FGCU Service Trip: Guatemala

December 1

The plane ride to Guatemala went quickly and smoothly for me. I sat next to my friend Jianna and a man from Guatemala. He was extremely nice. He has been living in Miami for many years but still struggles with English a little bit. I started practicing my Spanish with him right away and he appreciated it. He asked all about our travel plans and even said we can let him know if we need anything during our travels, he would be happy to help and he boasted about how beautiful the country is. Just before landing we looked out the window and all we could see were enormous mountains and some valleys with small towns in them. I had never seen anything like it. When we got closer to land we saw that almost all of the buildings had rusted tin-like roofs. I instantly became excited just by the view out the window.

When we arrived at the Guatemala City airport and all dozen of us, including our professor’s adorable 2 month old baby, Oliver, took a van to Xela. It was a 5 hour drive from the city and we stopped at a typical Guatemalan restaurant on the way. I ordered black bean soup. It was thick and had a unique Guatemalan cheese in it. The woman in the kitchen made the tortillas that came with our meals by hand and you could hear her slapping them through a window to the kitchen.

During the drive we saw many mountains and beautiful views of the towns. We also saw Guatemalan chain restaurants like Pollo Campero, and “mom and pop” shops that were operated out of what looked like garages. The streets were very bumpy and there were stray dogs everywhere. We passed beautiful sunflower-looking weeds called flores de los muertos (flowers of the dead) because they only bloom after the day of the dead.  I knew the air was beginning to get cold because the windows were fogging up on the drive. On top of that, there were not many street lights and at one point our driver accidentally was driving on the wrong side of the road with a median in between. It was a long winding road to our new home for the week.

After the bumpy ride to Xela (aka Quetzaltenango), we arrived at Celas Maya, our school for Spanish classes.  We took our luggage out of the van and drug it across the cobble stone street to the doors of the school. We received our orientation to the school and were informed of the extra-curricular programs they offer, what to expect from our host families, and what our host families expect from us. I was assigned a family with Jianna, which worked out perfectly.

Our host mother picked us up and we were off to our new home up the hill. Jianna and I were slightly embarrassed by the fact that our luggage for the week could barely fit in the car.

We were greeted at home by a 13 year old daughter, 9 year old son, and a 3 year old son. They were very polite and respectful to us as guests, and the baby laughed at our attempts at Spanish and Jianna’s blonde hair. We entered a large open area which connected to the living room, dining room and kitchen. Up the first flight of stairs were 3 bedroom doors and a bathroom. Our host mother showed us how to use the shower which had a heater in the faucet head and she warned us that we cannot spend more than 7 minutes in the shower. She also pointed out that the pluming does not allow for us to flush toilet paper down the toilet, that it must go in the trash can.  In the hallway of the second floor was a mattress on the floor and a rifle showcased above it. We later found out that the mattress served as the sons’ trampoline and provided them their daily playful exercise. Our rooms were up the second flight of stairs to the roof of the home. We opened the door to the roof and as I attempted to close it behind me our host mother assured me there was no need. After all, with no heat or air, and no fear of bugs, what was the point? The deck had an amazing view of the city and the near and distant mountains. On our deck was the aired laundry and the sink for washing. Our rooms were built separately on the deck with individual doors, a tin roof and wooden interior. They were equipped with one bed, a desk, a plastic lawn chair, and a dresser. The walls were decorated with the graffiti of thank yous from previous exchange students in the home. The air was cold and there was no heat but I was exhausted and piled on the layers and snuggled under the piles of mix matched sheets  into bed.



View from our bedroom deck



December 2

I woke up extra early in the morning to the call of roosters and feisty stray dogs. The sun rose early and brightly through the windows of my room, making my jet lag reach its peak. Breakfast was pancakes and syrup. We could smell it when we opened the door into the home from our deck upstairs. When we followed the smell downstairs and greeted our host mother, we saw a car parked in what we thought was the foyer. Breakfast was delicious and somewhat unexpected. We told our host mother our plans for the day and she sent us out the door.  A boy from Holland was waiting outside to pick us up. He told us he was staying with family members of our host family. He had been in Guatemala for 6 weeks and his classes at Celas Maya were his first Spanish classes ever. He spoke highly of the Celas Maya program and reassured us that we will learn a great deal in just the week we will be in Xela. I tried to make a mental note of the directions and path we walked from the home to the school. It took about 15 minutes up and down hills on the broken sidewalk and cobblestone road.

