Independence Day and Experiences of Grace

Hello everyone! Well, it's been a busy week so this may be a longer post. So bear with me...

September 15th, this past Thursday, marked Guatemala's Independence Day from Spain in 1821. Actually, it is the independence day of all Latin America. As you can imagine, it was a pretty big day. There were many many many parades, and I did not have Spanish classes. The day before, however, the students in my school and I did presentations in Spanish on different aspects of Guatemalan culture. I presented on the history of the various capitals of Guatemala (Antigua was the third capital), and others presented on the significance of elements of the flag, etc. The school also took some pictures of us, which are on my facebook.

The next day, I met with my teacher to watch the morning parades in Antigua. Most of the schools participate in the parades, so a large part of the parade was children  playing instruments, wearing sashes and traditional clothing, waving flags, and doing other fun things. It was quite a sight, and the weather in the morning was absolutely gorgeous. Most of my pictures of the parade have the volcano in the background. As the parade went on, you can see the volcano gradually accumulate more clouds. Heres a link to my facebook for all the pictures. They are quite colorful. So all in all, it was a good day.

Today was another special day for me because I accompanied my teacher to San Hermano Pedro Hospital for Mass and to visit with the children living at the hospital. There I met Jose, the little boy that she visits every Sunday (I wrote about him in a previous post; he is mentally and physically handicapped and was abandoned by his family, but she has visited him every week for the past few years). It was great to meet him finally. He is so cute. Very tiny; he's ten but looks like he's five. He probably weighs no more than forty pounds. He looks healthy and like he gets plenty to eat; he's just a little guy.

After Mass, I went back to the children's section of the hospital and my teacher and I visited with Jose for a bit. Then I walked around the room where the kids' beds are and visited with some them who were laying in their cribs. A lot of them were lying there, looking at the ceiling. None of them can talk, but they respond when you talk to them by smiling, laughing, or looking at you. I had a book of different children's stories in Spanish, and I read each of them a different story. I don't know how much they understood, but they seemed to be listening. And they liked the pictures. Mostly I think they like hearing someone talking to them and giving them attention.

Today also happened to be the 27th anniversary of...something (I didn't really catch what it was...I think maybe the anniversary of the new hospital building) so they had a huge party for the kids. They had a DJ in the courtyard/playground in the middle of the children's area playing kids music. Most of the kids were wheeled out surrounding the courtyard and volunteers walked around visiting them, moving their arms and wheelchairs to dance with the music. They loved it. A lot of them were laughing and smiling. They ate lunch while the music played. I helped feed one little girl in a wheelchair who is probably around eleven. She kept dropping her towel/napkin on the floor because she thought it was funny. It was cute. Later on, a couple of clowns came and did animal balloons and a magic show for the children, who loved it. I sat with a little girl, probably around four or five, and fed her a bottle while we watched. I was sitting next to my teacher, who was holding Jose, and the little girl and Jose kept looking at each other and smiling. It was so funny.

I find it appropriate that today's Gospel was the one where Jesus says "the first shall be last and the last shall be first." In our society, people with disabilities are definitely treated as "the last." They are different from the norm; they are a major imperfection in a society that strives to be perfect and the best (and I am speaking about the United States, mostly because that's what I know). They are often objects of disgust, locked away in facilities where, despicably, they are sometimes abused. In our world, the disabled (I don't really like that word, but I don't know how else to say it) are often treated as being sub-human. But in God's eyes, they are far from that; they are creation.

Today at Mass, I felt a lot of different emotions, but the two major ones were shame and humility. Mostly, I felt incredibly unworthy to be surrounded by those who are first in God's kingdom, these most innocent and vulnerable of God's children. Throughout my life, I have been surrounded by complacency and comfort, which was why when I first met these children and patients at the hospital, I felt uncomfortable being outside of my normal. And I felt ashamed for feeling this way. Throughout the day, my feelings of uncomfort eased, but this sense of humility, a kind of awe at God's creation, remained. I definitely plan to go back to the hospital more. It's certainly more possible to do so now that my Spanish is better. My teacher said this week we could go again. But anyway, those are my thoughts for now. I am sure that this will be in the back of my mind for quite a while though. I will blog more if I have some more thoughts. But I think that's good for tonight.

Peace to all who read this!

Halfway...

Hello again!

So this week is my sixth week in Guatemala, which means I have six more to go. It's amazing how much time flies, yet another six weeks still feels like quite a long time. Earlier today, when I was standing at my usual corner in Antigua waiting for the chicken bus, I found myself reflecting on how I was when I first arrived here. I can remember standing in that same corner six weeks ago, completely confused by my surroundings. I felt as if I had been plucked out of one world and thrown into another, which was both exciting and intimidating. The language of people on the streets washed over me; words floated by, their meanings a mystery I desperately wished I knew. Poco a poco, I often reminded myself: step by step. All in due time.

And now, here I am, six weeks later, and although much of the mystery remains, it is much less foreign. I am no longer confused (most of the time) when waiters in restaurants ask me questions, or when my host mom asks me to do something. Responding to questions or telling stories doesn't take nearly as long.  And, I believe I have mastered the art of getting on and off the chicken bus. I realized today that it's kind of a dance you have to do, jumping on and finding a seat as the bus jerks forward,  getting the timing right for using the seats as a crutch when you walk down the aisle, anticipating the stops and starts, learning to change seats more towards the front as the bus empties out, just so you can get off faster. The chicken bus, for me, is now as routine as taking my car to work. And the first time I rode on it, I nearly fell flat on my face. I hadn't gotten my sea legs yet.

So those are just some of my thoughts for now. No pictures today, I'm afraid. Guatemala's Independence Day is this Thursday, so I imagine I will have some pictures then of some of the goings-on.

