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!