Oct. 27

It’s been an interesting week. I had to go to Xela on Tuesday for a doctor’s appointment. It was really nice because it’s the first time my family’s let me do anything by myself, and it got me a 2 day break (well, if you call going to the doctor 4 times a break). Seeing doctors here was an interesting experience, I must say. Some of the sanitation practices could have used some improvement, but I’ll spare you the details. It was a funny experience going by myself and having to talk about medical things in Spanish though.

While in Xela, I got to visit my favorite bakery and have dinner at my favorite restaurant, so that was good….which reminds me….. our food took almost an hour to arrive and when it did, my salad was completely wrong. I decided to eat it anyway and was doing so when I noticed the table next to us talking about how they had also gotten the wrong salad- mine. So the guy at their table asks me how much I’ve eaten of the salad that was supposed to be theirs and then switches with me and eats the salad I’ve already been eating out of!!!! Patrick and I found this to be absolutely hilarious.

Anyway, it was nice to go to Xela and see familiar people and places. I hung out with Patrick, people-watched in Parque Central, and got to take a HOT shower!! It’s nice to be back in my own room now, though. Oh, and I bought some RAID in Xela and it’s been working wonders with the mosquitoes. I just hope I don’t die in my sleep from the fumes! If anyone has some suggestions about mosquitoes, Im still open to trying almost anything!!

We had a church service last night in Hermana Clara’s house (all the women from my church call each other hermana- sister). She has 3 kids that I really like. Her boys are 18 and 14, and they are really helpful and 2 of the only people who seem to understand my Spanish! So I was excited to go to their house. It turns out that it’s a 2 room cinder-block house with no electricity. Seeing their house was a very interesting experience for me since I’ve complained about my house (mostly to myself) a decent amount this week. I realized that although I’m living in a very, very basic house for US standards, I’m still living above the level of a lot of people (lower- middle class, I think or that might be a stretch) in Guatemala. It’s hard to see people you know and like who are living in conditions that are seemingly very hard. I had a similar awakening experience with my host family in Xela. They live in a nice, middle-class home. It has 3 bedrooms/1 bath, and a great view of the city. It’s very comfortable and pretty well furnished. One night at dinner we were talking about the costs of different things and it somehow came up that my host-dad had a varying salary that only ranged from $4-8 A DAY, based on how much bread he sold for his company. He’s doing better than most of the people he works with, too. I was shocked to think that he can support his family- a wife and 3 kids- with this money, and the extra they make by letting people park their cars at their house and hosting foreign students. And I’m sure this is not even close to the worst conditions people live in here.

Well, that is enough observations for one day.