22 - 26 October 2024: Wandering Back to Guatemala
Here I am on my third trip to Guatemala (I was previously here in 2000 and 2014). Why am I doing it? I have several motivations:
-
I
wanted to try returning to Latin America after that fiasco with my heart
problem and stollen camera in Chile last year.
-
I
need to be in a Spanish language environment again – otherwise why keep
studying Spanish?
-
I
wanted to get away from the U.S. during this god-awful election. I’m sick of hearing about it, especially all
the blatant lies. Do me a BIG favor and don't tell me how it turns out as I have a bad feeling about it.
-
An
article that I read in the Denver Post earlier this year about the school where
I am volunteering pointed out that providing good educations for kids in
Guatemala will help them find work here as adults instead of migrating to the
U.S. So, it seemed like a positive thing
to do to help stem the flow of “ilegales”.
-
I
feel that so much of my life has been about “me”. I’ve done stuff to make myself happy rather
than helping others. So, I’d like to
experience working with disadvantaged kids to maybe make some kind of
difference in their lives rather than focusing on myself. And no, I’m not looking for praise or a medal
for altruism.
-
It
will be a challenge for my aging brain and body. WTF do I know about kids, particularly little
kids?
-
This
is where it gets a bit weird: For years,
I’ve been afraid of kids. Afraid that if
I liked them, I might want to have some of my own. But now that I’m an old shit, I really don’t
need to worry about being seduced into daddyhood. And I’m also confident enough at this stage
in life that I won’t come to regret not being a da-da.
Seeing all the bright, happy kids at
the school on Wednesday really brought home to me that we adults have really
fucked them by leaving them a planet in such a mess. Furthermore, kids are little canvasses onto
which we can paint the potential for a good life but instead, think of how many
kids get messed up by poor parenting, inadequate schools, a violent society,
and greedy, insensitive capitalists who see kids as present and future cash
machines to be exploited and brainwashed as sources of fabulous wealth. How many of these fucking vulture capitalists really want to contribute
to a better society? No, profit is at
the top of their list of priorities.
It’s not fair and it blatantly shows how really bad the human race and
its societies (especially US society) have turned out. Do I sound like a communist? I’m definitely not one. What I do believe in is a capitalism that
provides modest profits for entrepreneurs and investors who have the intent of
providing quality products and services at reasonable prices that people really
need and are not harmful to them or the environment. There certainly are
capitalists who follow that model and do some good in the world. And if these good capitalists make big
profits, they pay their fair share in taxes, give a lot of money away for good
causes, and don’t spend it on McMansions in Aspen, Lear Jets, yachts, fur coats,
$1000 dinners, box seats at the Super Bowl, and other disgusting nonsense.
Uncle Scrooge by Mikkellll on
DeviantArt. devantart.com
End of today’s sermon and back to Guatemala. My trip here started in south Florida where I went with Judy last week for her mother’s 92nd birthday. The following day, I took a direct flight from Fort Lauderdale to Guatemala City. The flight was only 2½ hours. The only direct flight was on Spirit Airlines and I was dreading it because of Spirit’s poor reputation. However, the one-way ticket was so cheap ($68) that I sprang for an extra $70 for a package that included one checked bag, one carry on, a comfortable window seat near the front of the plane, priority boarding, and snacks/drinks. The plane left on time and arrived early. Given how bad flying has become, I was favorably impressed.
My Spirit flight making its
approach to Guatemala City.
Once in Guatemala City, immigration
and customs were easy as was finding the driver which I had arranged through
the school. He showed me the closest ATM
machine in the airport parking garage and bingo, my Schwab debit card (no
international transaction fees and a refund of ATM charges) delivered about
3000 quetzales for a couple hundred US bucks.
I was now flush with cash, and we drove through abysmal mid-day traffic
in Guatemala City and about 30 miles of winding mountain highway to the city of
Antigua, a two-hour journey.
The driver delivered me to my home in Antigua for the next four weeks. There I was met by my hosts, Violeta and Fernando, mother and son who have been muy simpatico (very nice). The room is modest but clean costing me about $140 per week including 5 dinners and 6 breakfasts (I have lunch at the school). The shared baths are about 30 feet from my door and the shower is relatively hot. Violeta and Fernando are doing their best to cater to my vegetarian (mostly vegan) diet and the food has ranged from fair to excellent. While I’m eating, they hang out and talk with me in Spanish.
Right now, there are two other people staying here: Diana, another volunteer at the school and Michael, an eccentric American businessman. Diana is a pretty 28-year-old brunette from Michigan who is fluent in Spanish (her father is a Mexican immigrant). She burned out on her job as a parts supply chain manager in auto manufacturing and has been travelling around Latin America alone, (including 6 months as a volunteer at an orphanage in Bolivia). Michael is a strange piece of work, somewhat typical of American ex-pats one meets while traveling. He is arrogant, boasting about knowing movers and shakers here in whatever business he is engaged in (not clear to me – quasi-legal, maybe). He recommended a local spa to me for massages – he goes there for colonics. He is also into some hocus-pocus spirituality which I will probably figure out eventually as he is very talkative. The walls here are very thin and I spoke with him about knocking off his business-deal phone calls by 10:00 PM. Then I found an on-line white noise program which I can play on my tablet computer. It includes rainfall, waterfalls, ocean waves, etc. and I can fall asleep to it like the tired baby I am by 10. I told Michael he can go ahead and talk all night if he wants to. Fortunately for Diana, her room is some distance from Michael’s which is across from mine.
Historic church and museum
across the street from my lodging.
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