Hotsprings and Midwives!

Hey everybody! I’ve been in Xela now for about two and half weeks. The initial strain from being in a new place and not knowing the language has decreased greatly, so my general demeanor stays pretty high. I am thankful for a very comfortable and warm home to live in and for pretty good food. Perhaps not quite as much food as I would like at times, but I can supplement with a 6 cent banana as needed! In general I have been splitting my time between class (obviously), studying on the side, a few activities with the school during the week, reading one of the two books I brought or my bible, and keeping in contact with some friends/ family back in the States. (And while I have mentioned the States, there is a word down here for being from the US as a nationality that doesn’t exist in English. People don’t like those of us from the US calling ourselves American because everyone in North, Central, or South America is American. They kind of have a good point. So down here I would say I am from “Los Estados Unidos”, but I would say that I AM “Estaunidences”.
So what have I been up to lately? Honestly, I feel like I’m not doing a whole lot other than Spanish and communicating with folks back home. I’m actually typing this on my laptop at “home” and I don’t have access to the internet at the moment so I can’t check my blog to be reminded of what I have and haven’t already said. So if I repeat anything you’ll have to forgive me. Last week I went to the hotsprings on Wednesday. There is a couple videos on my youtube page concerning that trip (youtube search: wbryancannon). It was a blast, and also incredibly gorgeous. Pics and Video should be sufficient so I won’t say more here. That night I watched a movie in Spanish called “City of God” that follows a boy that grows up amidst the gangs, drugs, and violence of “Ciudad de Dios”, a sort of shanty town outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, established by the government to keep the homeless out of Rio de Janeiro. A very good film, though it depicts reality in similar fashion to “Hotel Rawanda” and “Lord of War”, so its not something you turn on for kicks.
Thursday night I played soccer in a caged in miniature soccer field. Overall it was a good time, and I intend to do that with the school each week. However, when I am at 7,000 feet, and am very out of shape, breathing wasn’t exactly easy! Kind of embarrassing in a way, but I didn’t really care; breathing takes precedence to pride in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs! Lol. I would have gone again this week, but I left the school for two minutes to change clothes and when I got back they had already left! Oh well, I got some homework done. Friday nights are always the graduation dinner with the school. I really enjoy those because the atmosphere is so festive and because it provides some real conversation (in a language I can understand). I talk with the other students through the week but its mostly short snippets during the half hour break we have during class. Communicating with my hosts continues to be a little awkward. I can handle not knowing what is being said around me just fine; its just awkward when they are trying to ask me a question and try to repeat it in several different ways and I still have no clue what they are talking about. I guess that’s all part of the deal though.
Yesterday (Saturday) morning I went with a group from the school to two places. One was a sacred Mayan hill top that is used for various ceremonies. The presence of several crosses clearly indicated some syncretism. The second stop was a Midwife clinic. Partly it felt a little weird, but mostly it was just really cool, and I definitely felt an increased awareness and respect for the miracle of life. An interesting note here is that these women begin in the track of this profession as early as 10 years old sometimes and the older ones with the most experience are said to have a sixth sense concerning the health of the baby and mother during the pregnancy and childbirth. They can basically just touch a mother’s belly and know stuff. Pretty interesting. Also, they use medicinal plants they grow themselves for just about everything (shout out to Andrea).
I didn’t go anywhere for church this morning because my stomach was a little out of sorts and I didn’t want to be away from a bathroom. I feel mostly better now though, so it wasn’t too big a deal. The “Estaunidences” guy at their church, who met me the one time I went, sent me a note back with my host mom saying he was sorry I didn’t feel well and to let him know if I need any meds. Very nice of him. Couldn’t help noticing he wrote the note at the top of an article in, “The Watchtower”, a Jehova’s Witness teaching publication. Lol.
Just a snippet of the variety that exists in my school, and I assume most of these schools down here: I’ve met people from Ireland, Holland, Denmark, Canada, and in the U.S., Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and more that I can’t remember. The typical age is mid-20’s to mid 30’s, though right now there is a 21 year old girl and two, one man and one woman, about 60. Some are traveling and learning Spanish as they go from place to place. Some are here more specifically for the language training. One guy is going on to scuba-dive in several places, and several people are just traveling till their money runs out (the Irish Guy has plans for at least 15 months!) I’ve met at least 6 people that are med-students and are either down here as part of their program or else traveling for a bit before residency turns their life upside down. There is tons more variety that has caused me to stop and wonder at it all.
The one consistent thing seems to be that people with my world-view don’t seem to do much traveling. I’ve always known that I don’t know much about politics or world-events, or the social and economic realities of the world around me, but when I’m only around people similar to myself it is easy to let that fact pass as something that doesn’t really matter much. But in this group of people it is profoundly evident that I am somewhat of an ignoramus. Furthermore, I begin to question the somewhat black and white way in which I have viewed my own country, not to the detriment of my patriotism, but certainly there are political realities to be aware of that many staunch U.S. patriots would not want to admit existed. I leave out specific explanations of these comments because at this point I don’t really have anything specific to say. I have only heard about a few things that leave me wanting to do some of my own research when I have the time. One thing on that list is finding out the full implications and effects of what is known as the “Nixon Doctrine”. If anyone cares to fill me in, I’m all ears.
Well, this is longer than anybody really wants to take time for already, so I’ll let you go. Please keep me in your prayers. I was able to have a brief conversation with a girl at the dinner on Friday about my experience in the Bronx and my love of the effect Jesus has in creating community across cultural boundaries. She grew up Mennonite but has no real interest in any of it at this point. Un-plannable conversations like this one are what organic growth starts with. Todo la Gloria a Dios. (not sure if I got that right). I love you all.

