Fourth Letter Home

December 3 to January 3, 2007/2008

Hi, Everyone

Well, I have weathered the month of December (last wrote about December 3) here in a what I think is a perfect climate, if not perfect air quality, and have been lucky enough to finally get out of the department of Sacatepéquez, other than to Guate (Guatemala City) and get to the beach, Lake Atitlan, and, Tikal, Flores, and Remate in the Petén, the most jungle like area of Guatemala, and its largest department, and home to its second largest lake (after Izabal and ahead of Atitlan in size). I still yearn to get to Izabal and its lake, and Livingston, on the Atlantic coast. I hope to in March, along with more travel in the highlands (Xela, etc.).

But first, some correction on the school drop out rates. I think I gave you some wrong figures. Here is what they are. Ninety three percent of kids enter primary school and only 49% finish first grade. Only 37% get to sixth grade, only 15% finish the first two years of high school, and only 10% graduate from high school.

Yet the single most critical indicator of poverty is lack of a high school education. There is much work to be done in Guatemala . . . .

I have decided to stay in Nicaragua after my two week trip around Nicaragua with my friend Laure Dunne (we meet this coming Saturday eve in Managua, January 5), and after that, essentially on the 20th of January, I will begin working as a volunteer with Grupo Fenix, based in Managua, and in two connected villages up north near the border with Honduras, called Sabana Grande/Totogalpa. It has all of the elements of a fascinating project for me, with a director who appears to have her act completely together. THAT will be a breath of fresh air, for sure. (;~)

(I know I haven’t explained to many of you what happened with my work with Nahual and Ignacio Ochoa. And I am so tired of the whole thing that you may not ever hear! It is sad, but he just isn’t the person I thought he was. I found it too difficult to be around his office and him and just stopped working there. I can beat my head against a wall as long as anyone, and longer, but after a while, it starts to hurt, and I finally get it. He has some sort of godfather thing going there and really didn’t want organizational help, which is what I came here to do for him. It was too strange for me to hang around and watch, and feel like some sort of slave woman or something. There is a lot more to this, of course, but it really doesn’t matter).

ANYHOW, this Nicaragua project sounds pretty interesting, but at this point, I do not get my hopes up about anything, obviously. But, from what I can tell, it is something started by the “energy” of students of Susan Kinne’s at an engineering university in Managua, where she is the head of a renewable energy department/program. The project is part of a research project of the U, as well as an NGO, with loads of volunteers, and also a business, which seeks to train and employ, in the service of a sustainable, solar community, victims of the land mines which are so prevalent in this part of Nicaragua from the contra war sponsored by the U.S. against the Sandinista government of the 1980s. Apparently the north still has lots of mines . . . . talk about a coincidence of many of my interests . . . . employment for people missing limbs (combining my physical therapy background, with employment discrimination at the civil rights division of Justice), and a sustainable solar community, the area of renewable energy about which I am most nuts. Also, the area is home of some of the few indigenous people left in Nicaragua, which is an added attraction. More of these people later, when I learn more. At this point, I feel terribly ignorant of the project and of the area, not having gone north last year when I was in Nicaragua for such a short time. It all promises to be very educational and if I find any time between now and the time I arrive to meet Laure and go on our two week journey to research who these indigenous people are, I will let you know.

It is possible that I will spend a month in the country at Sabana Grande/Totogalpa, which is quite primitive, from what I understand (no ceilings, no inside water, no bathrooms or showers except perhaps an area outside and a cup to wash with), and then perhaps a month back in Managua. I really don’t know at this point.

No matter what, it seems guaranteed to make me appreciate the luxuries of Antigua, not to mention the U.S. My plan is to return to Antigua, where I will leave some things I don’t think I will need in Nicaragua, and return for Semana Santa (holy week), which is the most spectacular holiday here. I won’t forget to take pictures, like I did at the recent festival in a nearby pueblo on Day of the Devil.

Getting past my dreams of working with Ignacio and Nahual was tough, and took a lot of emotional energy during late November and December, but I still managed to do a few things . . . .