We arrived at the school where we met half of the group of students on our trip to walk together to begin our service at TRAMA Textiles. We walked across the town center and up the steepest hill yet to the TRAMA center. It had a colorful door and when it was opened, we walked down steps to an immediate courtyard. The women at the cooperative gave us a background on the organization before putting us to work.

TRAMA

TRAMA Textile is a worker’s cooperative representing 400 indigenous women from 5 departments in the western highlands of Guatemala: Solola, Huehuetenango, Sacatepequez, Quetzaltenango, and Quiche. TRAMA is the oldest women’s collective in Xela. Many of the women cannot read, write, or speak Spanish. Five different Mayan language are spoken within the collective. The organization was formed in 1988 to aid women who had suffered losses and difficulties during Guatemala’s Civil War (1960-1996). People from the Netherlands and Belgium came to bring a global demand for their products.  The women of the collective teach their daughters to weave because many cannot afford to send the girls to school. Weaving is an essential part of indigenous women’s daily life and identity in Guatemala. Woven textiles serve many purposes and carry symbolic value as well. Patterns vary across locations and skills vary among weavers. Patterns also have different significance, for instance, diamonds symbolize quality or worth, and deer represent Christmas and gentleness. All members of TRAMA are back-strap loom weavers and through the association they sell their products, ensure fair wages, and pass this ancient tradition to future generations. The patterns of their weaving vary from village to village, department to department, and from highlands to lowlands.

After learning the history of TRAMA Textiles, we began to make our scarves. We picked out three colors and spun our thread. It took me about an hour and a half just to double up the threads and spin them unto a ball to prepare it for the weaving. When I watched the women do it, I became envious of how fast they could spin it when it was taking me forever.

Me and Kevin

We had to head back to our home for lunch, about 2 ½-3 miles from TRAMA, so we  knew we would get lost and had an employee of the school walk with us. His name was Kevin. I made small talk during the walk as he tried to figure out which house was ours based on the address he was given. 

Jianna and I could not tell one house from another until we finally ran into it. Our host mother had a smile on her face when she opened the door and saw us confusedly holding up the town map. We had a large lunch of lo mein with the whole family. It is custom that when everyone is finished eating to say, “gracias” for the food, and in return the host says “buen provecho.” When a child wanted to be excused from the table during the meal, he or she thanked each person for the meal this way.  



Me and my teacher Monica



After lunch, we began Spanish classes at Celas Maya and I met my teacher named Monica. She talked me through what we would learn for the week and gave me an entry level exam to see where she should start. I had wished I would have studied a little more before taking the test but I don’t think I did too bad for not having taken Spanish classes in two and a half years. Our class was 5 hours, with one on one instruction, but it went by pretty quickly for me.

At the end of the day a group of us went out to listen to a live band and drink some local Guatemalan beer at Arabe. We quickly became acquainted with the Xela nightlife.

December 3

Today we went to a textile museum near our home called Museo Viboz. It was in a courtyard of someone’s home. We learned different methods of how Mayans created their clothing from how the women of TRAMA make theirs. We were able to observe a thread spinning hand powered machine which is much quicker and more efficient than doing it entirely by hand. We also saw a very complicated intricate foot pedal powered machine used to design the patterns threaded into the fabric. The guide at the museum demonstrated how to use each of the machines for us, then let one or two of use try for ourselves.

The guide taught us a few things that I found interesting:
Europeans used to believe that the Mayans were naked, despite the Mayan art that displayed otherwise. Mayan clothing was made of cotton when Europeans arrived and it was evident in paintings and carvings. It was similar to what we see made by Mayans now. It was a mathematical science to create the designs in the clothing because they needed to select the colored threads to make patterns. They used numbers to create the layout for the patterns. The designs were translated into codes that always add up to the same number. In the ancient form, the designs were in their minds, not codes written down. This culture is considered live culture because it hasn’t changed but has merely been adapted to current times.

Some of the symbolism the guide had taught us were as follows:
Colors- magenta signifies sunrise, purple signifies sunset, white signifies air coming in, and yellow signifies air going out.
 Peraje- strap of clothing worn on the left side to show a woman is married because her heart is covered and worn on the right side to show she is single because her heart is free.
The common two headed bird seen on some Mayan fabrics symbolizes duality of life as everything in life has opposites. It demonstrates that one must have equilibrium of both sides.
Our guide also showed us what certain designs were, as some were more difficult to decipher than others.

