Catch-up: October 21st-October 31st

So I got behind in my posts on this blog during the last week of my first two classes and because of limited internet access it has become very difficult to get caught up. So! here is my solution: here is one long post which will incorporate ten days worth of information, October 21st through today October 31st.

Oct. 21st:
I created a large maps so that I could practice for our map quiz on Monday. I also hung out with Leslie, another Casa Herrera student, and I invited myself on her trip with some friends to Monterrico for the weekend. at night I color coded and mapped out my poster map for studying.

Oct. 22nd:
Three people from Casa Herrera, two Icelanders, a Dutch gentleman, and I all took a shuttle and boat to Monterrico, the black sand beaches on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. We stayed in a hostel called Delphin and spent a good amount of the day lounging in hammocks and swimming in the very aggressive ocean. We also visited a turtle sanctuary where they take care of turtle eggs and help the babies get to the ocean. I had a fantastic time enjoying relaxing for the day (other than the trying not to drown part).

Boat ride to Monterrico

Oct. 23rd:
Sunday was our second and last day in Monterrico, and we spent the majority of the day in the water, though I didn't stay in as long as everyone else. We chilled and enjoyed ourselves and I got a bit of a tan! We got back to Antigua around 5, and I headed home to study up for the map quiz in the morning.

Oct. 24th:
Had both classes. Archaeology: map quiz, Olmec-sacred landscape, San Lorenzo, "mother culture" or "sister culture"?, cave paintings in Oxtotitlan, and La Mojarro Stela. Hieroglyphics: the several variations of the name K'inich Janab Pakal. Due to the cruelty of a malicious pie, I got food poisoning before Spanish class and had to spend the evening at my home stay.

Oct. 25th:
Archaeology: Kaminaljuyu- right in the middle of Guatemala City, we discussed the site to prepare for our field trip to the site on Wednesday. We started with Monte Alban, San Jose Magote, and El Baul to get us ready for our discussions of Kaminaljuyu. Hieroglyphics: We discussed the 260-day and 365-day calendar systems in class, but we did not have time to get into discussion of the Long Count Calendar as of yet. 


Oct. 26th:
We went on a field trip to Kaminaljuyu and got a special tour of the site from the archaeologist who is currently working there. We got to go down into some of the tunnels in the temples and we got to go into the lab and look at some of the artifacts that they have from the site. In the afternoon we had Spanish class and took a quiz, which actually was ok... surprisingly.

Kaminaljuyu

Oct. 27th:
Thursday Prof. Stuart left to go back to Austin, so we had our TA Edwin and a grad student working with Edwin named Nick, teach our two classes. Edwin told us about the site that he and Nick are working at, El Zotz, and Nick gave us an intro to the Long Count Calender and did an overview of the glyphs from the sites around and at El Zotz. We also got a tour of the place where they do some of their work and I talked to Nick about working with them. After lunch I spent four hours working with Nick, which was monotonous and wonderful! I had an amazing time and I am so glad I have this opportunity!

Oct. 28th:
On Friday I spent the day getting some chores done around Antigua and also prepared for my birthday present to myself for Saturday. I also worked on research for our first paper in Archaeology on Teotihuacan.

Oct.29th:
My first piece in my Maya Portfolio, Self-Portrait #1, is very important for me and for a long time I have wanted my original figure, whom I call my spirit guide, tattooed on to my leg, and so, here, in the place where it all began, I am getting the tattoo for my birthday, which is also the date 1 Imix in the 260-day calendar, which is a variation on my Mayan name, Naab', both meaning "Waterlily," (my name "Susan" derives from the Hebrew for "Lily"). I got the tattoo on my right leg, corresponding to my right, dominate hand. The tattoo is a terracotta color and looks amazing. I am very satisfied with it at this point in time, though I believe when it is healed I am going to have some details added to bring it closer to the original drawing.

Right back leg

Oct. 30th:
I spent this day finishing up some chores, working on my paper, and attending the completion of my friends tattoo for her birthday which was this day. I didn't stay with her for very long, and I spent the evening working on my paper due on Monday.

Oct. 31st:
Happy Halloween!! Monday classes, and paper due! and this evening is horror movie night at the Casa! We are also celebrating both mine and Annie's birthdays during the break between classes. Spanish this afternoon!

Day Fifty-Five, Antigua

On Thursday the 20th we learned about the "early formative" period in Mesoamerica. The transition of cultures from archaic to formative includes the domestication of crops and a switch from hunter-gatherer communities to agricultural populations. We discussed what was needed to transition people into sedentary groups; there is a conundrum, does agriculture lead to sedentism or does sedentism lead to agriculture? Some of the necessary materials that helped transition the people of Mesoamerica to sedentism were: corn, beans and squash, tools made of stone and obsidian, the invent of ceramics, and jade, all of which would have lead to the separation of "classes" of people; who has it and who doesn't. The development of religion would have influenced the progression of community structures as well, with the furthering of class differentiation taking place as religious figure heads (ex, priests and kings) would come into greater power in the community.
In hieroglyphics class we talked about variation in glyph design and some of the important people in the field of glyph studies. We talked about Morley, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and Ian Graham.

Day Fifty-Four, Antigua

On Wednesday in archaeology we started in on the details of the history of archaeology. We started with an over view of the "late post-classic" period of Mesoamerica and some of the sites that were up and running during the time of the Spanish conquest: Tulum, Tenochtitlan, Iximche, and a small touch on Nohpeten. During the 1600s Mesoamerica was kind of a no-mans land in regards to archaeological information; no one was building/creating new things, and no one was looking/finding the old things. In 1790 a large monument of the Aztec deity named Coatlicue was found in Mexico city long with the famous "Aztec Calendar Stone" or "Sun Stone." During that time no one alive knew anything about these things and they became quiet famous and people were fascinated by them, so instead of destroying them, like what had happened during and after the conquest, they were set in places of importance. This was the first "archaeology" in Mesoamerica.

