La Tormenta

Greetings from now-lovely Antigua!

It has been quite the weekend. When I found out about the eruption of Pacaya on Friday morning, I feared I wouldn't be able to get into Antigua since the roads from Antigua into Guatemala were bad. But the tour agency assured me they were monitoring the situation and believed it was safe. So at 3pm on Friday, I was picked up and soon learned it was a full shuttle. There were 11 of us, plus the driver, crammed into a small, 4 bench Toyota van. All the other travelers were heading into Antigua in order to try to catch a bus to El Salvador, where the international flights were being diverted since the airport in Guat City was closed due to Pacaya.

I rode next to a very kind guy named Nathan, who had been volunteering in Xela for the past three months. Behind us were a hippie couple, complete with their ukelele, which I feared they would play during the whole trip. The couple in front of me had a laptop and DVDs of "Big Love" and "Entourage." They had Spanish subtitles turned on, so while were were careening through the mountains in the pouring rain, whizzing past tiny pueblos and mountain shacks, I watched HBO programming.

It poured rain the whole trip, and no one wanted their gear on the roof, even if it was tarped up. BUt since the shuttle was full, there was nowhere else for it to go. I had packed light, and had only a daypack with me, so my stuff remained dry in my lap. Yay. The last two members of our group to be picked up were two older women. One of them, a plump lady in her mid 60s, demanded the passenger seat from the guy who was in it. He refused, citing he got carsick and she said that she got sick as well, was a woman, and was older than him, and therefore she deserved the seat more than him. He wouldn't budge and they got into a heated argument in the rain, at the end of which she called him the P word, which made the rest of us crack up. She didn't win the fight, and ended up riding on the middle jump seat of the front row, in between him and the driver.

We rolled into the Tig around 6pm, and the rain was coming down really hard. Nathan, my shuttle buddy, decided to stay at the same hostel as Ali had booked for us, which turned out to be good because the guy who checked us in didn't speak any English and Nathan was able to translate for me. We expected MRM to be there, but she wasn't when I arrived, and for some reason my phone, which should have had over 100 minutes on it, was not making outgoing calls. So Nathan and I set out to find the internet, because I needed to reach MRM and he needed to try to get a bus ride to El Salvador. We tried to reload my phone 4 times, but each time it wouldn't take, even though the minutes were going "somewhere" and I still was charged for them.

Right before we left to find the internet, I realized I needed tampons, too. And I had left a huge sack of them in Xela thinking I didn't need them :( Problem was, I had no idea how to say tampons in Spanish, and the rain was coming down so hard it was painful to walk under, so I leveled with Nathan and explained my situation, and he luckily knew the word in Spanish and was so kind, running with me from tienda to tienda looking for them and translating for me. We finally found them at a 24 hour farmacia a few blocks from the hostel.

We got in touch with MRM and headed to a bar for drinks and food because everyone was kind of having a crap day, what with the volcano eruption and the weather and no one being able to get where they needed to go, and also MRM discovered on Friday that someone with access to her homestay relieved her of $300 bucks. So a drink was in order, even if we did arrive looking like a pack of drowned cats.

On Saturday, we reconvened at Cafe Barista which is a coffee shop on the corner at the Parque Central that MRM and I have nicknamed "Coffee, Coffeemaker." MRM's roommate Robin came, who I was so very happy to see. She is a missionary who was supposed to head to Honduras yesterday, but between Pacaya and Agatha, she isn't going anywhere soon, which has been a really frustrating and anticlimatic end to her three months here. Ali had left the hostel earlier to try to work out her Cuban travel visa, and Nathan had left that morning for El Salvador to try to make it home for his sister's graduation, so it was just me and MRM and Robin and MRM's friend Elisa at Coffee, Coffeemaker.

We ended up waiting for Ali for several hours, but she never showed up. At this point, the streets were beginning to flood in places, and the rain just came and came and came. We had no desire to head out into it again, but were sick of being at Coffee Coffeemaker, so we moved to MRM's homestay to regroup.

