not feeling so good

nope, not cuz of the food, not cuz of the water... cuz of the bus. i have motionsickness. made the error of sitting in the very back of the bus AND read. i can´t read in a moving vehicle. but yes, now i feel very queezy. super. other people i know have gotten sick from the food and what not. me? no problems thus far, and i´ve been eating everything, including street food and using tap water (not to drink). others have not been so lucky. knock on wood...

so these infamous chicken buses. they are school buses that are painted. u pack 3 to a seat and fill the aisles as tight as possible. it´s really intriguing when the guy who collects the money has to maneuver his way through packed bodies. the back emergency door does not serve as an emergency door. it´s a door. u load up from the back as well, to squash in real good. u have to hurry though, before the bus moves. the money collector is also the guy that handles the luggage on top of the bus. while the bus is traveling at whatever velocity, you hear stomping and shuffling above you, them a clamor behind the bus, and the door opens (all while the bus is flying down the highway) as the guy enters the bus. quite a sight! thankfully on the long ride to lake atitlán my friend gave me a dremamine.

lago atitlán. so beautiful. panajachel is streaming with tourists though. we stayed in a hostel, explored the city. in the afternoon we took the bus, then a ride ride in the back of a pick-up to sololá where we visited a women´s weaving cooperative. they gave an intro and talked to us about their coop, had a q&a session, and we spent like mad (i did, at least). i have much respect for those mayan womyn. they have a school where they keep their indigenous language alive yet learn the national language of castellano spanish. they take care of their land and fight for their dignity as mujeres, all the while keeping alive the tradition of weaving.

my new friend kristina and i took a lancha (kind of a large motor boat) over to san pedro. all around there were messages about jesus. he is alive. he is the only savior. he is coming. he is the only answer. as i am not christian nor religious, this was kind of strange to me. there wasn´t much to san pedro so far as we could see. we then took the lancha over to san marcos which is known for its hippieness (hippies have gone there and never left, marijuana readily available as well). it´s also known for its cleanliness in waters, which is where most go to swim. we met up with the group and stripped down to our swimwear and dove right in! that was my first time ever swimming in a lake. it was clear and cool. so beautiful, i was enjoying so much the fact that i was in a lake surrounded by a breathtaking scenery of volcanoes. i forgot that i wasn´t a good swimmer though, so i had to stick close to the rocks. it´s not like a beach, it just has big ol rocks. but! one of the guys had a ball which i used as a flotation device. =) mommy wow! i´m a big kid now! i also picked up a real pumice rock to take home. volcanic rock floats! i hope that´s not general knowledge cuz yeah.

monday brought about a new week, a new teacher, and a flood of new students. we got the schedule of events for the week. lotsa interesting stuff. yesterday there was a documentary on publicity in america. most interesting points: journalist, credible journalists, were deliberately kept out of guatemala during the whole CIA scandal. basically, the american company of UFC, united fruit company (which, folks, today has broken up into dole, chiquita, and del monte - so beware! read: boycott!) worked in conjunction with the american gov´t to conserve their own interests. they paid off the media and whatnot. they also had familial ties to the head of the CIA and the secretary of the state dept. so convenient. our country had a huge role in the genocide of the guatemalan people, majority civilian, majority indigenous mayan. in the evening i went to a space called la fonda del ché. also kinda much because every foot of the walls had some ché image. a little too much ché for my taste, as in, obsessive. anyway, we watched a video about ché and conferenced afterwards about the time he came here to guatemala in nov. 1953 and stayed for nine months. he believed that guatemala had the capability to have a good revolution if only the president at the time actually struggled and put up arms. instead, their country´s leader fled.

today´s conference at school was by a guest speaker who is a member of the URNG, the leftist political party formed by former guerilleros. the speaker himself was in the armed struggle for 14 years. his ideas are just on point, and speaks to so many other organizations. the social, political, economic relations here parallel that of so many other places. it´s crazy this thing called institionalized -isms! anyone who denies it exists is just shutting their eyes and covering their ears. i liked that he ended the conference with ideas of how to move forward, and what changes need to occur. we can take up those suggestions ourselves in america. what are those suggestions? ask and i´ll tell, i´m typing a lot.

tonite i´m checking out a conference at the entremundos collective space. there will be a discussion about u.s.-guatemalan relations. that should be REALLY telling. ok, i feel funky though cuz i´m relaxed from the hot springs i just got back from, and yet this pounding swirling headache is nagging me. perdón for a dragging tone in this entry. on a happy note: i LOVE the food here!!!