In hieroglyphics class we watched the long form version of "Cracking the Maya Code" a fantastic documentary based off of Michael Coe's book about how archaeologist were finally able to decipher Maya script. I have seen the short version of the film several times, but this version had a lot more information and explained things a lot clearer and in more detail. The film was a wonderful introduction to understanding where scholars are in the decipherment and what is happening in that field of research. I would recommend the film to everyone who has even the slightest interest in anything Maya.

After lunch I headed over to Spanish early to go over more of my Spanish workbook and try to get me up to speed with the class. Class was ok, but I am still very behind and very uncomfortable in the class. When I got home I did more work in my workbook and did some more readings, but I am feeling fairly discouraged with the Spanish class as it is going now.

Day Fifty-Three, Antigua

On Tuesday the 18th of October we continued our look at the general history of Mesoamerican Archaeology to prepare us for delving into the details later. We talked about some of the more important sites in Mesoamerica and there influences on other sites. A lot of the first two days was more of a quick review for me, since I have taken classes on this before, and with our first readings in Susan Evans book it is very much an introduction.
In hieroglyphics class we started by comparing iconography and writing systems in Mesoamerica and Prof. Stuart emphasized that, to understand one you really have to study both. We sort of continued our look at the overview of the history of archaeology in this class, because it is all so tied together in these cultures. We looked at Ian Graham in particular, a "crazy English guy" who would go where no one else would in the dense jungles Mesoamerica and photograph the architecture and details of the sculptures, particularly the hieroglyphic scripts. from our discussion of Ian Graham we seguade into his "rediscovery" of El Mirador, and how that has led to the work that is being done there now. What was really very cool was when Prof. Stuart showed us that you can actually see the "super-highway" of El Mirador from Google maps!
At the end of class we did our second decipherment of the hieroglyphics on a sculpture of a dog from Tonina, which say "his dog" to the amusement of the class. But it is important to say that the Maya seemed to love to label all of there possessions, maybe to show status or to keep someone else from using their stuff, everything was labeled, from a bone instrument, to a cup, to a portrait of some mans favorite pet.

View of Antigua from Cerro de la Cruz

After classes I went back to my home stay for lunch. After two weeks of crazy rain storms here in Guatemala, which have done some serious damage to some of the small towns and villages, it was finally a beautiful sunny day outside, so the girls from my home stay and I decided to go hiking up Cerro de la Cruz, a famous lookout spot in Antigua. The hike was maybe 15mins once we got to the other side of Antigua, then we got one of the most beautiful views of Antigua I have yet seen. It was four of us that went up and we had a very good time, laughing and enjoying the weather.
After we cam back down we stopped at a cafe called "Cafe Sky" and sat on the roof deck continuing our view of Antigua; we even saw Fuego erupt/hiccup. After that we walked over to San Francisco and I showed them the church and Hermano Pedro's tomb. We also bought some candles to light at the church: two each, one red for love and one white for family. We had a lovely time and it was nice to finally get out of the house for a little bit.
That evening I continued my Spanish practice in my workbook and continued the readings for both the Casa Herrera classes.

Day Fifty-Two, Antigua

Monday the 17th of October was the first day of our new classes! At 9am we start with the history of Mesoamerican Archaeology, then at 11am we have Hieroglyphic writing, both with Professor David Stuart. I have been looking forward o these classes from the moment I heard about them, so I was pumped for the beginning of class!
In the first class we did a quick hour and a half overview of the history of Archaeology broken down in a very (very!) generalized timeline of Olmec, Maya, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, Mixtec, Toltec, and Mexica (Aztec). As we went over the loose time periods of the different ethnic groups we also got an introduction to some of the names of the archaeologists who work(ed) with these different groups; also a generalized timeline. We also discussed some of the terminology of the time periods and the groups of people.
In hieroglyphics class we looked at a general history of writing systems and the ways that they manifest. There are generally three types of writing systems: logographic (symbols which mean whole words. Ex: Chinese), syllabic (symbols which represent consonant-vowel sounds. Ex: Cherokee), and alphabetic (symbols for consonants and vowels. Ex: English). The interesting thing about Mayan hieroglyphics is that there are both logographic symbols AND syllabic, which made it very hard to decipher for a long time.

My written decipherment

At the end of class we did our first decipherment as a class of the hieroglyphs for "His bone, Holy Tikal Lord" which are incised on the surface of a bone instrument found in Tikal in the 1960s. We are going to do decipherments every class as a group and soon we will also be doing them for homework. We are all suppose to get a new notebook specifically for our hieroglyphic decipherments so that we can keep track of them, so after class I went to the store and got myself a small note book to work in.

After lunch I did some studying for Spanish class, then went there early to have my Spanish teacher go over my workbook and correct the activities I have been doing on my own time in the hopes of bettering my Spanish. Class was difficult again, and I am getting very discouraged, but my work in my work book is getting better and I am hoping it will help me make the final push to comprehending the work in the class better.
I spent time with the girls from my home stay and we are very much enjoying each others company; another girl also arrived and is in the room next to mine. We are all learning Spanish, but I have been doing it the most so I have become the go to person for translating and communicating with our host, Olga, which is also helping my Spanish a lot.