Regrouping consisted of laying in bed and watching several episodes of "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" while the water kept rising. At certain points the rain was coming down so hard we had to pause the DVD because we could no longer hear the dialogue. The rain also came at a 90 degree angle on several occasions, just plinging straight against the window while the wind, literally, howled outside. And speaking of howling... MRM has a witch who lives next door. We think. There we were, minding our own business, when this shrieking starts that is half Spanish, half something I have never heard. I gave MRM a "what the..." look and she exclaimed, "It's the witch! She does this all the time." So we slipped into our rain jackets and crept out onto the balcony to look over into the mini shantytown next door. I couldn't really see the woman but she kept yelling and cursing in this horrible, creepy way. While on the balcony we discovered that half the shantytown was completely under several feet of water, and some of the habitations, which had been constructed out of cardboard, had been abandoned. Soon, we realized it was because the roof of MRM's homestay was totally flooded, and the spiggot drained right into the shantytown cardboard house's "yard."

Because the roof was flooded, MRM had a leak that was dripping on her bed. So we moved her bed, and soon, two new leaks were dripping onto the bed's newest location. So we took all the electronics and anything that could be ruined by water, and tucked them into the shelf cubbies. Then we began to get really concerned about my stuff back at the hostel, which was stored in a wooden, ground floor locker. We decided to head out to check on my stuff, but not before Robin came in, looking like she had very literally been blown in by the wind. She was soaked and said, "Don't go anywhere! We need to talk! It's a Tropical Storm!" And that is when we learned that this really nasty weather we were living through was in fact a landfalling hurricane, not 24 hours after the volcano eruption. I swear, Guatemala...

We were going to check on my stuff and then go to dinner and a movie, but Elisa texted to let us know that the place we were working our way towards was closed because of the storm, and that stores along the road side were beginning to flood. So we headed straight for my hostel, where I was relieved to find my stuff still dry. But by the time we got there, we were soaked to the bone, despite rain jackets and scarves and umbrellas. Also at the hostel we found Ali, and her friend Thy, who had had a rubbish sort of day with the nasty woman at the travel agency who treated Ali like crap. They were eating canned beans and playing games on Thy's iPod, having given up all hope of heading out again into the weather. Almost as soon as we got there, the power went out in the city, and since we were still really hungry, we figured we had better hoof it out of there and try to find some food before everything was boarded up for the night.

We wandered down the main drag, looking for anything. But in the few minutes that the power had been out, places had shut themselves up. We finally saw some candles flickering in an alcove down an indoor hallway, and were happy to find an open restaurant serving amazing pizza and cold beer. We had a lovely candlelit dinner and before we headed home, the power had come back on, which was a relief because the city was very eery in the pitch black and fierce rain.

So Ali and I made an early night at the hostel, and then were awakened by our new roommate whose snores woke the entire room up. Ali kept asking him to roll over, which he did, and then he immediately began snoring very loudly again. By 2:30am I had decided I either needed to smother him, or find somewhere else to sleep. So I grabbed my pillow and blanket and moved to the couch in the main living area. It turned out to be really cozy, and the rain quickly lulled me to sleep and was loud enough to drown out Mr. Snore. When I awoke at daybreak, thanks to the church bells at La Merced, I noticed another two of our roommates had moved out of the room and into recliners. We complained to the owner who said that the snorer would not be back tonight.

So I was supposed to leave for Xela today at three, but as the news has been coming in, we began to realize how bad "la tormenta" was and Ali and I decided to stay in Antigua for another night, so the crews would have more time to clean the roads of mudslides. Getting to Xela is straight up and straight down on windy mountain roads, and nowhere you want to be if the roads aren't cleared. I had called my tour company to see if they were still running the route, and they said they were, but after I talked it over with the girls, we deciced Ali and I would stay put for another night as the mess gets cleaned up.

