Guate blog part 2

Hey everyone!
I have so much to catch you all up on, but I will try to make it relatively condensed again. Let’s hope I succeed more than last time.

Okay, so I got to do something totally different last week at the Scheel Center school. Randomly, (and this is pretty darn random!) a group of medical students, doctors, and pharmacists from KU Med came down to the Antigua area to do a bunch of mission medical work for a week. They send a small group (one doctor, a few med students, and a pharmacist) to our school for the week to give free medical consultations, vitamins, and medicine out to the kids, their families, or anyone else in the area who came in. A few of them knew Spanish to some degree but several knew very very little, so…they were on a shortage of people to help translate, so I actually got to help translate medical Spanish all week! It was a really awesome experience. It was definitely challenging at times, but I learned a lot as the week went on and they were grateful for anyone who could help them to any degree. I still did quite a bit of charades/hand motions, but was able communicate decently for the most part. Also, I had taken a medical Spanish class last summer so that helped some.

So, after a tiring but rewarding week I went on a fun weekend trip with my volunteer pals Kari & Philip to Petén, the northernmost departamento (like a province/county/etc) of Guatemala. We took a 8 hour overnight bus ride there and back, but it was worth it! The main reason we went there was to visit Tikal, a national park of mayan ruins, which was really cool. It was a big area where you could walk from pyramid to pyramid (and other random ruin buildings too, not sure what you call them?) and even climb up some of them. They also had some hiking trails and such. We also spend some time exploring some of the nearby towns which are located on a lake. It was really interesting to see this other area of the country. It had a lot of similarities but also differences. The people seemed quite similar, but it was less populated, a little more jungle-like, much hotter and more humid. Ummm…okay one funny about this trip. So, about 30 minutes into our bus ride there (which was on a charter bus, not super fancy but decent especially for Central America) we picked up a few more passengers, though all the seats were already full. Hmmmm, how do you suppose they solve this problem? Well, quite simple. They just pulled out a bunch of little plastic stools to set in the aisles for these people. Seriously, plastic, and no backrest. Just stools. So, I think to myself, okay these people probably live nearby and are just hopping on the bus for 30 minutes or an hour or so and then get off. But nope, they rode the whole way, all 8 hours on those little plastic stools. Well, compared to this I definitely couldn’t complain about MY seat being a little uncomfortable to sleep in. I hope they got a discounted price at least. Man, ya never know what you’re going to see next in this country. I’ve learned to just never be surprised. We travelers often find ourselves saying things like “Only in Guatemala” or, “Ohhhh, Guatemala.” Oh yes, we also enjoy the expression “When in Guatemala.... (do as the Guatemaltecas do).”

In other news, Happy late 4th of July!!!! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday back home! Don’t worry, I found other Americans to celebrate with here. One of the long-term volunteers with the organization had people over at his apartment for awhile that evening. There were 20 or so of us, including 3 nebraskans (wahoo!) and we all wore and ate red, white, and blue things, played games, and swapped favorite 4th of July stories, etc.

So this week it’s back to helping out with the kids, library/reading activities, classrooms, the lunch duties, and other random things. I’m really going to miss this school  After a couple weeks I’ve slowly built stronger and stronger connections with the kids and teachers/staff, and right about when it gets to that good point I’m headed home. Bummer. Interesting though how many travelers/volunteers return to Guatemala. You don’t realize it’s that cool of a country until you try it out. Also, interesting how many people end up staying longer than planned. Call it Guatemala fever or something like that I guess. Tempting, but nope, I’ve got things to get back for unfortunately. Part of me is ready to go though. But the other part of me can’t believe how fast it has gone and is just trying to savor every last minute/hour/day here. It’s tough, I know life’s going to get busy so who knows when or if I’ll ever get to return. Hopefully, hopefully, someday I can come back here or check out a few other Latin American countries...

Okay now, for the fun part. But first, thanks for reading, hope you all are doing well, can’t wait to get back and be able to catch up with everyone on my American cell phone! Okay, now here’s the good stuff.... I’ve finally finished composing my list for you all. Drum roll please....

Top 10 (or so) things you didn’t know about Guatemala(ns):

• In comparison, they make me feel tall…… Call it genetics, excessive coffee consumption, whatever you’d like really, but they are definitely a bunch of shorties. So, for all my tall friends out there, I wouldn’t advise a mail-order husband from here.
• There is no such thing as a personal bubble here. Although, sometimes it’s kind of cool how people aren’t afraid to have touch contact with each other, like we can tend to be in the states. Teachers can hug their students without lawsuits, etc, etc.
• Sleeping well at night can be a bit of a challenge here. All kinds of noises go on during the night from dogs barking to kids crying to fireworks at 3am to animals walking on the roof to heavy rain to birds making noises including this rooster who crows every morning. Luckily, after two weeks or so I started to get better at sleeping through it all.
• There is quite a bit of American influence in clothing. They seem to wear a lot of shirts made in the US. I’ve seen Cubs tshirts, university hoodies, American eagle clothes, etc. etc. My favorite was a teenage boy at the school here wearing a shirt that said “I (picture of shovel)=dig Cowboys.” Doubt he knew what that meant. Doubt he really digs cowboys.
• There are two classic Guatemalan greetings: The common polite one is to hug & kiss each other’s left cheek; the other more man-ly one is “slap & tap” which involves a sideways five and then a “pound” (or puña in Spanish) AKA bumping fists.
• PDA is pretty big here, especially among the adolescent and young adult population. You’ll see them holding hands everywhere in public, kissing on benches in ‘el parque central’ etc. Evidently it has a lot to do with it not being very accepted in homes with more conservative value parents, so they just bring it out onto the streets.
• Breastfeeding is not nearly as private as it is in the United States. Okay, actually it’s not private whatsoever here. Woman basically breastfeed at anytime in practically any situation. When baby is hungry, baby is hungry I guess. I’ve even seen several women walking down the street breastfeeding. Call it the ultimate multitasking skill I suppose?
• Hair gel is a HUGE trend here. Pretty much every guy with hair gels it every day. And the habit starts young, like 11 or 12 years old. You see big family size tubs of hair gel being sold everywhere.
• La gente (the people) here are extremely resourceful in general. Prime example….who needs traffic cones, they just use rocks. Another example, if you can’t afford a barb wire fence, just glue broken bottle pieces to your wall or roof with sharp ends sticking upward so that no one will want to try to get into your property.
• Their zippers are afraid of heights. Seriously, I guess their pants are poorly made here or something. Everyone’s constantly having to check their zipper.
• No one refrigerates their eggs. Evidently it’s not necessary? I’ve eaten a lot of them so far and haven’t gotten sick.
• Speaking of huevos, in the US when we see two guys riding around on a motorcycle, we might tend to point, laugh, or make jokes about their manhood. Not here. Perfectly normal and quite common. Many people own little scooters/mopeds/”motocicletas” instead of cars and drive their friends around. Also, Guatemalans appear to have some sort of contest/game of “how many people can we fit on one little motocicleta?” 3, 4, 5?
• Finally, despite all the differences; people are literally the exact same here as they are in the US on so many levels! We really have so many commonalities with other races/countries, it’s amazing. People are people no matter where you are in the world.