Day Fifty-One, Antigua

Sunday was another relaxing day and I had breakfast at a lovely place called Dona Luisa, a common tourist spot for breakfast. Though it was a calm day it was also the day that two new people arrived in my home stay to actually stay in the house. For a few days it has only been myself and a girl from Canada, but as it happens we are getting new people and changing it up a lot.
I spent the rest of the day working on some new art projects, to be shown in pictures later. I am loving adding color to some of my designs that I have been playing with and these two new pieces are getting much more into exploring the addition of color to certain parts of the pieces. I also worked on my Spanish and talked with Olga for at least an hour in halting Spanish.

Day Fifty, Antigua

On Saturday morning I slept in. This is sort of our winter break between our two mini-semesters, so I took the day to relax and also do some more of my personal art, which I have not have enough time to do in the last two weeks. I spent the day in my home stay, reading, and starting a new segment of my Maya Portfolio; small glyph portraits with the addition of colored pencil. I will have pictures of these new small pieces up here in a few days, they are small but intricate and take a long time to work on. I also spent a good portion of the day working on my Spanish. The day was very relaxed but I also did take some time to go out; I had to buy a new umbrella.

Day Forty-Nine, Antigua

Friday October 14th was originally planned to be the day that we would go to Iximche, a site about 2 hours from Antigua, however, because of rain and landslide conditions, we pushed the trip back to the next week. So instead of going to Iximche, we watched "The Lost King of the Maya" documentary instead. The documentary is about the discovery of the royal lineage of the kings of Copan, and the recreation of the hieroglyphic staircase. For a side note, walking to the Casa was a pain, because the rain was unbelievable and I got soaked through, however, Antigua is not suffering even a fraction as much as some of the outlaying area are.
I spent the morning in the Casa, watching the video, and hanging out with some of the other students. I stayed in the Casa throughout the day, working on this blog and setting up my registration for classes next semester back at MassArt (registration is Monday Oct. 24th). There were some concerns about my registration in regards to this abroad semester, but it all got sorted out via e-mail very quickly (Thank you Lois).
I stayed until 5pm here in Casa until it closed then I went home and worked on more Spanish, listening to the rain as it continued to come down.

Day Forty-Eight, Antigua

Thursday was the big day when we turned in our final projects for both of our classes. At the beginning of history class we turned in our research papers via e-mail, then we presented our creative projects in both our history class and religion class with a short break in between. Everyone took the concept of a creative project about religion and went completely different directions and angles. There were drawings, sculptures, presentations, and even a ceremonial alter design. We spent the entire two class periods going through the presentations for these projects and my presentation of the long count coloring book was the last presentation of the day.
After we finished our presentations and ended our last classes, we all decided to get dinner together with Professor Burnett (and her husband who came to visit) for a goodbye.
Before dinner though, I spent two hours reading "The Order of Days" at Cafe Fernando, then went to PLFM (my language school) to attend a class on how to make kites. In Guatemala there is a tradition of creating elaborate, and sometimes really large, tissue paper kites. I don't have any pictures of them but this site <http://www.travelsinparadise.com/guatemala/kites/index.html> has some lovely pictures to get a sense of the scale of their kite festivals.
I took the class with four people from my group of students and another student from PLFM. Creating the kites was difficult for some of us, but absolutely a wonderful time. I decided to change up the traditional designs and create my own, much to the confusion of the two men who were showing us how to make them. In the end we all really liked our kites and I want to make several more, more complex and much larger. I am also planning on going to the kite festival in Sacatepequez on November 1st.

After we finished up our kite making lesson, we all headed over to Casa to meet up and walk over to the restaurant for dinner. Everyone ended up showing up for the evening and we overwhelmed the little restaurant, but had a wonderful time. It was bittersweet, but we were all laughing and having a wonderful time by the end of the evening.

The whole group out to dinner,
going off into the distance!

   

Day Forty-Seven, Antigua

On Wednesday it was a holiday in Guatemala, so we did not have classes. I used this day to work on my creative project in Casa. Another student, Annie, also spent the day working on her creative project in the studio room of Casa, and we spent the morning and afternoon talking and working together. I managed to finish the aspects of this project that I wanted to complete for the end of this class, and even made photocopies of the pages to give to my professor as a preview of the final piece.
In the afternoon, at 3pm, I had Spanish class, and though I had been studying quite a lot throughout the week, I was still very behind in the class and we continued the program which added more information to what we need to know and be able to utilize. I am starting to work with the teacher outside of class time to try and better my Spanish.

Day Forty-Six, Antigua

On Tuesday I spent another full day working in CIRMA on my research paper. I continued to mainly use the dissertation I found the day before, but I also found an online resource which proved to be a little helpful. Most sources are on the NGO programs in Guatemala and not the public educational systems, so finding information I can use immediately (so something not in Spanish) is very difficult. Even the Spanish books are hard to come by and my pile of resources was rather diminutive. The online source was : Willford, Miriam. "The Educational Reforms of Dr. Mariano Galvez." Journal of Inter-American Studies, Vol.10, No.3, July 1968: 461-473.
Miraculously, though it is different than what I originally intended, I managed to finish the paper by the time CIRMA closed at 5pm on Tuesday. I spent another night working in my Spanish book.

