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 

Day Twenty-Six, Antigua

Fuego and Acatenango

Wednesday was our 26th day in Antigua. We are on the other side of the halfway point in our history and religion class, and we are nearing the end of our first month. Wednesday was a very busy day for me, and quite a turning point for this trip. In the morning we all went to normal history class at the Casa. At the beginning of class I gave my second presentation, this time on the book I... Rigoberta Menchu. I read the book over the summer to get a head start on the readings for the course. I really loved the book; it is a powerful story about the travesties of the civil war from the view point of the people most seriously affected. We are not reading the whole book during this semester, only a small section, so I wanted to share one of the most striking passages in the book that I marked while reading it over the summer.
Another student gave a presentation as well. He explained to us that on Guatemala's Independence Day he listened to the Guatemalan national anthem. It had a big effect on his so he got a translated version and read a few passages of the anthem to us. The anthem is actually very so we didn't hear all of it, nor did we hear it in Spanish, but the passages that were read were very intriguing and told us a lot about Guatemalan culture.
During class we discussed Rafael Cerrera, president for life, and the War of la Montana. We also discussed the Coffee Rebulic of the mid 19th century; who coffee cultivation began in 1845 and developed progressively from there until by 1880 coffee sales made up 90% of Guatemala's exports. We progressed into discussion of the end of the Conservative era and German immigration to Guatemala.

In religion we had a guest speaker who is a linguistic anthropologist. She told us about the village she has worked in for several years, and by doing so she told us all about the structure of religion in that village. The village she lived and worked in is called Sacapulas, and she told us about the religion and language of that town. Sacapulas is in the department of Quiche, it has its own river, and, surprisingly, its own flag and promotional posters. The language they speak is Sakapultek and it is also how these people identify themselves. She explained the religious groups and boundaries of Guatemala, and the tense divisions between them. She also showed us a few videos she had taken personally of the rituals performed by the population of Sacapulas.

During lunch I had an experience which was not of the positive variety. As I stated in posts before, I was very sick last week, and missed meals, classes, and activities. I even ended up in the hospital over it. To keep me from getting sick again my doctor here gave me a new diet to get my system back up and running properly. For the days after I got back from the hospital my host family was giving me steamed vegetables from my diet. But all they were giving me was the veggies. So, on Wednesday after lunch, I took the list for my diet to my host parents and told them I could eat everything from the list for the rest of the trip. The host father told me that he understood, but they couldn't afford to feed me from that diet. He suggested that  I either move to a different home stay or buy my own food, and he said I should talk to Elma, the director of PLFM about the situation. I talked to Milady, the director of Casa Herrera, about the issue and she got in to contact with Elma. After Spanish class I gave Elma the list of foods and she said they were going to work hard to find a solution that would make everyone happy. That night I made my own dinner from some food I bought for Sundays.

Day Twenty-Five, Antigua

Tuesday morning was back to the classroom for the Casa students. We had our regular classes in the morning, the only difference being, we also had our language classes in the afternoon. In history we focused on the development of governing political parties in the early1800s; particularly the Liberalists and the Conservatives, both very different from our understanding of the terms today. We also discussed the cholera epidemic of the 1800s, and the effects it had on the population of Guatemala.
At the beginning of religion, I gave my presentation, which I was suppose to have presented last week, but was unable to due to illness. My presentation was on my experience in March of this year going to the shrine of Maximon in Santiago Attitlan. Maximon is a modern interpretation and hybridization of the ancient Maya deity Maam and the Catholic Saint Simon. Maximon is the deity of wealth, power, and sex; our tour guide had said "he is the god you're not suppose to want to pray to." Maximon has a large following and is probably the most well known of modern Maya religious figures; like Mexico's Guadalupe. The statue of Maximon and shrine in Santiago Attitlan moves frequently between the homes of his "priests" so I explained to the class what it was like searching for the shrine all around Santiago with our tour guide leading the way. Then I told them what it was like walking through someones house on a back alley, into their shred in the back where the shrine was setup. The shrine was something else all together. Maximon is covered in scarves given as tribute, and he stands in front of dozens of candles. The statue is hollow and the mouth is open so that the priests can give him lite cigarettes and also give him liquor, both also given in tribute. You have to pay to see Maximon, take pictures of him, or pray to him. I tried to explain the feeling of the little shed we were in; small, dark, congested, filled with cigarette smoke and the smell of booze, and the vibe coming off of the statue was unnerving. It is something very hard to describe, and really must be experienced. I also showed a youtube video of the same Maximon but in a different location. This is the video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylEOtetGeCw&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL82892432A8441BFB>

