Off to a Mayan Pueblo

Saturday January 23, 2016

San Antonio, Guatemala and Mayan Traditional 

The trials of traveling at odd hours, not sleeping so well and being in a very dry climate have caught up with me and I'm coming down with a cold. It's 5 AM and I'm stiffing and coughing. I'm going to be making a trip to the farmicia today for drugs. Hopefully there is something that will knock this out of me quickly. In the meantime, I sniffle and cough as quietly as possible so John won't wake up. 

Our lessons on Thursday and Friday were in the afternoon. On Monday and Tuesday our lessons will be at 10:30 and after that we will have our instruction at 8 AM, which is what we sighed up for. There have been students who have decided to stay on longer and that makes the schedules for everyone rather chaotic until Wednesday. 

For two days now I've been having wonderful conversation with my instructor, Meribel. She isn't a verb drill sargent and this kind of learning seems to work for me. My homework so far is great quantities of writing and some conversation our host, Ernesto, who has been kind but is somewhat cold. I'm looking forward to moving to our new family this morning. 

Since our teachers were not available until 1 PM yesterday, we took advantage an opportunity to hop  onto a chicken bus with fellow students and go to a Mayan pueblo in the town of San Antonio. 

I'm not certain of the reason that the standard mode of transportation here is called the chicken bus. In years past, the buses hauled everything, including livestock. I'm assuming the name is a hold over from those days. The drivers are fearless, the buses are immaculately polished on the outside and woe be upon the poor pedestrian who may not get out of the way fast enough. It's a bumpy, crowded ride and for me, this will be the only way to travel from town to town. All of the people who ride the chicken bus are kind, smiling and ready to share their stories. I look forward to having the language to truely understand and reciprocate. 

The women in the home we visited live in the old traditional ways of the Mayans. They produce beautiful woven fabric, some of which can take up to two years to weave. They sit on mats, on their knees, using a leather strap around their lower back to keep the tension correct on the loom.  Their products are spectacularly intriquite and beautiful. I'll be posting photos of their work during the course of our stay. Most likely I'll be sure buy some also. 

The coffee that is grown in the mountains is hand picked, roasted in a small fire heated oven and ground in a rock grinding flat. One of our fellow,students took a hand at grinding. 

When the student finished, our hostess finished up the job.  In the courtyard of Casa Ernesto there are three of these grinding rocks. Since this home has been in the family for over 90 years, I'm sure they were, at one time, used daily for coffee and maize.  

We were on an educational tour through our school, and the ladies of the village set up a story of the matrimonial processes. How we got roped into this is beyond me, but it was quite fun to be the mother in law for this young woman. We were dressed in traditional clothing and our 'son' and his wife to be were having some fun too. We progressed from the matrimonial setting to the matrimonial fiesta to the new grand baby in a matter of minutes. 

My traditional wardrobe. Thank goodness I had help. There are no button, hooks or, obviously, zippers. It's all held together with a belt. 

As part of matrimonial tradition, I gave my new daughter in law a lovely apron. Welcome to the family. Now get to work!  The Mayan women do an incredible amount of work and have lots of babies.  Currently, many of the girls elect to go to university instead of living in the traditional Mayan way. I don't blame them, after seeing the ardious lives these women have. But everyone of the women we met were happy and most had not only their native Mayan languages but Spanish and some English. After the fun of dress up, we ate some traditional Mayan food...chicken and beans in a red sauce with tortillas. Then it was back on the chicken bus for our ride return to Antigua. 

I'm looking forward to more tours and education ventures. But first and foremost is school. Hasta la juego. 

La Casa de Ernesto, con Bruno the barking dog.

January 22, 2016

En la Casa con perro Bruno

Antigua, Guatemala

When Bruno was a pup, someone threw him into the water. Our current host, Ernesto, says Bruno is a rescued dog. Bruno is spectacularly protective of Senora Triena, who is 87 and is Ernesto's mother. Needless to say, Bruno barks incessantly. Every time we enter the courtyard, walk in our room, talk anywhere, leave our rooms, Bruno barks. He causes the other two dogs to bark. Yep, my favorite - yappy dogs times 3 and a concrete courtyard and home. The headaches from the dogs are becoming annoying as are the allergies John has from them. Additionally, Casa Ernesto has no wifi. Hence, we move on to different hosts on Saturday. 

We arrived in Antigua at 6:30 AM yesterday. We were traveling in business class (gotta love those frequent flier points!), so were among the first to clear immigration. Our luggage seemed to take a long time to get down the belt, so we had to stand in line for a while to clear customs. It was a breeze and we were outside by 8 AM. Santana, our van man, was right outside of the airport exit with a sign for us. Once in the van, we began the fun of letting someone else navigate. Good grief, the white line on roads is merely a suggestion, motorcycles zoom between these virtual lanes of stopped cars and buses. Everyone is honking their horns. After getting through rush hour traffic, and to the outlaying areas, we were quickly at out our host's home. And so began Bruno and his chorus, barking and yapping.

