el 21 de junio 2011
I woke up early to take a shower a little before 7. Waiting to shower until the morning was a terrible idea. It was a colder day today than it has been. The water pressure and the water temperature are indirectly proportional to each other. I think I haven’t warmed up all day as a result of this shower. I got dressed, putting on lots of clothes. Holly still had my pink jacket from yesterday, so I put on my black one.
Sandy gave me yogurt and very crunchy granola for breakfast. When I finished eating, I got ready to go, but someone was in the bathroom so I waited until I got to school to go. I chatted with some girls from my school and then the bell rang to start class. Carolina and I went up to our table. The only other group in our room is Liz and her teacher. Carolina taught me another children’s song in Spanish. This one has addition facts in it! We reviewed the future tense and the progressive tenses. I was so cold that I had two cups of tea during the morning! During the break, I talked to Liz and then refilled my tea and went upstairs to get a head-start on my reading for tomorrow.
After class, I headed back home and checked my email. Sandy came home and I talked to her while she made spinach with mushrooms, onions, and garlic. We had this very salty mixture with tortillas and super salty pasta (with grains of salt on it). I think I eat about 15 times the amount of salt I eat at home and one-fourth the sugar! I checked my email and worked on my blog entry for yesterday. Soon it was time to leave for the Mayan Summer Solstice presentation at the museum. Kristen came with me and we met Andrea and Holly at the school. We chatted with people and I showed them the activity schedule. I think it is nice that the schools let outside people attend the activities! I like that Andrea and I attend different schools so that we can take advantage of the best activities! It was 2:30 when we met at the school and we waited about ten minutes before leaving. We walked to a street near the park and caught a microbus that took us near the museum. It was nice that we didn’t walk since it was starting to rain. It was really cold and rainy today! When we got to the museum, the man at the door told us that there was not a presentation today and that there were no displays to see. The teachers from our school were confused and called Olga, the director of the school. I had seen a poster from the museum that advertised this event. We stood in the rain for a few minutes and then someone figured out that the presentation was taking place in the museum next door. We filed in and sat in a room crowded with mainly gringos. Three women in typical Mayan clothing led the presentation. It lasted a little less than an hour. They had a powerpoint explaining the rotation of the sun and what causes the summer solstice. It was interesting to learn that the Mayan name for the summer solstice means “the stomach of the sun is big.” We learned how the Maya weave the meaning of the four seasons and the solstices and equinoxes into their clothing. After the presentation, they answered questions for a while. Then we paid Q25 and entered the museum. They had traditional clothing from each part of Guatemala displayed. One of the women gave us a tour. The same guy who translated for the presentation followed us around and did his best to translate. We saw everything in the museum and then we left because some of our group had been waiting for a while. We caught a chicken bus back to the park.
Andrea, Holly, and I went to EntreMundos to see about Holly volunteering somewhere and then we tried to find a café. First we went to the one next door to my apartment building, but it was really expensive so we went to one across from the park. I had hot chocolate with milk. Andrea and I read the newspaper. We sat and talked for a while and then the girls headed back to their place and I went to XelaPan and got a sheca con frijol. I am only here eight more days so I need to eat all the shecas con frijol that I can while I’m here! I went back home and worked on my blog and then Sandy came home.
We had black beans and a very runny egg and sliced wheat bread (pan integral) from XelaPan and guacamole that Kristen had made. Sandy wasn’t feeling very well today. The people in my apartment have been passing around a cold. After dinner, I wrote my composition for school tomorrow about what my life will be like in ten years, using the future and progressive tenses. Then I continued reading my story for tomorrow. Soon, it was time for me to leave so I could meet the girls at 7:30.
I had to ring the doorbell three times and knock a couple of times before they heard me. We were supposed to bring snacks to share, so we stopped by a tienda, but they did not have much. We had to walk past La Dispensa Familiar (the grocery store), so Andrea and I bought microwave popcorn and Holly bought gummy bears. We then walked to Celas Maya, Andrea’s school. When we got there, we tried to make our popcorn, but apparently the microwave does not work! So much for microwave popcorn! We went and sat down on the couch and talked while we waited. It turned out that we were the only three who showed up for the movie, Voces Inocentes (Innocent Voices) about the Civil War in El Salvador. It was a horrific movie following the story of a boy named Chava. The violence the children and families experienced was unbelievable. Many nights, the entire family had to hurriedly duck under the bed and hide behind a mattress to avoid the shooting. The soldiers entered the schools and took away all the boys aged 12 or older. It is so incredibly sad that so many people have to live in the face of such terrible violence. Sometime during the movie, the guy working at Celas Maya came and brought us very rich hot chocolate. When the movie was over, the atmosphere was very solemn. We walked slowly back to my apartment discussing the movie. It is definitely worth watching but very sad. The girls walked me to my apartment and then they headed back to where they are staying.
I wrote the rest of today’s blog and I still need to finish about 8 pages of my short story for tomorrow, and it’s 10:45. My mind is still filled with the movie that we watched. I don’t think I’ll sleep for a while…
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