Solola´ dia dos

Being in Guatemala is very eye opening. This is one of the most interesting countries I have visited since the culture is so alive and in your face. I find my self very curious about the lifestyles of the people who live here. I love just watching the day to day business of everyone who passes.

We started today with our first class with each of us individually talking about a project we had prepared for the class. The project was two part, the first part was to make a collage about our culture as we see it, the second part was to map out a Genogram of our family members. A genogram is basically a more elaborate family tree that is used a lot in Family and Marriage Counseling. It was very interesting to hear everyone´s stories and persepectives on culture. I saw my culture as coming from my native country of the Netherlands and many others saw their culture as American or just a mix of things they rememered growing up or even in the present time. It opened my eyes to my definition of culture and extended what I believed is my culture or values.

After class, we took the bus to Panajachel, one of the bigger towns on Lake Atitlan. It was about a 15 minute ride down the mountain and surprisingly much warmer. The town itself looks very nice, but very touristy. We took a two little speed boats across the lake to a little village called San Tiago, which was very much like a smaller Panajachel. It had so much charm and all the people were so nice. After a very good and inexpensive lunch, we met two young boys who lead us to a place that was very strange. I do not know how to explain it, but I will do my best. Maximon is the saint of the town, but he is not recognized by the Catholic church, which is in the center of town. Maximon is a statue that is all dressed in clothing and scarves around his neck and he has a cigar in his mouth. Since he is not recognized by the church, Maximon travels from home to home for a year at a time. The mayor of the city decides whose home Maximon will live in. When we walked in the current home, about 15 men and women were all eating at a long table and Maximon was place right on the side of the table, draped in clothing, with candles and an offering try in the middle. We paid a little over a dollar to go in the home and take as many pictures as we wanted. On the side of the home was a glass coffin with another statued in dress who was said to be Maximon´s father. On the other side were other statues that had some meaning, but I was so obsessed with Maximon that I did not ask. The people who were eating were the caretakers of Maximon and the home. Each person spends a week as a caretaker and the offerings go to one man who takes care of Maximon for the year. I think Maximon is dressed everyday and put to bed at night. It was a very strange but wonderful experience. I liked that it was so intimate and close and I felt that I learned more about the culture. I wish I could speak more spanish so I would be able to sit and talk with some of the caretakers.

We also visited the church while mass was beginning. This again was a very intimate experience sitting in the pews and watching everyone walking in. The statues who were regarded as saints on the side of the church were all draped in various traditional clothing and I did notice a bunch of the statues had pink raincoats on. I will have to ask what the significance of the pink raincoats as well as the clothing the statues were wearing. The town was alive with people and I felt very comfortable walking around and even speaking with the people and the children. I found that many of the people, especially the children were very shy, but when I smiled, waved, or said hello they opened up a bit. I met some children at the dock and shared my gummi worms with them and I liked that even without speaking we were able to communicate in some way.

I also noticed how hard the people work here. It does not seem as though they are working to become rich, like most Americans, but just working for their way of life. It seems so simple, although I am sure it is not. I see men, women, and children carrying tons of wood or other supplies from a rope on their head up a mountain and it makes me think of how much we take for granted in our country, especially our children these days who are so used to TV and video games.

Although it looks like all the Guatemalans are the same, we learned that over 70% of people are indiginous to the country. Most of the villages speak their own dialect as well as Spanish and some other languages. We have a few fluent Spanish speakers in our group and they can not understand anything of the other languages that are spoken. I think that is wonderful that Guatemala is holding on to their culture and not giving up their heritage or language just to make things easier. The lake is not that big and many people take the ferry to other towns to work and it just amazes me that different languages are spoken in most of these towns.