I became friends with a family around the corner because I have used Ingrid Vides, the 38 year old daughter of Amparo, as my Spanish teacher – although I switched to a husband/wife team that I ran into in a coffee shop who are great teachers (Ingrid could never tell me ahead of time if she would be working at her school or could teach me privately, which resulted in many lapses). Ingrid’s family has been great to me and I really needed them when I was most lonely and so they are more like just friends at this point. I am glad that I found Renee and Anna Maria, though, because they are great teachers. All of the private teachers have come to my house and that is really nice. It is less expensive than the schools to have a private teacher and focused work, tranquillo, etc. I really like the private teaching route. They make much more, too, than they would at school, so it is a win win and makes us all happy. Of my three months here, I have taken only about 6 or 7 weeks of school, and only 2-3 hours a day. I was just working too hard at first, and then it took a while to find Renee and Anna Maria . . . . and I have been traveling a lot in December. I hope that Nicaragua will require me to speak more Spanish and that will help.

Ingrid and her daughter Jennifer and I went to Ciudad Vieja, a pueblo near Antigua and the country’s first capital, on December 7, which is the day of the devil. I am really sorry I forgot my camera because it is so fun and the floats were amazing. There was float after float dealing with the conquistadors, and with death and the devil. The floats were incredibly intricate, with lots of live plants and trees, harvest items, beautiful children and great music. There were three different sets of people in costume in the street, dancing like blue blazes. One set was dressed up as grandmothers and grandfathers, in wonderful masks and costumes; another set with huge animal costumes also dancing like crazy in the hot sun. And then there was a group of folks dressed up as world leader and they were all dancing like crazy, too. It was pretty funny seeing Hillary and Bill dancing salsa in the streets of Ciudad Vieja. . . quite a great day. Because Ciudad Vieja was the first capital of the region of Guatemala, hence the conquistador theme of the floats. Then, I think that the sweeping and burning out of the devil was to prepare for Christmas. It is possible that it is the beginning of advent, it just occurred to me. Ciudad Vieja was destroyed under an eruption from Volcan Agua, a huge volcano towering over this pueblo and Antigua. It is even more impressive seeing it from the perspective of Ciudad Vieja than from Antigua, where it defines the southern landscape.

I worked a bit on Fred’s educational project after I left Nahual, but I spent more time hanging around with Alexis, learning to be a clown, and actually acted as a clown on a few occasions, the best of which was an all-day show we did for the families associated with Common Hope or as it is known here, Familias de Esperanza. It was to celebrate Day of the Canastas (baskets), which I need to look up for you, but it is a celebratory day near Christmas.

There are some 2,000 affiliated families at Common Hope, so we were clowning for a LOT of people. I found my inner clown that day, which for me was finding my improvisational comedic self, silent and physical (sight gags are important when one doesn’t speak the language that well!). I have put up a foto of all of us clowns at the end of the day (these were new clowns and their mentors). I didn’t need to go to the gym that day--we ran ourselves ragged. I loved it. This was December 18. Who knows. If I come back here next year, I may just become a real clown. Maybe do some improvisional clowning back home. There is a group that goes around the world doing this sort of thing in war wracked countries called Clowns without Borders. I think it is pretty exclusive, though, and wants very professional people and groups with well worked out programs. But anyhow, perhaps it will be a theatrical outlet, something that I have always thought I should have pursued in some fashion.

And also helping me through this time was a short trip to the Pacific ocean at Montericcho, which has the added attraction of an associated mangrove lake with an amazing variety of birds, which we went out at 5:30 in the am to see. The surf was so strong and huge that all we could do was get knocked down by it; we couldn’t really go in the water . . . it was too dangerous. We had $9 rooms, with a swimming pool, and swam there instead. It was hot and a bit humid, a fun change from Antigua, which is cold in the morning at this time of year, and also at night, although I like that, actually. But it was nice being hot. Reminded me of living in DC and I didn’t mind it at all. You just don’t go jumping up and down all day. Like, clowning there would be hard (;~). There is a turtle sanctuary there and for a small fee, during this time of the year, and to support the preservation work, they give you the darn cutest turtles ever and then you put them on the shore and watch them “race” to the ocean. It was sweet.

