¿Un Santo o Un Diablo?

Hola amigos viejos y nuevos! I am way overdue for a posting, but nothing happened that seemed worthy of a blog until el fin de semana (weekend). My ability to communicate in espanol seems to be improving poco a poco, and i hope that despues de 6 more weeks of Spanish school I will be fluent enough to qualify for a position in which I can use my Spanish, either in the US, or possibly somewhere in Latin America. Once the travel bug bites, it leaves quite a mark....

On Friday, enjoying the intensity of the Guatemalan afternoon sun for a change (it frequently clouds over by 1 or 2pm), i ventured just outside of town to check out a non-profit agency called Nuestros Ahijados http://www.ana.org.gt/ where I plan to volunteer for a few hours daily starting sometime this week. The agency promotes advancement out of poverty through education. It provides a solid elementary school education to many of the poorest local kids as well as one of the few non-University libraries in the country, school supplies, and I think 2 meals per day from donated food. The organization also provides free medical and dental care to thousands of local adults and children. They have a new nutrition clinic and i hope to contribute to the clinic as well as to school meal planning. Unfortunately the woman running the nutrition program has been ill and i haven´t been able to meet with her yet.

Although I love Antigua, it is nice to get out of the congestion of the busy town and actually climb the Seattle- like hill on the way to the agency. The calles (streets) of Antigua are as flat as Kansas (i imagine), but the uneven cobblestones provide quite a workout despite the lack of significant changes in elevation. Living in Antigua is to be one with dirt. It is not that we don´t have running water which occasionally even gets warm. Actually, since the school director´s son replaced the duct tape meant to secure the plastic shower attachment to the shower head in my telephone booth-sized shower with silicon, i can bathe myself without fearing that the attachment will fly off mid-shower. Besides the annoyance of having the attachment fall off everytime i showered for my first 2 weeks in Antigua, if i failed to quickly realize what was happening quickly enough, streams of water would shoot both over my shower curtain soaking the floor in front of my toilet (the sink is in the shower) and over the other side of the shower and onto my bedroom floor. If i was really lucky the shower spray would even reach the top of my little wardrobe where i keep my drug articles and jewelery. So, what i am trying to say is that i currently have the luxury of showering whenever i want to without too much difficulty. The thing is, that within 30 seconds of walking outside one is covered in a swirl of dirt drawn up from the cobblestone/dirt roads by a combination of the gusty wind and any vehicles driving by. The dirt alone would not be so bad, but you would think that there is a contest to see who can emit the biggest and most offensive cloud of black shit from the back of his or her vehicle. The chicken buses are the worst offenders and probably emit at least 10x the amount of dirt and harmful chemicals allowed in most US states. There is nothing like bending over (i refrain from doing too much of that here) to fix your shoe, only to find yourself eating a sandwich of bus exhaust as a chicken bus goes barreling around the corner. You should see a chicken bus pass 3 vans in a row going uphill on a blind curve with a guy hanging out the door as a lookout... Mom, i am just kidding. REALLY- that never happens.

One of the reasons for my deliquency in writing is because over the weekend i traveled to the beautiful Lake Atitlan (by tourist van, not chicken bus) on a trip organized by my Spanish School. Check out this site with great pics of Lake Atitlan and a couple of lakeside towns. If you read the story about Maximon, keep in mind that the story provided is likely the Catholic and not the Mayan interpretation of the legend... http://www.eveandersson.com/guatemala/atitlan

Speaking of Maximon, seeing the wooden statue of this evil saint/ anti-Christ (Catholic perspective) or brave saint and defender of the Mayan religion against the Spanish invaders (traditional Mayan perspective) was one of the reasons for my weekend trip. Upon arriving in Panajchel, the main hub and tourist trap, we took a motor boat tour of the amazingly gorgeous lake stopping at 3 indigenous villages, including Santiago Atitlan. I was particularly excited to visit Santiago Atitlan because i recently read a great book call Secrets of the Talking Jaguar written by a Native American (US) man who became a Shaman (healer) in that village. In Santiago we visited the church, which like many Mayan churches blends Catholisism with the beliefs and rituals of the traditional Mayan religion. Jose, our guide and a teacher at my school, then led us to a small hut where El Maximon sat guarded by a local fraternity of Mayan men, who move him at least once per year, lots of incense (likely copal) and many burning candles. Apparently candle holders are not considered a necessary safety precaution, and despite several warnings by a friend, I momentarily became caught up in my surroundings and forgot about the flames burning 6 inches from my feet. I managed to escape with only a small singe in one of my flip flops and barely caught myself mid-profane curse. Although I paid a couple of quetzales to see Maximon and a few more to take his picture, i did not bring the cutomary offering of cigarettes, whisky or beer to appease him.

Today instead of working on my grammar, Olga and I ventured by chicken bus to a town called Itzepa where there is another wooden statue of the man known as Maximon in Santiago Atitlan. In Itzapa he is worshiped by local Mayans as St. Simon, the great 16th century protecter of the Mayan faith against the Spanish. It was quite an adventure. For most of the 1 hour trip (including transfer) we sat packed three to a seat on old bluebird school buses. Again it was apparent that Guatemalans do not put safety first, as once while getting ready to depart, Olga and I practically hugged the driver to keep from falling out the door... I loved visiting Itzapa with Olga. It was market day and she patiently tolerated my desire to take a picture of everything from a truckful of bananas to a woman selling raw chicken parts. okay, i am a bit strange. As Olga led me down a street toward the buiding where the statue of St. Simon (Maximon) is housed we encountered some vendadoras selling small figurines and pictures of the saint/ devil, as well as flowers meant to serve as an offering to the statue. Confused about the story behind the statue, Julie the gringa opened her big mouth in front of the women and asked Olga in Spanish why someone would want to buy a figure of someone who is supposed to be the opposite of God. With these words the women scurried to the back of thier store. The culturally ignorant gringa offended them. Idid not realize that many of the local Mayans, including these women, worship St Simon (not called Maximon in Itzapa) as a saint and protector. Unlike the Maximon statue in St Atitlan which appears to now be primarily a tourist attraction, the statue St Simon continues to be a place of worship in Itzepa. This morning several locals were burning offerings of food and other items in front of St Simon´s dwelling to ask for his help and others were praying inside the church-like building where the replica of the Saint sits dressed in a suit and surrounded by bottles of whiskey and beer. Again, i failed to offer St Simon a Gallo (beer), but perhaps i will toast him the next time i go to happy hour.

Tomorrow Olga and I will return to our plastic table for 4 more hours of Spanish grammar and conversation. However, I am looking forward to Friday when we will take another field trip to her town, San Antonio Aguas Calientes.

Well, I appear to be closing this internet cafe down. I hope you all are having a verano (summer) excelente!

Julia