I'm going goingback back to Cali Cali

Sumpango was a tough act to follow, but I had a little over a week to go, so I headed back to Lake Atitlan for one last visit. This time, I decided to go to San Marcos La Laguna, a town known for its New-Agey-ness and laid-back vibe. I went by myself and then met up with a friend a day later and planned on going to a meditation/spiritual retreat center every day for four days for meditation and yoga classes, do a little reflecting before going back to unemployment.

When I visited Lake Atitlan with my sister at the end of May, we met an Australian named Athena who had just finished a month-long retreat at the meditation center “Las Piramides.” She was so happy and calm (and also high, which I was completely unaware of) and told me that I HAD to go to the meditation center in order to get my life together. I remembered my third grade Greek mythology, who am I to ignore Athena? I went online and read up about the center. Apparently, a Guatemalan woman had visions of pyramids and a center and went to San Marcos and opened her center there and thanks to the power of her mind, everything she has wanted and worked for has come true for her. She runs month-long and three-month long meditation retreats for people that start and end on the new moon and throughout the retreats people live in little pyramid structures on the property and go to the large pyramid she constructed for yoga, meditation, and metaphysics classes every day except Sunday. For the last week (or last month) of the course, all participants take a vow of silence and do intensive meditation and reflection and keep a special diet. The center sounded interesting, at least the meditation and yoga did, so I decided to go, but only for a few days, and I did not want to live there since it sounded a little bit meshugenneh (crazy). I stayed at a lovely hotel next door, Posada Schumann and went in the mornings to yoga and in the evenings to meditation.

Hotel where I stayed

Man in raft on lake

Meditation pyramid

During the day, I went out on the lake with my friend and visited Panajachel, San Pedro, and walked around San Marcos and Tzunnuna. Due to the heavy rains of the previous rainy season, the Lake had actually grown since I was last there and a lot of the promenade area in Panajachel was underwater (and the front two rooms of my hotel were flooded as well). Otherwise, the lake was beautiful as usual and it was beautiful weather for traveling around.

On the lake, two volcanoes

With my friend on promenade in Panajachel

My last sombrilla ice cream covered in chocolate

At a neat eco-boutique hotel in San Marcos La Laguna

Close-up of a window made of bottles at eco-hotel

Flower

My feet

Ladies doing their commute

Chabad House in San Pedro La Laguna

Cantina Return Return

I returned to Antigua for one last night before going to Guatemala City and flying back to the United States. I met up with Estela and her son for a final goodbye and went to a Macadamia Nut farm nearby to check out their famous macadamia pancakes (pretty pretty pretty good).

Antigua at dusk

With Estela

With Estela and family

Macadamia Pancakes at Valhalla

Finally, I went to Guatemala City to my friend Don Edgar’s graduation from San Carlos University. It was the most beautiful graduation I had ever seen – Don Edgar presented a summary of his thesis and thanked people for support throughout his studies in front of invited friends and family and his thesis board. The professors all congratulated Don Edgar on his graduation and the high quality of his thesis and then he was hooded by his graduation ‘godparents’ – his father and brother. It was a wonderful ceremony and a great final memory to end my 27 months in Guatemala.

With the newly capped graduate, Arq. Edgar

To those of you who have followed my blog over the interminable 27 months that I have been blogging from Guatemala (more like 28 months at this point since I have been derelict), thank you for your sintonía. Peace Corps was an amazing experience and I am so happy that I got to do it and that I got to share it on my blog. In the earlier days, when I did not have as much going on, I would think about my blog posts when I was bored and figure out how to make them both informational and entertaining. Whether I achieved that goal is up for discussion, but for me at least, it was a lot of fun to write about things and share my (albeit) limited knowledge with you. Peace Corps has three goals, the third one of which is to promote understanding of other cultures and peoples by Americans, and I hope that this blog has served that purpose. I would like to end my blog for the indefinite future (does anyone really want to hear about my depressing job search? I don’t) with a video that summarizes my experiences, and answers a question that has plagued men for decades, "Where does chewing gum come from?"

Chag Sameach and Feliz Año Nuevo

RPCV! And Sumpango

Before I embark upon my travels in Guatemala, some final photos from Pachalum. The Municipal Women’s Committee had a final goodbye lunch for me on my second-to-last day at one of the ladies’ house. The food was good and Luz María, my old counterpart who came along, brought her adorable one-year-old son who decided he was ready to start driving a vintage Land Rover.

With Women’s Committee at Doña Luisa’s House

Rodrigo and Luz María with the Ron Ron

Rodrigo up close in Ron Ron

On October 27^th, after far too many goodbyes and tears, I finally left Pachalum (quite literally sobbing the whole way from Pachalum to the next municipality 9 kilometers away, it was all very sad) and went back to Peace Corps to put in my final paperwork and officially become an RPCV. There was last minute drama with my SPA project with some finances that I had calculated erroneously and then some checks that needed to be rewritten, all of which was a huge headache and which is apparently par for the course with all projects. It really makes me wonder how much I want to get involved in international development work since my $2,700 grant caused so much grief. On the other hand, my friends who are continuing as Peace Corps Volunteers asked me in my last days in Guatemala if I was sad about leaving, and I honestly answered that the SPA project and the never-ending headaches it caused made me look forward to leaving a lot more.

