Totonicapan

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Saul and I are getting tight. Once again, we had a good day of work. We learned a lot of new verbs (those ending in –er and –ir) and we sang a few more songs. Yesterday’s song was about colors, but the verses went into the sounds of the rooster, the hen and the chicks (pi-o, pi-o, pi-o being most of what I remember). Today’s songs were about God amongst the poor. One of them was very metaphorical and lyrical. I enjoyed trying to translate that. I thought I had brought them both home, but apparently am missing one of them. It’s disappointing because I wanted to study it a little more.

We are picking up each other’s phrases and words. I’ve already got him saying “damn!” (I make a lot of mistakes) and he’s got me saying “tiene sentido” (makes sense). We toss them off at each other as if we’ve been speaking one another’s language forever. Much of our conversation revolves around him asking me questions about Minnesota, so he’s learning about things like the great lakes and the headwaters of the Mississippi and wild rice and snow that buries cars. I have not yet attempted to explain hot dishes and green jello.

This afternoon we took a little trip to the town of Totonicapan, about an hour’s ride from here on the local bus. We could probably make it there a little faster if we didn’t have the 10 minute stop on the edge of Xela for a sales pitch from a guy selling markers. The driver got off and this guy got on, and I’ll give him this, he’s a born huckster. He was demonstrating how you could write on cds and on paper and just about anything else. Look here, he said, how well it shows up on your notebook. Then he passed around a few samples for us to see the quality of his product and gave us a few minutes to think about it. After traversing the length of the bus, he worked his way forward, picking up the samples as he went. His price was right, for sure. 5Q for two markers and 2 inkpens. That’s less than a buck. Unfortunately for him, we did not need markers today.

Our destination was a cooperative artisans market. The building in which they are housed is also the ceramics factory, so we got a little tour of the operations there. And then we had time to shop. I had thought we were going to a textile factory, but apparently most of the artisans make their textiles in their homes and sell them in the market. There were some very nice ceramic pieces, but ceramic is not a good thing to buy when you have several weeks of traveling with nothing but a soft-sided backpack. So we mostly took photos and video. We did buy a couple of ocarinas (simple little flutes) shaped like birds. By the time we left, my hands and jeans were filthy. Because they are making ceramics right there, there is a film of dust on everything, even the people working there.

If the bus ride there was interesting, the ride home was entertaining to say the least. When we jumped on in Totonicapan, it was already full and most of us had to sit down on seats that already held two people. As we bumped along, more and more people got on the bus. It is considered rude in Guatemala, to stand over someone, so you must sit, even if there is no room to sit. Eventually, the mass of human flesh compacts together and creates a sort of living bench spanning the aisle. It’s really quite extraordinary. Add to that the noise of the shocks and the brakes and the blaring music and you have got one compelling ride. About 30 minutes into the ride, we stopped and half the bus got up and left in one long stream. The first 10 or 15 people had quite a struggle because the exiting was not really done in any sort of order, such as front to back. It seemed as though those at the back decided it would be good to push forward early and then everyone else decided to do the same and, well, you just can imagine the upheaval. The guy sitting on my lap (I mean next to me) practically had to stand on top of me to make room for those leaving. I had just commented to one of my fellow students that all we really needed at that point was a couple of live chickens, when a man got off the bus with a crate of chicks balanced on his head. I hadn’t even noticed him until he got off and Jeff pointed him out.

It is getting late and I should be working on my homework. Tonight I have a crucigrama (a crossword puzzle) that should add a little extra challenge into the lesson. So with that I will sign off and get busy studying.