Day Forty-Five, Antigua

Monday October 10th I was found in CIRMA from 9am to 5pm with just a short lunch period in the middle. I spent the day looking through several books with the exact information that I needed for my research paper, unfortunately solely in Spanish. With two Spanish-English dictionaries and a notebook, I spent the day trying to translate what I would need for my paper due on Thursday.
Near 3pm I found another book in CIRMA, this one a dissertation written for the University of Miami. This source has become the main resource for my paper. Hernandez, Roberto E. Public Education and University Reforms in Guatemala, 1831-1920. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1979.
I spent the whole day working on this paper, then went back to my home stay to continue working in my Spanish book.

Day Forty-Four, Antigua

On Sunday, Casa Herrera and CIRMA (where I was collecting information for my research paper) was closed, so I spent the day working on my Spanish. I have a workbook and a book called "Breaking Out of Beginners Spanish." I am trying to really focus on learning Spanish, and so I am taking it more into my own hands to learn as much as I can in a different way then the Spanish classes have been taking thus far. The workbook is a two year work book, and though I worked my way through the first section of the book, it is a real challenge for me, showing me that I am going to need to do much more work to get my Spanish to a working level.

Day Forty-Three, Antigua

On Saturday, Mily opened Casa Herrera for all of us to be able to work on our projects due in the next week. We had two projects due, the Creative Project and the Research Paper. I spent all day Saturday at the Casa working on my Creative Project, the Long Count Coloring book. Several other students also spent the day at the Casa working. I also spent a good amount of time talking to the people in my home stay.
I also started reading Prof. Stuarts book "The Order of Days" in order to better understand the long count system and its relationship to the culture of the Maya and the other two calendrical systems. I highly recommend the book to anyone with even a moderate interest in Maya studies.    

Day Forty-Two, Antigua

People of Maize 

On Friday, October 7th, we all got up early and headed out to Comalapa, a town outside of Antigua. In Comalapa we met with a Maya priest/shaman who showed us to where he performs rituals and keeps the count of ceremonial days. We took part in a ritual to bless our group and some of the students even took a greater part in the performance. Somethings were very intense for some of the students, so the whole experience was worth while.
After we left the shamans house we were given a tour of the Comalapa murals which depict the history of Guatemala, the good but mostly the bad and the struggles. The murals are very long and tell a story that is very sad and powerful. As an artist, the murals really spoke to me about the power of history on the contemporary Maya, and how the history of this country is still very prominent in the mind of the modern Maya people. I took pictures of all the sections of the mural, but I am only going to show a few of them here in this setting, to put into a visual context some of the things I have already mentioned in this blog.

Beginning of the Spanish Conquest

Beginning of the Rebel resistances and the times of violence 

The 1976 Earthquake 

La Violencia; The escalation of violence

Guatemalan Flag manipulated by the violence 

A new beginning with the introduction of the Peace Accords in 1996

Day Forty-One, Antigua

Lesley Lopez

On the last class day of the week we presented projects in both classes. In history we presented our map projects hung up in another room here in Casa Herrera. Everyone did something completely different and the presentations on the topics were fascinating. We ended up talking far too long, and going over our regular break time, so we jumped right into our presentations for religion class. We finished up our presentations in religion, and I was the last person to present. Both of my finished projects are in the links on the right hand side.
Attached to this post are three examples of some of the projects that were created for this class.

For the rest of the day I worked on Spanish and also continued work on my creative project due next week.

Ian Payne 

Casey Smith

Day Forty, Antigua

On Wednesday the fifth of October our Participant Observation Projects were due in our religion class, but we had regular class in history. So, in history we started with the 1982 military coup which put Efrain Rios Montt in the position of Chief-Of-State in Guatemala for a little over a year. It was during this short period of time that "La Violencia" was at its absolute peek with the most deaths and disappearances in the whole time of the Civil War. In the major cities, Montt stopped a lot of the violence that had the middle and upper classes afraid, and so for those people they thought Montt was a leader that was protecting the people, but in the rural areas "fusiles y frijoles" led to the deaths of thousands of civilian Maya people. In yet another coup in 1983, Montt was replaced by Gen. Oscar Mejia Victores, and a gradual transition to democracy started to take place. 1990 saw the beginning of the Peace Accords and by 1996 the civil war officially ended with the implementation of the accords. It was in 1998-99 that the truth commissions started and the realities of the civil war started to become apparent, something that is still happening today.

In religion we stated presenting our Participant Observation projects, each taking a different and unique look at religion and how we have all interacted with it here in Guatemala. The presentations went from experiences at Comalapa to new experiences at Evangelical churches here to Catholic mass, we all presented vastly different, wonderfully intriguing projects.

In Spanish, we had our second exam, and unfortunately we are all having a lot of trouble, so we are going to try to find a way to make the courses and our Spanish practice function better during the second half of the semester. I in particular am sick of not being able to retain the information that we are getting, so I went to a book store in the center of Antigua and bought a Spanish Two Year Workbook and a book entitled "Breaking out of Beginners Spanish" in the hopes that by doing the activities and having a more concentrated focus on Spanish outside of my two Spanish classes a week, I will be able to retain and utilize Spanish more easily and fluently. I spent several hours working in the workbook and trying memorize a few verbs. So far so good!  

Day Thirty-Nine, Antigua

I am not going to talk much about this day. We went on a very powerful field trip, and I would prefer to not talk about it in this setting. Suffice to say, it was a very interesting day, very informative, and relevant to our history and religion classes.
We did also have lunch together and had very interesting conversations as a group discussing our pasts. We are all becoming very close, and we are all starting to feel sad that the first half of this semester abroad experience is coming to an end.