Check videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/wbryancannon

Grace and Peace,
Bryan

"Sauna" for after-birth recovery in which they also place herbs and whatnot that mix with the steam.

Cypress trees at the Mayan holy place

Mayan holy place with crosses that show affect of syncretism (combining of faiths)

View from the road up to the Mayan holy place. This community was badly effected by civil wars here and Guarrilas lived in these hills.

Above: the view straight up from the hotsprings pool

Valley on the way to hotsprings. Every usable section is used for growing veggies! Way steep!

Pics Time- Including Semana Santa

Hey everyone. Here are the pics that should have gone with the last post. Also view my videos on youtube. You can see all of them on the same page at http://www.youtube.com/user/wbryancannon

Same spot of the same street as the next picture but without the float and crowd (Parque Central)

The main float being carried by somewhere around 50 guys!

The processions move from Parque Central out to the surrounding streets and people put these designs on the street for the procession to trample using various colored bits of something organic and giant stencils

View of the middle of Parque Central

Little girl in Parque Central with toy on wheels. Toy is one of many similar being pulled around during Semana Santa

Little kitchen at school where we have coffee, tea, and various breads at break time

Part of the Semana Santa procession on Good Friday. Cathedral is the right side of the building in the background

Labani and Harmony dancing goofing around at the graduation on Thursday

Part of the Graduation ceremony is the teachers playing and singing music

My host mom's grandson, whom I kicked a little plastic soccerball around with for a few minutes

All Moved In!

Hey Everyone! So I've finished my second day of actual class. Everything is off to a great start, though I'm not sure I'm going to have the 100 some odd adjectives I copied down today memorized very soon. We'll see. I got moved in with my Guatemalan family on Thursday just prior to lunch. If I can figure out how to add pictures/video when I'm done typing this message you'll be able to see it. I am incredibly blessed with my living arrangement. I'm not sure but it seems like the family I live with might be a little better off than some of the other families students are staying with. The house is pretty decent size. Not much on the walls to speak of and no carpet, but it is very clean and is very comfortable. I suppose the comfort level has more to do with the family though. Its actually only the two adults, Elmentina and Jose. I think the last name is Iranza, but I wasn't sure on that and I'm too embarassed to ask. I don't think it will matter. At any rate, they are incredibly nice and I have a good time trying to communicate with them at meals. For instance, today Elmentina made this delicious soup with spinach and some sort of noodles. It took me about a minute or so to communicate what I wanted to say, but in my VERY broken Spanish, I asked, "Do you know the cartoon..." and before I could get the name out, Elmentina's son (who was visiting) said "Poh-Pay-Yay", or if you didn't catch that, "Popeye". I laughed saying, "Si, Si, Si, Popeye", and Miguel and Elmentina got a good laugh out of it as well.

When Elmentina was first showing me around the house, I thought to ask about churches around here, wondering where I might possibly attend while here. Being of Church of Christ heritage, I knew the Spanish "Iglesia de Cristo", so I used that term to ask about church in general. She asked me later on if my parents were also "Mormon" (same in Spanish as English). I was a little confused until I remembered that Mormons are also referred to as "The Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints". Turns out Mormonism has a pretty decent following around here, so thats what she thought I meant. I had to look up the word "clarify" in my dictionary to correct the situation. Turns out that they are Jehova's Witness. From what I can tell there are basically three categories of Christian Religions here: Catholic, Mormon, or Evangelical. I guess Evangelical covers everything that is not the other two. So I ended up going to their Jehova's Witness meeting yesterday for Easter. I've never been to a JW meeting in the States, so I can't really compare, but it didn't seem too sketchy. Then again, the only word I understood the whole time was "Versicolos" (Verse), and I only caught that because they were constantly flipping back and forth from one passage to another. I didn't bring my Bible because I didn't know if owning a Bible was common, and I wanted to be sensitive to the possibility that they couldn't afford many Bibles. Joke's on me! EVERY SINGLE PERSON there had a bible, and EVERY SINGLE PERSON there was flipping back and forth to follow the lesson. Kind of puts us United States-ians to shame really. But hey, its ok, we have Power Point!! [chuckles awkwardly and glances sideways looking for confirmation in vain]. There is an American couple that were there that have lived here for two years. After speaking with John for a couple minutes he said, "So if you're ever jones'n for anything American, have Elmentina let me know and I can get it for you". It was a very kind offer, but I had to smile in my own mind, wondering if he knew he had just used drug lingo in church.

