, dump it, and lower it back. VERY slow procedure, especially in this hard dirt. When he got about 20 ft down he hit a huge bone, much too big to be from a horse or cow. He called the government who sent an archeological team to dig an excavation, about 20' x 30' and 20' down. They cleaned off the bones of a 10,000 year old Mammoth, from the last ice age. The bones are strewn around like some local Indians had eaten the meat and discarded the bones in all directions. The government declared the area a National Monument, and the landowner gets some kind of royalty and the job as guide. The government also built a shelter and erected some very interesting posters describing how Man got from Siberia to Alaska 30,000 years ago, worked his way down to Central America 20,000 years ago, and on to southern Chile 10,000 years ago. It also described ice ages, evolution and extinction of species, etc. ######################################## 06/14/2006 Wednesday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Breakfast was pancakes and pineapple marmalade, and coffee. Lunch is described below. Francisco didn't come to pick me up at 10 because he is Mexican. Every 3 months Mexican tourists have to return to Mexico to renew their Guatemala visas. So Francisco took the 5-hour bus ride to the nearest border town, walked across into Mexico, turned around and walked back in thus getting a new visa stamp. Instead of Francisco, Aldo Falciola (around 30) came with four of the boys from the Foster Home. The vehicle was an ancient Ford Bronco with automatic transmission that could barely get 25 mph. Whenever a vehicle leaves the foster home, if there is space for kids they take kids to enjoy an outing. I had my $30 of books with me, and another $170 in quetzales. I had misunderstood where their operations are. Currently CERACAIF rents two villas (one for boys, the bigger one for girls) in the town of Salcajá on the road to Guatemala City. The "ranch" that is under construction is located on the road to the coast, on the outskirts of the town of Cantel. Aldo took me to Salcajá. The boys in the back seat saw the clear plastic bag full of kids' books and started begging, so I passed out four of them. They loved them.
In Salcajá one of the workers showed me the stack of books that other people had donated. Add the ones that I gave them, and the kids have plenty of good reading for a long while. I was glad that I had not bought more. Also most of their kids are pre-school and can't read yet anyway. But they love to flip thru the pictures and make up their own stories. Or sometimes the few older kids read to the pre-schoolers. Aldo took several pix of me reading books to the little ones, as many as could squeeze around within earshot. The boy that hugged me so tight last week was there, but apparently he is caught up on hugs. He hugged me around the legs for a few seconds, then went back to playing. But there was a little girl (toddler) that was happy to take his place for about 20 minutes. Then other kids took turns coming by for their hugs. Lourdes took me on a tour of the girls' house and I took maybe a dozen pix. It is very well run! They have a bunk bed for each kid, and cribs for the babies. The kids make their own beds every morning and they were all just-so. There are wooden picnic tables in the dining room / homework room, and small-fry size tables and chairs for the small fry. Everything was clean and noisy (25 little girls!) and HAPPY. Then Aldo walked me to the boys' house where his wife Delia was teaching 2nd grade in the living-room-turned-classroom. Their sleeping quarters and dining room looked a lot like the girls' house. Lourdes and her sister and other workers were working on a shopping list for our remaining $170. Among the items were boys' shoes. I hadn't noticed, but most of their shoes had holes in the soles AND holes in the toes AND holes in the sides. So Aldo and I took five of the boys to try on shoes. In Guatemala (and in most of the third world) shopping is very time-consuming because the best bargains are widely scattered in the markets and tiny shops. I had put the $170 in an envelope separate from my own money. Our first stop was a cookware shop, where we found a 2-gallon pressure cooker for $40. We