Day Thirty-Eight, Antigua

On Monday, after our return from Lake Atitlan and the Chichi market, we were back to our regular classes. In history we started looking at the time of "La Violencia" from about 1978-1983 and beyond. It can be said that the catalyst for the eruption of violence that took place during this time was the 1976 earthquake which devastated Guatemala. The epicenter was Chimaltenango, which is near Antigua, and the effect of the earthquake cause so much shock and despair that people continued to die weeks later simply from the shock. This threw all of the political and economic problems into high relief and led to the re-formation of guerrilla groups including the EGP and ORPA. The Panzos Massacre of 1978 was the first modern massacre in the war and was the beginning of the escalating violence, which developed into the 1980 burning of the Spanish Embassy, a drastic increase in assassinations and political killings and the development of large scale massacres in rural areas.
Religion class was a little different than normal, our TA, Stephan, did his presentation that he has been preparing for presenting to UT as part of his dissertation. The presentation was on Protestantism in Guatemala, and how it has effected the country in the past and continues to effect it in contemporary times. We all got to bombard him with questions at the end as though we were professors at UT, but in all the presentation was very well done, and informative for us all.
In the evening we had our Spanish class during which time we prepared for our second exam on Wednesday.
At my home stay I some wonderful discussions with the others staying here and they are a great group to talk with about political and social issues here in Guatemala. Hearing about their days and practicing Spanish with them has become an important part of my day; I talk more about this in my journals on the right hand side of this blog.

Day Thirty-Seven, Antigua

Milady, Casey, and Annie sitting at breakfast

On Sunday morning we all ate a lovely breakfast right on the lake! It was a beautiful morning and we were all relaxed from our time off from class and work. At 8:30am we piled into the bus and headed over to Chichicastenango for the day. Chichi has a famous market and we also visited two religious sites, one a church and the other a Maya ceremonial site.
We all talked about our evenings and relaxed on the bus. We had to backtrack to get to Chichi and it took about an hour, hour and a half. The road to Chichi is extremely windy and wraps around mountains, going up and down. The bus ride was slightly frightening but also exhilarating.

Chichi Market, from the steps of the Catholic Church

When we got to Chichi we walked through the market to the Catholic Church. The market was crowded and crazy. I had left my bag in the bus and only had what I needed in my front pockets. The church was in the middle of mass when we got there so we went to the second site we were visiting, first. The site that we went to was on the top of a hill passed a small museum/house. The trek up the hill wasn't too bad and on the way we saw another smaller alter where the Maya shamans perform some rituals.
On the top of the hill is where larger more in depth rituals are performed and when we got there we got to see the tail end of a ritual being performed by a cofradie.

Maya rituals on a sacred hill top in Chichi

The ritual required fire, alcohol and the sacrifice of food (breads in particular) for the gods. We watched the cofradie and our tour guide explained some of what was going on. It was fascinating, after seeing Maximon the day before and the rituals preformed for him in a little shed like building, to see rituals performed outdoors in the open air. There were also animals that wandered the ritual site and added a layer of interaction that was unexpected but interesting to see; there were two doves, bees, and dogs.

The Cofradias changing of the saints
in the Catholic Church

After we stayed on the hill for a while we went back to the catholic church. In a wonderful coincidence we showed up at the church right as a cofradia procession started underway. As we learned afterwards, the Catholic church in Chichi has become more of a mixed religion building, both for Catholic prayer, mass, and worship and the worship of Maya religions and the performance of Maya worship. Because of this, the Maya cofradias in Chichi use the Catholic church for their worship and rituals one of which we were lucky enough to witness before going into the church.
Inside the church there are alters for both Catholic prayer at the front of the church and alters all along the aisle for ritual worship in the Maya religions. The building has become an intriguing juxtaposition of Maya ritual and Catholic worship. We spent some time in the church talking and watching, but there were still many rituals being performed so we left after a short time.

The Bustle of the Chichi market

Out side we all split off and had a good hour to do some shopping in the Chichi market and experience the atmosphere. I managed to get lost for a short time in the hustle and bustle, but the experience was wonderful. I purchased a bag and a pair of earrings for very little money and ended up purchasing a bookmark from a VERY persistent young girl whom I had a funny conversation with in Spanish.
When we left the Chichi market we went straight back to Antigua and were dropped off at the Casa. We each went back to our home stays to rest for classes on Monday.

Day Thirty-Six, Antigua (Continued)

View of the lake from lunch

After we went to the Catholic church at Santiago Atitlan, we went to visit the cofadia which watches over Maximón, the modern mix of the Maya deity Mam and the Catholic Saint Simon. Back in March I had visited Maximón with my group from MassArt, and had given him Q10 and a scarf. This time around I asked for the cofradies to pray to Maximón on my behalf; as my participant observation project. I wont talk about the experience here in this post, because I am going to have may paper and part of my presentation up on my Participant Observation Page on the right hand side of this blog by the end of this week.

Enjoying the view from the front of the boat:
Issac, David, and Elise

After we visited Maximón we went back to our boats, went about a minute to the right and got off for lunch. The view from the restaurant of the lake was beautiful. We stayed there for a while, walking through the gardens, and stretching our legs.
We left the restaurant and headed back to our hotel. The final boat ride was the best of them all; we all sat in the front of the boat and enjoyed the view, wind, and even the drizzle.
When we got back to the hotel we all got our luggage and put them in our new rooms. We were also given complimentary fruit drinks from the hotel to toast our official arrival.

