after one week i've noticed a lot of random things. so here they are, my top 10 things from my first week in guatemala.
1. ear plugs, by far, were the best thing i packed (thanks for the heads up, heather). in the middle of the night it’s not uncommon to hear dogs barking, feral cats fighting, late night church singing, and at approximately 5 am, a lovely rooster crowing.
2. whoever said once you have a base knowledge of another language it is easier to learn a third language lied. i am fairly sure i spoke equal parts french and spanish this week. but i understand a lot more spanish than i did a week ago and can carry on fairly simple conversations now.
3. i made it exactly one week prior to getting sick from water/food/some combination of the above. in my house we prefer to think of it as a right of passage to central america.
4. people in san pedro are really friendly. the tourists and the locals peacefully coexist, which is nice.
5. i’ve never seen anyone work as hard as guatemalan women.
6. there is no refrigerated milk here—only powder (my guess is it’s too difficult to transport to rural areas). there also is no grocery store in the form you may be familiar with--just a general market in the street selling fruits, vegetables, chicken, etc.
7. if you ever wondered where your clothes went that weren’t bought at goodwill, it’s here (and likely other countries as well). in the market there are pick-ups full of clothes shipped over from the US to be sold for about 5Q (60 cents or so). new clothes go for about 50Q (about 10 USD), which is more than a full day’s wage for many people. 63 percent of san pedro lives in poverty.
8. the people at coopertiva spanish school are amazing. i asked one of the owners how they came up with the idea for a cooperative and he said a few teachers had worked at other schools before but those schools weren’t good to the workers and didn’t give back to the community. right on.
9. i think it’s a prerequisite for all students attending coopertiva to own chacos. seriously. or maybe that’s the nature of people who choose attend a cooperative school. i can’t tell you how many people i’ve met on a world tour lasting anywhere between 6 months and 2 years. fantastic.
10. homemade tortillas are served at every meal. they are delicious. they are also next to impossible to make. i tried.
