institutionalized -isms

went to a conference yesterday about racism in guatemala. it´s crazy! (for lack of better words i keep resorting to ¨crazy.¨ leave me alone, i have at least 100 new words in a different language occupying my brain.) there is a huge indigenous population here. i mean, u walk around and u see a lot of folks in traje típico, which is local/traditional mayan clothing. u also see women effortlessly carrying large bundles on their heads, without hands. i heard k'iche' by the market area today. anyway, i don´t have the patience to explain the institutionalized system of racism against indigenous peoples right now. it´s deep, but not new. it was like in hawai'i when i learned about racism there, against the kanaka maoli... same shit! stuff like u can´t claim native lands unless u prove u have native blood, whereas the government well knew that most of them didn´t have such records. here, it´s largely a language issue. i´ll explain later.

yesterday´s futbol game was the BOMB!! the locals are insanely good at soccer. oh my gosh. i was only one of two women who went to play, but i held it down. thanks. well, as best i could i should say. i made two assists! one was almost a goal, it just needed a tap in. the other i stole the ball from mid-field and passed it across to my teammate who then scored! our team won, and i think i made a point for women while at it. i played very agressively, but i had to. i was proud of myself for even being able to last that hour in the altitude. there´s apparently about 25% less oxygen up here in the highlands than where i´m used to. i can´t wait for next week´s game!! unfortunately, i´ll be missing out on xela´s home futbol game tomorrow nite, and there isn´t another one i can attend while i´m here. they´re very exciting i was told. =( oh well, another year! i can always come back, and maybe make a trip to neighboring countries, like cuba, while at it...

today was my last day of class this week with my teacher. he is so knowledgeable about languages! he speaks spanish, k'iche', and english. he is a professor and he is really intrigued with language and how it shapes/determines one´s way of thinking, expression, etc. next week i´ll have a new teacher. i wanted to walk over to the other side of the park and buy cambrayes, which are local mayan sweet tamales. sooo yummy! my teacher didn´t even know about this store, and when i bought us some he said it was really good. thanks to trisha for letting me know about it! they only sell it on friday mornings from 8-9. soooo delicious. my teacher was pleasantly surprised that i enjoyed local food. then he showed me a place in the mercado comercial where they sell atole. i had one of arroz (rice) and he had one of etole (corn). yumm... our last day was good. i bought a newspaper and realized how freakin hard it was. in the last hour of our session, i told my teacher about my family history. my dad´s, my mom´s, and my own... for an hour! i cried during the telling. in the end we had a great wrap-up, exchanged words of wisdom, life, etc. i was also surprised that i was able to express so much in spanish. of course he helped me here and there where i was stumbling. a good way to end by connecting through human spirit. =)

when i came back to my host home after lunch, their dog zuni (whose name actually comes from ¨sunny¨ but is said with a spanish pronunciation) and carmen and maria were in the courtyard. they were letting the pets out for some sun. they have canaries, an iguana, fish, and a baby turtle. the turtle was in a tub for a bath when zuni went over to sniff the turtle, then when he pulled his head up the turtle was no longer in the tub!! carmen grabbed zuni´s mouth and pryed it open to find the turtle with its body parts all tucked into the shell. it dropped out and was fine. bad dog! he knew he was being scolded, and the look on that cockerspaniel´s eyes and the way he was carrying himself about, he knew he had done wrong. so cute!! and later when i was admiring the fish, he was so jealous he kept coming over and bumping and rubbing up against me. what a character... i think that´s why he snatched up the turtle in his mouth, cuz we were playing with it and giving it all this attention.

i will be leaving early tomorrow for lago atitlán. it´s apparently one of the most photographed lakes in the world. sounds like a happening place, lots of everything. i´ll be gone for the whole weekend, so no updates until sunday evening. wish me safe travels! this is definitely going out of my comfort zone. but once i do it, i´ll feel my world has opened up even more. chicken bus, here i come!