Electricity Celebration

EORM (Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta) Paiz is becoming one of my favorite schools. This is my smallest school with only three teachers where the kindergarteners are in a shack and first, second, and sixth grades share a teacher and a classroom. On one of my visits I found the kids practicing a dance. It turns out that the next day the school was having a big celebration because they were getting electricity! Yay! So naturally I came back the next day to watch the festivities. Of course the healthy schools volunteer in me was thinking "come on... really? Another day when there are no classes?" But I did enjoy this cultural event where the kids danced and sang. It was really a nice event. There were not that many people in attendance. It was mostly mothers. Afterwords everyone was served tea, a tamale, and a piece of bread. It was good.

Maize dance

Carrying in the flag of Guatemala

Kids getting ready for their performances in the kindergarten shack

Many babies and small children in Guatemala drink soda and coffee. I have even seen these two items put into baby bottles and given to children.Guatemalans are in general a very short people. This is partially genetic but also partially from stunting as a result of malnutrition and growing up on caffeine. If you need a reference point I am tall for both Guatemalan men and women!

 

A Guatemalan celebration wouldn't be complete without cohetes (rockets) more like little firecrackers the produce smoke and very loud popping sounds.  It is a tradition here that on  someone's birthday you wake them up very very early in the morning with these little bombas. This also means that you wake up all of your neighbors. I didn't get this on my birthday because I arrived in my site a week before and my host family didn't know me that well, but my old family told me that if I had stayed there another week they definitely would have given me this birthday awakening. Maybe next year.

And one more because she is THE cutest. Most areas in Guatemala have different trajes (this traditional outfit). The one that this girl is wearing is a traditional Xela traje. You can see how this skirt is more puffed out almost like a small hoop skirt whereas the skirts on her friends in the picture above and in the top picture are just pieces of cloth wrapped around.

My Favorite Guatemalan Slang Words: Fijese Que....y Saaaaaaaber

Fijese que...: If you ask a Guatemalan a favor or if the meeting that you were supposed to go to is still happening and they start their sentence with “fijese que...” STOP LISTENING. It's not worth it you already have your answer. The only thing that will ever follow those two words are excuses or reasons for not doing whatever it is you are asking about. This is the Guatemalan equivalent for my dog ate my homework.

Saber: Saber on the other hand is one of my favorite Guatemalan slang words.  Saber is literally the verb “to know” in Spanish, but when you hear “saber” in Guatemala it means loosely “who knows” or “I have no idea.” So naturally I enjoy this word because I usually have no idea what is going on :). I also like how they stretch out the word to really put an emphasis on how sure they are that they have no idea. Saaaaaaaaber is more like it. It is also just one word that says so much. There is no: “I'm not exactly sure about ________ because _______,” just “saber.” Unless of course you are coming up with an excuse in which case it would be “fijese que...”

Custom Made Leather Boots from Pastores

I HIGHLY recommend to any tourist who is spending time in Antigua to take a couple hours to travel about 20-25 minutes in a camioneta (2.5 Quetzales) to Pastores to shop for boots. This small town is known for their leather boots. For a good couple of blocks the street is lined with boot shops literally one after another. They are handmade there with real leather. Most shops have a sewing machine in them and often you can see Guatemalans stitching away. The boots are gorgeous! Most are cowboy boots, but they also offer different styles. They also make boots with the typical Guatemalan fabric up the sides. The prices range from about 225Q-500Q ($29-$65) depending on the style and height of the boots.

I had a pair of boots specially made for me. I printed out a picture of a pair of boots that I liked and brought that to one of the shops. He then traced my foot and took some measurements, I picked out the two different kinds of leather that I wanted and then came back in two weeks to pick them up. They cost me 275 Quetzales ($36). I LOVE THEM! I'm glad that I waited 7 months to get my first pair because I think I might be hooked.

This is the picture that I gave to the bootmaker
(They are the Frye Shirley Strappy boots) 

Elección del Reina Infantil - Election of the Child Queen

Schools here in Guatemala participate in and put on many different cultural events throughout the year. It is really nice to see that they are actively trying to preserve their Mayan heritage and as a newcomer in Guatemala it is awesome for me to see, but as a healthy schools volunteer sometimes I wish that they would just have classes. Oh well. One of the most recent events put on by the school in my town was the Elección del Reina Infantil (Election of the child queen). I unfortunately don't work in this school, but my host niece, Meli, was the contestant for preprimaria (kindergarten). Much like the elección of the madrina that I went to where the contestants were the teachers this was a beauty pageant for the girls in the school. One girl from each grade kindergarten-sixth participated in this event. This time there were three categories: traje tipico (traditional Mayan dress), traje deportiva (sportswear), and traje de gala (evening-wear). The winner gets to be queen for the year and was featured in an elaborate peacock float in the parade during our town fair. 

The winner - the contestant from first grade

My K'iche' teacher giving the opening blessing

 

Waiting to escort

Members of my host family (Meli in her traje de gala)

My host niece in her traje tipico

San Francisco El Alto, Totonicapán

I took a short bus ride to the market town of San Francisco El Alto which I am telling you gives San Francisco in California a run for it's money in terms of steep streets. Anyone who shops in this market on a regular basis must have calves of steel. This market is regarded as biggest and most authentic market in Guatemala. In the couple of hours that I spent there I feel like I only covered a small portion of the market. The many shops and streets filled with street vendors sold mostly clothes and typical cloth, fruits, vegetables, etc.

About a 45 minute camioneta ride away from the city center of Xela (Quetzaltenango), it is a totally doable short day trip. When I visited there I was the only 'tourist' there and it seemed to me that the prices reflected this. It is a market for Guatemalans although you still might get charged 'el precio gringo' the gringo-foreigner price.

Hats for sale

Steep street