After classes and lunch I worked in my studio space on the map project for history class. I have a page on this blog about the map project, and will be adding explanations and pictures as I continue working on it. I also figured out what I am going to do for my creative project for religion, also on its own page!
At 3pm I was in Spanish class making up the exam I missed last week. I realized as I was doing the exam that I was missing too much after missing two classes. We worked on adjectives in class and after class I asked my teacher if I could take a two hour one on one session with her on Friday of this week to make up the lost time. I now have an appointment, and I was assigned a lot of homework to also make up for the work I missed, including a composition of 25 lines, which I will add to this blog as soon as I get it back from the teacher with her corrections! I worked on the composition with both of my housemates, Gloria and Steve, and Steve and I practiced our Spanish together for at least an hour.

Day Twenty-Four, Antigua

Entrance to the dump

Today was my first day back at Casa Herrera after being sick for a week. Instead of regular classes though, we went on a field trip into Guatemala City to see the city dump. If you remember from my earlier post, we watched the movie "Recycled Life" about the guajeros (the people who pick through the garbage at the dump for profit) who worked at the city's only dump searching for recyclable items to sell. After watching the video the majority of the students wanted to go to the dump and see it first hand. Milady set up a tour with the NGO Safe Passage, which included a view of the dump and tours of the facilities created by Safe Passage for the children of the guajeros.

Cemetery from which we got a view of the dump.
Many families have crypts, those who can't afford them
rent a niche in the large wall-like crypts.
It is Q200 a year for a niche.

We all met up at the Casa at 8am and drove first to the Safe Passage branch on the outskirts of Antigua. There we met Erick, out tour guide and volunteer for Safe Passage for five years. To introduce us to the NGO, Erick showed us a special edition on the "Recycled Life" DVD about the founder of Safe Passage, Hanley Denning. Hanley came to Guatemala to learn Spanish and ended up visiting the dump with a friend who was very interested in seeing it. As soon as she was there she knew that she wanted to stay and try to change the reality the children of the dump were living. When Hanley first arrived there were no regulations in the dump. The guajeros could come and go as they pleased, bringing infants and children, and even living amongst the trash.

View of the dump from the cemetery.
New regulations have fewer trucks, fewer people, and little
to no children in the dump during strictly daytime hours.

The dump trucks also came and went in mass numbers; sometimes there were so many it caused fatal accidents. The trash pileup also had no regulation and it could get well over ten feet in height causing slides that would bury people alive. The last straw was a massive fire which burned for days due to the buildup of methane gas from all the trash, after which the whole system was completely redone; children under 14 are no longer allowed in the dump, you must have a worker ID to get in the dump, you can only work certain hours during the day and can no longer work at night, no one can live in the dump, and the trash can no longer be higher than your knee.

Guajeros picking through the trash for plastic, cardboard,
metal, toys, shoes, clothing, and even food.

When we got a view of the dump itself from a cemetery over looking it many of us realized it was "rather poetic" to see it that way. The dump was certainly something to see, in particular the number of vultures circling overhead was extremely disconcerting. Half of the dump had actually recently sunk, leaving an jagged scar that spoke volumes to the dangers the guajeros face every single day. It seems totally unimaginable that this place could have once been worse, and yet we were all aware of that fact as we looked out at the people and vultures working away at the piles of trash.
The smell was something I don't believe I will forget for a while; even now, hours later, I can still seem to taste it in the back of my throat.

Safe Passage Daycare Center.
Lunch time for the two year old's.
Once these children would have been brought with their
parents into the dump everyday, left to either wait for them
or allowed to also go searching through the trash.

Hanley came to the dump and tried to rescue the children she saw getting sucked into a cycle of guajeros. She sold everything she owned and started from scratch with 40 children and a beat up old church. Now, Safe Passage has three facilities, one a daycare center, another a center for parent education, and the third an education reinforcement center for children up to high school. All three centers focus on the Jean Piaget model to not only reinforce the students public education, but to also introduce creativity and individual thinking to the children in the hopes that it will inspire them to look outside of the dump for a model of living. The students are treated with the utmost care, receiving reinforcement in academics, creativity and hygiene.
We got tours of all three facilities, including lunch at the last (even though it was spaghetti, my favorite, I ate my packed lunch to ensure I didn't get sick again).

