I passed out last night trying to finish my journal, so I'm finishing it on our way to work today.
I was in Marvin's Group yesterday (by request cuz I luuurve him). He always gives me this wide eyed look and being totally lost as to what the hell I'm asking. I work with him just for this. But he's so helpful and he really gives you a chance to do whatever you want to do on the stove. Very encouraging too. I gave him 2 melted kisses I got from the Chocolate shop in Xela, for Valentines day. Haha I found out from him that Guatemalan's hate Mexicans and Mexicans hate Guatemalans. I said something like An-delay to Marvin while he was working and he said oh Mexicana's an-delay, Vamoos! haha. He commented on the fact that I'm Poco Español and he's Poco Inglais. Then I called him Loco for wearing a French/Paris shirt hah.
Words that Get me thru the day in a Spanish and Kiche speaking village
Aki- Here
Aya- there?
Fuerte- hard
Baño- bathroom
Fuerte- hard
Baño- bathroom
Poco- Little
Mi Amo- My Name is ______
I-tu?- and you?
No Say- I dont know/understand
Hola- Hi/hello
Como es ta?- how are you?
(Ciche)Ut's - good
Muy- very
Bueno- good
Buenos Dias- Good Morning
Buenas Tardes- Good Afternoon
Uno- 1
Todo- We
Photo/Pictura- Photo?
Rapido- Faster
An delay- Get going hurry
Hasta- Fast!
Vamoose- Come on/Let's go
I like that I'm finding a way to convey my sarcastic joking nature in Spanish to the villagers haha..
They are probably laughing at me and not with me tho...
8:40am
So the melatonin didn't work last night. I suppose it did. I passed out journaling at like 9pm. I decided I would try not zipping up my sleeping bag to see if I could get this sweating to CEASE already. I had some pretty horrible dreams last night. so Melatonin is out I guess. I woke up crying from one of them. Not cool.
One of the major details of this trip that I wanted to stick to was doing it on my own. Without financial help from my parents. It was a good starter trip to get my heels wet for Europe this summer. I'm surrounded by so many kind and caring people from Ottawa/Perth area who wanna look out for me. But I'm looking forward to when I can sneak away from them as well and do some stuff on my own.
Last day of Stove Building today then packing up tonight, paying the $45 dollars for the hostel and heading to San Pedro tomorrow.
6:23pm Spanish Simpsons
So last day of stove building es finitoooo! Can't believe I debated on not coming because I had another bad sleep. But I'm so glad I went. Today we went to the other-side of the hill and it was sort of like a different world. More poor I feel. Not every family had a baño here. We always had some kind at the other sites. The family I was with today told us that they use the creek beside the house as a baño, which was also beside the main road... On top of the hill was an incredibly nice bathroom with a real toilette, sink and even a shower!! Their didn't seem to be any water going to it tho. Had to use a bucket to flush the toilette. My house had a sweet brick dome next to it. Apparently its a sauna, which is how they clean themselves. Rita told me that Her and Tom were Naked in one once haha. And Karen, Liz, went in one while looking at stoves in Comiticancillo, but not naked :p..
I had Marvin again today! Marvin the Mason! I try to jokingly boss him around.. haha. He lets me do any job I want and seeing as its our last day I asked if I could seal the chimney on the roof. I hadn't seen any of the women attempt this yet, only the rogue mountain men in the group like John haha. We usually have a Spanish speaker in the group, but Liz, and john were both out today, so we didn't have enough to go around. But me and Marvin are tight yo, we have an understanding I think amongst each other. He taught me some more Spanish words (or tried) I remember Bonita(I think means 'beautiful'), Feurta(which means 'hard'), and Todo (We).
Today was Margarita's Birthday so we got Pastel again. White Pastel this time! No es Bueno as the chocolate pound cake we usually got. Our lunch was really nommers tho, we had dos kinds of pasta salad. Which was a nice change from the Mantikia de mani(peanut butter) and the Red Bean buns, and Tuna sandwiches. Plus we had fresh watermelon, pineapple, and of course some cookies!
So after me and Margarita's trek to the bathroom (which took like Trenta minutos I think!). I put the Mortar around the Chimney on the roof. It was messy, (I got roof gunk down my boob crevas). The roof had those brick half pipe tiles on it, so I had to remove those to get close enough to the chimney, and even then getting to the other side of it wasn't gunna happen, so I had to hop down a few towns to check and see if their was any light coming thru the seal. Then I put back all the roof tiles and Bam! Done! It was fun, and I'm glad I got to try every different step in the stove making process.
After the stove was all done, we did our pictures, and gave out some gifts. I played catch with the older girl for a while. She was muy Bonita and her amo was Caterina. I taught her what I could remember basketball trick wise, like how to spin a ball on her finger tip, and dribble between her legs. (I'm quite out of practice tho.. wooow)
Her pequeno brother jumped in a couple times to play catch as well. Her laugh was completely intoxicating, and she had the giggles like mad. I'd guess 10-12 for her age. But who knows.
We handed out what was left to other families near by before leaving for the day.
I decided to shower first instead of taking pictures right away like I wanted. It was freazing today. Well not FREAZING, but a cold wind and cloudy again mostly. I wanted to shower because of all the weird boob gunk I had. also while playing ball with Caterina, the ball often fell into the water by their Pila. And idk if that was their bathroom or WHAT, so i just cleaned the ball off on my pants and kept playing... so yeah.. thought it best to shower.
Numero Uno attempt at a shower failed caliente agua wise. I tried a different bathroom then I had been using the whole time. Guess I had it right the first time. So I went up to the 2nd story (in my towel, the boys suggested I use that bathroom.. playas) for attempt numero dos.
