Adios Guatemala, Hola El Salvador!

Hello! We made it to El Salvador, safe and sound. It feels great to be here and to look back on this past month in Guatemala with gratitude and awe for all that I learned, saw, contributed, enjoyed and suffered.

I know Guatemala as few know it…actually, possibly only Rolene knows it the way I do. Not that the way I know it is better or worse than any other way to know this country, but I can’t imagine that many foreigners know the highway as intimately as I do, nor have they been to as many schools or evangelical churches. I got to see great beauty and serious ugliness. I was welcomed into several families for a few days at a time and left each one with a heavy heart, sure I couldn’t possibly meet another family as kind, warm and generous. I was proven wrong again and again.

I started off thinking I would walk across every kilometer of Central America and the perfectionist in me didn’t like how often we skipped sections in order to get somewhere on time or avoid dangerous or very unpleasant walking. But, I suppose we are only human, after all. We have this support vehicle that helps us get where we need to go, houses us, and makes us freakishly conspicuous with the locals. It seems a bit ironic to have a car for a project called Walk With Earth (especially since we’re asking people to eliminate the use of gasoline within 10 years), but again, if this trip is to succeed, perfectionism needs to be left at the door.

I don’t know how I might sum up Guatemala. I usually know a place by the friends I make and the snapshot memories that stand out in my mind, which makes it hard to answer questions like, “How was Guatemala? Did you like it?”

It was nice and, yes, I liked it.

I was struck by how different it felt to be in the western highlands the first two weeks as opposed to the eastern section of the country for the last couple weeks. The climate was different (high-elevation mountains in the west and low-land, semi-Mediterranean in the east), but I don’t think that the climate accounted for much of the difference. Most of the indigenous population lives in the west so their cultural influence was obvious, but even this isn’t necessarily the difference. The simplest way I can say it is that the air in the west felt sadder and angrier than in the east.

My sense is that the 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996 with the signing of peace accords, weighs heavily on the psyche of the people in Guatemala, and most heavily in the west, which suffers much more poverty and indigenous discrimination. During the war, hundreds of thousands of people were killed, hundreds of villages were exterminated and more than 100,000 fled north to Mexico and the US. To add insult to injury, they had a series of natural disasters that left tens of thousands dead and homeless. So, they have reason to be traumatized and it is unsurprising that people were more closed off, more suspicious, more inclined towards a sideways glance than I remember from my other travels. Not that the people in the east were not affected by the war, but it seems that their more middle-class status either spared them some of the horrors, or has allowed them the resources to rebuild life more quickly. Of course, these are generalizations and should be treated as such. The individuals we met and stayed with were as open-hearted as any people I have ever met and the joy I felt in their homes was more acute than the dull depression of the general population.

That said, it was a relief to get to Zacapa and Chiquimula in the east because the sadness that settled into my bones in the west was lifted a bit and I can’t deny that it was nice to have the comforts of a more prosperous area. It was also nice to put my long johns away because we were finally out of the chilly mountains and into the hot, hot, hot climate I expected of Central America.

Our time in Chiquimula was pretty jam-packed. Christian Sosa had set up numerous appointments for us to be on TV, radio, and talking at about 20 schools and churches in a week. I didn’t go to all those appointments because, as I said in my last post, I was fried and opted out of some gigs. While I really love the Sosa family who generously put us up for 4 nights, it’s also nice to have a break from the expectant and obligatory socializing and the many meetings with conservative and evangelical folks.

Christian with his sister, Landy, and his brother, Lester.
Their parents, Edwin and Amanda.
With his grandma, Amanda. I tried to add a photo with us with the whole family, but it didn't load.

I’m not sure if anyone from Guatemala is reading this, but if you are please accept my deepest gratitude for your warmth in welcoming me into your lives and your patience with my insufficient Spanish (which I’m glad to say is actually measurably improving) and foreigner’s misunderstandings of social etiquette. I will remember this fascinating country in all it’s natural glory and all it’s faulty humanity and can only hope that the rest of this trip is as rich as my time in Guatemala.

Zacapa to Chiquimula

Yes, they are that cute! We tried to go to a dinosaur museum in Estansuela but it was closed. There was a school next door so we went to see if Rolene could talk to some kids. While we waited to get permission to talk to the 6th graders, the 4th grade class has recess. We were ambushed! Luckily we were ambushed by sweet children instead of guerrilla fighters or a pack of wild dogs. It could have been worse.

One of them held my hand for a while. I almost put her in my pocket to take her home with me.

