Guatemala: Day 4

This is the fourth day of my journal for the 2004 trip I took to Guatemala. This is a transcription from the notebook I took, but if there is any additional explanation necessary, I put that information in [brackets]. This is how it reads:

Things have been going OK. I'm still working on my Spanish. Sometimes it's easier to hear than others. I think when the Natives talk to someone who isn't, they tone it down some. I like those conversations the best. Met a few more people. Doña María is a friendly, old woman; small but always willing to please. It seems that I have no luck with talking to her for some reason. Some people just have that effect. No matter what, I just look like a dumbass infront of them. Maybe it's subconscious . Like with Alvaro. He's a student under Oscar at San Carlos. He asked Eric in Spanish if I understand Spanish. Apparently every time he talks to me I don't get it. I'm not really sure what it is. Maybe there's people out there that don't/can't tone down their speech for non-natives, and he's one of them. I like the guy, but he's kind of a loner. Always off by himself. I don't know if it's by choice or what.

Eric is cool. Although he's eleven years my senior, he is the closest person to whom I can relate. I don't really try to disassociate myself from the 17-year-olds, but those are some crazy 5 years of difference. Although, I'm cool with Adam, but he's just out to get fucked up every night.

I believe Doña María's daughter is Mayra. [She's not her daughter, just a helper.] She has an adorable face and smile and only comes up to mid chest. I hear she's 17 as well. But according to Juan, a worker on Mound 5, men marry later here, and girls much younger. He's 25, his wife, 15. He's my favorite worker. We try to have conversations, but I guess I'm really still retarded in Spanish and I don't have the vocabulary to talk about anything sophisticated. I worked with Eric today, so I could live vicariously through his conversation with Juan Bravo.

Back to Mayra: She's a very sweet girl, and I make sure to greet her every time I come in for a meal, but I never have a chance to sit down and talk to her. Although after the first few questions there'd probably be an awkward silence. I think she has the day off today (Tuesday), hopefully she'll be back tomorrow, I miss her smiling face.

Met another chic, Anna, who's from Kansas studying Latin American Studies, trying to learn Spanish and Kachiquel. She's a cool chic to hang with but neither of us are big talkers. She gave me some encouragement about grad school though. She left today. We took a photo, also one with Mayra, but I didn't get a chance to get one of her. Way too bad, I thought my batteries had run out, but it was working later. We'd hang out after I was done working, but now she's gone. She seemed to be kinda hooked up with Juan Pablo, this goofy-looking dude, but maybe it was just so she could stay in his mother's house tonight. Who knows. What I do know, is that her presence will be missed. [What the hell was wrong with me? I was lonely!] There's also this little dude, Freddy, who looks about 8 but is 15. He squirted water out his tear duct that he had sucked up through his nose! If ever there was a Mayan God, his name is Freddy.

Working hasn't been too bad, but the climate is just crazy. It's not really that hot, but the humidity just puts a perpetual film of stickiness all over your body. Sweating is constant, even 2 minutes after a shower. Today there was a deluge which actually cooled things off nicely. Work involves shaking screens and looking for 3 items: Cerámica, Texcal [pronounced teshcal], y Obsidiana. Pottery [cerámica] is actually fairly common, texcal a little less. To my understanding, it's a brick-like substance made for roads, etc. Obsidiana is rare. Maybe a dozen pieces per 2x2x2 meters. Usually they're worked into a plateaued blade. They're transparent yet opaque with black veins running through it. We found a foot to a pot today. That's about as exciting as it's gotten. Other than the deluge that we sat out through under a quickly erected tarp, thanks to the native workers. I really don't mind the work much. I get to be outside and exercise. My only real complaint is the mosquito problem. I guess I should wear bug repellent. Had the runs this morning at 5am. Had to run down to the hotel which was incredibly painful. When I got there, the doors were all locked, including the one to the bathroom. So without being able to hold it any longer, I ran out into the bushes and let'r rip. Nature took its course, and I even took it a step further by grabbing a large spade-shaped leaf and wiping my ass with two of them. Hopefully no parasites were present: culotrapa, culobrito, as they crawl in your ass and the only way to get them out is to sit in a pan of milk. Eric and I found a hair-like one today about 5" long. I wiped the leaves on my shorts before using them. Hopefully that worked. After work today I saw a bunch of kids with a ball playing somewhere around where my shit splatter was. Hopefully they never found it.

Random stuff: "Ho" in Kachiquel = let's go, ute'l = you.
People here are extremely friendly. As long as you put "good" before what time of the day it is (buenas -días, -tarde, noche), you'll usually get a happy response back. Drank beer all the nights I've been here til tonight (4th night?), probably because of Anna and not knowing what else to do. Tonight I'm fucking tired. Probably a combo of shitting to near weakness and physical labor. Doña María's food was not the problem. I think I just over-did the picante sauce. Her meals are awesome, and I love the 2" diameter tortillas. Anything goes well with them.
Don't know what I'm doing tomorrow. It's a holiday, Día de Ejercito. I think Kaplan wanted me to work in the lab, but climbing a mountain sounded too inviting.

I'll probably work a later shift. Tired. I think that's it for now.