Guatemala: Day 9

This is the ninth 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:

What an interesting day. Spent my time talking mostly between three women: Diana, Mayra, y Char. Char I like talking to for a little while, but then it gets boring. [You can only hear so much about corn.] I feel sorry for her cuz the other ladies ditching her is getting a bit more obvious. Mayra gave me this fucking ring today for me to remember her by. Not only does it seem expensive by her standards [and probably by mine but even more so by hers], but I didn't/don't have the vocabulary to gently reject the offer. [I also felt bad because I literally had nothing to give her in return. Everything I had with me I needed. That's how you pack when you go places. If she had given me her address, then I could have remedied this feeling of guilt that still lingers to this day.] Mayra's a sweet kid with a beautiful smile, but we don't have much to talk about. When we run out of things to say, she whips out her cuaderno [notebook] so I can teach her more English. I search for things to talk about with her. I played a little joke on her today. She saw this chic walking by and I guess she likes her brother so she called her cuñada, sister-in-law. I later asked her why she did it and she blushed. She eventually said it was just a joke. Kinda funny after she just got done saying that all men are mentirosos [liars]. Earlier I ran into Juana's friend who has a cute kid named Gabriela. Juana kept calling me the kid's padre. I guess that's just what you do when you want somebody to hook up with you -- call them the name you want them to be. So as I was leaving, I pointed to Gabriela and said "mi'ja" [my daughter]. They got a kick out of that.

As for Diana, I love talking to her. We usually have something to talk about. She's more on my level. I guess she should be at 30. [She also understands more English and could help me out when I'm struggling with Spanish.] I think she's one of those people who are married to their job. She'll talk, but it's usually all work. She has more of an American mentality [maybe I should rephrase that, but I don't know what to substitute it with] and could care less about some soap-opera drama shit. I very much dig her. Intellectuals win out for me. She also has the patience for my horrible Spanish. I feel bad because I can't have the conversations I would like with her because my vocabulary is very limited. I'm sure she realizes it. She's a bright woman from a family of dentistas. She's been in town here and saca muelas [pulls teeth] for only the cost of materials. What a genuinely caring woman. I talked to her a lot today and never grew tired of it nor did we happen to have any large pauses. [Generally I'm horrible at keeping conversations flowing, especially back then.]

Freddy saw that I kinda like her. I do, but then of course, there's only that 4 days left thing. [Reading this to myself now I'm kicking myself for focusing on this rather than the archaeology and possibly other people. I suppose you can only "report" on what you're immersed in.] Que lástima que no puedo regresar a los EEUU con ella. However, her life is in Guatemala with all the ancient sites that make her country great. It's good to see that the country has at least some people like her. Seems that the social hierarchy is very polar though. Quite the difference between a 17 year-old girl from a small town and a 30 year-old woman from la ciudad. Education can definitely make a difference. [Nothing against Mayra of course. She excelled in the English I was teaching her. She was just unfortunate to not have it sooner or from someone who knew what they were doing. At this stage in my journal, I might be questioning why I'm putting all this online.]