Living in a Guatemalan home
Hey y’all.
So, I signed up for this Spanish class to help with my understaning of what the hell people are saying to me and to avoid asking old women if they’re lactating when I just want coffee for my milk (yes, that did happen). I signed up for one week, and I also had the option to live with a family, which I totally jumped on. I moved in with my family on Sunday morning. The lady of the house is Sanda, who is a Guatemalan woman about 60 years old, and she is really sweet. Her son and daughter also live there, but I’ve hardly met them. Another Guatemalan guy named Augustin lives there, and two other girls who are students…Christine from Norway and I couldn’t remember the other girls name if my life depended on it, but she’s from Israel.
As a note, there are lots of Israelis traveling around Central and South America. They don’t travel around Europe, I guess, because it’s too expensive. Anyway, after they finish high school, they have mandatory military service (two years girls, three years guys). After their service, I guess it’s pretty common for them to work for a year, travel, and then go to college, if they do so choose. So, that’s their story.
I talked with Augustin for a little while on night…he works in a factory in Guatemala City where they make pants for American companies like Gap and Banana Republic. He does the quality inspection of the pants…you know that little “Inspected by 26” (or whatever #) sticker in your pants? Yeah, well that’s what he does. It pains him greatly when he has to return pants that are a hair out of spec, because to him, their prefectly good pants, but the companies set these really strict standards and spend all this time repairing these pants for being less than 1/8 inch out of spec. The pants are then sent back to the States, some being sent back here for sale at ridiculous prices. Nice. I can tell Augustin takes a lot of pride in his job, but they don’t offer him much flexibility. In busy times, if they tell him he has to work overtime, then he has to…he works his 40 hours Sunday through Tuesday and 1/2 day on Wed., so he has the rest of the week off, though often he does have to come in on those other days. I guess he is guaranteed Saturdays off, always, but I do know that factory is open 7 days a week. By the way, I know all of this in Spanish, and I just translated for you.
Sandra (my host mother) just started taking English classes…she doesn’t speak anything other than the few words she’s just learned. The first night, I could hear her practicing: Wha coh-lohr ees thees? Thees ees bloo. How adorable. Anyway, the other night, we studied together since we were both learning the parts of the body. She would say it (or try to say it in English), and then I would repeat the Spanish word. She cooks 3 meals a day for us, and it’s all awesome – like, the best meals I’ve had the whole time. Everyone comes together, Sandra (or Augustin) does a little prayer, and we all eat together. I speak the best Spanish of the three students, and help the other two along fi they need it.
The house we live in is quite interesting…more than half of it is outside. There’s a living room and Sandra’s bedroom, which are actually inside. Then you go out into this patio area. The kitchen and dining table are under cover (a makeshift roof of sorts), but still outside (there’s no wall separating it from the outside). All around the patio are the other bedrooms…I have just a bed and a little nightstand and a little shelf, with concrete floors. The toilet is its own little room off the patio, and the shower is another little room. There’s this huge concrete sink area, which is where all washing of whatever gets done. She runs water into the middle tub, where it just sits, and there’s two ‘sinks’ (they’re just concrete areas with a drain) on either side of that. When you want water (to wash dishes, your hands, your face, or brush your teeth), you just dip this bowl into the middle tub, use it, and dump it into the outside sinks. It’s definitely like nothing I’ve ever seen before, but it works. If you want hot water, I guess you need to boil it. For the shower, there is some kind of electric heat on the shower head that heats the water, which works for the most part. So, that’s our little home…
Tags: Antigua, Guatemala, Tag Index
Tania
October 14th, 2005 at 9:42 pm
Tania
yo, its dan… did you ever imagine a few years ago that youd be living in guatamala
with a random family? hot dog dang
October 17th, 2005 at 4:13 am
Hey Tania.
Guatemala City, Guatemala? GuatemalaGuatemalaGuatemalaGuatemala. (This is an inside joke, for all those who were wondering. I’ve been waiting a month to blog this.)
Tania, you and Augustin should have quite a bit in common what with all your talks of specs and 1/8ths of inches. ?Come se dice dialysis machine en Espanol?
Hey, if they have any Prada stuff sent back get me a some jeans.
cheers.david
October 17th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
Hi Tania,
Good to know you made it to Guatemala safely and are having a good time. I wish you a great trip around the world and maybe you can ask this Augustin for some new shoes. Tried to save my Belizean beauties after swimming into the cave, but just had to let them go after a few days … pfooh!
All the best,
Marijn,
the girl from the Netherlands from the Actun Tunichil Muknal cave, Belize