(Guatemala City, Guatemala) - And there I was...

...face squashed as if against glass except this was no window. We were on a "chicken bus" headed back to Guatemala City and my face was buried about three inches into a lovely Guatemalan woman's great belly. Awesome. On my other side was an unfortunate middle aged man, about my size, who I was gouging with my shoulder. Hey, I was lucky to have a seat. The chicken bus in Guatemala is a chaos of sights, smells and sounds (and often some unpleasant personal space dilemmas). These buses are old US school buses that have been pimped out in crazy colors and chrome. The drivers could probably all be committed for their maniacle driving practices: turns are taken at break neck speed and stops are always last minute and whiplash inducing. The blaring horn can mean several things: hi! I'm stopping to pick you up! or Watch out I'm coming up behind you and don't want to stop! My favorite person on a chicken bus however is the doorman. Often adolescent or young adult, this guy hangs out of the door yelling the bus's destination as the bus starts to slow. "A Guate aguateaguateaguateeeee!" It's great. You no more get both feet in the aisle and the bus is speeding away and throwing you toward a seat (maybe) or maybe just into someone's lap. Last weekend I especially liked the doorman because he would say to everyone as they got on and tried to adjust and sardine themselves in "Adelante jovenes! Que pasan por el medioooo!" Roughly, "move along kids! go on down the centerrr!" Of course several of the patrons were little old men and women in traditional Guatemalan dress and not jovenes at all.

I'm now three weeks into Guatemala City and life is pretty good. So far I have achieved a good deal at work, traveled on two of my weekends, and had my requisite stomach bug. Good part is I was only sick for 48hrs. Bad parts were 1. I was in a hostel (probably worse for all the other people) and 2. I was in Antigua which required a 45 minute chicken bus commute to get home (see above explanation). I'm sure there's some way it could have been worse.

Work here has been enlightening and of course trying. There's always that road block where you see how things are supposed to go so clearly in your mind's eye and yet nothing around you makes it happen that way. You told the lady that does data management how to enter the data and what you need her to do and yet when you go to work with her the following week she has no idea how to do any of it and hasn't started on anything. This is called patience-building.

This past weekend I traveled with two girlfriends to Lake Atitlan which is actually a crater of a HUGE volcano. Today there are 3 volcanoes that sit on the south side of the lake, and it's surrounded by little towns. Not only is the place beautiful, but it's super fun to get around. (seems transportation may be my favorite thing in Guatemala, go figure) So to get to any of the towns around the lake you can hire a boat to take you or go on public boats. They're really fun and generally comfortable until afternoon comes along and the wind whips up. That's about the time you arrive at your destination completely soaked. The other fun transportation at Lake Atitlan is the Tuk-tuk which is a three-wheeled, motorized, covered scooter with a bench seat in the back that holds 4 Guatemalans and all their stuff or 2-3 uncomfortable Americans, depending on size. Tuk-tuks are super cheap and zip around the narrow streets of the old villages much more easily than cars do. One of my favorite things we did while at the lake was visit the evil saint Maximon (pronounced Mah- she- mohn). This little wooden guy gets moved to a different house each year and his whereabouts are known only by the people of the town because he's always in a private house. We paid our 13y/o buddy Miguel to take us to see Maximon and the legend he told us was this: Maximon is considered an evil spirit, but he is sought out often. He wears many scarves which are gifts from people who have come to visit him. Each time you pray to Maximon you may receive a result which is "por lo bueno" (for the good) and one which is "por lo malo" for the bad. For instance, if someone is making you mad and you go and light a black candle for Maximon, something bad will happen to that person. (we weren't given an example of a good thing that could happen...hmmm) Also if you are sick, you have a couple of options with Maximon. This little guy is known to smoke and to drink. Thus if you bring him a cigarette or a cigar he will come to you at night and blow the smoke to make you better (generally stomach ailments). You can also bring him 'aguardiente' (firewater) and he'll drink it and make you better. Once you have prayed to Maximon he is always with you, and he can come to your house while you sleep and tell you the future in your dreams. Pretty great. So we went and saw Maximon and he's wayyy back in a cement room with a low ceiling, in the dark and surrounded by candles. There is a guy guarding him at all times and there was another old man outside swinging a censer. Very mystic. Maximon himself is only about waist high and wears a really great hat and some fancy shoes. He's got gillions of scarves tied around his neck and several cigarettes in his offering plate. To see him we had to pay 2 quetzales (about 25cents). I didn't ask for anything, but that was because I hadn't yet met the super annoying women that were on our shuttle back to the city. If I had known I would meet those girls I would definitely have lit a black candle in their honor.

At the risk of becoming boring I'll just leave it at that. Happy travels and home-staying everyone!!