A month since the last post and I have lots to share. A big development in the past month was that my Dad came to the rescue by sending me a new camera, so we can thank him for all the new pictures. In this post I want to address a couple of my most frequently asked questions. People are constantly asking: so what exactly to you do there on a daily basis? And what do you eat?
To answer these questions I recorded all my activities and what I ate for a week. Every week is of course different, with its own challenges and rewards, but the following is more or less representative of what a week in my shoes is like. Enjoy.
MONDAY. Woke up as usual today at 5:30 am with the sun starting to rise, the roosters crowing, the birds chirping, and Susan Ward yelling under the two inch crack between the bottom of my front door and the floor. Susan is always trying to get me up at this time.
Let me take a step back here and introduce Susan Ward. Susan is the newest female in my life. She is definitely not the prettiest girl in the world, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. She can be quite greedy, she is prone to throw fits when she doesn’t get what she wants, she is not afraid to get a little dirty, she isn’t a very picky eater, and she craves my attention. Susan is, in fact, my new pig. I bought her about a month ago in the name of cultural integration and the hope of an eventual birthday party pig roast.
So as I was saying, woke up at 5:30 feeling energized and got right into the morning routine. i put on the pot of coffee and then fed the pig. I poured myself a bowl of Zacharias (Guatemala’s version of Frosted Flakes), threw on a big cup of powdered milk and a sliced up banana, grabbed a glass of OJ and headed to the table. I usually pull up either the Economist.com or the New York Times online and read a few headline articles as I eat breakfast; I like to stay current on the events of the world and here if I didn’t make an effort I’d never know. The farmers I hang out with every day wouldn’t even tell me if aliens landed in the capital, they wouldn't know.
After I eat my breakfast and pop my vitamins I spend the next 45 minutes or so working on my Spanish. I am reading a Spanish novel called Antigua Vida Mia by Marcela Serrano. It is actually set in Guatemala so it’s cool, but the grammar and vocabulary is complicated for me; that’s the point. The vocabulary and grammatical correctness out here is comparable to the backwoods of Mississippi I imagine, so if I want to speak a more educated version of the language I need to work at it. I read slowly, looking up and writing down all new words and grammatical constructions. I only get through about 10 pages a day.
After this, being Monday, it’s time to clean the house. All of my laundry, sweeping the floor, washing the dishes, and any other general upkeep takes about an hour and a half. This stuff is all, quite frankly, a pain in the ass, but it needs to be done. I am considering contracting out my clothes washing to a local lady. A few have offered, so we’ll see.
After cleaning it’s still only 8:30, and since I don’t have a meeting until 10:00, which really means 10:30 here, I decide to go for a run. Today I run to Santa Cruz, the closest little town, and back. This is a pretty route of gently rolling hills that brings you threw the forest and then opens up into farmland. It is about a 10 km round trip and it takes me just around an hour.
After my run and a quick shower it’s time to get to work. Today we are hosting a meeting with the national governmental tourism agency and a representative from Japan who is looking for projects to give international aid. We are hoping to convince him to pay for new railings on our trail. Just as expected they don’t show up until about quarter to 11, but the meeting is otherwise a success.
I try to focus on preparing the members of my association for the meeting before hand, rehearsing our pitch for funding, and hope that during the meeting I will be able to just take some notes and let them do the talking. While nice in theory, this doesn’t usually completely work, and several questions are deflected my way, but all in all these guys are smart and capable in these situations.
After the meeting I stop by one of the farms because I see some friends. It is the broccoli harvest and they have a flatbed trucks worth of the stuff sitting in bags on the side of the road, greener than dollars but just as valuable to them. After a little chat they give me two huge heads of it and I head home for lunch: Steamed broccoli and white rice.
By the time lunch is finished and I’ve fed Susan again it’s already 4 o’clock. I don’t have English class until 6:00, and I decide to use this time to send off a few pressing emails.
