Charlie + Laundry = Fail

My new housemates have finally arrived! They came in last night around five in the evening and promptly went to unpacking their bags, of which each had more than I, and bigger. Stacey and Jessie are from Virginia and have both graduated from Washington & Lee thereabouts. This won’t be the first they’ve lived together.

Around noon today I had Don Chomo come and teach me to wash my clothes in the pila. As we took them from my laundry bag I noticed they were imbued with a certain foul aroma. Chomo set to work, showing me just how to bunch up the pant legs and rake them across the washboard surface. I tried and tried, and time and again he would show me and have me grab and wring just so. By the time I was finished my knuckles were raw and ever so slightly bleeding. As I hung my clothes up to dry my nose caught a whiff of a certain smell. I was the same funk which I had set out to oust.

I finished washing clothes with just enough time to meet Miguel Angel at Enlace to go to a nearby swimming pool. We caught a “bus” (a van-like vehicle that can be found just about everywhere, scurrying about the narrow streets and honking at anything that moves) for three quetzals and paid three more at the door for a total of 76 cents. It was rather cool out, so we had the outdoor pool pretty much to ourselves. Some other guys were there and presumably had swum, but all I saw them do the entire time I was the was stand on the platform at the top of the diving board and dare each other to jump. After a few minute we decided to leave. The trip back was another 3 quetzals bringing the grand total of the afternoon’s entertainment to $1.16. Not bad!

One more thing... The FTP server here is kind of hit-and-miss, so in order to test whether or not it's up at any given time, I threw together a little webcam that updates once every minute. You can view it at: http://oregonstate.edu/~thompcha/webcam/

Fiesta!

Last night Katie had a big despedido (going-away party). It gave me a chance, finally, to interact with some of the Enlace staff with whom I hadn’t yet had a chance to. We threw a few strips of beef on a barbeque made out of a car rim and threw on some hit by the Conejos (the band that played after the DJs at the dance my first night).

A great time was had by all except, perhaps, Haroldo who had a bit too much Vino Tinto Campeon (a fortified wine much like our native MADDOG 20/20). I had an opportunity to pick up some of the dance steps for local music from Elvira who I must say is an excellent dancer, one of the ones who doesn’t often try to lead. I also danced with Brenda, a quite uninhibited art student in her fifth month here on a scholarship to do community art projects.

I hung around for a long time chatting with Roberto, Matías, Jenny, and Joel among others, particularly about the lack of a decent translation of the English idea encompassed by the phrase “I wish”. When it came time to leave, I found myself playing host to Roberto (who commutes to Enlace from a town an hour away) and saddled with a very drunk and regurgitant Haroldo (caramba!).

Today I came home to find presents left me by Hilda and Chomo. I finally have the full complement of cooking and eating utensils along with a small library and collection of DVDs including No Country For Old Men (no wai! is favrit!). I also have a coffee maker (for what, I don’t know :-) ) and a toaster. I continue to find nice little surprises around the house. They must like me. I wonder how much of this stuff was left behind by past volunteers…

On the Job At Last

I awoke yesterday morning to find my faucets without water. It was my first day of work! I should have brought my camera. Pictures will be forthcoming. I share a room on Enlace’s third (top) floor with Hilda, Miguel Angel (Mike), Pablo, and my boss Jesús. Most of my day was spent installing and configuring a lightweight open-source WAMP server called Server2Go and Joomla, the CMS used here. My first project is interesting. It involves providing local businesses with a sort of user-sourced yellow pages. It’s totally on par with my past work. If I play my cards right, I may even get a chance to work with a bit of GIS.

My coworkers are a lot of fun. Jesús likes to have fun. While we were struggling with an installation task, he told a poignant joke. It went something like this:

A chemist, a physicist, a mechanic, and developer are in a car when it suddenly stops. The chemist proceeds to calculate the volume of gasoline left in the tank and determine the relative quantities of oil, octane, etcetera, required to go further. The Physicists measures the incline of the road and the diameter of the tires, estimating the amount of torque and forward momentum required to overcome gravity and inertia, etc. The mechanic inspects the transmission, alternator, carburetor, and so forth. The developer’s solution is to turn everything off and then on again, get out of the car, open all the doors and shut them again.

I returned to my house to find this beast of a truck roaring away as it pumped water through a hose into the deposito in the rear of my house.

Don Chomo informed me that I had left on a faucet and this was the cause of my missing water. When the hot water (“hot” being a relative term) runs out, instead of running cold, it ceases altogether, but the machine that pumps it from the reserve beneath the patio somehow keeps going, chugging away until all the water is goes to the sewer. Little did I know. WTF, mate?

A Rude Awakening

I awoke from a nap yesterday at about 7:30. Sitting in bed, I placed my foot on the floor to feel my sock immediately fill with water. Upon turning on the light, I could see a creeping puddle starting from the door and covering from the far corner of my room to about its middle. On further inspection, I discovered about a quarter inch of water covering the entire floor of the other bedroom and a fair amount in the kitchen as well.

