We decided a while ago that we wanted to give some Christmas gifts out to the people that we’ve come to love in our village. This is tricky, as we have a lot of friends… and the families here are really big and you can’t give something to someone and not to someone else or you look like you’re playing favorites. We definately can’t afford to give something to everyone, and we don’t want to come off as rich white people dispensing gifts.
Luckily for us, the situation kindof resolved itself. Our first gift was for Pedro, who I feel is my only real Guatemalan “friend.” I have several people I respect, count on, collaborate with, and so forth- but he’s beyond that. He started as our Q’anjob’al instructor, but I’ve come to enjoy spending time with him and value his opinions. He keeps us abreast of important political stuff going in the area and watches out for our safety. But, his most unique quality is his worldly perspective: he has heard of things like birth control and vaccinations, watches the news, speaks a little English, and has a liberal (for a Guatemalan, anyways) outlook in life. Oh, and he understands the concept of “quality”, a really rare trait here. The first day I met him, he saw my leatherman and asked me (on the spot) if I would sell it to him. Only cheap Chinese knockoffs are available here, and even those are rare. Of course I didn’t sell mine (I NEED it!), but I always kept the event in my mind. Today, when he dropped by our house (by himself) for coffee, I gave him his own that I bought in the US.
Our other two gifts were for Nas Palas and Lina, his wife. Since they are the head of their household, it is socially acceptable to give them gifts and not the rest of the family. We gave Lina a can of sardines. She looked pretty confused, then we whipped out the real gift: a can opener. She seemed pretty excited after we explained what it was. This goes way back to the second dinner we ever had with them, where they served us sardines. But the scary part was when they opened the can with a machete. Yeah, yeah, they use machetes for everything here… but opening cans with one is SUCH an easy way to loose your fingers.
The last gift was for Nas Palas. Both of the times I’ve helped him kill & butcher animals, he used a TERRIBLE knife that was thi, flimsy, about as sharp as a nickel, and with the plastic part of the handle broken off. Now he has a nice Buck sheath knife, of the exact same design that my father used to clean game after a hunt, back when I was a kid. It’s sharp, easy to clean, keeps an edge forever, and is built like a tank. They thanked us sincerely. The best part was watching them as we all contunued talking for the next several minutes. Each gift went quietly around the room, everyone touching and feeling and appreciating. The can opener got twisted, the knife edge tested, all while we were talking about unrelated things. It made me feel really good, and I know these gifts will be around for a long time in that family. They don’t have many things and they use the hell out of the few things they DO have. In fact, that need for durability drove our decision to buy the brands we did.
Towards the end of the evening, Nas Palas asked me how much the knife cost. This is a Guatemalan tradition we’ve mentioned before; they always ask, because the knowledge helps them haggle better in the markets where there are no prices. But from an American perspective, it seems kindof rude (but we’re used to it). I smiled and told him the same thing Emily told Pedro in the morning: “In the US, it’s our custom to not say how much a gift cost.” Nas paused, broke out a huge smile, then reached over and patted me heartily on the back. I love that guy.
So that is my story of Christmas for Guatemalans.