Things are just different....
It's just a different way of life down here. I wake up at the crack of dawn everymorning and am out the door by 630am. School buses packed of people, some of whom are hanging out the side, roar past me as huge black clouds of smoke engulf me. I learned quickly why people are sometimes cover their faces with a cloth or their shirt. On my walk to work I pass the same police men standing on street corners, the same old women with her bag of tortillas and some sort of filling, the same maid letting two dogs out to use the bathroom, and smile at the guard who opens the gate for me at the Academy every morning. I utter "buenas" to them as they give a long stare at me clicking my heels down the small side walk.
At the Academy, marriage status is a focus of many conversations. When I was introduced to the company last friday...the newbies were to say their name, where they were from, and if they were single or married. In my class yesterday, when I told an older women that I'll be in Guate for a few months...she responded with "are you single, or married?" And yet again... when asked by fellow co workers why I'm in Guatemala.... almost all assumed that I followed a guy here to live.
I walk home for lunch some days and relax with the son of the women i'm staying with. I see the maid setting up a table outside with tons of food. I ask her who is coming, and she tells me that they feed the men who bring the vegetables. A few minutues later, the door bell rings and a neighbor is dropping off some sort of fruit for us as the maid exchanges her with some bread from our cabinet. A few minutes later, the bell rings again...its a person who came for some eggs- and I am reminded that my house has a "SE VENDEN HUEVOS" in the window...and we do infact, sell eggs.
Back to work I go , for another six hours. Class, class, class and I'm home at 815. Dinner is waiting for me at the table, and the maid is patient and sits with me, listening to me rambling on in broken spanish about my day.
"Muchisimas Gracias"
"Buen Provecho"
The table is cleared, the lights are turned off, I flick between the evening news and some dramatic soap opera where the father of some women's unborn child was killed last night....I sleep. I wake up. I do it again.
At the Academy, marriage status is a focus of many conversations. When I was introduced to the company last friday...the newbies were to say their name, where they were from, and if they were single or married. In my class yesterday, when I told an older women that I'll be in Guate for a few months...she responded with "are you single, or married?" And yet again... when asked by fellow co workers why I'm in Guatemala.... almost all assumed that I followed a guy here to live.
I walk home for lunch some days and relax with the son of the women i'm staying with. I see the maid setting up a table outside with tons of food. I ask her who is coming, and she tells me that they feed the men who bring the vegetables. A few minutues later, the door bell rings and a neighbor is dropping off some sort of fruit for us as the maid exchanges her with some bread from our cabinet. A few minutes later, the bell rings again...its a person who came for some eggs- and I am reminded that my house has a "SE VENDEN HUEVOS" in the window...and we do infact, sell eggs.
Back to work I go , for another six hours. Class, class, class and I'm home at 815. Dinner is waiting for me at the table, and the maid is patient and sits with me, listening to me rambling on in broken spanish about my day.
"Muchisimas Gracias"
"Buen Provecho"
The table is cleared, the lights are turned off, I flick between the evening news and some dramatic soap opera where the father of some women's unborn child was killed last night....I sleep. I wake up. I do it again.
posted by Katy @ 12:39 PM
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