Appetizers

Last week we took an impromptu trip up to the Ulpan Valley, which will be our "permanent" home in less than two weeks now.  It turned out that there were several project-related things that needed to be taken care of before we went, so we just took off and left.  Because we are still in language school, and because our teachers are all Qeqchi, we asked if they wanted to go with us, and sort of to our surprise they were all very excited to go.  In retrospect, though, we probably could have done a better job of telling them what they were getting in to.  Minor details such as "you will be sleeping on a concrete floor" and "it's going to be pretty cool and pretty wet" probably could have been conveyed before we left.  Although I think they had fun I couldn't help but think they spent the 3 days terrified they'd been abducted by the Griswolds.

Out time there was a microcosm of what we anticipate the next year will be like.  We fixed a solar system that had a broken power supply in one community, confirmed that the 3 water systems we'd previously installed were working and came up with a few maintenance items, delivered 32 toilet seats to a community (note - the funny scene of me driving a pickup loaded with 32 toilet seats through the mountains is tempered by the fact that they were being delivered to a community so impoverished that no one there has a latrine at all), we surveyed for the construction of a new training facility, and facilitated midwife training for the 17 communities.  I was more than happy to be out surveying while the midwife training was going on, but our teachers seemed to be interested in that.  Water and sanitation and health and economic development and human rights are all real and tangible things in the Ulpan Valley, and our trip there last week has only served to reinforce our desire to be there. 

We even let the kids clear out our garden with machetes, which was a real treat for them, and is certain to cause angst among their grandparents, so anyone reading this who knows them, please be sure to let them know that you "saw on their blog that the boys spent a few days chasing butterflies and studying safely in a bubble-wrapped room far away from sharp objects."  It was nice to find out that a new cell phone tower that the Project Ulpan had pushed for is operational and has excellent service, including data, so we will be able to Skype and Blog and Facebook very easily from the Valley.  Please keep in touch.

As for the main items this week (language development and purchasing a truck), we still have not been able to find a truck, but we have learned at least some Qeqchi.  Probably my favorite thing I've ever discovered language-wise is this tidbit:  the Qeqchi word for light bulb is "kaxlan xam" which translates into "burning chicken".  I love that.  When my Qeqchi teacher told me that I said that the first Qeqchi people to see a light bulb must have thought it was some sort of "poultry-geist", but she didn't get it (I laughed at my joke for 4 hours and didn't learn anything else that day).

This was the view shortly after sunrise on Friday.  We look forward to waking up to this every day.

Ginger and DeeDee and our Qeqchi teachers at the top of a mountain near the Benitzul Ulpan school



Everything I Needed to Know I Learned Yesterday

The past several days have been really trying as we have been learning to speak Klingon - I mean Qeqchi.  Put simply, never, ever play scrabble with any Qeqchi person.  Every word in their language is comprised of multiple Q's, Z's, X's, and a few other letters that have yet to make it into the game that are probably worth about 50 points apiece.  Also, there are no vowels in their language, and it makes me wonder how much time we squander using things like vowels and other non-spittle-related sounds.  A simple click at the back of the throat means "your mother's umbrella is laying eggs", at least when I say it.

So to cap the week off, Kris and I decided that we really needed to get busy buying a truck for our time in the Ulpan Valley, which starts full-time three weeks from now, so we found a Toyota 4-runner that had some promise and was within our budget, so we asked if we could drive it to a mechanic we've made contact with for him to look it over.  So, in bullet-point fashion, here is what I learned:

