Virginia Heritage: Menokin

Some of you may have noticed that I occasionally disappear Monday-Thursday.  This is why!  I've been working on an archaeological project at Menokin, a site near Warsaw, Virginia.  It's not your typical ground-truthing project: we're actually excavating rubble from a house, part of which is still standing.

Menokin's northeast corner

Menokin, the home of Francis Lightfoot Lee (signer of the Declaration of Independence and brother of Richard Henry Lee) and his wife Rebecca Tayloe, was built around 1769.  It was inhabited until the 1930s, after which it fell into disrepair.  The Menokin Foundation would like to rebuild the mansion with structural glass.  This would protect but still show architectural elements of the house, and be a great way to teach about historic architecture.  DATA Investigations has been excavating rubble from Menokin, room by room, since 2006 (I believe).  During this field season, we cleared out a large portion of the southeast cellar room, and rubble around the exterior.  My job?  I screened a lot of dirt, and found a lot of nails and window glass.  Doesn't sound particularly exciting, but it's fun to see the progress we're making on the project - especially when the weather's as beautiful as it was this past week!

We reached the floor!

My time at Menokin, interestingly enough, lined up with the liturgical season of Lent.  The first week of the season, I rushed home from a dusty day of excavation to shower and go to Ash Wednesday Mass - where I was reminded that I am dust.  It's a sobering thought, and not one that is easy to forget while working at Menokin.

The backdirt pile (or "mountain") - it's even bigger now!

This coming week I will be working down in Gloucester at the Fairfield Foundation.  I'll be gone from Northern Virginia, but should have slightly better access to the internet!

a brief interlude of sensational experience

I felt bold on leaving Concord, but I confess I find New York rough and strange, and myself strange in it.  Mrs. Kirk believes I am here for a brief interlude of sensational experience before succumbing to a matrimonial fate...but I hope that any experience I gain will be strictly literary.

- Jo, Little Women (film)

When I began writing this blog two years ago, I laughed to myself about the specific context of the title.  I had just been on a first date - the first date I'd been on in long time.  And as much as I liked the guy, I was eagerly anticipating a semester in Guatemala.  Well, we went on a second date (I really, really liked this guy) and four days later I boarded a southbound plane.  When I got off the plane four months later, he was there with flowers, waiting for me.  And that was the fifth time in my life that I had ever seen him.

Sometimes I smile when I think about all those early memories.  The first weekend we met (and this was on a church retreat, mind you), when we stayed up late just sharing funny stories - I'll never forget the image of a tiny Kevin (his brother) climbing a dinosaur at a museum.  Four months later, when we got artery-clogging burgers at Five Guys and talked until dark.  And six months after that, when he took me out to my first brewpub - and gave me my first hangover (which mostly just shows that I was a lightweight).  Before he was my boyfriend, he was my good friend.  And before being my fiance, he was (and is) my best friend.  I could not ask for a better man and a better life's companion.

So I must admit (as would Jo, I’m sure), that I’m glad my experience has not been “strictly literary.”  My grandma keeps telling me that I need to quench my adventuresome spirit and settle down.  But I know, as does Paul, that I will never be done having adventures.  Only, from now on, they will ours – our simple days, our struggles, our joys – our adventures.

Holiday Highlights

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!  I feel a little better now that we're caught up with holiday greetings.  It's been an exciting, crazy, and fun holiday season but somehow I'm very glad that things are winding back down...I've had plenty of days of a full stomach, given my liver enough of a workout (I neglect it shamefully sometimes), and eaten my fair share of tasty desserts.

Psyched to go to Narnia again, in our 1940s gear!

Some holiday highlights: None of the four dogs assembled at home got into the turkey neck, mashed potatoes, or cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving.  They (or rather their dander) did prove a formidable enemy to Paul's sinuses on Christmas, though.  Maybe I should buy stock in benadryl...  I had a fun weekend in Williamsburg to celebrate Gaudete Mass (third week of Advent, Gaudete means "rejoice") and finally got to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Narnia #5 or #3, depending on how you're counting.  I spent about a week in New Jersey with Paul's family - the first few days were intentional, and the rest were the result of the crazy post-Christmas blizzard that dropped over two feet of snow in the area.  All the same, the Masurs proved lovely company, especially due to their tolerance of my love of "boring" historical films.  I actually made it to a few daily Masses, and Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve was beautiful (I don't care what you said about the music, family, it was awesome).  And for the big news, my brother Chris and his girlfriend Katie got engaged on Christmas Eve - congratulations!

