Guatemala Entry Four
Lice Soup and Warrior Tales Distributed to an email list and published online (2010) There are moments when I travel when I feel incredibly sexy. My hair, even though it may be unwashed, seems to flip a certain way. My traveling clothes, also unwashed, seem to suit me better than anything cleaner and more stylish, and my backpack is the icing on my cake, more of a trophy than either sapphire or gold. On those days, I feel exotic knowing that to the people whose lives I am passing through, whether they be German or Guatemalan, I am different … foreign. Yesterday was not one of those days. I felt it in my lungs when I was wheezing for air with a lower respiratory infection and it was confirmed when I saw little bugs squirming on my hair brush. No, it...
Guatemala Entry Three
Parenting at Casa Guatemala Distributed to an email list and published online (2010) Inoticed her picture in line. We were all headed to school and she was fingering a little piece of paper, looking down at it without speaking. The air around her was heavy, and once I read the inscription I saw why. On the top of the crayola coloring of a princess were the words: “To my pretty mama.” The handwriting was childish chicken scratch, the kind most parents prize and put up on the refrigerator. I connected the picture with what she had asked me the night before as she was getting ready for bed. “When’s Mother’s Day?” When she’d asked I’d simply said some time in May, I wasn’t sure of the exact date. I...
Guatemala Entry Two
The Great Morning Routine Distributed to an email list and published online (2010) Ilay in bed listening to the pitter patter of feet across the hardwood floor. The stillness of the morning is broken by first one giggle and then another. I glance at my watch sleepily. It’s only 5:45 am and we have another 30 minutes before we have to be up. I hear Eleni cry to the girls from her bed, “Todo el mundo a la cama!” The feet scurry and scamper and I hear blankets being tossed as girls leap into their beds. The atmosphere is like Christmas morning but it is only Saturday. I love Saturday mornings here at Casa Guatemala; we get an extra hour of sleep. Monday through Friday, Eleni and I wake the girls up at 5 am. We both set our alarms so we don’t...
Guatemala Entry One
The Death of a Friend and the Beginning of an Adventure Distributed to an email list and published online (2010) Iwasn’t even aware that the bus had stopped to pick up another passenger. Maybe it didn’t. But suddenly there was a man in the aisle talking to me in Spanish, asking if the seat next to me was taken. His eyes were the distant eyes of a blind person, otherwise he may have caught the slightly panicked expression on my face. He had caught me in the very moment I was congratulating myself on that empty seat. Twenty minutes earlier, as I boarded the bus, I had eyed the foreign men warily, hoping and praying that one would not sit next to me. I had heard stories about ‘gringo’ women being bothered by curious and amorous...