Odds n´Ends

There are of things that I have been thinking about but haven´t had the chance to write about yet.

First, Pollo Campero...

Although I don´t have a picture of this fast food chain that could easily give KFC a run for their money (in fact KFC tried to bring some stores down here and Pollo Campero continued to take all their business). According to my maestro this business is native to Guatemala and actually the owners were origanially from the Xela area. For those of you in the states think of a KFC but tastier chicken and less grease as well. Great food and a lot of pride from nearly any Guatemalan when you ask about it and excitement too. However with all chains it has it´s downfalls, as the owners have not only a monopoly on the restaurantes that have dominated all over the central american countries (as well as within some areas in states), they also control all of the chicken supplied to the grocery stores and the feed for chickens too if any families buy that for chickens that they may be raising (like ours for example). Nonetheless it doesn´t feel as bad as going to McDonalds so I have justified it to myself thus far. In our two experiences of it we were amazed how fast we got our food, in fact my slogan for the place has been ¨Pollo Campero, where the food comes fast and the bill comes slow¨. It´s almost as though they don´t want us to pay... (I wish...)

The cemetary here has been BEAUTIFUL and peaceful as well. For me I have been able to use a place like this to reconnect, both to myself and to the world around me. There have been several of those places and things that often help when I´m feeling down or little homesick. Another was re-finding some ¨Jalopenos chips¨ that I origanally fell in love with when I visited Tim and Shirley (my brother and his wife) here over 11 years ago. I´ll spare you the stories of how I would buy 4 or more at a time (they are small one ounce bags) when I was only a lad of 14-15, but I will tell you that not much has changed. I still think when eating them all one´s problems seem to dift away... at least for me. Many times it´s been the small things that have allowed me to recenter and realize how blessed I have am to be able to experience this world around me. If I may add a personal note I would like say that it´s been great to have Melissa here as I couldn´t imagine the experiencing the difficulties without someone I care so much about. After all someone needs to eat the wiggly meat... (so if I have any Melissa´s plate may get larger when she´s not looking.... hey!)

-posted by Tom

Adventures in Xela

Life here in Xela continues with new adventures almost daily. This week has been busy with the activities that the school has arranged for students. On Tuesday Tom and I along with other students were able to get a free Salsa dance lesson. The lesson was one hour long and needless to say I was a little sweaty after and we both were yearning for more. Wednesday we ventured to Banos de Vahos, which was about a 20 minute bus ride from Xela and an hour walk up to this fantastic place. Banos de Vahos is basically a sauna, it is naturally heated by the hotsprings that are located underneath Banos de Vahos. It was very relaxing, refreshing (just what we needed) and had a wonderful aroma of Eucalyptus. Not to mention the view of the city during the walk back to the city, it was spectacular. Thursday we once again ventured out of the city to ¨COPAVIC¨, which is a company that makes glassware, anything from cups to vases to smaller glass trinkets, etc... Once we viewed all the glassware we were able to walk into the workshop, which is where all of the items are made by the men who work there. This was a very interesting process of making the glassware. I can´t describe how they do it very well, but we took lots of pictures. I was asked by one of the male workers if I wanted to give it a try (I think he saw the fascination in my eyes), how could I really turn this offer down!! So he handed me this metal rod that was probably 4 feet long with a very hot piece of liquid glass on the end. Carefully, I took the rod and with some assistance from him started turning the rod and simotaneously blowing in the end of the rod. At this time he was saying ¨suave, suave¨, luckily that is one of the spanish words I know, meaning smooth. After I got the hang of it he let me handle it by myself....after 15 seconds of blowing the small hot piece of liquid metal turned into a larger glass ball. It was very cool. We took pictures of the adventures this week and have them posted on an online gallery, those of you who are interested please leave a comment here on this blog page and we will send you an email with the gallery address.

