Feliz Navidad

Yesterday I ate four tamales, drank a billion cups of black tea…and nothing else. You see, tamales are the traditional Christmas food in Guatemala. And for us, the real Christmas activities really begin on the 24^th. For my Christmas Eve day, I woke up leisurely at around 9:30, headed out to play a little basketball an hour later, and ended up meeting a bunch of people on the basketball court shortly thereafter. This happens about 80% of the time I go out to play, so I never really have to worry about finding a buddy to play with; I’m almost certain to find one on the court. We played a little basketball then other people showed up and the decided that soccer would be better. “Sta bueno”, it’s all good, I tell them, and we start playing “pappy-fút” (5 on 5 soccer on a basketball court). I think I like this version better because there’s a lot more ball control, passing, and general being-involved for everyone. When we play soccer on the big field I can go many minutes without handling the ball or really running at all. We all tired ourselves out around noon thirty and headed back to the houses to help finish the tamales.

I headed home, showered, and really did intend to help with tamale-making, but by then it was almost 2 and that’s when the championships of pappy-fút were happening. Every year the town has a Christmas tournament and on the 24^th they play the championship. The team with the majority of my friends was playing for 3^rd place, which they won, and later two other teams fought for 1^st place. There were only four teams in total. I took a couple photos, but it was so cold I didn’t really want to take my hands out of my pockets.

Photo 1: Octavio aka Xino (sheen-o), the goaly


Photo 2: Luis Lopez aka another Güicho, my neighbor


Photos 3 and 4: the court where we play every afternoon

I got back to my house at almost 5pm, accompanied by my friend Güicho Castro (see Photos: Some Friends pt 1) because he had asked to borrow my guitar to play for his church service later on. By the way, his team was the one that won first place. By that time all the tamales had been made and were waiting until 10pm at night to be cooked, and I was a little bored. I had also been starting to get sick the day before so I cooked up some tea and took my mug out to stand by the church. It’s not that I was all that eager to go to church, it’s just that there’s a big, flat area there therefore it’s a popular place to go and play. This is where I taught the children of my town how to play dodge-ball just a few weeks earlier.

I had been standing there about five minutes when my friend Yobani showed up, as he’s one of the very involved people with the church, and he asked me to keep an eye on his bag while he went to go get the key. Okay, I told him, and was soon met by handful of small children who live nearby. They started climbing on the monument, spinning around in circles, and trying to understand what I was talking about when I tried to explain the concept of being dizzy, without actually knowing the Spanish word. “You know, it’s like when you turn yourself around a bunch of times, maybe 20 or 30, but then you stop, but feel in your brain like you’re still moving and usually you fall down like a drunk person.” Yes, I said exactly that but still nobody could tell me the word for “dizzy” in Spanish (estar mareado/a is what I later looked up). I had also previously taught some of these small children how if they held to my hands really tight with their hands, I could make them fly around in little circles around me. They all love to do this, but I can only do it so many times without getting a little mareada myself, so I was pleased to see, after regaining normal sight after spinning my little neighbor Mario around that my friend Oscar had just arrived from Xela, about 6 hours away, so spend Christmas with his family.

I shooed away the little kids and talked with Oscar while waiting for Yobani to come back with the key. Yoba arrived and we walked back to my house, well, our houses really because he is my neighbor, and decided to meet up later after he had done some catching up with his family. At 6:30 or so I left the house to go to the church for a fun-filled evening of sitting down, doing nothing, and listening to awful music and people preaching in k’iche’. When I met up with my friend, we were both of the same mind to sit in church for a few minutes, be seen, and then head out to wander about. It was nice having somebody to really hang out with, not just have a couple minute conversation while passing in the street, or chatting on the sidelines of the basketball court while waiting to get a chance to play, but walking around with somebody for hours, making jokes, and feeling cared for. The only thing is, the town is so small we wandered the whole thing in a matter of a half an hour. So we repeated. And again. He kept saying how there’s so many “new” people in town, as in, people he doesn’t know or recognize because he’s been away studying and/or working for so long. I could relate because, although everyone here knows my name and always say “Katy, Katy, KATY” when I pass them on the streets, most of the time I don’t know there name, and even if I do recognize their face, I still don’t know where from.

At this time my cold had gotten worse so we went back to my house to have some tea and be in a little warmer place for a while, only to leave again to walk around. We did the same thing until midnight, when everybody started setting off firecrackers and fireworks, which is another Christmas tradition. When the danger zone cleared, we hung outside for a bit, deciding which house to visit first. Here, even though everybody makes tamales and almost everybody makes them just about the same, you invite people over to your house to eat tamales and have “poncha”, which is like punch, only it’s fruit cut up into tiny tiny pieces, thrown in a huge pot, and cooked and served hot. I can only guess they add pounds of sugar because, well, they add sugar to everything. I don’t really care much for this holiday drink, but I took it anyway. Oscar was invited to 10 different houses to have tamales and he invited me along. I only made it to one house, another neighbor, before getting too tired and cold to continue. We parted ways at about 1:30 in the morning and I fell right to sleep.

