Lago Atitlan

I visited Lake Atitlan this past weekend. It was a relaxing weekend in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

The Past Few Weeks

Happy belated Thanksgiving! It’s been a few weeks since I have written. Lets see if I can recap. Overall, everything is still going well. My only complaint is that I have lost weight and I didn’t think it was possible for my breast to get any smaller; but they have. Maybe that is God’s plan to keep me humble? Or a curse bestowed upon me the morning I was born when my father asked my mother “Do you think she will have breast one day?” I still don’t know if that story is true and one might think that it is odd and somewhat perverted that a father would ask such a question. So I’m just going to change the subject and move on to my next thought.

During the past few weeks, I had the chance to visit “Fuentes Georginas” which is a natural hot spring with Jacuzzi like pools cut out in the mountains. The steaming, medicinal water was very relaxing and by the end of the day my hands and feet looked like prunes. It’s the closest thing to a bath I have had since I have been here since all the homes only have showers.

One night my legs and stomach were attacked by an unknown predator. I woke up one morning, itchy and with red bumps on my body. My host mom thought I had an allergic reaction to food, I thought I had creepy crawlers in my bed. Whatever the case may be, I bruised myself scratching too hard. I changed my bed sheets immediately, washed all my clothes, and luckily within a few days the bites went away.

On November 3, I participated in a Mayan ceremony on the anniversary of my grandmother’s death. Without going into detail, I told Sergio about it and he thought that this was a really bad idea. He is Christian and believes that it’s possible that this priestess put a spell on me or something. I’m not too concerned about this woman wanting to eat my soul. I enjoyed the ceremony and found it quit therapeutic and peaceful. But I’m sure he is praying to Jesus for me right now. He grew up in a very religious home so I can understand his concern. On Halloween, his mother told me to ask the Lord to cleanse my body and rid it of any bad spirits before I entered her house that night. I told her “ok, no problem.” I mean, who wants bad spirits following them? I believe in God and I think there are many forms of worship, meditation, or prayer. As long as my head doesn’t start spinning like the girl in the exorcist, I think I’ll be fine. I’m open to learning about other religions and spiritualities.

Translating conferences continues to be a challenge but I can tell that I am improving. Some of my new vocabulary this week included the following words: clandestine operations, neo- liberalism, trans-culturalization, bio fuel, agrarian reform, impunity, patronage, extra judiciary, legislative chamber of labor, open pit mining, paleolithic, vindicate, African palm oil, fair trade agreement, and gross domestic product…some of which I have no idea what they mean in English. I’m not complaining, just pointing out why this process might take a while.

I know I’m happy because the usual annoyances that would typically bother me; don’t. I don’t mind the fact that my shower only has two temperatures; cold and scolding hot. Or that my bathroom sink has two speeds; dribble or fire hose. I don’t mind that sometimes the electricity goes out or that there is no running water in the house for hours. My bank account was over drafted by $400 last week but hey whatever’s… My sister is mailing me packets of Swiss miss hot chocolate. Its freaking cold at night. Xela is located about 8,000 feet about sea level in the mountains and the homes have no heating system; so you have to make do with lots of blankets and warm clothes at night. Add rain to this already cold climate, it’s no surprise I often hug my hair dryer at night. The hot air and heat from my Conair Ion Shine over my body is so orgasmic.

Some of the things I really like about living here: Life is simple. I know I speak with someone with a lot of privilege, as a US citizen living in a third world country. But that’s a whole other topic. I’ll just say that life, for me, is simpler here. I’m fulfilling one of my life goals. As I reflect and compare my home country with my new home country, the materialism of the US is quite disgusting. There is such an excess of shit, shit, and more shit….of clothes, toys, cars, food, waste. I think of the many poor children and people here that only have one pair of shoes or no shoes at all. How many pairs of shoes are in your closet? I think of the poverty in this country. Malnutrition and hunger is an epidemic. How much food do you have stored in your kitchen cabinets? For how long has that food just been sitting there? I think of our justice system, though flawed, the numbers don’t compare to how 98% of all crimes committed go without any type of jurisdiction. How easy it is to go about our lives and not think of all the sadness and injustice in the world?