This last week was Semana Santa, or Holy Week, leading up to Easter. I guess it is consistent with the Catholic church that a lot more emphasis was put on Friday than Sunday. Parque Central was packed with people and there were processions of floats going off and on all day long. Once again, hopefully check the pics. The crazy thing was that these rather massive floats were being CARRIED by people. The biggest one probably had a good 50 people around it. They would trade out and they had these poles that they could set it on for sections of time that they weren’t moving. The other thing that stands out about Parque Central is all the little stands of food and various goods. The fact that I’m not supposed to eat much of the food at those stands is driving me INSANE!!!! It looks SOOO good! I mean, really, how often is fresh mango and pineapple just walking around under your nose?!!! (pssst….don’t tell, but I tried some of the mango another student had, just between you and me…..or I guess, between you and you and you and you and you and you and me. Hahahahaha)

I have been able to enjoy some good English speaking companionship with several of my fellow students as well. It has been VERY welcome, as the long 3 day weekend of a knew place and the complete inability to understand anything was a little difficult in my spirit. I was going to go on this midnight hike up a volcanic mountain with a few of the students, but I fell asleep before I was supposed to meet with them. Oh well, the stress of a new place has kept me a little drained anyway. This week there are two trips scheduled to hike around two different mountainous areas, one of which includes the chance to soak in a natural hotspring. The third scheduled activity is a SOCCER GAME!!! [clears throat] I mean, uh, Futbol!!!! lol. I didn't imagine I would be doing anything athletic other than hiking, so I didn't bring shoes for soccer, so I might go cough up the $10 USD it will cost me to get a pair of tennis shoes (That exchange rate is killing me! [chuckles at his own humor]). I probably won't be doing every activity that is offered for the sake of saving money, but when you're talking about a Mountain Forrest Hike and natural hotsprings with transportation to and from, all for the equivalent of FIVE BUCKS, its hard to pass that up!!

Though I am feeling better now than a few days ago, all the new stuff is still a big transition. Please pray that I would rest in the peace of our Lord and remain open to being an instrument for the Kingdom here in Guatemala, despite the natural feeling to look out for “number one” (kind of a blasphemous phrase if you think about it). I love you all.

Grace and Peace,
Bryan

P.S. The pics and video function seems easy enough, but it refuses to actually load, as in it is taking FOREVER. Actually, now I just tried youtube and it takes forever too. I may not post anymore videos after this. I'll try to load pics later too, but I'm out of time. Check this youtube site for the video of my house. There is actually more, but I'm not going to wait for it to load now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET_f64wv3b4

Present and accounted for!

Well, I guess I made it down here. I was supposed to fly down Sunday. But after my plane had a problem in Atlanta, and I would not have made my connection, they rebooked me for Wednesday. I flew out of Atlanta yesterday morning at 7am, had a 3 hour layover in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and flew to Guatemala City arriving at 1pm local time (Rocky Mountain time). After a taxi to the bus and a 4 hour bus ride to Quetzaltenango, more commonly referred to as Xela (Shayla), and another taxi to the school, I arrived between 7:30 and 8:00. It was too late to be introduced to the Guatemalan family I will be staying with, so I stayed in the small motel across the street that is mostly taken up by students of the school I am attending. It reminded me very much of the hostels in Europe that Leanne and I stayed in. It was plenty comfortable and the other people there (all students at the school and all either U.S. or European) were all very friendly. I went to bed pretty quickly though.

I can already feel a sense of wanting to tighten up in my spirit, an instinctual move to self-protect and close off. It is not overwhelming or anything; I am just distinctly aware of it. I will be meeting the family I will stay with today around noon, and then I will have afternoon class from 2-7. Hopefully that will not remain the case; I would prefer to have class in the morning. There are still so many basics about being here I don´t know and that probably doesn´t help me to relax. I´m sure I will be able to relax more once I get the basics down and I understand my schedule. One thing is true for sure. Being on my own and away from most everything I understand, I am forced to take a look at the source of my internal sense of security. How much do I rely on knowing and understanding my surroundings for peace to be present? How much do I rely on self-sufficiency to have rest in my spirit? Already I have been thankful for a God that is bigger than circumstances. Trying to communicate to a taxi driver who knows no English, to get to a place he has never heard of, with an address I can´t even speak (I had it written down thankfully), could have been a little overwhelming. And it did put my on guard a bit, but glory to God it was not overwhelming, and I arrived without a hitch. What new depths of faith might be coming? and at what cost to my old way of thinking? Gloria a Dios!

And just an fyi, I am typing now on the computers that are in the school. Apparently they are free to use. So that is nice. But don´t make any assumptions yet about my ability to be online very much because I have yet to be introduced to my whole schedule.

This is Semana Santa (Holy Week) and tomorrow is Good Friday, so there is no class. So basically, I arrived in time for one day of class for this first week. I still don´t know if I will still be paying for the whole week or not. We´ll see. Please continue to keep me in your prayers.

Grace and Peace,
Bryan