itchy feet and sham-poo

hola

above or left depending where these photos have gone on the page, is the lake by san jose, and the house i was living in, the wooden shutters is my window there.

today´s blog is in 4 parts, as follows

part 1. a factual list of things i have done in the last few days

spent the weekend at the finca in poptun, saw the tarantula again. went to the hostel bar on saturday night, and who should we meet, but more U.S army soldiers... being as secretive as ever... it was the birthday of one of them, so we drank tequila with them. then some people did a fire dancing display thing, which was most impressive, but we wondered how come it didn´t set their t-shirts on fire, and wondered if they have to never use hairspray in this line of work.

last thursday´s san josé activity was cooking comida tipica (ie local food) with the abuela from rebecca´s house. we made empanadas, from a ball of corn dough, which you flatten out into a circle and then put a bit of refried beans (frijoles) on, and then fry in very hot oil. mine got better with practise, the first attempt was screwed up by the abuela for being not circular enough. they tasted great actually, and very nice to eat something that we had cooked ourselves, and thus knew exactly what was in it.

sunday was spent being hungover, and travelling back from the finca in a collectivo minibus thing, not comfy enough to sleep in, but can´t complain as they are very cheap, and generally fairly direct, though they tend to go round the houses when you go through a town or village. sat by the lake in the evening, and wondered how there could every so often be waves on the lake when there mustn´t be a tide on a lake, and other such profound thoughts. any suggestions as to this phenomenon, is it that any body of water has a bit of a tide do you think, if so, would even a puddle be subject to this phenomenon?

monday´s activity was making some body lotion, with some of the abuelas from the town. they sell this as part of the school/nature reserve. we were quite excited about this, expecting to learn lots about how to make soap-shampoo etc from scratch using just local aloe vera plants. so we chopped up the aloe vera leaves, with mini machetes, then abuela thelma put them in a big pan to cook, then poured out the water to cool down. then out came a huge bucket of plain cream, ie. not cream you eat, but body lotion cream stuff. we poured the natural aloe vera into the very unnatural (and bought in guatemala city i think) thick white cream, and stirred it interminably until it looked less like curdled milk and more like something you would want to spread on your body (i suppose that depends on your own particular penchant though..). abuela checked it after a while, and decided it didn´t smell good enough, so added some equally unnatural watermelon flavouring.... then we poured this into little plastic bags which we cut at the end and poured into little bottles, which are then sold as ´natural body lotion from san josé´. hmm. not sure how i feel about this guatemalan scam. anyway, interesting experience as always.

in the meantime, aderito, one of the teachers, had been breaking the padlock of the bodega (storeroom) as the key had broken. he started off with a saw, but it wasn´t strong enough, so he got out a huge axe. we all stood back while he hammered at the little padlock, and sure enough it broke very neatly, without smashing the door or anything (imagine if i´d been in charge of that axe instead). we looked in the bodega, there were a few bags lying around that said ´gel´on them, but i didn´t know what to believe anymore about what anything was, so we looked around and said bueno a few times and left to go and get a (natural) ice cream.

tuesday´s activity was basket weaving with a local basket weaver. this was great fun, just like when you´re little and you make something at school that´s totally crap and useless, but because you made it yourself you think it´s the best thing ever. there was lots of machete wielding as the girl tapered the thin branches you use for the weaving, we kept saying ciudado, but here they grow up around machetes, and use them for everything from mowing the lawn, to cutting their hair (probably, i haven´t actually seen that yet though). she showed us some sombreros and a chair she had weaved, very impressive. we went off with our baskets for a beer in the town

and today (wednesday)´s activity was making necklaces from little branches. again, i can´t remember the name of the tree it was from, but i think it´s the thing that monkeys swing around jungles on, so not exactly a tree, but a sort of bendy branch that´s not very thick. i put the letter L on one of them, and on the other my mayan nagual sign, which is like a starsign. mine is called kej, and is a deer, and this is what the information said about people who have that sign, see if you agree:

they are wanderers, merchants, they are strong because they possess four legs (i´m pretty sure i don´t). this is the nagual of money, of success in business (!). Kej is very masculine, and if a woman is bown on this day, she will have a strong character and voice, and she´ll be very mannish.

hmm. not so complimentary. i was wearing a skirt today, so didn´t feel too mannish. later on it says

.. will either become a leader in both worldly and religious matters or else an evil witch who will go through life mounting others (?), causing trouble and sorrow to all who know him or her. finally, after enough calendar diviners have returned these troubles and illnesses, he or she weakens or dies.

nice prospect. i welcome your comments.

part 2. things i have learnt:

´tranquil atmosphere´is cleverly disguised language that guidebooks use, which means ´boring´

it is not very clever to drink too much tequila and then sit on your one remaining pair of glasses thus squashing them, and then trying to bend them back into shape using your amazing drunken glasses mending ability.. they now have sellotape on, like a true gipsy.

if you say in guatemala voy al bar, thinking you are saying i´m going to the bar, you are actually saying i´m going to a brothel

i´m not 100% sure i still want to live in a little hut in the mountains anymore. it is hard living without home comforts, and internet, and other people to converse with in your native language etc

i need to stop losing things, so far this week it´s been 2 watches (yes, i lost the new casio, but have since replaced it with the same casio), a necklace i´d bought in belize (though turns out it had the wrong nagual sign on anyway, so nevermind about that), my water bottle (found it again today in the bar (ie bar, not brothel) we were in yesterday

part 3. things that still remain a mystery to me:

how to flush the toilet in my house here

who the hell the members of my family are here

whether the people here are genetically indisposed to boredom by some evolutionary present, or whether they are as bored as i have been in my free time (which i have filled by eating ice creams and reading lots of books and doing profound thinking, but nonetheless it´s been a challenge)

whether i have dengue fever, or in fact just a cold (i think the latter)

whether my feet will ever look like my own feet again, i am covered in mosquito bites, and have still a slightly swollen right foot, and am generally very dirty and smelly. it´s not for lack of washing (well, maybe a bit), just that it seems impossible to properly feel clean here

whether the chicken i had for dinner last night was the same chicken i saw running around in our kitchen the day before. i think so

why, when i am in one of the foremost coffee producing countries of the world, am i drinking instant coffee everywhere...

part 4. dates for your diary:

1st november, in san josé, where sadly i won´t be at that time anymore, there is a huge festival, and people come from everywhere to take part in it. i´m going to investigate further with my teacher tomorrow what exactly it is, but apparently it is televised on the discovery channel, live. it´s something to do with the sacred skulls of the church, one of which each year is taken out and paraded around and various other things happen, and it lasts a whole 24 hours i think. i will update you when i have investigated

28th april 2009: my equivalent date of birth in mayan is 10 kej, and this date occurs again on 28th april 2009. thus i will from now on be celebrating 2 birthdays per year. not decided how old i am in mayan yet, perhaps still 25ish.

tomorrow i will be learning the subjunctive tense. or should i say oh how i wish i would be learning the subjunctive tense! is that the correct usage?

all for now. xx