Travels of the Bay family and the Yoda Van

I was walking through the kitchen at the guest house we are staying at when I heard water running.  I asked Paul “Is it raining?”  He answered “No that’s Bonnie in the bathroom – a floater.”
Paul is actually kind of a rebel.  He’s not only a male travel nurse, he also crosses picket lines.  He was telling us tonight where and when the strike seasons start up in the nursing industry.  He travels to those areas, gets a male-nursing gig for a couple of months, makes a huge amount of cash and goes back to Florida.  Actually next week he is going to a coffee plantation to offer his male-nursing services, teach them sanitation procedures and learn about their industry.  Oh, and he also wants more Spanish immersion to prepare for when the Columbian orphan from his dream comes to live with them.

I think Julian is fed up with being a blonde.  We can’t walk through town without at least 15 people coming up to us and telling us how beautiful he is, or running their fingers through his hair.  Julian is picking up on a few Spanish phrases, so when they start talking to him he charms them with his phrases like “Hola amiga!” and “No picante!”  It is actually very cute, but today he had had enough.  A family of indigenous Guatemalans blocked our way when we were walking through Central Park in Xela.  They whipped out their camera, lined up all their kids and took pictures of them standing next to Julian.  Then I insisted that I get a picture of some of them with Julian.  Partially I wanted to do this so I could have a good opportunity to photograph some of them in their clothing without looking like a stupid tourist photographing the locals.  There are many different groups and they each seem to have their own unique style of dress.  Some are intricate textile designs and others are very ornate with embroidery.  They all look extremely labor intensive and are beautiful.
         

William loves the food here too.  We all eat street food and have been doing well with it so far (read minimal gastric distress).  (Paul doesn’t eat street food since he doesn’t approve of their poultry handling and swears that we’ll continue to eat street food only until we get a good case of the amoebas.)  This weekend there was a festival in Xela and the Parque Central was filled with vendors of all sorts.  We ate well 2 days in a row.  William’s favorite has been Garnachas, small tortillas covered in meat and tomatoes that are sautéed in oil.  They are delicious.  These markets are a great sensory experience.  They are packed full, smoky (since most of the food is cooked over wood-burning stoves on metal griddles or very well seasoned pans) and a myriad of wafting smells.  Often we are not really sure what we are ordering.  Sometimes it has been ok or good, but more often it has been great.  I’m much more hesitant about the foods I eat than Matthias is, but in the end it really is fun to just try stuff not knowing what it is and having the great surprise of it being so delicious.  It’s also just interesting to see how and what the people here eat.  Did you know that they put ketchup and mayonnaise on their pizza?  When we came home from the festival Paul put on a video “Curious George” on his laptop and set it up for the kids and himself.  He giggled like a little school girl.
We started Spanish lessons yesterday.  Matthias has 5 hours in the morning and I have 4 hours in the afternoon.  I do stuff with William and Julian while Matthias had Spanish lessons and vice versa.  Every day all the students can participate in an activity together.  Today’s activity suited Matthias quite well.  It was a visit to a small town near Xela where they do a lot of weaving.  The weaving wasn’t all that interesting to Matthias, but the fact that it was a front for the illegal production of schnapps was quite interesting to him.  He came home with an old Johnnie Walker bottle filled with a mysterious red liqueur.
Now I’m pissed at Sarah though.  Today she told Matthias we could move in with the Guatemalan family that she is living with.  But today I was talking to Bonnie (Paul’s wife) and she said that Sarah said that she wants Bonnie to move into her house while Paul goes to the coffee plantation.  But I don’t really know why she said that because she is taking off with Jason and going to travel with him for the next week.  But on Friday Sarah was totally interested in this guy from Scotland that stopped by.  So what is the deal?  Is she in love with Jason now or does she like the guy from Scotland?  I swear she flirts with Robert all the time.  And now she wants Matthias to move in to the house she is living in?  Maybe she is secretly in love with Bonnie and that is why she wants her and Mary to move in there.  Or maybe she is bi and that is why she had been talking to Matthias.  I really thought Sarah and I were best friends, but now I just don’t know anymore.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 5th, 2006 at 11:56 am and is filed under Guatemala. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.