The country has really been hammered. Thy's boyfriend, who has been traveling for two days, saw some of the worst of it. He was rerouted to El Salvador, and his bus got across the border bridge shortly before it collapsed. Then, about 1am, their bus went into a ditch, in water that was waist high, and the passengers had to push the bus uphill for a half of a mile to dry the engine out. Once they had done that, the driver decided to remain the night in whatever little pueblo they were stranded in. He said the bus was full of "vegetation" from all the water that had been in it, and sent Thy a text message this morning that described his woes, ending it with, "We're taking the long route. An apparantly crucial bridge has collapsed. The whole country is f'ed." For whatever reason, probably because we're all a little delirious from sleep loss, this struck us as one of the funniest things anyone has ever said, and we laughed until tears were running down our faces.

And so, having weathered the first tropical storm of the season, we kicked off the morning with in-house roasted coffee surrounding a lovely garden at Fernando's. I have since learned that Xela was hit pretty hard as well. My friend Erin said they were stuck inside for two days because the flooding was so bad, and according to the paper today, Zona 2 has been declared "uninhabitable." Luckily, I live in Zona 1 and have talked to my housemother and my family there is safe.

So I will miss class tomorrow and the Monday afternoon movie, which is a disappointment, because we are watching "Che: Part 1" and one cannot get enough of Benicio del Toro.

So, to wrap up: we are all safe. Spent the weekend really cold and wet, wondering if this was the end of the world, but it was still enjoyable. Today has been gorg. We have wandered around and snapped photos and eaten fresh mango and wandered through markets. It was such a wonderful surprise to see the volcanoes again this morning. Usually, they are in sight from anywhere in Antigua, but the rain came down so hard all weekend, that visibility was terrible. It felt like we lived inside a claustrophobic dome.

Ali is wrapping up her Skype, so I will wrap this up as well and let you all know when I have made it safely home to Xela.

Agatha

All, I am still safe in Antigua, finally drying off. We got hit with Tropical Storm Agatha all weekend long, and today is the first it hasn't been raining in 72 hours. I don't know if I will be able to get home to Xela today or not, as roads are pretty flooded still.

We are supposed to get hit with a hurricane this afternoon, but Antigua is so far inland that we expect at most more rain. But I am safe, MRM is safe and Ali is safe, and we are meeting in a few for chocolate crepes and to see if we can find out what the road situation is like in order to get out of Antigua.

Happy Sunday to you all! More to follow later on our most recent adventures. XOXO

We Might Be Giants

Guatemalans are tiny! Especially Mayans. I can't get used to it. They are small and sturdy, like Hobbits, only beautiful. And while we're making comparisons, this country might as well be the Shire on account of how absolutely lovely it is. I'm not sure what I expected. I think I thought it would be pretty, if I thought about it at all. But I wasn't expecting it to be so gorgeous. The short Guatemalans are accomodated for in public restaurants and the like, where bathroom sinks and dining counters hit below my waist. I'm not used to feeling tall.

Today was the first day where we went somewhere that was mostly non-white. Thus far, the place we are staying, and the restaurants we've been to have been very Western. And as such, you get the impression that a long time ago, a bunch of white people arrived in Antigua and said to themselves, "What a quaint, pretty little place. All it needs is a Starbucks and generic Irish pub." And speaking of said pub, it's where MRM and I headed last night when we were trying to find her brothers. We spent more on 2 beers there than a pitcher costs back at the hostel, but we didn't know where else to look for Henry or Stephen. The pub could have been in Dallas, or Hoboken, or Nashville. While we were there, MRM mentioned that Guatemala has a 70% unemployment rate and when she said that, I feltmy stomach fall a bit, like it does on a carnival ride. I must have looked a little dumbstruck, becuase she followed it with, "Yeah, why do you think so many people wander around and try to sell you cashews and stuff?" Then I started to feel ill. And I wanted to buy truckloads of cashews, knowing full well that it doesn't solve anything long term. I think that might be one of my lessons here. Learning the importance of studying and staying the course so that when I am ready to serve, it will be more profitable in the long run than buying a sack of cashews. Tracy Kidder, who wrote the Dr. Paul Farmer biography, "Mountains Beyond Mountains" once said something along the lines of, "There are two ways to think about the poor, one is to not think about them. And two, when you do think about them, send a check, and then forget about them." Sending checks is really important. I do it each month to four different orgs, but I don't want to only be a check sender.

