Friday we had no school— the town
feria, a very loud, firecracker-filled fair in honor of Pana's patron saint, Francis of Assisi, started Wednesday and continued through Sunday night— and so I took the opportunity to skip town and four hours by shuttle to Guatemala City. Though living here has many charms, I do miss many aspects of living in a city. Friends I've made who live there very kindly arranged to satisfy two particular cravings I've had since moving here: going to a movie and having Indian food. And so Friday night, after dropping off my things at my friend's apartment in Zone 14, we endured the worst traffic I've ever encountered (and I've endured my share of steering wheel-pounding traffic on I-90 throughout New England...) to see a French movie in a cineplex in an honest-to-God sprawling commercial mall (which was the most technologically advanced I'd ever seen, complete with stoplights in the parking garage and assigned seats in the movie theater...!). I got orange soda and nachos with no-natural-ingredients nacho cheese just because I could. The movie was in French with Spanish subtitles, and had a few lines of heavily-accented Australian English, and so was a considerable linguistic workout (though I was very proud of myself for understanding everything, save an occasional reference to particular French cuisine); I felt I earned my dinner, which was at a lovely Italian restaurant on the ground floor, surrounded by a truly random smattering of (semi-)familiar chains (Tommy Hilfiger, United Colors of Benetton, Naturalizer...)
The next day, I met up with a woman who I haven't seen since 2009, when we were both living in New Orleans. She has been a missionary in Guatemala City since 2010, and hearing about her experiences— both Guatemala-specific ones, and ones more related to being a missionary (whose living expenses and teaching salary are funded entirely by Christians in the U.S.)— were fascinating. We then took (cover your ears, Mom!!) her motorcycle to Zone 16, where I met up with two friends and went on a truly spectacular hike through a very lush, very un-urban spot right in the middle of the all the urban sprawl. That night, we had Indian food, which was... unlike any Indian food I've had ever, but it satisfied a craving two months in the making, and then returned to my host's house and played bilingual Bananagrams.
Sunday I had lunch with friends, spent more time in a mall (a different, but equally technologically advanced, mall), and then came back to Pana. And here I am, having survived yet another day in school. Today one of my students spilled his entire lunch in his backpack; while investigating this, I found several days' worth of missing homework, balled up at the bottom, now covered in mayonnaise.
Oy.
Watch out for the next post, on cultural differences, misunderstandings, and things about this place that are just plain weird.
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