walked on hoping to find a better price. Next store had baby wipes for the 7 diaper-age kids, we bought two cases for $20. But time was wasting. So I suggested we go to the biggest supermarket in Xela, called Hiper-País (hypercountry). We bought some kitchen knives, kitchen spoons and ladles. Next door was Shoe City. Yes, that's how they say it, in English, since anything written in English is associated with upscale. They had some $7 boys' shoes. But one boy had a shoe size that you couldn't get for $7. Aldo mentioned to the young salesman that we were from a Foster Home. Instantly the salesman offered us discounts, and said that anything up to $10 he would only charge $7. When we paid, the salesman thanked us profusely for our good work and assured us that if we ever came again and he was on duty that he would continue giving us big discounts. Aldo later assured me that lots of local merchants do likewise......... When the boys realized that we were buying them new shoes, it was like Christmas at Grandma's house. One boy literally started jumping up and down. All were thrilled and excited. When they took their shoes off I noticed that several of them also needed new socks, but this store didn't sell socks. When we got finished we still had $15 of the original $200, which I donated to Lourdes as cash. We got back after most of the kids had eaten. They fed us the same things that they and the kids eat. It was a tuna salad and another pasta-and-sauce dish. Since I was a special guest they gave me an apple for dessert. Lourdes' sister Teresa had been copying dozens of their pictures from the computer hard drive to a CD which she gave to me. I hope to make a website for them when I get back to Texas. I will probably need help from somebody that knows how to build a web page. I visited with Lourdes about how they finance the foster home. A cloud descended over her face. Her dad, now age 80, had worked hard and saved money at their home in Monterrey, Mexico. They immigrated (Dad, Mom, Lourdes and Teresa) to this area seven years ago and started doing social work. Then the incident occurred with the Mayan dad that gave his two youngest kids to them before he died of tuburculosis. Dad is named Ciro, but since he is old (80) and much esteemed by the community, everybody calls him Don Ciro. Dad decided that the area needed a big well-run compound that would house 150 kids in a manner better than they had in the rental houses. He sold his house in Monterrey, the little ranch, everything he ever owned, for about $200,000. Mom and Lourdes and Teresa opened CERECAIF with the rented villas that I described above. Then Don Ciro started building a proper compound of cinderblock (everything in Guatemala is built of cinderblock) about 10 miles away outside Cantel. It is about 3/4 finished, and he ran out of money. Even the Salcajá rented houses were operating on Dad's savings. The government of Guatemala provides kids, but no money. A lot of local enterprises were helping out. The local cement company donates x bags of cement every week. A local arquitect donated his services to do drawings. Local construction workers are providing labor. But the operation still needs hard cash.
Aldo took me out there. It is a breathtakingly beautiful location, between the highway and a cascading mountain river, in the cloud layer. There is a boys' compound and a girls' compound. Each has dorms, bathrooms, kitchen and dining rooms, and classrooms. There is a building to teach manual crafts like metal working and carpentery and sewing. There is enough land to grow their own veggies and raise some pigs and chickens to feed the compounds with some left over. The rooms nearest the highway will be sales rooms for the foods and crafts that the kids produce. All Don Ciro needs is another $150,000. He assures me that God will provide, because God loves these kids as much as he does. I hope he is right. It sounds like a long shot to me. And possibly a heart-breaking turn of events. ################################# 06/15/2006 Thursday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala Lunch was
Breakfast was Corn Flakes with banana, and freshly boiled hot milk. And instant coffee. spaghetti and sauce and hamburger patty, and instant coffee.
