6/11/08
Today was a pretty uneventful day, so I didn't decide to post about it until tomorrow (does this make sense?). Kalya and I completed our 700th chart and did three more interviews. We would have done more, but everyone abruptly left the clinic because the teacher said they could leave. Jess was perplexed and said that teacher was always weird.
The photo of the day is actually from 6/12/08, and it's a view over Xela from high atop a mirador just south of where I live.
6/12/08
The photo of the day is one of many individuals that Xela pays to hustle tourists onto chicken buses at Terminal Minerva. More on people watching later in the post...
Today we knocked out a bunch more surveys, probably six or seven. It was pretty nice, and we're getting really good at them. But by lunch everyone had left, and Kalya and I had the afternoon free.
We've decided to start Spanish classes next week, which I think will really help my conversation skills (I fear that my current Guatemalan activities won't actually help me get much better at speaking Spanish). But with no Spanish this afternoon, I was left with a bunch of free time.
We dropped off our laundry, then I set off on a quest - to visit the mirador and see where wandering took me.
I continued up the mountain past the mirador on a windy dirt road, which became less and less developed as I walked. I met several farmers along the way - one taking an umbrella to his neighbor, a few carrying tools in wheelbarrows (which seems to be the choice method for transporting things on dirt roads), and one guy throwing rocks into a bucket. He is apparently a rock seller by trade.
Later I met two women, one washing clothes, and another walking back to Xela with her daughter. They didn't talk too much, but generally contributed to the adventure of the wandering. At this point I was actually headed around the side of the mountain, probably two-thirds of the way to the summit, and I realized that soon I would be able to see the communities in which I've been working.
This was obviously pretty exciting, and now my wandering had a purpose. Over the next ten or fifteen minutes, I got several awesome glimpses over Tierra Colorada Baja, Llano del Pinal, and La Puerta, though none were clear enough for me to take a picture.
At this point I had reached the end of the road. There was a boy of fifteen walking across a field towards me, and I stopped to greet him.
It turned out he was from Tierra Colorada Baja, the town where Primeros Pasos is located. He asked if I was trying to get to the clinic. I said no, I'm trying to get a good view of the valley so I can take a picture. He knew the clinic, said he had been there several times. I told him I was headed back to Xela. He laughed and said that was stupid, that I should follow him down this footpath to La Puerta, where I could take a bus.
Now, I'm familiar with La Puerta, and I take the bus home from there some days, but I've never come at it from on top of the mountain. Danger alerts went up, but this kid seemed legit, and I decided that if push came to shove, I could take him.
Five minutes later I was on a bus back to Xela.
My next adventure was to Terminal Minerva, where you can take chicken buses to everywhere in the western highlands. I was determined to take some pictures of chicken buses, because they are truly a sight to behold, and you can't get a good sense of Guatemala until you understand these buses. Please check Picasa, as there are tons of chicken bus photos there.
The people watching at Minerva was fun too. After I had my fill, I walked up the street to Hiper Paiz, Guatemala's Walmart, to shop for imported peanut butter. When I arrived in Xela, they stocked Jif Extra Crunchy, which was well worth the $5.00 that I paid for a normal size jar. But on my last two trips, they were out. Today was another disappointment. Creamy really doesn't cut it.
That pretty much sums up the good parts of today. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day of interviews, then Saturday Kalya and I are off to the town of Tilapa on the Pacific Coast to see the black sand beaches, mangrove swamps, and alligators. Should be interesting...
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