the jungle´s wrath and all that good stuff

buenas tardes a todos!

i´m in town for a short couple of hours...

after my chicago trip, i returned to the casa motivated and very happy to be back. i really like life here, living in the jungle with all the exciting moments it produces in a day, and the sense of community that comes from a small group of people working on the same project. i also returned with some non-refrigeration salami - one of my favorite foods. appparently "no refrigeration necessary" means "in all places except the jungle." three of the 6 of us who ate my special treat of poisonous sausage got sick, and appropriately, i got the worst of it. we speak very frankly of casa guatemala ailments but i´ll spare my few readers the gory details. suffice to say that i was very unwell on the morning of a scheduled descanso with dear friend bart from australia - orientador to little boys. we had planned an ultra-relaxing descanso of 4 days (i took a previous 4 day descanso to tikal, some of the most impressive mayan ruins in the world, found in norhtern guatemalan state of peten). we pushed back our descanso by 2 days and headed straight for finca tatin, a hidden hostel on a tributary of the rio dulce closer to the carribean. it was a fabulous jungle lodge with hammocks everywhere, self-serve refrigerator on an honor system, and family dinner that was wonderful. aka, the perfect place to be quiet and do nothing all day. we read, listened to music, i taught bart scrabble (and won by 60 points - thanks gramma!), had calimocho (spanish high school drink of coca cola and cheap red wine - sounds terrible but is utterly charming and delightful after the first sip). decided to stay an extra day and be even more relaxed, which we were. the day of our planned kayak to livingston on the coast, about 2 and a half hours by arms, my right eye was the size of a base-ball, throbbing our of my socket, and painful to beat the band. my partner chini, nurse, noticed it was red before i left and gave me drops that i applied religiously, but this conjunctivitis was jungle-born and needed to be tamed with more than a week of rest, new drops, and nasty cream. we trudged on to livingston anyway, visiting a health center for more drops. slept most of that day, woke to be taken to an absolutely fabulous "tapado", the typical dish of livingston, one of the homes of garífuna culture. in 1802 a slave ship from africa capsized in the sea off the coast of honduras. the special blend of african, carribean, and ladino cultures populated the coasts of honduras, our small coast of guatemala, and belize. tapado is a coconut based soup of green plantains, onions, garlic, a whole fish, crabs, shrimp, and any other ingredients that are readily available. we also had "flitas", a mash of green plantains and garlic fried to a perfect street-food perfection, with fresh squeezed lime.

the descanso to tikal was breath-taking and a lot of good fun as it was the exit of niñas pequeñas orientadora andrea from england. the temples were massive and i´ve got some great pictures of these monuments of strength meant to attract followers to the city-state. contary to popular belief there are no bodies buried inside, as a guide explained in a patient if slightly annoyed, voice. the buildings, constructed in a mostly lime-stone area, where water is absorbed by land that can´t be cultivated, and crumbles under much weight. they made a cement-like mix that bonded well with the lime-stone and that is what fills these monstrous pyramids. very powerful rulers were buried as close as possible to their thrones.

izabela from brazil, replacing andrea, came and met me for a walk to an unexcavated temple in san marcos, the town across from the island of flores, where we stayed. it´s so overgrown it just seems like a hill, but we met some arheaologists who were very geeked about the shape of the hill which looked like homes and such, to their trained eyes. izabela and i had a great time getting lost in spectaculary beautiful woods which underscored that we live in the jungle, not the woods. it felt like michigan.

i´m back at the casa for another 25 days or so, depending on how training with the next girl goes. chini is going to be leaving (with susi, the other fabulous nurse from españa) around the same time. we´ve (along with mi primera esposita, jasmine) made some great progress with the girls and we want to make sure that they adjust to the new orientadora well, and that she is able to carry on where we leave off. i´m in a state of disbelief that i´ve been here 5 months, and not feeling ready to go home. certainly feeling like there is more to be done with our girls, and not wanting to abandon them when they´ve become better, more respectful, more responsible, more considerate people. the bank account is dicatating otherwise, as is real-life, i suppose.

the whole concept of real-life is a term i´m coming to dislike more and more. what could be more real than seeing a girl smile for the first time in 3 months. the girl with the worst behavior asking me why i´m here, listening, and maybe actually understanding. i´ve not gotten emotionally connected to the degree i could have, knowing that it would be too hard to leave. but we live together and our daily lives are linked and it´s hard no matter what. i like them.

we´ve been without water or electricity for the last 5 days, so life has certainly been harder than normal. we´re washing in the dirty, contaminated river - nerve-wracking with this crazy eye infection - and brining semi-clean water from the well behind the carpenteria. i can do without electricity, though we still get a couple of battery generated hours split between morning and night, but the water is a real trial given that the river is no prize. i now know that i could have handled living in times before running water and electricity, but in those times we hadn´t destroyed all of our natural sources of water. this is different, and scary. to see water that i know we and our neighbors have turned to poison, and then wash my body in it, literally makes me want to run in the opposite direction, except there are no other options. it´s a small-scale example of the planet, and that terrifies me.

maybe this eye infection, food poisoning, and lack of water will help me to get motivated to come home! at least my eye was too bad to read at night with a light, so i didn´t need to charge it! the suasage tasted damn good before it made me sick like the devil!

there are always silver linings to be found when publishing for friends and family - thanks for reading and keeping me going!

besitos y paz a tí

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