Earlier in the evening, we had a lovely dinner with MRM's house mother, Margoth, and Robin, another student. We talked about a number of things and I mainly listened and tried to follow along as best I could. When Margoth learned I was studying to become a nurse, she told us of this hospital for the indigenous poor that was founded by a conquistador priest who has since been sainted and whose church we visited the day before. The church has been in operation for 400 years and remains "funded" -- if you can call it that -- 100% by donations, but much of the money is stolen by the government. Then the conversation turned to politics and Margoth mentioned how lucky we are to have Obama as our president because he "is very smart and doesn't kill people."

There is a dog that lives at the hostel, Tiara. She's a goldren retriever who must be about 100 years old. She sleeps all day in the soil that the palm trees are planted in, and in the early mornings, she moves to the chairs before anyone else is awake. I love her. She reminds me of the Martins' old dog, Pokey.

We were at MRM's homestay yesterday afternoon to pick up her computer and we went up to the roof to see if we could pick up a WiFi signal, and to meet Claudio, the rooster, and MRM's alarm clock. The view from the roof is spectacular. It had just rained, and on all sides were mountains shrouded in mist, and cathedrals, and the ruins of older cathedrals. MRM turns to me and says, "If you want to see something really sad, look over the side into the courtyard below." The courtyad below looks like a tiny Calcutta or Sao Paulo, though I have never been to either. It's essentially the town dump, with shacks, and people living in them, trying to cook something decent to eat. It was all very ugly and dirty and sick and sad. And I couldn't stop staring. These are the faces they flash at you on late night informercials so you'll send money to far away places. But the places are never that far away.

After the earthquake in Haiti, Dr. Paul Farmer -- physician, anthropologist, founder of Partners in Health, my hero, and all around greatest human alive -- was talking about the devastation, and the poverty that had made a way for it. He said, "There is no such thing as the 'third world.' There is only one world, and we all live in it."

From Antigua, with love

I can't find the colon on this keyboard, which is aggravating. Oh well. I also can't figure out shift in order to cap a letter. But we make do.

So, today has been very low key. I woke up, showered, did laundry in the shower, and went back to bed. Getting in bed after a shower is one of my favorite treats in the world, and I usually don't allow myself to do it, but since I am on vacation, I am allowed. Breakfast is included in the cost of our hostel stay, and I have ordered the desayuno tipico both mornings, because there is hardly anything better than scrambled eggs, beans with red sauce and crema, and fried plantains. We waited for MRM to get out of class, and then remained at the hostel to watch a subtitled movie and then headed out to lunch. I was very excited to learn that the cafe served kombucha tea, and then very sad to find out they were out of it. After lunch we split up, MRM and I wandered and window shopped and made plans to head to Cafe Sky to do homework and watch the sunset from the roof, but it began to sprinkle so we headed back towards the center of town and made it into another cafe on the main square in time before it began to pour. Our server reminded me of a short, Latin Lil Wayne, so of course I fell in love with him immediately.

I proudly have kept myself sunburn free so far, except for my toes, which I forgot about, and now they look like red Vienna sausages. Poor toes. Wearing sunscreen is a pain, I think it makes me sweat more, or at least feel a lot stickier than I should me. But I've resigned myself to feeling that way all summer rather than burn up and risk more damage to my already melanin-free skin.

Tonight we are supposedly going to "Mexican Night" at the hostel, which merely means 2 for 1 margaritas. Tomorrow night there is some Cuban music off the central park that we're going to try to catch and on Friday night there is a screening of a documentary on the Guatemalan Civil War. So finally I will learn something about this beautiful place I'm living for the next three months. So far I am still feeling very much the tourist here. It doesn't help that I look exactly like all the other tourists here -- aviators, Chacos, Nalgene, cargo shorts, daypack. I've never stood out so much before -- to my knowledge -- but I don't know what can be done about it.

In the two and a half days I've been here, I've already lost weight. And not from Guatemalan diarrhea! Yet. So that's the good news. The bad news is, some of my clothes are already too big, and I have 13.5 weeks left. Mayhaps I'll invest in a gaudy woven belt.

