Second Market Day in my Town

For the longest time we just had one big market day on Monday. This means that if I wanted to buy fruit or vegetables Monday was pretty much my only option. This worked out pretty well except that the market is basically only open during school hours (well it starts early in the morning but I don't like to madrugar (rise early)). Luckily for me we now have a second, albeit smaller, market day on Thursday mornings. Living without a refrigerator it is much better if I don't have to rely on my fruits and vegetables lasting a full week.  

Naturally in true Guatemalan style my town had a big celebration for the first day of this second market. They set up a big stage in the main square where all morning they had loud live music playing and dance performances. 

Public restrooms - you pay this man a couple of quetzales and get a little bit
of toilet paper

Two women praying at a Mayan altar

Woman selling sugar cane on the street

Live Marimba and brass band

Then there were the dances. All of the performers were men dressed up in these elaborate costumes and women's masks. They didn't so much dance as sway from side to side as the dance/marched around in different formations. You really have to see it to understand it.

Shopping here takes longer than usual. The market in my town is open air and takes up the whole "downtown" area which is the equivalent of a very small U.S. block. None the less walking up and down the streets, stopping to ask prices, and bargaining takes time (although I would say that it is worth it). 

Trash Management (or Lack Thereof)

There is no trash pick-up in my town so most families and schools burn their trash. All of their trash: paper, plastic, and organic. I personally separate my trash. I take my plastic trash into Xela when I go to do work or meet up with friends, I burn my paper trash in the plancha in my kitchen, and about once a week I feed my organic trash (aka food scraps) to the pigs. My host family has a lot of them and often times they can be found walking around the backyard and throughout the house. I don't have a sink and I have yet to see anything that looks like a garbage disposal anywhere in Guatemala so I store all of the scraps in a bucket and then whenever it gets full I take a little walk out back and give it all to the pigs. 

This is my kitchen when I am burning my paper trash. There is a chimney, but a lot of smoke escapes from the top nonetheless.

The to-be happy recipient of my organic trash

Election of the Madrina - Guatemala's Beauty Pageant for Teachers

Last week I went to the district-wide event in my town hall. A beauty pageant for teachers with four teachers competing. There was no school Friday so that all of the teachers could attend this event. It was on the hora Chapin (Guatemala-time). It was supposed to start at 8am, but when I got there at 8 there were only five people sitting in the audience. Finally at 9:15 they started with the national anthem, the anthem of Central America, the song Mi Linda Totonicapán (my beautiful Totonicapán), and a prayer. Finally at 10:00am the first contestant walked out. I should really know by now that late is on time.

Derrumbes (Landslides)

This word wasn't a part of my Spanish vocabulary before I came to Guatemala or even before I experienced a rainy season in Guatemala. It certainly is now. During the rainy season it rains almost every single day in the afternoon from May-December. It's not my favorite, although it is an excuse not to leave the house in the afternoon because Guatemalans don't like to go out in the rain either.

I have to pass by this to get from my town to Xela. Luckily they opened up a side path for cars so that traffic can pass by one way at a time. This probably adds about half an hour to my trip each way.

I wasn't able to snap a picture myself so I downloaded this one off the internet

I feel like if one were to pass by this in the U.S. one would think that a mini disaster had happened. Not here. Landslides are very common during the rainy season due to the poor infrastructure, overly saturated ground, and location of the roads. A lot of the roads are built right into the sides of mountains. I highly doubt this this will be the last time that my travel will be delayed due to landslides. That's just how it is here.  

I Think That I was Extra Hungry When I Went to the Market Today...

Total cost: $9.75 or 75.5 Quetzales

On the bright side, for less than $10 I bought: 30 eggs, cilantro, 1lb potatoes, cauliflour, 6 avocadoes, 6 red peppers, 3 cucumbers, 2 lbs tomatoes, a bag of carrots, a larger version of a zucchini, 2 heads of broccoli, a bunch of swiss chard, and 3 pineapples. A vegetarian's delight. I am not a vegetarian for the record. The only downside is that I then spent almost the entire afternoon disinfecting all of this in water and bleach. 

Also this happened:

$0.39 or 3 Quetzales worth of beet leaves

I saw that one of the venders had a lot of extra beet leaves laying around so I asked her if I could have them. Usually they just throw them away or leave them on the ground when they go home for the day. She said that she would sell me a bag for 3Q. Trying not to be stingy I agreed. Little did I know what size bag she was referring to. I'm not sure if you can tell exactly how big this bag is from the picture. It is about the same size as my entire torso. When she handed the bag I must have looked surprised because she offered to put more in the bag. I said thank you, but that wouldn't be necessary. I have NO idea how I am going to use all of these leaves in addition to the other vegetables that I bought before they go bad... My creativity and my stomach have its work cut out for it.

My Kitchen

All 5 of those windows are my kitchen

I have been cooking for myself. I found that when I was eating exclusively with my host family that I did not get enough vegetables. So when I moved into my new house I rented two rooms. One is my bedroom and the other is this kitchen. To get to my kitchen I have to go outside and downstairs.

As you can see in the picture on the left, the tin roof doesn't completely cover my kitchen – there is an overhang that overlaps the roof so I guess they felt no need to use more tin. This means that all kinds of things fall into my kitchen. Sometimes I am startled half to death by a chicken, turkey, or cat landing loudly on the tin roof over my head.

My host family left those two huge bundles of corn to dry in my kitchen. I like them as decoration although I kept on hitting my head on one of them before I rearranged my table.

I never knew that mold likes cement so much, but it is a big problem here, especially during the rainy season. Luckily there is a pretty easy fix for mold: spraying bleach mixed with water. 

My pans and mold

Under my toaster oven, water filter, egg carton, etc. is a plancha. Guatemalans use this to cook by lighting a fire inside. More on this later.

My industrial-sized stove top (the gas tank is behind it)

My shelves. This is where I keep my plates, silverware, etc. I keep all of my produce in the green basket covered by a towel. I also cover my silverware with a cloth (second shelf from the top) because the dust and dirt problem is so terrible that otherwise they would be constantly dirty. 

Here are some of the issues that I have with my kitchen:
- I have to get to it from the outside which is annoying in the rain.
- I don't have a refrigerator.
- There is no source of water anywhere on the same level of the house. This means that I am constantly hauling water down stairs to fill my water filter to have both drinking and cooking water.
- I have to bring my dishes upstairs to wash them.
- The tin roof doesn't fully cover my kitchen so rain water, dirt, and leaves are constantly covering everything in my kitchen. The cats have also discovered this entrance to my kitchen so I have to put my bread under a big bowl so that they don't eat it. Side note: Guatemalan animals are a lot like Guatemalan people. They love to eat bread.
- There is only one exposed lightbulb in my kitchen. This means that it is pretty dim in there at night and I have to prepare my food at an angle or else my body blocks the light on what I am preparing completely.

It's not much but it gets the job done. 

Guatemalan Mop

It is really quite practical and I for one am going to use this technique back in the States. This has probably already made its way there, but I haven't seen it. Here in Guatemala I have not seen a single conventional mop. Just these. They are so easy to make and economical too!                 
- All you do is cut a rectangle of an old towel.                                        
- Cut a hole in the center.              
- Put the broom handle through the hole and voila!  
                                                                          
It's also easy to clean because you can just take the towel part off and wash it.