Strange scene from Panajachel

Sabado, 3 de enero 2004


Today we went across the lake Atitilan from Panajachel to Santiago Atitlan and saw this amazing church. They say that the lake never does look the same and it is true. The majestic volcanoes guarding the lake make every glance towards the lake memorable and it never seems to be the same in photos.
This is the Nativity scene at the Mayan church with corn husks in Santiago Atitlan on Lake Atitlan 

So here am I says the fly...the fly is roaming around the countryside and now in a volcanic lake. There are many indigenous people around this area with many different languages being spoken. I am realizing every day a bit more that it is a different world in the countryside. Here there are women in their 70´s or 80´s selling things very late at night and children of like 6 or 7 doing the same in restaurants. I bought a hupile last night at this bar for like 3 dollars, not because I liked it particularily. It´s quite nice but I seriously doubted that I would fit inside of it. She really did NOT understand Spanish. I was trying to ask her something like, do you have pillowcases like this and she said that she is sleeping here because where she lives is far away. This was with gestures and seriously articulated Spanish. Oh my....I´m beginning to want to understand more and work more seriously with minority groups within countries and policies for integration into the society but maintaining their own customs. It´s just experiences like this that make me realize how much more I understand than other people and I would like to become more understanding of it.

Last night after trying on the huipile (which is a traditional shirt of the varMayanmayan tribes, there are at least 20 or so left), I was indeed right. there is no way my head was going to go through that hole and come out again so I will try to make a pillow case out of it. Anyway, so I began to ask myself how much money could it be to make one of those things if she is selling it at 25 quetzales which is like 3 dollars, we figured it must be like at least 3 days work and 25 quetzales would be enough for food for a week. It just makes me reflect back on the overconsumptiveness in America and almost makes me sick. I was explaining to the girl with whom travelinglling who was a local observer in Jutiapa (near El Salvador) that people buy things in the USA to be happy, to replace the satisfaction that they don´t get from their lives, so in turn they buy things. Everything is so self consuming. No one values what they have. People have tons of pairs of shoes cos they can. My brother, I do love you if you are reading this sweetie, but you don´t need 25 pairs of Nike basketball shoes. I mean when would you ever need that many pairs of shoes. I remember reading about in Cuba how people were stealing or trying to swindle foreigners a bit just to get some dollars instead of pesos in order to buy good shoes for their mother. It just makes me want to cry that there are so many people who have nothing and so many who have too much that they know what to do with. I feel so helpless and don´t know how to fix the situation. I'm hoping that working here with USAID will help me to get the opportunity to help more people this way.

Before I bought this huipile from the woman, we saw this hippie guy with a long beard in local Mayan dress and I swear he had half a bloody orphanage with him in addition to a very dirty street dog. Carla nearly stepped on the dog getting into her chair. One of the kids proceeded to drag the dog out from under the chair and horrifically abusing the poor creature. The kid was totally dirty. I ask myself why this guy had so many kids with him. Definately indigenous kids. Not gringo mestizo. I was wondering, where would their mother be. They kept running in and out of the restaurant and they wanted these little things you stir drinks with. We ended up giving them 3 of them. We were drinking lots of capirinyas, the tsiganka´s (me) national drink.

Lots of things like this have been preoccupying my mind. Anyway...I will continue on these thoughts inshallah...