Our field trip was suppose to continue with a trip to a photo exhibition in Guatemala City (we changed our language classes to Tuesday evening so we could have the whole day), but an earthquake spoiled our plans. Or, to be more accurate, three earthquakes, non of which we actually felt. At the time of all three quakes, we were sitting at lunch with the younger students at Safe Passage, and non of us felt a thing, yet a 5.8 earthquake apparently shook the area. To be safe, because sometimes the roads buckle from quakes, we ended up riding back to Antigua without going to the photo exhibit. <http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/19/world/americas/guatemala-earthquake/index.html>
For the rest of the evening, Gloria and I focused on trying to get rid of the after taste from our visit to the dump.

Day Twenty-Three, Antigua

The first day back from the doctors was one focused on relaxing and taking everything slow. I ended up staying at home for the majority of the day though I did make one trip in the late morning to the only organic grocery store in Antigua. I went there in order to purchase the best quality food items suggested by my doctor in my new diet. I also spent the day focusing on eating. As I said in earlier posts, I had not been eating at all for a few days so I spent Sunday snacking slowly with three small meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. By dinner time I was able to eat my full portion and instead of making me sick, the meal settled my stomach! In all it was a good day to get back into the swing of things slowly and easily!

Day Twenty-Two, Antigua

Me in my Johnny with my Potassium!

Yesterday, Saturday, was my 22nd day in Antigua and the sixth day of being sick. I went to the doctor for the second time and discussed options for treatment. We came to the decision that I needed to go to the hospital here in Antigua for a mild procedure and an IV (I hadn't eaten a full portion of anything in all six days). My doctors appointment was at noon, and by 1:30pm I was in Hermano Pedro Private Hospital. The procedure was at 2pm, and by 4pm I was exhausted and napping in my private hospital room. The program manager for Casa Herrera, Milady, was with me the whole time I was in the hospital (minus the procedure and when she quickly stepped out to get lunch). I have an anxiety issue I have been trying to control for a long time, and being in the hospital, particularly when I was given the IV, I was on the verge of an anxiety attack, but Milady talked me through it and was a complete angel the whole day.
After my nap I was 100% better. The IV and the procedure were amazing in getting me back on my feet, and by the time the doctor came back at 7pm to check on me, I was grinning ear-to-ear and laughing up a storm. Something wonderful also happened while I was at the hospital; Milady and I heard three babies get born while we were there! By 7:45pm I was on my way home and feeling better than I had the whole week.    

Another Recap

So, as was stated in my previous post, I have been sick for quite some time now here in Antigua. Unfortunately I have not much else to tell. I have continued to be sick from Wednesday to today, Saturday. I have been taking a few different medications and nothing has started working yet. I will be going to the doctor again today to try and figure out what to do and to run some tests. Hopefully I will have a more interesting and informative post in the near future. Sorry!

A recap of the last three days:

On Sunday night, as I mentioned in my Sunday post, I was not feeling very well, and had a digestive problem I tried to remedy on my own. I went to the pharmacy and got some very low-key medicines to try to help with said problem. The medicine did not, unfortunately help by Monday, and I was unable to go to classes all day Monday, let alone get out of bed both because of extreme discomfort and because of a fear of the medicine kicking in while on the field trips we were taking. On Monday, because the medicine from Sunday was not working and I was starting to feel even more uncomfortable, I went back to the pharmacy and got some more hard core medicine, hoping it could take care of the problem. This medicine takes 6 to 24 hours to start working, so I ended up spending all day Tuesday in bed, uncomfortable, and hoping the medicine would kick in. By Tuesday night I knew I would be going to the doctor on Wednesday, and by 7:30am, as soon as I was awake, I sent a text to the director of Casa Herrera asking to be brought to the clinic and doctor available for study abroad students here in Antigua.
Today, Wednesday, I was again mostly incapacitated at home, and was seen by a doctor at 3pm. I now know what is wrong with me, have a diet plan, and I have medication that will help get me straightened out in about 24 hours. What is happening to me could end up becoming dangerous if not taken care of quickly and thoroughly, and in the future I will not wait and self medicate, as I would normally do in the States. I am in a foreign country and there are so many things that could go wrong, so it is extremely important to go to a doctor when your body is trying to tell you something. I could have gone to the doctor Monday morning and not missed three days worth of classes. It is my fault and I will try to find a way to make up the time and work as best as I can. Ironically, my new diet is pretty much what we were told not to eat while here in Antigua; particularly milk. From the day we arrived in Antigua, we were told explicitly to avoid milk; two students have already been ill and have been told they need to avoid milk even more. I have been avoiding milk since my arrival, but today the doctor told me I need it and it will help me with my medical issue. This is another striking reason to make sure that, when ill in another country, go to the doctor!

