Chapines, tortillas y frijoles

I woke up this morning feeling a little funny. Not funny-sick like always. Funny because I really have some serious mixed feelings about my departure, in almost exactly one week.

This internship was not the easiest thing I have ever done in my life. In fact, it was a lot harder than I thought, for various different reasons. From frequent food poisoning to relationship ''issues'' to the lack of directions, I have to admit that I had kind of given up the idea of getting extremely involved like I was planning on doing before I arrived in Guatemala. Sadly, I am a very easily influenced individual and have been contaminated with bad energies since the very beginning. I have tried to fight back but at some point I had to give up.

The last few weeks have been different, though. But it's always like this. I know that my time here has come to an end. I love, love, LOVE Guatemala. Todos Santos Cuchumatan is probably one of my favorite places on this earth. So in the last few weeks, I got to know a lot of people that I wish I had known before. First of all, Don Natalio, the director of IMDI (Instituto Mam de Desarrollo Integral) who I got to know more when we did our road trip to Comitancillo. I met the literacy promoters in Todos Santos (Juan Pablo, Estela, Benita) that I had never met before since I was not involved in this program (I really should have, what was I THINKING?) and they are all great. I spent more time with Don Pedro, my Todos Santos supervisor. We went to communities together because I had to carry out the final literacy evaluations, and OH my God what a funny man. I had not laughed that much for a long long time. I also met Santos, a guy who used to work for CAUSE as well, because he helped me with the evaluations. SUCH a nice guy!!! I really wish I had met him a long time ago. I met all literacy participants and I was impressed with their ability to read. Most of them could do it almost perfectly, which totally changed my opinion about the literacy program. Actually, being in Todos Santos changed my opinion about the whole program. Now I can really understand what it's all about. Small changes that will make a difference in the long run.

Last Thursday we went to San Joaquin, a beautiful community, for the evaluations. When we got there, we still had not had lunch. I was ready to digest my own stomach. I don't know what happened or how it happened, but 5 minutes later, a woman arrived with a big pot of caldo de pollo (soup with big chunks of potatoes, pasta, cilantro and a piece of chicken) and a huge pile of tortillas. I was scared after my 2 week food poisonning but it was delicious and fortunately this time I did not get sick at all. These women always seem to have a pot of fresh food ready in case of an emergency, I just don't understand.

Two months ago I thought I would not miss Guatemala. Now I changed my mind. I made some friends, not like REALLY close friends, but people that I will miss. Lazaro, probably my closest friend here, a man who works at my house (cutting grass with a machete, taking care of the corn field, the plants, cleaning the house...). We spent a lot of evenings chatting about anything and everything, over hot chocolate and sweet bread. Miguel, a guy who owns a pharmacy and who went to study in France for a few years. He is so smart and taught me so many things about the Mam culture and socio-political issues. My lovely neighbors, and all the kids that become ecstatic when I walk by their house with my dog. And all the friendly strangers telling me Buenos Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiias! when I meet them on the road.

I have 4 days left before I leave Todos Santos and still A LOT to do. Finish the literacy evaluations (3 more groups), one CIDA report, one transition report for next year's intern, pack my stuff, pack the other intern's stuff (who went back to Canada 1.5 month ago), say goodbye to everyone... Will I make it? Of course I will.

A few days ago, the closing ceremonies of the WIEP (Women’s integral empowerment program) of CAUSE Canada took place in the community room, where most events take place. We spent a few hours the night before sticking letters on the wall behind the stage and decorating the room with balloons. I kind of knew what to expect because I had read last year’s interns blog posts about the ceremonies. The only thing I didn’t know was if they were going to make me do a speech or not. Honestly, I was really hoping not. I had prepared a little something, just in case, because here, you NEVER know. The IMDI, CONALFA and CAUSE staff (all related to the program in some way) were sitting at the back of the stage, which kind of sucked because we couldn’t really see well the people talking and performing on stage.

All program participants had prepared a little activity that they did on stage. Many of them danced to the music of the marimba group, which was really neat. Some of them sang, others did funny contests, and one group did a demonstration of the stages of making thread from natural cotton. Unfortunately, 95% of the event was in Mam, the local indigenous language, so I could not understand a thing.

