Forty Days

As difficult as it is to believe, I am now a third of the way through my semester in Guatemala. In some ways, it feels like I just arrived; in others, it is as if I have always been here. Life continues to be very difficult, but beautiful and joyful all the same.

I enjoyed a pretty lazy weekend: relaxed, bought some bootleg DVDs, did a little homework, and caught up with a few of you at home. (Skype truly is wonderful.) I’d like to share a few stories from the past few days…

Sunday afternoon I went searching for some lunch and ended up at a Middle Eastern restaurant that had caught my eye a few days before – thanks to Nate and Stacey and Matt, I’m hooked on this stuff. It was pretty tiny inside – just two small tables. I ordered my food (don’t remember what it was called – sort of like hush puppies with veggies and hummus in a pita, with a nice side of heartburn) and sat down in an empty seat across from another customer. He turned out to be a retired commercial airline pilot from Florida who is in Antigua learning Spanish so he can travel more around South America. We had some interesting conversation about Spanish, traveling, Obama, and the financial crisis. While I am still shy of strangers, it’s cool to meet and talk to different people – just like the Irish guy we met at the partido de fútbol and then ran into again in Monterrico last weekend. Chris, you were right about meeting interesting people when traveling!

I’ve found that if I’m going to attend daily Mass, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning, since I’m generally otherwise occupied with classes, internships, meals, and hours of internet access at CIRMA (the security man usually comes to close up the building between 6:30 and 6:45pm and I have to drag myself away from skype conversations). Regardless, I try to go once or twice a week to 6:30am Mass at la Iglesia de San Francisco, about ten minutes walk away from my house. The sky is always so beautiful in the early morning, and I love following the nuns-across-the-street (though they are technically ‘sisters’, right?) to and from Mass. There are plenty of nuns, monks, and joyful old people there, and by the time I arrive back at the house for 7:30am breakfast I am awake and ready for the day. Today is Miércoles de Ceniza (take a guess) so half the people in the city are walking around with ashes. I ended up with a pretty gigantic one. It’s interesting already to see the difference in Lent here: there was an offering of apples in front of a statue of Jesus in church this morning.

Yesterday we decided to skip Spanish class (don’t worry, this was organized by our program director) in favor of a trip to Guatemala City to attend the Informe de la Comisión para el esclarecimiento histórico contra el olvido. Basically, this was a conference celebrating the tenth anniversary of the formation of an organization promoting the historical memory of Guatemala. Even though the peace accords after the civil war were signed thirteen years ago, the government has still not accepted responsibility for the military’s actions (see my last post). There were hopes that President Colom would ceremonially accept the truth reports, but this didn’t end up happening. After discussing this with U of A’s study abroad faculty advisor/professor Liz Oglesby, who is here to visit for a few days, we figure it probably had to do with the speakers’ adamant assertions that genocide occurred during the armed conflict. This is a controversial claim because of the intentions that are implied in the term ‘genocide’.

So life continues here in Antigua. A few of us are planning on a trip to tour the Cuevas de Candelaria this weekend. There’s supposed to be some pretty cool Maya art that you access through boat tours. So the adventures continue…maybe I’ll even get to fight some Nazis.