(If you are viewing this posting as an email please click the post title to view this posting from within my blog and to get maximum benefit! ~ and click any picture to enlarge)
www.7billionandme.org/
Random fact!
According to the website “7 Billion and me” I am person number two billion, eight hundred and thirty one million, seven hundred and ten thousand, two hundred and twenty three on the planet at this moment and on the day I was born so were 276,396 others! And I am the 76,292,972,006th person to inhabit the planet! (yes that’s 76 billion.) Kind of puts one’s life in perspective!
OK here goes.....
Continental Airlines kindly waived my excess baggage fees but thanks to the snow on the eastern seaboard of the USA I was delayed and had to over night in the Houston! Maybe it is just me but there is a deep disconnect between the announcement at Newark Airport [as you wait 2 hours to get through immigration , even in transit and watch your flight take off without you] that says in effect “Welcome to the USA, any comments to immigration staff or inappropriate joking is likely to result in your immediate detention, arrest and refusal of entry ~ Welcome to the USA” on a continuous loop! Strangley, having been barked at, finger printed and photographed twice I could think of many adjectives but non of them resembled Welcome!
But the new me, the one that does not get hot under the collar just stood and chatted to my fellow passengers as we all lost or connections, the service desk people might have been kinder had they not smiled when they said “you will be delayed and need to stay overnight in Houston and off course as the delay is due to weather Continental will not pay your expenses ~ have a nice flight ~ oh, and as you will be more than 5 hours in Houston you will have to collect all your baggage." Suffice it to say on arrival in Houston I eventually managed to get a voucher reducing the Marriot hotel rate from $249 to $109 plus tax ~ would have opted for a cheaper hotel but that would have involved taxis etc. So pushed my trolley the 1000 yards to the Marriot.
As a “special treat” and, as the budget was already blown, I decided to remind myself of just how unhealthy the cuisine in the USA can be by having a great big burger and fries for supper and hot cakes [inch thick pancakes slavered in high fructose corn syrup masquerading as] maple syrup with thick cream for breakfast. I could actually only eat one of the three dinner plate sized pancakes ~ and got very disapproving looks from Tania (“I am Tania your waitress this morning and how may I serve you…blah blah blah)
Anyways, despite my delayed flights I arrived in Antigua and am well settled into the Casa de Voluntarios and even after only five days I feel very much at home here in Antigua.
The Patio of CasaSito Volunteers House
Simplicity is the key-note! So my day goes like this:
05:30 Wake-up tea (fruit/herbal tea) provided free by CasaSito
06:30 Breakfast (yoghurt/fruit/granola Q.10)
08:30 Spanish Lesson (Monday- Friday
12:30 Lunch (traditional Guatemalan Cuisine) [Soup, Tortillas, Main course, drink, Coffee ~ £1.50 Q.18]
14:00 Study, or help in CasaSito
18:00 Walk (including trip to Panaderia [bakers])
19:00 Supper (fresh bread/soup Q.2)
22:00 ZZZZZZZZZ
Daily budget Q.100 (£8.50) £1= Q.12 Daily food bill Q.30 (£2.50)
Will not be spending anywhere near this once I have settled in and started to do more of my own cooking!
The Currency ~ Quetzales
The Spanish school, is suffering from the downturn like everywhere in Guatemala, tourist/student numbers are down dramatically. At the moment I am one of only two students in the school, this is such a shame! But everybody hopes things will pick up in the new year.
My daily 4 hour Spanish lesson consists of 75% conversation and 25% grammar which is working well for me! Though it does rather leave your head spinning! I am just waiting for that tipping point when I am no longer consciously translating or sentence building in my head but just speaking/comprehending. I think this will happen in about four weeks time!
OK, this may be too much information but it is an insight into life in Guatemala and many places else besides.
Such a hard habitual action to change …..
I will say no more! Just thought I would share that with you!
I will say no more! Just thought I would share that with you!
I am of course the “uncle” of the volunteers in the house being about 30 years older than most of them, so it is interesting, they are not sure how to deal with me! But, most of the volunteers in the house will change in the next two weeks so I will rise from around 7th in the pecking order (out of 7!) to number 2 and an old hand! Which I think will bring a new dynamic and sense of place for me.
The staff at CasaSito are universally lovely! I have been made to feel so welcome, my room is simple but fine and the house has a well appointed kitchen which I will start to use more soon. Odd keeping your food in a big plastic box and commandeering your shelf in the fridge!
Paolo (my CasaSito workmate) is very keen that I take my time to settle in and we will only really sort out my “role” in January. This works for me and CasaSito, as it is a kind of down time at the moment because the main school holiday here is from mid October to mid January. More time for the Spanish!
However, today I went on a field trip with 16 of the Business Club Scholarship Students to visit a farm (finca) growing tomatoes and a jam making factory! It was great mixing with the students aged 14 – 22 non of whom spoke more than a word of English. We finished the trip with a communal lunch in a “restaurante comida typical” and I deliberately sat away from the other CasaSito staff and found myself happily joking with the students over lunch in pidgin Spanish. It was interesting to note that a couple of the students had probably never eaten in a restaurant before and were very nervous about their table manners! It was a good experience for them and me! I was even taught by the boys to do the youthful Guatemalan High Five greeting/parting “with my bros!” Do ya get me?
Volcan Fuego ~ with a welcome burst of smoke this morning!
I cannot start to tell you how lovely it is to get up to sunshine and to be greeted by the site of the three volcanoes, I was definitely programmed for sunshine and a warm climate. As I walk to school in the morning everybody, but everybody, you pass says Buenas Dias and you greet everybody you know with a warm hug and/or kiss on the cheek. So civilised.
Met up with an internet friend of mine, Jaime (pronounced Hi-me) from Guatemala city this afternoon, for coffee and cake, he had very kindly travelled up on the chicken-bus despite the traffic to spend an hour with me before descending back down the mountain! Feels good to start to build a non CasaSito based network.
Tomorrow the second round elections take place for the Presidency, it would seem that most people feel that neither candidate is good, as both have a “history” that does not make the average Guatamalteco proud! (The history seems to involve drug trafficking on the one hand and civil-war crimes on the other.) Everybody is worried for the future of the country, but as with CasaSito iI remain detached from religious and political views- which suits me fine!
Because of the elections Alcohol is prohibited from sale from Saturday until Monday (48 hours), is that to stop people drowning their sorrows I wonder?
Well that’s is for now, I am alone in the house enjoying the peace and quiet and happily reflecting on “That was the week that was!” Time for bed!
My room
Hasta proxima Domingo!
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