I headed back to work this week - not as an intern, but a contractor in the Repatriation Department of the NMAI.  I'm very excited to be spending the next four months in the office.  Especially since I've discovered the bountiful Smithsonian library system.

Morning

This is how I feel most mornings when I step out of my cabin and come down the hill for breakfast.  (Even Mondays.)

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
wich is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e.e. cummings 

Happy Easter!

Well, it's another Monday and I'm beginning to realize that I have a lot of work to get done before the semester is over. We have four more weeks of normal classes, then one of finals. It's hard to believe things are starting to wind down.


The second half of Semana Santa was pretty incredible. I got a chance to help make an alfombra (the key: patience, water, and a good sense of humor) on Holy Thursday, and then watched the procession destroy it. It's quite a sacrifice when you think of how much time pepople put into these works of art...hours and hours. I took advantage of the abundance of vendors to eat plenty of tostadas mixtas (see previous entry) and empanadas - sort of like apple turnovers, just not as gooey and buttery. A note on Guatemalan food: after a while it seems like everything is sweet, from coffee and tea to fruit (they eat a lot of fruit here) to bread to sodas. I can go days without having actual dessert and still feel like I have OD'd on sugar. So I guess that's why I drink beer, to balance things out ;)


I really enjoyed going to Masses and Laudes (Morning Prayer) this week. When you spend a couple hours at church every day, you begin to feel like you know everyone there, even if you never talk. It makes me feel a little at home. While Mass on Holy Thursday and the Good Friday service were packed, the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Masses were not nearly as full. It's like our professors tell us - in Latin America, there's much more emphasis on the sorrow of Christ's suffering and death than the joy of His resurrection. However, there was plenty of celebration in the carnival atmosphere of the processions throughout the week.


The Easter Vigil Mass was beautiful - as everywhere, it begins in the darkness (tinieblas), and then they light a small fire outside the church, light the Easter candle, and then we all light our candles from it. There was a cantor accompanied by guitar at the beginning of the Mass, as we stood, our candles illuminating the dark church. I have no words to express how...incredible this was. The weekend was fully of so many joyful moments. I could tell you about them but somehow it would not be the same. I miss home but am learning and growing so much here, it's worth it.


Yes, we went out for a "special" easter dinner - two of the other students and I - to an Italian restaurant. I indulged in tortellini in a cream sauce with bacon, and a glass of the house wine. Yes, it was amazing. Can't eat like that every day but it's a nice treat.

Midweek Update

Hello All! Somehow time passes all too quickly, and I find myself wondering, where did it all go? Life is difficult, but beautiful (as usual). Thank you to everyone who has sent me e-mails, messages, or who I've been able to talk/skype with lately. It really does help me so much.

I think I missed the "two thirds" mark, but now I'm into the last third of the program. It is strange to think of everything wrapping up. Mom and Dad are coming to visit in just over two weeks - I'm so excited!! Perhaps you all know the feeling of being excited to show other people the places you have come to know and love. Coming to Guatemala has completely removed me from life in the States and the familiar people, places, culture, and language. It will be fun for them to see my life here for themselves rather than through my eyes. How strange it will be to go home!

We are in the midst of Holy Week, and all of Antigua is going crazy making alfombras (carpets of colored sawdust or pine needles and flowers) over which the processions cross. Each church has its own processions, so I can hear the solemn music about every night from my house. Tomorrow begins the Easter Triduum, the three days of Holy Thursday (Jueves Santo), Good Friday (Viernes Santo) and Holy Saturday (Sabado Santo). The Mass of the Lord's Supper is on Thursday night and the Easter Vigil on Saturday night. This is a very special time of prayer and I'm excited to see all the celebrations in the city. From what I hear, there will be plenty of drinking going on in the city as people make the alfombras. I think some of the students and I are going to Easter dinner at a place called the Earth Lodge outside of Antigua. There's supposed to be ham, pumpkin pie, and so much more - American style :)


Yesterday we made an expedition to the City to get our tourist visas renewed, and somehow I got everyone to come with me to the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia y Etnologia (National Archaeology and Ethnology Museum). It was pretty much a dream come true (I'm not even joking!). Got to see so many artifacts, stelae and altars that we studied in Mesoamerican Archaeology last semester. I was told I was acting like a kid on Christmas morning (that's pretty much how I felt). So cool. The above picture is me with Stela 10 from Kaminaljuyu, dating from around 50 BC - AD 50 (though some archaeologists will give it a later date). I wrote a paper about this last semester, and the long hours paid off, just being able to see it. Other cool pieces: the ball court marcador from Tikal (to commemorate Spearthrower Owl!), jade inlaid or otherwise modified teeth, jade masks, incensarios, stelae and altars from Piedras Negras...you name it. Incredible. (End nerd rant).

