Things I've Seen Today

1. Giant beets--unfortunately, not on my menu this week
2. A gallo chasing a gallina (rooster chasing a hen)--I think she got away, but it was pretty fast-paced and crazy for a minute or so.
3. A dog chewing on a pipe that had electric wiring wrapped around it--that family probably won't have electricity tonight, and might find their dog fried on the roof.
4. Men fixing power lines the old fashioned way--climbing up using strips of fabric or leather and barely hanging on (no fun machines for them). Doesn't seem very safe, but they survived.
5. Police waving guns around the mall--I spent maybe two seconds thinking that was how I was going to die, in a mall shot by a drug gang, but it was just some guy who forgot to leave his gun at home before doing some shopping. After the police confronted the guy, his wife/sister/random crazy lady friend started yelling at the police officers, which is probably not the best thing to do here in Guatemala. (An aside-my neighbor recently informed me that Israel sold guns to Guatemala for only 0.01 cents a gun, and would have donated them if it weren't for a clause in the constitution that prohibits people from donating arms. This would explain why everyone and their brother have guns--Don't worry about me mom and dad, I'm living in a pretty safe part of the country)
6. Lots of people and cars out and about--it's Semana Santa which means that everyone is buying up good food to celebrate. People are also buying flowers for the processions, which won't happen here in town until Friday. Also, lots of traveling going on, just not for me.

If you can't tell, I'm getting kind of bored. Not working for two and a half weeks is driving me crazy. Fortunately for me and Guatemalan schoolkids, the strike is over (at least in my town) and classes will start as normal on Monday (or rather Tuesday, because people will likely still be on vacation Monday).

Happy Semana Santa and Happy Easter!!

Striking Continues

The strikes continue. After talking with teachers and hearing different people's takes on what is going on, I think teachers are actually striking for the government to invest more in education, which is actually pretty great. Yuna told me after talking to one teacher we know pretty well that teachers want 15%, or at least 10%, of the budget going to education (right now it's at 5%). Many of the teachers I work with have traveled to Guatemala City to protest there while here in town they aren't letting the superintendent into his office. We aren't really sure how long it's all going to take--some people have said possibly until May. I think the president is meeting with teachers or their representatives today, so if the response is good we might have school. But no one really has an idea of what's going on. Other than not getting work done that I needed to get done (the school year is quickly dwindling), things are well here.

More Famous Than Before

I am already a local celebrity (simply because I have light skin and lighter hair than everyone else in town), but now it's national. Woo Hoo!! Made it onto the Guatemalan national news for going to the Peace Corps 50th anniversary celebration in Guate. I never would have known about it if a girl who goes to one of my schools hadn't told Yuna that she had seen us on tv. They also had an article in the Prensa Libre about it which you can find here (in spanish): Cuerpo de Paz celebra 50 años.

The party was fun. I'll write more about that this week because I have so much free time because there's a strike. The teachers are striking to get the 6% raise the government promised last year (I think) so there are no classes this week which means no school visits for me. There's plenty more to plan and that's what I'll be working on, but I have more time.

Feliz día!

A la playa and killing turkeys

My days have been exhausting lately. There’s something about getting up early and walking/riding the bus to school in the morning and then spending the morning at school talking to kids and teachers that just tires me out. When I get home in the afternoon, I make lunch and wash dishes and just don’t feel much like writing or studying Spanish or really doing anything other than reading or watching movies/tv shows. So I apologize for the lack of posts. Blame it on the altitude (that’s what I’m blaming it on anyway).

The more interesting thing I took part in/witnessed this past week was a turkey slaughter to make paches, which is one of my favorite foods here. Paches are like big tamalitos but with more flavor and stuffed with meat and sauces (and sometimes raisins, prunes and red pepper). Yuna’s friend was visiting from the states and he wanted to eat paches so he bought a Q200 live turkey for a family in town and we went over Friday night to help kill and prepare the turkey and make paches. Definitely was one of the most unique ways to spend a Friday night.

So here’s the process, all of which I witnessed (which just shows you how long I’ve come since my squeamish vegetarian days). I don’t describe too graphically what happened-I mean, it is the process that all animals go through to feed us carnivores-but if you’re squeamish to the extreme, here’s a warning. When we got to the house, the turkey was still very much alive but his legs were tied together, I guess so that he couldn’t run away and/or bother the chickens and ducks that were also wandering around the porch of the house where we were. One of the women hung him up by his legs and Yuna swiftly cut a vein and we let him bleed out. Once that was done and he was deceased, we put him into a pot of boiling water for a few minutes to make the defeathering process easier. Pulling all of the feathers off was a pretty quick process, after which the turkey was quickly roasted over a giant fire (literally a few seconds on each side) and then opened up and all of the parts taken out. The stomach was discarded, but the heart, liver, and some other pieces were saved to be eaten later. Then the turkey was washed with soap and water and then cut up into smaller pieces and put into a pot to cook.

Meanwhile, some of the señoras were in the process of getting the masa ready to make the paches. One pot held 14 pounds of potatoes while the other held ground up rice. Both different types used similar sauces. Tomatoes, garlic and onion were roasted on a comal over the fire and then were put into a blender with salt and mashed up to make a sauce for the potato paches, mixed directly with the masa. Then, ground pumpkin and sesame seeds were added to the vegetables to be used with the rice mixture (but not placed directly with it).