Many of the groups had brought food for the staff, so every 15 minutes we would get fed. That’s so incredibly nice of them, but Jesus, at some point I absolutely could not fit anything else in my stomach, and I still had a corn on the cob and a HUGE bowl of atol in my hands. Atol is this VERY thick corn and squash drink, full of sugar, and I knew I would be sick if I had one more sip. The staff from Comitancillo sitting next to me was in the same situation so I did not feel SO bad when we put the corn in a plastic bag that we would bring home. I felt REALLY bad though when the woman who had given me the gigantic bowl of atol told me, you don’t want it? I explained that it was delicious but I was just so full, but I think she was a little bit upset. AHHH, I’m SO SORRY! The other thing is, I have an annoyingly week stomach with Guatemalan food that is not prepared in 100% hygienic conditions. When I arrived in Guatemala I tried eating street food or bus food on various occasions, which almost always resulted in me being very sick. So I kind of stopped. I would still risk it once in a while. Sometimes I was fine, sometimes not. But this time, at the closing ceremonies, I had no choice, I couldn’t refuse. I tried not to think about the possible consequences.

Then, we distributed the diplomas to every group. Women seemed very happy and proud of themselves. Then, some came on stage to give us thank you presents. I got so many things, I was so happy! But I really feel like the small contribution I have made, if any, doesn’t deserve all those gifts. I got 3 handmade bags, 2 of them are embroidered and probably took about a full week to make! I also got a beautiful piece of fabric from a community named San Joaquin, and I got a big bag of sheca, which is sweet bread.

After, more marimba and more dancing, and I could not escape. Yes, I had to dance marimba on the stage in front of around 200 people, but by that point I didn’t really care because a lot of people that were way worst than I am had danced before me! I could see some guys from IMDI giggling and filming me with their cell phone. Haaaahaha…

And then, the participants lined-up at the back of the room because it was lunch time! Some women had prepared chicken, rice, tortillas and hot chili sauce for everyone. I was still so full from all the morning food so I decided I wasn’t going to eat anything. I took pictures with a lot of random people, I think indigenous people like having pictures taken with gringos!
Until, of course, a woman came and put a plate in front of me and said, EAT!

4 days later, I am still stomach sick. I KNEW IT!

But still, it was a very nice day!

As the one month countdown has started, I am realizing a little bit more every day how much I love Todos Santos.
The last week has been very eventful, I don’t even know where to start. First of all, I have been living on my own in a house for over 3 months, 10 minutes away from the center. I love my place, but I have to admit that I often get very lonely. I’m used to living on my own in Canada but when you’re so far away from home, it’s not the same. The huge festivities (Dia de los Muertos) of the last few days have brought a lot of tourists in the village, which means that the other rooms of my house were occupied. At first it felt so strange, after being so quiet, there were suddenly people everywhere! But I got used to it very quickly and really enjoyed it. I met great people from many different countries and made great contacts!

Also, being with tourists made me rediscover the beauty of Todos Santos and made me realize how special this place was. We walked around a lot, met so many different locals from the village and other communities, had great conversations with them about many different issues and once again I learned so much. They are such hard working, courageous, humble and warm people, and most of them have such difficult lives! I get so angry when I hear some of their stories and I am always wondering how I could keep on helping them when I leave. It’s too easy to go back home and go on with my life like nothing was happening here. The injustice of this world is just unbelievable.

All Saints’ Day’s festivities were fantastic. On the first day, there were horse races all day. Costumed men were galloping from one end of the road to the other in front of crowds of people, struggling not to fall off their horse because they were all so drunk. Obviously many of them fell off but I didn’t see anyone get really hurt. The more the day went by, the more drunk men passed out on the street. Alcoholism is a severe issue here that nobody is dealing with at the moment. Also, there was music on the street, food vendors, tombola, and so many people. Because everyone is wearing the traditional clothes, it was a visual delight.

The next morning, all the festivities were taking place in the cemetery. Families were visiting their dead relatives and leaving flowers, candles and other decorations in front of their gravestones. Some people were also doing offerings (burning candles, bread, bottles of Coca Cola, etc) to commemorate their dead. But the most special part of it was the numerous bands or marimba playing music in the cemetery and the costumed men dancing and drinking! The contradiction of the scene of a woman wailing for her dead son next to a group of 4 drunken men dancing was very interesting.

