Lake Atitlan, San Pedro

This past weekend we finally got some time off!!! Our first free weekend and the crew decided to go to lake Atitlan and more specifically the town of San Pedro. To get there we all took what is so playfully known as a "chicken bus" these are, again former US school buses, but these have been tricked out like a car made for street racing. They paint them brilliant colors, put fancy grills on them and the whole nine yards. The bus station in Xela is a made house of people yelling their destination and literally herding you onto their bus. They don't really care if your actually trying to go where they are headed so you better watch out if you don't want to get swept onto the wrong bus. As the bus makes stops people get on who are trying to ride the bus and also people trying to sell you all types of snacks and beverages. They simply get on for a while walking up and down the isles with their goodies and then get off at the next stop. Mean while the other worker of the bus (besides the bus driver) goes up and down the isle collecting money. He gets off at each stop to herd more people on and help them with put their luggage on top. the front door never closes so sometimes the bus will take off (to stay on time i would guess) and you'll see him racing along side the bus to catch up. There is not such this as "to capacity" on these buses and by the 4th or 5th stop we were all sitting 3 to a seat with people crowding the isle as well. If the helper guy gets stuck at the back because the isle is full he simply opens the back door, climbs the ladder onto the roof and a few second later you see him hop in through the front door. All of this happens while the bus is headed full speed winding through the mountains of Guatemala. Since San Pedro is some what off the beaten path as far as major tourism goes we got to really see some rural Guatemalan country side taking the one lane highways. After about 2-2 1/2 hours we started making our decent from the mountains down to the lake. Atitlan is not quite the same as lake Michigan as far a size goes but it was sure a rival and possibly more magnificent because sharp peaking mountains jet up at all sides. Atitlan is a crater lake, once the site of a massive volcano. When we arrived in San Pedro we found a hotel right on the water that I think the majority of us would describe as a place we can envision heaven being similar to. The rooms all opened outdoors to a private law and each had its own hammock:) and for a price no motel 6 in the states could match. We rented kayaks on saturday and peacefully paddled around. Saturday night we spent a local solar panel heated hot spring. Every meal was taken at restaurants with patios jetting out over the water and some of the freshest fruit I've ever eaten. Walking along the cobble stone streets full of color and sunshine, San Pedro is truly a small slice of heaven. When we left on sunday we took a small boat to Panahachel which is the biggest tourist town on the lake and therefore has more direct buses back to Xela on sundays. The boat ride was about 20mins and well worth the view if we had to choose any way to leave our little paradise.

War Perspectives

Through out these first couple of weeks in Guatemala we have been provided to a number of lectures giving various perspectives of the time of armed conflict here. A colonel in the Guatemalan National army and he gave us a presentation of the "facts" of the armed conflict and what the army's part in this 36 years of violence. It was very interesting to here how the army saw the guerrilla fighters as terrorist whose sole purpose was to over through the government and initiated a communist regime. Although I (along with my fellow students) found the presentation a bit inflated with propaganda I did really appreciate hearing what he felt was a rational explanation for the army's role in the fighting. He also gave a lot of historical facts about the origin of the conflict, including the role Cuba played in funding the guerrillas, which I didn't know before. However when it came time for the question and answer portion the air got a bit thick with tension. Some students braver then myself ask somewhat difficult questions regarding the political workings of the army. He answered some of these questions in round-about ways and flat out refused to answer others. It was a very informative presentation and a peck into perspectives I don't think I would ever have discovered with out this conference. However I was happy when it was over and we all passed through the doors of the Hotel we had the conference in (our school is considered an area of peace and compromise so army officials are not allowed within its doors) and away from the 4 military members holding automatic machine guns guarding the entrance to the colonel.

