Thursday, July 22, 2010

I woke up this morning about 4 to a huge cat fight outside my door. There is a group of stray cats that lives in the neighborhood. It is a big problem because they keep having kittens and they don’t belong to anyone. The animal control people only pick up dogs not cats. It is kind of funny because I thought I was in the play house with the cats, so it didn’t bother me for a while. I was surprised when I opened my eyes and saw where I was! Anyway, I went back to sleep until I was woken up about 6 by a neighbor calling for “Ruby.” I don’t know who or what Ruby is, but I wish she were more obedient because the yelling continued for almost a half hour! I dozed off again until my alarm went off. Have I mentioned that my bed has two comforters on it? The top one has stripes, but the bottom one has characters from the movie Anastasia. Let me tell you that it was kind of creepy this morning waking up to the large eyes of Anastasia staring at me! I got up 6:30 since I had gone to bed early last night without writing my blog. I didn’t have time to write all of it before breakfast, but I did part of it. I went into the house and had really hot oats that already had mashed up banana in it. I also had coffee and a roll.

Hussein and I walked to school together at 7:45. When we got to school, we had to wait for about five minutes because no one else had arrived. Oscar showed up right at 8 and let us in. Our teachers came in right after us. Any and I chatted about my day yesterday and about the cats in the neighborhood (the conferencia of cats, as Any calls it). I read my sentences to Any from my homework. Then I did a long exercise that was completely review. I hardly missed any of the questions. Any asked me to tell her a story using the verb tenses that we had been reviewing. I started talking about my travels and the places I have been. I told her about India and Rinku in much detail. I also told her about Hong Kong. Somehow we got started talking about people with disabilities and she said something about someone who couldn’t see or hear. I asked her if she knew about Helen Keller. She had never heard of her, so I gave a detailed rendition of the story of Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan. Any liked the name of Helen’s dedicated teacher. Any added to the story that Annie was very beautiful. By the time I finished telling the story of Helen Keller, it was already 10 minutes into the break time. I ate some tostadas and made tea. Hussein and Filippa were smoking and keeping to themselves, so I stood by myself basking in the warmth of the sun. It was a really warm day today. I was comfortable in a t-shirt and later with zip-up jacket. When Any came back, we went back to work. I read more Mayan stories and then retold them to Any. I felt like it was really good practice. I finished the second book of stories. This means I have read over 200 pages in Spanish over the last four days! Tomorrow I have to retell the last story because we didn’t have time at the end.

Hussein and I walked home and got ready for lunch. We had soup, salty with a few vegetables, but different from the soup of yesterday. We also had tortillas, rice, crumbly meat of some sort, and pickled cabbage with carrots. Sandy told me that she wanted to go shopping at 3 instead of 4 as she had told me the day before. I said that was fine and hoped that Elisa wouldn’t mind. I got to the daycare promptly at two, waited the customary five minutes for someone to get around to answering the door, and greeted Yadira who was very excited to see me. All the children were napping except Yadira, so there was not really anything for me to do. I asked Juanita what I could do to help, and she said I could wash the dishes, so I did with Yadira standing on a chair and trying to help. Mostly I stood to the side of the sink and tried to avoid the deluge of water that Yadira was accidentally pouring on the floor. Rosy Bella woke up and started crying. I was about to stop washing dishes and go to get her out of the crib when Juanita made her a bottle with something pink inside. I assume it was milk with medicine added to it because she is sick. Juanita put the bottle in a cup of cold water to cool it, but she very quickly took it to Rosy. I thought Rosy would stop crying, but if anything, the crying worsened, so I went to comfort her. She had dropped the bottle, so I picked it up. It was hot to the touch, so I tested the temperature of the milk on my wrist. It was so hot that it hurt my wrist! Poor Rosy! I stood by the side of the crib and patted her until she calmed down, which she soon did. I went back in the kitchen when she was content and talked to Elisa for fifteen minutes until it was time for me to leave to meet Sandy at the school at 3. When I approached the school, Sandy was already there and drove up to meet me. I got in the car with Sandy, Gaby, and her friend Cindy. We drove to Parque Central and picked up Hussein. We let Cindy out of the car along the way to Mercado de la Democracia. Sandy parked the car in a crowded lot and we followed her to the market. It was amazing to watch how quickly she dealt with the vendors. She would ask how much the person was charging for strawberries (or whatever), and the vendor would name a price. Sandy would ask what the lowest price was, and the vendor would say a price that was a little less. Then Sandy would ask for less and most of the time the vendors would refuse. Then Sandy would either agree to pay the price or would go on to another vendor. Within a span of about ten minutes, Sandy had bartered over the price and paid for strawberries, green oranges (they are not really oranges, but I don’t know what they are… Sandy said they are only for cooking), carrots, parsley (I think), and several other things. It was interesting to watch the vendors use their handheld balances and weights to weigh the produce. By 3:30, we were back in the car. I did nothing to help with the shopping trip, so I felt a little silly for having left the daycare so early. However, I was glad to have the chance to watch Sandy shop. Sandy paid Q4 for parking and we headed toward home.

