The weekend part 1

I do not even know where to start this entry. I thought it would be a good idea to not blog everyday or even every other day because I didn´t want people to feel overwhelmed or obligated to read what I wrote. But know I have to write about so many wonderful things that happened over the past weekend and today, my first day of school. So please, do not feel obligated to read this because you know me or because you have said that you will pray for me. Okay, this sounds way more conceited than I meant it to be. Crap.

I left off on Thursday afternoon and so much has happened since then. I am very sticky right now and feel uncomfortable because I have loaded up on deet and just spent half an hour assembling my mosquito net.  Friday started off with me being very tired because of an incessant fear of mosquitoes I had the night before. I have not worried too much about mosquitoes or the other bugs really, but I stayed up reading and my room was the only one with a light on. I figured that I had made a mistake and that bugs were going to be attracted to the light and then attracted to my wonderful blood. I was staying up trying to catch mosquitoes and other fliers that were too fast and too little to be seen from more than two feet away. I was very worried and then decided to give it up to the lord. I decided to calm down and read the bible. When I did that one of the mosquitoes I was chasing landed on my bible and I quickly killed him. Then another one landed on the wall beside me and I killed him.  A third landed not too far away and he quickly perished as well. I thanked God and knew that if he wanted me to get bit and spend the next week using porcelain as a pillow then that is exactly what would happen. This calmed me down and I slept til daybreak. I came into the kitchen and had breakfast then went back to bed and fell fast asleep. The boisterous noise of foul calms down around the time breakfast is usually consumed which is perfect for those who fall victim to food comas.

I woke up to the sound of Ovidio calling from the front gate. I went outside and let him in. He greeted me with a large smile and a gift that he had bought me. It was a pay-as-you-go cell phone so that I could get in contact with him whenever I needed to. He said goodbye and that he would see me the next day at eleven o’clock. I got dressed just in time for Ismael to come home. He was about to drive up to pick up his other two sons, Jesse, 16, and Hansel, 14, from the Universidad in Poptun. I hopped in the Tourismo and we were off. I saw a painting on a building that said ¨Yo soy patriota¨I am a patriot. I asked him what the significance of that was and he told me it was a political party. He went on to tell me how there are currently 22 political parties. I suggested that this was good and how much choice there was but he said it was very bad for the country. Ismael talked about the division it has caused among the people and how  corrupt the system is. He said that about 15 years ago there used to be only eight political parties, but since the corruption has really exploded anyone with a name and money has a chance of becoming the President. The current president is an auto mechanic with no experience and the governor of Peten won because he pretty much bought votes with bags of rice and chicken. The majority of his votes came from small groups outside of the main city who are very poor.

We arrived at Franklin´s school and waited to pick him up. The streets of Peten are lawless and traffic can come from almost any direction. The streets are a dangerous mixture of high occupancy motorcycles (I have seen many occasions with four passengers),  large vans, and three wheeled Indian taxis called Tuk-Tuks. The vans are faster than both the motorcycles and the tuk-tuks, but the motorcycles and tuk-tuks can go over speed pumps better and sneak past cars at the traffic light better. Because of this, vans are constantly passing motorcycles who are constantly swerving around tuk-tuks who are constantly cutting off vans at stop lights. It is a deadly game of rock, paper, scissors. I say lawless, but there are traffic lights that are obeyed.

Franklin got in the car and we were off on our 1.5 hour long journey to Poptun to pick up the other boys. We made a stop in the town that Orfa (orphelias nickname) works in to pick her up on the way. The ride up was absolutely stunning. The only thing that interrupted the flow of rolling hills and palm trees were plots of farmland occupied by starving cows and muscle-less horses. There were many straw huts where the families lived and plots of corn stalks that were two meters high and half dead.  We arrived at the University after veering from the paved road onto a dirt path less than two van widths wide. The skill of the driver is important for these drives as the road is very uneven and the shoulder is prone to cause rollovers. The University consists of just a couple of buildings that were built decades ago. There are two identical buildings on opposite sides of the land which are the boy´s and girl´s dormitories. In the middle is a hall for dining and two large buildings that act as classrooms. The rest of the land is filled with chicken coops and other non distinct buildings. We parked the car on some grass under a tree which felt very darhma initiative-esque. I went to see the boys dorms and they were much like ours in the states. There were three to a room with the normal boy smell and clothes were hung from the ceiling and windows to dry. A pair of underwear was hanging out the window and as one of the students in uniform came up he flung it at a friend of his and missed. A war of underwear throwing lasted for about 2 minutes until they grew bored of it. There were many parents to pick up their children who all had casual talks with the teachers regarding their child´s performance and then the teenagers were signed out.

Jesse drove the car opposite from the front gate down a very steep and skinny broken dirt road past all sorts of foliage to a lakefront. They asked me if I wanted to ¨bañar and me thinking that meant urinate I said yea, sure. I walked down to the lake and looked back to see the other boys putting on shorts. I was very confused for a second until I realized that ¨bañar¨ meant to swim. The water was brisk but not unbearable and we walked down  the river and it got deep enough for us to swim. There was a tree coming off of the side of a cliff about five meters off the surface of the water with a thick branch that jutted out over the water. We climbed onto it and took turns jumping off of it into the water.  The branch had a type of cactus growing on it which I forgot to avoid once and had some spines in my hand and pants.  We swam back, changed, and piled back into the Tourismo for the hour and a half trip back home. It was about five o´clock at this time and the shadows were long and beautiful.

Saturday started bright and early at 7 am and after breakfast Fran, (franklins nickname) Jessie and I played soccer in the front area between the house and the cast-iron gate. It made me very happy to see Fran enjoying the company of his brothers. There was a lot of laughter  and after a couple of hours we piled into the van to go and get ice cream. We passed many of the little shops that lined the street and instead went to the large shopping center in town. I saw two men in uniform with shotguns and asked if they were the police. I was informed that they were actually just run of the mill security guards. After having some very typical but refreshing ice cream we went to the arcade to play some air hockey and other arcade games.

I think that is enough writing for now and will post about going to the Ochaetas and my first day of school tomorrow.

Thank You for showing Your beauty in everything; from the flowing hills of the Guatemalan campo to the hearts of reunited brothers. There is nothing as wonderful or powerful as You.

Amen