Today, a Spanish girl that I had met in the village and I woke up at 5AM because we wanted to go to La Torre, the highest non-volcanic point of Central America (3828m). We took a bus to La Ventoza and from there we started walking up. We met a shepherd named Marcelino who was also going up there with his sheep so we ended up walking with him and chatting. I was talking, not paying too much attention to the road. When we arrived at the summit, it was so foggy that we could see absolutely nothing. No view, no volcano, nada. How disappointing! Marcelino made us a fire in a rock shack and Sandra started meditating while I was just trying to warm up. We stayed there for a while until the sky cleared up and we could finally see a beautiful view. Unfortunately it was still a little bit cloudy and we couldn’t see any of the volcanoes, but it was still worth it.

I know (everybody knows) that I have so sense of directions whatsoever, so I knew I could never go back down without getting lost. Sandra seemed pretty ok with it so we went, without worrying too much. Soon enough we got lost. When I say lost, I mean totally lost. There was nothing in sight, we had absolutely no idea where we were, we couldn’t find our way back up because everything around us looked exactly the same (trees, rocks, grass, dirt). There was kind of a dirt path so I thought, well, if we follow it, it HAS to lead somewhere, wherever it is, as long as we find ONE person. I was totally discouraged, there was no way we would find our way back without any help. I was picturing us sleeping in the mountains, with 300ml of water left, a mandarin and 4 cookies. What a disaster! A while later, Sandra tells me to shut up. Beeeeehhhhh. Sheep! Technically, if there were sheep, there was at least one human being somewhere not too far way. HAY ALGUIENNNNNNNNNN??? (Is anybody there?) screamed Sandra with as loud as she could. And then we heard a kid yelling something. WE WERE SAVED! We screamed back and forth until we saw the kid in the distance sitting on a rock. He showed us the way and we realized how lost we really were. We probably would have got there eventually, we just don’t know how long it would have taken.

I honestly thought we would have to spend the night in the mountains. Before leaving we were even joking about tourists who had got lost before, and we ended up doing exactly the same. They had a good reason, there was a lot of fog and they couldn’t see where they were going. We were just plain disoriented. This made me realize how dumb I had been in the past, going trekking for days and days on my own. Awful idea. Never again.

Every year, the Guatemala and Honduras interns have the amazing opportunity to visit one another and spend a few days getting to know the program in the other country. Ali and Shannon, the Honduras interns, came to Guatemala last July, so it was now our turn to visit them in Ciriboya. I absolutely loved it.

After an interesting meeting at the Guatemalan embassy in Guatemala city, where Mafe and I got to discuss with the new Canadian ambassador (and invite him to the closing ceremonies of the program in November!), we took a bus to La Ceiba. We spent one day in the city, mainly running errands, before heading the next morning to the field with Elmer, the Honduras country director. After another 6 hours on the road, I was more than happy to finally make it to Ciriboya. The first thing that struck me was the incredible beauty of the place. Ciriboya is by the ocean. There is a very long white deserted beach, lined with palm trees. Horses (my favorite animal!) are wandering everywhere. I was stunned! Ciriboya is a lot less developed than Comitancillo or Todos Santos. There are a few tiny stores here and there with basic supplies, and that’s about it. Now I understand more why Ali and Shannon were saying Comitancillo was “urban”!

We visited a community and attended a leadership class. To get there, we first drove for about 30 minutes on a dirt road, and then we had to take a small boat for another 30 minutes. I felt exactly like I was in the middle of the Amazon: a brown river bordered with tropical vegetation, the sound of exotic wildlife… The purpose of the class was to discuss the community project they were going to do as a part of the program. I found the women very engaged, energetic and warm. Some of them were joking around and they were so funny they made me cry of laughter! The Garifuna culture is totally distinct from the Maya culture and it was extremely interesting to see the various differences.

The following morning, we got up at 5:00 AM and went with the interns’ neighbors to the yucca field. It was raining cats and dogs but this was nothing to stop these strong women to cut the plants with a machete and dig up the roots (yucca) from the ground. By the time they had finished, they were covered in mud but it didn’t seem to bother them at all! The product that they make with the yucca is called cassava, and this is their main source of income. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to witness the whole cassava making process, but they explained it to us it really sounds like hard labor! Then, we hiked through the “jungle”, crossed a river barefoot (I had forgotten my rain boots…) and encouraged the same women who were trying to pick grapefruits from huge trees, using a very long stick. It was so much fun!

