I was wandering around the village today, looking for signatures for a thank-you letter I am sending to a church that donated funds for our projects. School registration is on this week and next, so I stumbled into the community center to see if anyone I needed was inside. What I found instead was all the teachers, two of which were manning a makeshift registration desk. The other half-dozen were huddled around a low table, playing cards with the principal. It made me laugh out loud, and reminded me of that “dogs playing poker” painting. Then I remembered: it’s been a while since I posted a random, slice-of-life-in-Guatemala post. So, here goes.

Agriculture

Everyone’s tilling their fields, getting ready for next month’s planting. It’s too steep here for mechanical cultivation (tractors, harrows, etc.) so they do it all the way they’ve done it since before Columbus… with a hoe and a lot of muscle. Here’s a picture of a “Guatemalan tractor” turning up the field next to our house. Once that’s done, they then burn all the cornstalks from the previous year. This was annoying to Emily, who just put our laundry on the line an hour before this all started. As it is, our clothes smell smoky after we visit any of the neighbors, but it’s nice to at least START without smelling like a campfire.

Baby Animals

We’ve seen a lot of cute animals lately. Our newest discovery is piglets. There are a few in the neighboring village, oinking and trotting around and being generally crazy every time we show up to give a lecture. Today, when we were walking in the mountains above our own village, we passed a house that had a grunting sow with half a dozen REALLY tiny piggies. They look and act like puppies when they are that small, it’s hilarious. There are other funny animals around here, too. Nas Palas’s flock had a new lamb when we were in the US; its fleece is a pretty golden color (unlike most of the black sheep in the flock). Here’s a picture of one of the neighborhood kids (Anish) holding the little blighter.

Horses

I am not a big fan of horses. Our neighbors, however, have one that is in pretty good shape. Unlike the skeleton-horses one usually sees in Guatemala, this horse is well-fed, strong, and healthy. The other day I heard a funny noise, and looked out the window of the clubhouse to see Mr. Chej (my name for him; they don’t name horses here) tied up to one of the stilts that holds up the house.

He was in the field below, happily eating his fill of cornstalks, one of his favorite snacks. “Please, sir, do not bolt away and cause my house to collapse down the hill,” I quietly asked him as he was snacking. Perhaps he was listening; he tends to think of himself as a person. He even likes to sneak a drink up at the house when no one is looking. Notice in the first picture that the turkey is also enjoying the leftover pickings in the corn field. And, yes, that is the very same turkey that I threw rocks at last month for terrorizing my broccoli patch.

Socializing

We occasionally have people over for dinner. Here we see Pedro, my friend and Q’anjob’al teacher, along with his family. We invited him and his wife over for a pizza, because he mentioned that it was something he missed from the US. We were surprised when they showed up with four relatives in tow; this is a very Guatemalan thing to do, but it stressed Emily out because we didn’t cook THAT much pizza. But, things worked out: everyone except Pedro and his nephew were so scared of this strange thing called “pizza” that they dared not even try it. Instead, they went to the one store in town and bought some ramen noodles, which we cooked up for them.

The next picture is what we see most every day: more kids watching us through the top half of our door. They never seem to tire of it. “What is that?” “Are there cookies today?” “Who is that a picture of?” “What is that?” “Can I come in to play?” “Computers! Cool!” “Can I use your machete?” “He hit me!” “What is that?”

Really, it’s quite entertaining. And when we tire of them, we just close the door. Within an hour, they get bored and go home.

Gardening

I’ve been growing some broccoli, to try to get to locals interested in producing some healthy green vegetables locally, instead of buying them in town (or not at all). Here’s me and my broccoli patch, which I am pleased to announce is doing fine, thanks to a new chicken wire fence I built to keep the turkeys out. I also must credit Galindo, who has taken an interest in the garden and has helped me a bunch- he even kept it watered for me while I was in the USA. He seems to be doing much better now, a few months after the Tamarron incident.

We talk about gardens and trees and such in our health lectures, too. Here is Emily, testing out a bosque (forest) hat that we used for one of our games. Looking rediculous is where it’s at, I’m telling ya.