Dinner at Sunset cafe with Professor Burnett,
Irina, and Lesley

After we all got settled in our rooms we split off into groups; one went swimming, one hung out in the hotel, and one went out to the market. I went to the market with the Professor, Lesley, and Irina. We walked to the street in a drizzle, talking about our travels, classes, and plans for next semester. We walked around the market, looking at wares and getting ideas for shopping at Chichicastenango the next day. We also grabbed dinner at the Sunset Cafe, the same place I had dinner back in March. There was live music, two Gallo girls in red body suits, and we watched the rain come down in sheets.
After we finished dinner we took a tuc-tuc home and I went off to study Spanish before I went to bed for the night.

Day Thirty-Six, Antigua

Lago Atitlan

At 7am Saturday morning, Casa Herrera students piled on a bus and drove the three hours to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan for the weekend. Our bus ride was very fun; winding roads, bumps and groves, and landslides covering roads. We passed through several towns and cities on the way, one of which is Chimaltenango, which had been the epicenter of the 1976 earthquake and where our TA was born and raised.

View of Lago Atitlan from our hotel

We arrived at Lake Atitlan and took some pictures from a high point with a beautiful view for a few minutes then headed off to the hotel we were staying at for the night. On the road winding around the lake we passed the city where I had done a one night home stay back in March and I pointed it out to the other students and the professor. I will be returning to this town at a later point during this trip to give the family I stayed with a photo album with pictures from our time together in March.We stopped at our hotel, which is right on the lake, dropped off our bags, and met with the six students who had come to the lake early.

Our boat at the hotel's dock

After a brief reunion, we all piled into two boats at the hotel's dock to head off to San Juan la Laguna and Santiago Atitlan. On my boat there was several students and our TA from Guatemala, whose nickname is Pollo. The driver of our boat was a young boy who claimed to be 13 years old, but was probably younger, and an older man who was mostly on the roof of our little boat on the way across the lake, and we were pretty convinced he was going to fall off of the boat at some point. The boat ride was fast and wonderful, and we all enjoyed zipping across the water from one end of the lake to the other.

Our "13-year-old" boat driver

The "Sleeping Prince"

We arrived at San Juan la Laguna first, and walked up a very steep hill to the town. Our first trip there was to a new church being built in the town to redo an older church that was damaged. We also got a good view of the "Sleeping Prince" mountain range that is shaped like an ancient Maya profile.

Woman's Weaving Cooperative

We then went to a small woman's weaving cooperative and got an introduction to their process of dyeing and weaving their wares.
After we left the woman's weaving cooperative we went to a natural medicine shop, where we were introduced to the gardens and all of the different plants with healing abilities. We were able to pick and look at all plants and shopped at their small home for some of the things they create with the plants from the garden.

View from the front of the boat

We walked back to our boats and headed around the bend to the city Santiago Atitlan. On this boat ride we all started really enjoying ourselves and we started to the climb around the boat, particularly the front, to get the best view.
When we arrived in Santiago Atitlan we went first to a Catholic church and then went to visit Maximon.

Christ Cross at the Catholic Church 

At the Catholic church we looked around at the saints who the people of Guatemala dress in clothing to keep them warm, and we looked at the Christ cross which was also dressed in bright clothing to keep him warm.

Day Thirty-Five, Antigua

Friday started out slow. I had no classes and no major plans for the day, so I stayed in my studio space at Casa Herrera working on updating information online (ie, this blog) and continuing my work on my coloring book. I got several pages completed for the coloring book and have them up on the right hand side to view. The book is going much faster than I thought it would, because it isn't as detailed as my usual work, so I am hoping to get more pages finished than I originally thought. I stayed at my studio working throughout the morning, and worked on my map in the afternoon, trying to get as much work completed as possible for next week.
At dinner, we had two more people staying at the house. Scott and John are missionaries who have worked in Guatemala off and on for a few years at different volunteer sites. We had a long talk at the table about what they have done in the area and what they think about Guatemala. We talked about some difficult issues, including orphanages, hospitals, and poor family dynamics which define a terrible cycle of neglect, abuse, and poverty. We also talked about a documentary that the two men saw premiered last year here in Guatemala, a copy of which they have lent to me to view with the rest of the Casa Herrera students.
That night I packed up for our weekend at Lago Atitlan, Chichicastenango, and some of the religious buildings at those places.

Day Thirty-Four, Antigua

Bells at San Francisco 

Today started out slowly; shower, breakfast, and a leisurely walk to the Casa. However, I did finish page one of the Long Count Coloring Book before class. In history class we looked at the 1960s in Guatemala, starting with President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes. We learned about the "Levantamiento" uprising of Arbencista army officers which failed and led to those officers fleeing to Cuba and forming the Frent Armada Revolucionario (FAR) and the MR-13. We then looked at the administration of President Enrique Peralta Azurdia from 1963-1966. In 1963 was the suspension of the constitution, 1965 a new constitution which names the military as the arbiter of the nations "independence, sovereignty, honor." The guerrillas at the same time were setting off car bombs, kidnapping important figures (including a US ambassador, killed, and Archbishop, released), and urban terrorism (including bank robbery). The US support for Guatemalan military government was both overt and covert at that time, even though the US was in the middle of the Vietnam War and the domestic protests against it. In the mid-1960s the death squads started; secret groups with military and MLN and other right wing political groups. We also mentioned the "disappeared"; the people who were kidnapped silently and never heard from again. In 1967-68 there were large scale counterinsurgency campaings in Zacapa, Seirra de las Minas, which led to the near complete defeat of FAR, PGT and MR-13: over 1500 civilians were killed when there was only an estimated 300 guerrillas in the area. We ended class looking at National Security Archives about US involvement in the overthrow of Arbenz: <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/index.html> this is the article I focused on in my group.