I knew that the life of Garifuna women (and of the interns working in Ciriboya) would be distinct from the life in Guatemala but I was surprised of how different everything was. I am so glad I got to experience a little bit of Honduras and it opened my eyes to a new fascinating culture and reality.

We left 3 days ago from Todos Santos, at 6am. Getting up when it's pitch black and cold is always a little difficult for me. And this time, I had to leave my puppy Loba alone on the porch, and the poor little thing was crying and screaming when she saw me leaving and I just wanted to take her with me but I unfortunately could not! Ay ay ay.

So we took a chicken bus to Huehuetenango (2 hours) , and from there we took another one to Xela (2 hours). Once we got there, we went straight to Walmart with our big luggage that we left in the bag deposit at the entrance. Yes, Walmart. When you are isolated from pretty much everything, anything big or abundant or busy suddenly become so appealing. I did not buy anything but just strolling in the alleys was so entertaining! Haha, how weird.

Then, we met my boss who drove us to Antigua (4 hours). That was a looot of driving in a day! We were pretty exhausted. We went to eat pizza which was not amazing but hey! Pizza. I can't complain too much after my Todos Santos extremely sad diet of sweet bread, bananas, eggs and cans of refried beans.

Next morning, we had to get up early again because we had a metting at the Canadian embassy. I was a bit worried because I didn't really know what to expect. We were wearing the cleanest clothes that we had _ jeans and shirt_ and we were soooo embarassed when we saw that almost all men were wearing suits. Ohhhh noooooo I wanted to disappear. But then I realized that some people were not so dressed up so it wasn't so bad. Whew.

I was so tired again from God knows what that I had a hard time to follow what they were talking about. Everyone had to introduce themselves and say what NGO they represented. I was so nervous because I wanted to speak with my best Spanish, but I think I did pretty well, haha. Then there were 3 presentations on various subjects, and at last one of the presentator started talking about politics and this was the most interesting part. The new Canadian ambassador was there too. When the meeting was over, people went at the back of the room to eat cheese, grapes and croissants and drink coffee. I didn't have anything because I felt kind of nervous for some reason. I'm not used anymore to serious meetings like this! My fellow intern and I started talking with the ambassador, he was extremely nice and friendly and I felt a special connection because he had a French Canadian accent, heheh. And then when he said that they needed people like us two to work for the government, I was like.... Well just HIRE ME then!!! Well I didn't really say that, you know. And we invited him to the closure ceremonies of the WIEP program of CAUSE Canada in November, he said he was really interested and that he would try to come, which would be so cool!!

After that we went back to Antigua and I just walked around a little and went to eat raspberry frozen yogurt in the central park. How pleasant.

Next morning, 3:30 AM we were up. Can I PLEASE sleep in??? At 4:00 AM on the dot a shuttle came to pick us up at our hotel. We drove to Copan, Honduras (6:30 hours) and I was so tired but could not sleep because the shuttle was packed. It was physically painful, I just wanted to SLEEP, I had a huge headache!!! When we finally arrived in Copan I was so exhausted. We got a room in the first hotel that we saw, not a great one I have to say. I really wanted to go out and explore but I could not move!!! Of course I was not able to sleep. So I took some pills and went out for a little exploration. The town is beautiful, it reminds me of Antigua but it's way smaller, way hotter, way greener. Nice. But I'm disappointed because I did not enjoy it that much because of the state I was in. Tomorrow I'm going to the Mayan ruins which are apparently gorgeous, and after that I'll explore some more. And probably buy a few souvenirs, there are so many beautiful things!!

So far I find people here very unfriendly compared to Guatemalans, and I remember thinking the same when I was on Roatan. You enter the shops and people don't even acknowledge your presence. I'm like, Hola, buenas tardes, muchas gracias, but it's like I was talking to a wall, they don't even look at me or anything. Maybe I'm just unlucky. I've been here for 10 hours, I'll give them a chance :P

What a descriptive blog post. Hmm. Weird. I'm posting it anyway.

Next: Copan - La Ceiba - Ciriboya - Utila - La Ceiba - Antigua - Xela - Huehuetenango - Todos Santos. WHEW!