Election Day

One of the things that I was congratulating myself on before coming to Guatemala was that I would be absent from the US for most of the run-up to our presidential elections, therefore avoiding most of the campaigning, which gets old fast. There's nothing like slipping out of the country to avoid our political skirmishes, I felt equally satisfied when I was in France for the year during the Clinton impeachment and only had a cursory knowledge of the happenings. Little did I realize, though, that I would be stepping into Guatemala right in time for their second round of Presidential elections. Apparently there was something like 14 candidates for the first round around 2 months ago, and two candidates were eligible for the second round, which just took place on Sunday. I was pretty convinced that the candidate promoting himself as "La Mano Dura", the Firm Hand, was going to win. Maybe this was because it was his theme song that was stuck in my mind from the trucks driving around blaring it throughout the day. In fact, one of the best things about being at Lucky's house is that she lives on the outskirts of her town and so there were no promotional trucks tooling around and I got a little respite from the song. It is pretty catchy, though, while I didn't even know what the other candidate's theme song was. Maybe I thought he would win because I spent considerable time around Guatemala City, which turns out to be one of the few areas where he did win, and which is also where the primary newspaper is published. Well, whatever the cause, I thought Mano Dura would win, meaning the return of military power to Guatemala since he was a General. According to my landlady, this meant soldiers would go into villages again and do whatever they wanted such as raping young girls. The election called for tough measures, though, such as the prohibition of the sale of alcohol from the evening before the election until the morning after. I suppose they figure that will increase the voter turn-out, or decrease the possibility of buying votes. And in addition to signing their names when they went to the polling place to avoid people voting twice, everyone also rubbed their index finger in a dark ink to mark themselves as having already voted. Well, in the end, much to my surprise and perhaps to the surprise of the capital dwellers, the other candidate won, the one from the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza party. There were firecrackers in the street, there was hooting and hollering, flag waving, people were happy. It seems like another of case of voting for the less worse candidate, but that can result in a big difference.

My mother was right

I just got back to Flores after a fortnight of zipping around Guatemala. Two weeks ago I went to La Capital for a couple of meetings, and, very exciting, to welcome Esteban as my first visitor. Well, it was a lovely time together, we started out in the colonial jewel of Antigua, and in an attempt to escape the rain headed up to Cobán. Here’re pictures from our trip to Semuc Champey, a limestone bridge on the Cahabon river a few hours from Cobán. Hiking to this overlook point turned out to be the last activity I felt good for, because after this I started to succumb to a general malaise. I guess when I was shivering in bed with multiple blankets despite the fact that according to some “it’s not cold” and I had very little appetite despite being very hungry, it was apparent something was wrong. But after a week together our time came to end and Esteban headed back to UCSB and I went off to Quetzaltenango (Xela) to visit my old Spanish maestra, Lucky, and her 9 month old daughter Montserrat (Moncie). That is when the itchy itchy on my legs and feet began, and let me say that while it felt so good to scratch them, it felt so bad to stop, so I started making up itching rules which I would alternately stick to and then violate. No itching with my hands. Okay, as long as I don’t use my fingernails. Okay, fingernails, but lightly. I can rub my feet on the bed. Okay, I can only rub my foot with the other foot, but no toenails. Okay, just stop completely. Mmm, maybe just with one finger. Despite the times I would be scratching my shins and wanting to cry, I had a nice time with Lucky and Moncie. Moncie is so funny, if she’s awake she is eating and Lucky keeps a constant stream of different foods flowing her way which Moncie demolishes with her two bottom (and only) teeth. She seeks out food too, we were all lying on the bed when she woke up from her nap and I guess she sensed the cake lying in foil that some neighbors had dropped off, because she went for it. Did she smell it? Does she know food comes wrapped in foil? Well, she wrested it from the foil herself, and she does not get kicked out of the bed for making a mess and I admit to having rubbed my legs in the crumbs on the bedspread to get in a surreptitious scratch. While I was visiting there was a special treat, because my first full day in Xela Moncie’s preschool put on a production of Blanca Nieves y los Siete Enenos (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves) , in which Moncie appeared as a little bunny rabbit. So… cute… Ah, and all those who spoke out in outrage will feel satisfied to hear that at one point Lucky casually asked me who else in my family is a redhead. Hear that? Who *else*, as in who in addition to me.