Mural I wasn't suppose to take a picture of.

In religion class we had a second field trip to San Francisco, this time to see the murals on the walls that were covered up the first time we went there. We met up in front of the church as just as the professor started talking the bells started ringing. We went into the front of the church and got to look at one of the murals, but the renovations are still going on at the church so we were kicked out fairly quickly. We were able to go around to the side entrance and look at the second mural from a distance, but we did not get a good look. I did manage to snap a picture of the first mural, before I remembered that we are not suppose to take pictures in that church. We then talked outside of the church for a few minutes and we went off to look around on our own.

I went back to the Casa and finished the second page of the coloring book before having a lovely long conversation with Mily about public education in Guatemala and her thesis on education in El Salvador, which I asked for a copy of. We talked until I had to run back to my new home stay for dinner where I had another long conversation with my host Olga, only this time it was in Spanish. unfortunately my brain was rather fried by the end of that conversation, which was wonderful but difficult. I went to bed around 10pm without working on my map, but with much to think about for the rest of the week.

Day Thirty-Three, Antigua

Prof. Virginia Burnett

Wednesday morning I had pancakes for the first time in two or three weeks and they were delicious! Anyways, in history class we looked at the Ten Years of Spring. We started with the 1945 Free Election of Juan Jose Arevalo and his Spiritual Socialism. We then discussed the first somewhat smooth transition of power in a free election from Arevalo to Jacobo Arbenz. Our focus was on the Arbenz presidency and his eventual overthrow. During his presidency, Arbenz focused on creating a nationalistic government; formed peasant leuges in the countryside, supported organized labor, and put forth land reforms. The land reforms were Arbenz's eventual downfall. He required landowners to turn over their unused arable land to the government to be given to farmers who would use the land. The landowners were only required to turn over land they had not used for over five years and they were given government bonds for the value of the lands claimed on taxes. The US United Fruit Company owned 42% of the arable land in Guatemala, so they were very highly effected by the reforms. The CIA claimed Arbenz was a communist because of the reforms and they started a terror campaign against Arbenz by training dissidents for invasion. The code name for the campaign was PBSUCCESS. At the end of the class we watched a video on the communist accusations against Arbenz by the US with interviews and footage from the time.

In religion class we started class with a presentation on Chachales, traditional religious and political necklaces from Guatemala. We then started looking closer at Liberation Theology. We looked at two archbishops of Guatemala; Mariano Rossell y Arellano and Mario Casariego. We learned about Arellano's "kidnapping" Guatemala's "black Christ" as a statement against the government regime. We discussed Catholic Action and its goals to bring Catholicism back around to its "traditional" form. Mario Casariego was Archbishop of Guatemala from 1964-1983; quite a time in Guatemala's history. We learned about the formation of CEG: Bishops' council more inclined to social justice that the Archbishop. In the 1960s the CEG increased social justice involvement by mobilizing health and education projects, agricultural extension and colonization and cooperatives in the Ixcan area. This led to a discussion of "The Melville Affair" in 1967, which was the first of many more occurrences of foreign church representatives who supported the rebels in Guatemala. We then started to touch on the 1970s resurgence of guerrilla organizations and the formation of the CUC by members of the Catholic action, which we will be going over more in future classes, as well as La Violencia from 1978-1983. We looked at "El Calvario de la Iglesia Catolica" 1978-1983: the deaths of 34 church leaders and 500+ catequistas, as well as Bishop Juan Gerardi closing down the Diocese of El Quiche in June of 1980.

After class I worked on the first page of my creative project; the long count coloring book. I had Spanish at 3 and we focused on terms for "this, that, and the other thing," as I like to describe it; este-esta, ese-esa, aquel-aqeulla and there plural forms. Spanish was fun even though we talked about our exam on the 5th and our presentation to the school at the end of the program. In the evening I focused working on my map project and managed to finish tracing the figures on the map, though I have a lot more work when it comes to coloring it in.

Day Thirty-Two, Antigua

This is the church where we painted for the CasaSito
fundraiser. It is right near my new home stay! 

Tuesday was class in the morning and work, work, work in the afternoon. In history class we learned about the presidents from the 1920s and the "Depression Dictator" Jorge Ubico who was president from 1931 until he was overthrown in 1944. We also discussed Miguel Angel Austurias and the books he had written. We ended class on Ubico's overthrow and the end of WWII.

In religion class we discussed the Vatican II reforms and the election of Pope John Paul II. The changes of the church during the 20th century tried to bring the church to the people; opening the Church of the World. We also discussed the issues surrounding Liberation Theology and how it effected the church and was believed by some to be communists. For example Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was assassinated while saying Mass because he was a "communist." We ended on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith headed by cardinal Josef Ratzinger and the a negative reading on Liberation Theology.
In the afternoon it rained, rained, rained, again, so I spent most of the afternoon working in my home stay on my map project. I did make one stop at the Casa for a little while to use the internet (there is no internet in my home stay). I also got my laundry cleaned and stopped by a paper store near my new home to pick up some important supplies for my projects. I worked in my room listening to the rain late into the night; I have new pictures of the map on the right hand side under Map Project: History of Guatemala.

A Sneak Peek!
Check out my Map Page to the right!

Day Thirty-One, Antigua

South end of my new street

Monday was classes at Casa in the morning and Spanish in the evening. In history class we discussed Positivism and Auguste Comte, Social Darwinism, and scientific racism, as well as Manuel Estrada Cabrera and the beginning of the Banana Industry. In religion class we defined phrases which are used to describe the combination of two religions; "folk Catholicism," religious syncretism, and religious creolization or hybridity.