After breakfast I took my duffle bag of dirty clothes to the laundry two blocks past the school (which is six blocks from the house). They charge $2.25 per washer load, I have never had more than one washer load. They wash, dry, fold and put it back in the duffle bag within three hours. Today Brenda took me to Momostenango, about 90 minutes bus ride northeast of Xela (Quetzaltenango). (About $2 per person each way.) There wasn't another gringo in sight. Momostenango is 100% Mayan. The ride was absolutely beautiful, looked like the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina, except the mountains were twice as high and 15 degrees cooler. Today was St Peter's feast day, so we got an unusually interesting glimpse of the Mayan-Catholic hybrid religion. We could hear the choir in the big church singing, while several dozen men were carefully laying flower petals on the cobblestone streets that the procession would later walk across. Unfortunately Brenda had to be back in Xela by 1 pm, so we didn't get to see and photograph the procession. There is a charity organization in Spain that has projects in Guatemala, one of them in Momostenango. Click on http://www.intervida.org/ then click on ENGLISH. Their operation was in a set of buildings set around a small courtyard, very typically Hispanic-style. Their specialty is semi-skilled job training for kids and adults. They operate a small school Grades 1-12 in a classic format. And they have vocational shops for agriculture, cooking, sewing and metal working, that I saw. They may have more. And they have two picnic tables where Brenda and I had a few cups of coffee and chatted in the beautiful clean mountain air. Brenda (single, age 26) told me about two women who got pregnant while single. Both wanted an abortion, which is illegal in Guatemala. Both sought advice of friends, which in Guatemala consists of strong herbal teas taken for several days, and over-the-counter pills (Vicodin is over-the-counter in Guatemala). Woman #1 took her medicines but it did not induce a chemical abortion. She ran up and down stairs, jumped up and down, took more pills and drank more herbal teas, but still no abortion. So she gave up and had the baby. It was a girl, horribly retarded and deformed. That girl is now 17 years old and lives in a crib. Woman #2 is a girlfriend of Brenda's, now age 28. She was about to drink the herbal abortion tea when Brenda slapped it out of her hand and screamed at her not to do it. She too gave birth, to a healthy baby boy. Her parents raised hell with her, threatened to throw her out of the family, cried a lot, and finally came to accept the baby as a grandchild. The father is an Italian playboy who has since returned to Italy and never acknowledged the baby or paid any form of child support. The mother and grandparents are raising the baby. When we got back to town I picked up my laundry and went to the house. I invited Etel to bring the kids and I would buy the family $25 more books. She got the kids ready while I went to make arrangements for tomorrows bus ride to Guatemala City for the wedding of the niece of a co-worker. When I got back the kids were dressed for Sunday Mass! This was a big deal to them. I gave the money to Etel and off we went to the Evangelical Bookstore, which has one of the best selections of all kinds of reading (and the best prices) that I have found in Xela. The five kids (three of Etel's and and niece and a nephew) rushed to the children's section
squealing with excitement. It took them 40 minutes to pick out just the one book that they wanted. Etel bought one for the 4-year-old (sick at home with a fever) and one for herself. For $25. All the kids hugged me and thanked me. I felt good. I had asked Etel where could I find roasted coffee beans. She took me to the bus stop and we went to the shopping center. There is a coffee shop on the third floor. Amazingly, Guatemalans don't drink a lot of coffee, and when they do, it's instant! This store sells it in 1-lb bags, $5 a bag. I bought 3 lb of whole beans and 3 lb of beans that they ground and sealed while I watched. Then I came to the internet cafe and called Arlene (10 cents a minute over VoIP; regular phone connections are much better quality and cost 50 cents a minute). The connection went dead while we were talking. ########################################## 06/16/2006 - 06/17/2006 Friday & Saturday Quetzaltenango & Guatemala City
