Culture

So a quick recap of the night and a few observations, first off, one of the first things you lose here is your sense of expectation. I have to stop myself from trying to figure out whats going to happen next because I don’t have the cultural or language skills to ask properly, and even when I know where Im going, my images of what that will be are completely wrong. This also means that when I hear weird noises at night, like roosters, fireworks, people talking, weird things on the roof, that I just ignore them. I have no idea whats a safe noise and whats something to be alarmed of so Im giving up on the alarm part because I could drive myself crazy worrying if the thing that keeps crawling across the tarp on my ceiling is a rat or a bat. Heres hoping its just the cat and her fleas.

So in the light of all this danger and unrest here in Guatemala there is a ray of hope. The prayer service I attended the other night was packed full of people who genuinely want to see change and peace in Guatemala. If St Peter is deciding who gets a key to the pearly gates based upon sheer volume then Spanish might be the official language of heaven. It’s kind of like a contest, if I can sing louder than you God will hear my prayer first.
After this prayer service, my host family and I went to a wedding reception. Needless to say I can now blame my parents for my complete inability to dance as they totally neglected to raise me in a Latin American discothèque. Here in Guatemala people don’t have babysitters, there are no events that childen don’t come to, and as such, they attend all the big parties and fiestas starting at birth. These people can dance, my five year old host brother can dance better than I can. I do have one up on the Guatemaltecos, Crystal and I were rocking out during the little American music remix they had going on and we were the only ones really getting down to the Twist, although I guess its easier to do the dance when you understand the words to the song…