We were joined by Lynn, Vivian and Marilyn on Thursday and Friday. It was really fun to have the company and their local expertise.


The family we stayed with in Zacapa. Walter and Noemi and their son, Oscar. On our last night with them, Rolene played harp, they lent me a guitar, Walter played keyboard, Oscar played his drum set and Noemi sang. We were quite the little family band.

On the road to Chiquimula. Oscar (age 9) didn't have school on Friday so he walked with us. What a trooper! He must have sweated half his body weight, but didn't complain once. It was HOT today. I drank like 3 liters of water while walking and still felt dehydrated.
We had a little time to kill on the way to Chiquimula so we stopped at this school, which ended up being a military school. We didn't expect to be let in, but they were very welcoming. We interrupted the boxing matches they were having for physical education. That's the students agreeing to plant trees.
We met Keenan and Jeff on the road today. They are biking from Canada to Argentina with Ride for Hope. They are raising funds to help the people in the Dominican Republic who were affected by the recent hurricane.
We were led into town by a group of girls from a school in Chiquimula. They had signs and posters and sang songs, honked their horns and cheered as we walked the 1/2 mile to the center of town. It was sort of awesome and sort of embarrassing. There were supposed to be three groups of kids but the others came too early and waited almost 2 hours for us and gave up. We were also supposed to be welcomed by the mayor, but he was called away on some last minute business.

Instead of the mayor, we were welcomed by a man from the evangelical Quaker church, Edgar Madrid. We got a trophy with our names on it. We are going to put it in our trophy case as soon as we get a trophy case. The whole day was hilarious and sweet and overwhelming and confusing.

I put myself on timeout today. I reached a point this morning where I was tired of meeting new people, tired of learning new words, tired of eating strange food, tired of feeling confused, tired of not feeling like I can be myself. We are staying with incredibly kind families who range from somewhat to very conservative and who are all evangelical. This reality is so far out of my experience, I just needed a break from it all. So, I skipped out on the two TV interviews, layed on my bed and watched a movie about black guys and white guys playing basketball together for the first time in Texas in the '60's. I listened to music and wrote in my journal and watched Rolene on TV. It was a good day.
It is very strange and pretty difficult to be on a journey that is both physical and spiritual. The difficult part is constantly adjusting to new people, places and things. The strange part is that while I am in a part of the world where everyone I meet is devoutly religious, I'm not sure how to relate my spiritual reality to/with them. We have very different assumptions about the world and I'm not sure how much to share about what I believe. I don't like feeling like people think I need saving because there is nothing about my spiritual path that has anything to do with "saving" myself or others. On that note, I don't feel a need to save them from their beliefs either, so I'm left in a funny place of realizing that it's assumed that I believe the same thing they do when I don't share my differing views. Partly, it's a language barrier--I don't even know how to have that kind of conversation in Spanish. Though, even with English speakers I am reluctant to have that conversation because...well, because it's tiring.
Hence, my time out today. I'm tired. After my break from the world, I'm feeling much better. I'm hoping/assuming I'll feel better tomorrow and will be willing to venture out into the world again.
I'm trying to both challenge myself and be gentle with myself...a hard balance to hold onto.
Send me happy and loving thoughts and I'll send some back to you all. Right now I'm going to go eat a pupusa. Yay!

Teculutan

With Christian Sosa from Chiquimula. He is really friendly and easy to be around and has helped us so much. He set up many many many activities for us when we get to Chiquimula. We're apparently being welcomed as distinguished guests by the mayor and governor and we'll be on the radio, on TV, talking to the University...surreal, to say the least. I'll let you know how it goes. Christian is taking me to some pretty town today while Rolene talks to a school or two.
The Quaker church we visited last night.
A monument by the side of the road to those lost in the big earthquake in 1976.
In general, Lain America has really compact cities. When we were leaving Guatemala City, we were only 10 miles from the center of town (population 3 million) and already in rolling hills with very few houses. But, Guatemala has discovered the wonders of gated suburbia...coming soon!
We walked 10 miles to find this world famous international night club...darn.




As you can see, our route has been pretty beautiful over the past few days. We are off the main highway, headed east towards Chiquimula. It's wonderful to have a break from the heavy traffic. Also, we're out of the big mountains and in warmer climates. It's sort of desert-y and sort of tropical, but whatever it is, it's hot. I love it! I was so tired of being cold, and it felt even colder than it probably was because we didn't expect to be that cold for that long.

