Orientation

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The first several days in Guatemala have been time for orientation and sightseeing. Two other groups are currently at CASAS: six students and a professor from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) and about 20 students and two professors from Eastern Mennonite University (EMU). The AMBS students are here for three weeks to study Guatemalan social and justice issues and how the church can respond to the challenges of Guatemalan society. The EMU group is here for about three months for language and intercultural study.

The SEMILLA/CASAS campus is very beautiful, the sun shines all the time (during this season), and the staff are very kind and helpful. When I heard about the latest snow storm in Goshen, I was so thankful to be in Guatemala!

I participate in some of the AMBS class sessions and on some of their cultural trips. Thursday we were given a brief tour of central Guatemala City (the old part of the city). To our surprise, we were then divided into groups of two and given a paper with questions we had to answer. Each question gave a street location in the city and some fact to find out about something at that location. Kelbessa (AMBS seminary student from Ethiopia) and I paired together. Our tasks were to 1) find the central city open market and inquire about the price of a pound of beans (about 64 cents) and a pound of rice (about 58 cents), 2) locate the city government offices and find out how many elected representatives are seated there (158), 3) locate the newspaper office and find out how many people read the newspaper each day (about 10,000, but we think that is low and the person giving the answer did not know the real answer or did not understand the question), and we had to find two graffiti writings. I think we did well, even though we felt quite helpless, especially in the crowded market. The market is a very large area under the street with many small shops, and we had difficulty finding the section with beans and rice. And at the government office no one at the information desk spoke English. Our paper with the questions was in English and Spanish, so we could show the Spanish part to people with whom we were conversing, but we still had to engage in additional conversation.

Friday morning I attended the AMBS class discussion, led by Willi Hugo, head of SEMILLA - the seminary branch of SEMILLA/CASAS. Even though I had not read through all the materials, I found the instruction and discussion very interesting. Friday afternoon I joined the EMU group for a general orientation to CASAS.

Today (Saturday) I went with the AMBS group to Antigua, one of the oldest cities in Guatemala. Antigua is surrounded by three large volcanoes. When Spain occupied the region, Antigua housed the central government for almost all of present-day Central America. Over the years, sections of the town were destroyed by earthquakes - the latest in 1773. In 1776 central government offices were moved to Guatemala City, the current capital of Guatemala. Antigua is a beautiful, colorful city with cobblestone streets, many beautiful old buildings, a great market area and many indigenous people.

So far I have not been sick. I always keep anti-diarrhea pills in my shirt pocket as a talisman against Montezuma's revenge, but expect that the forces of nature will win out at some time.

Life with my host family is great. Jose Luis and Olga are very patient with me!! They almost always speak to me in Spanish, and when I indicate I do not understand (about 99% of the time now), they then switch to English. Their English is limited, but far, far better than my Spanish. We resort to dictionaries many times. And we end up laughing about the difficulties and many mistakes. One example: the way I pronounce the word for 'daughter' is actually the word for 'cheek' - "My cheek has a son." "My cheek is 30 years old." "My cheek speaks Spanish." This Monday I begin formal Spanish lessons. Perhaps I will learn to properly aspirate my 'j' so people understand my daughter, not my cheek, will come to visit on February 25th.