guatemala: speaking

I can’t begin to describe how patient our team leaders and the locals were with our command (or lack thereof) of their native language. Whether we were helping Blanca with her hygiene lessons, talking with the locals over lunch time and at the end of the day, or shouting along with the kids on the soccer field, what a pleasure it was to be immersed in a foreign culture.

A few bits of advice I can offer in getting acquainted with – and understanding – another language. Step one: look. A LOT can be said simply through body gestures and facial expressions, and by paying close attention to how someone is speaking to you, it’s often much easier to infer words that you don’t understand. Step two: listen! “Even a fool is though wise if he keeps silent,” said Solomon, and if you’re struggling with a language, why not become avid listener? By paying close attention to the aforementioned body language cues – and returning them with a few of your own (nods, smiles, concern, surprise, laughter, etc.) – you can almost always get away with making it look as though you know more than you know. Just be careful not to overdo it, especially if you happen to have team leaders who’ve picked up on your charade, and find great humor in seeing you agree to or laugh about something that is very likely poking fun at yourself.

Lastly, and most importantly in my opinion: be willing to make mistakes. You will anyway, so why not take them in stride and feel comfortable laughing at yourself? Throughout our entire trip, I was always encouraged by the locals whenever I tried to speak Spanish, and all of them were genuinely willing to help during the many times when I didn’t know the right word or verb conjugation.

All in all, a wonderful time, a wonderful language, and a truly wonderful people that shared it with our team.

until next time,

may God hold you in the hollow of His hand

josh & mark

the lifecycle team

guatemala: eating

Oh boy did we ever have some delicious Guatemalan food last week! Let me break it down for ya.

breakfast

Fresh succulent pineapple. Fresh bananas. Fresh milk. (Fresh?) cereal. Fresh breads of all flavors – banana nut, orange & chocolate, almond, etc. Fresh coffee “black as night, strong as passion, sweet as love and hot as hell” (kudos to whoever knew who said that without googling it). Did I mention everything was fresh? Each morning from 5-6am the team ambled into the common room of our hostel at various times to grab whatever they could before leaving for the village each day. And while I am sure our perspective on local eating customs was skewed due to the fact that we were, well, not locals, I felt breakfast was the least social of the meals we had each day. Whether this was because of the early hour, or that we were away from our team leaders’ families (and their typical morning routines), breakfast was a subdued affair in comparison to our midday and evening meals.

lunch

Wonderful. Simply wonderful. Each day in the community we were treated to an incredible meal at the house of one of the village leaders. Fresh hot tortillas, sumptuous black beans, vegetable soups and either fish (tilapia!!! so delicious!), chicken or beef. All our dishes were prepared over an open flame, served piping hot and seasoned to perfection. Coupled with cold soda and bottled waters for everyone that wasn’t a coke fan, we couldn’t have asked for anything more. Everyone sat outdoors at the same long table, a palm branch roof/covering extending out from the village leader’s house and protecting the eating area, cooking area and cleaning area from the noonday sun. Chickens, turkeys, dogs, a pig, lizards, birds, etc. wandered around outside the house and under the nearby shade trees as we ate, adding to the ambient country noises of southern Guatemala - wind blowing in the sugar cane fields and palm trees, the occasional motorbike rumbling by on the dirt road and the chirps and buzzing of insects about their daily routine.

dinner

Back at our budget hostel each night, it was once again impossible to escape the generosity of Guatemalans. More tortillas (again, prepared fresh each day – how cool would that have been on our bike trip?), rice, refried black beans, steamed vegetables, sweet plantains and once again, some incredible beef, chicken and fish. Our nights at Living Water’s base were just as amazing, and here (as well as at lunch), food was savored and conversations unfolded. Guatemalans take time to enjoy their food as well as the company with whom they shared it. 

Basically, we were spoiled the whole time, I probably gained a ton of weight, couldn't stop smiling every time we sat down to eat, and will probably be a coffee snob for the next couple weeks until I forget the taste of that shade-grown Guatemalan goodness we sipped on each morning.

until next time,

may the rains fall softly on your fields

josh & mark

the lifecycle team

guatemala: traveling

After a few months on nothing but a bicycle for transportation, it stands to reason that one of the first things you notice when you travel is, well, traveling. Mark did a splendid job of recapping our time in Guatemala, and so rather than re-recapping our trip and boring you all to tears, I thought I'd share just a few impressions I had while in the wiles of central america. 

the city - saturday afternoon

Traffic crawled out of the city center, save for those motorcyclists and mopeds clever enough to bob and weave through the four lanes of chicken buses, pickups, compact cars, moving vans and work trucks – just the usual mix of urban autos with one notable exception: riding a car in Guatemala does NOT translate to riding IN a car in Guatemala. Passengers share space with the tools and machinery in many of the work trucks, or fill the bed of a pickup truck (standing up or sitting down or any way at all), or between luggage piled atop the roof of a brightly colored “chicken bus” (often climbing up/down from the roof while the bus is in motion via two ladders at the rear) – we even saw a few Guatemalans perched on the big black bags bulging out the back of the city’s garbage trucks. Narrow lanes and almost no shoulders on the road whatsoever meant very few bicyclists and a VERY long time to get around any police activity. Midway through our drive, we passed a swarm of black police pickup trucks surrounding an unmarked moving van stopped in the middle of the highway, and just as many policemen circled around two very guilty looking men sitting despondently on the road beside the van. “Cocaine” said our chauffer Manuel as we rolled by.

the mountains- saturday afternoon

Outside Guatemala City, the road wound up and down Guatemala’s hilly landscape in a series of sharp twists and turns, naturally keeping much of the traffic speeds in check. Billboards and bright advertisements turned to tall palm trees and a wide variety of unfamiliar foliage. Occasionally our road cut through smaller cities or towns nestled in the mountains, heralded by “moderate speed” signs and speed bumps, two additional means of slowing the hectic pace of traffic down once it escaped the city jam. It couldn’t have been more than 15 miles from the airport to Living Water’s base in Antigua, but the drive took almost 90 minutes. 

the south - sunday through thursday

A few miles outside Nueva Concepción, we hit nothing but rough dirt roads between the city and the community where we would be building the well. Here, “travel” took on an entirely different role in the daily routine of the local inhabitants and (for the week) our team. “Villages” have spread linearly across the large grid of roads cut into the fertile lowlands of Guatemala – keeping as close to the main routes as possible to cut down on what were often extensive travel times. Few are afforded the luxury of a motorcycle or dirt bike; even fewer the extravagance of a car or truck to bounce down the dusty roads. 

Thus we were constantly on the lookout for kids or adults walking alongside the shoulder of the road, not to mention motorcycles passing on the left or right of our van, school buses zipping by in a cloud of dust that often resulted in blizzard-like visibility and finally, huge sugar cane trucks (kicking up just as much dust) rumbling with a slow, unchanging pattern to and from the fields. Narrow two-lane roads squeezed down to just a single lane at times, but Manuel, our fearless driver, was more than up to the task. Not once did I worry about our safety on the roads thanks to his uncanny skills behind the wheel, and was able to fully enjoy the lush vegetation, vibrant Guatemalan country culture and some truly incredible sunrises/sunsets as we rode to the village each morning and night.

until next time,

may the road rise up to meet you

josh & mark

the lifecycle team