I was just about to write, “today was eventful as the past days,” which is in some respect true, but I have discovered that not a day goes by in Guatemala without some special flavor belonging to it.
Today, I was out of my hotel room at 8am with my jogging gear on. I have realized that jogging is an alien activity to Guatemalans. The locals look at me run by them with a look of incomprehension on their face. At one point during my jog, I found myself two Guatemalan boys carrying baskets of coffee beams. Once the saw me, they started running away from me. I realized that I, “the gringo,” had scared them, so I slowed down my pace until they were out of sight.
My jog took me to the top of the mountain again, where I found myself out of breath in the middle of the town square. At this hour, there was a group of traditional Mayan women sitting round idle with their children. I walked a bit around the town square until I found a vacant playground. Perfect! I thought to myself. This was an opportunity for me to work out.
Without thinking twice, I was on the monkey bars doing some pull ups. Before I knew it, I found two Mayan children, a boy and a girl, creep up from behind me. At first, they seemed apprehensive to approach me, but after smiling welcomingly at them, they were in the playground. The stood two feet away from me, watching with curiosity as I pulled my chin above the bar. When I got off the bars for a rest, the two kids jumped up on it. The swung from bar to bar more adeptly than monkeys would. The whole time they had their eyes on me and a wide smile across their face, as if to show me their skill. The whole time, I played along, gasping and blurting out, “Ohh” or “Ahh” as if to show interest (besides these were the only words I could utter as I don’t speak Katchikal, the local Mayan language). The whole time, these two kids kept giggling. It seemed as if they were having the time of their lives! It was such an endearing experience.
The next thing I knew, a flock of new kids crept into the playground. As much as I would have loved to have entertained them by having entertain me, I had a work out to finish, so I said my “Adios!” and descended the mountain. I finished my jog by running westward along the shore of the lake, about a mile from the hotel, where I stopped for a break, did some pushups, and then was back on the path back to the hotel.
Upon my arrival to the hotel, I was glad to run into the hotel owner, who can’t seem to remember my name so she calls me “Mohamed,” which I don’t mind. It was gratifying for her to give me a thumb up for working out. I had the usual “Chapin” for breakfast and showered.
My group and I met at 10 am to discuss our plan of action for the day. Today we would meet Paulina, our liaison, who would work on the ground with the community in our absence. We prepared the tasks that we would delegate to her over breakfast.
The girls in our group decided to go shopping in Panajachel (aka Pana), a relatively touristy site on the lake near Santa Cruz. Since the boys would just lounge around at the hotel, I decided to tag a long with the girls to experience more of Guatemalan life.
At 11am, we boarded a “launch” across the lake. I enjoyed sitting at the head of the boat and having the wind caress my face; it was such a refreshing experience. I snapped a couple of shots once more. It’s amazing how this lake has 12 grades of beauty, each for the hour of the day.
A shot from the boat ride
In Pana, I just followed the girls around as they penetrated the different alleys of town in the quest to check off all the items on their shopping list. At first, it was fun seeing the different handicrafts and embroideries on sale, but after a while I was bored to death. It reminded me of when I’m forced to go shopping with Mom. But shopping is definitely a way of experiencing Guatemalan culture. The Guatemalan bargainers always keep their cool and it’s always the foreigners who lose it. I enjoyed watching this dramatic interaction.
Some photos from Pana:
After our shopping expedition, in which I failed to find anything to buy, we visited the Pana church once more and I tried to span a couple of photographic shots since we had the leisure of strolling around the church square for a while.
At around 1pm, we rendezvoused with the rest of our group members. Over lunch, we discussed our plan of action with the community leaders tomorrow. We met Paulina and acquainted her with our project. Our project is segmented into phases. For the first three months, we will monitor the community’s hygiene habits. After that, we will introduce a hygiene education program and monitor the effect of this program on their habits and rate of sickness. After we educate the community members, we shall introduce a the filtration system to see if that plays any significant role in reducing their rate of illness. So that’s our project in a nutshell.
After our meeting with Paulina, we returned to the hotel. Since we had the rest of the day off, I took my book and sat on the dock. I’ve decided to re-read the Bhagavad-Gita since I don’t think I grasped many important aspects of its message after initially reading through it.
As I sat on the dock, with the sun setting behind the volcanoes in the backdrop, I began to question many of my existentialist notions about life and reality. What I inferred from the Gita is that we have different levels of awareness. “Maya” is the level of awareness that represents what we perceive to be “reality.” In this reality, we perceive everything to be discrete and separated, even though the Gita claims that everything is unitive and undivided. In essence, life is merely a dream, and death and the hereafter is the awakening from that dream. The reason we perceive the world as discontinous is because of the limitations of our mind’s senses. Whoever realizes this limitation and believes that God has everything and lacks nothing will “desire nothing else [than God] and cannot be shaken by the heaviest burden of sorrow.” Life, then, becomes an opportunity to give, serve, and love every living creature.
My view of the lake while reading the Gita:
This reading session really moved me, especially since I was sitting on a dock facing the lake. There was something really magical about the sunset. Its beauty radiated the feeling that God was signaling to me that what I’d read was as divine as His message.
The day ended with a scrumptious Guatemalan meal at the Iguana. Its 10pm and I think I’m going to hit the hay. I intend to wake up around 7:30 am for a yoga lesson at 8am tomorrow morning. Since the lesson will be on the lake, I am sure it would perfectly complement my latest readings of the Gita.
Good night for now!
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