I'm off for now - hope you all have a beautiful Easter. I miss you all so much! I'll let you know about the Easter celebrations next week.

Cuaresma

Happy Monday, everyone. It's another sunny morning here in Antigua and though I'm tired, Lipton Yellow Label Tea and I are good friends. The weekend was really relaxing. I got a little work done, but mostly read, slept, ate, and wandered around Antigua. Like I've said before, Sundays during Lent are huge celebrations in Antigua. Processions, vendors, and a whole lot of people. I took some pictures yesterday and thought you all might enjoy them.




The procession moved all the way from Santa Ana, just outside Antigua (this is where I work with the after-school program), by Escuela de Cristo (the church near my park - see the photo March 10), then down to the cathedral in the Parque Central. If you were wondering, they are cleaning the church in preparation for Easter.

We head to Peten this Friday - I'm pretty excited. We're visiting Tikal, Aguateca, and Quirigua. I'll try and update you early next week once we're back.

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…

Adventures

Well, it’s Friday again. I have now been here for seven weeks (wow!) and am continuing to have fun and learn from so many experiences. While I have plenty more to tell you about this week, I’ll stick to covering last weekend’s adventures in this entry.

After taking a weekend off to rest, I was ready to get out of town again. After all – when else in my life will I have three day weekends and no responsibilities to hold me back? “A brief interlude of sensational experience,” indeed. My housemate Tamara and I both wanted to head north to Cobán and a couple places nearby, so we booked a 4am van for Friday. The driver took us to the city (meaning Guatemala City) to catch a 6am bus to Cobán. It was refreshing not to be surrounded by tourists for once, since we used more typical Guatemalan transport (buses, vans, and pickups). The bus ride was about five hours through the mountains and countryside. Tamara is from Colorado, and we both remarked how much it felt like being out west – winding roads along mountains, pine trees, little farms and fields on hillsides, and open space.

We arrived in Cobán a little before eleven and after getting pretty turned around (don’t trust the Lonely Planet guide’s map of Cobán) we found a travel agency, and made friends Victor, who walked us to the bus stop for Lanquín, a town to the northeast. We knew it would be an exciting ride when someone handed a (live) chicken in a plastic bag to the woman seated next to Tamara. It got even more exciting as we squeezed a whole lot of chavos (guys) into the van on the last leg of the journey. Upon arriving in Lanquín, we took a pickup to Semuc Champey, which is made up of a couple rustic hostels, houses and farms (corn, bananas, etc), and a national monument –

beautiful natural pools and waterfalls that enter underground caves. After getting a room at one of the hostels, we dumped our bags, put on bathing suits and hiking gear, and walked a bit to the park entrance. We took a pretty intense half-hour (I think it was supposed to be an hour) hike up to the Mirador (viewpoint) and saw the pools. We then proceeded to hike down, and since it was a hot day, we decided to take a dip in the pools. Amazing. How often do you get to relax in natural turquoise-colored water while enjoying the late afternoon sun? After a while we decided to head back and shower before dinner. Neither of us lasted much past nine that night.

On Saturday we again got up early for a 5:15am shuttle back to Cobán. The shuttle came at five and the electricity wasn’t on yet so we scramble to gather up our belongings and head out. About fifteen minutes into the trek back up the mountain (the roads to Lanquín and Semuc Champey were even more mountainous than the road from Guate to Cobán), our van broke down. We got to enjoy a few hours by the side of the road as a new van came. After an exhausting ride (they really pack people into those vans!!) we got back to Cobán by late morning, grabbed some tacos for lunch, and caught a van for Chisec – another town farther north. From Chisec, we took another van to the Cuevas de Candelaria. Tamara and I, already pretty exhausted from traveling, donned our bathing suits to go tubing through the underground caves with our guide Sebastian. The area is incredibly beautiful – it was easy to imagine this as the setting for an adventure movie, especially as we arrived at the mouth of the cave. Perhaps my favorite moment was floating by a rock outcropping in the caves, where light from outdoors shone in to penetrate the darkness. I almost expected to see some treasure displayed where the beam of sunlight hit the rock (think Isla de Muerta in Pirates of the Caribbean). After tubing, we toured the Cúpula de Murcielago (Dome of Bats) with Sebastian. By various means of transport (that either involved sharing space with a mountain of coconuts or of guatemaltecos) we made it back to Cobán by early evening, got a room at a hostel, grabbed some dinner (I opted for some wonderful tex-mex fajitas), and passed out early again.

