“Una Zancuda”

My teacher last week was named Mónica. She was another young lady a few years older than I am and she really enjoyed disregarding grammar lessons in order to chat. She told me that I really need to start talking more because I understand enough Spanish; I just need to gain confidence in conversation. We also started the subjunctive form, which is very difficult because it deals with the possibility of an action, rather than the certainty of it. Before having Mónica I hadn’t been aware that people who speak other languages have “pet phrases” also. Every few minutes or so, Mónica would burst out in “¡En serio!” (Seriously!) if I would tell her something the least bit interesting.

I must say that we did have some good chats—when we weren’t being interrupted by the rats scurrying around the crevices in the stone wall. She told me a few of the traditional stories of Guatemala, including some really superstitious ones from Antigua. Apparently there is a spirit lady in a white robe that has a very beautiful figure and floats around the fountain in el parque central at night, waiting to tempt drunken men. When the men pull her hair back to give her a kiss, they discover that she has the face of a horse. There is another story about a different phantom woman who is looking for her two children that drowned in a river not far from Antigua. If you can hear her crying very close by it means that she is far away; if you can hear her crying far away it means that she is very close by.

Mónica also told me a traditional story about Lake Atitlan. Around 3:00 in the afternoon every day, the waves become choppier and it is harder for the smaller boats to cross. The story goes that a long, long time ago there were different pueblos around the lake—like there are now—though at that time there was a lot of rivalry and confrontation between the different civilizations. One of the pueblos had a prince, and one had a princess. Somehow they met, fell in love, and ran off together to live on the other side of the lake. Unfortunately, they were discovered by the princess’ civilization and they were taken back to her pueblo. The prince should have been executed for such a crime, but the princess begged for his life to be spared, as did the other pueblo. The king agreed not to kill the prince but to keep him detained in prison. After a number of years the prince escaped from his jail cell and took off with the princess once more. This time they were not prepared for the harsh conditions of the wild, so the prince suggested that he sneak into a pueblo to get food and sufficient clothing. He told the princess to wait for him in a certain location, but the prince took so long that the princess got up to search for him. When the prince did come back and discovered that the princess was gone, he dropped everything and began searching for her. They both died of hunger and cold in the wild, clinging to the hope of finding each other. The Guatemaltecos say that when the waves of Lake Atitlan become choppier around 3:00 in the afternoon it is because the prince and princess are playing in the water.

Mónica and I also talked about the differences in our beliefs. It was uplifting to be able to share my faith in a different language, especially when Mónica would say, “¡Ah! Yo entiendo” (“Oh! I understand”) after I finished explaining something specific. Mónica is very open that she is a “Catholic” who doesn’t practice Catholicism because she disagrees with some practices of the church. Unfortunately, it’s not because she has a higher understanding of the gospel, but more that she doesn’t like the hypocrisy. She tells me that she believes there is no hell; that earth is the inferno and we will all go to heaven. I listened to her reasoning, but explained that La Biblia clearly identifies hell as an eternal destination for people who don’t believe in Jesus as Savior. She did admit that she hasn’t read the Bible for herself. I now leave my testimony in God’s hands, hoping that the seed I planted will take root!

On Monday of last week Ali and I were served a traditional Guatemalan meal called, El Caldo de Mariscos (Seafood Soup). It consisted of a whole fish, a crab, and prawns in a vegetable broth. It was pretty tricky to eat, especially because of the lack of visual appeal, but the meat was fresh and tender and thankfully didn’t taste too fishy. I did manage to take a couple pictures.

For much of the week Ali and I suffered from some extremely itchy bites we received when horseback riding. Jim had told us that they were from a coffee fly and that if we left them alone they would go away pretty quickly. This turned out to be incorrect, because all of our bites swelled up. Mónica was convinced that I was allergic to mosquitos, and Betty and Wilma were concerned that I had been bitten by a horse fly. Betty picked a lemon from the tree in the garden, cut it in half, and applied it to my bites to relieve the itching. As she was doing so she asked me if I had bitten by “un zancudo” or “una zancuda” (a mosquito or “a mosquito”). It took me a while to figure out the joke…

We tried a couple new restaurants last week. One is called the Sunshine Grill and it is run by a man originally from Guatemala who moved to Canada and obtained Canadian citizenship. Now he is back in Guatemala operating a restaurant that serves mostly Italian dishes: pizzas, spaghettis, lasagnas, calzones. (Go figure?) Ali and I went with two new friends that are from Belize, one of the neighboring countries of Guatemala. Although I didn’t know this before, Belize used to be a colony of Britain and the official language is English. Patrick and Analisa are cousins and they are studying Spanish at PLFM for three weeks. We split a delicious pizza between the four of us.

Kayla and Michael introduced us to a little juice café on the other side of the park called La Pataya. (Pataya is a bright purple fruit that we have been served only once at breakfast. It is the fruit of a cactus plant, and surprisingly sweet!) Unfortunately the café didn’t actually sell any juices that use the pataya fruit. I got a licuado de piña, fresa, y mora (pineapple, strawberry and blackberry smoothie) that was absolutely unbelievable.

On Thursday we played another game of football. This time there were a lot more students and we were much more evenly matched. It was a good game, but my team lost again. It seems that we are starting a habit of playing every Thursday afternoon, so maybe next time I’ll be on the winning team.

Yo sé que mi escrito ha sido un poco tarde. ¡Lo siento! Mucho ha ocurrido, pero no es posible que yo escriba cada día a causa de yo tengo mucha tarea cada noche.

(I know that my writing has been a little late. I’m sorry. A lot has happened, but I am not able to write every day because I have a lot of homework every night.)

¡Ojalá que toda mi familia esté sana! (I hope that all of my family is healthy!)

¡Hasta luego!

“The word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.”

Psalm 33:4 – 5