Wednesday

Wednesday. What a day. Three days in site. Just like I suspected, days go by really slowly here. I like the pace of life here, though. It's relatively relaxed, and people are really social. My days start early with the sun, and end early. Wednesday is market day here, and so I walked down to get some much needed housewares and food. It's amazing how the aldea transforms on market day. There's all sorts of vendors and food carts all along the main road, and the market building itself is huge, and stocked with all sorts of things. I tried to chat with each of the vendors, although some were more willing to talk than others. The women I bought kitchen towels from, Erlinda, was particularly friendly, as was the woman selling bananas. With adults here, I get one of two reactions: recognition and friendliness (Oh! You're the new Kelsey! Where are you from?) or skepticism/confusion.

Example: I wanted to buy tortillas last night for my dinner of protemás (it's Guatemalan dehydrated tofu they sell everywhere…it's actually pretty good if you season the hell out of it) so I went across the road to a little vendor I thought might be able to tell me where to go. I walked in, and the owner women shot me this look of "What the hell are you doing here." I asked her if she sold tortillas or knew where I might find some. She said no, and went back to her conversation. As I turned to leave, her daughter asked me if I wanted the tortillas right then, and if I played soccer. I told her yes, to both things, and she kindly explained that 6 o clock is much to early for tortillas…they don't start torteando until closer to dinnertime (7 o clock). Duh. Then she invited me to play soccer with them on Sundays, and told her mom to go make me some tortillas. I told her she didn't have to, but the deal was done. Fifteen minutes later, 2 quetzals worth of fresh tortillas were dropped off at my door by the women's son.

It's the elders of this aldea that will be the hardest for me to warm up to. They just seem so skeptical. Could have to do with how weird I look to them, that I look German and Germans stole all of their land years ago and still own it all, or that they just don't trust me yet. Poco a poco. The kids, however, seem to love me. Enough to follow me around. And hang outside my apartment door. And yell things at me in Qeqchi then bust out laughing when I tell them I don't understand. Gotta love being the token foreigner in a town this small.

Went to my third school this afternoon, to observe the social studies class (they've incorporated the Peace Corps curriculum into their social studies). I'd called the director beforehand to let them know; so when I arrived, I was surprised to find out that I, in fact, was teaching the class! There must have been some sort of miscommunication on the phone earlier (phone Spanish is still hard for me…you can't read the person when you can't see them), because the teacher handed me the book and announced to the class that I was starting today! So there I was, sweaty from my 30 minute hike to the school, no books, no notes, no plans, and an hour to kill. So I pulled some ice-breakers out of my behind, and made them do an activity where they had to describe typical local dishes. It wasn't as horrible as it could have been, but it definitely was not the first impression I would have liked to make. Oh well. Then, on my walk back home, a pig chased me. I mean, I guess I shouldn't have run from a pig (can they bite?) but it came out of nowhere, and started trotting towards me, and I didn't know what to do. It ran behind me until I jumped up onto a log out of reach, while a group of kids across the road laughed their heads off at the crazy gringo on the log, running from a pig. Uy. What a Wednesday. No wonder I sleep so well here.