Have not written since Tuesday, but it was a fast week.  On Wednesday really felt the results of the hike on Tuesday afternoon.  I thought it was strange that it would wear me out so much.  Then, however, on Wednesday morning “Montazuma’s Revenge” hit with full force.  It was pretty gross and will not go into the details here, but let us say that I was having some severe gastro-intestinal problems.  I have been careful where I eat, so not sure where it came from.  However this is a country where one cannot even brush one’s teeth with the tap water, so it is not hard to catch something.  Almost impossible. 

 

On Wednesday afternoon I was unable to continue with studies, so off I went off to the closest laboratory to find out what evil lifeform had taken up residence in my GI tract. 

 

Now in the US we are accustomed to the doctor filling out a form and authorizing tests.  Here one just walks into the lab and tells the tech what the symptoms are and they take appropriate samples.  In this case, and I will attempt to be as delicate as possible, my issue was a common issue of diarrhea.  Severe.  Like drastic. 

 

The tech gives me this tiny, cheap little cup with a lid, the type that one gets at a fast food place in the US with ketchup.  Yep, the thin plastic and very small, and points to a restroom.  Let us say that providing this type of sample in a container less than two inches in diameter is rather, uh, challenging.  Of course there was no toilet tissue in the bathroom, there is none almost anywhere in Guatemala.  Fortunately I learned this early on and carry my own supply in my messenger bag. 

 

After this rather challenging process I took the little ketchup container, containing other than ketchup of course, to the window and put it in a little tray.  The tech takes it to the lab and I returned to the school to wait for the results, which took about an hour.  The results:  two unfriendly bacteria and one fungus had taken up residence in my intestines. 

 

I took the test results and walked a few blocks to the office of a doctor recommended by the school.  The doctor was at lunch, but as soon as he returned he saw me.  No appointment required.  The doctor’s office was very small, with a standard sized examining room adjoining it.  The examining room was very clean and well equipped.  The doctor read the lab results, did a thorough exam, and then explained that what I needed to do was take “probiotics” to provide “good” bacteria to fight the “bad” bacteria and the fungus and wrote me a prescription. 

 

At this point I was wondering what this exam was going to cost, as the doctor had spent a good 30 minutes with me, part of this due to language challenges, but mostly as he did a thorough exam looking for abdominal pain, etc.  Here the doctors take cash, and they collect it themselves, no front desk.  He pulled out his receipt book and said, “Cien Quezales”.  I know I looked at him like I did not at all comprehend what he said, “He repeated, in English, 100 Quezales, do you need a receipt?”  I guess my look gave me away and he laughed and said, “No, not 100 Dollars, 100 Quezales”.  Now the reason I was looking somewhat incredulous was that this, in American dollars, is roughly $12.  For a doctor visit.  Oh, I did not mention, the bill at the lab for the sample analysis and computer print out was about $4 US dollars.  I was now up to $16 for lab tests and a doctor visit. 

 

I took the prescription for “Perenterol”, the probiotic, to the tiny drugstore next door and received my prescription for the cost of $10 US. 

 

I am happy to report that within a few hours of taking the first dose of the probiotic that I was in much better shape, with the cramps and pains gone.  Within 24 hours I was “perfecto”, as they say en Espanol. 

 

Class on Thursday and Friday were, as usual, grueling.  My teacher, or “maestro”, has taught for 30 years and has taught in this school for nine.  She is very regimented and moves like a freight train through the agenda.  My brain moves like a very old very loaded train going up a steep mountain.  I must admit that being 37 years out of school makes studying and learning a bit challenging. The brain’s learning functions are a bit rusty.  However since it is one-on-one instruction it is not so bad, and there are not tests, so I just need to accept that I will learn what I can learn and I should not get frustrated by it all.  However that is easier said than done, at least for me. 

 

On Friday night there was a get-together at the school with the students where some of the staff were dressed in Guatemalan costume and played Guatemalan music, sang, etc.  Then the graduating students, who were leaving, each got up and gave a little speech in Spanish.  Now all of the students, other than myself, of course, are either still in college or grad school, or recently finished college.  All of them that I have talked to also took Spanish in high school and/or college.  Most of them are liberal arts majors, who take languages.  Unfortunately we engineering majors did not have that opportunity.  I am dreading three weeks from now when I have to do this!  I may limit mine to “Muchas gracias y buenos noches”, thank you and good night.  Well, I will worry about that in three weeks. 