Sunday we slept in until 6:45am (I know!) and headed out to see the Templo El Calvario and a couple other churches. The temple was fascinating: according to legend, an indigenous man saw two jaguars at the spot one day, but did not kill them. He went back again and saw a vision of Jesus in their place, so they built a church on the spot. It is at the top of a long staircase (120 steps or so). Since it was Sunday, the church was full of people. It struck me just how different the atmosphere was. Maya women in their cortas (skirts) and güipiles (shirts), lighting candles as offerings. One of the statues of Mary was on a carpet of pine needles and flowers (you will read more about such carpets during Semana Santa). The whole place smelled of wax and the dark, shadowy building had an air of, perhaps, holy mystery.

On the way back to the center of town, we got caught in a rainstorm (this is typical for Cobán) and ducked into another church. Tamara had a poncho but I waited out the rain a bit before enjoying a traditional breakfast (scrambled eggs, black beans, a little tomato sauce, served with corn tortillas and coffee). Probably sounds gross to many of you, but huevos y frijoles is one of my new favorite foods. Before heading out, I picked up a few “souvenirs”. Don’t worry, Smiths and Buchanans, I made sure to bargain. I’m getting better at it. It was a long ride back, mostly in the rain, before arriving back to sunny Antigua around 5pm. The whole city was crazy, because there are celebrations every Sunday during Cuaresma (Lent). Think: Fourth of July plus Homecoming parade (floats and all), only the floats are of the Holy Family and other saints and angels. I never thought Jesus and cotton candy would go together. Life is full of surprises.

Tomorrow I am headed to the ciudad (again) to my first Guatemalan archaeological site, Kaminaljuyu (fondly known as ‘KJ’ to the alumnos of Dr. Liebmann’s Mesoamerican Arch. class). It’s a Preclassic Maya site, but also flourished for a period that shows the influence of Teotihuacán (talud-tablero architecture!). I might head over to the anthropology museum as well. In a few days I’ll write about the beginning of Lenten celebrations, our trip to the city and Landivar University on Wednesday, as well as my adventures this weekend.

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.

NUNCA MAS

It’s been another good week here in Antigua. I’ve been here five weeks so far and each day passes more quickly than the last. I opted to stay here this weekend to rest and get caught up on some work so that I will be ready to travel the next few weekends. Hopefully this will include trips to Copán, a Classic period Maya archaeological site just over the eastern border into Honduras, Livingston, a town known for garífuna (Caribbean black) culture, and maybe some hiking around Coban and tour of the Cuevas de Candelabria in the eastern part of the country. Our program is taking a trip to Tikal in the Petén region farther north in about a month.

Yesterday we went out to a German restaurant to celebrate our program director Javier’s 25^th birthday. I decided to fully embrace my German heritage and order sausages with sauerkraut (don’t worry Mom and Grandma, your sauerkraut is much better). Come the New Year 2010, I think I will eat more than a pittance of this wonderful food. I also got a break from Gallo (I’ve been told it’s similar to Coors light) and had some Moza “cerveza oscura” – dark beer. I enjoyed it, but (surprisingly) miss the beer at home. I never thought I’d say this, but perhaps I will make the men in my life proud and appreciate good beer someday.

As we drove through Guatemala city a month ago, there were a lot of messages painted on the city's walls. Here, "Libertad" and spray-painted on another wall, "¿DONDE ESTAN 45,000 DESAPARECIDOS?" - Where are the 45,000 disappeared?

We had our first colloquium lecturer yesterday. Daniel Hernandez is a photojournalist and artist who works to raise awareness about the genocide that happened here in Guatemala during the civil war from the 1960s-1990s. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I was pretty ignorant about Latin American history and politics until I came here. In my four semesters of Spanish, we talked a little about the Madres de Plaza Mayo protesting the desaparecidos – disappeared people – in Argentina. Now my eyes are opening so many similar situations that have happened throughout Latin America. It’s hard to take it in, especially recognizing the impact of United States intervention in Central America beginning in the fifties (’54 here in Guatemala). I am not saying we should hate our country because we’ve messed up – only that we, and our children, should never forget this, especially as we face tough issues like illegal immigration and everything in the Middle East.

