After the first Week

So after my first week here I can say that I´ve had a good feel of Guatemala, but have barely scratched the surface. I´ve helped make chocolate the old fashioned way, I´ve seen volcanoes, I´ve had salsa lessons, and so much more. One of my favorite things that I have done so far is play with some kids at this school called ¨La Pedrera¨. These kids come from all different ages and different places in Guatemala to get educated. Although these kids do not have a lot of money, they have so much to offer as can only be seen by spending time with them. It´s crazy to think that in the United States kids are entertained and happy only when they have some television or video games or some cell phone that has texting. These kids barely have anything, but seeing them enjoy the simple things such as peacocks, or a simple kickball that barely has air in it really opens up my eyes to such a greater picture.

I first traveled to Fuentes Georginas which is a natural spring high in the mountains of Guatemala. This place was super beautiful and the water was amazing. It was pretty much a hot bath. After the hot springs I felt super relaxed and ready to go do something else. The next day we took off for the touristy town of Panajachel. On the way to Panjachel we stopped off in a pueblo named Solola which is home to a group of women who fight for the rights of women and children in Guatemala. This group currently consists of about 30-35 women and they have been having success incorporating woman in town meetings and using their skills to draw in people in order to gain recognition. These women sell their art, clothing, jewelry, and other clothwork for the prices that they are worth. I really admire these women (pictured below) for standing up to the stereotypical roles of women in Guatemala and I had the privilege of experiencing the sincerity, dedication, and passion for what they were working towards; social equality.


After the co-op with the women we traveled to Panajachel. In Panajachel you have access to the famoso Lake Atitlan. It has three of the biggest volcanoes with in a few miles of each other. This great lake surrounds these volcanoes and has 12 pueblos (towns) surrounding the lake. These twelve pueblos are supposed to represent the twelve disciples. These pueblos are home to some of the indigenous people of Guatemala and their culture there is really something cool. The city was something else and in Panajachel is where I experienced so much. Before we headed out from the hotel, we held a meeting. The people who had been there before gave us a heads up that what we were about to experience was going to be intense, but we had to be headstrong. They said that people would try and sell things and be very persistent and at that time I had no idea what persistent actually meant. So my friends and I began walking in the market and then we sat down at a restaurant to eat. So we began talking and there was about 12 or 15 of us when this little boy ofmaybe 10 years came up to me and said Compralo (Buy it) and he held out this little hand-stitched animal. I was told not to make eye contact if I´m not interested but I´m always interested in whoever wants to talk to me. I said oh no Gracias. Hethen began putting on a sad face and repeated himself while putting more stuffed animal toys in front of me. I asked him his name and he told me Jorge. I eventually seen a dinosaur one and picked it up and started playing with it. My friends immediately said, ¨Jordon, you have to buy it now, you played with his toys and you talked to him.¨ They had a point. So I began to choose one and I eventually, with the good advice of a friend chose the Tortuga (turtle). He immediately tried to sell me another one when one of the waiters walked him out. As soon as he left another child, a little girl, beamed straight for me. I said ¨no gracias¨ but I still made eye contact. She then began walking around the table to ask others before she got walked out as well. During lunch more and more kids kept coming to me and as soon as I finished my food I had perfected the art of not making eye contact with the kids. I began walking through the market and before I knew it, I made friends. This little boy came up to me (the one with the coke) and asked me to buy something from me, no different from before, except that he had followed me for about ten minutes when he finally asked me to buy him a coke. I had agreed and then we began conversating about his life. He told me he was selling stuff because his parents made him and that his name was Michael. We immediately hit it ff from there because my name is Jordon. Entonces, Michael Jordan. Once he had a coke another little boy came up to me and asked for food. I told him no and that I wasn´t really hungry, but I knew I would be soon, even though I just ate. He began following me as well. I then began asking questions when the second boy, Marco, said whassup to his cousin Juan. We then began walking and talking when I got tired and sat down. They were just chilling with me on the main market strip of Panajachel, Guatemala. I began to ask why were the majority of the little kids coming to me? They explained that I was wearing a pair of Jordans and that says that I have money. They asked me where I lived in the states, and then I asked them how they knew I was from the states. They told me that when I first met them that I called them ¨friend¨ or amigo which says that I´m probably from the United States. I couldn´t help, but to keep asking questions about their lives and what they thought of me. I asked the three kids what the thought of when they thought of the United States and I´ll never forget what Michael said, ¨Mucho dolares y edificios altos¨ (lots of money and tall buildings). They then questioned how much my shoes costed and I told them that if I bought a knew pair it would cost about 1000 quetzales ($125) which is crazy to them. They all said queeeeeee! (what). I said yea but I got mine at a discount store for about 30 dollars. They said ohh es mucho. I then explained to them about the different classes in the U.S like the lower, middle and upper classes. I explained to them that I´m barely considered to be in the middle class and that my family and I receive government funding and have to work very hard for our money as well. I explained to them that we have people who live on the streets as well and then we have the rich people as well. They seemed very surprised at this. I then bought us some tacos and chatted some more. Later that night I ate some papusas which is food from El Salvador (super delicious by the way)and got to ride in a tuk tuk. Yes tuk tuk.




The next day we went to one of the 12 pueblos named Santiago where there were the indigenous still preserved their culture. The picture on the left is of Santiago. It was about an hour boat ride from Panajachel to Santiago. There I learned that the Spanish, during the conquest, had tried to persuade the Indigenous people to assimilate into their culture by using indigenous values in the Catholic church. For example, in some churches the front has symbols such as jaguars or fruit which some of the Indigenous hold up highly. The town of Santiago was really nice and that´s even where I found the first people in Guatemala playing basketball. I was super excited and I would have showed them a little sum sum but I didn´t have enough time. There were men walking around in striped shorts and those men are the Shaman of their tribes. These shaman and are highly respected and have great authority. This weekend was just an amazing opportunity to experience and learn in a different way. We arrived back at our lovely town of Quetzeltenango on Sunday night.



This week I have seen the modern part of Guatemala and got to experience what a Mayan ceremony would look like. Here are some pictures of the ceremony. I have tons of stories I want to tell but, I can´t write that much. Peace and I´ll keep you all updated when I can.