At lunch I had interesting discussions with our host family. We talked about the age of which children can obtain their driver’s license. Our host mother said that some families teach their children to drive at 12, and though it is illegal, it is somewhat common. During the meals the family allows the TV to be on which has opened my eyes to the television culture of the popular Mexican TV shows in Guatemala. I also asked about the children’s schooling. The children were all on their “summer” break. They have two months off and are back to school for the rest of the year. The 13 year old girl and the 9 year old boy go to different schools. They learn a choice of a Mayan language as their second language and classes are taught in Spanish. I was surprised that a language like English was not also taught as a second language, but there is no need for it in Guatemala.



Our host family  :-)



            Spanish classes went as planned, my Spanish teacher loved to get off topic to talk about culture and beliefs, which I really appreciated. Anything my Spanish teacher could say would teach me Spanish because it gave me exposure to the language and taught me what I was curious about. It was partially my fault that I asked so many questions during the lessons. One of the interesting topics we were on was cemeteries. Guatemalan cemeteries are colorful and the deceased are placed in caskets in above ground structures with flowers and memorabilia. On the rest of the trip we passed a few that looked like little miniature wonderlands. My teacher also told me about her travels to California and her work at a fabric factory. She visited relatives up north, but she preferred good ol’ Guatemala.  

December 4

Today we met at 5 am to take a van to the Santa Maria volcano for a hike. We were absolutely freezing just walking to the school to meet. When we got to the foot of the volcano I was somewhat hesitant to start. I was surprised that there wasn’t a visitors center and gift shop for this magnificent natural site. After the first 15 minutes we lost some people from our group who felt too much strain due to weather, altitude, steep slopes. We had to climb up the dirt path and stones of the volcano. There was frost on the grass, although it never snows there. All of us were breathing heavy and craving breaks, until we watched a group of indigenous people pass us in open toed shoes and less clothing with smiles on their faces. It took us 5 or 6 hours to finally reach the top where we could view the active volcano behind Santa Maria called Santiaguito. We laid down and took all of it in. The sun came out and I took off my three sweaters. I could’ve gotten a nice sun tan up there. The walk back was more difficult than the walk up because we were exhausted and hot, and every time we were back in the shade of the trees it would be frosty cold again. At times I had nauseous feelings from the altitude and weather changes.  

Me, Crystal, and Jeanellys

Indigenous people making it look easy...

When we came back we had lunch, or a delayed breakfast, with the group at a rooftop café. I had a vegetarian enchilada which consisted of piles of beets on a tortilla. After we ate we went home and tried to sleep off the hard work since we got no sleep the night before. The time went so quickly before we all met at 4 at a chocolateria to learn about the Mayan chocolate making history. The chocolateria, or chocolate factory, was run out of a home with the front as the chocolate shop, and the dining room as the room for sampling and learning about the chocolate. They had a regular home kitchen where all the cooking and baking happened by hand. First we watched a video about the history.

CHOCOLATERIA
Chocolate has helped the Mayans form their identity. It is considered a food of the gods and began being produced by Mayans in areas of Mesoamerica. Evidence of the use of chocolate is shown in many ancient Mayan artworks. Chocolate was used during ceremonies and for medicinal purposes. Chocolate was introduced to Europe before coffee and tea, but the Europeans did not give the Mayans credit for this. The Mayans used the seeds of cacao as currency, and it was considered money that grew on trees. There was more literature on chocolate than any other plant, food, or drink brought to Europe.

The process for making chocolate is as follows: -fermentation- increases acidity, takes 1-6 days-drying- this is when it loses half its weight-toasting/roasting- 200-215 degrees for just a few minutes-winnowing- removing the shells on the cacao-milling- grinding the remains on heating stone, metate

The Mayans traditionally prepared chocolate with water, cacao, cinnamon, and chili pepper, then they would create foam by pouring the hot chocolate from one vase to another. The Europeans changed the chocolate by taking out the coco butter, most likely due to the belief that fat is unhealthy, although the natural fat found in coco butter is good for your health.

The chocolate that we had at the chocolateria was all natural and organic because they do every step of the process on their own. They gave us samples of fruit to dip in melted chocolate, traditional hot chocolate, and yogurt with melted chocolate in it. After the samples we were given a ball of chocolate to create whatever we liked with it. We had to go to the back of the home to wash our hands in the sink that is commonly used to wash clothes. When I was there I saw their pet Macaw in a cage. I decided to talk to it and when I started laughing it repeated my laugh. The more I laughed, the more it laughed. I also realized that it knew how to say, “I’m cold” in Spanish. When I left the room it began to scream, “Tengo frio!”

At night we celebrated my friend Jianna’s birthday at a local bar called Café Classicos right by our house. It was a tiny bar owned and occupied by locals. When they realized that it was Jianna’s birthday they were very friendly and generous with food and drinks.