Not knowing what to do, I went to a nearby store to call Enlace. They sent Aury, the Enlace staff member who lives closest to me, to meet me and she went with me to take a look. She went and got Hilda and then Aury, her sister, Hilda, her sister, and I all swept a mopped for two hours or so until we had gotten the lion share of the water out of the house and into the drain. Hilda explained to me that I have to take of the cover off the drain when it rains because the few holes it has in it don’t let enough water through. I was skeptic, however, and my suspicions that it was coming from the ground were confirmed when I found that, I couldn’t seem to completely empty the other bedroom of water, that mysteriously seemed to remain wet no matter how much I mopped.

We put towels under the doors and Hilda said she would call the landlady. I guess we’ll see…

On an unrelated note, I don't have internet at my house, so if my posts become infrequent that is why.

Not in Kansas Anymore

I can barely hear. I’ve just come from a dance. I’ll start where I left off. Fernando dropped me at the airport at about 11:00 AM and I boarded my last flight at 1:45. I slept for most of it, but awoke for long enough to eat an in-flight meal (!!!), fill out customs and immigration forms and chat with a man from Wisconsin who patronizes an orphanage.

On the ground I found a man holding a “Charlie Thompson” sign and went with him to his pickup. He told me his name is Bacillio (sp?) and if I understand correctly, it turns out his eldest son is a Digital Weaver. I will never forget the drive from Guatemala City of Santa Cruz Del Quiché. We left around 2:30 and arrived at about 7:30. I’ll suffice to say the roads were a mess.

I paid a brief visit to Enlace Quiché where Matías, the executive director, was still at work on plans for when some people arrive from the capitol Monday. If I understand correctly, I will get an introduction to the organization then. It appears they’ve planned me an orientation. I think Mike, my Australian roommate arrives on Sunday. Hilda, the volunteer coordinator, Katie, another intern finishing six months here next week, and Sarah, her visiting friend, met me there and went with me to my new house.



The kindly prepared me a dinner and showed me the house. Then it was off to the dance. Sarah wasn’t certain, but she thought it was an end-of-the-school-year celebration for all the schools in town. A DJ played merengue, cumbia, and reggaetón. They only played one song I recognized. It’s the one with Lil Jon, something about “tremendo culo”. I was advised not to sing along, as the people here are very conservative.

Mexico City II

I awoke this morning to the sound of the door-to-door gas vendor yelling Gaaaaaaas! as the sun filtered through Fernando´s flags of Oregon, Texas, and Arizona.

Last night we went with a coworker to a bar a couple blocks from where he lives with his mom and his brother. His friends Alex and Luis joined us, and another from Sinaloa whose name I didn´t catch. They joked that Luis was jealous that Fernando was taking me home. They seemed impressed by my command of bad Spanish. I knew working at Wild Oats would pay off one day.

Now after a short yet spirited drive I find myself again at the SRA. It seems lanes in Mexico City are a relative concept as are red lights. My flight to Guatemala City departs at 1:45 this afternoon and will only last an hour. They told me at the airport the check in three hours early. ¡Caramba!

Mexico City

After two flights and a dizzying, weaving drive through a sea of colorful cinderblock and brick low rises punctuated by people between lanes selling cigarettes and gum and hairpin turns in high-speed traffic I have arrived at Fernando's office at the Secretaría de la Reforma Agraria in Mexico City.

Fernando is a friend of Amy's. A while ago she came here to visit him. He came to get me from the airport and will play host to me for the 22 hours I am in Mexico City. I wish I had bought some pesos before coming so I can at least somewhat repay his gracious favor.

Greetings!

Hello everyone. Welcome to my Guatemala blog. I've created this blog to serve two purposes; The first is to fulfill my requirements for BA 402, the internship credit that will allow me to complete my Spanish minor and thus become a college graduate. Secondly, I plan to use this space from time to time to post updates and anecdotes in English for my fans at home about my experience as an IT intern in Guatemala at Ajb'atz' Enlace Quiché.

The posts for credit will be in Spanish and will be labeled "BA 402," so for those of you who are hispanohablante, go ahead and check them out. The rest of my posts will be in English and will be labeled "General". You can access them from the main page at http://guatemalacharlie.wordpress.com/ or you can sort them from the ones in Spanish by clicking "General" in the column on the right below the label "Categorías".

Thanks for stopping by and go ahead and post comments if you have them!

¡Saludos!

¡Mucho gusto! Me llamo Charlie y esto es mi blog. Lo empezó para inmortalizar mis experiencias en prácticas como un empleado de Ajb'atz' Enlace Quiché, una organización no gubernamental (ONG) que apoya a la gente Quiché de Guatemala con la educación y la capacitación.

Una meta principal de este blog consiste en documentar mis experiencias y impresiones sobre la cultura laboral y el ambiente de la oficina en Guatemala. También, para cumplir mis estudios de pregrado, yo compararé estos reflejos con algunas desde mis años de trabajo y capacitación en Oregon.

Estoy emocionado para empezar y espero que ustedes me acompañaren para mis aventuras. Yo les invito a exponer tus comentarios aquí y decir qué opinan. También, si tienen correcciones de mi español, favor de mandármelas por charliet@gmail.com.

¡Muchas gracias y disfruta!