Christmas morning I woke up around 8 to go once again to the soccer field, only this time they were actually going to play on the large field. Nobody had started, so we head back to the house to relax and wait for the game. As I was leaving again for the soccer field I saw a few girl neighbors of mine putting on their PE shirts, so I asked if they were going to play and they invited me. We went back to the field together, watched they boys play, and finally got a game in ourselves. We play 30 minute halves and I got to play the whole time. It wasn’t as much fun as playing with the guys, but, it was fun being one of the better players for once. It’s also nice feeling the my-legs-are-so-sore-but-it-feels-soooooo-good feeling again.

At 2 in the afternoon the raffle started, for which I had bought one ticket so had about a 0.012 chance of winning anything. Oscar and I went down to sit by the church and wait for it to start, which took about 45 minutes instead of the promised “we will be starting the raffle in 20 minutes”. I’m so glad I had somebody who understood me when I laughed the third time Yobani said “only 10 seconds remain for the starting of the raffle, hurry up, buy your tickets now!” Then he started counting down, “vos Yoba, your seconds are so much longer than anybody elses!” Even though it was boring, at least I had somebody to laugh at. I mean with. I guess I mean both. A half hour later I was called up to be the person who draws the numbers out of the hat to chose the winner. I picked it, number 956 I believe, and when the little girl came up to claim her prize (an apron), I was then handed the microphone. “Katy, would you like to say a few words to the winner of this prize?” “Um, no” I replied. Nobody thought it was funny. “What do you want me to say?” I asked and someone it the crowd shouted “Feliz Navidad!” So that’s what I said and ran back to my seat.

That more or less ended the Christmas festivities. We all returned to our houses, ate more tamales, I had a lot more tea, and had a restful end of the evening. I headed outside a few hours later and saw Oscar’s younger brother Luis playing guitar (same as pictured above), so I invited him up and we played a little together, only he doesn’t know very good the songs he has written down in his binder and he’s terrible at keeping time so it was hard to follow along. We decided after a half hour or so that the fingers were much too frozen to play anymore and called it a night. Sleep happened early because of the lack of sleep the previous night, and there ended my Christmas! Oh yeah, gift-giving isn’t really big here, but I did print out a bunch of photos for my family, neighbors, and close friends.

Still working on snapping more photos of my friends here so you all can put names to faces. Will come within the next week or so.

Last Night's Dream

Friday 12.17.10

I was on a big green microbus with a friend headed to see a large woman about something she had borrowed from the friend’s boss. I can only say my friend because the only thing I remember about her was that she was a young woman about my age, nothing more. No name, no distinct physical features or mannerisms, just that she was incredibly shy and timid: this is why I needed to go with her. She was very scared of this other lady we were going to see and with good reason. We were supposed to pick up something they called “The Crown”, which is a wig not made out of hairs but out of hundreds of strings of vibrantly colored beads. It was truly beautiful. Not exactly my style to wear but it was the most colorful and delicate piece of work I’ve seen in a long time.

The friend and I entered the room where the large woman was sitting and started to ask “well, you see, you borrowed something a long time ago and, it belongs to somebody else, and, he would like it back, as, well, it really belongs to him, so, please, we’ve come to pick up The Crown.” The woman pondered for a few seconds and replied, “no. This belongs to me. I did not borrow this from anybody.” My timid friend was about to take that as her final answer and leave, but I pressed on, “prove it then” I told her. It was clear in her way of holding herself and manner of speech that this woman was used to being respected, used to getting things exactly her way, and not used to anybody questioning her, which was probably why my friend was so scared of her and so ready to leave without obtaining what we had come for.

After much more conversation, she gave me directions to her file cabinet on where to find the paperwork for The Crown. She then actually took me there, opened the cabinet (which was actually practically empty, with only a few old and ragged manila folders which had been renamed many times with tapes of various colors on their tabs), and sorted around for a little while looking for the paperwork. She finally found it in the bottom drawer in a manila folder in the very back, and brought me out two or three sheets of paper stapled together. The papers were a license to collect gems, dated for December 5-6^th. Somehow I knew that today was December 6^th so I started to question her.