Upon our arrival in the courtyard, Triena greeted us with only Spanish, to the accompanying chorus of dogs. We waded our way through to understand where our room was and for her to understand that we wanted to sleep. Yo quero dormir. So we unpacked and organized a bit, then got a couple of hours of sleep.

All in all, Ernesto, his 'brother' Sergio and Triena are very nice. Ernesto is a patient teacher. He is also, obviously, gay. And since Sergio and Ernesto don't look a thing alike, we are just assuming that they are partners. I'm sure it will be unspoken. No worries on our part. Ernesto is a florist and has clients in many restaurants and hotels. We missed cena (dinner) last night. We didn't understand that it is part of our family stay. We won't make the same mistake this evening. Because we missed dinner, we haven't had an opportunity to chat with Sergio much.

After napping and eating lunch, Ernesto walked with us to our school. We met Julio, who I've been working with online to get us to enrolled. All was set for us to begin lessons, one on one, today at 8. Julio also mentioned that we might be more comfortable at another host's home. I explained that wifi is quite important for me, as I have a bit of a business that I run and need to communicate quickly. So, as I mentioned, Saturday we move to the home of one the instructors at our school. 

In the evening, after the dinner we were supposed to be joining them for, Ernesto received a call from Julio at our school. Classes for us will start today in the afternoon. For today only. Tomorrow we will head off at 7:45 for our classes.

Ernesto's Casa was, at one time, a beautiful place. The courtyard was lovely. However, it needs much maintenance. With ancient lemon, lime and bitter orange trees, surrounding the area, the walls need stucco, the tile has all pulled away, and the weeds have taken over. The laundry wash basin is in the courtyard, as are the lines to hang our clothes. I'll probably wash my privates here, but will do the rest in a laundry mat.

Antigua is a quaint, old cobblestone town. We fell in love with the people when we were here 2 years ago. Kind, soft spoken, and smiling. There are many Spanish language schools in Antigua, so there are many students of all ages. I'm sure we will feel at home here, once we get to our final home stay family.

Stereotypically American

January 19, 2016

At 41,000 feet over The Pacific Ocean

Somewhere between Honolulu and Los Angeles

Since I began putting myself 'out there' in blog land, I have shared some unique travel episodes. Starting with El Camino then to the Middle East and Greece and then off to the Arctic circle and the Alaska Highway, I've been writing. And sharing. Sharing the things that I see and my feelings, emotions and insights of these experiences. This seems to have taken me to some kind of a greater understanding of myself. I feel like the roadmap of my life just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Walking El Camino, being with people of many different nations, I realized, to my disgust, that I am a stereotypical American. I speak one language. In Europe, traveling from one country to another is as involved as our driving from Kansas to Colorado. Crossing country borders is no big thing. Traveling like this from a very early age, it seems that most Europeans can speak at least one language other than their native tongue. Perhaps that extra language isn't fluent, but it is certainly enough to accomplish communication.

To remedy this lack of education, I'm off to Antigua, Guatemala for three weeks to be immersed in Spanish. I will be attending the Academy of Spanish Language, 4 hours per day, 5 days a week. I will be living with a Guatemalan family. During the evenings I will be doing homework, learning about the Guatemalan history and culture, and soaking in as much as I can of the Spanish language. The school offers cultural tours and classes as part of their curriculum. Weekends will be spent exploring Mayan ruins and touring the countryside. And speaking Spanish. At least that is my vision and my hope.

And I am scared. Scared of failure. I've been listening to Spanish language lessons recently and I need to hear, and repeat, phrases and words over and over and over. It just seems like it takes an inordinate amount of time and repetition for this to sink in. With one-on-one instruction, I am afraid that I will make my instructor wonder how on earth this 60 year old woman expects to learn a new language.

One thing I am NOT scared of is seeing this through to the end. Having pushed through those 500 miles in Spain I feel confident in myself. Completion is in my regular course of life now. Even if I come home with only a smattering of Spanish, I will be better equipped for my travels. Perhaps I can connect with the Spanish speaking population of Hilo, which I've recently learned, is growing every year.

Do I wish I had taken this challenge a bit earlier in life? Sure I do. So why didn't I? I can easily say because I was busy raising a family, being in relationships, working, or any of a plethora of reasons. As my old friend Gil McNabb used to say, 'Excuses are like as*ho*les. Everybody has one and uses it regularly'. The biggest reason for my not pursuing this kind of opportunity earlier in life is because I didn't give myself permission. Permission to do something that wasn't expected of me. Permission to even consider the possibilities. While some women gave themselves permission at a very young age, I just didn't. The happy news is that I'm there now.

In the past few weeks many of my women friends have said they travel vicariously through me. So ladies, let's go. My writing will most certainly cover the joys, and sometimes trials, of our travels. As I have been in a rather reflective mood since the first of the year, I am certain my thoughts will spill over to this venue.

Naturally my fearless travel companion, my beautiful John, will be sharing with me in these adventures. I'm so blessed to have him in my life and to have opportunities like this. We are both enjoying seeing more and more of the world but, more importantly, absorbing the cultures and meeting the people in our travels. Life is so very good to us.

A long layover at LAX. Isn't it nap time yet?

As Mark Twain said, 'Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

Go in peace.