Does anyone live here?

It is probably starting to look like no one actually lives in San Pedro la Laguna because my pictures are so barren. This is not the case; there are about 10,000 inhabitants of this lakeside town and there is hardly a moment when I am alone. My conditions is somewhat of aloneness in these first days, but more than that, I cannot tell who might be offended by photographs. Plus, I´m timid. Pictures of people will come, I promise. But today was really a different kind of day than the kind you may all be celebrating on this festive American day. There is indeed a festival going on here, complete with parades, arcade games where the little children in traditional clothes get to practice shooting an evasive enemy, and two giant ferris wheels. But climbing the stairs last night was mysteriously difficult, and this morning I found out why. Anyone who has traveled in this region knows what´s coming-- I´ll call it ¨traveler´s stomach¨ to be discrete. So, after spending the early part of the morning in the bathroom, I spent the later part in bed and very thankful for sleep. The afternoon was not much better, but I managed to make it to my lessons before sleeping some more this evening. It´s really not the most glamorous part of traveling, but the body asserts it´s needs, and I would be lying if I said every day was fabulous in every way.

For the part of the day when I managed to muster the energy for my second lesson in Spanish, I was once again like a kid in a candy store. It is a beautiful thing to have a dream for such a long time and to see it materializing right in front of your eyes. The sickness brought about a great opportunity to just sit and talk for a while with my teacher. We walked down by the lake and talked about the school system here. The children in grade school attend classes in the morning and the children in middle and high school attend classes in the afternoon. This works well for a town without sufficient room for their classes, and it serves a second purpose that may simply be a result of the system. In the house where I´m staying, there are three girls, ages 1, 11, and 13. In the mornings, the 13 year-old looks after the baby while the 11 year-old takes over in the afternoons. Their mom is at home then as well, but it frees her up to sew the shirts that she sells for profit in her mom´s shop downtown. The whole family structure is different here. It is common for children to stay living in the home until they marry an move in with a spouse. We also talked about politics. Guatemala just had their first female candidate for president who is also Mayan, which is important in a country with an indigenous majority. Presently, South America has more liberal presidents than ever before. And how interesting is it that the United States is only now close to accepting a minority candidate for president? Well, on that note, happy 4th of July, my fellow US citizens!

Children Running for Gym Class