In the afternoon I worked in the Casa on my map project and then had Spanish class at 3. During Spanish class we learned about past tense and the words for "this, those, these, etc." After Spanish I walked back to the Casa in the rain (the downpour more like) and waited out the worst of it at the Casa.
While I waited for the rain to let up, I had a Spanglish conversation with the guard of Casa Herrera. We talked about the students at Casa and I tried to tell him about my trip here to Guatemala in March at the beginning of this year. I also told him about the mural we painted in Santiago Zamora. I had been taking my map home to work on, and I also tried to explain its design to the guard. There was a lot of laughter, and I said "lo siento" (I'm sorry) quite a lot, but the experience was wonderful, and I am very glad for the rain.

North end of my new street

I had dinner with my host and the girl from Canada and worked on my map that night before going to bed around 10:30-11pm.

Day Thirty, Antigua

Statue at Santo Domingo

For Sunday I went walking around Antigua by myself to soak in the sights and enjoy the city. First I went to Santo Domingo to both use the ATM and in the hopes that I would be able to go to the Museums there; since I missed the class field trip there the week I was sick. I took pictures of some of the interesting things I saw and I made pit stops at the Casa to set up my funding for the week ahead. I went to the market and bought some new earrings (I am a touch obsessed with earrings..). I wandered around mostly, and enjoyed as much of the sights as possible. I also spent a good amount of time in the Plaza watching some of the musicians playing there.

Market

I went to Cafe Condessa for an early lunch and practiced my Spanish there. I then went back to my home stay and continued to practice my Spanish. After being home for a few hours I started texting the rest of the UT students to see what everyone was doing for dinner. I ended up going to an Indian food place here in Antigua with Jon and Ian from UT, and two of Ian's dutch roommates at his home stay. Even Indian food is very different here in Guatemala, but the humus was probably the best I have ever had.

Maya group playing in the Plaza.

I walked home at around 8:30pm and noticed that my street is actually pretty sketchy. The street is much darker at the southern end, and not busy at all, which made me a little nervous. So I will have to see what happens in that respect in the near future.

Boy playing turtle shells!

Coolest car in Antigua!

Day Twenty-Nine, Antigua

The Cathedral was lite up while we walked around

Saturday morning at 9am I moved to my new home stay. This house is on the opposite side of Antigua from the other students at Casa Herrera. Everyone else is on the northern side of Antigua, but this house is on the southern side. I am right on the street with the arc, all the way down the southern side of the road about four blocks from the Central Plaza. The house belongs to an older woman named Olga who is very nice and very patient with me and my Spanish. She also has a maid who comes to the house everyday except Sundays. The house is very cute and small, and Olga has a large collection of books in both English and Spanish.

This band was playing the best Jamaican music in the Plaza

On Saturday, Olga's son and daughter-in-law were over at the house with their two children, and we all had lunch together. There is also another person staying at the house; a Canadian girl who is here to do volunteer work at Hermano Pedro.
At dinner time Olga had a very large group of family members over to celebrate the wedding anniversary of her son and daughter-in-law. Myself and the girl from Canada ate a quick sandwich at the dining table, where I tried to have a conversation with one of Olga's older relatives, then we went out to the Central Plaza for about an hour, enjoying all the people out walking that evening. There were a bunch of activities going on all around the Plaza and on the street of the arc.

There were even fireworks!

I went back to my house that night and studied in my private room until about 11pm.

Day Twenty-Eight, Antigua

Mily, follows Gloria in the Boston Codex

I spent Friday morning working in the Casa on both the Boston Codex and my map project for history class. I completed Mily's portrait in the codex (picture to the left). As for my map project, I managed to cut out my hand drawn Guatemala and clean up the edges. I have a page on the right hand side of this blog for that project with pictures of my map.
At two pm I had a two hour language class to catch up on my missed classes. This class was one on one, and though I like the three person class, I found the one on one much more successful for my learning needs. We focused on irregular verbs and I practiced with my teachers excessively, which was wonderful.
At the end of the night, Mily called to tell me that I was going to be moved Saturday morning at 9am to a new home stay here in Antigua.

Day Twenty-Seven, Antigua

Finca Filadelfia

Thursday we went on another field trip this time to Finca Filadelfia, a coffee farm on the outskirts of Antigua. We all met up at 8:20 at Capuchinas and we rode a huge safari-like truck to the finca. The finca is a large touristy place set back away from the main road. They have a 5-star hotel and restaurant, a zip line, paintball, and several other tourist-oriented activities. The finca is also where coffee is grown in large amounts. We rode out with another group through the coffee fields to the place where coffee sprouts are kept in a protected open air green house. Our tour guide explained that they only grow one type of coffee plant but the roots of that coffee plant are not strong and bugs like to eat them, so they graph the sprouts onto the roots of a Robust coffee root when the plants are two months old. Then the new plants sit in pots in the open air green houses for a year, after which time they are planted out in the fields. Once the plants begin producing the farmers pick the fruits when they are red. The fruits are then depulped and the beans are removed, processed, and roasted.

Coffee fields

We got a tour of the facilities where they process the beans. We ended our tour with free cups of coffee for everyone at the restaurant of the finca.

After our field trip I went to the Casa to work on a few different projects. I also had a conversation with Mily with regards to my new diet and my home stay. We came to the conclusion that it would be best for me to be moved to a different home stay. Mily and Elma are going to work on finding a good pace for me with regards to this new development.

Open air "green house"

Tour Guide

Packaging Coffee

David and the coffee machines