So I realize my blog posts aren't very well-thought or eloquently written, however that's just how I think. Thus, today I'm going to ramble some more. It has been pretty interesting readjusting to being back to site and settling in my new place that I moved to in the beginning of July after having being gone to Antigua and the states for several weeks. However, I am glad to be back and am finally getting a little more organized. Yesterday I started teaching english at the co-op. My original intent was to teach people that will work in tourism, guides and potential guides, but somehow it evolved into teaching kids on the weekends and teaching guides and such at some other time. That's fine with me though. I think it will be fun. So yesterday was our first class. I was a little late, but it wasn't that big of a deal because the majority of the 21 students were late as well. We started with a game, learned the alphabet, and then worked through different greetings. I decided we should take a ten minute break for the bathrooms and snacks. Well this is where the real story comes in...Two of the boys from my host family that I lived with for the first three months are taking the class and have been dying to know english. During the break, Hamilton fell and hit his head pretty hard on a concrete step. I didn't see it but it wasn't long before everyone at the co-op was gathered around him. This is one of the strangest things Guatemalans do and I really just can't figure it out. When something happens, people gather. The awkward part is people talk about the situation like the person who is affected is not there. They stare, they make awkward comments, and it is just overall very strange. Somehow though, every time this happens my first emotion is to feel uncomfortable. Then shortly after I get this really weird hilarity. I realize how weird it is and just start laughing, which is equally or more inappropriate because someone is suffering. I ended up having to call my host father and organize the kids getting home and then they took him to the hospital to get stitches. I hear he is back running around today though.
Another instance of this weird, everyone run and gather around experience happened when my counterpart and I were recently in Coban. I saw this crowd gather around and asked her, "what happened?" She told me someone had probably died. I was thinking to myself how crazy that must be for someone to by lying in the road dead and this huge crowd to be gathered around the body. Then next thing you know, my counterpart is running toward the crowd and edges her way to the front. First, I am appalled. I can't even fathom wanting to see a dead body. Then I realize she's not coming away from the scene anytime soon so I inch my way over to the crowd and see that the man is in fact not dead. It wasn't long before there were news cameras and reporters interviewing the guy. I had to basically pry my counterpart away so we weren't on hte news too and later found out he was protesting some business that ripped him off by lying in the middle of the street. That same day in Coban, I witnessed a woman get hit by a car and we saw a huge pool of blood in the street from a recent stabbing or something. It was an intense day.
So anyway, even after being in Guatemala for seven months, some stuff just never gets old and still takes some getting used to. As I write this blog post, I am being so pestered by flying bugs. For some reason there has been a huge influx of mosquitos, flies, and other flying bugs over the last month. I think it has to do with being in the rainy season, but someone also told me it has to do with the fact they have been using the organic fertilizer from the coffee pulps all over the farm. I don't know what is the cause, but I'm ready for the flying menaces to be gone!
A group of tourists from France just left, I'm probably headed to a little girl's birthday party in a little bit, another group of tourists are coming in the afternoon, and then I have my other english class later...so today is pretty busy. Things really are going well here and I am enjoying all the experiences I have been so fortunate to have thus far. Again, hope all is well on the home-front!
No comments:
Post a Comment