Day Sixteen, Antigua (Continued)

A beautiful juxtaposition from the patio of our home stay.

As I mentioned in the post before this, today was the presidential election here in Guatemala. To be safe, all of the students at Casa were told to stay in Antigua and be extra careful since there were so many more people in the city to cast their votes. Gloria and I decided to stay in for the day and go our homework/study (particularly because we took the day off yesterday to relax). We invited over the other Casa students to work and study with us, and three came over for a short time; Nancy, Jessi, and Annie. Annie and I are in the same Spanish language class, so we focused on studying for our exam this upcoming Wednesday and making more flashcards. We both struggled (though Annie is doing much better than I am) and by the time she was heading out I was fully frustrated with the questions we need to know for the exam.
To take a break I focused on the readings due this week, and there are a lot. We have over 130 pages due this week for religion and history. This is a huge jump in the amount of work we have had for the courses, and with the election and Spanish exam also consuming time and focus, it has been a hard day. I am still very glad that I took yesterday off to relax, because it was easier to stay focused and to remain at a controllable level of frustration. Many of the other students were also expressing distress at the large quantity of work due this week. I will go into detail about the readings as we discuss them in classes, as they are very long and I am not sure which parts will be most pertinent for my discussion of classes in the upcoming days.

On a personal note, I have discovered one of the more uncomfortable aspects of travel abroad; my digestive system is not handling the new food I am eating very well. It should be noted that this kind of problem happens a lot when traveling abroad, and it should be something you prepare for. I luckily knew that the pharmacies here in Antigua are 24 hours and so, even on a Sunday (and election Sunday no less) I was able to make a trip to pick up some natural remedies, and in the morning I will consult with the clinician we are to contact as Casa students to make sure nothing is seriously wrong. Better to be safe and a little embarrassed, than to be sorry and a lot embarrassed.

Day Sixteen, Antigua

Today was a very important day in the history of Guatemala. Today is the fourth democratic election of a president in the history of Guatemala, after the end of the civil war in 1996. Every four years there is a full shift in all government positions. The people of Guatemala vote for President and Vice President, 333 Municipal Alcades, 120 Congressional Seats, and 20 Central American Parliament positions. There are ten candidates for president that the Guatemalan people can vote for: Otto Perez Molina, Manuel Baldizon, Eduardo Suger, Harold Caballeros, Rigoberta Menchu, Patricia de Arzu, Mario Estrada, Juan Gutierrez, Adela Camacho de Torrebiarte, and Alejandro Giamattei. To win the election, one of these 10 candidates needs to get over 50% of the votes, if no one manages to get those numbers there is a secondary election between the two candidates with the highest percentage of votes on November 6th. The winner takes office in January 2012. There are also 28 registered political parties, 32,000 candidates for all offices, 36 campaign related deaths this year (68 in 2007), 7.3 registered voters (out of 14.4 million population including children), the oldest active party only dates to 1989, only 7 parties predate 2000, and all of the running candidates have spent more than the 1 million budget limit for campaigning. The law also states that all Guatemalans old enough to vote must vote or suffer a fine. Because a large percentage of the population is illiterate the ballots are pictures of the candidates and you only X the logo for the candidate you wish to vote for.