Peace to all who read this!

Trip to Yepocopa

Hello friends and family!

Well, I have some beautiful pictures to share with you all, and hopefully a few more interesting stories. Today I went to Yepocapa, a town in Chimaltenango, the department northwest of Antigua. My host father/director of Probigua invited me to go with him to a program presented by children at Colegio San Pedro, a school in Yepocapa. This school receives a lot of support from Probigua; in fact, because of their support, children are able to attend for free. It's quite an opportunity for children in Yepocapa. They even have a room full of computers with Internet, which is hard to come by in that area.

But anyway, Yepocapa, although not very far from Antigua, is a bit of a trek to get there in back, mostly becausethe road is not paved the whole way and there are many mountains to go there. However, it offers quite the beautiful scenery. At one point, we pulled over so I could shoot some pictures of the mountains in the distance. Here's some shots:

In the distance, though it is difficult to see because of the clouds, you can kind of see the Pacific Ocean. It would be a two hour drive from there, but we were so high up you could see it in the distance. Apparently, this picture was taken at 2800 meters above sea level, about 9,000 feet high. It sure was cold and windy, but the fresh air was a welcome change from the bus-exhaust filled streets of Antigua.

When we arrived at Yepocapa, we went straight into the school and the program started pretty much immediately. For the first part, the students who were voted as the best pupils in the school were recognized in front of everyone. For the second part, each grade level performed a dance/skit for the school to celebrate the cultural heritage of Guatemala. Many schools right now are doing similar things because next week, September 15th, is their independence day. So many schools are doing cultural "recitals" of sorts and are doing much practicing with their marching band. Well, needless to say, the program was fantastic. All the kids  were so cute and they all did a great job. It was also wonderful seeing so many parents there to watch their kids celebrate their cultural heritage. I have more pictures here. But I also took some videos, which are following:

Hope you enjoyed the videos and pictures!

Lessons in Many Things Guatemalan

Hola amigos y familia! Espero que ustedes están bien!

There's a little Spanish for you all today...you probably can catch the gist. If not, go to Google translate.

Well, I have quite a few new pictures for you all today, which is definitely a good thing! This past Friday, I climbed up to Cerra de La Cruz, a big cross on top of a hill overlooking Antigua. I went with a girl from Spain who has been volunteering at the school, a guy from Australia who is currently a student at Probigua, and a girl from Guatemala who was our guide of sorts (we didn't know how to get there, so she offered to take us). It is quite a view:

See what I mean? We went on the perfect day too, because most afternoons in the rainy season it is pretty cloudy. It was still kind of cloudy because you can't see the volcano, but it wasn't so cloudy that we couldn't see the city. So that was an experience! Afterwards, the four of us went and had a drink at a German bar (in Guatemala, go figure, but apparently there are a lot of Germans here). My Spanish has gotten to a point where I can hold a polite conversation, more or less. The student from Australia just started learning Spanish, so I kind of had to translate some of what was being said. It was pretty funny actually, I realized halfway through our conversation: here we are, a woman from Spain who speaks only Spanish and some English, a woman from Guatemala who speaks only Spanish, a guy from Australia who speaks basically only English, and me, from the United States, speaking English and a little Spanish. And we were in a German bar. In Guatemala. It was quite the international experience. 

The next morning, I went with the girl from Spain and guy from Australia to the market in Antigua. We weren't looking for anything in particular, just kind of walking around. The market on Saturdays is absolutely crazy though. There are a ton of people who do their shopping that day. Luckily for me, I was able to try something new: a fruit called a rambutan (or, as people here call them, "lyches." The name sounds about as appetizing as they look). These are a fruit that look like a cross between a hedgehog and a strawberry. However, they are surprisingly delicious. Here are some pictures:

You eat them by peeling off the skin and eating the inside (except for the pit). It has the texture of a grape and is very sweet. I enjoyed them.

Later that day, I went off and did some more exploring of Antigua. For one, I decided to tour the ruins of the old Cathedral, which was built in the 1600s and was subsequently destroyed in the earthquake of 1773 (which was so large that it destroyed most of the structures in Antigua and forced the Guatemalan government to move the capital of Guatemala from Antigua to Guatemala City, where it is today). The ruins were quite fascinating. You can view pictures of them (and other things around Antigua) here on my Facebook.

Another great thing that I saw (finally) was a marimba. For those of you who don't know (because I sure didn't before I came here), the marimba is a very big deal in Guatemala; it is their national musical instrument and a major cultural symbol. Basically, when you think Guatemala and you think music, you have to think marimba; marimba is Guatemala (though my teacher tells me that some people in Mexico try to take credit for it, but they are wrong...I sensed a bit of bitterness there, haha). The marimba is a type of xylophone that originated with indigenous people in Guatemala. At that time, it was made from wood and gourds, but now it is only made of wood. I found out as soon as I came here how important marimba is for Guatemalans. Every day at lunch, without fail, my family and I listen to marimba on the radio. However, I had never seen what one looked like until this weekend. I took a video of it so you could see and hear it. I also panned around a little bit so you could get a nice look at Parque Central and the current cathedral in Antigua:

I was also lucky to be in Antigua on this day because there were a ton of marching bands circling the block of the parque One of the really cool things about this place is that they have random bands march down the streets all the time, for no reason that I can find out. This was the third time in a month that I stumbled upon a marching band. I think that music is just a very important part of the culture. I was able to get a longer video of one of the bands, which were mostly drums. They are quite good. I was a little sad, though, because when I was done filming, another band with xylophones started to play the tune to "Bad Romance," by Lady Gaga, a song I have heard here quite often. I tried to film it but my memory card was full. Hopefully another day. Here's the other video:

There's more to say, but I think that is enough for one post. Hope you enjoy the pictures and videos!