Breakfast at the hotel this morning was scrambled eggs, toast & jam, and coffee. Lunch was a tortilla & hamburger "sandwich" that I bought out the window of the bus at the road washout (see below). Yesterday (Friday) morning at breakfast I noticed that Daniel (age 10) did not go to school. They didn't have the money to pay his $30 tuition for this month, so he can't attend till they pay up. Yesterday morning I also noticed that Brandon (age 4) had got over his fever. He had really been a sick puppy for three days, just fever, no vomiting or chills, etc. They don't have a thermometer, so the palm of my hand told me that he had 101.3 degrees. They never took him to the doctor for the same reason that they didn't pay Daniel's tuition: No money............ Anyway, Brandon was back to bouncing around but much more slowly than usual. I offered to read some books to him, and he and his stack of books were in my lap in a heartbeat. We read books till I had to leave for the bus terminal. Etel was watching with a big approving smile. Central America suffers a massive excess of natural disasters. They have minor earthquakes monthly somewhere in Central America, and on Feb 1, 1976, they had a massive one that killed tens of thousands...... Hurricane Stan last year was devastating: Roofs and shacks were blown away by the thousands, and the pouring rains softened the earth and thousands more shacks and even cement-block houses slid downhill. We are now in the annual Rainy Season, nothing spectacular, no high winds and not much lightning, just the usual heavy rains. The headlines a few days ago was about a road that washed out in the eastern part of Guatemala (Quetzaltenango is in the Western Highlands). Two trucks slid down the mountainside, but miraculously both drivers scrambled to safety...... There is also a washout on the Pan American Highway that we went around on the way to and from Guatemala City. The Highway Department has built a one-lane dirt bypass while they build a bridge across the newly-created ravine. Our bus had to wait for maybe ten minutes for our turn across the bypass. Of course, whenever traffic is stopped for anything, locals pour out of the houses offering to sell food and drink, which is how I got my lunch...... The ride both ways was more beautiful than usual because (1) I was riding in a comfortable "Pullman" first-class bus, and (2) the sun was out, and I had not seen much sun for two weeks. I got to the hotel (converted villa near the airport and conveniently close to the wedding reception) in Guatemala City around 4 pm. The wedding Mass was scheduled for 7 pm, and the locals at the front desk said that the guests would probably be getting to the reception hall around 8:30. So I caught a taxi and got there at 8:15. I showed my wedding invitation that David and Ninette Gonzales had given me, that they had received. The bride is Ninette's niece. David teaches Spanish in the classroom across the hall from mine. The girl couldn't find Fox on the guest list, so I suggested Gonzales from Houston. YES, there it is, have a seat at Table 12. A few minutes later the Maitre d' came over and I had to repeat my explanation. Then everything was OK. The reception hall was splendid! Twenty tables with 10 chairs each. Chandeliers. The Maitre d' kept walking around straightening napkins. The band was setting up on the bandstand. Top-notch operation. The wedding party actually arrived about 9:30. The bride's grandmother, Doña Francis, recognized me instantly and thanked me for coming. We had met a few days before I came to Guatemala; we were at a dinner that David and Ninette gave for her family that was visiting from Guatemala. Of the 200 chairs, about 150 were
occupied. The groom is from Colombia, his family did not attend. The bride and groom certainly made a handsome couple! I got only one picture, of Doña Francis and (I think) one of her daughters, whose husband Carlos is an economist that works on the government's budget. Before I could visit any more, the band started playing dancing music at 95 decibels and all conversations stopped. All the music was Latin: Cumbias, salsas, meringues, etc. The first few dances were reserved for the bride and groom and parents. Then all were invited to dance, and about a dozen couples joined. It was as happy a wedding reception as I have ever seen....... Shortly after 9:30 the staff passed out hors d'oeuvres and champagne....... The hotel had warned me that they were going to lock the doors and go to bed themselves at 11, I had to be back by then. So at 10:30 I shouted into Doña Francis' ear that I had to go and why. She seemed to be shocked and maybe hurt, explained that it was almost buffet time, I should stay, etc. But I did not like the prospect of being locked out of the hotel and spending the night walking the dangerous streets of Guatemala in the pouring rain. So I left despite her protests. ########################################## 06/18/2006 Sunday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala Last night all 4 of Ethel´s kids (except the grown daughter) and both of Eva´s kids came into my room and wished me a Happy Father´s day and gave me a hug. Eva is Etel´s sister. I´m sure the moms put them up to it, but it still felt good. Cecilia (9) has taken a special liking to me. She got out her colors and scissors and made me several sweet Father´s Day cards. They