Huehue to San Cristóbal de las Casas

I left yesterday (1 day late). Carlos drove me to the terminal (actually the main drag near the terminal) and I caught a bus to La Mesia. La Mesia is the guatemalan border town near México. I borderd the bus at 10:18 am and was walking across the border at 12:30 (Q 15 for the buss). Once across the border it was a 10 peso colectivo for the 4km to immigration.
I believe its $1 US for 11 pesos, but the bastard only gave me 10 to the dollar - I only traded $40 cuz I knew I was being ripped off, but I needed pesos.
Went through immigration, I still need to go to the bank to pay my 237 pesos for my tourist card - which will never be looked at by anyone. From there I took a collectivo to Comítan (25 P) and then another to San Cristóbal de las Casas (30 P). 2 government checkpoints on the first leg and one on the 2nd. They searched the van on the first but not anyothers and the last one he walked through the bus and only asked me if I was from the states.
I got to Comítan about 2:20 and San Cristóbal de las Casas about 4:15. I am staying in a nice hostel (private room with bath and hot water) for about $9 US per night. They also have free internet and coffee.

A Day In The Life Of The Kids

Most of the kids go to school. In Guate if you move in the middle of the year you are screwed - you ´lose´ the year. I think if you miss the first week its done, thus the kids that come to the orphanage from Jan to Oct have to wait till the next year. This I have deduced from my observations - I have never talked to a guatemalteco about this so I could be wrong. There is also no special ed so some of the kids don´t go to school with behavior or learning problems. The kids that go to school usually go from 7:30 - 12:30. There are also 4 kids that go to school at night - they go from about 7 till 9.

The kids have a tremendous amount of responsibility - there are 4 or 5 employees working in the main orphanage and 1 in the cafeteria (cafe run by the fundación to earn money). For instance Graciela (one of my favorites) works with the girls 4 - 7 years old (not sure exactly the age group -that is a guess). She has one other girl that works with her - they are responsible to get them up, showered, dressed, to breakfast, teeth brushed, etc, etc. They live with them in a big dorm room - right now Graciela told me there is only 7 kids but sometimes there is as many as 15. Graciela is only 15 and has been doing this for 4 years. She acts as if its no big deal - its like kid having the responsibility of taking the trash out once a week - no big deal (but in the states many kids would find a reason to bitch about it). Everybody works and I have never seen anybody complain about what they have to do.


Graciela's room - this is where the kids keep their clothes - they might share everything








Notice Esperanza has her monkey (note earlier post about the ferria)
















The girls making tortillas.













































The younger kids never leave except to go to school and the older girls get to leave occasionally. Graciela says she can leave on Sunday afternoons and checks her email. The thing that continually amazes me is the lack of complaining and how they seem to get along - they have a tough life but maybe they look at how lucky they are to be where they are when the alternative is so much worse.


Reyna Guadalupe and her cat - well I think all 5 of the cats she claims.

A Day In The Life Of Me

I am in San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Mexíco and am reflecting on the last 4 weeks. Several people have asked why I haven´t posted much. Well my normal day is the same as the last.

I get up at 5:50 am to shower on the off chance that there is water. It works like this - if I get up at 6:30 there is no water but there was at 6:00 - if there is water at 5:50 AND I get up the water is still on at 6:30 - I can´t win. And to make matters worse Carlos and Shirley are getting a deposito (rooftop water storage tank) installed this week - sure as hell didn´t help me. Anyway, after my shower I go back to bed till around 7:00, then I get up eat breakfast and leave for school around 7:30. It is about a 15 minute walk to the school.

I usually get to school 15 minutes early and chat with Yesi. She is one of the teachers and lives at the school and is one of my altime favorite people. School is from 8 to noon give or take. Usually we start a little late but with Yesi, Sheny (the director) and Otto (Sheny´s husband) it is school wherever you are - we can be drinking beer at 11 pm and they will be correcting my spanish. In other words when we start late its really lessons with 3 or 4 teachers. We usually take about a 30 minute break at 10:30 but again during the break I have more than 1 person correcting my spanish (unless I am cheating and talking in English to another student).

I usually leave school around 12 to 12:30 and head home. Usually I stop and check my email on the way home and get there by 1 pm. I then eat lunch and am usually done by 2 pm. Lunch is usually the biggest meal of the day. After lunch I head back, check my email and see how badly my tigers are doing and then head for the fundación salvación. I usually spend 2 to 3 hours there leaving between 5 and 6.

On the way home I often stop at the restaraunt margarita near the fundación for a cold beverage, check my email one last time and then stop at the tienda closest to my house. Gloria and Ruben are the couple that own the place and then I spend up to a hour in their houses chatting and having a couple of beers. Having friends like Gloria and Ruben make it all worth while learning spanish.

I usually get home around 7 pm and we eat dinner around 7:30. After dinner I go out and have a couple of beers in a restaraunt and read or in a bar and chat. Then its home, chat with Carlos for 10 or 15 minutes and then to bed.

Thats it, a typical day for me in Guatemala

Feria

Went, as usual to the feria with the girls - this time I gave them 40Q each to spend on what they wanted.
Graciela y Alma








From left to right in the back, Graciela y Alma. From left to right in the front, Estilita, Reyna Guadalupe y Paty

















Just a shot of the feria








Graciela y Alma - this was called the zipper








I won this for Esperanza - of course to win it, it cost me 35Q - but she loved it. Esperanza can't talk.

xela

Well I am behind in my writing. Went to Xela last saturday night. Stayed in the central part of town near Parque Centroamerica. The following pictures are from there. The park and the old part of town are really nice. Old colonial buildings, cobble stone streets, etc. Forget the name of the Hotel that I stayed in, but 150Q was way too much. It cost 15Q by bus to get here and then I walked from the bus station to zona 1, which is where I stayed - maybe 2 miles.


















This building was built about 1900 and is a pedestrian mall, that you can walk thru. There are several businesses inside, one particular of note.






The business of note is Salon Tecun, the oldest running bar in Guatemala - since the 30's

First week in Huehue

Well not much has happened. I left saturday morning from Pana - 4 busses, and 3 or 4 hours (I forget). First bus to Solola (2Q), then to Los Encuentros (3Q), then to Quatro Caminos (15Q) and then to Huehue (15Q). It went relatively quick as the road construction must stop on the weekends. They should have the road done before I come back next year and it will be nice - basically I think the road is being widened all the way to Xela.
The feria starts this week and today I took the girls to El Parque Central to get their braids (trensas) - 5 girls so I said 15 braids each, which means 75 braids at 2 Q each is 150Q - well Alma couldn´t go (basically is grounded) so I said 20 braids each which comes to 160Q. Patty gave her braids to Estilita and Reyna Guadalupe didn´t want any so Estelita and Graciela got their whole head done. They don´t charge by the trensa in this case they charged by the job - 80Q each (how did they know what I was willing to spend?).
just for the record - 1,000 Q at the ATM cost me $131.50 (US) so basically 7.6 Q to a dollar - or my rule of thumb is 8Q to the dollar for quick calcs.
They do look cute with their braids and I love that Patty gives hers to her sister - I suppose I could have just paid another 80Q for Patty, but I have to set some sort of Limits.
The women doing the braids are from Livingston which is on the Caribean coast. They are Garifuna, descendents of escaped slaves who I think mixed with the mayans (not sure). They have their own language also (I believe)


Estelita before








Graciela before





















































Not sure why Graciela wanted the hair in front to hang there - oh well its not my hair, which by the way they wanted me to have braided - no way!

What a dinner

Went to the `Last Resort´ for dinner and ordered Pollo Pepino (I think thats how it was spelled) and I got an unbelievably huge plate of food and a bowl of soup for 30Q which is just under $4. Now I had dinners in Ecuador for $1.25 and got a piece of chicken and rice and maybe a bowl of soup - cheap, but not too exciting (as I remember) - but this was food for 2.

My dinner - this picture doesn´t really do justice as to how big that plate of food is - and yes I ate almost all my vegies.








This is Pitaya (If the guy at the restaraunt spelled it correct) - a very interesting/tasting fruit - I love the color though.