Desfiles, Artistas, y Comida.

Hola, amigos y familia! Here it is: the last post of August. The past week has been as unique as the others, and full of great things like an art lesson from a famous Guatemala painter, glass blowing, and our first meal cooked together as a group. This upcoming Saturday marks the end of my second month here in Guatemala, as well as some big changes in my daily schedule with a couple trips and full-time volunteering starting in the next couple of weeks.

At the school, learning how to make rellenitos (plantains with sugar, stuffed with beans  with sugar...and then more sugar on top!)

I continue to learn more Spanish every day and am pushing myself to work hard at it. Over the past week, I have been able to have several ‘real’ conversations with strangers in Spanish, and a couple of them even told me that my Spanish was ‘muy bueno.’ It may seem small, but a compliment like that means so much at this point in the learning process. It feels great to have the confidence to start up a conversation on the street or in a bus, and I have heard some great stories from people and gotten insight into peoples’ views on the healthcare systems here.

Blowing glass for the first time!

The past weekend was a free weekend for our group, and they were some of the most fun days I have had in Guatemala so far. On Saturday night, everyone came to my house to cook our first meal together. YUM! We made a bunch of American classics, from mac & cheese to fruit salad. I think the experience spoke a lot to how much our group has bonded, and it was great to see that we all get along and work together so well even though I am sure we are past the ‘honeymoon phase.’

At my house, making dinner with the group! Yummm.

On Sunday, my friend Andrew and I ventured onto a chicken bus (old school buses from the States that serve as one of their primary modes of public transportation) to go to Salcajá, a nearby town, for a feria (fair) and parade. I met some really nice people on the bus and got a lot of good Spanish practice in, and then was blown away by the parade! There had to be at least a few thousand people lining the streets to watch hundreds of horses (many of whom could dance, march, or perform other tricks) go by.

The parade in Salcajá --- so many horses! 

  

I almost missed one of the most impactful experiences I had this week. I was getting ready to go home and relax while a couple of my friends went to meet up with an artist that we met a while ago, when I read a quote from Mark Twain on a friend’s blog. It said something to the effect of “We will much more regret the experiences we did not have than the ones we did.”

That quote gave me the jumpstart I needed that afternoon to go with my friends to see Ricardo Díaz, a well-known Guatemalan artist who has traveled the world displaying his work. The arts in Guatemala lack much of the governmental and societal support that I had grown accustomed to in the States, and Ricardo is passionate about making the arts more important here. He has several projects he would like to do throughout Xela, such as painting a large mural and making the ‘art display room’ into more of an art museum, but he lacks a lot of the funding and manpower he needs. So, in exchange for some help with these projects, he has offered to give a few of us free art lessons. This is kind of funny given that we are all pre-meds, but surprisingly, we aren’t too bad! I had my first lesson last Friday and loved it.

Part of the art studio where we had our art lesson last week.

That Mark Twain quote made a big impact on me last week, and it is something I am going to keep in mind the rest of my time here; I challenge you to try the same this week. Don’t get me wrong – sometimes, we all need a break and some time at home. However, I learned this week that a lot of times it is important to fight the tendency to be comfortable and complacent, because the experiences we can have by going out and trying something new are often the most rewarding.

On Friday, we leave for a week-long trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, followed by a free week trip to Belize. I am going to do my best to keep up with the weekly blog, but things may be a little sporadic over the next couple weeks. Tú estás en mi mente y mi corazon, y me haces falta!

Hasta próxima vez,

Nico