February 1
Bueno, I’ve been very busy lately! This weekend we had a community exchange where we presented our community to a different group and then got to go visit their community. We got to see Pastores, which is a cute little town that is known for making boots. You can even bring in a picture of what you want and they will hand make the boots for you! In one workshop, they even had ostrich skin, eel skin, manta ray skin, alligator skin, and snake skin! It was hard to look at, especially after working at the aquarium!
I’ve also had some interesting rides on the camionetas, or chicken buses. Camionetas are old U.S. school buses that have been painted and are used as public transportation. They usually have names painted on them as well, like Gilda, Primorosa, Norma, and even Rosmery! This morning I got on through the emergency exit, so I didn’t see the driver as I got on, and when I sat down, I noticed he was my age or younger and was talking on the phone while whipping around the curves! I’m definitely going to watch who the drivers are from now on. Each bus has an ayudante as well, or a person who stands in the door at the front, yelling and trying to get people to get on the bus and then goes around and collects money from people.
Also, as usual when I travel, I love the panaderias (bakeries)! There’re so many good breads- lots of sweet breads, and the donuts are good too. My family usually eats sweet bread with coffee every meal and it’s delicious! I think that’s why I drink the coffee- so I can eat the bread too.
Feb. 2
Today we went to my family’s finca to “cortar el café”, or harvest coffee with some of their workers. Not only is there coffee plants on the finca but there are also avocado trees, macadamia trees, banana trees, orange trees, and other types planted throughout the coffee to give the plants shade but also to give them produce throughout the year! Here’s the whole process (or what I’ve learned so far). So first of course you plant the tree, which can begin producing coffee in a year. The café is planted among grabilea trees, which gives the coffee shade until it’s time to for the fruit to ripen. Then they cut the branches off of the grabilea trees to let the sun ripen the coffee. The coffee fruit, which when ripe is small and reddish with two beans inside, usually starts getting ripe in November here in Ciudad Vieja and workers come to harvest the fruit until the end of February. It’s all picked by hand and put in 100 lb sacks. I think the workers usually get about $5/100 lb bag? The coffee is then sold to a beneficio, where the rest of the process takes place.
Also really quick I have some new favorite foods from here: rellenitos and dobladas. Rellenitos are a desert, and look like potatoes. A rellenito actually is frijoles surrounded by smushed platanos, which are then browned. People eat them with sugar on top and it’s so good! Dobladas are kind of like empanadas except made with a thin tortilla and fried. The kind I had was filled with mashed potatoes and served with a cabbage salad (repollo) and salsa on top.
February 5
Happy birthday mom!! I hope you have a good birthday!
This whole week we’ve been busy working on our charlas, or lessons/talks, that we gave to a group of students yesterday. I talked about our actions and the environment- I love environmental education, but it’s a lot harder in Spanish! Yesterday we also went to a sustainable, organic macadamia plantation run by a slightly crazy guy from California. It was really cool to see how they sort the nuts and we got a free tour and samples of macadamia nuts and chocolate with macadamia nuts. I also got a facial with macadamia oil which was amazing for only 5 queztales (less than $1!). It felt so good and is supposedly really good for your skin. Who knew I would be getting facials in the Peace Corps! They also sold macadamia flour, butter, soap, candles, cream, and even pancakes! They were all pretty expensive though. It was a paradise though! He said blueberries grow really well in Altaverapaz near Coban, that there’s a good market here for them, and that the land isn’t too expensive…
This morning I had to wake up early to go to Santa Lucia for a Mayan religious ceremony. A Mayan priestess came and did a really pretty ceremony which lasted about 3 hours! It was really cool and she burned lots of candles and incense and cigars and rosemary sprigs. I didn’t really understand some of it because the Nahual names she was calling upon were all in Qiche, a Mayan language, but it was really interesting and made me want to learn more about the 22 Nahuals.
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