As I’ve mentioned before, Devin Hogan came to visit us. He’s one of our friends from Knox, and he now works for CareerBuilder.com. He took a break from his busy life to see what really goes on in Guatemala. So, being our first (and possibly only) visitor from home, we tried to show him as much of our life as possible. We started with tourist destinations. Side note: for anyone else thinking of visiting us, this is a sample of how our good times roll.

Lake Atitlan is a great place to relax, so we took Devin there straight away… and he slept through most of the first day. An international flight that starts at 2am will do that to you. But, we spent two more days there, and he got to take advantage of the beauty of the place. When it came time to leave, we piled in the boat and returned to Panajachel. Devin’s Spanish is pretty good, so he did most of his own ordering in restaurants and so forth. Muy bien! Emily helped him some with haggling in the artisans’ market, but that is mostly because she is an expert bargain hound, not for any lack of conversational ability on Devin’s part. Sometimes she drives such a hard bargain I can’t even bear to watch, but Devin seemed fascinated by the process and let her pummel the vendors a bit.

We then moved on to Antigua. I won’t bore you with lots of pictures, because we didn’t take many. Emily and I have been there so many times, it’s old hat for us. But we DID go into the McDonalds, just to show Devin the cool courtyard, which I would rate as one of the best in Guatemala. It’s got fountains, topiary, flagstone paving, Victorian lamps, and 500-year-old ruins in the background. All for McDonalds customers. Check this noise out, Devin and Emily posing with Ronald himself (click to enlarge).  

After the touristy stuff, we moved on to the Peace Corps stuff. You know, the “real Guatemala”. Being a pretty adventurous guy, Devin was game to try the arduous journey to our village. He spent several days with us getting to know our neighbors and a little about the campo lifestyle. He even got to meet some of the native wildlife:

Saturday, after we’d recovered from the journey to our site, we decided to take him into town. We missed the microbus, but luck was on our side: a guy with a flatbed truck was going that way, so we hitched a jalón (ride) with him and Devin got to experience the classic Guatemalan transportation adventure. Aaaah, there is nothing so fine as riding in the open air, hair blowing, watching the mountains roll by. A quick 40 minutes later we were in town. Again, he got to experience our life: we were ogled at, we dodged drunks, we chatted with friends, we refused to give beggars money. After discovering the postmistress was not in the post office (she is by FAR the most lazy and irresponsible government worker I’ve ever met, and that’s saying a lot), we stepped into the market. Here’s Devin, watching Emily again brutalize the vendors with her L33T haggling skillz.

Once we’d bought our supplies for the week, we stopped by to see our buddy Pedro. He took us out for beer. Devin decided that Gallo is pretty awful stuff (I concur), but when drinking beer in this situation, it’s about the company, not the brew. Pedro is awesome, and helps us out a lot with things like navigating the culture and learning Q’anjob’al. He was pleased to meet Devin, and we were happy to continue our quest of showing Guatemalans that it’s OK to have a beer without the other nine beers that normally follow it.  

Once we were home again, Emily taught him the ropes on the household tasks, and he was a good sport about pitching in and helping. He helped roast coffee (which Emily does on the stove, with beans from the local market) and wash clothes in the pila. I stood around and took pictures, doing my best possible to avoid any manual labor.

Having another big white gringo in town for a few days caused some excitement, especially amongst the children. They brought their puppies by to show him, and wanted to try on his shoes. Everyone was certain that Devin was my brother, since we look so much alike (?) and when he stepped out by himself to go to the latrine, people called him Jaime. To me, many Guatemalans look alike until I know them pretty well. I can only imagine the same happens to them in reverse. :]

On Devin’s last day in the village, the town called a meeting to present him to the people (that’s Devin, up on the school’s water tower holding the loudspeaker). Word had gotten around that his family donated gear for the Computer Center, and the village elders were keen to not only meet him, but to make him feel welcome. They were truly excited to see a third gringo, as well. Several speeches were given to the assembled villagers, and Emily talked about how we’re not the only foreigners that care about our village, and that there are lots of unseen Americans working to help them. Nas Palas got up and talked about how progress is slow and hard to see, but faith will carry the town through. Don Simon explained how in his day, the tool of survival was the azadón (hoe), and the tool of his sons was the typewriter, and how the tool of his grandchildren would be the computer. Many of the villagers understand nothing about the electronic age, but they have heard of computers. To hear their respected leaders speak like that is a really powerful message for them, and helps them to realize the importance of the project. Though they themselves might not benefit directly from a computer center (most are illiterate!), they want to give their children an opportunity for a better life.

“Please take back our message of thanks to your family,” they said. Then they broke out the book of acts, and everyone signed that they had been witness to the ceremony. Devin was handed the pen first, then everyone else followed… even the illiterate women I mentioned before, who signed with their thumbprints.

And that is my brief, superficial summary of Devin’s “Peace Corps in a week” vacation. “Wow,” Devin said. “Even though I read your blog before I came, I still don’t think I was prepared for all of this.” True, that.