Names of victims, civilians as well, from the civil war on the walls surrounding the national cathedral in Guatemala City, placed there by the Church in the late 1990s. To learn more, look up "Monsignor Juan Gerardi". The Church has done a lot of crappy things, but we should never forget people who died serving God's people.

Throughout their education, students complain constantly about learning history. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked “why?” Until now, I didn’t have an answer. Now, as I learn about the history of conflict in Guatemala, I begin to understand. The military and the government still do not recognize and commemorate the 200,000 deaths that occurred during the civil war, the vast majority of whom were indigenous civilians at the hands of the army. The truth reports are kept from public schools, despite groups’ efforts to make them available. If Guatemalans cannot teach their children about what happened, then historical memory will die. The war, the genocide, will be forgotten. As a generation passes away, who will remember? Who will solve this country’s problems? Who will make sure the same violence does not repeat itself?

Why do we learn history? We are not so different. Our children, too, deserve to know the truth about our country, the victory and bravery along with the mistakes and the stories of those who have been silenced. Because they can. I finally realized yesterday that I’m not going to leave this job to someone else so that I can pursue a PhD and a career in academia. At least, not for now.

"Nunca Mas" - Never again

Daniel Hernandez © 1997

Our history is our memory. Our history is our identity. If we forget it, we forget ourselves.

Desiderata

Some of the other students from CIRMA really wanted to visit a Macadamia nut farm just outside the Ciudad Viejo. I thought, ok, this is better than doing homework, I’ll go. We took a taxi from the catedral – I think we were all a little afraid that we wouldn’t survive the ride in such a beat-up car, in a city with no clear (at least to us) right of way. We made it there – at the entrance to the driveway there was a sign – “Valhalla” with a little Viking hat. You know, the kind the ‘fat lady’ wears when she sings.

Our driver dropped us off and then led us into the main area, by a sign which read, “Welcome to Valhalla – Where every day is Earth day/Aquí cada día es día de la tierra.” I thought to myself, wow, these are real hippies. We met the wife of the ex-pat who owns the finca. She told us all about the farm – three hundred unique (not grafted) trees, completely organic with no pesticides – and showed us around, offering us samples of nuts and the products they make with them. They use every part of the nut and shell for products, mulch, and fertilizer. They also donate new trees to indigenous communities to help them to be sustainable eat healthily. It was an eye-opener to see real sustainable agriculture in progress, by such good-hearted people.

We met her husband inside – an older man with a fire company hat from the states, wearing a striped sweater and khakis. He introduced himself with a “you are home,” accompanied by a barrage of the most lewd jokes I have ever heard, one after the other. We finally went out (i.e. to me, escaped) to the “restaurant” – a couple tables under the trees – to eat some Macadamia nut pancakes and drink some rosa de jamaica (a popular drink made with hibiscus flowers). The ex-pat joined us with his breakfast (it was noon) and jokes (that I’m sure made me blush beet red), and sat with us for about two hours. Over these two hours, we heard much of his life’s story – how a seventy-year old man from Frisco ended up growing macadamia nuts in Guatemala.

You know Jack Kerouac? Lorenzo’s narrative reminded me of reading On the Road, with stories about “Susan” (don’t ask), growing weed (don’t ask), lots of sex (please don’t ask), working as a firefighter, living in nature, God and farting, the future, and love. While I fully intend to forget quite a few – many of this man’s stories will follow me wherever I go. He faced death so many times. Lorenzo figured the “Old Man” wanted him to be alive to do something. As his wife told us, “Some people, in their old age, sit around and watch TV. We wanted to give back.” They are quite a couple. They fit, they complete each other. Lorenzo described himself as mal creado, “badly raised”, but said his wife still thinks he’s a good guy. I think I can understand, more now than ever.

Despite Lorenzo’s advice that we should all just buy land in Cobán and grow blueberries, accompanied by his predictions of apocalypse and survival that freaked me out as badly as history channel shows on Nostradamus when I was ten, I still look forward to going home when my semester is over. He left the US because it is so messed up. I will go back and remain there, because it is so messed up. And, you know, if the end of the world comes – that’s cool. There’s this guy and his dad I’d really like to meet.

On the wall of one of the buildings was a plaque with the Desiderata, one of my favorite prayers. Seeing it there somehow made things click for me. I respect and admire Lorenzo and his wife for all they are doing. They are good people.

We left with a hug goodbye, and an invitation to return anytime to Valhalla. Valhalla: the heaven of the Vikings – not just St. Peter, the pearly gates, and people with harps – but one full of girls, drinking, and partying. You know, I think he’s got it half right.