December 5

In the morning we went to TRAMA  and began creating the patterns in the scarves. The thread that I spend hours rolling, now had to be woven on a wooden device that looked somewhat like an upside down table. We had to create our own symmetrical patterns by drawing columns of our 3 colors that add up to 180. For example; 10 pink, 5 green, 10 pink...etc. I decided to divide it into 90 and 90 and make equal patterns on both sides. I used my pink thread as the base color. Once I got the hang of the weaving it was easy, but it was difficult to keep track of where I was in the pattern I created. Once we finished this step, it was time to move on to the back strap loom.








December 6

At TRAMA I was ready to put my work onto the back strap loom and begin my final weaving. This was the most complicated part of the process and I honestly didn't think I would be able to figure it out at first.

 

In the afternoon, my Spanish teacher took me, as well as Jianna and her teacher, to the market to see how many of the locals get their groceries in the open market. She took us to a part of town that I didn’t even know existed. We saw fruit that is not grown or sold in the US, and the meat market was unlike anything that would probably even be legal in the US. They sold parts of the animal that I figured was not edible, and they displayed the heads of the animals on the table. Most of the shopping was outside in the street and we had to walk around the carts and blankets of goods, as well as dodge cars while we were browsing. This was one of the most interesting cultural experiences I have had on the whole trip. When we met at the hotel with our professors I had a lot to share about what I had seen and experienced during the evening.

During Spanish class we received invitations to what we thought was a local play. A few of us were interested in watching it so we trekked all around town with a boy who works at Celas Maya to see this play. We waited about a half hour, listened to their very long national anthem and their local anthem, 20 speeches, and then decided to leave. I thought it was odd that they would start a play with two anthems and tons of speeches, but we later found out that it wasn't really a play, it was just a tribute to a play... good thing we didn't sit through the whole thing! 

December 7

Today was our last day at TRAMA and we finished our scarves. Jeanellys and I were the first ones to finish in our group. Later we all split up what we would get for the gift basket for the women at TRAMA for our going away party at night. Some of us put money toward a scholarship for the young girls whose mothers are in the collective, and some bought supplies for their office. The women gave us thank you speeches and fed us tea and cake to say farewell.



Our FGCU group with the women of TRAMA



It was also our last day of Spanish class. I spent the class showing my teacher pictures from the trip and asking how I can stay involved with Celas Maya. She informed me of online class options at the school through Skype. I gave her a thank you card and the bracelet I wore on my wrist because she complemented me on it and showed the other teachers.

At night was the graduation at the Celas Maya. We watched a movie and drank hot chocolate from Dona Pancha (the chocolate factory we went to days ago). After graduation we all headed to Piranda, a local club, for Salsa night. My failed attempts at salsa lead me to some very embarrassing encounters with guys who thought I knew what I was doing but were poorly mistaken...I had at least 5 guys approach me, and then end up teaching me some moves. Toward the end of the night we ran into the a woman we met at Cafe ClasicosCafé Clasicos bar and when Piranda closed we all headed over to CC for the after party and our final goodbyes to Quetzaltenango.

December 8

This morning we left Quetzaltenango for San Juan La Laguna. On the drive, we stopped on the curve of the road we took around a mountain to get a great view of Lake Atitlan. Since it had such a great view, people took up the opportunity to sell merchandise to tourists. 

Our first stop on our way to San Juan La Laguna was Panajachel for lunch and quick browsing. There was more tourist-appealing vendors than we had seen anywhere in Xela and the liveliness of the town was exciting, but we didn’t have much time before we had to board the boat that would take us to the town of San Juan La Laguna. We took a boat for 30 minutes with all of our luggage to our hotel on the far side of the lake that I’m not sure is even accessible by car due to the  large mountains. The boat dropped us off in a town called San Marco and we had to take our luggage on Tuk-Tuks for another 10-15 minutes San Juan. Then, where they dropped us off we had to hike through the woods, step on stones and handmade bridges of scrap wood, walk across the shoreline and up steep stairs, all with our luggage, to our hotel where we were the only guests staying. The hotel was gorgeous and romantic. It was covered in vines and overlooked all the other mountains and the water. It is labeled as an Eco friendly hotel because it has no heat or air conditioning, and it has a self-sustaining garden where they make all of their food from. They even make their own coffee from the coffee beans outside every morning.

            After we got settled into the hotel, a man who worked there gave us a tour of the town so that we could find  a women’s weaving cooperative to see different aspects of the weaving that we didn’t get to see at TRAMA, such as the picking of the cotton, rolling of it into thread, and the dying of the thread. We were able to get a brief glimpse of a few and learned that tonight was a huge celebration in the town that they have once a year to symbolically pass on a symbol of the Virgin Mary. People were decorating their alters and chopping grass to create the street murals.

