First Days in Xela

Our first days in Xela (pronounced Shey-la) have been so many things. First off, it's a beautiful mountain town, and every morning the clouds are just laying in the peaks of the mountains and it's breathtaking. The city has tiny little streets, many of them cobblestone, and some as hilly as streets in San Francisco. We explored the markets yesterday, partly on our own and partly doing an exercise on the socio-economic conditions of Xela, and it was both interesting and incredibly eye-opening. For our exercise, Fidel, who is the director of the program in Guatemala, gave groups of three 50 Quetzales (about 5 US dollars) which is about what the average Guatemalan makes in a day, and had us go to the market and attempt to buy different items for a family of five. My group consisted of Charles, Anna, and myself, were supposed to buy food, and with the 50 Q, we were only able to buy enough food for one meal... 1 tomato, 1 onion, a pound of rice, a pound of salt, a pound of corn flour, a package of chicken, and 3 avocados. Other groups bought clothing, school supplies, and medical supplies/expenses. After returning from the market we met up to share what we bought, but also to analyze the economic situation that most Guatemalans face... If you're the sole worker in your family earning only 50 or 60 Q a day, imagine trying to provide for an entire family when we could only buy enough food for one meal! And to think if there were a medical emergency, when a trip to a doctor is 200 Q. It was definitely the first major shock I had that made me realize how lucky most Americans are to have such expendable income. Ten bucks at the grocery store is nothing, and much of the time, it's easy to just throw away money.

The people are something else also. They are always presented so well, even if they have nothing, and are incredibly respectful to each other and especially to us. Guatemalans are VERY quiet, and a lot of the time would rather be passive than to say anything. For example when we were in Antigua, at dinner we bought some wine which we have to pay outside of our budgeted food from the school, and we walked out completely forgetting to pay for it. The next day we gave our guide the money to pay, and she told us that it probably came out of the waiter's wage. If that were the case in America, someone would have run after us to (rudely) remind us that we didn't pay. We had several interactions with the server, and he didn't mention it once. However when they do speak, they always have a smile and are so polite.

Last night we had dinner on our own for the first time (so we didn't have Ruth or Joe with us, the two program facilitators who are basically mom and dad) and ordering was hilarious. Rachel, Dylan, Maggie, Charles, Eric, and I found this little place with pretty basic Guatemalan food, and when ordering really realized how bad most of us are at speaking. The waitress laughed with us, especially at Dylan who has had no Spanish instruction at all. Someone always has to whisper what to say in his ear, and then translated to his own words usually comes out about half right. The food is ridiculously cheap, with my dinner of two enchiladas being only about $1.70, and beer about $2. After eating we walked to the town square and went to this bar, meeting up with the other half of the group, and pretty much all got completely hammered. A liter of good sangria is only about $13! I'm sure that we were obnoxious and loud Americans, taking tequila shots and drinking way too much beer, and the stumbling back to our hotel. We all went up on the roof, doing god-knows-what, and then Georgia, Eric, and I had the inkling to come back down to my room to listen to the Charlie Brown Christmas CD. Don't ask me why. We went back up to the roof and stood in a huddle for probably about 30 minutes, confessing our love for one another, until a hotel worker came up and told us to go to bed. Rachel, Maggie, and I went back to our room and were all in bed talking in laughing when Georgia and Evy came down to tell us that they could hear us upstairs with their door closed. Needless to say it was a good night.

Today we're learning more about life in Xela, and then get to tour our school for the first time. Tomorrow we get to climb one of the largest volcanoes in the country! So excited and I'll definitely post pictures.

Ciao