say that I am like another grandfather to her. I gave her a big hug and thanked her, so she went back and made me yet another card. Of course, I´m bringing them home and taping them to my office door next to my "other" grandchildren`s cards. I had read in my Lonely Planet book "Guatemala" that there was a hiking trail up a hill adjacent to Xela. I asked Etel about it, and she and daughter Cecilia and niece Vivian volunteered to accompany me. Today is beautiful, SUNSHINE!!! The hill is maybe 200 meters high, the road spirals around the hill to get to the top. Several Kodak moments. Very nice city park up there, more Kodak moments. No swings, but they had an excellent slide. In Houston there is a levee a few miles from our house, and when the grass is brown and dry in the summer, the kids go there with cardboard boxes and slide down, run back up and slide down, etc. Here they have gone another step. They built a slide of smooth cement, about 50 ft high, with a level stretch at the bottom to slow you down. The kids that were already there were having a ball! Etel told me about a student last year who ignored the sign that said, "Danger, do not slide when it is raining." She did just that, and got to the bottom going much too fast, scraped her arm real bad. The whole trip up and back, and some time enjoying the park, took maybe 3 hours. When I got back to the house I took a nap for 90 minutes. The older I get the less exertion I can handle and the more naps I need. I hope I didn´t make a mistake signing up for another year of teaching. ##################################### 06/19/2006 Monday Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Breakfast was pancakes and pineapple marmalade. Lunch was a the restaurant "Pollo Campero," I had Southwest chicken green salad, Nadia had chicken sandwich (total $9). Today's instructor was Nadia, about 20 years old with a ring in her eyebrow. Very sharp, bright-eyed girl. Her dad is President of a small private University here in Xela. When Nadia was 13-14, her Dad was working on his Masters at Michigan State University and Nadia was living with him and attending local public school. She speaks good English, but my Spanish is better so we conversed in Spanish. She is hoping to get a scholarship to Spain, there are many available, vs almost none to USA. In Sunday's paper there was a full-page article about education in Guatemala. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the government's public schools only take 35% of the students, the other 65% go to private schools
which typically charge $30 - $100 per month. According to this article, they surveyed several urban areas in Guatemala, all kids, and found that the school attendance (public and private) was roughly..... 90% finish Grade 6 30% finish Grade 9 20% finish Grade 12. Last week I reported that I had visited Cecilia's 4th grade public school, and the classes were 45+ students and the teachers faced chaos and a hopeless stressful task. Today Nadia took me to visit two middle school classes (top 30%) and two high school classes (top 20%) in the same building. The classes were 28-42 students. The students were mostly on-task and well-behaved, even when the teacher turned her back to write on the whiteboard. They reminded me of the Honors classes at my high school. There was no electricity in the classrooms, no fans, no overhead projector. There were louvers on the walls to let the breeze blow thru, and the windows could also be left open. The temperatures in Xela run from a night time low of 45 degrees in the winter to summer afternoon highs of 75 degrees now, so fans and heating aren't really needed. Acoustics were terrible, the walls were cinderblock and the echo and the outside noise (louvers) made it very hard to hear and understand the teacher. Only a few classes even use textbooks, and then students have to buy their own like in college in USA. Generally the teacher writes some key information on the whiteboard (formulas, etc) and maybe one example problem, then the bell rings. Classes are 35 minutes long. Kids take five core courses every day, and four others every-other-day. Classes at this school in the morning are 0730 - 1230 (Grades 7-9), and afternoon 1300 - 1800 (Grades 10-12). Teachers teach one shift or the other, not both. The teachers were high-quality, better than the average that I saw in Ecuador. But then, the classes were all Honors students. Today's 7th grade science class was how to calculate # neutrons from the atomic mass and atomic number read from the periodic chart. The 11th grade math class was statistics. My other goal for today was to set up CERECAIF (the foster home that I visited last week) with a web page. The company that did the web pages for the school that I attend, Educación para Todos, is here in Xela, owned and operated by a gringo Tom Lingenfelter, visit www.xelapages.com . He did the web pages for