Then my friends Pat and Dorcas arrived for a two week stay until I leave for Nica, so things are busy right now. Last weekend we went to Lake Atitlan and stayed near the indigenous village of Santiago (del Atitlán). The hotel we stayed at had beautiful grounds and was just a short walk to Santiago, which is a hilly town and typical of indigenous villages. The most interesting aspect to me was the church (I didn’t take my camera, as the paths around the lake are notorious for robberies) and the fact that the town was the site of violence during the war, including the murder of an American priest from Oklahoma, who angered the military by not taking its advice and leaving the country. There is a memorial to him paid for by his family and his home parish in Oklahoma. We had to search a long time to find it, though, and it was supposed to contain also the names of other townspeople murdered and who disappeared during this time (the war was 36 years long, but the worst part was in the 1980s, and that is when much of the violence in Santiago del Atitlan occurred). But Santiago has in the past few years been assumed into a different diocese, and we learned that the new Catholic diocese thought it was best to take down the memorial to the dead and disappeared so that the townspeople “wouldn’t dwell on the past, but instead look to the future,” or some such. We also visited San Pedro, supposedly the hippie town, although on Christmas day we didn’t see any, and we boated past other villages and settlements around the lake in a lancha on our way back to Panajachel, the jumping off town at the lake where shuttles bring you from afar to the lake to get boats to the other villages around the lake.

By the time we three had determined to once again leave Antigua for Tikal and the Petén region of Guatemala, I was feeling very ready to leave Antigua. I was getting tired of people asking and expecting me to do things for them, the neighbors asking me for way too much money to buy the kids fireworks for Christmas (I have grown used to hearing them, but I am not at the point of financing them!), and the general expectation, which gets wearing, of some people not only not appreciating what you chose to give, but expecting more and more. This has happened unfortunately with those to whom I have given the most, the worst example being Ignacio, with the exception of Letty, the woman who has been so good to me and to whom in turn I try to be good. She is the woman who works at the hotel where I stayed in November of 2006 and when I first came back, before I found my apartment around the corner in our barrio, and is a very loving and generous person.

Re the fireworks, the day after I told Ignacio I would not finance the buying of cohetes (firecrackers and such, also known generally as pyrotécnicos), there was a huge explosion at the Antigua market from the ignition of one of the pyrotécnico venders (still don’t know why) which injured a few people and destroyed 45 some businesses in the market. It seemed timed to make my point. The people were very riled up, rumors were flying and there was some threat of violence by people who believed some negligence of the mayor with respect to electrical wiring or some such in the market was responsible. Apparently according to Ignacio, he had a hand in calming the police so they would shot at people out of nervousness.


ANYHOW, we just returned at 6 am today to Guate City from the Petén, a 9 hour bus ride all night long from Flores, having spent our last day up there in Remate, a place in the road we just fell in love with, that is half way between Flores and Tikal. Tikal was okay, but after Copán in Honduras, it was not all that interesting to me except for the wildlife. We saw lots of large spider monkeys, and heard the howlers, oh my, as we watched day break through the thick mist in the park. It is always misty in the morning at Tikal, but we had gone the day before in the afternoon, thankfully, and saw everything very clearly. My personal favorite was seeing two toucans, the most beautiful and fun bird imaginable in the wild. We also saw LOTS of parrots and heard even more. They make more noise, just two of them, than a barrel of monkeys. They are everywhere up north in the Petén. I had the pleasure of chatting with 3 of them at a bar in Remate. Hola! Adios! Daniel!

At our hotel inside the park at Tikal (we would stay in Remate next time and not at the park, which is too much money for terrible service and uneventful rooms), we saw the largest imaginable tarantula by the pool. There are a thousand eyes at night in the grass and grounds and everywhere in the Petén from this and other varieties of giant spiders. Fascinating. There are also wild cats, such as jaguars and cheetahs, but we never were lucky enough to spot one of those . . . . The Petén is home to the second largest lake in Guatemala, Lago de Petén Itzá, and we went past the first largest – lake Izabal—on the way up. We were sad that we were not stopping at lake Izabal and the Rio Dulce for a few days on the way up. I am going to make a point of going there when I return in March.

Back in town on the 2d of January, 2008, it is time to figure out what to leave here with friends for my return in March, what to take to Nicaragua, what to send home with Pat and Dorcas, and what to give away here (like the clown outfit and face paint, no doubt). I have just two short days to figure this all out now, and to say goodbye to some folks here . . . . I feel a tug at my heart about leaving here. Then of course I should read about places Laure and I hope to visit in Nica, how to get there, and what to pack just for the 2 week whirlwind tour around Nica before settling into project work there . . . . A lot to accomplish in two days.

So, next chapter will be Nicaragua and Grupo Fenix. I hope to send you a link to the project when I get to a wifi store and can look one up.
Here it is: http://www.grupofenix.org/

Until next time, LOVE,
K