To everything (turn, turn, turn)...

There've been so many things that I've had to adjust to since moving to Guatemala. I expected there to be challenges here, but I've been surprised by how many things I've found that are actually better here than the states. Their health care system is one example (and something that I'll talk about in more detail in the future). Another example is the fact that folks live in a way that is much more in sync with the normal cycles of nature. While I'm sure this can be found in places in the United States as well (I'm looking at you, farming towns), it's something that has never really played a large part in my life and has kind of taken me by surprise here.

We live in a small town with no grocery stores. There are small corner stores that sell dry goods, but these are very small, usually just a counter that you can walk up to. There will be a few shelves behind the counter with bags of rice, beans, flour, etc that the owner can get down for you, but it's not a store like you would think of in the States. There's no browsing, you simply walk up to the owner and ask if he has what you're looking for.

The bulk of the shopping gets done in the market. On Saturdays and Sundays, farmers set up stands in the streets selling all their fruits and vegetables. Fruits, vegetables and beans are the mainstay of the Guatemalan diet because they're so damn cheap here, far cheaper than packaged goods or meats. Despite having limited income, people are generally very healthy here because it's far cheaper to buy a weeks worth of vegetables than to bring your family to a fast food restaurant or even cook up a pot of spaghetti, the opposite of how things run back home.

Because of everyone's dependance on fresh vegetables and the inability to pay for costly imported items, folks here eat only fresh, local produce. As delightful as this is, this means that all of a sudden I have to pay attention to growing seasons, something we can be blissfully unaware of in the States. Aside from fresh Jersey corn in late summer, we pretty much have everything available at all times. There's no need to plan meals around what's in season, everything can be purchased when we want it (albeit for a higher price). Here we only have access to what's ready for harvest. That means that since right now is mango season, we'll be eating mangoes for weeks until the crop is gone. It also means that there are no avocados for the next three months (unless we drive to a larger town that has imported produce for tourists), but when they come into season in July we'll be up to our ears in guacamole for the month (something I'm looking forward to immensely).

Aside from the food, there's also a season for all the animals! I guess we have this at home too (like fireflies and ladybugs in the summer) but it just feels way more extreme here. A few weeks ago we started what is lovingly referred to as "fly season". It's about as fun as it sounds. It felt like overnight we all of a sudden had the most disgusting infestation of flies imaginable. It was like Amityville horror level. I'd estimate that we have about 100 flies in the house everyday which makes it pretty much impossible to cook or eat anything without having flies bombard you. The last few weeks I've had to hide in my room during the day to avoid them which sucks since the internet doesn't work from there. Thankfully at night they go dormant and sleep on the ceiling so we can actually have some peace.

Every black dot you see is a fly. Click for a larger, nastier picture.

Last week marked the start of beetle season. At night we get these enormous beetles flying all over the place. They look exactly like Japanese beetles, only they're two to three times as big. They're attracted to light so they always crawl into the houses, but they like to fly like two inches off the ground and slam into your feet and the walls. You hear them all night long slamming into things and buzzing around. They also love to crawl on the floor so everyday I'm accidentally stepping on them and squishing them. It's disgusting. And apparently fly season doesn't end when beetle season starts, so we're dealing with both things right now. The older volunteers tell me that when they arrived in July there were no flies, so I'm hoping that'll end soon.

I have been noticing an increase in the lizard population here (probably because it's full-on feast time for them right now.) I caught four lizards in the clinic in the last three days, something I've ever done before this week. Actually, before this week I'd only seen two lizards in Guatemala. I totally welcome them, I'd much rather have lizards falling on me during the night than huge nasty beetles. Here's a little guy I caught. He kept jumping out of my hand when all I wanted was a picture. Eventually he got pissed at me for picking him back up yet again, so he bit me. At least that kept him still enough to snap this :)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this means there's a lizard season here, and I can sit back and watch while they destroy all the bugs.