However, on the way, we drove past Parque Benito Juarez where they are having the book sale this week and the next. Hussein asked to be let out. I felt kind of bad deserting Sandy, but I quickly asked her if she needed more help (not that I had been any help at all), and she said no, so I quickly jumped out of the car after Hussein. First, we looked at the huge stone Mayan calendar in the park, then we moved on to look at the books. It was starting to sprinkle, but the books were under tents. There were lots of over-priced used books. Hussein bought a couple, but I didn’t buy anything until nearly the end. I found a copy of Leyendas de Guatemala (a book of Guatemalan legends) by Miguel Angel Asturias for a good price. Then at the last stall, I found cheap magazine-type booklets on a variety of subjects. I bought a few cookbooks, a book about Guatemala, and a baby name book that has over 1,000 Spanish names and their meanings. Hussein waited for me to finish buying them, then we walked toward Central Park. We had to pass right by the ice cream parlor where I had purchased the most delicious ice cream cone of my life (or at least nearly the best) last night. I asked Hussein to stop, and I got another mango flavored sherbet with chunks of peaches in it inside a waffle cone. The name of the flavor is Rumba (it doesn’t have rum in it, though). Hussein got a chocolate-nut-covered waffle cone with one scoop of chocolate ice cream and one of coffee. We walked toward Central Park. Hussein wanted to show me Casa No’j, which is a cultural house where art is exhibited. We went in and looked at the art exhibits. There was one of children’s art from the U.S., Guatemala, Peru, Spain, Costa Rica, and many other countries. The theme was freedom and independence, related to Guatemala’s history. The other art exhibit displayed art from six Guatemalan artists showing scenes of Guatemala. As we were leaving, we saw a man filming some girls walking around a fountain and acting like models. I don’t know what they were doing. Next, we went to Dispensa Familiar, a supermarket. Stores like this are rare in Guatemala, but I wanted to go in and look around. It was surprisingly small. I bought some packaged soups like we eat here to take home and show my family. Then we left. Hussein wanted to buy more cigarettes, so we walked to another shop on the corner near Central Park. Then I wanted to stop by Xela Pan to buy some bread for tomorrow’s snack during the break at school. As I was going in, Roberto found us and said hi. He was wearing his shirt of verde limón. I bought some tostadas and bread with anise. Then we headed toward home. I decided to stop at the internet café to see if Elvira had responded to my email. She had and she said that it would be a pleasure to meet me because any friend of Jenny and Amber is a friend of theirs. I replied and asked for her address. I was able to Skype with my mom and dad for about twenty minutes. It was good to talk with them and see them! I got home around 6:30. I tidied my room, and then I went to the kitchen to talk with Sandy and help with dinner preparations. It is Thursday, which is the day that Sandy and Roberto lead a marriage group at their church, so they weren’t eating. Andre is feeling sick and has a fever so he was upstairs. We had a lot of food for dinner. We had eggs cooked in a circle, rice, enchiladas, bread, pickled cabbage and carrots leftover from lunch, and plantains. It was good. Erica came in late to dinner because she had been sleeping. Her stomach was hurting. I sat at the table and talked with her while she ate. She kept feeling worse and decided to go back to bed. I sat in the living room and wrote an essay about Rinku for Any. Then I returned to my room, did some sink laundry, repainted my toenails, and wrote my blog for today. Bed around 11.