After leaving the Nazarene seminary, we stayed at a nice hotel for two nights. It had a swimming pool, which was wonderful, considering our newfound heat. We are now staying with a family in Zacapa and have 4 days to do 2 days worth of walking, so we're relaxing for a bit.

Okey dokey, I think Christian is here to pick me up, so I'll sign off. "Talk" to you soon!

East of Guatemala City

From the road, of the road ahead.

Lots of barbed wire. I haven't been brave enough to take a picture of the many many armed security people carrying semi-automatics. We're not just talking outside of banks. These armed guys are at gas stations, stores, as passengers in delivery trucks--basically anywhere where money is handled and sometimes for no apparent reason. Not everything here is beautiful.

But many things are beautiful. We have been up in the highlands of Guatemala since we arrived. We're now at about 5,000 feet but we've been as high as 8,000 feet and the plants and trees are as they would be most anywhere at this elevation. We're headed to more tropical climates soon, but as of now, I'm wearing long underwear under my pants, a down jacket and a scarf. Bet you didn't imagine that I'd be cold on this trip, did you? Yeah, neither did I and I'm kind of over it.

Cute boys at a school Rolene talked at.

More kiddos.
During her talks Rolene asks the kids to raise their hand if they commit to planting ten trees, eliminating the use of gasoline in 10 years and praying or meditating for a beautiful, sustainable and peaceful earth for 10 minutes every Sunday evening. They almost always raise their hands, though the gasoline one doesn't always get unanimous support, especially from kids and universtiy students who are old enough to drive.


A payphone! When's the last time you saw someone using one of these? Not that it worked...


I'm a little afraid of heights and this bridge made me woozy, especially when big trucks would go by and the whole thing would shake.
Byron and Jonathan who painted the logo on the side of the truck. Byron was always that smiley.

We're leaving the Nazarene seminary today. We walked the last three days from Guatemala City towards Chiquimula, but the road started to get dangerously curvy and much of it had no shoulder. We're going to skip that section and go a bit further ahead and then walk backwards for a couple days, if there's safe road to walk on. Rolene's friend Chirstian Sosa is joining us today and walking for the next week, when we'll arrive in Chiquimula (where Christian lives, and the place with all the Guatemalan Quakers).

Hope all is well back home!

Little post from la ciudad

Just a quick note, with no pictures.
We are now walking between Guatemala City and Chiquimula. Each kilometer brings us away from the city and therefore away from the heavy traffic, which is nice. There were moments (of about 10 seconds) today where there wasn't a big truck or car passing us. It was heavenly--to breathe without fumes, to have no chance of being hit, to hear ourselves think for a bit. It's very loud on the highway. It would be nice if there were reliable and safe rural roads to walk on, but the highway is the only way we can reliably know where we are and that we are safe, relatively speaking of course. There just aren't side roads that go the same direction as the highway, so it's what we've got. Also, there's not much camping here in Guatemala. Rolene did a lot of camping in Mexico, but camping is not common here and certainly not close to where we need to be. We've mostly stayed in people's homes with a few nights in hotels and in the truck. Right now we are staying in the dorms at a Nazarene Seminary, of all places.
We talked to a school today, middle school aged. They were very sweet and mostly attentive and then crowded around us to talk and ask questions. I'll post pictures next time, maybe even later tonight. Later, alligators!

Parramos

These pictures come to you by way of my new camera. I had a fun adventure in Guatemala City, comparing prices and talking to clerks in several stores, before finding the one I wanted and could afford. I think electronics prices are more expensive here than in the US. I´m not just talking about standard of living but that I paid more US dollars than I would have back home. Doesn´t seem fair, does it?

The buses are...full. Rolene snapped this picture before another 10 people got on. I know that people who have travelled in India, Latin America, Egypt, etc all have stories about crazy buses and overly fully taxis, so this may not impress anyone. But, this bus was made to comfortably seat 36 people, plus the driver. I counted 75, not including babies in arms. It wouldn´t be so bad if we were going straigh at a resonable speed, but instead we´re going really fast around mountain curves.

These next three are in Antigua, a beautiful colonial town pretty close to Guatemala City. It was the original capital at some point. There are ruins and crumbling churchs and convents all over the place. There are lots and lots of ex-pats in Antigua and lots of tourists so I saw more non-Guatemalan people than I have since the SF airport. This was strange, but honestly it was also nice to be anonymous (we had this some in Panajachel, but even more here) for a few days. Also, the friend we stayed with, Martha (an ex-pat Quaker from New York) took us out to Indian food. It was wonderful.