The whole process is fascinating, and watching it from a semi-inside view point is amazing. Antigua was filled to bursting with Guatemalans coming in from all the surrounding towns to cast their votes. Only a few days ago there was an illegal rally for Otto Perez (he had already spent well over the 1 million limit so the rally was deemed illegal) here in Antigua. In comparison with US elections, the whole process is very much more simple and vastly more complicated; there are 10 candidates instead of 2, yet the ballot is pictures and symbols and as simple as a ballot can be. To get a better sense of the situation and to look at the campaign methods of the different candidates I highly suggest looking at this blog <http://centralamericanpolitics.blogspot.com/> which is keeping a close eye on the election as it unfolds. 

Day Fifteen, Antigua

Casa Madeline

 This Saturday, the day before the presidential elections here in Guatemala, all the students at Casa were told to stay in Antigua and be extra careful; just be extra safe. So Gloria and I planned to have a relaxing experience here in Antigua. We decided to sleep in in the morning and when I woke up at around 9:30am Gloria was looking at the different spas here in Antigua for a day of pampering ourselves. We have had a lot of work the last two weeks, and we will only be getting more and more as this program continues, we also only have a handful of free weekends when we can leave Antigua safely, so we thought we would take advantage of the opportunity to take a spa day. We also left a note for our host family (they had left for the day by the time we had gotten up) letting them know that we would not be making it for lunch and dinner; a lesson we had learned the night before.

Courtyard, Casa Madeline

Gloria first found a high luxury spa on the map that was given to us by the Casa, she then did online research about the places and we made a decision based off of what they offered and prices. We went out to brunch then spent the afternoon at a beautiful hotel spa on the outskirts of Antigua called Casa Madeline. It is a tiny high luxury hotel with a lovely little spa tucked in the corner. Gloria and I were able to lounge with a view of the volcano Agua and the light pattering of rain. We both got a hot stone massage at the same time, and it was one of the most relaxing, luxurious things I have ever done. We then were able to lounge in their outdoor Jacuzzi and relax for the rest of the evening. After we left Casa Madeline we went out to dinner and got a lovely Italian meal in Antigua.

View of Agua, Casa Madeline

By taking a day to totally relax and pamper ourselves in a colonial city geared toward that very tourist aim, Gloria and I were able to recharge and get ourselves back into gear for getting more work done the rest of the weekend. Not only that, but we both feel that we are not burning ourselves out on this trip; by taking our time, going slow, we are relaxed and ready for all the work and travel we are doing as par of this semester program. We are also experiencing a level of Antigua "reserved" for tourists, and learning about the people/places that cater to that form of tourism. Or perhaps we are simply taking time to thoroughly enjoy ourselves in this foreign and beautiful city!  

Day Fourteen, Antigua

Gloria and Annie

This Friday we had a free day to take for ourselves. In the morning I slept in to catch up on my sleep and to take the morning to relax.  got up around 10am and took myself off to the Casa to work in my studio for the day. my studio has grown in size; three large tables have been moved into the room, and since only one of the three spaces is being actively used by another student, I have taken over one of the large tables instead of using the small table I was originally using. My reason is comfort level mostly; the small table is really low and I was really hurting my neck and shoulders work at it. I will be looking for a shorter chair, so that the third table can be available to the other students in the near future, though it seems none of the other studio majors are currently interested in utilizing the available space.

Leslie and Gloria

I stayed in my studio from 10:30 till 5:30 when all of the students still at the Casa were asked to leave for the evening. I took that time to finish Gloria's portrait in the Codex. I really wanted to make sure that the portrait truly expressed how I see Gloria, particularly since I have gotten to know her so well in such a short amount of time. I also ended up talking with another student at the Casa, Leslie, for quite a bit of time while working in my studio. She was very curious about the Codex and what it represented, as well as where I pull my inspiration. We talked for a long time and I reaffirmed in my head that it is very important to be socially active with the rest of the students at Casa. When Leslie invited Gloria and I to her house for a study group that night, I jumped at the opportunity to get to know the rest of the group better.

Irina

So, later in the evening, after dinner with our host family, Gloria and I walked (in the rain) to Leslie and Kara's home stay for a study group. Two other students showed up as well; Irina and Annie. The other students were scared off by the rain. We stayed for several hours, discussing our classes, the homework for the weekend (which is over 130 pages of reading), and our impressions of the group and Antigua. We also discussed the elections this weekend.
Our group stayed for quite a while, though Gloria and I were the first to leave at 11pm. We were concerned about walking at such a late hour, and we didn't want to walk into our home stay too late.