• I learned that when a vehicle owner makes a passing comment that the gas tank is "a little low" that often they mean "it's nearly empty".
• I learned the sounds a Toyota 4-Runner makes when it runs out of gas.
• I learned that coasting back down a hill on a Guatemalan road in a vehicle you don't own can be quite unsettling.
• I learned that buses speeding up hills on Guatemalan roads don't really care if you're coasting backwards down a hill.
• I learned that power brakes and power steering are much more functional when they have power.
• I learned that the Guatemalan police will actually stop and help you if you wave your arms wildly enough.
• I learned that Guatemalan police also speed on Guatemalan roads.
• I learned that the bed of a Guatemalan police pickup truck is not very comfortable (learned at the exact same time I learned that the brakes on a Guatemalan police pickup truck work very well).
• I learned that an empty bottle of antifreeze in the trash at a Guatemalan gas station is "on sale for about $2.00" to anyone who happened to run out of gas and stumble bruised out of the bed of a Guatemalan police pickup truck.
• I learned that Guatemalan policemen like Gatorade purchased at a gas station that sells things like gas, gatorade, and empty bottles of antifreeze that can be used as gas cans.
• I learned that a person should not attempt to drink a grape soda while riding in the bed of a Guatemalan police pickup truck.
• I learned that Guatemalan police pickup trucks can drive on any side of the road they please, and that buses generally care more about those vehicles' positions than they do out-of-gas Toyota 4-runners.
• I learned that one can use a bottle of grape soda as a funnel to pour gasoline into an empty gas tank, but in order to cut the bottle so it could be used....
• I learned that Guatemalan police carry machetes in their back seats.
• I learned that Guatemalan police think it's funny when an tall North American with a now spotted-purple shirt offers to hold an empty bottle of grape soda so he can chop it with a machete.
• I learned that Guatemalan police generally prefer to cut bottles of grape soda with a machete like a saw, rather than like an axe, and I learned that perhaps it was best to let the experts do their work.
• I learned that, while furstrating and a little funny, you can find people to help you out.
• I learned that gas stations are not interested in buying back empty bottles of antifreeze for any price.
• I learned that finding a mechanic's shop in Guatemala City is not all that easy, even if you have a map, an address, and have studied the area on Google Earth for several hours.
• I learned that in some parts of the world, 26th Avenue is not necessarily between 25th Avenue and 27th Avenue, and in fact it might not even exist at all, even if it shows up on a map, on Google Earth, and is the address of the location you are looking for.  And on that subject, "Zone 4", in case you are wondering, is nestled neatly in between "Zone 1" and "Zone 9".
• I learned that a mechanic in Guatemala City named Andy Young is one of the nicest people I've ever met, and I learned that his opinion was that Toyota 4-runners can be "something of a gas hog", and I learned that it is possible to agree with someone 100%.
• I learned that lots of people drive on very few roads out of Guatemala City on Friday evenings and that very few of those people would pass an emissions test.
• I learned I really didn't want to buy a 4-runner.
• I learned that it's always nice to get home, even if you suspect you got scabies there.
• I learned what scabies looks like.

I hope this information has been helpful to you.

A Week of Learning and Waiting

This past week has been one of continued learning.  Learning languages and cultures and patience and differences.  We wrapped up our 4th week of Spanish instruction, and we find ourselves wishing we had time to take many more weeks - not so much because we love conjugating irregular verbs, but because we are gradually finding out how little we know.  In many ways learning a language is like running.  You rarely notice much difference from day-to-day but from month to month you do.  (Alternatively, it's the opposite of daily news or Latin American Soap Operas: you miss a day and you're completely lost, but miss a month and you realize that nothing's changed).  Today, we attended church with Christian and Rosie Aponte and we were all surprised at how much of the language we recognized (Martin Luther King quotations are equally powerful in Spanish in case you're wondering).  Four weeks ago, we would have understood nothing but we got the gist of things today.  While we expect that most of our "church" in the next year will be within our family, worshipping with other people who similarly pray for peace and for grace and hope for better things to come is refreshing and energizing.

Church today was a Guatemalan perspective of "Iglesia es la esperanza del Mundo" (church is the hope of the world), and while it's not without its flaws, I agree with that assertion.  The Bible was originally written by and written for people who needed hope more than anything, and the original readers (hearers) were not unlike the people of the Ulpan Valley and so many other places in the world today.  As Christians, or more specifically, as rich North American Christians, we've made a mistake by allowing the conversation in recent years to degenerate into whether we will be saved by the forces of free market or by the forces of government.  I'm actually a big fan of both of these man-made institutions, but I believe that the only true mechanism giving hope for better things to come is the God-made institution of church.

