JJ's Travelogue

OR, how I wish I were a babel fish, what with all this rain! Seriously, it rains about 80% of the time here. And not a soft Seattle rain, but a real heavy rain that soaks to the bone and prevents one from wanting to do much other than make tea and crawl under the covers. Which I’ve been doing a lot of.
Mom says it will let up in a couple of weeks.. just when I’ll be moving on.

As a result of the rain and other factors, I haven’t made it to the internet cafe in several days. Here’s what’s been going on:

My new teacher is much better for me. She’s patient and more practical than the last guy. Between that and time I suppose, things on the language front are looking up a bit. Whereas last week, mi familia would joke that their one-year old and I had about the same level of comprehension, this week it looks like I’m pulling ahead. I just might have that kid beat by the time I leave. I am now actually able to understand the gist of what someone says to me – as long as they address me as a five-year old, by using simple words and speaking slowly. In turn, I can even reply to them in semi-complete sentences, albeit completely in the present tense and I’m sure in the wrong word order. But at least I can get my meaning across about half the time. Will wonders never cease.

There is a bar down the block from my house that always has great music blasting out of it. Usually it’s stuff I don’t know, but the other day they were playing Credence Clearwater Revival, which made me happy. Anyway, this bar is intimidating because it’s the total opposite of a gringo bar – very local, very muchacho. I fantasize about building up enough Spanish to one day be able to walk in there and hold my own.

New teacher and I have taken a couple of walks around the school rather than always sitting in front of the board. These outings have been great. Yesterday we wandered by a vegetable garden, and the farmer invited us to look around. Teach taught me the names of all the fruits and vegetables in the garden. There were a few that I knew (banana, cucumber, pepper, tomato, mint, cilantro), and a couple that I had never heard of or even seen before. Coincidentally, one of these was served at dinner that night – the guisquil (with an umlaut over the first u, which I can´t find on this keyboard). It was yummy – very juicy. Apparently they grow everywhere around here.

There is a flip side to my new teacher’s conversational style, which is that she doesn’t correct me as often as she should when I use the wrong conjugation or sentence structure. For this reason and a few others, I’m going to try yet another teacher next week. The school agrees that it’s good to get the information from a variety of perspectives.

This week also brought a new crop of students, many more than last week. There are a handful of Canadians, Americans, Brits, and Aussies for me to hang out and speak English with. [That was the point of coming here, wasn't it??] They’re still mostly younger than me, but I don’t feel quite so old this week. At least they’re not fresh out of college. Several of them are out for many months or even years on the road traveling, similar to my situation. A bunch of us that meet every day at the “conversation club” hung out at the bar last night which was good fun, but today I woke up feeling under the weather. Today I learned “Mi nariz tiene mucho agua.”
We´re all going down to the English pub to watch the VP debate tonight, which I’m looking forward to.

I wouldn’t recommend coming to Guatemala if you’re a germaphobe. It’s amazing to me that I haven’t gotten sick yet, what with the lack of sanitary practices. For example, when my family wants to salt their food, they lick one finger, stick it in the salt bowel, stick it back into their mouth, and keep eating. On the other hand, there aren’t all those noxious chemicals as there are in the U.S. that build up over time and slowly poison people like my friend Daniel.
I also would have expected to see more rodents and bugs. I haven’t seen a single cockroach at this house, and I have yet to see any mice or rats about. I guess all the wandering cats and dogs take care of those. In spite of huge cracks in all the doors and windows, there are also remarkably few mosquitoes or other flying bugs.

The other day I followed the path where the road ends and eventually came to a beach of sorts. It had been warm and sunny until I arrived, but then of course the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped, so I only had a quick dip in the lake. But it’s a nice spot, and I can picture hanging out there more on a nice day.

I’ve been taking another route to school. There is a warren of little paths I hadn’t known about that my new teacher showed me. [I still have the American mind-set that you don't go near other people's property. But here, it seems you're free to wander wherever you like.] These paths go between and alongside fields and houses, and provide shortcuts to taking the road. It’s also much prettier – part of it passes alongside the lake, and in the morning you see all the fishermen out in their little boats with the volcanoes behind.

I’m uploading some photos I took this week. You probably already noticed, but I just learned that if you click on a given photo, it will display it larger. Some of these pics need a judicious shot of levels balancing, but I can’t find any kind of photo editing program on these damn Windoze machines.