Last week in Xela and Moving On….
Hi All,
My last week in Xela was bittersweet, as I started to feel excited to see new places, but at the same time, felt nervous about ¨moving on¨from a place that had started to feel like home. I had wonderful goodbye parties with the students and staff at the hospital and from the staff and kids at Nuevos Horizontes.. Both parties were nice surprises. The kids at NH sang songs and then the bigger kids all took turns saying personal thank yous to me.. very sweet. One of the little kids, David, had to get his 2 cents in as well, but all he could say was ¨Gracias, y feliz noche¨.. (good night!). it was pretty funny. I know they probably do the same routine for volunteers often, but i still felt special for that day. It made me sad to think about not seeing all of them and i also felt very pensive thinking of what will happen with each of them in the next 5 or 10 years.
In my last week i stayed busy playing soccer, seeing my friend Rachels jazz band, Soltura, play and going to a Salsa show/competition. I also got to see the infamous student protest parade, which was certainly the scariest parade ive seen. First i was told in past years it was very serious political protest, but now, though that sentiment is still evident, im also told that it is a big excuse to party and get drunk all day. The students dress in long robes and hoods (ala the KKK, im not kidding) and march through the streets every weekend for several weeks leading up to the culminating parade, collecting money for ¨projects¨(which some critics say is really beer money). They collect money from businesses and those that refuse are (not so) surprised to find their place of business grafitti-ed the next day with black paint and sometimes worse. The parade itself was scary for me, as my friend Mario had to tell me that the hooded students especially look for Gringos (as) to drag out into the street.. niiice. Watching the parade from the assumed safety of one of his relatives houses, we (me and the other girls there) ran into the house every time one of the hooded ones would so much as look our way!.. the girls they did manage to drag to the street had to jump rope or other silly things. I was just hoping for some candy thrown from Fire Trucks like the old Juneau 4th of July parade days! darn.
I left Xela for Antigua on April 12th. This was the week of Semana Santa (or Holy Week) and Antigua is said to be one of the best (if not THE best) places to be in Latin America for SS. It did not disappoint! I met my friend Gabriella there as well as her friend Tierra. Antigua is a stark contrast to Xela and if one were to only visit Antigua on a trip to Guatemala it would not give a very complete picture. It is clean, rich, you can hear english spoken everywhere, either from tourists who dont speak a word of spanish or from the shop owners or waiters. The city itself is absolutely beautiful, with colonial architecture, old church ruins and cobblestone streets throughout the city. The contrast of poverty with wealth here definetly felt more pronounced than in Xela. You could see a woman and her kids digging through the trash and then see some rich kids drive by in their BMW. I definetly would not have wanted to stay here longer than a few days, but could see why the relative comfort of the place causes Gringos to stay, and stay and stay..
Semana Santa is a serious celebration! WOW. Daily processions leading up to Easter sunday (Dia de la Resurrecion), each day the dress of the people and the floats (ok, i dont really know what the word is for this in spanish, im sure its not ¨floats¨) representing the events that occured with jesus on the corresponding days. The processions sometimes last hours, working their way through the streets, and you could usually find one at any time of the day or night. The streets during the processions would be filled with the music of flutes, horns and drums, as well as so much incense that though the smells were wonderful, it was sometimes hard to breathe or see! The huge ¨floats¨were carried by up to 50 men or women for one block at which time they would switch out with another group, VERY carefully!! It looked so heavy, but obviously this is the point, to represent the burden of Christ. Another feature of Semana Santa are the Alfombras, brightly colored and elaborate ¨carpets¨in the street, one type made from colored saw dust and another from flowers and plants. The alfombras would take HOURS to make and would be made together by families, church groups, other groups of people etc. The lined many of the streets. At the end of some processions (though i couldnt quite figure out which ones??) the alfombras would be walked over, all those hours of work being erased in a few seconds. Quite beautiful. We got to witness the alfombras being made and walked around the streets Friday morning at 3am to see all of them before the friday processions began.
Though SS was an excellent experience, I was actually sick with a fairly bad cold the entire time I was in Antigua, so i literally had to drag myself out of bed to attend some of the festivities.. Definetly wish id had more energy!! I was a bit worried that i might have bronchitis, so i decided saturday before Easter to go to the Private hospital to be seen by a doctor. Interested experience! Much more expensive than i expected (still much less than home!).. The doctor basically asked about my symptoms, listening to my lungs and looked at my throat. Then said that my lungs were okay but that i did have an infection in my throat. I should take antibiotics he said, for 5 days.. then once we were downstairs at the ¨pharmacy¨he realized they only had 4 days worth and decided that was okay.. Hmmm….. Gabriella and I had no idea how much any of this should cost so I was at the mercy of their decision on that. It was a little strange.. but i was grateful that he thought my lungs sounded okay! I ended up finding a generic brand of the same antibiotic at the pharmacy down the street so i could buy the extra day that i needed!! Its interesting, in Guatemala you are hard pressed to find Tampons or contact solution, but you can go to a pharmacy without prescription and ask for antibiotics of any sort! Interesting!!
I left Antigua on Easter Sunday for 5 hour trip to Coban, via Guatemala City. Coban is a quiet town, which appears from the map to be about 70 km from Guate, though it took nearly 4 hours to get there by bus. I met a nice man on the bus, who gave me alot of suggestions of things to see and do in Coban. It was nice to feel the warmer air (Coban is only 1300m, vs. 2330m in Xela).
My exit from Antigua really felt like the start of this journey in some ways.. as i had become very secure and comfortable in Xela and then meeting my friends in Antigua. It is strange to have that feeling you usually only have at the beginning of a journey, since ive been away from home 2 months already! While i feel a little homesick (both for Seattle and for Xela!!), I also feel excited and challenged by taking this next step.
Im staying in a wonderful hostel in Coban which has a beautiful garden restauant. I have met some nice roommates, made friends with all the waiters, and started to feel recuperated from my cold!! Today after I finally get off this computer (i apologize, btw, for no pictures to go along with this post, the computer in this cafe is WAY too slow to load photos now!), i will hike up to a church in the hills to see a view of the town, visit a working coffee farm, and figure out how to move on tomorrow.. Likely, ill be heading to a town called Lanquin and then to an area called Semuc Champey, where there is a stepped series of pools near a river, suppose to be beautiful and great for swimming. The plan is to head to Tikal (very northen part of Guatemala) by the end of the week..
Thanks for your patience with the pictures. I will try to get some up soon!!!!
Take care All!
love, jennie
4 comments Posted by jennie on April 17th, 2006