Guatemala Again

Yeah, okay, Ben wanted me to write about Guatemala, and has been annoying me about it for several weeks. Here it goes. It might be a tad bit of personal arrogance on my part, but part of me was actually kinda surprised that the place was still there despite me not being there for a year. I mean, I know it sounds trivial, but this realization actually meant a lot to me. First of all, all of the crappiness that I saw there the first time was still there when I went this week. It would seem to follow that it is still there now. The thing is, it will always be there. I can leave, but it does that life there is any different. People are still struggling to eat, they have no real chance for social betterment, they still live in corn stalk houses surrounded by garbage that never gets cleaned up. They still hike several miles into the mountains to work on a small plot of coffee trees or to gather wood. I guess all of this never really hit me when the experience was new and exciting. Of course, I realized it, it just never sank in until this time around. As a result of this, I guess, I started noticing the Church more and gained a newfound respect for the priests there who are working to make a difference, giving their lives, and in at least one case literally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Rother (Kinda like Oscar Romero, but not killed in mass, and wasn't an archbishop).
Okay, so that was the over-exaggerated white guilt part of me. Honestly, its not all that bad, and people there are on the whole surprisingly happy with life. And its seriously a fun place to visit. The people who I went with this year were a lot more fun to be with, and I was a lot closer to all of them. It was also Holy Week, so we really didn't do that much "work", we kinda just chilled and watched the processions, which was cool. We went around the lake in a boat a couple of days, and shopping, where I bought hammocks, a blanket, and a few other things. It was all pretty cheap, of course. We went to this really sketchy bar one night, that was fun, but I swear, Guatemalans are the lamest partiers ever. It was mostly just guys, and they all just sat around being nervous around the handful of women or drunk off their asses. We were the life of that bar. The band was playing American and British songs from the 70's. It was pretty sweet. We went hiking up the mountains a couple of time, and seriously can't wait to hike a lot more. This summer, guys: hiking. Seriously. Cynda is the only one with a valid excuse not to hike. The last night, we ate tacos from some really sketchy street vendors. I think I got a little sick as a result, but totally worth it. Um, so yeah. That was pretty much it. I'll put pictures up eventually.