Once the turkey was cooked, it was time to put the paches together. Every time you eat this food it is like opening up a gift because they are wrapped up in the large leaves of this plant that grows on the coast. We helped one of the señoras get the leaves ready, breaking the spines so that they would be more flexible when wrapping up the pache. For the potato paches, a few tablespoons of the masa went onto two leaves with a piece of meat placed on top. Then once folded up fairly tightly without anything leaking out, it is ready to go into a pot with a little bit of water. As for the rice paches, a bit of masa goes on the leaves, then the sauce which had been set aside, as well as a piece of meat. To finish a raisin goes on the top or bottom, as well as a slice of red pepper (and prunes if those are available). These are wrapped up in the same way (though we did them inside out so that we could distinguish between the two different types) and are cooked in a giant pot (we had about 80 of them to cook) for an hour and a half or so. Then, once ready they are served intact in the leaves. I prefer the potato paches over the rice ones, but both are delicious. While the turkey was a little tough (it was an old turkey), it was still delicious, especially eaten with the mushy salty masa. This food is usually served for holidays or important events, especially around Christmas time, or when guests are expected, and I’ve only ever eaten them in the Western highlands—they don’t seem to be that common in the Antigua area. I think I prefer buying them to making them, just because it’s such a long process (it took us maybe four hours from start to dinner) and if it’s just me, it’s not really worth it to make five paches or so.

I feel like many common foods here are a process to make—from tamales and tortillas, to pepian, estofado, chiles rellenos, rice, refried beans, etc. Guatemalan women all have their own techniques handed down from their mothers and have been cooking these foods their entire lives. I think that’s partially why food is so central to life—whenever you visit a house, they offer you food and/or drink, and to refuse is to insult your host (which is partially why being a vegetarian here is not a wise choice—people kill their expensive animals for you to be nice and to show their ‘wealth’).Women put so much time and effort into food, and you can tell because the food here is so good.

I’ve probably talked about food before, but here goes again (I really love food, after all). I’ve been cooking lots of different things—partially out of boredom and partially because cooking is a relaxing thing for me to do (when it doesn’t end up stressing me out). Last week I made beet burgers, which were excellent with some ketchup. I’ve also made a lot of different soups (carrot, beet, broccoli, tomato, potato, etc.) and pasta/rice dishes with different sauces. One of the great things about living here is how cheap the fresh veggies and fruit are. I buy a pound of tomatoes for Q1 ($0.12), a pound of onion for Q2.50 ($0.30), a pound of potato for Q3 ($0.36), a pineapple for Q5 ($0.62), celery for Q0.50 ($0.06), a ton of cilantro for Q1, carrots for Q3 a dozen, etc. And now that its mango season, I can get delicious mangoes for Q1 each—I have definitely been taking advantage of that. I definitely eat much healthier here because of how cheap and readily available these fresh fruits and vegetables are.

Also went to the beach not this past weekend, but the one before that. We almost couldn’t go because there was a tsunami warning for Guatemala from the earthquake off the coast of Japan, but the waves weren’t too big. I went with Yuna, her host family from training and the new volunteer who has been living with them, and Yuna’s friend from the States. I’ve been to two beaches now in Guatemala, and the experience is definitely different than going to an American beach. First of all, almost no one wears swimsuits into the water—just normal clothes. I think this probably comes from the conservativeness of Guatemalan culture. There were even women in traje wading into the ocean. Another difference is the sand—Guatemalan beaches on the Pacific coast are black-sand beaches, which means the sand gets really hot once the sun comes out. I think the sand being black is due to the volcanoes that are all over the place, but not sure. Also, vendors walk/ride/push their carts all over the place. There were people selling slushies, ceviche, beach toys, pictures, fruit, fish just caught from the ocean (some guy even gutted and cut up the fish right on the beach, burying the insides in the sand and giving the fish to the customer). Also, some people make money setting up shelters with shade that they rent to beach-goers who want to get out of the hot sun. Also, beaches are kind of dirty. The one I went to recently (Puerto San José) wasn’t too bad, but the one I went to a year ago (Sipacate) was pretty gross. This is just an extension of the trash management problems that plague the entire country. Those are pretty much the differences. Since Guatemala is such a small country, it’s easy for those living in the capital to make the 2-3 hour drive/bus ride down to the beach for the weekend. There are tons of hotels (more like tiny rooms rent out) and restaurants for tourists. We left at 4:20 and got there around 6:30. It wasn’t crowded for several hours, but once lunch time hit, tons of people came and we headed out. Highlights of the day included swimming in the Pacific; sand wars; burying chica in the sand; eating fried chicken with tortillas and beans for breakfast; eating mangoes, watermelon, zapote, and other tropical fruits for snacks; relaxing in the warm tropical air of the coast (quite a difference from the highlands); and sitting in the trunk of the car with back window open and the fresh air just flowing through the car. It was a great day.

This weekend will be heading east for Peace Corps Guatemala’s 50^th anniversary celebration. Tons of people will be there-probably 400 or so with the volunteers, trainees turning into volunteers, staff, host families and special guests. Should be fun, just not particularly looking forward to the bus ride. I’ll let you all know how that goes.

A photo slideshow about Guatemala from PBS Newshour:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/multimedia/guatemala/index.html