When we walked back we saw locals playing volleyball and members of our group asked if they could join. It was fun to watch and interesting to see the cultural boundaries simply disappear with a universal sport.

At night time we watched the Virgin Mary celebration with saw dust art all over the street, and religious parade, and fireworks. The celebration at night time. Fireworks going off in the middle of the street, on the roofs of houses. It was terrifying because there was smoke everywhere, it was loud, and sparks of fire were landing on people. Only one other person in the group was as scared as me. I ran under the shelter of the soccer stadium at the school. Women holding their sleeping babies during the show were laughing at my fear.

December 9

This morning at around 6 am, Joey and I took a canoe from the hotel out around the lake. It was beautiful to see the sunrise hit the side of the mountain in the morning. I ignored Joey’s complaints that the boat was sinking, until we arrived back at the dock, lifted it up and saw a huge crack underneath.

When we got to land we explored the hotels facilities. We hiked around to check out the hot tub and sauna. Turns out the sauna is a tiny stone igloo you need to crawl in and generate heat from stones outside. I don’t think I could handle sitting in there too long. We continued further to see a bungalow with two rooms on the side of the mountain that was not connected to any other part of the hotel. It boggled my mind that they never locked the doors to any of the rooms in the hotel, including these.

 

Later, the group and I observed  a women’s collective different from TRAMA in that it had bigger stock and they directly made articles of clothing from scratch. We learned  about absolutely every step of the process and it was neat to see how self efficient and self sustaining the collective is.

Joey, Jianna, and I spent the rest of the day wandering around town. We even ran into the man from Holland that walked us to Celas Maya our first day in Xela. What are the odds?
We spent some time watching a youth soccer league right outside the school, had some laundry done at the Laundromat (aka, someone’s laundry room in their house), had lunch, and were exhausted by the end of the day. Then Joey and I went to the dock to watch the stars over the mountains to put an end to a great day.

December 10

This morning we  left San Juan La Laguna. We had our last breakfast at the hotel and hopped on a boat to Panajachel. As soon as the boat dropped us off we were immediately approached by people trying to sell us stuff. There were about  10 stray dogs fighting by the water’s edge. We were surrounded by stands and tables of handmade clothing, table liners, jewelry and shoes. When I stopped to ask for a price and paused to convert it in my head, the people would automatically bring the prices down a little bit. It is not in my nature to be much of a bargainer. When I don’t like the price I tend to walk away. Joey, Jianna and I were followed by the same two women for five blocks trying to sell us table runners. They asked our names so that they could be more personal with us. Then they literally started running to catch up. We had 45 minutes to get back to the bus where we were meeting to head to Antigua for our last night in Guatemala. I was on a mission to buy all of my Christmas presents for the best price in 45 minutes. It almost became a free-for-all game where all of us were running around grabbing what we could, bargaining and moving on to the next stand. Panajachel is said to have the cheapest things for sale, and when we get to Antigua everything will be more expensive because it is a bit of a tourist city. I was able to  get my hands on 4 little handmade masks for my nieces and nephews, a handmade table runner for my parents, a wooden musical instrument for my brother, and a hand decorated wine bottle for my other brother and sister.

After we piled into the van with all of our new goodies we headed to a Mayan ruins site on the way to Antigua. The site was really neat because you could see how an entire town was set up by Mayans, and could see the significance of each building structure. There were a couple at the site that had what looked like a bonfire going, with incense and other objects thrown into it. They were saying that it was a ritual to pray for good health and a prosperous new year.   

When we arrived in Antigua I felt like I was in Europe. The people in the street dressed more modern and the streets were well paved. When we arrived at the hotel the first thing we wanted to do was shower since our showers were always cold in Xela. I took the longest shower of my life and did not want to get out. At the end of the day Joey and I explored the town getting dinner, shopping for more souvenirs and gifts, and then exploring the night life. We ran into Yvette and together stumbled upon an Irish pub, which would never have existed in Quetzaltenango. It was just about full to maximum capacity and they were only letting a few people in at a time. Men and women were dancing all over the bar and we were simply amazed by the crazy environment in there.

I truly wish my stay in Guatemala could have been longer, but it was time for us to pack our bags and head back to the U.S. I had an incredible cultural and educational experience on this trip and met great people that I will never forget. I hope that I can someday return to Guatemala to complete my studies of the Spanish language.