santa cecilia.

Aaahhhhh, where to begin. Perhaps with a small anecdote. Yes, I think that´s a swell idea. So I´m standing on the corner in Antigua waiting for the bus to head home, and a "gentleman" (yes, that´s in quotes for a reason) feels the need to ask me, "Hey baby! How you doin´ and how much?" Somewhat humorous I felt. It´s rather bizarre that the people who try to speak English to you here only say things like "I love you" or "Hey baby, how you doing?" Whatevs.

So, Sunday night I had a crash course in hand-washing clothes in the pila. Apparently my host mom is 5 months pregnant and her doc doesn´t want her doing laundry anymore. Fíjese que, that´s hilarious. She told me that I have quite the aptitude and was impressed by how fast I picked it up. Uhhh, ok. I may not have had to do my own laundry until college, but I feel that I am more than making up for it these days. It took me literally 15 minutes to wash just ONE pair of jeans...they´re the worst. Fortunately, there is a washing machine, but they say it doesn´t work well and just use it to wash sheets. Anyways. It´s weird to wash your clothes with this kind of bar soap, and they don´t ever really smell fresh and clean the way that they do when they come out of the dryer. I miss that smell.

I experienced my first bit of camioneta trouble this past weekend on Saturday. A group of us (2 from Dueñas, 3 from Pastores, and 3 from San Luis Las Carretas) went to Zaragosa, Chimaltenango to visit the one and only Grant P-M. Grant, if you´re reading this, thanks again! We had a ball. But first we had bus trouble. We´re in the middle of the road between Pastores and Parramos, about 15 minutes outside of Antigua when the bus stops and then just doesn´t go anywhere. Keep in mind that I´m sharing the bench with 2 other full grown adults, and there´s a chapino ass in my face too. To put it mildly, it was a rather full camioneta. After about 20 minutes of just sitting there, people start getting off in hopes that another bus will come by and we might be able to hop on. Disembark. A bus comes by, and for the FIRST time I´ve seen in 2 months, doesn´t stop because it was full. Usually they don´t give a hoot if everyone is standing on each other. After about 15 minutes of hanging around outside the bus, it turns back on and there´s a mad dash for the back door. Fortunately we all made it in through the door before it took off running with the door swinging in the wind. Apparently all fixed and we made it to Chimal without further incident. If any of you reading this come to visit me, we are NOT going to be visiting Chimal. It is a rather nasty city that is really just good for changing buses to get to the antiplano of the Western Highlands of Guatemala. We had a lovely rest of the day shooting the breeze and eating Grant´s homemade hummus. Snazzy.

I actually managed to go riding yesterday morning, which was delightful, despite the piss-poor weather. It was literally pouring, but we went out anyways. The people that own the stables are rather...eccentric...British ex-pats. It was lovely to ride a trained horse again, however. My swell friend Anna accompanied me, and was a great trooper even though she was soaking wet and somewhat confused. But if you know Anna, you know confusion isn´t an uncommon frame of mind for her :) There was an interesting point on the ride where Fred, the hubby, speaks up about how he thinks this country needs a good ole epidemic disease to wipe out some of the population growth. He continues by commenting on how he thought AIDS was going to do it, but it´s looking like it won´t be able to do the trick. Vaya. Too bad we´re here working to improve health and prevent disease...

We had a hilarious little language confusion in Spanish class the other day. One of the girls here in Dueñas with me is from Louisana. We were discussing animals in Spanish, because I didn´t know how to say quail or possum. Rafael, our Spanish teacher, starts talking about nutrias, these precious little animals that swim and some people even keep as pets in their pilas. Lauren´s jaw drops, because apparently there are nutrias in the States, and they´re nasty water rats that are kind of similar to possums. I have no clue. Rafael is talking about how beautiful nutrias are, and what great pets they can be. Us gringas continue to be ridiculously confused, but just accepting it. After all, possum meat is a delicacy here. We finally discover that nutria is the word here in Guatemala for otter. Yes, I would like to have an otter in my pila as a pet. No, I would not like to have a Lousiana nutria, EVER.

I feel normal again, but will be continuing to take horse-sized antibiotics 3 times a day for another two weeks. Whoo! Happy belated Father´s Day again to you, Daddy, and I hope everyone had fun at John´s last night. Wish I had been able to be there. Fam, please email me some new pictures of the one and only Libby Mae! We´re coming down to the wire here...I find out where I´m going forever on July 1. Cross your fingers I end up somewhere, I don´t know, whatever. I don´t even know what I want in a site anymore. It will all work out.

Muchos besos,
Marta