A few days later we were expose to the oposite persective to that of the military and it was a very special occation. Every year that this program is held the directors set up a conference with an officer in the military and a former member of the guerrilla forces. They try to invite officers in the from the guerrilla forces but are not always lucky to obtain one. This year the school opend its doors to one of the highest ranking officers of the guerrilla forces our group has ever been able to meet with and along with us, the majority of the other students studying spanish at this school came to listen to this woman speak. Victoria is one of the most powerful women I have ever had the oportunity to hear speak. (with a mother like mine im sure this speaks volumes to those of you who know me best) She began her service with the guerrillas at the age of 15 and survived (obviously) till then end fighting in the area of Guatemala where the majority of combat took place. I've heard a lot about Guatemalan history and especially the history of the armed conflict but she has more knoweldge about her own contry then any other person I've spoken to yet. She also has more passion for her culture and her people then anyone I've meet. She spoke for almost 3 hours and the room (filled with probably 50 people, foreign students and native guatemalan teachers alike) was completely silent for the whole time. For a woman whoes never had formal teaching in public speeking or teaching she could hold training for this a be outrageously successful. Every word she spoke dripped with sincerity and emotion. Fortunately I was siting in the front row, preventing me from seeing anyone else in the audience crying and enabling me to hold back my tears. I could hear, and thankfully not see, that others behind me had no such luck. She spoke of the passion she saw in her companeros. One of the things that stood out to me the strongest was when she spoke of the equality amongst the guerrilla soliders. Her words still ring in my head " there was not gender, no sexes in the trenches" women and men held the same positions and the same jobs. Equal sharing was done in the labor, the cooking/cleaning and decision making. The only two differences were that the women had a lighter max load that they carried with climbing the mountains and then women got first pick of uniforms when the new ones arrived from friendly alli donations. I wish I could convey more about her speach but the emotion is what is most important to me. Towards the end she spoke about the people of the united states. Unfortunately the american goverment had a lot to do with the causes of catastrpohy in this country (whats new) and she spoke about that through out the presentation when giving dates a fact of various conflicts. But she also spoke about a number of, in their eyes, 'heroic' americans along with other foreigners who saw this injustice. In the end she spoke of the knowledge the guerrillas had and that a number of guatemalans still have, between the Goverment of the United States and the People of the United States. It was a moving presentation and an incredibly moving ending. Afterwards many people hugged and cried and the majorety of us milled around the court yard for some time. If they felt like I did, not sure what to do. Mind so heavy with thoughts of sadness, happiness, weakness, strength, pride and shame. I hope to obtain her power point soon and will post it when I can.

Although the previous two perspective were given by people very close to the war, byfar the most interesting perspective in my opinion was that of civilian. Edwardo is a teacher at our school and is actually the professor of one of my fellow group members. He is from the town of Cantel, which is about 15min outside of Xela. He grew up as civil citizen not belonging to either side of the conflict. He told many stories about loosing close friends or neighbors in his town due to unprovect violence from the military. One particularly sad story about a classmate of his in high school who was mistaken as a guerrilla spy and supsequently tortured to deal. He told three 'edge of you seat' stories of how he narrowly escaped being kidnapped by the army and forced in to servitue. He also had relatives and friends with no such luck. At times the army would literally hold their own soliders at gun point to foce them to do hanace acts. He also talked about how the guerrillas, while good intentioned had an ideal that wasn't necessarily shared by all indigenous guatemalans and that there presence would sometimes put inocent people in harms way. If a guerrilla outfit came into a town to peacfully ask for support or to buy food to feed there soldiers it was very likely that within a few days a goup from the military would show up and demand to know who was supporting the guerrillas and sometimes kill people to 'make a point'. These indigenous people did not ask the guerrillas to come in to their town just at the guerrillas did not mean to put anyone in harms way. Edwardo pointed out that in this war it was not either side of the conflict which suffered the most but the people caught in the middle. Over all Edwardo spoke of lose, of tradgedy and how people come together to stay stong and how one person grows stronger on their own. Taking what life has given you and deciding who you are going to be because/despite of this and how your going to think about live and the world after this.

Chichicastenango Part I and a little of the widows community

View of cemetery from the roof of our hotel

Chichi from roof top

Eva and Dan on the trace below

One of the oldest catholic churches in Guatemala build on top of a mayan temple, the front steps are the original temple steps

Scene of the market the day before craziness

Chichi cemetery

A combination of traditional graves and mayan ceremonies

Chris and Dan dressed in traditional clothes

Sunday in Chichi, simultaneous catholic and mayan services

Chichi on market day..........craziness

A whole new new view from the roof top on market day

Swinging on the terrace

View from the roof, local use their roofs for drying clothes and playing with babies:)

Andrea, yo y Danielle

Un Poco de Xela and a Futbal Game!

Mural in the courtyard of Cafe Red, a good spot to drink delicious coffee, eat delicious nachos and do homework

Some of the gang at Cafe Red

Look how studious I am front and center with the dicionary

Futbal Game!!!

Xela is in red and blue

Alan, Andrea, me, Linda and Elspeth

Chris and I acting as cheesy as possible:)

Climb the fence when Xela scores!!

And set of flares in the stadium!!

Back row-Eva, Me, Andrea and Dan Front-Danielle, Linda, Elspeth and Alan

Fire works and flares again

Xela was playing a heavy rival and the game ended in a 3-3 tie which neither team liked so the next few pics are of the fight that occurred literally seconds after the final wistle

Some of us at one of our favorite restaurants in Xela, Taco y Mas:)

Another mural in Cafe Red

Un poco de Xela.....colorful:)