Experiences

We have had some great experiences here in San Pedro. The town is very loud and seems to never sleep, but we have somehow figured out how to finally get some sleep. There is a large festival going on now that only happens once a year and there are many very loud fireworks (bombas) going off all day long and into the late night. It is quite frightening to hear it in the middle of a deep sleep or while concentrating during Spanish class. People here seem to see only dollar signs on the gringos who come through here. Everywhere we go, the locals are trying to get us to buy some of their goods, whether materials, or drums, or bread (pan, which there is SO much of). The first day that we were here, we wanted to go to a hotel called Hotel San Francisco that we had read about in the Lonely Planet guidebook. Two guys who were standing by the dock when we landed and offered to take us there. The town has many steep hills and we were huffing and puffing trying to walk up the steep streets to the hotel (well, I was anyway). When we finally got there, there seemed to be more than one Hotel San Francisco. There were many people all trying to pull us into their hotels, which were all connected together anyway. We finally settled on one, but they were all pretty much the same. It was not very nice, but also only $6 per night for both of us! We only stayed there for one night. That day, we saw that someone had written in paint, ´Go home Gringos'. We didn't feel overly welcome and thought that maybe living with a family would help our views. More on the city - it is a highly religious town. Although all of the locals here are from Mayan descent, and in the last few hundred years, there have been many missionaries who have come here and brought their religions. The two religions in town now are Catholic (of which there is one church) and Protestant (of which there are 16 churches). You see signs written all over the town that say, for example 'Smile, God loves you' and similar phrases. The father in the family we are living with is a pastor at one of the Protestant churches. There are a lot of tourists here, but they are mostly all taking Spanish classes and many living with families, so it has a feel of a very local town. Only one small part of the town has toursity things and the rest is very residential. We have seen a resentment also to gringos owning restaurants here. There are signs that say to go to only locally owned restaurants so that the locals can profit from it.

We have enjoyed living with the family here. It is not the most comfortable place we have stayed and certainly not the most quiet, but it is giving us a great experience. Some things in particular that we have noticed are.... The hours that they stay awake here seem much different than in the US. For example, even the 8 year old girl stays up until midnight making plenty of noise and playing. They all stay awake until about midnight and seem to get up around 7 or 8. During meals, which is the main time that we spend with them, not everyone eats at the same time and there is not a lot of conversation happening. They have a TV and that is usually on during the meals. The house is a very simple accomodation made of painted brick walls and steel doors to the rooms. There is one open courtyard in the center where dishes, clothes and pretty much anything else that needs to be washed is done so. There is one bathroom for all of the family and any students staying there. The mother works all day from about 7 in the morning until midnight, without ever really resting. She is constantly cleaning the dishes or clothes or cooking or making things to sell to make more money. She is always in either the courtyard or the kitchen. I am amazed at her style of life - it seems terrible! But she seems happy enough and is very sweet to us. She does not have a dishwasher or even a washing machine for the clothes, so everything is done by hand. The husband definitely rules the house and everyone seems to do his chores for him. It is definitely not a lifestyle that I would want to live in. This family is very poor, but still appears to be more well off than many families around here. In our house, there are two sides. The mother on our side and her family and the mother's sister on the other side and her family. Their parents owned the house and the two children have stayed there and raised their families. The family on the other side is much more poor and does not have the amenities like at our side. For example, they do not have a refrigerator or oven and do not even have much clean water. It is very intersting to see the differences. The father on our side has a brother who has come over a lot in the last couple of days. He actually lived in San Diego for a while and talked to us a lot about it. He is even going to Washington DC next week. For the most part, though, I think it is very difficult to ever leave here. The younger generation seems to want to leave, but they do not see that it is a possibility at all. I am learning a lot about the lifestyle here from my Spanish teacher during the day. Keep in mind that any conversations here with locals, including the teachers are all in Spanish. I guess we ARE getting better!

I had a great time last night playing with the youngest girl in our house, Sara (called Sarita by the family since she is the youngest), who is 8. There are also two other children, an older daughter and son. Sarah took a liking to us when Scott kicked the soccer ball with her a couple of days ago. After dinner last night, I played with her with a basketball and then played hide and seek (escondite in Spanish). She loved the game as much as any other child I have seen. After I got tired of that, she just sat next to me. It seemed like she just wanted to be close to me. She kept just smiling up at me. I attempted to talk to her as much as I could in my broken Spanish. She drew me a picture and talked a little about what she liked to do. She started drumming on something and I asked her if she liked drums. She said no, but that she had another instrument. We went into her tiny hole in the wall room and she pulled out an instrument that looked a lot like a xylophone with all of the necessary notes. The first song she played was the famous French one that we have all heard called 'Frère Jacques', but she sang it in Spanish. She also played some others that I didn't know. I played 'Mary Had a Little Lamb', but she didn't know that song. I also played 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' and she knew the tune but not the words. I translated the words for her into Spanish and she was playing and singing it for me. She is a super cute little girl.

We are learning a lot about the people and their culture here. For example, they all speak not only Spanish, but also their indiginous languages. However, this is not taught in the schools and so the younger generation does not speak much of this other language. It seems that it will not last a lot longer here.

I am sure that there will be some culture shock for me when I return home, but I am very happy to have these experiences that I will keep with me always in my memory. We are amazingly lucky to be able to experience everything that we are. I hope you are all happy and healthy back home. Please be incredibly grateful for everything that you have in your daily lives, because most people in the world can not ever experience the livestyles of most of us. Yes, we work hard for what we have, but we are also amazingly fortunate to be born where we are and have the opportunities that we have.