Kara

Unfortunately, we did arrive too late, since our host father had already bolted up the door, and we were forced to ring the bell. He had thought we were already in bed. It was a lesson in leaving clarifying notes for our host family in the future, so that they are in the loop about our actions. We ended the night continuing our homework in our own room.

New Portrait: The Boston Codex

Gloria, follows Ralphie in The Boston Codex

Day Thirteen, Antigua (Continued)

My painting, acrylic and oils 

At 2:30pm Gloria and I started our second painting class. We worked on the paintings we had started the week before, but this week we started with oil paint. We focused on the techniques Walter showed us with not just a paint brush on the buildings, but with palette knives in the foliage. This weeks class was much less formal and Walter is becoming more of a friend than a teacher. He is a practicing artist renting out time at the gallery and painting is his real passion. We spent much of our time together laughing and joking, translating and getting lost in translation. Several of the other students at Casa want to stop by next week to meet Walter and watch us paint maybe even take classes themselves!
We focused on doing simple first layers with the oils, and testing how to use the tools we have available for painting with oils.
After our session ended, Gloria and I both felt rejuvenated and these sessions are really inspiring us both to do more artwork while we are here.

Painting passionately!

Day Thirteen, Antigua

Mural Remnants,
San Francisco Church Museum 

This morning it was tough to get up and out here in Antigua. Yesterday was a hot day and I even managed to get a sunburn, but this morning was cold  and my blankets were comfortable. There is a lot of information that I am trying to digest during this trip; history, religion, and language in classes, and culture, geography, and language just out in the city. It is overwhelming to be in another country let alone take several classes in that country. The stress managed to catch up with me this morning, particularly because breakfast is so early in the morning but we can't go to the Casa until an hour after breakfast is over. So this morning I took some time off to nap after breakfast and get recharged. I am finding it very important to be aware of your physical and mental health while abroad, and it is essential to take time out to take care of yourself. My half hour nap has given me a much better base of energy to get through my busy day.

In class this morning we went over the readings from last night and one of the readings from the night before. We had another list of questions about the readings: 1) What were the factors that gave rise to the town of Santiago de los Caballeros, as presented by Herrera? What was the role of enslaved Africans in that process? 2) Why were enslaved Africans brought to colonial Guatemala? Where were they forced to work? 3) Who were the "Ladinos" in 17th century Guatemala, according to Lokken? Does Lokken's argument revise our understanding of the category?
Our teacher changed things up today by having three pairs of students and each pair got one of the three questions. These pairs led the discussions about the questions for the whole class. I took question two with another student named Isaac and we discussed our answers out of the classroom to plan how we would open the discussion. I ended up opening the discussion by reading the question aloud and giving our answer to the first part of the question. Isaac supported the discussion by giving our answer to the second part and rounding out the over-arching answer to the the question.
Class continued with further discussion and ended with a return to yesterdays lecture wrapping it up with a look at Racialization.

Before religion class started we looked at the presidential commercials created for the campaigns. The election is this Sunday, September 11th. We have been looking at the candidates since our arrival and yesterday several of the Casa students went to a rally hosted in Antigua Central Plaza for Otto Perez Molina, the leading candidate in the race. As it turns out, Guatemala has a policy of not allowing candidates to spend over one million dollars on propaganda to promote their candidacy, and Perez has spent quite a lot more than that, and so the rally in Antigua was actually an illegal rally which led to Perez being ordered to do nothing further to promote himself. All of the candidates here in Guatemala have currently spent over the million dollar limit already.
In religion we discussed the general chronology of the 17th and 18th century, Baroque Catholicism and its place in Guatemala in the early colonial eras, we briefly reiterated the points about education we touched on during our tour yesterday, and the cloister and convent boom. We also went over some of the information we learned about in earlier classes.

Day Twelve, Antigua

San Francisco Church Face

Today is a hot and humid day here in Antigua. In the morning we had history class at the Casa and a field trip during religion. In history we focused on the Afro-Latin populations, indigenous populations and the influences of the differing populations in Guatemala. We did not focus on the readings from the night before, but they added context to the lecture of the day. The readings were "Collapse and Recovery: Demographic Change in the Native Population" by Lovell, and "Colonial Foundations" by Herrera. I will not go into detail about these readings because they were not discussed in class.