(http://laurel-guatemala.blogspot.com/2007/01/pelirroja-nunca-mas.html)

Anyway, after 3 days I headed back to Guatemala City with the intention of immediately catching another bus back to Flores. It should have been all day and two buses, but I missed the second bus and decided to spend the night in Antigua instead of waiting around in Guatemala City until the night bus. Coincidence is a funny thing, because me and this one guy have it big time, and while at some point he probably counted it as destiny now he might see it as bad luck. When my parents visited me in February, I went with them to Lake Atitlan and while crossing the lake on a boat I met Fernando, a man in the thread business who happened to be reading, of all things, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” (http://laurel-guatemala.blogspot.com/2007/01/7-or-8-habits.html). He gave me his business card, and that would have been the end of the story except the day after my parents left I was walking by myself in Antigua and he and I came to the same street corner at the same moment. Thus we went on a date last February, the night before I was leaving to go up to Flores, and while we had a nice time I didn’t feel particularly compelled to continue it over the phone and eventually stopped answering his phone calls. On this recent trip visiting Lucky I even told her this story and she called me a rompe-corazón, a heartbreaker. Well, as destiny or luck would have it, I got a chance to break his heart a second time because on this recent trip which should have been from Xela to GC to Flores in one go, when I decided to spend the night in Antigua instead of attempting to continue on that same day, I got off the Xela to GC bus at a GC McDonald’s to use the bathroom, and who is sitting there in a booth when I walk by? We were both surprised, though I only stood there gaping for a minute before I excused myself to continue on to the bathroom, having just gotten off a bus after 6 hours. When I came back, though, we chatted, and I ended up telling him that I’d stopped answering his phone calls because I’m not much of a phone talker in general, I’m even less of a phone talker in Spanish, and, well, I kind of had the feeling he might have taken our relationship potential a little more seriously than I had. He was like, “well, you know, I live in the moment,” but then he went on to tell me that remembering that I was coming back in September, when September came around he called me repeatedly (I had to buy a new phone chip with a new phone number when I got here, though) and went to Antigua multiple times and looked around in the places where he thought I might hang out in the hopes of seeing me. In my mind I was like, “um, yeah, that’s kind of what I had in mind when I said you took it seriously,” but because I felt bad I invited him to come to Antigua that night and hang out, which we did, though I’d already told him that there was no chance between us. This did not prevent him from feeling a certain hopefulness as we said goodnight, however, which I squashed on the spot and then apparently squashed again the next day when he called me while I was on the bus to Flores and I didn’t answer. I guess after his previous experience with me, this time he’s giving up earlier. And thus I came back to Flores, where I did get the bienvenida from Memo and family, who were all happy to see me and I was happy to see them. He and I were talking and to catch me up he told me that he’d had dengue fever while I was gone and started to list his symptoms and I was like, “Gee, I had pain around my kidneys too… wow, I had a bad headache… shivering you say? Sounds familiar… Rash?” My case apparently was much milder than his, though, because I never asked God to strike me dead nor did I start getting my affairs in order, but it was bad enough. Apparently it has a two week incubation period, so I think a mosquito passed it between us and he and I were sick at the same time, 500 km apart. Well, it feels kind of good to know that I weathered my first tropical disease, and to have a name for it instead of just being some weak-sauce tourist suffering from unfamiliar food. I am practically all better, though I am still occasionally alternating between ecstatic moments of scratching my ankles, followed by a steeling of my resolve to not touch them. And I should have listened to my mother and gone to the doctor when she suggested it instead seizing on her anecdote about the time the doctor told her to take Benedryl to clear up a rash. For her, it worked like a jiffy. For me, it made me sleepy, unable to conjugate Spanish verbs, and didn’t relieve my itchiness, though hopefulness made me try two times.

Josie Tribute

Anyone else missing her? Probably the only ones that can say no to that are my parents. Cherish her!

Cribs

It was a snap to find a place to stay. I looked for signs, asked for leads, and in the end chose a simple room in a 4 room "hotel". Gladys and her husband live below, then they have 4 rooms above and since I am going to be here a long while they arranged it to my liking. 1000Q/month, or $132. It is near the family I hang with, and it is pretty sweet. Just a simple room and a private bathroom, with the "widow maker" type of shower head.




Views from balcony















Pretty much every time I leave either the sheets
are changed or the trash is taken out, but rarely both.











Special guest

Bienvenida?