Speaking of  A New Hope, yesterday, the boys got the gist of a sign that said "Star Wars Exhibit here" and we opted to explore Jedi culture for an afternoon.  People saying "Hey - you look like you might want to buy something" sounds the same in all languages, and those people are a little intimidating when they're dressed up as Darth Maul.  But it was a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon anyway.

We had our first experience with the international medical community this week, as Sam caught a brief, but pretty nasty, fever and stomach ailment.  He's OK now and once again ready to eat poorly-cooked chicken, but it was an unpleasant couple of days.  The visit was very good in just about every way possible: short wait, courteous staff, and a correct and reassuring diagnosis (i.e. "it's not Dengue Fever, you idiot").  Also, to make the visit seem more "American", there were salespeople coming in and out, and even the token guy coming in saying "I need a prescription for_____".  And $25 cash later, we were done.

Next week is a real gear-shift for us when we start Qeqchi.  We find ourselves very restless and impatient to get more permanently in the Ulpan Valley.  We have some additional prep work on tap for next week, including some planning of some facilities in the Valley.  The good news is that things appear to be coming along very well with Project Ulpan, with many communities enjoying the new cell tower (yes, we will have internet and Skype access, but the nearest electricity will be an hour away).  About 400 latrines have been constructed in the last few months, which isn't bad considering that there were none for 2,500 homes just a few months ago.  That aspect of sanitation is really catching on.  Several communities have solar panels now, and more are planned.  In each case, the communities are responsibly collecting money from their "customers" and paying for the equipment over the next several months (more on "microcredit" set-ups and some perspectives from an engineering perspective on how they are changing the world in future postings).  The water systems we have constructed previously are running OK (although one community will need some work with maintenance and generally staying on top of things - but there are more than a few water systems in the US that have the idential issue - more on those similarities later too).  It is exciting to be a part of this work and we look forward to becoming more immersed into it.

I Heart Publix!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I could be in an advertisement for Publix supermarkets.  To say that I enjoy shopping at my local Publix is probably a bit of an understatement...I've been known to be in the store 5 times during one week alone!  The people who work in my store know me by name.  I kinda feel like humming the "Cheers" theme song as I do my shopping.

As I'm sure goes without saying, there are no Publix supermarkets in Guatemala...sigh.  Instead, when groceries are needed, a trip to the local market is required.  Please don't get me wrong!  The produce is amazingly fresh, and there are amazing fruits and vegetables that I've never laid eyes on before  (As an added bonus, none of us have gotten sick from aforementioned produce).  BUT, there is no one named Peter who helps me to my car with the groceries.  As a matter of fact, I don't have a car AT ALL!!  A trip to the market requires a decent walk down the busy streets of Antigua, and the return trip home is usually a bit of a balancing act as Cata and I cart our goodies down the streets. 

Inside the market, please envision tiny narrow hallways where more people than I've ever seen in Publix push their way through, many times carrying baskets on their heads or gigantic bags of wares on their backs.  As a matter of fact, yesterday I looked up to see a basket of cow heads walking by me!  These are things you just don't see while walking the aisles in Publix (while mentioning things you don't see in Publix, you can also find the most recent Harry Potter movie complete with the back of people's heads and people coughing in it)!  Unfortunately, depending on your point of view, I don't have a picture of the cow heads.  It's a shame since they had horns on them and all!  The very first trip Cata and I made to the market, we somehow both ended up holding ourselves up by grasping a wall above the ladies who were selling their vegetables in the hallway as people shoved their way past us.  It's an adventure to say the least!

Below are some pictures I took today as Cata and I bought fresh fruits and vegetables for the weekend.  Fridays are slightly more tranquil in the market than some of the other days, so I was able to take a few shots of our market experienece.  These don't really do it justice as you can't hear the sounds or smell the pungent odors of fish and raw meat, but hopefully you can get a tiny feel for what the market is like.

