Hello once again, dear readers. On this episode we will be catching a few quick glimpses the life of a foreign graduate student in Guatemala. For the past two weeks or so I've been following a routine (more or less) that I described in the previous post, that of taking the bus to the city, siting on my bum reading newspaper articles about murder, corruption, assault, embezzlement and fraud, taking the bus back to Jocotenango and on occasion (ok, more often than I probably should) having a few beers with my friends before heading off to bed to get ready to do the same thing the next day. I say that this is more or less a routine because I will admit that I don't actually make it to the capital every single day. Sometimes I get distracted. Anyway, in this post I want to throw out some random experiences I've had in the last few weeks, taken from my mostly mundane day-to-day life here.
First of all, for those of you who don't know, I got a strep throat infection two weeks ago. Not only that, but I had an allergic reaction to the infection (yes, that is possible, apparently). Imagine my surprise when, after three days of a ridiculously sore throat and a fever which I basically pretended not to notice in hopes it would go away, I woke up on a Sunday morning covered head to toe in a splotchy red rash. Thank goodness for my housemate, who knew exactly how to get a doctor's appointment quickly. Like any good child of the age of technology and the internet, I immediately looked up my symptoms online. I had overheard a conversation the previous day between a few foreigners about how one of them had contracted scabies in her hostel, and was worried that maybe that is what had caused the rash. Scabies are tiny little mights that burrow under your skin and cause a rash that itches to the point that after a certain amount of time anyone infected can't sleep because of the itching. Thank goodness, however, my rash did not fit the symptoms of scabies, and I crossed that off my list. The only things I could find online were rashes that once in a while show up with strep throat (which also fit with the sore throat I'd been suffering before) and scarlet fever. Luckily for me it didn't turn out to be scarlet fever and five days of antibiotics and antihistamines did away with the problem.
Downer number two of the last few weeks is that sometime on Friday afternoon (this past Friday, that is), someone entered our apartment and absconded with all the cash in the house. Which, unfortunately for me happened to be my cash. I realized on Friday night after coming home that the Q600 I had stashed with my toothbrush and other toiletries was missing and that, upon further inspection, my emergency stash of US$ was also gone. Nothing else was missing, thank goodness...my passport, ipod and computer were all as I left them. But my cash...all my cash except for a few smaller bills from Brazil and Argentina....was gone. I will say this has put a little bit of a crimp in my style, so to speak. It's a creepy feeling knowing someone has picked through your stuff in your own house while you were gone. Serious bummer.
On the up side, I've been able to get a lot done at the National Library here, and have made a few more contacts with folks that work in the news, both print and radio. And I've seen a lot of interesting things just sitting on the bus or strolling around in the historic district. The other day I was sitting in the Central Park in Zone 1, near the library, waiting for a friend. Seemingly out of nowhere (although I know he must have come from somewhere), a well dressed gentlemen of indeterminate age (probably in his 60s?) sits down next to me (after, of course, placing a handkerchief on the wall I was sitting on so he didn't get his trousers dirty) and asks in relatively good English, "Do you speak English?" Wary but intrigued I told him I did. He then begins to explain to me how he is an English teacher here in Guatemala City and that whenever he meets a native English speaker he tries to ask them certain questions he has about the language. Even more intrigued, I agree to answer some questions, and he pulls out two pieces of paper folded up like origami on which he has written (back and front) a slew of English phrases he has doubts about. For some he wants to know what they mean, for others how to pronounce it. Most are either phrases from an English translation of the Bible or from old songs or movies. Things like "left holding the bag," "drop me a line," or the difference between forbid, forbids and forbade. I must say it was one of the strangest conversations I've had here so far, especially when, after he was done asking me questions, he asked me out for dinner. The men here never really stop thinking about how to get a woman to go out with them, even if they are at least 30 years older than said woman and a complete stranger. A friend of mine explained that if you give a Guatemalan man five minutes of conversation then he automatically thinks he has a chance. Oddly enough I got another proposal for dinner only ten minutes later, after another man who saw me talking to the first guy sidled over an struck up a brief conversation with me about some other foreigners he just met who were riding their bicycles from Canada to Argentina. I think maybe I shouldn't be so friendly when sitting in the park in Guatemala City.
Finally, some things I want to get off my chest, so to speak, in terms of living in Guatemala. I really enjoy it here, especially because of the wonderful people I've met here. But here are some of my pet peeves which, forever after, will go unsaid.
1. potholes in the sidewalks
2. sidewalks wide enough to allow only one person to walk at a time (anyone coming the other way has to walk in the road)
3. black smoke coming out of the back of buses as you're walking down the street
4. ubiquitous smell of stale piss every 50 ft or so on the street due to most mens' use of walls as public urinals
5. crowding on buses that make it almost impossible to get off in the right place (although this is helpful when on extra-urban buses that are taking curves too fast, since you have less chance of sliding around when you're wedged in like sardines)
6. the lurking mental reminder that yes, actually, it is somewhat dangerous to walk around/ride the bus in the capital (although I have neither been party to nor witnessed anything yet...knock wood)
7. being taller than everyone else (while this isn't really that big of a deal [haha] it is sometimes weird when someone walking in front of me turns around, wide-eyed, to see what kind of hulking behemouth is casting a shadow over them)
Ok, that's it then, I'm done. I'm heading off to do a tiny bit of site-seeing this weekend with some friends, so there should be some interesting stories and pictures of the next installment. Until then, take care....
P.S. The title of this post is what the ayudantes call out to let you know where a bus is going. If you can't figure this one out, they're basically saying, "get your butt over here and get on the bus to Guatemala City!"
scabies are no big deal. look for little bumps on your wrists, ankles, elbow creases - and sometimes a bit of weird lines under the skin between the bumps (where the damn bug has been burrowing). You can get really good scabies medicine over the counter - if'n you ever need it. It's called Eurax, tell the tourists it's a 2 day process and you are done.
ReplyDeleteYes we've been there done that - 3 or 4 times since our lovely connection to guatemalawas created.
Be nice to people in the park, your ilmu will tell you who to be wary of.
Love reading your posts, I'll have to share them with Skye once he gets older.