This is in the courtyard of the Hotel Santo Domingo, the only 5 star hotel in Guatemala and the Clintons stayed here, or so I´ve heard. The hotel is built around the ruins of this church and there is now a covered area where mass is still held. It´s hard to say how gorgeous this place was.

There was also a museum at the hotel, but it was closed when we got there. We snuck into one room though, and it had skeleton remains under glass and then this big pile of bones in the corner.

With Carolina, sister of Jaime, who works at the Mayan Scholarship fund in Parramos. She walked with us for a few days.

A pretty farm between Chimaltenengo and Guatemala City.

A recently clear cut hill. Not sure why I included this one.

The highway we are walking on, with more trees and less fumes than usual.

¨Oooh, a ditch...great!¨

From near the shot of the highway--that´s Guatemala City out there. population 3 million, I think.

Didn´t mean to put this twice. I don´t like ditches that much.

On the walk between Parramos and Antigua.

Typical cemetery--lots of color, tucked in behind some trees right next to the road.

A sometimes-still-active volcano, with corn planted up the side of the hill.

The sign says ¨No dumping garbage.¨ This is an especially bad section of road, garbage wise...though there are many especially bad sections.

I just like this one.

It´s been a week or so since I last posted, which makes it hard to remember what has happened. I´m sure it´ll come to me. I´m feeling a little better now but I´m pretty cranky today. I´m a little homesick and a little stir crazy because we haven´t walked in three days and a little frustrated about trying to buy my plane ticket from Costa Rica to Mexico City (the old plan was that I´d come home from Costa Rica, but I realized I was scheduled to go to a Quaker thing in Monterrey in early May and then found out my friend from Mexico City, Betty, is getting married May 8th so I´m coming home via Mexico City May 9th).

A few further explainations--

homesick: I actually miss you all less acutely than I did the first couple weeks (this does not mean that you should stop writing to me!) but I miss feeling comfortable. I´m not constantly uncomfortable, but I´m also not home. I miss knowing the people around me and not having to explain to a disbelieving audience what I´m doing. I miss knowing where I´m going to be tomorrow and eating food I recognize. I think I got a little spoiled in Antigua because we were staying in Martha´s beautiful an comfortable home and hanging out with other people from the States and eating good food. I´m anxious to get walking but it´s also a bit of a letdown to come back from our mini-vacation. I love going on these adventures and I´m eternally grateful for the support I´ve been given to have these opportunities, but I´m also realizing that I basically like being at home and won´t mind staying put for a while once I get back.

stir crazy: it´s Tuesday and we haven´t walked since Saturday. It was nice to have a couple days off to relax in Antigua and we happened to be there for the monthy Quaker meeting in town. But, we were supposed to come back to Parramos this morning to pick up the truck and head to the east side of Guatemala City (we´re not walking through the city because too many people have warned us that it´s too dangerous) and start walking again. Jaime´s brother is painting the Walk With Earth logo on the side of the truck and he´s not done so we have to stay here another night. We´ll be moving tomorrow so if we might not have time to walk. Oh well. I´m having a hard time going with the flow today so I kind of want to throw a temper tantrum but I guess I won´t.

frustrated: i´m going to try to buy my ticket again after I write this, but if it still doesn´t work I might just have that temper tantrum.

So, we walked between Chimaltenengo and Guatemala City and to Antigua and when we start walking again we´ll be going about a hundred miles to Chiquimula where there´s a bunch of Quakers. Those of you who are of the Quaker persuasion know that there´s more than one kind of Quaker, but as it turns out, many of you aren´t Quakers. I´m not going to go into the history, but I´ll just say that there have been splits in Quakerism and there are a few different branches. The Quakers in Latin America and Africa are almost entirely Evangelical Quakers. You might be thinking, ¨but wait, Quakers don´t proseltize!¨ Well, the branch I´m a part of doesn´t and many people believe ¨my¨Quakers are about as similar to the evangelical ones as we are to conservative Presbyterians. So, going to the Quaker churches here is very different and very interesting. I´m pretty good at finding similarities to focus on and I have some practice with the skill of spiritual translation (where I try to hear the part I relate to and to figure out how their words could mean something for me even though they are so different than my words).

I´m sure there´s specific stories from the days we walked but I can´t remember them now. I mostly day dream for the 3 or 4 hours that we walk each day. I think part of the stir-crazy is that I haven´t had sufficient time to run around in my own head!

I´ll write again soonish, though I´ve heard that it´s less populated between Guat. City and Chiquimula so there may be less internet cafes. I promise to be safe, so don´t worry!