Xela, Continued

Hey Y´all,

Shana and I are still in Xela (formally known as Quetzaltenango). We´re having a fantastic time, and learning Spanish quite fast. Just don´t ask to conjugate verbs in ¨Vosotros¨ because they use that person here. We´re able to understand almost everything (as long as people don´t talk ridiculously fast), and can converse pretty well too.

We´ve seen and done some really interesting things. Last Saturday, some of us students organized a trip to a cooperative ¨Finca¨(Coffee plantation), founded and operated by former Guerillas from Guatemala´s civil war against the military dictatorship that sprang up after the CIA aided coup (yes, our US guilt was high for a while). We were told about the history of the civil war and of the Guerilla organizations, about the eventual peace treaty, about the current political and economical conditions in the country. The operators also explained to us, in detail, the process of producing coffee. We were also led on a grulling, yet gorgeous hike of the plantation. Finally, we met a group of cool Tufts students who were spending time at the plantation as part of a program to study sustainable development (though at approximately $500 per year per family in coffee revenue, does the word ¨sustainable¨really apply).

On Sunday, Shana and I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity for a day in one of the poorer neighbourhoods of Xela. There were about six volunteers there, of which we were the only foreigners, and the eventual owner. We spent about 4 hours, almost without breaks, making and laying concrete on the roof of the one family home (which, when finished, will be only slightly larger than my bedroom in DC). Shana and I shared the responsibility of lifting the buckets of concrete to the roof (and yes, I´m still sore). I was very impressed with the intensity of the people working there. It seemed like every man there (Shana was the only girl there and more than held her own, both of which impressed the guys there) was building his own home.

Last Friday, we celebrate my birthday. Fortunately, Fridays are when schoolwide potluck dinners take place, so I had a pre-made party. The week before, the teachers made traditional Guatemaltecan food, so this week the students made traditional American meals. I made my baked mac-n-cheese, and Shana made b-day cake. We then went to a club to dance salsa (we had taken a couple of lessons, and have gotten pretty good). Also, as a little b-day treat, I played a game of pool and hit a shot (a jump shot to drop a ball at a tight angle three feet from the hole) that I will NEVER stop talking about. Ok, I´m done showing off.

If the weather allows it, we´re going to travel with a few students and a couple of teachers (Carlos and Jairo ... the female teachers don´t really come out for reasons, for societal reasons) to the Lago de Atitlan. From there, we will most likely travel to Antigua, then Monterico (on the Pacific coast), and then who knows. The tentative plan is to travel through El Salvador and then up to the Atlantic coast of Honduras, and to that country´s Bay Islands. We´ll keep you updated.

Hope everything are going well state side (or in the UK, Germany, or wherever you are).
(Pictures to be posted at a later date).