Well, this was a fairly adventurous week. To start with, the bed at the hotel we stayed at in Xela had fleas. I’ve managed to get long-term fleas in every foreign country I’ve lived in so far (ok, minus Canada, but I was only there for a week...), so I wasn’t very excited to get ‘em again. For anyone who hasn’t had fleas, let me compare a flea bite to a mosquito bite. And times it by about 2 or 3 (or maybe 10) as far as intensity of itchiness. And put the bites in much more awkward places (unlike mosquitoes, fleas can crawl...). Not real pleasant. I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with stow-aways. So the night I returned from Xela, I told Manuela I had fleas and that I would hang all my clothes on the line tomorrow when it was sunny to get rid of them (it didn’t work in Ecuador, but hey, it was worth a shot!). She said the cold would probably do it and that I should hang them out right then. So I did. And it rained that night. On pretty much all my clothes, including the new sweaters I just bought. And the sun didn’t shine all that day. So I dried a couple sweaters (mostly) by the fire the next morning and wore them for a couple of days until everything else dried out. Silly alPop! What was I THINKING leaving anything on the line unattended?... Oh, well. No new flea bites though, so it was worth it, I say.

On Tuesday I started classroom observations at the local elementary school. I briefly explained my project to one of the 4th grade teachers and asked permission to sit in the back. She agreed. It was recess at the time, so I found a seat at the back of the room and started taking notes about the physical classroom. 3 boys were in the room and took interest in the big blond at the back (I’m tall for Guatemala... but especially for an elementary school in Guatemala...). They slowly made their way back to where I was sitting and stood about 4 feet away, facing me silently. When I looked up from my notebook they averted their eyes and started poking each other. Hmm. Let’s break the ice, shall we? I asked one of them what his name was. There was a moment of silence as they stared at me like deer at a headlight. One jumped behind his friend, pointed at him and said “Santiago,” then ran out of the room. The other two moved away, but made their way back to gawk as I turned back to my notes. Geesh, do I really look THAT weird?! Apparently so, because a group of 5 girls entered the room next, and as soon as I caught their eye, they started staring and pointing. They, too, made their way to the back of the room to get a better look. I tried to play nonchalant and kept writing until they were about 2 feet away, then looked up to meet their stare. I told them my name and asked a few getting-to-know-you questions and got a few hesitant answers from brave kids. The crowd circling me grew as more students arrived from recess. One girl finally spoke up and asked if I was married. I think marriage indicates status to a large degree in this culture, because it’s always one of the first questions I get from pretty much everyone here. Anyway, it was both awkward and entertaining to experience their curiosity.

That was Tuesday. Wednesday there was an earthquake somewhere in Guatemala (I’m still not sure if it was in Guatemala City or somewhere off the coast... everyone tells me something different). About 6.8 on the Richter scale, they say. I was sitting on my bed typing up field notes when it struck. I could feel the bed shake and wondered if perhaps I was having a dizzy spell, as I have been wont to have in the past, especially with large changes in air pressure. Anyhow, it only lasted maybe a minute and wasn’t very strong. Some of my fellow ethnographers didn’t even feel it. I hope other places in Guatemala are OK, though.

Thursday was a sunny day, and it was Sports Day at the elementary school, so I went to watch the soccer matches and interact with students. And forgot to put on sunscreen. Man, I’m red. I’ve got 2 possible skin colors – red and white. No bronze in between, just one or the other. So I guess I’ve got 2 options in Guatemala – skin cancer or seasonal affective disorder ;) . It was a lot of fun, and I made a few friends (who also asked whether I was married, among about a bazillion other questions... ah, 5th graders...). Another anthropology student (whom we affectionately dub “Energizer Bunny”) had managed to put together a cheer squad among enthusiastic 6th graders 2 days prior, and they cheered at the soccer match. I had the privelege of helping the girls at the top of the pyramid keep their balance as we took pictures. I’ll post a copy if I get a chance...

Friday it didn’t rain at all, which is practically a miracle as far as I’m concerned. Saturday made up for it by raining all day. But it was a good day. I got to watch a boot-leg copy of Pirates III. It was dubbed over in Spanish, and the sound was horrible, but eh, what can you do? 2.5 hours of Orlando Bloom is worth it, I say ;)... I also went to two birthday parties. Combine that with clubbing last weekend in Xela, and I’m turning into a regular party animal here. (It had been a really, really long time since I’d been clubbing, and now I know why I waited so long... large crowds of noisy people... strobe lights streaming through clouds of tobacco... strange people touching me every few seconds... yechhhh! I’m starting to think I’m my father’s daughter or something...) A son and a son-in-law in my host family just had birthdays, and they decided to celebrate it at the same time they had the Catholic pastor come by to bless the house. That was an awesome experience. I haven’t had a chance to go to mass yet. I’ll have to do that. My host dad and brother wrote songs on the guitar for the birthday boys, and they also had us gringas sing “Happy Birthday” in English. Then they brought out the cake with abundant frosting and, as is customary in these parts, had the lucky guys take the first bite of the cake before they cut it (or in other words, they shoved their heads into the frosting... hey, it beats the spanking machine...).

Sunday I got to go to the LDS church in Nahualá for the first time. They spoke Spanche’ (streams of words in both Spanish and K’iche’), which made things interesting. I’m to the point where I recognize isolated words in K’iche, but I still struggle putting them in context. The hymns and scriptures are in Spanish, and wherever a K’iche word doesn’t exist or is inconvenient, they throw in Spanish. At least I could understand part of what they were saying. It’s too bad I live too far away to attend activities during the week. I’d love to get to know some of the members better. As it turns out, one of my fellow students lives with the Relief Society president there in Nahualá.

Well, this is getting pretty dang long, so I’ll end here and continue in a different post.

Your mangy, flea-bitten, sun-bleached lobster,
AlPop