When I first got to Flores and was reunited with the family I stayed with last time, Memo (a gringo who's been living here for 4 years), his Guatemalan wife Angelica, her kids Reyna (10) and Wilso (8), their kid Paralee (1.5), and Angelica's sister Zaira (freshly 18), I was a little disappointed. I'd stayed here for 3 weeks 6 months ago, but the kids didn't really seem to remember me. Even Zaira, who I thought I'd had plenty of girl-time with, was like, "where are you from?" I guess it was partly because in the 6 months I was away they'd turned their place into a hostel, and so a parade of gringas has come through here. But everyone warmed up again pretty quickly and it is comfortable again. I've arranged to eat many of my meals with them when I'm in town, and I've hunkered down in their internet cafe with my own laptop. And last night I felt things really turned a corner with the little kids, when they remembered completely on the own that I had taught them the robot dance last time I was here.

Anyway, this is a nice arrangement because I can cook occasional things in their kitchen and I don't have to sit alone in a restaurant whenever I want a real meal, which gets old fast. I just have to be on guard against tickle attacks, but if I get my back into a corner I can usually hold the two of them off pretty well.

It's becoming routine

I actually shocked myself in the shower again last night, though this time it was not so much of a surprise, I knew I was running a risk. I was trying to adjust something on the shower head, when I felt the tingle. The part I was touching appeared all plastic, though, so I am not sure what parts are safely touchable and which are not. Perhaps I need a more advanced tutorial.

And it has been pointed out to me by Stacy that I mis-wrote the code for dialing out of the US when I posted my phone number. My number here is 011-502-5185-5624, not 001-etc. as I had originally posted.

Anyway, last Friday I went into the big bad city and had some meetings with folks involved in the park management. All turned out well, I kind of just crashed their gap analysis workshop, talked to the folks I needed to talk to, then skedaddled. On the way back to Antigua, the very full bus I was on suddenly and completely conked out. I've never witnessed a faster death of an automobile. It was like we coasted to a stop and then all the electricity failed. Maybe it's the new electro-magnetism I am carrying around with me since my shower incident. Batteries fail, hard drives erase... it's a mess. Anyway, it was dark, and they tried to clutch-start the bus by letting it roll backwards downhill. I put my head down on my arms, braced in crash position, but fortunately that did not happen, but nor did the engine start. In the end, all the passengers got off and we got into whichever buses stopped for us, little by little. A long trip!

Yesterday, Sunday, I left Antigua and came to Flores, the biggish urban area closest to where I am going to be doing my research. I'm starting out with the family that I stayed with last time, though since then they have converted the huge room I had all to myself into a dormitory style hostel. So I need to find something new, with more more privacy and room to spread out. I also want it to have cable TV. Let me know if you hear of anything.

It finally happened

It was just a matter of time, amazing that I escaped it those 3 months when I was here before, but today I finally did what I knew would happen one day. I electrocuted myself in the shower. It wasn't extremely painful, it was a really strange feeling. It was like I'd stubbed my finger really hard and then waves were radiating through my arm. This photo is of a pretty typical shower head here in Guatemala, though not the actual one with which I had my encounter. It's an electric water heater and most visitors who come here need a tutorial on how to use them. A high water flow means the water will be too cool, but with a low flow the electric heater is sufficient for heating it up and you have a nice shower. Kat and Jude taught me that when I came the first time last December, as well as warning me not to touch it. Mid-shower I was stretching my back, arms above my head, when zzzztttt!!! I don't even know which part I touched, but it got me good. I don't recommend it, but if you're interested to experiment with electrocution I guess this is the way to do it. Fortunately they do 110 volts here, but anyway. Yow.

Since I got here a few days ago, I've kind of just been waiting around for a meeting I'm supposed to have in Guatemala City before I make the 8 hour bus ride up north. I decided to hunker down in Antigua while I'm waiting since here, in comparison to Guatemala City, the ratio of cheap to safe for accommodations is more even. At first I had pretty sharp nostalgia for when I was here with my parents (see photo, taken last February), but that has subsided somewhat. I hadn't been talking to too many people since I got here, so in the interest of working the kinks out of my spanish conversation and also just to talk to someone I had a 4 hour lesson at one of the language schools here. We just gabbed the whole time, it was exactly as I'd hoped. At any rate, I am filling my time with my regular work and little incidentals, like I had to get a new chip for my cell phone. And thus my phone number is now 5185-5624 (add 011 and 502 to the front of that if you're calling from the US).

Tomorrow, exciting meetings in the city!