dozens of local businesses and several local charities, including two other foster homes. (Guatemala has hundreds of thousands of abused and abandoned children. Foster homes get their kids from the Government, but no money from the Government. Foster homes are supported 100% by donations.) His fee is $120 per year, and that includes the initial building of the website (up to 5 pages), domain name, 25 MB hard drive space, 5 email accounts on that domain, and he adds your domain name to Google's database list. I phoned Lourdes on Tom's phone and asked her if she could meet me there on Thursday, I would pay the $120 for the first year in cash (quetzales) if she and Tom would finalize the web page template. If she would write the text and provide the pictures, I would translate the Spanish into English and email it back to her. The main purpose of this website would be to attract donations from USA and Canada. Tom explained to me that getting Dollars transferred into Guatemala is somewhat labor intensive (something about IRS number as a non-profit charity, etc). So our initial objective is to build and publish a website that Gringos would take seriously. We will have to work on fund raising and funds transfer at a later date. Lourdes jumped on the offer and thanked me profusely, invited to meet me at Xelapages office on Thursday morning and bring me back to the Foster Home for lunch with the kids. I invited Nadia to join us, not that she would have anything to add, but it would be a learning experience for her. On the way to Xelapages we stopped in yet another bookstore. This one had elementary school reading books. I bought another $20, some for my Spanish classroom, some for my family's kids, some for the foster home. I'm sure glad that Arlene approves of this reckless spending. Then Nadia and I went to the ATM and I withdrew $240: $120 for the web page and $120 for me and Oscar to spend tomorrow and Wednesday at Lake Atitlan, which my guide book declares to be one of the most beautiful lakes on earth (same catagory as Lake Geneva in Switzerland). Then I bought our lunches at Pollo Campero (roughly translated it means "farmyard chicken"; similar to KFC and Denny's). I don't know if there will be Internet access at Lake Atitlan, so you may not hear from me again until Friday.
###################################### 06/20/2006 - 06/21/2006 Tues-Wed Lake Atitlan, Guatemala Oscar (around 33, soccer player, owns own welding shop) walked over to my house on Tuesday at 0600. I had just finished packing and repacking my stuff into my backpack so I would not have to carry a duffle bag also. Turns out that most of the adventure would have been impossible otherwise because there was nowhere to leave our luggage while we went hiking and exploring, except for the time that we were checked into the hotel. We caught the deluxe 0630 bus (Alamo Bus Lines) toward Guatemala City, but we would get off at Los Encuentros and catch a chicken bus down the mountain to Panajachel. But about an hour out the deluxe bus broke down, the driver called the office (all bus drivers and 50% of the population have a cell phone), he told us that the next Alamo bus would be along in another hour, or we could turn in our tickets at the Alamo terminal later for a refund and catch the next passing bus. Everybody chose Option 2. The way all buses work is, anybody standing at the side of the road just waves his arm and the driver comes to a screeching halt to pick up the new passengers. There is an assistant on all buses to collect money from the new passengers. When in town, the assistant also hangs out the door shouting A GUATE GUATE GUATE, A GUATE GUATE GUATE in hopes that somebody on the side of the road wants a ride to Guatemala City. Lake Atitlan is about 5 miles N-S and 11 miles E-W, at 5000 ft elevation (compared to 7600 ft for Xela). It is surrounded by volcanoes, some active. At the eastern end of the lake is Panajachel (pop 14,000). At the western end is San Pedro (pop 14,000). There are several towns dotted around the banks of the lake, including San Marcos (pop 2000) where we spent Tuesday night. We got to Panajachel around 10 am, I phoned Arlene (about 15 cents a minute from a pay phone), then we had pancakes for breakfast. Panajachel looks like it did in 2002 when I spent 3 hours there with a school-sponsored trip (my Spanish school in Antigua GT). We walked around for an hour then walked to the edge of town to the Nature Preserve. On the way up we saw some of the damage done by Hurricane Stan last October. The Nature Preserve included about 6 cinderblock bungalows on the road to the entrance. Hurricane Stan had loosened up millions of tons of dirt from the steep mountain sides and generated a mudslide that settled around all the bungalows to about doorknob height. The nature preserve was awesome! $5 per person. One nature trail takes you to the Spider Monkey Display. You climb up to the covered platform at treetop level and watch them swinging thru the rain forest. The Mayan couple up there ahead of us had brought bananas to throw across the fence, so we had lots of spider monkeys up close (10 ft). Then we walked on up the mountain trail to the waterfalls. Along both sides of the stream we saw pieces of houses and pieces of clothing that the mudslides had washed downhill. I wonder how many people were in those houses at the time........ After the Mountain Trail we went to the Mariposario, butterfly farm. It's enclosed by netting, filled with tropical plants and of course butterflies of all beautiful colors. Next we walked down to the boat dock. Along the way we passed a big sink-hole that Stan had washed out, exposing the 24" diameter sewage pipe that was pouring out untreated sewage into a ditch that ran straight into the lake. There are private lanchas (launches) for about $25 to take up to 15 passengers to any of the villages along the lakeshore. There were only two of us, so I opted to take the public boat ($3 per person), which stopped at EVERY village along the lakeshore. These are fiberglass, about 20 ft long and 6 ft wide at the middle, powered by outboard motors, run about 20 mph wide open. The afternoon winds had kicked up (no rain yet) and the lake was very choppy. There were about 4 gringos and 8 Mayan Indians on board. They look like a high-speed version of The African Queen (movie from 1940's) with fiberglass roof and tarps that can be dropped down along the sides to keep passengers dry despite the spray generated by the boat bouncing across the waves. Oscar and I were in heaven! We both went up to the bow to get the maximum bounce and feel the wind. Picture it. Miles of water in all directions, with 12,000 ft jungle-covered mountains shooting up from the lake banks. It was wonderful. My Lonely Planet guide book said that San Marcos was the nicest place to spend the night, so we went there. The town where the locals live is about 1/4 mile uphill from the dock. Between the lake and the town are about a dozen gringo-owned hotels, restaurants and yoga-style meditation centers. The guide book also recommended Hotel Jinava, www.hoteljinava.com , $13 for a double room. The rooms were very nice, with a breathtaking
view of the lake from every room. When we inquired, the price had gone up to $50. So I said Adios. We went to the next-highest-recommended Hotel Aaculaax. We walked several blocks down mud jungle trails. It is so covered in lush vegetation that you can't see anything of it (or of the town either) from the water, and probably can't see much of it from the air. We got a very spartan 2-bunk room for $12 for both of us. They advertised hot showers, but the kid that stoked the fire for the water heater didn't come on duty till 9 the next morning, so I still stink. We opened the windows (no screens, no fans, no flies or mosquitoes, no hot weather) and left for dinner (about 5 pm). June is not Tourist Season, that starts in July, and since only 5 of their 8 rooms were occupied they weren't offering meals yet. So they sent us to Tul y Sol about 5 minutes down the mud trail, overlooking the lake. We both got the steak plate and split a 1-liter beer, for $20 total. Huge plate of delicious food, neither of us finished it. We were talking to a woman in her late 30's who immigrated 13 years ago from France, doesn't intend to go back ever. Both of her kids were born in Guatemala, they went to 6 years of elementary school in San Marcos, now they catch the boat to Panajachel for middle school. Oscar asked what is there to do after supper. Attend some meditation classes. San Marcos was built to cater to gringos that are looking for tranquility. Oscar and I agree that that was an understatement. While we were eating the evening storms blew in, we stayed there till the rain slacked off and headed up the mud trail to Hotel Aaculaax. Shortly after we got there the lights went out. The girl from the front desk brought two candles for when it got dark, but she didn't have any matches and neither did we. I had missed my afternoon nap, but Oscar didn't need a nap, so while I napped he went to a nearby outdoor cafe and had another beer and bought a cigarette lighter and visited with some people. Oscar is very personable, strikes up conversations with total strangers just because they are there, and they part as close friends. While he was there the lights came back on and he came back to the hotel. I woke up when he opened the door. We both made jokes about how tranquil (boring) San Marcos was, and we stayed up visiting for over an hour. People get to know each other better when "just visiting" is not crowded out by TV, etc. But Oscar did have his cell phone, and his wife called him about every three hours. While we were talking I spotted a scorpion crawling across the tile floor, and I swatted him with a shoe. Never in my life have I seen a scorpion indoors. That scared us! We both picked up our backpacks and shoes from the floor and put them on a chair. Then we shook out our bed covers to be sure there wasn't one in there. Then we went to bed. Oscar slept in his clothes. I put on my PJ's and coveralls. Next time I know not to bring a change of clothes or PJ's when I'm backpacking for a two-day trip. This morning (Wednesday) we got up with the sunrise at 0700 and went out to see the town. Nice little town, no traffic, in fact nothing was open, not even the marketplace or any store where we could buy a bottle of potable water. So we went down to the pier and waited for the next boat (they run every 30 minutes). This time the waters were calm so no fun bouncing across the waves. We stopped at two more villages and then to San Pedro. I called Arlene from the pay phone again. Oscar and I were both disappointed. Probably we had seen so much yesterday that this fascinating town was a letdown by comparison. The big tourist draw in San Pedro is climbing Volcano San Pedro. I can't climb mountains any more, and Oscar's exercise of choice is always soccer. So we had another plate like last night, for half the price. We caught the bus from San Pedro to the PanAmerican highway. There is a very good asphalt road that winds up from 5000 ft to about 8000 ft thru some breathtaking forests. The first 30 minutes we could still catch views of the lake from different elevations. There were a couple of road washouts from Hurricane Stan, but the Highway Department had constructed dirt bypasses while they make permanent repairs. When we got back to Xela, the power and the water were off at Etel's house. I had planned to heat a pan of water on the stove and take another sponge bath, but that was out. So I still stink.
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06/22/2006 – 06/24/2006 Thurs – Saturday
Houston TX
On Thursday I woke up with a scratchy throat. Oh, no, here I go again. My throat has always been an easy target for infection, which then leads to 5 days of voice loss and feeling weak without fever. My meds never have worked very well or quickly, and I still can’t talk four days later. This voice outage has been occurring so
often this past year that I may have to give up my teaching career, and I don’t want to do that. I have an appointment Thursday with my ENT. Thursday (before my voice went out completely) I had an appointment with Aldo from the Foster Home (see my entry for June 8). We met at Xelapages (see www.xelapages.com) and arranged for Tom Lingenfelder to set up a website for them. I paid $120 cash, a LOT less than the $1000 that competitors had quoted to Lourdes. Lourdes had invited me to return to CERECAIF to have lunch with the staff and the kids, but I was feeling rotten and also didn’t want to pass on my germ (assuming it is contagious) to them, so I declined. That evening Lourdes sent me the following email: Dear Dan, Thurs, June 22, 2006 It would have pleased me a lot to have been able to say good-bye to you, we were waiting for you with a Mexican meal, we made you Mole Poblano with rice and some succulent tortillas, but you missed it. Mr Dan, many many thanks for your help, your collaboration will be of great benefit for all of us, Aldo told us that you paid everything, really we appreciate it so much, may God bless you. I hope that you recuperate soon from your sore throat and since you say that you suffer frequently from this illness it would be convenient that you make a Faringeo culture with Antibiograma, that way you will take the specific antibiotic for the bacteria that is affecting you. The kids also got sad because you did not come and they did not say good-bye to you, we explained the reason and they send you regards. OK, we did not say good-bye, we will stay in contact, may God bless you, please give many thanks to your wife and to her friends for the donation that they gave us for the books, shoes and kitchen utensils. We hope you have a pleasant flight and you arrive OK at your home. Regards, Lourdes Murguía and all the little ones That night at supper Etel and Jorge (my host family) thanked me profusely for the books that I had bought for their kids. The kids read themselves to sleep at night, they read the books a LOT. The next morning Etel bought me a beautiful T-shirt that says “Quetzaltenango, Guatemala” with beautiful pictures of local landmarks. It fits me and Arlene. Then I got on the bus for the 5 hour ride to Guatemala City. I stayed at Hotel Dos Lunas (www.hoteldoslunas.com) and caught the plane home Saturday. I slept some on the plane. I kept close track of the money I spent on this trip: $1800 for 20 days, or $90 per day. That includes round trip plane ticket, tuition and home stay, and all transportation and hotel expenses. It excludes the $300 of my own money that I donated to Lourdes and paid for books for the Lepe kids.