Maybe a little venting

My community integration has been going pretty well as of late. I found another more welcoming family to hang with. It´s not that my family isnt´nice, but that they have no real desire to talk to me, engage me, or show me around. They also have rubbed me the wrong way in the past, the following story as an example. When I first arrived to site I asked them how much they would be charging me to live there for the next three months. The mother without much care, almost as if the amount didn´t matter, said Q400. I said okay and left it at that, and she certainly had nothing more to say until pay day. So the 1st of May I pay them Q300 for my three weeks in April and Q400 for the upcoming month of May, a total of Q700. Mind you during my three weeks in April I had eaten quite a few meals with the family, but far from every meal and I had washed my clothes I think once. So the next day after paying them, the mother asks me for Q300 more to cover the food that I had eaten in April. It was in this conversation that she decided to tell me that each meal would cost Q3 and to wash my clothes would cost Q8 if I also used their soap (they have a washing machine), all this in addition to the Q400 I pay a month. I tried to argue a little bit, but I had to pay them the Q300 because I needed a place to stay, and I couldn’t really argue like I wanted to because in such a small community word could spread that I´m mean and don´t like to pay people and then no one would want to talk to me for the next two years. It wasn´t that the prices were high, but it was the principle of not having established these prices ahead of time whether in our first conversation over rent or during any one of the many meals I ate with them. What made it worse was that I added up the price of me eating three meals a day for the whole three weeks (knowing I didn´t eat nearly this many meals with them), and the price only came to just over Q200, which means that they basically got an extra Q150 out of me. That means that they made up the Q300 price, really having no idea how much food I ate, and then didn´t even do the math to realize that based on their made up prices they over charged me! It´s situations like these that make me want to pull out the “I´m giving two years of my life to help your country! If anything, you should be paying me for indirectly helping you” card. These are some of the cultural things I´m dealing with. In the U.S. prices are established up front and it is clear exactly what the prices include to avoid situations like the one above. But comparing the two cultures is a dangerous game that can lead to never accepting Guatemala because it´s not like the U.S, which is a dumb reason. Another money example. So I already described to you the bus system down here, it´s not a public system, but a private one run by several bus companies. While there are set prices, the ayudantes who collect the money can technically overcharge you and it be okay. Well of course I don´t look like I´m from the area, so many times when I don´t have correct change the ayudates will try to stiff me on my change, assuming that I don’t know how much the ride really costs. You don´t know how many times I´ve argued with the ayudantes, “Yo vivo aqui, siempre tomo ese camino, y el precio no es asi! Dime mi cambio,” or “No es justo!” I heard that another volunteer said “Dios sabe,” translated to God knows. I may use this next time to really hit at their conscious – this is a very God-fearing country. Lately I´ve simply be saying kind of with a pitiful face that I don´t have anymore money, and this works because they would never actually kick you off the bus. Here´s another example. Before I started painting my house there were some dark spots on the white walls that I wanted to cover with white paint so that the spot wouldn´t show through the wall color. The store sold me oil-based paint instead of water-based paint and not realizing this I got the paint all over my hands. I went down and asked them to help me get it off, which required only a little bit of paint thinner. They measured out exactly two eights of thinner and charged me Q6. Okay I understand that it´s a business and you gotta make your money, but two eights of thinner? Did that really cost you Q6? Did it cost you anything? Cultural nuances that Í didn´t pick up on until about the 4 or 5 month in. Yea, I´m adjusting.