OK, it's dinner time and we don't know where we're eating yet, so I'll wrap this up. But first, an apology -- there's no spell check on this computer, and I haven't reread this post or the last one, something I swore I would never do. So if there are gross misspellings and grammar errors, I kindly ask your forgiveness.

First Full Day in Guat!

Greetings! I am writing to you from the McDonald's in Antigua. Don't hate! We've been trekking all afternoon, and were headed to a bookstore/internet cafe called the Rainbow Cafe, when we ran into Robin, who is enrolled in the same school as Miriam, and she said, "You have to check out the garden at McDonald's." So we did, and we got sucked in. Just now, Miriam said, "This is SO weird. All of a sudden, it just hit me." It is weird, that we're hanging at Evil Empire, but Robin was right, the courtyard is GORGEOUS. Seriously, people get married in places this pretty. I don't think we'll make a habit of it, but our legs were tired so we stayed.

The past two days have been wonderful. When I arrived we went straight to Miriam's grandmother's house to pick up her dad and the rest of the stuff. Henry & Stephen were already in Antigua at their favorite hostel, Jungle Party. They reserved a bed for me, so the three of us are there, Dn. Ed and Mrs. Myrna stayed at this lovely little B&B that used to be a government official's house. The roof terrace is incredible. We took some photos up there last night, with the volcano and cathedrals behind us.

Before we arrived in Antigua, we went to the Hogar to meet Mother Ines. I had never met her before, but the Martins have been coming to the orphanage for the past 15 years. We ate lunch with the children and the other volunteers who were there and then toured the chapel and the grounds and the woodshop. Myrna said that Guatemala has been closed for international adoptions for the past two years, so the children there will remain at the orphanage until they age out of it or leave of their own will. It's so lovely and the children were delightful. The woodworking shop was very impressive, they had all kinds of computer guided saws and make really beautiful puzzles, toys, jewelry boxes, etc. The wood used is mainly driftwood that is collected by Mother Ines's parents.

An aside, Coldplay is really popular here. Or rather, Coldplay is really popular at McDonald's and at Jungle Party.

After visiting with Mother Ines, who I am in love with, we left Guatemala City for Antigua. I was dropped off at Jungle Party to check in with the guys, and Miriam was taken to her homestay. She TOTALLY lucked out with her homestay -- she is living in this beautiful home above a bakery and she has a maid. Plus, her house mother is a doll. We sat and talked with her for about a half hour last night, and I was able to keep up with about 1/8 of what was being said. Success!

Today we all met for brunch at a little place called Fernando's that the guys love. Prior to brunch, I had made it all the way out of bed and to the hammock on the patio. Henry and Stephen were both in hammocks, too, and reading novels, and I was beginning to feel very left out. The downside of getting everything I need into one bag, was that I had no room for a fun book. All I have on my are my school books. I was sulking that I had nothing but "Medical Spanish" to read when I chanced upon a beat up copy of Haruki Murakami's "After Dark." I was so excited! I read his "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle" several years ago, and I hated it, and then once it was over, I decided I had actually loved it and I missed reading it.

So, brunch -- Fernando roasts his own coffee and now chocolate. We got chocolate crepes and coffee, and if you're ever here, you'll have to do that too. After brunch, we walked around a bunch. We found this gorgeous hotel called "The House of a Thousand Flowers" and toured it and decided that if our friends the Baumgartners ever come to Guatemala, we'll make them stay there. We also toured some ruins and a cathedral and ran across a Mayan woman doing her laundry in a public pila in a square near the cathedral. This was exciting to see, because it's how I'll be doing my laundry once I'm in Xela.

Dn. Ed and Myrna left this afternoon. The guys are here for another two weeks, but on Thursday they're leaving us in Antigua and heading east to a resort town called Lanquin. I'll stay at Jungle Party until Friday, and then MRM and I will take a bus to Xela, stay in a hostel there for two nights, before I meet my host family on Sunday.

We're really enjoying ourselves here. I've never vacationed anywhere like this -- I'm totally digging being surrounded by a volcano and such gorgeous architecture. OK, MRM's computer battery is beginning to die. I hope all of you are well.