Rolling with it
Semana Santa was our second to last week in training. We were sworn in as official volunteers at the Ambassador´s house (beautiful by the way) on the 12th of April, and on the 13th I began my two year stint at my site in Totnicapan. Our last week was very hectic, and to top it off my host father passed away on the 12th as well. Wednesday morning he was throwing up blood, spent the day in the hospital, and then the following afternoon he passed away. He had been a heavy drinker for a while before I arrived, and had just begun AA sessions, but all signs pointed to chorrisis. Within the past 6 or 7 months he lad lost a tremendous amount of weight in addition to his appetite. In general he wasn´t healthy, but his death was sill very sudden - just that Monday we were joking around and I was taking pictures of him. When I first arrived at his house to stay he was very welcoming, and immediately engaged me in conversation. Our discussion topics ranged from religion to politics, to life in the United States. He was a good man, and will be missed!
Host families are very interesting. When you first arrive you´re like ¨who are
these people?¨and you can´t imagine ever feeling comfortable in their house. The food is different, the shower is luke warm (some bathed with just buckets and boiled water), the toilettes are essentially holes in the ground - everything´s different, and on top of that the language barrier! Looking back on it I realize that I found comfort in food - food that I never ate or craved in the states! I found myself eating chocolate bars, pan dulce (sweet bread), anything sweet. In addition to my snacking in-between meals, I also ate everything that was put in front of me by my host mother. In the Guatemalan culture, it´s good to be fat or gordita and it´s also rude to refuse food. So imagine me in the beginning, not quite comfortable, not wanting to say no, not wanting to tell her that I was already full off of candy bars (because that would be insulting) - plus the food was good! I love rice and beans! But overtime as I got more comfortable, as I was able to build more ¨confianza¨with the family, I could tell her that I wanted smaller portions and more vegetables. I also stopped eating junk food; basically I became more comfortable.
So I´ve been at my official site for about a week now and I´m going through the adjustment process all over again- I´m lucky they serve smaller portions lol. I live with a professor and his family of four kids ages 14, 12, 9, 4. The wife and I really hit it off. She´s 33 with 4 kids but still lively and still young. She´s also very eager to learn English and teach me Kíche (the indigenous language here of which 90% of the women only speak). The father´s kind of a big dork, but he loves his kids and I can tell he wants everything for them. I´ve actually been kind of sick this whole week first with a pretty heavy cold and then with the big ¨D¨(the saying goes that you´re not a true volunteer until you poop in your pants - thus far we´ve had 3 volunteers from our group bite the dust) so I haven´t been able to spend as much time with the family as I would have liked, but I have two years don´t I? Today I think I found a house to live in. Rules say that I have to live with a family for three months, but after that I have the option of living on my own, which I´ll be ready to do. I´ll get two floors, with a bathroom and shower INSIDE for 600 quetzales/month (that´s about $80 per month). Don Domingo my future landlord said that he will install a hot water heater, but I´m still waiting to see how much this will set me back. It´s funny because house searching in Guatemala doesn´t involve realtors or contracts, it´s simply having the initiative to walk around, introduce yourself to people, and ask if they know of a place ¨disponible para alquilar por dos años¨(available to rent for two years). When I first came to visit my site about 3 weeks ago I began asking immediately, saw some houses, but none really fit the bill. I then noticed that it was harder and harder to get offers; people weren´t even thinking before saying no. I was talking to a guy today, quite possibly my future neighbor, and he said that people are curious but also scared of me. He said that people will come around after seeing me around daily- when they can trust the fact that I really will be here for two years. Thus far I´ve gotten all positive responses from people here, so I guess in time they´ll come around.
Host families are very interesting. When you first arrive you´re like ¨who are
these people?¨and you can´t imagine ever feeling comfortable in their house. The food is different, the shower is luke warm (some bathed with just buckets and boiled water), the toilettes are essentially holes in the ground - everything´s different, and on top of that the language barrier! Looking back on it I realize that I found comfort in food - food that I never ate or craved in the states! I found myself eating chocolate bars, pan dulce (sweet bread), anything sweet. In addition to my snacking in-between meals, I also ate everything that was put in front of me by my host mother. In the Guatemalan culture, it´s good to be fat or gordita and it´s also rude to refuse food. So imagine me in the beginning, not quite comfortable, not wanting to say no, not wanting to tell her that I was already full off of candy bars (because that would be insulting) - plus the food was good! I love rice and beans! But overtime as I got more comfortable, as I was able to build more ¨confianza¨with the family, I could tell her that I wanted smaller portions and more vegetables. I also stopped eating junk food; basically I became more comfortable.
So I´ve been at my official site for about a week now and I´m going through the adjustment process all over again- I´m lucky they serve smaller portions lol. I live with a professor and his family of four kids ages 14, 12, 9, 4. The wife and I really hit it off. She´s 33 with 4 kids but still lively and still young. She´s also very eager to learn English and teach me Kíche (the indigenous language here of which 90% of the women only speak). The father´s kind of a big dork, but he loves his kids and I can tell he wants everything for them. I´ve actually been kind of sick this whole week first with a pretty heavy cold and then with the big ¨D¨(the saying goes that you´re not a true volunteer until you poop in your pants - thus far we´ve had 3 volunteers from our group bite the dust) so I haven´t been able to spend as much time with the family as I would have liked, but I have two years don´t I? Today I think I found a house to live in. Rules say that I have to live with a family for three months, but after that I have the option of living on my own, which I´ll be ready to do. I´ll get two floors, with a bathroom and shower INSIDE for 600 quetzales/month (that´s about $80 per month). Don Domingo my future landlord said that he will install a hot water heater, but I´m still waiting to see how much this will set me back. It´s funny because house searching in Guatemala doesn´t involve realtors or contracts, it´s simply having the initiative to walk around, introduce yourself to people, and ask if they know of a place ¨disponible para alquilar por dos años¨(available to rent for two years). When I first came to visit my site about 3 weeks ago I began asking immediately, saw some houses, but none really fit the bill. I then noticed that it was harder and harder to get offers; people weren´t even thinking before saying no. I was talking to a guy today, quite possibly my future neighbor, and he said that people are curious but also scared of me. He said that people will come around after seeing me around daily- when they can trust the fact that I really will be here for two years. Thus far I´ve gotten all positive responses from people here, so I guess in time they´ll come around.
posted by Jessica @ 6:59 PM
1 Comments:
Good Luck with the apt. shopping...
Post a Comment
<< Home