Maximon

I'm so friggen glad its Friday. School seriously sucks the life force out of me. Today was an amazing day though, lots of cultural experiences. First of all, since I havent talked about school in a while, let me just say that it's going really well. Nanci is adorable and sweet, and totally the type of person that I would be friends with. All this week after our classes she's been volunteering to run a vacation bible camp for kids (the school year here runs from Jan to Oct so all the kids are on "summer" break). She's been really nervous about it since she has 60 kids a day from ages 2-10! That's totally crazy in my opinion, but she's doing good with it. She's really into fantasy/sci-fi books too so we've been comparing notes. It's funny to talk about Lord of the Rings with someone from another country, it greatly amuses me for some reason. We also talked about how popular it is in the US for people to meet online. She was shocked that I had dated people online before, apparently here everyone thinks that the only people who use the internet are serial killers (my afternoon teacher was equally shocked and pretty much said that facebook is just a ploy for people to murder girls). I told them about Craigslist and they nearly fell out of their seats. They must think that Americans are a bunch of slutty sexual deviants. Not really that far from the truth, I guess. I'm glad I can be such a great ambassador for the US, haha.

The school didnt have an activity planned for this afternoon so Hugo asked what I felt like doing. Since I had been so interested in the Maximon story from the museum the other day, he asked if I wanted to go on a bus ride to a nearby Mayan village and see a REAL Maximon shrine. Of course I did! We had to take the chicken bus for about 45 min, but it was a nice drive. And by nice drive, I mean it was scenic; the drive itself was awful. We were going through these windy roads in the mountains at about 70mph. I kept being whipped back and forth and I was seriously nauseous. All I kept thinking was "Thank God Mom's not with me. She would've thrown up by now." My mom has major anxiety when she's in cars, especially when other people are driving. I'm usually fine and even I was freaking out on this trip. At one point a stray dog was standing in the middle of the road and I thought the bus would have to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting it, which would have sent us all to our doom because he definitely wouldn't have been able to keep control of the bus at that speed. Fortunately (?) he decided to just run it over. But somehow the dog didnt get hit, I dont know if he ducked or something because he definitely didnt have time to get away. The whole experience was just awful. But the views! The views were great! We went through this little town called Pastores. I actually think this is where Nanci lives, but I have to confirm that on Monday. This town specializes in leatherwork. Its really tiny, maybe 1/4 of a mile and you're through the whole thing, but all it is is store after store of handmade leather boots and shoes. Everything is made with needle and thread, no machines at all. The skills are passed down generation to generation and they're supposed to be amazing quality. A pair of cowboy boots go for 300Q ($42), very expensive for Guatemala.

After Pastores, we arrived at San Andres Itzapa. The town was obviously very poor, again lots of shanty houses. Most of the folks were Mayans and dressed in traditional garb. It would have been rude to take pictures, so here's a pic from google so you have an idea.

I really liked this town because it reminded of Sussex County in some ways. It was mostly farms and fields (this is where most of the beans that are eaten in Guatemala are grown). There wasn't a lot of traffic. A lot of farmers were bringing their crops back into town on horseback, like this: (again, not my pic)

It seemed like a really cool place, I felt really comfortable there. And a good thing too, because we went over a hill and what should be there but my orphanage! I knew it was somewhere on the outskirts of Chimaltenango but I didnt realize it was here. I could only see the outside of it since there's a wall built up around it, but it looked really big. It made me really excited to go there! I love that I'll be surrounded by farmland, I had pictured it in the middle of a city for some reason.

We arrived at the shrine to Maximon soon after. The outside looked like a church, but people were lighting little fires everywhere. Hugo explained that people believe that the smoke will help their prayers reach the spirits. He didnt need to warn me of this, but he let me know that since this was a holy place it would be rude to take pictures. I kind of figured that out myself. Here are pictures that some not-so-polite people took and posted online:

The inside was just like the museum exhibit had showed. There was a large altar on one side of the room with Maximon on it. There were neon signs and lights surrounding him, plus lots of offerings around where he was sitting. The room was large and had several tables set up where people could light colored candles for their wishes or give offerings. During our trip there were several candles burning and some piles of fresh fruit that had been left as an offering. On the walls there were lots of plaques thanking Maximon for helping people with their problems (this seems to be a popular custom here. When I went to see the tomb of San Pedro it was like that too).

It gets crazy there sometimes. I'm thinking this must have been taken on his birthday when they have a big festival in his honor (Oct 28th):

We didn't stay long since this wasn't really a touristy spot. As we were leaving I noticed that you could see the orphanage from the temple. Maybe I'll be able to see it from my apartment! That'd be kind of cool. As we were walking back to the bus we were talking about how sacrilegious it is to go there since its like worshiping another God. We decided to pop into a church real quick just to be on the safe side, lol. The church was really pretty! And I dont know what the rules are about taking pics inside of a church, but as a Catholic I think I'm allowed more liberties ;)

A lot of the churches here have these figures in them. That's Jesus laying in a casket in front of the church. Morbid as always, Catholic church.

Speaking of morbid, we passed this fast food place on the drive home. Anyone else think its gross to have Chicken Little as the mascot for the fried chicken meal?