Other than the activities we also continue with school and life with our host family. Tom´s spanish is getting rather good where I struggle to put a sentence together. But, with a little hope, serious studying and a good teacher hopefully I will start to improve. The meals here continue to be a struggle, however we get by the best we can. Tom was not feeling well the other day and told our host mom before lunch to let her know that he would not be eating much. Edna was ok with that however, proudly made Tom a drink that she was convinced that will cure his troubling stomach problems. She made up this elixer (that looked just as bad as the soup we were eating) and proudly gave it to Tom. Reluctantly, Tom gave the elixer a taste and over the course of 10 minutes was able to finish the glass. He was not able to tell me until we were in our room that the drink was ablsolutely horrible. He stated it was worse that the soup, I had a hard time believing that because the contents of the soup closely resembeld the water of a swamp in my parents back yard.
-posted by Melissa

Life is good (although sometimes not my stomach)

Although lunch today was a struggle for me, (it was a rice soup with a large chunk of meat that was more bone than meat for me) I tend to enjoy most of the meals. They are just an adjustment as much of the food are new to both Melissa and I. I may have to approach my Edna (mother) about the warm-hot-boiled milk that seems to be giving my stomach struggles. They are very nice, in fact I complemented them on the meal we had last night and I was told today that we are going to have it again! How nice! They could have just had leftovers however I still think it was a nice gesture. We had class again today to finish out our first week and both Melissa and I decided to have a half day so that we could tackle our landry and our room. We are so lucky our family has a washing-machine, we definately won´t be spoiled like this in El Salvador. I have really enjoyed my time with the family but often find myself tounge-tied with putting sentences together. I continue to try though and have found my spanish as good as it´s ever been thus far. Today in class I spent over two hours just talking with my maestro (like a teacher just a different name as well as degree from school) and was able to follow everything. In fact when I didn´t understand a word I was able to understand other explainations in spanish describing it. A fun day we talked about everything from musical likes-dislikes to both of our countries dependancy on petroleum. A far cry from were I was just one week ago, although I still have so much to learn.

Switching back to the family I have really enjoyed my time with Braulio, the father of our family. He enjoys a variety of music and especially American Music, often playing his guitar along to the Beatles, or other songs on the radio. The radio station that he listens to (loudly) has actually been a haven of 80s retro-classic rock for me. I think Melissa has liked it too but for those that know my musical tastes would say that this station has tapped into my brain. Tomorrow Melissa and I are going to the hot springs nearby Xela which should hopefully relax away those first week strains of study.
- posted by Tom

Our family and New Years

As mentioned in a previous post we have been blessed with a great host family. The family consists of mom (Edna), dad (Braulio), two sisters (Judith and Sintia), grandma (her name is still a mystery). Along with these people we share a life with 2 dogs, 2 ducks, 2 cats, 2 chickens, 2 roosters, 3 parrots, and 2 smaller birds, oh and we found a dead slug (which was as long and big as your index finger) in the bathroom this morning, tom was nice enough to clean it up but felt some unpleasent reguritation in his throat while doing so. The setting of the house is something we are not quiet used to, not to say it is bad, however it is very secluded. Even though there is seclusion we have plenty of time with our family during meal times. We also were able to spend time with them on New Years.....On the 31st we woke bright and early to help stuff the turkey. Stuffing a turkey here is Guatemala is quite different from the stuffed turkey that I am used to. This turkey was filled with mostly another kind of meat (not turkey), also mixed with almonds, prunes and I´m not sure what else. This turkey was raised in their backyard and was not more than a year old. When we finished stuffing the turkey we were told that we would eat around midnight.

Tom and I spent most of the day in our room (which is actually quite nice) playing cards, talking, etc.. As time rolled by we figured we would see what our family was doing so around 10pm we went out of our room, however the house was quiet as ever. We retreated back to our rooms, continuing this process with no success until around 11:10pm. We then were able to hang out, and attempted to talk to them. We drank some wine (and Egg nog, which tasted exactly the same (yum!)), listened to music, which turned into dancing, then the conga and before we knew it we were toasting the new year and eating turkey at midnight. We also listened to fireworks before the ones that lit up the sky went off just after midnight. This was definately a memorable, but short, New Years celebration.