Dia 2

Today I went to Santiago Zamora and took the tour that I will be leading. What a tour! Santiago Zamora is a small village about 25 minutes outside of Antigua. It is about a 15 minute walk from the nearest bus stop, San Antonio. It is very indigenous feeling. There is a house built by Casasito for the eight women and families who endure the taunting of their neighbors. Even on our short walk in the streets we heard men being frustratingly chauvinistic. They taunt the husbands of the women in the project, saying that when their wives go into town to put the 10% of their meager earnings in the Casasito fund for the Santiago Zamora after school program (El Plan Infinito), that they are being unfaithful and the sort. Considering that El Plan Infinito welcomes over 100 children every day after their regular classes and provides electric pianos, harps, guitars, computers, maps, books, and a devoted full-time teacher (Profe Chris), you would think that the village would appreciate what is being done voluntarily for their children. Profe Chris is quite a guy. He is Belgian and has lived in Santiago Zamora for the last 3 years. He takes the kids on tons of field trips, ranging from the 10 hour trip to Tikal to daily swimming lessons nearly an hour away. This is very important to the children because normally only rich children learn to swim. Even when he makes his annual visit home, he brings the two best students with him, obviously paying their way and shows them Europe.

Anyways, back to the tour. We listened to the leader of the women talk about the history of Santiago Zamora and how it came to be so impoverished. Alcohol, testosterone, and greed being the primary reasons. I was happy to see that my Spanish is getting less rusty and I was able to understand most of what was being said. The ladies then did a traditional dance during which I was invited to participate in! I tried my best and thought I did quite well, but their sideways giggling whispers in Quechua (the Mayan language) convinced me otherwise. After that I tried my hand at grinding coffee the Mayan way, with a large granite sort of mortar and pestle, which I'm told is one of the key inheritances from mothers to daughters. They knew better than to let me try weaving though. They exhibited all of the steps required to weave and then weaved a row of thread. They said that to make their traditional dress, I'm forgetting what it is called right now, it takes them a year or more, depending on the intricacy. For a table runner they say about a month of 4-6 hours per day of weaving is required. They also taught me how to tell the difference between textiles made by hand vs. machine. Then they taught tortilla making. Again, a large granite mortar and pestle is used to roll the corn into a paste, which they then turn into a round tortilla. I stress they because they called my tortillas "mapas de Canada" due to the Baffin Islands that kept falling on to the floor. (Maps of Canada). Then they fed us an excellent lunch and sent us on our way.

I got myself lost in the big market once I got back. I got a good deal on potatoes, Q1 for a pound of potatoes. That is like $0.14! But then I got ripped off on tomatoes. After finding my way back out of the dark depths of the market I headed home.

Tomorrow I am taking a tour of a coffee plantation. When will I start working!?

Hasta!