Then me and Karen went for picture taking and the internet cafe attached to the "North South Book Store" (Where I picked up a spanish dictionary and a used Guatemala guide book). Next time I come to Guatemala I do some spanish school for a couple weeks I think.
Karen didn't take pictures for long, the wifi and Pastel was calling her name. So I went out on the town alone. I walked all over the place, didn't know where I was going or what lead to what. But my sense of North and South was down and I ended up walking right beside the Book store where Karen was without even planning it. I was pretty impressed with myself. Idk how I do it. Guess not being afraid to be lost helps. Getting lost is the best way to find your way around and learn landmarks too.
I used public computer at the cafe to type up some blogs, I felt bad stealing Karen's computer and I tried not to as much as possible. we were both just getting behind on everything sharing it. But I used it transfer my pictures to my mini hardrive and type at night sometimes when Karen read still. At the cafe I got invited to a dance class they were having in a room to the side. I'd been listening to them learn the thriller dance for an hour while typing hahah. I told him unfortunately I was leaving tomorrow at 9 am and wouldn't be coming back for a year or so. He said he'd wait for my return haha.
Me and karen didn't much feel like a big huge dinner that night, so when we were kicked out of the cafe we went to the coffee place where the Wifi is really good and we got some sandwiches and pastel. They had the simpsons in spanish playing on the big tv. It was the Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer episode, where their riding the train and the old man who they spunge bath is telling them stories. Super old! And i didn't remember what the episode actually talked about.
Then home around 10pm to start packing haha. Some things never change.
I had Marvin again today! Marvin the Mason! I try to jokingly boss him around.. haha. He lets me do any job I want and seeing as its our last day I asked if I could seal the chimney on the roof. I hadn't seen any of the women attempt this yet, only the rogue mountain men in the group like John haha. We usually have a Spanish speaker in the group, but Liz, and john were both out today, so we didn't have enough to go around. But me and Marvin are tight yo, we have an understanding I think amongst each other. He taught me some more Spanish words (or tried) I remember Bonita(I think means 'beautiful'), Feurta(which means 'hard'), and Todo (We).
Today was Margarita's Birthday so we got Pastel again. White Pastel this time! No es Bueno as the chocolate pound cake we usually got. Our lunch was really nommers tho, we had dos kinds of pasta salad. Which was a nice change from the Mantikia de mani(peanut butter) and the Red Bean buns, and Tuna sandwiches. Plus we had fresh watermelon, pineapple, and of course some cookies!
So after me and Margarita's trek to the bathroom (which took like Trenta minutos I think!). I put the Mortar around the Chimney on the roof. It was messy, (I got roof gunk down my boob crevas). The roof had those brick half pipe tiles on it, so I had to remove those to get close enough to the chimney, and even then getting to the other side of it wasn't gunna happen, so I had to hop down a few towns to check and see if their was any light coming thru the seal. Then I put back all the roof tiles and Bam! Done! It was fun, and I'm glad I got to try every different step in the stove making process.
After the stove was all done, we did our pictures, and gave out some gifts. I played catch with the older girl for a while. She was muy Bonita and her amo was Caterina. I taught her what I could remember basketball trick wise, like how to spin a ball on her finger tip, and dribble between her legs. (I'm quite out of practice tho.. wooow)
Her pequeno brother jumped in a couple times to play catch as well. Her laugh was completely intoxicating, and she had the giggles like mad. I'd guess 10-12 for her age. But who knows.
We handed out what was left to other families near by before leaving for the day.
I decided to shower first instead of taking pictures right away like I wanted. It was freazing today. Well not FREAZING, but a cold wind and cloudy again mostly. I wanted to shower because of all the weird boob gunk I had. also while playing ball with Caterina, the ball often fell into the water by their Pila. And idk if that was their bathroom or WHAT, so i just cleaned the ball off on my pants and kept playing... so yeah.. thought it best to shower.
Numero Uno attempt at a shower failed caliente agua wise. I tried a different bathroom then I had been using the whole time. Guess I had it right the first time. So I went up to the 2nd story (in my towel, the boys suggested I use that bathroom.. playas) for attempt numero dos.
Then me and Karen went for picture taking and the internet cafe attached to the "North South Book Store" (Where I picked up a spanish dictionary and a used Guatemala guide book). Next time I come to Guatemala I do some spanish school for a couple weeks I think.
Karen didn't take pictures for long, the wifi and Pastel was calling her name. So I went out on the town alone. I walked all over the place, didn't know where I was going or what lead to what. But my sense of North and South was down and I ended up walking right beside the Book store where Karen was without even planning it. I was pretty impressed with myself. Idk how I do it. Guess not being afraid to be lost helps. Getting lost is the best way to find your way around and learn landmarks too.
I used public computer at the cafe to type up some blogs, I felt bad stealing Karen's computer and I tried not to as much as possible. we were both just getting behind on everything sharing it. But I used it transfer my pictures to my mini hardrive and type at night sometimes when Karen read still. At the cafe I got invited to a dance class they were having in a room to the side. I'd been listening to them learn the thriller dance for an hour while typing hahah. I told him unfortunately I was leaving tomorrow at 9 am and wouldn't be coming back for a year or so. He said he'd wait for my return haha.
Me and karen didn't much feel like a big huge dinner that night, so when we were kicked out of the cafe we went to the coffee place where the Wifi is really good and we got some sandwiches and pastel. They had the simpsons in spanish playing on the big tv. It was the Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer episode, where their riding the train and the old man who they spunge bath is telling them stories. Super old! And i didn't remember what the episode actually talked about.
Then home around 10pm to start packing haha. Some things never change.
No comments:
Post a Comment