I remained in Antigua for four or five days finishing up paperwork and then hanging out with friends. On the night of our official Close of Service (COS), nine of us volunteers who stayed until the last day (Peace Corps gives permission for volunteers in good standing to leave up to a month before the official COS date, so of the twenty-eight or so of us who finished, only eleven were still around on October 29^th) went to the new house of a volunteer who decided to stay on for another year in Antigua working with other NGOs to celebrate Halloween and the end of our service. At midnight we had a countdown for the end of our service and from that moment on I was a free woman again.

With Ashley in Antigua

COS group at midnight October 29^th in Kamille’s House

My last two weeks in Guatemala were definitely weird no longer being a volunteer – after having to report my whereabouts for two years every time I spent a night out of site, I was now free to do whatever I wanted! So I went to Sumpango.

Sumpango is a large town close to Guatemala City that is famous (along with Santiago Sacatepéquez) for the HUGE kites people make to fly on Day of the Dead (Todos los Santos, November 1^st). My new sitemate, Sahisha, did her three months of training in Sumpango, so she invited me to go with her to see the festival and spend the night with her host family. I figured that kites would be entertaining for maybe an hour or so and then I would be bored, but I was completely wrong. The Sumpango kite festival is probably one of the coolest things I have seen and I highly recommend that anyone who wants to go to Guatemala plan their trip around the start of November to go to Sumpango or Santiago for a day.

All around Guatemala (and southern Mexico) families go to the cemetaries on Day of the Dead to decorate the graves of loved ones and give offerings. It is customary to make special sweet bread and to have lunch with the dead family members. In Guatemala, the start of November is also the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the windy season (the winds come from the North and push away the clouds in un-official meteorological report fashion). The winds make for great kite-flying weather, so like you saw in the last post from Pachalum, children all over the country make or buy small kites and fly them (apparently, this is also common practice in Europe during the month of November, it is just a windy time of year.)

Preparing cemetery for the dead

Take 2

Lots of bootleg liquor for dearly departed

Santiago and Sumpango are like the McDonald’s of Guatemalan kites - they supersize them. The tradition of making HUMONGOUS kites in Sumpango comes from the ancestors. Legend has it that many years ago, evil spirits came to bother the good spirits who came home to visit their families on Day of the Dead in the cemeteries. In the 1980s, the kite competition was started as a way to re-establish cultural values that were being lost due to the Civil War. Every year, there is a different theme for the festival and groups of 35 men work together over the course of months to make their kites out of tissue paper with frames made out of bamboo or sugar cane. It takes around 45 6-hour days of consecutive work with 35+ men to make a kite. According to a pamphlet I was handed, the estimation of cost to make one of the kites (including not only tissue paper, but also work hours, etc) is approximately Q44,690.00, which is $5,586.25 (using a Q8=$1 exchange rate).

The kites come in various sizes, with the largest kites (10 meters and larger) only judged according to appearance/artistry, medium-sized kites (3-6 meters) judged not only on artistry but also on their ability to fly, a category of uniquely-shaped kites that are judged on their artistry, and finally a children’s category that is ‘small’ kites (1 – 2.5 meters). The kites are judged by a panel of five to seven people and I do not envy their work, as you can see, the kites were amazing.

Kites from afar

All the kites were set up on the football field in rows. The smallest kites were in the first rows and the larger kites in the back rows. In the morning, while the children’s kites competed, we walked through the kites on display. Except for the very largest, all of the kites were flown in the afternoon.

Channeling my inner tiger with Sahisha with a smaller kite

Kites from not so far

You can see that some of the kites had really cool cutouts. The wind actually damaged a lot of the larger kites by the afternoon, so the cutouts were a good design technique to let the wind go through.

Close-up of kite, Sumpango reppin

A small cutout section of a large kite

Another super cool HUGE kite

This kite and the next one were just for display, not for flying.

Next to a tall kite

With Sahisha and other PCVs with a kite that was in the flying category

After going around all morning, we went back to Sahisha’s house for lunch and on the way back to the football field, we saw the cemetery even more decorated and family’s celebrating and eating on the graves.

More décor at the cemetary

Back on the field, we paid Q10 to sit in some bleachers that were set-up to watch the kites in action. This was an excellent investment since most of those kites did not end up flying. They would get a running start, sail for a minute or two in the air, and then dive into the crowds below. It was really entertaining to watch and not be in danger of getting a bamboo stick to the head.

With Sahisha in the stands ready to watch flying competition

Running the kites to fly

Each group had three tries to make their kite fly, and most of them did not make it.

After an hour or so, three kites were in the air. There seemed to be litmus of some sort, with kites that were able to get to a certain height in liftoff making it and maintaining in the air. These three kites were really high up in the air and stayed there for a long time.

Meanwhile, back in the display section, kites that were not flown were taken down around 5:30pm.

