There and back again...and again...

So begins another week here in Guate. I wrote this post for yesterday but didn’t get to post it. Exciting news: we had a 5.3 earthquake Sunday night (though technically this does not qualify as an earthquake since it didn’t hit 6.0). In reality, earthquakes can be pretty disastrous, but it was neat to experience one all the same.

My favorite park - it is very peaceful in the evening and a good place to think

This week should be good – hopefully I will (finally) get caught up on all my internship hours at CIRMA. So far the books have been interesting – a lot of history, ethnohistory, and archaeology of Mexico – that somehow found its way into French. It looks like this coming weekend a few of us are going to travel to Rio Dulce and Livingston, the former to the northeast, the latter on the Caribbean coast. The whole group is going to Tikal the last week in March as well – I must admit that my archaeology-loving heart is pretty excited.

La Iglesia de San Fancisco - the church I frequent most often (decked out for Lent)

Now that we’re going on two weeks into Lent (wow, time flies!) I figure I’ll tell you a little about religion here in Guatemala. One of the most fascinating things about being in Guatemala has been experiencing God and the Church through a different culture and language. I go to Mass on Sundays at 6:30pm with my host family at the Cathedral, right by the Parque Central. I also attend daily Mass a few times a week at La Iglesia (the church) de San Francisco, which is about a ten minute walk to the southeast. I have started to learn prayers in Spanish and can generally follow the Mass pretty well. I know I have told some of you how different it is to have spirituality in another language. Most of the time I still think in English, since this is the language I use to communicate with the other students and those of you at home. However, Spanish works its way in more often through prayer. As Javier said – we all find a different way to get into the culture. For some, it is through bars or girlfriends/boyfriends or volunteering. I guess it's church for me. Not that I don’t enjoy a couple drinks and dancing every now and again…

The facade of San Francisco

One of the first things I noticed upon coming here is just how many people you see at daily Mass, which is especially remarkable when you remember that each church has several daily Masses. Antigua is 95% Catholic and is especially well known as a religious center, which is particularly evident during Cuaresma (Lent) and Semana Santa (Holy Week). There are also a lot of statues of saints – called imágenes – that are used during processions on Sundays during Lent and during Semana Santa. They are, I admit, a little creepy. Walking into a church is a bit like bring in a waxworks at first, but I have gotten used to it. There is also a strong emphasis on offerings: little carts sell candles by churches, and they are lit in front of imágenes or the Blessed Sacrament. There are always beautiful arrangements of flowers as well. At San Francisco, since Ash Wednesday, there has been an offering of fruits and vegetables (everything from watermelons to carrots) in front of a statue of Jesus carrying the cross. I have also started to see the alfombras – carpets of pine needles and flower petals – in several places.

They take Lent seriously here. A lot of the shops and houses have purple banners. On Fridays there is a Vía de la Cruz (I’m not sure whether this is Stations of the Cross or something different, it translates literally to “Way of the Cross”). Sundays are days of celebration: processions of some of the most respected imágenes through the streets, popcorn, cotton candy, balloons, toys, little dolls dressed in purple robes, candles, you name it. Last week there were even fireworks – which continued to go off during Mass. One of the biggest differences between American Catholicism and Guatemalan Catholicism is that the latter is interwoven with the culture. Celebrations and rites of passage like the 15th birthday, weddings, birthdays, and funerals are all usually celebrated with a Mass and festivities to follow. I must say I really love this – life, Wedding at Cana style.

My classes continue to go well. They are nothing like W&M, since the real lessons are to be learned though experiencing life here. Yet I am learning a lot of Spanish and we have some really interesting discussions during history and anthropology classes. I am even starting to understand the gist of 20th Century Central America (i.e. not pretty). My volunteer work/internship at El Semillero Mi Ángel Guardián is great as well. While the kids love Tamara best (for good reason, she’s wonderful with them), I help in my own quiet way. Usually I tutor seven- to ten-year-old boys in basic math, and they make me smile and laugh a lot. Last week one of the boys (I think it was José) gave me a big kiss on the cheek as a greeting. I have never spent much time with little boys (more with toddlers), so it’s good learning experience.

Graffiti at the former home of the President in the City. As far as I can translate it says "While the blood of the people flows there will be struggle and revolution"

I went to the City (aka Guatemala City, about 45 minutes away by Chicken Bus or camioneta) twice this past week. On Wednesday, four of us from Spanish class took a trip to Landivar University and different zones in the city to get different perspectives on living conditions. You can find everything ranging from extreme poverty – living in shacks without electricity or plumbing – to incredible luxury in malls that at least as ridiculous as Tysons and other such places in the states. The university was interesting as well. We sat in on a TV/audiovisual class, where they practiced by filming a scene about (no joke) a woman telling her lesbian lover she was leaving her for a man. Yeah. It was strange to be back on a college campus, where people pay attention to fashion trends and all the girls straighten their hair and dress up for class. To be honest, I am not looking forward to going back to that. I much prefer my curly hair, Dockers, Gap or Bean shirts, and grey sketchers or flip-flops from Kohl’s.

KJ! If you look closely, Mesoamerican archaeology aficionados, you can see the talud-tablero architecture behind the main stairway. So cool!

Saturday I ventured to the city again, to visit Kaminaljuyu, a Preclassic and classic period Maya archaeological site. It was really neat to walk around and visualize how magnificent the site must have been – covering zones 7, 11, and 13 in the city (i.e. big). I’ll save you most of the details, but it was interesting to see Maya burning offerings at various areas of the park. The security guard also let me into the excavated area to look around. I got to take a look at some of the stratigraphy and admire the talud-tablero architecture. It makes me all the more excited to visit more sites soon. [End nerdy moment]

Just next to the excavated area of the acropolis - this is the general area of the Jugo de Pelota - ball court!

That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll be able to write early next week about the trip up to the Caribbean coast. I should probably get back to my homework…