Settling in

Written April 2nd 2008
I made it to my site. So far, everything is great. I am just having a hard time believing that I will actually be living here for the next two years. In short, life is waaaay different. Too many things have already happened for me to tell, so here is one story that I think is a little funny. My little house (which you´ll see in a minute) was basically an empty room, so I decided to build a table and shelves using some extra wood Ramiro told me I could use. The second youngest of his ten kids, Julio, decided to help. Throughout the process of building this table, several other kids showed up and were intrigued to see this goofy white guy cutting up wood. When it came time to connect the legs to the table, I realized I didn´t have enough nails. I told Julio to tell the other kids if they wanted to come with me to the tienda to buy some more, I´d be happy to have the company. He then mumbled something in Q`eqchi` and three of the 5 kids present raised their hands excitedly signifying they were coming along. About 100 yards into our 200 yard walk, I realized all of them were walking behind me. When I turned around to see if I was moving to fast, I noticed that my gang of 3 had doubled to 6 and they were following me in a single-file line. I giggled at the site, but I didn´t question it. I heard one kid use the word “mex” (table) in a sentence to another kid, so I figured everybody knew what our mission was. By the time we made it to the tienda, we were up to 8. I bought the nails and one of the kids who spoke Spanish said we should take the back way home. I agreed happily, because that is what you do here. When we passed by the mayor´s office, I pre-empted the obvious question by telling him that my team of carpenters was following me to help me finish my table. He laughed like the jolly man that he is. By the time we made it back home, there were 12 kids following me in a single-file line. They all stood and watched (some tried to help) as I finished my masterpiece of a table. Afterwards, we knocked down some coconuts and drank them dry to celebrate a job well done.

I took a video of where I will be living, but the connection here is too slow to upload it. I'll take some pictures and post them in the near future.

I like it here, you should come check it out.