San Francisco Ruined Convent

In religion we went on a field trip around some of the churches in Antigua. Firstly, last evening we received an e-mail about the field trip (it was unplanned) that specified three things we needed to do to prepare for the trip 1) bring money to be able to view the ruins and look at the museum, 2) dress appropriately: no shorts and women need to have their shoulders covered (no straps), and 3) come with only a camera, since notes will be up on the blackboard site for the class. We met at the steps in front of the Central Plaza Cathedral at 11am. Our first look was at the cathedral, which Steven talked about for a bit before we went in. It is still called a cathedral even though it is no long overseen by a bishop, and due to the major earthquake which caused the move of the capital to Guatemala City, part of it is now closed off. It is of Baroque "earthquake" design; it is more squat, thicker walled, and it lacks a bell tower to prevent damage due to the natural environment in Guatemala. The facades are less ornate than traditional European Baroque, but there are distinct hints to the period in the designs of niches and interior spaces. We did not take pictures at the cathedral in deference to the people there for prayer.
After we went through the cathedral we walked to the Franciscan church San Francisco on the south-western edge of the original square plot of Santiago (Antigua). The Church is surrounded by a fortress like retaining wall, which has modern additions at the corners. The church is partly still functioning and partly in ruins. The functioning part houses a large (and currently being renovated) area for service and also houses the tomb of Pedro de San Jose Betancur, Guatemala's only canonized saint who suffered hardships to care for the sick and poor in Guatemala. Thousands flock to this church to pray to Hermano Pedro and behind the church, in the museum attached to the ruins, there are walls covered with images of those who believed they were healed by this beloved saint. We got to walk through the church and see the tomb of Hermano Pedro, after which we walked through the museum and ended the class in the ruins.

In my evening Spanish class we started the lesson by reviewing questions that we learned on the first day. Three of the four of us were there for the beginning of class and we struggled with the question-and-response exercise. The questions are very important for us to review over the weekend, as they will be on our first exam next Wednesday. After we got through the first segment, we started reviewing more verbs. Our fourth group member came to class an hour late, but he is taking extra lessons that he paid for on his own time, and when we helped him review the opening questions he had no troubles answering them. We ended the class with our maestra (teacher) reading a passage about the importance of knowing Spanish in professional fields in the Estados Unidos (United States). We also had a discussion about the difficulties faced by the Guatemalan people who try to get a visa to the U.S. for vacation, or, in the case of our maestra, to visit her sister who lives in the States.

Day Eleven, Antigua

Volcanoes Acatenango and Fuego,
Seen from the roof of Casa Herrera 

Tuesday was a less hectic day with only morning classes without Spanish in the evening. We also only had one reading for history the night before which lessened the workload the evening before. The reading, The Conquest and the Settlement, by Wortman, was accompanied with a three question handout which we used in class to drive discussion of the reading. The reading focused on the conquest, why it happened, and what happened afterward, with regards to the search for wealth. When discussing Guatemala, the article makes it clear that the gold sought after by the conquistadors was not what was found in Guatemala, but it was agriculture and labor that became the driving force of gaining wealth in the area.
Class focused on the questions we answered for the reading. We split up into three groups, each focusing on developing a cohesive and cited answer one of the three questions. The questions are: 1) How does Wortman characterize the conquest of Guatemala in the first few pages of the essay? 2) What does Wortman mean when he argues that "Central America fell outside the "silver belt" (p6)? If this is true, what was its function in the Spanish American empire? 3) What were the "New Laws" and the "Cerrato Reforms"? What impact, if any, did they have on labor practices in the early colonial period?My group was assigned to question #1 so we began the discussion. Between each groups presentation Prof. Guridy would reemphasize our points via PowerPoint presentation.

During religion, we went over a lot of the same information, but through the lens of the religious orders at the time. We learned mostly about Bartolome de Las Casas, a Dominican Friar who wrote a book damning the treatment of the indigenous peoples called A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies which sparked the "New Laws" and "Cerrato Reforms" we discussed in the earlier class. In this class we looked at the time line of Las Casas' life and how he interacted with the people and politics of Guatemala. We also looked more closely at Antigua's history with Alvarado in particular.
At the end of class we received our course readers for History and Religion, which had not been ready do to the amount and size of the readers and the occurrence of "Guate-time". Both readers are fairly large, and I will be adding the names of the articles to my course readings list at the bottom of this blog ASAP.