Feliz fin de semana!

This lady was so cute!  I took 3 pictures of her before she was satisified with the way she looked.

Fish anyone??

How 'bout a whole side of cow??

Pollo...and something else

Yum!  I like this part of the market better than the meat section.



It's awfully hard to see, but this is a pile of chicken feet.  Want some "sole" food for dinner tonight?

Words

Words are important - the words we use, the words we say, the words we write, and the words we choose to keep to ourselves.  It has been interesting over the past 2+ weeks how many people have had the reaction of "Wow - you're actually trying to learn the language before you dive headlong into working on water systems in the Ulpan Valley?!?!?"  It seems strange to me that this is strange.  I've been told that this approach is pretty unusual for projects that are of a somewhat "technical" nature.  Evidently, most of the time the well-intentioned geeks like me come to a place and enlist the services of a translator and drop a project on some people.  Whether we ultimately succeed, or to what degree we succeed with Project Ulpan, will probably not be quantifiable for perhaps a decade or two, but I have to admit that learning at least some Spanish and at least some Qeqchi is turning out to be more rewarding than I thought it would be.

We received lots of good advice before moving here, and much of that advice had to do with words.  One of the best illustrations of "language barriers" was given as "you will know exactly how a 2-year-old feels because you understand only a little and can communicate even a little less than that, but you know exactly what you WANT to communicate" and I have to admit that there have been some times in our brief stint here that all I want to do is point at something and loudly pout, just like a toddler (granted, that tactic has proven to be quite successful for me, if not a little embarrassing to the rest of the family, but I got my lemonade, dagummit).  But learning how to communicate, I have decided, is fundamental to Project Ulpan.

It is fundamental in the sense that it shows we are wanting to be involved long-term, not just for a project.  It is fundamental in the sense that we can better know what these communities need and what they want (and what they don't want).  Thinking back to my "professional life" over the past 15-ish years, I'm sure I made some "technical mistakes" along the way (what's a decimal place among friends anyway?) but the ones that stand out are all mistakes of communication - where I didn't "speak the language" of a client or a customer or a boss or a regulator or whomever.  Language barriers are a real thing, even if you speak the same language.  But the good thing is that these, like all barriers, can be broken down.

Scott Owings, a man whom I respect immensely and who always seems to be able to speak the language of the person he is talking to, said that it is comforting to remember that there are three words that are the same in all languages: hallelujah, hosannah, and amen.  That's comforting to me.  It's also comforting to me that Bernoulli's equation and Newton's laws of motion are constant everywhere too.  I hope to be mixing in a little Bernoulli with a little sprinkling of hallelujah and a dash of amen in the coming months.

the past week my parents haven't written the blog

Hola!  Zaac here...
Since no one's written the blog lately I decided to do it. The past week we've pretty much been bums, if you consider jamming an entire language in your head being a bum. On Monday our spanish teachers tried to take us to a fair. But when we got there we found out it opened in the afternoon. When we got back school was almost over. Then on Wednesday our teachers took me, Sam,Ben,and dad to a serpent house. Thats a house full of cool snakes and creepy spiders. There was a snake the size of Voldemort's snake. My teacher was up in the glass and the snake started hissing then that HUGE snake lunged at the glass were my teacher was. She ran away as fast as she could. Then when we got outside (a) we saw a giant iguana crawling across the roof (b) a full sized pool that I didn't want to know was home to. (c) a spot were you could see and hold snakes, spiders (which I only touched once) millipeds, and lizards.That took a while. Then when we got back school was over. On friday there was a goodbye party for people graduating. Now we're almost the only people in school. Yesterday we hiked or more like walked up about a hundred stairs to have church at a cross at the highest point in Antigua. we stayed there for a while then mom and dad walked down the stairs me, Sam and ben balanced on the side. Here are some pictures from yesterday: