more pics

here are some more pics of my time in Xela.

here re m

Photos below

I see that i had some success attaching photos to the blog.

The first one is the view from the front door of my home stay. The road you see is probably slightly below average quality - but certainly not the worst in the city.

the second pic is a girl showing me the sign for the candidate of the green (not¨Green¨) party. it also seems to be the sign used by many women to keep me away.

Just another Monday

It´s monday afernoon in Xela and i just finished lunch with my family. Well, it wasn´t with the family. the two other americans where there and the youngest son was eating, too. And Senora was there too make the food. I´m not sure what i had. i think it was crepes with eggs inside. and rice on the side. Sometimes it´s best not too ask. The senora knows that i don´t eat the four-legged criters. i´m sure they like the situation as they save some money by not buying beef.

The weekend went by but i didn´t seem to do too much. However, i didn´t get around to completing my homework. oops. My teacher forgave me. I´ll do it tonight, i think.

Once again my lack of spanish skills was evident. i ran into some people who were working the Tour of Guatemala bike race. I asked where the race would start on sunday. They told me. I went there. Right time. Wrong place. But i was on the right road so i did see the guys go by. I´m not sure the Tour de France works the same way as here.

The road was never shut down completely. About a minute before the cyclists came, they stopped other traffic from driving on the road. Less than a minute after the last support van passed, it was business as usual.

I went to see a presidential candidate speak. the election is sunday november 4. the crowd was not as big as i would expect. Each candidate has their own election song. Music seems to be an important part of life here.

i´m told that the candidate i saw, Colon, was asked`Is it true you shot and killed a man while in a bar in Mexico?` His response `No. I shot and killed two men.`

I´m told that the other candidate stole $100million + from the treasury. He went south for 10 or so years and now he`s back.

All the sudden the US candidates don´t seem so bad.

I hit the markets on both weekend days. I wish i could have taken pictures of the goat heads for sale but, for some reason, i didn´t feel comfortable. despite the fact that i could probably afford them, I didn´t ask the price.

I think you can buy anything you want at the market. there was a spice corner, a (non-refrigerated) meat aisle, a whole block of shoe kiosks and plenty of fruit.

It is all good.

Time to pick up the laundry (Q5 per kilo) and hit the books.

Pics soon??? I hope.

pic

Chicken Bus

Where are all the pictures from Guatemala? Due to technical difficulties (read - Brendan no es intelligente) there are no pics at the moment.

Soon. I hope.

I took my first `Chicken Bus`on the Guatemal adventure. A Chicken Bus is what the gringos call the Blue Bird school buses that travel the roads of Guatemala. you get on the bus and don´t try to wonder how long ago it was that this same bus was transporting the youth of America. One bus had `South Bend Schools`on its side.

Yesterday, i went to a town that is no more than 50 miles away. it may be 30 - difficult to judge distances. to get to that bus i had to take a minivan across town ($0.15 for any ride). After the mini dropped me off, i only had to walk 10 or so blocks to the chicken bus terminal. However, if you can´t speak the language, the 10 blocks can take an hour.

Security man: Go down 4 blocks and on the right.

Store owner 3 blocks later: go back past the market and go for 2 blocks

Street kid: No se

Security number 2: Go to the corner and take a left, continue for some blocks.

Shop keepers just past the corner where i took a left: Go down (the avenue i just came from) and go past the park.

etc.

An hour later, i happened to run into the bus i wanted.

I got a ride back from the town in a minivan. it was much better than the chicken bus.

All the chicken buses have a driver and a guy who yells the destinations and collects te money. today, i saw that he has another job. While going up a hill, the money man may have to hop out of the moving bus with a little bucket of water - which he throws at the bus´radiator. Repeat 5 or so times. i cried because i was laughingso much.

This weekend is a big market weekend in Xela. it has something to do with October and the Virgin saint of the town. i will take some pics.

if all goes well, i may be able to post them.

todos por ahora

bjm 26 october

You´re not in America...

When the McDonalds has a security guard and that guard has a machine gun.

That is life in Queztaltenango (or Xela´´, as we locals call it).

I arrived in Guatemal City on Sunday to a cold rain. I have plenty of gear for cold and wet conditions, thanks to years at REI. However, all that gear is in a basement in CT.

Mistakes were made in the packing. Cést la vie.

An arrival in GC is a bit confusing to those who do not speak Spanish. I was one of those people. When you leave the airport, there is a mass of people - waiting for friends, waiting to rip you off, willing to give you a ride in their minivan.

After walking in a circle for 15 minutes, i was able to hop in a cab with a woman. I´m not sure where she was going but i was able to get a ride to the bus station.

we had a great conversation. i thought She was telling me about her work with a Honduran chicken company. i didn´t understand why she was saying ´chicken´instead of ´pollo´. I turns out she was telling that she was from a town near Honduras and the town´s name sounds (to me) like chicken.

I caught my ´fist class´bus (circa 1960 - no bano) for the 5 hour ride to Quetzaltenango´. if you always wanted to see the result of a car without airbags impacting a school bus, come to Guatemala.

i think i saw the remains of 5 or so accidents. Wet dirt roads and questionable drivers are not a good mix.

On the bus, i met a woman from Florida who was coming here to visit her sister. she grew up near Xela. I was lucky to meet her. When we got to Xela, her sister gve me a ride from the bus station to my school. the school was closed but i used sis´s cell phone to call the owner. All worked out.

I started school on Monday. 5 hours a day. I have some great cheat sheets for learnign spanish verbs and words. those sheets are safely stored in CT. Darn.

There are a number of schools in Xela. i picked Miguel de Cervantes. I believe they´re all similar but some teachers are probably better than others.

There are a few options with respect to the housing situation. i chose to live with a family. I am with a mother, father and 3 boys (18, 14, 11). Two americans are in the house, too. the Americans and i live in a front house, where the family has its kitchen. the family lives in the house behind us.

It´s working out for now. I may stay with the same family for my time (4 weeks?) in Xela. I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with the family 6 days a week. (Meals are provided but i do not have to eat with them) I will be on my own on Sundays.

Lunch is the big meal. Dinner is often leftover lunch plus black beans. Breakfast was pancakes on tuesday and Kellogs Corn Flakes today.

The school costs about $105 per week, while the homestay is $35. Quite a good deal. I don{t know if i can get a job here but i can live cheaply.

Tonight is salsa night at on of the discos (Xela is the 2nd biggest city). I will check it out and try to impress the locals with my gringo dancing skills.

Tomorrow, i will skip school. i am going to the beach with the family that helped me out on Sunday. it´s not as warm here as i would have hoped. I guess i should have read the guide book. Aside from the risk of catching a disease, a little sun and surf should make for a good day.

all for now. bjm 24 october

Last week in Arlington

I'm off to CT and NYC next week. And then it's off to Guatemala for a few weeks studying spanish in Quetzaltenango.

I do plan to update the blog on a regular basis. but i also planned to get in great shape this year. Plans don't always happen as we plan.

I went to a happy hour with some friends last night.

With friends like this, i'm not sure why i should leave the area.

i bought a digital camera so i expect to add some cool shots to the blog. we'll see.

bjm

Sheila jumping - Oct. 2007

Hi all... hope you've had some time to enjoy the fall. Below is a link to a video from last weekend when Erin and Sheila competed at a show near Dover, NH.