After classes I took the remained of the afternoon to do studio work at the Casa. I have completed one portrait in The Boston Codex already, but I need to keep up working on it so that I don't lag behind in my timing. I decided to work on Gloria portrait, since I have gotten to know her so quickly and so well. Here is as far as I was able to get with her portrait in the two hours I was able to work in the Casa.

Day Ten, Antigua

Classroom in Casa Herrera

Monday, September 5th was our first day with Prof. Guridy, who is taking over the History of Guatemala class for Prof. Burnett for two weeks, and with Steven, our TA, taking over the Religion of Guatemala class.
Our reading for history class was the first chapter from "A Short History of Guatemala" by R.L Woodward. The book is very dated in some of its information, points brought up in class by several students and the Prof, but it has lays the building blocks for understanding the history of Guatemala alone and in the framework of Central America. The first chapter is an overview of the events leading up to the conquest in Guatemala. It was reiterated in our class that the book is dated and that some information and terminology are no longer accurate or politically correct. An example of a reading about Guatemala being dated is when a reading refers to the indigenous Maya people as "Indians."
Class was very different with Prof. Guridy; every other day we will do more discussion instead of lecture, and Prof. Guridy's focus is more on Cuba and the dynamics of African populations in Central America, so thus far we are looking at Guatemala through a slightly different and more broad lens than with Prof. Burnett.

For religion we read an excerpt from The "Spiritual Conquest" of Spanish America by Robert Ricard. The excerpt focuses on the Friars attempts to convert the indigenous populations to Catholicism. It reviews the decisions made by the church and the branches of the church in Central America throughout the 16th century. The changing atmosphere of Central America post-conquest led to much experimentation and reform of the method in which the Friars brought Catholicism to the native peoples. The article looks at the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians, and the angle in which they approached converting the indigenous Maya.
In class we reviewed the information in the reading and looked more closely at the religious environment in Spain and Guatemala in the time directly following the conquest.

At 3pm all the student from Casa Herrera went to their language classes at PLFM. In my class we reviewed the verb conocer (to know), we learned about genero (masculine or feminine) and numero (singular or plural), we learned some nouns which represent these concepts, and we learned presente indicativo (present indicative). On Wednesday will will be reviewing all that we have learned thus far. I have made several flash cards for what we have learned thus far, but the best way to learn is really to be immersed in the language as much as possible.  

On a more personal note, some very good travel advice is to be very aware of the business hours of service oriented places in a foreign city. In Antigua, when using a lavanderia (laundromat) one leaves there cloths with the person working there, who weighs the clothing and gives you a receipt before you leave. On the receipt is the time your laundry will be done and you can pick it up. However, timing is not always what you expect, and when my clothing was not ready at the time on the receipt it led to a comedy of errors, showing up at the lavanderia four times in two days to find it closed and going that time without a change of cloths or a towel. Being aware of timing, and how time works in the foreign country being visited is always helpful to the traveler. Though the lavanderia was a few hours behind when my laundry was suppose to be ready, it was most definitely closed on time.  

Day Nine, Antigua

Compania de Jesus

Today was our second Sunday in Antigua. After breakfast in the morning, Gloria and I went on a sketch-hunt around Antigua. We ended up right in front of the Compania de Jesus where there is a ruined church. We both want to practice sketching the buildings in Antigua for our painting class at the gallery. We sat for about an hour sketching then decided to try to find some lunch.

My pen drawing of the church ruins

I ended up going to lunch with two other students from the Casa (Gloria went to spend time at the gallery). The three of us went to a wonderful restaurant that serves traditional Guatemalan food buffet style.
After I returned to our home stay I met our new home stay student, Steve. He came to Antigua back in May for the month to study Spanish at PLFM, and returned this month to continue his studies. He will be taking Spanish for six hours every week day for four weeks. He will be joining us at meal times here at the home stay and together we will all practice our Spanish.
In the evening, all the Casa students met at our TA's new home in Antigua to watch a documentary called "Recycled Life." It is about the lives of the people in Guatemala City who work in the dump picking out recyclables to sell. It is a powerful film which shows the dignity of the workers and how their life style gives them security and also shows the dangers of their life styles and how through lack of education, illiteracy and lack of jobs has created a cycle of necessity to work there.