Bring out your dead! (So they can come to the graduation)

My wife put her post in, but since I am in procrastinating field notes, I thought I would add my two cents. First off, contrary to popular opinion, taking your pregnant wife and two small children to a rural town in Guatemala is not as crazy as it may seem to many of you. On the contrary, our move here has been much easier, friendly, and hassle free than most of the other moves we have made. It helps that I had already made some great friends here who have spoiled us rotten. While we may not be surrounded by some of the US conveniances we enjoy (safe water, reliable internet and electricity, heating, grocery stores), this has been more than offset by how hospitable and kind people in Nahuala are. Our rent is less than a hundred dollars a month, and most things are either cheaper or the same price we would pay in the states. The kids so far are healthy and having a lot of fun. Lucy had a hard time transitioning at first but is doing really well, and is still her plucky cheerful self. Levi is enjoying being outside a lot more and really likes to play around in the patio of our house with his toy cars. People have been wonderful to us, and especially to the kids. It is normal to come in and visit without making plans and the kids get a lot more play time in with peers than they did back home. People in Nahuala really love chidlren and enjoy the novelty of two gringo kids in town. In all of this Becky and I ask ourselves if we would be willing to do the following things for newly moved in friends:

1. Provide a week of temporary housing for free

2. baby sit children

3. help with house repairs, make our wash machine available

4. cook numerous meals

5. dontate kitchen ware and furniture

6. pick up house supplies and groceries

7. invite them to numerous social activities

8. And a bunch of other things I forgot to list.

Given our collevitive mormon upbringing we would both like to think we would be willing to do most of those things, but there would probably come a point where it would seem really difficult, we would want our space, and we would start complaining. Even considering our own cultural and religious backgrounds, this has been overwhelming. We are truly doing our best to be good self-sufficient Mormon types with plans to go on our own, but we are finding it difficult to avoid complete dependence on the generosity of our friends. So we spend a lot of our time thinking of ways to reciprocate all of this good will but our friends have been keeping us very much in their debt. It is amazing how many things I don't know how to do that people here are very capable of: basic electrical work, masonry, carpentry, cooking over a wood stove, plumbing, etc. Skills that our generation is embarrissingly deficient in, at least I am. While Guatemala is currently dealing with a myriad of political and economic problems, I am amazed at how resiliant people are despite and perhaps because of many of the challenges that they face.

Anyway, things are going good so far. Of course there are challenges and in many ways I knew what to expect coming here. I am hoping my project will run smoothly and that my K'iche' will approach fluency sooner rather than later. This time of year people celebrate All Saints Day (similar to Mexico's Dia de los Muertos) and are currently hosting graduations. Here are some pictures I took from the cemetary.

This is the altar in the cemetary where Maya day keepers or Aq'ijaab' pray to their ancestors and give offerings of candles, sugar, and liqour. Unlike other Maya communities, the activities of these ritual specialists in Nahuala are fairly limited and tend to go on underground.

This is a picture from the cemetary where people decorate their relatives' graves. It is a bit of a carnival atmosphere, and the kites (which you can't quite see) are flown in the cemetary to call the spirits of the dead from heaven. During the day a mass is held in the cemetary where all of the people who died that year in the town are mentioned. We have also been to a lot of graduations. I have been to four in the last week. Among the families I have lived with three kids graduated from elementary school, one from middle school, a high school graduation, and a friend of mine got his master's in engineering. So that has taken up some time and we have consumed lots of fried chicken, which is traditional party food here. In Nahuala graduations are very festive, parents escort their children up to the stage, presents are given, lots of recognition of God and family, and much more formal than our rowdy US version. This has been pretty useful for my research so I have tried to take note of the things mentioned in speeches.

It has been a pretty eventful week! I promise that the kids are doing all kinds of cute things and we will probably put more pictures of them on here when we can. Like Becky mentioned it is a pain to download images. But hopefully this was of some interest to you. Keep in touch with us and we will do our best to do the same. I know what you are all asking though, "What! no pictures of Becky and the kids?!" So here is one of them waiting for me get a car to pick them up on our way to Nahuala, the kids didn't quite make it. I can't tell you how grateful I am to be married to someone who is willing to share in this adventure with me. Becky and the kids have been real troopers. I promise there will be more to come. Cha' bej chik'!