“So, you mean to tell me, that you went out and collected all the stones in this Crown yesterday and today?” “Yes” she replied. “And you had sufficient time to clean them, punch all the holes in them, and string them on this wig?” “Well, of course I had a team, the work went very fast” she answered. I began verifying that the license was for a team of persons and not just one, then I asked her to see The Crown. She was very hesitant but finally handed it over so I could look at it. It was sitting on a table with a bunch of other artisan crafts, necklaces and bracelets with little wooded carvings in the shapes of different animals mostly deer and moose and other large game animals. There were also cookies in the shape of deer and turtles and other animals, and they were very big. I started rummaging through all the goods on the table looking for clues, while the large imposing woman watched me as if I were going to steal something. I picked up a bracelet and she snatched it away from me. She really did think I was going to steal it.

We didn’t end up getting The Crown, and the ending to the story is a little unclear, but apparently we were the ones who brought the cookies, maybe as a peace offering? Anyway, we decided to take the cookies back with us but as we went to collect them from the table somebody had put each one (about 6 in total) in an small individual white plastic bag.

**Now, to many of you this may not be funny, but to anybody who’s lived in Guatemala for as long as I have you’re used to saying many times a day “pero…no necesito la bolsa”. I don’t need that in a bag, thanks. Guatemalans put everything in plastic bags. I’ll go to the store to buy two eggs and they’ll put them in a bag. I’ll buy a can of soda or juice and they’ll put it in a bag. I’ll buy a banana and they’ll want to put it in a bag.**(not part of the dream)

When I saw that some mystery person and come along and bagged up my cookies, I got really heated. I started running around screaming (in English) “WHO put this in a bag? WHOOO!?” I ran up and down the streets looking for the perpetrator but could not find this strange bag-person. So, we left without The Crown but with our cookies, now neatly packaged in their own individual white plastic bags.

THE END

Photos: Some Friends - part 1

I'm going to introduce you to a few of the better friends I've made in the past couple months. A bunch of young people came back home after studying farther away in September/October/November so I've had some more friends to hang out with. This is part one because I still don't have photos for everybody.

1) Gaspar aka Kax (caash), 17 yrs
First and foremost my basketball buddy. He plays soccer well also, but doesn't like it as much as basketball so he's always up to play with me. If he was another half a foot taller he'd be able to beat me no problem, but, as he is probably 5ft or shorter he doesn't have a chance. Second, I think he has one of the most genuine and friendly smiles I have ever seen in my life. This coming year he'll be in his last year of diversificado (like high school, but only three years and you have to pick a topic of study). He chose magisterio (training to become a teacher) and he studies at the institute where I work. Once he came into my office as I was reviewing some pictures and told me he wanted to learn how to use my camera, so, little by little I've been teaching him what the different buttons mean, what aperture and shutter speed and focal length are and he seems to be picking it up pretty well. Hopefully someday soon I'll actually be able to show you guys some photos with me in them!




2) Luis Castro aka Güicho (whitch-0), 18 yrs
The son of one of my counterparts, he just finished his diversificado in agriculture studying in a department called Quetzaltenango, but most commonly refered to as Xela (sheyla). He returned home in October after graduating and is looking for work in the Aldea, possibly as a teacher at the school in subjects of agriculture. He plays guitar, bass, and keyboard and we've played together a few times, even though he's a little shy about playing in public. He wants to learn how to read sheet music so I'm going to try and teach him when our schedules mesh better. He also plays soccer really well.



3) José Itzep aka Chapa, 17 yrs
A nephew of the family a live with, he also finished his diversificado this past October in architectural design, studying in a town called Chichicastenango in my department of Quiche. He and Luis Castro are neighbors and good friends, so I often run into them together. He and his brother Jorge Luis (next) are also guitar buddies. When we were playing soccer a couple weeks ago I had possession of the ball and Chapa was defending me, I dribbled up court a little, looked around for open team-mates and upon finding none, tried to drive right past him. I knew this was hopeless because I've seen how he plays, but, with no better ideas I just went at it. To his surprise more than mine, I shot the ball right between his legs and advanced myself to a nearly open shot on goal. ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL our friends and EVERYBODY on the sidelines started laughing uncontrollably. They couldn't believe that he got beat by a girl. By a girl that sucks at soccer no less. I'm building my credibility slowly.



4) Luis Itzep, also Güicho, 15 yrs
Chapa's little brother, he just finished his Basico education (middle school) at the institute where I work and is going to study in Xela or Chichi, can't really remember, starting in January. This family has the largest store available in my town, and it's also somewhat indoors with a bench. If I have nothing to do I head over there, about a 4 minute walk from my house, to chat with one of the kids (There's 7 from age 22 to age 4) or see who else is there. Luis is also a good friend and cousin of my host sister Selena so he's at our house a lot.



Part 2 to come when some other friends return within the next week and I can snap some more photos.