A little late

This story happened a bit ago when we were food shopping in the market. I was speaking with a vendor in psuedo kaqchikel in order to practice and she very nicely took the opportunity to teach me words. "Snakat" is onion. Yes, that one I know. "Xkoya" is tomato. Blech, but that's the word I know also. And in Kaqchikel we call zanahorias "carot." (The word I learned was Qanaxe)

Carot.

San Pedro La Laguna

This weekend I took a trip to San Pedro La Laguna in order to see Lake Atitlan. (Place of the water in Nahuatl) It was an image derived from dreams and I had a great time. I almost died kayaking, but that's another story. Meditate on the beauty :

Kaqchikel/English Class

Today I was one of the teachers of a Kaqchikel/English class. We learned greetings, hot and cold, numbers, and what is this/that? This/that is a marker. First we would demonstrate the phrases, questions and responses then we would have the students do it with a teacher standing by to help if they didn't know. Then we would have then do it with us first in English and then in Kaqchikel. How hard! Good things about this method were tons of production allowing for practice. Bad things were lack of continuation from topic to topic allowing for no overlapping words or ideas to cement. A lot of times the students could say the phrase but didn't know what they were saying. Saying it together helped with anxiety and pronunciation and is something I like pre-production but the production itself was meaningless. This/that didn't come across because we didn't demonstrate enough times. The students were a fun haphazard mix- some adults some kids. The kids knew the English better and the adults the kaqchikel better. They all tried hard which made the experience really nice. Everyone wants to learn if we help them. This class was held on Chalo's patio while construction went on overhead and we dodged falling cement. Not the ideal learning space- but that just made the experience more fun. I enjoyed myself.

Arizona

I met a man who was deported from Arizona today. He was walking around in the center of town alone and they decided that that was suspicious behavior. Since his English wasn't very strong he couldn't defend himself, and explain that he was just going to the store (not that it would have mattered by the standards of Arizona law) They took the opportunity and deported him after he'd lived there two years. He sounded bitter but definitively said that he now loves Guatemala more. He made more money in the US but he feels richer in the Guatemalan setting living in poverty he made it sound. "So why are you learning English now," I asked him. He'd made friends there with people who initially helped him with the language and he wants to continue the friendship.

Tuktuk

My first tuktuk ride was today. They're little taxi things that apparently zoom by faster than any cars or motorcycles. This greatly violates the Guatemalan rule of thumb that the largest vehicles rule the road. I was convinced the whole time that we would topple over on sharp turns- but here I am still standing, sending you an image of a tuktuk

Love Hate relationes

I appreciate non-sparking showers that are inside the house instead of outside and are regularly warm. I appreciate streets paved with cement and tar instead of cobblestones. I appreciate winters that feel like winters and summers that feel like summers.


But I also LOVE (LE AMO) a Guatemala. I love that anything and everything should go in a tortilla. I love that people greet each other here. I love looking up and seeing mountains. I love how only certain things are in tiendas but everything under the moon is in the market. I love the vibrancy of color used in mayan huipiles and I love the local version of "happy birthday". All is good