Angela gets a life

Mom and I have changed our plans to go to Belize instead of Mexico, which makes a lot more sense. It’s safer and more touristy which is exactly what we’re going for with this trip! (Good food, a pool, margaritas and sightseeing were the basic criteria.) Plus, it’s English, so that’ll make it a even bigger break for me and that way I don’t have to [attempt to] translate everything.

So, I got a life! Thanks to Alesandro, an Italian with a masters in International Human Rights. The Italian government hired him to work here two years ago and he came back to visit and do some research for a week. (Apparently there is almost no information on the genocide/civil war in Italy.) We met at the office, he invited me out for beer and, voila, Angela has a life. Wednesday, he talked to me about his experience here, mostly in English. He didn’t speak any Spanish before coming here and had some really low times missing home, so it was nice to hear from someone who semi-understands what I’m going through now.

Talking to him also confirmed what will probably be my research topic. IDS-ers, be prepared to laugh, I’m prepared to be mocked...Social Capital. Uh huh. La capital social. After complaining about it for two years, I’m seriously considering investing two years of my life to researching and writing about it. I’ll go more into what I’m thinking about doing later on in an entry that people who are easily bored can skip, haha. Fingers crossed I can convince a certain prof to be my supervisor...

He invited me to meet the family that has basically adopted him as their own, so on Thursday I went by for lunch. Jennifer, an Italian who lives at a sister cooperative who I met a few weeks ago through Valentina, her boyfriend, Paolo, and Claudia, a friend who came with Alesandro, were all there as well. It was really nice to hang out with other people in their twenties, drinking beer and eating tortillas, french fries (SO GOOD), guacamole, broccoli and chicken. We hung out with the family and the children (whose names I’ve forgotten because I’m a bad person) who were extremely sweet. They’re very friendly, welcoming people and I plan on going back to talk to them more.

We went to the comedor (small restaurant) for coffee and met up with a couple from Spain who Alesandro randomly met in his travels and invited to the Cooperativa. Then Valentina joined up. It’s a great mix because most of them have a decent grasp of English, so we talk in Spanish but when I lose them or can’t find the right Spanish words, I can switch into English without much of a problem. They’ve been great at not speaking much Italian, although that threw me off for a while at some point because it sounded so similar (to me) to Spanish. (Although now that I’m used to their Spanish accents, I’ve got it down! Ish.) I was so bummed I didn’t understand a whole conversation until I realized they were speaking Italian! Never having been to Europe and having a generally shitty grasp of geography leaves me out of the loop a bit, but all in all, I’m having to contain my excitement at having some semblance of a life.

Right now, I can’t sleep at all –it’s almost 5 am and I’ve given up and decided to pull an all-nighter. We got back around 1:30. We went to a restaurant in Flores where Alesandro played guitar to the waitresses on the balcony, getting us free chicken soup (slightly random) and their attention all night. After dinner, he pulled out the guitar again and the Italians played a show! For hours they sang Italian and Spanish songs and I swear, in all of my former-singer snobbery, it was all amazing. There was a table of Guatemalans and a Filipina (we had a momentary bond) beside us who sang along when they could and danced and clapped through the whole thing. It was a really amazing experience and I had a blast, even though I only managed to join in on one chorus that wasn’t even real words, haha.

So this night was the best I’ve had in Guatemala. Except...after we closed down the restaurant, we went for a walk to the lake. Alesandro and the Spanish guy (the only one whose name I don’t know! Maria’s man??) went swimming in the lake. I sat down on the dock and my phone popped out of my pocket right away! And, of course, it didn’t land in the water where they were swimming but in a nice bed of weeds. And it didn’t float. Thus the early blog update since I had to come back into town to buy a new phone this morning. 3 times this week in Santa Elena...too much! Fortunately phones are cheap here and I only had about $20 of credit on the phone. Meh. Worth it for the night! Plus the Europeans were all very generous and wouldn’t let me pay more than Q20 ($2.60) for my beer. It semi-evens out, haha.

And now, at 5am, lying on my sweet hammock (I’m waiting for a good time to get a picture of my set up. I think I’m going to wait until I have the whole thing complete –I need to buy a fan to aim at the hammock and then I’m ready!), I’m reading an undergrad paper about Nuevo Horizonte. Research is much more fun from a pink hammock :) And now at 5:15, I’ve seen my first Guatemalan sunrise.