Futbol

I have seen two futbol (i.e. soccer)games here in Xela. Earlier this year,Xela won the league championship. i think that was in June. There seems to be a new season now. I don´t know if i am good luck or not for the team. they are 1-0-1 when i see them play.

the crowd is abit dfferent than you´d find at games in the states. A little more vocal than the states, many more fireworks being set off by those in the crowd and the police seem to carry bigger guns.

let´s see if i can attach some pics of the game.

I Support Child Labor

And if you were in Guatemala, you would too. There is not much you can do about it here. Boys and girls do all sorts of paid work here in guate. Although school is out for the next month or so, i am not sure how much difference it would make with most of the kids i see working.

This afternoon, i had my shoes shined by a 10 year old. On any given afternoon, there are 15 or so males (mostly men but some boys) with shoeshine stands in the smalll central park. They all charge the same price for a shine Q5 (about $0.65). sometimes the shine is worth that and sometimes it is not.

I wish i had taken a pic of the scene. you have the 10 y o shining my shoes, his younger sister playing beind the chair, and his mother sitting on the ground breastfeeding a (fairly new) baby sister. As he was finishing my shoes, his younger brother and a friend show up - both with shoeshine kits.

I paid my 5Q and i gave them all packets of some crackers. i made some key lime pie today and i had some (crust) crackers left over.

i keep trying to post some pics but i have not had too much success lately.

soon, i hope.

bjm 11-16

guess what!

SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!
Where's the car? Guess!
Where's the Good Deed Do-er? Halfway to Georgia.

Will I survive? As long as I have books to read.
And peanut butter.

Bye bye from the Mountain Top Nance

Hints from Mom to help?

I have tried to eat ´right´while i am here in Guate.

and by ´right´i mean - purified water and no food from street stalls. i try to believe that the raw veggies i eat were disenfected (bleach is a good choice).

Today, i bought some raisins at an open market. prior to getting home and washing them, i ate some.

if i become ill in the next day or 2, it´s due to the dirty dried grapes.

although the damage may have been done, i did put them in bleach when i got home.

bjm 11-10

great news

Sean and Deb are in the good ol' US of A and we will see them tomorrow (saturday).
Bad news: all the people we voted for -LOST.
Clare is off to New England to show Mike the joys of Maine and New Hampshire - all in 3 days. Her car has gone Kaput! So big expense is in the near future.
She should have snagged Brendan's car when she was at Meg's!

This is all typed to show JJM how to use a blog; he isn't the swiftest pupil on the planet if I know more than he does about computers.
Students at FM stole the user name and password to all the info in the school files and had a ball changing their marks - til they tried to sneak into the school one night and found a policeman on the other side of the backdoor!!!
that's it, amigos - nsm

Election in Guate

Guatemala held the second round of elections this past sunday. I belive all those eligible to vote are required to vote. i do not know what the actual voter turnout was.

the new president, Colon, is said (by the people in my house) to be a bit on the weak side. the slogan of the other candidate was ´with a stong hand´.

of the few people i asked, no one was happy with either candidate.

I think Colon will be the better option for Guate.

In addition to many things being close on election day sunday, the markets were not allowed to sell beer to Guate citizens starting mid-afternoon saturday. the ban lasted until 0600 on the monday after election.

thelocals don´t like it whenthey can´t buy their 32 oz Gallo beer ($2+ in bars)

i went to see the local team play soccer the night befor election (pics soon). beer is never sold there - can´t risk it.

i believe the gov´t thought there may be some violence during election sunday but there was none-as far as i know.

That´s the news from here.

bjm 11 8 07

life`s basics

6 november.

Although i don´t miss the news from America, there are things i do miss - like being able to flush toilet paper.

The plumbing in Guatemala is not quite as good as that in America. In all bathrooms, you are required to put the post-use tissue in a basket next to the toilet. (i believe it´s the case in many countries but it takes a bit of getting used to.) This works out....okay, all things considered - unless the bin is not emptied too often (the case in my house).

enough tp talk.

(i`ll try to attach some pics later)

laundry seems simple enough here. i can bring mine to 1 of 2 places near my school. i pay Q5 (0.65) per kilo for wash, dry and fold at one or Q20 for wash dry and fold a decent size load at the other. Not a bad deal.

You can get shoes shines here by any one of the 10 or so men (or boys) in the park. the price is $.50 - 1.25 or so - depending on your negotiation skills. but it is not easy to get your shoes repaired. the Sr. of my house thinks he knows of one placve to get shoes repaired but he is not sure. while walking the streets, which i do often, i did find one. since i may run into rain here, i want to swap out my leather soles.

I believe there are more butchers in this town than in all of USA. And by `butcher`i mean a person with meat and a knife. if you think of `butcher` as someone who works in a fairly clean and cold environment while wearing a white coat and some sort of head gear, then we`re not speaking of the same thing. if you´re in the market for meat, you can buy it from various women in the markets - they`re the ones in the market road, in mid-day sun with chickens in a plastic bin. you never know about the weight but just trust that the two weights they use to balance total a pound.

For the four-legged animals, and their heads, you often have to go inside the market. don´t try to feel the air for a colder section of the market beacuse they don´t use refrigeration (or freezers) in the market. and the guy who just shook hands with someone, then ran his hands through his hair, and picked up a not so clean newspaper --- he`ll be the one cutting your meat today.

Eat well.

What i know about EEUU (i.e. USA)

6 november.

Living in Xela, it´s easy NOT to know what is going on in the world. Most of what i know about the USA is learned through ESPN and Fox Sports. there are at least 2 ESPN channels on the TV in my house.

it seems Boston won the world series and the Dolphins still stink.

I did catch a bit of CNN Asia(?). I´m sure is was ´`asia´rather than ìnternational`. i believe there is a bit of trouble in Pakistan and bad floods in Mexico and Canada.

Is there still a war in Iraq? if so, it does not make the papers here.

Aside from sports, there`s not much news about the states. That`s not always a bad thing.