English class goes well, Monday is a good group. They are a little older and more advanced so things flow a lot nicer. The class, which started at over 50 students, has only around 15 now, but this is nice, because we’ve rid ourselves of the ones that weren’t really there to learn. One bonus to this class for me is that Chilascó’s three hottest babes are in it. We worked on the gerund, i.e. I am STUDYING, she is PLAYING, we are LAUGHING, etc.
After class its home for dinner. Today I feel like spoiling myself a bit, so I make my favorite… pancakes for dinner. After dinner I do a quick 45 minutes of yoga, another little shower, and read until I fall asleep around 11. This week I am reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It is a classic, and exploration into values, and it is the second book of this month’s book club. I need to finish it by Saturday.
TUESDAY. Same morning routine as yesterday. Breakfast then Spanish studying at least. Today I am headed into Salama to do some grocery shopping and pick up a few other things. There are several busses that leave every morning, about every half hour, but I like to take the 7:30 one. It is the largest and the driver is my buddy so I usually get to sit up front, a seat that is usually always reserved for the prettiest girl on the bus. Bus drivers here are some of the biggest ladies men in the country.
It is about an hour and a half ride into Salama, and I spend the first 30 minutes chatting with the driver, “El Negro” is what he’s called, I’m not sure why. After we run out of talk about how he works 16 hour days 6 days a week without complaining, I pull out my book and take advantage of the free time.
In Salama I head straight to the supermarket to start checking off my “to get” list. Apples, cereal, cheese slices, syrup, yogurt, dish soap, detergent, butter and boneless chicken breasts. Then I take a stroll through the market and pick up a big pineapple and a papaya. These are the ingredients for the world’s best licuado, I can hardly wait to get home and make one. After this I have to swing by the hardware store and try and buy some metal bars to use as handles for the dumbbells I am making.
The first hardware store doesn’t have them. The second one does, but the owner is trying to take advantage of me by charging me a special Gringo price which is about 4 times what it should be. I am not having any of that so after a little back and forth I take off. Third time is a charm, and after this store owner gives me a little example of bicep curls while his wife and daughter sit around giggling he sells me the bars at a fair price.
I have to hurry and I catch the 11:15 bus back to Chilascó. When I get home, after dropping off the groceries, I run over to the local hardware store to buy the cement for the weights. On the way I am called in to another little store by Dona Ana. She wants to talk about the project we are working on to sell the 100% natural Blackberry Wine that she makes in Antigua. She wants to make some adjustments to the labels, so I add it to the “to do” list.
After explaining why I need the concrete for 15 minutes, I buy it and head back home to pour it in the already waiting molds. Then it’s lunch time. I eat the second head of broccoli, but this time with some black beans. My landlady gives me 6 tortillas to eat with it and I make my licuado. After lunch I take another run to Santa Cruz, shower, do a few things online, make a couple phone calls, and head up to today’s 6:00 English class.
In today’s class I am trying something new. I promised them we could watch a movie, and I bring the first disc of Planet Earth, another new benefit of my father’s generous care package. We watch the first hour in English with Spanish subtitles and they try and write down as many words as they can understand. They are so fascinated, and rightfully so by the video footage, that they barely get down any words, but it is still fun. Afterwards I give them some of the new vocabulary that I already have prepared from the video and we all go home happy.
Dinner tonight consists of a bowl of cereal, Guatemalan Coco Crispies this time, and the rest of my licuado mix. After dinner it’s time for another round of yoga, I use the P90x power series video. Someone gave it to me a couple months ago, I figured I check it out and see what all the rage is about, and it turns out I really like it. This type is fast paced so it’s a good workout and it doesn’t get boring.
I read again until my eyes start shutting, I am almost done.
Okay, I had no idea how long this blog post was going to be when I started it, so I think, in consideration of your time and mine, I will continue with the next two days in another segment. Hopefully next week. Until then, enjoy the pics.
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