By the time we left the fairgrounds, only one kite was still in the air and it was high. I wonder how the kites that go that far up ever come down since there is a lot of pressure on the rope. The man holding the kite had his hand wrapped in shirts to prevent injury, but still, I think his hands got pretty beaten up.

Kite with moon

Holding onto the rope for the kite, a family affair

Sumpango was amazing and I hope that I get the chance to go to Santiago next year. Apparently the feeling is totally different in the two towns – Sumpango feels like a fair, while in Santiago the kites are run through the streets and they are not as large.

Last Days in Pacha

It has been three weeks since I have gotten home, so I will admit these blogs are a little late, but I have needed this time to process the fact that I am back home and no longer the only white chick around. That, and realizing that the job search is as unpleasant as everyone said it was motivated me to go back and relive my last few weeks in Guatemala in excruciating detail.

Early on I realized that as much as I loved Pichacha, I was not ready to take her back to the USA with me. I have never had a pet in the States, I do not know how to control or train an animal, and I have no idea where I will be living next month, let alone whether they allow pets…so Pichacha needed to get her business in check. A small NGO called Animal AWARE near Antigua that serves as a shelter for street dogs (not to be a pessimist, but anyone who visits Guatemala can tell you that is a losing battle) has medical missions once a month where some vets show up and give animals vaccinations and neuter them. Since I do not want Pichacha to end up pregnant too young and abandoned to the streets with too many babies to feed, I decided to leave her fixed as a parting gift. Unfortunately for me, the whole month of October was essentially an extended standfast for all of us at Peace Corps due to extreme weather and horrible roads. This year, unlike last year, the rainy season came really late, but nevertheless the government was not prepared (on the other hand, how prepared can you be for massive mudslides and road deterioration because of poor construction?) and the roads were a nightmare. Since Animal AWARE is in Sahisha’s (my sitemate) the training town, she went along with me to help me find the way (still got lost) and the road from Pachalum to Guatemala City was probably the worst I have ever seen it. There were humongous potholes with the mud (again, poor construction, putting asphalt on dirt does not a good road make) and on one curve, we saw what looked like a dinosaur bite taken out of the road.

Road to Pachalum

Another angle

Getting Pichacha fixed was a very traumatic experience for both of us. When she woke up from the anesthesia I was called into a room where a variety of other dogs were being operated, a sight I had never seen before and which I never need to see again. After the operation we were told not to let her do anything rigorous or exert energy so that the stiches would not rip. The rest of the day I kept Pichacha in my lap as she kind of dozed and woke up and then we tied her up for three days so she would not run around with her other dog-friends. Pichacha did not take the restricted movement lying down and started to rip at the stiches by herself. My friend found some baby onesies in his house and put those on her to prevent her from reaching the stitches and they did the trick.

With Cristian and operated Pichacha

With Cristian and his little chicken he named after me – Cristian says that when I got back to visit we will eat Athalia for lunch

Pichacha learning to mind her manners

All by her lonesome

After finishing up the pila project, there was not much work left for me to do in Pachalum except write final reports and say goodbye. Surprisingly for me, I was not as sad as I thought I would be until the very end. I went around to all of my women’s groups up until my last week and we had fun making food and chatting. I think that I felt better about leaving since I had made a commitment to return next year (if we are all around and anyone wants to travel, I am planning on going between November and December 2012). The hardest women’s group to say goodbye to was my group of ladies in Las Minas de Ciprés. They are the community that I have spent the most amount of time with and in order to say goodbye we had a big party. I brought a humongous cake (strawberries and cream, yum!) and the women killed a chicken in front of me and made a stew that I had taught them how to make (Tomato Paste Chicken…which I call Pollo a la Kati) and chicken soup, which was amazing. I have never seen a chicken being killed and de-feathered and everything else before and I was surprised that it was not actually that gruesome. There were parts of the chicken that I did not even know existed (I think it is called the gullet, that is where all the corn kernels Mr. Chicken was eating right before his neck got snapped were). The women were super pilas (quick/on point) about taking off feathers, preparing the feet, cutting off the beak and roasting the head and I was duly impressed.

Ana Delia roasting that chicken head

I wanted to impress them too, so I washed my hands and got busy with the masa to make some tortillas. Sadly, over two years after I first tried to tortillar, my tortillas still came out like pieces of abstract art. I wish I had focused less on being in the office and more on making my tortillas even and round, but it is too late for laments. The novelty was still entertaining for everyone else, and Monica even gave me a helping hand so one of my tortillas looked alright.

Still suck at making tortillas

Monica in the background basically made the tortilla and I mushed it a bit in my hand to claim ownership

With Doña María and a recuerdo

With all the ladies one last time

After another bad rainy season, the end of October brought strong winds from the north, which pushed all the clouds away and made for perfect kite-flying weather. Just like I came to Pachalum at the end of October, just in time for feria and kite-flying season, so I left it.

Flying homemade kites in the backyard

Take Two with Pichacha watching

With Rosa and Cristian and Sahisha eating some feria fries