 

One student was having a birthday and the staff sang “happy birthday” in Spanish and then they do this counting thing up to the person’s age, you know, like this unos, dos, tres, etc.  They had to count all the way to 23.  I was thinking that I had better not tell them that my birthday is the week of my graduation, as we would be there all night as they counted up to my age. 

 

I was supposed to go on a trip on Saturday sponsored by the school.  I did not go.  I really decided that I needed to study, as I had lost a couple of evenings of study when I was sick.  I had spent those evenings in bed, not studying.  Anyway, the trip was to a farm of poor indigenous Guatemalans who work in the fields for $2 US a day picking coffee beans.  It would have been interesting, however I am sure if I had gone that I would have guilt pangs every time I went to Starbucks and paid the equivalent of two days of their wages for one cup of coffee. 

 

So Saturday was study day.  My hosts were gone on Saturday for a business trip to Guatemala City, so I was on my own.  As I was feeling perfectly well again I decided to eat out, but to be careful.  Only cooked food and only beer.  Beer is always safe.  I walked around the neighborhood and found a street of small reasonably clean looking eating places and had some of the best fried chicken I have ever eaten and, by far, the best French fries ever.  As I sat and ate my food I watched the two ladies who prepared the food.  They were slicing the potatoes and then deep frying them, also deep frying the chicken.  Gawd, but the food was good.  Lots of good grease.  The potatoes were soaked in grease and were delicious.  Not something I would want to do every day.  I did notice that a big take-out item that was popular with the locals were huge slabs of pig skin, about a foot square.  The lady who ran the restaurant took these out of the warmer and then drizzled them with salsa and mayo and the customers all walked away greedily munching away on their deep fried pig skins with may.  Again, we are talking about huge slabs of this stuff.  I felt less guilty about my French fries after watching this.  By the way, the tab for the meal 10Q, which is about $1.25US, plus another $1.25 for the beer. 

 

Outside and inside view of my local lunch spot for awesome fried chicken and the best french fries ever. I think the Palm Springs health department would have apoplexy if they were to inspect this eating place.  However the food is awesome.

I wanted to take a picture of the young lady cooking, but when I asked permission she threw her apron over her head and said no, no, no!   People here are not big on being photographed.  Too bad, it would have made a good photo.  However here are a couple of pictures of the restaurant. 

 

After lunch I visited the local super Mercado.  Very small by US standards, but huge by Guatemalan standards.  They had about everything one could need.  Need, not want.  The difference in third worlds countries like Guatemala and the US is that in Guatemala one has the choice of perhaps six cereals, not 60 cereals like in the US grocery stores.  Same in all the other items, one or two choices.  However they had things I needed like mouthwash, instant noodles soup, air freshener for my bathroom at the house, cereal, bananas, tea bags, etc.  There was not frozen food section, and only a very small meat section, and a medium sized vegetable section.  I think that most of the people buy their  vegetables from the Mayan women who seem to have little vegetable stands on every street corner here.  I was glad to find the air freshener.  In Guatemala one cannot flush toilet tissue into the sewer systems, as they cannot handle it.  Therefore every bathroom, even in the very nice home where I am staying, has a little covered plastic trash can where one deposits soiled tissue.  This tends to add somewhat of a musty smell to the bathroom and a can of Glade really helps.  I think the locals are more accustomed to it than we Gringos. 

 

I stocked up on things for the house that my hosts do not provide.  I found out that the hosts are paid 300 Quesalas per week to host a student, which includes providing three meals a day.  That works out to about $37 per week for room and board.  I am amazed at the meals that my host senora provides on such a limited budget.  Here is an example of a typical meal.  The pictures does not tell you how excellent it was!  Interestingly, people here eat very little meat as it is very expensive here.  The main staples are beans and rice and vegetables with small amounts of meat added more for flavor than as protein. 

The neighborhood where I am living and where the Supermercade is located is a major transportation hub for the city.  Most of the transportation in the entire country of Guatemala is aboard what are called "chicken buses".  These are old American school buses that have outlived their useful lives in the US.  They find a completely new life in Guatemala as brightly painted and "pimped" busses that travel the roads and highways of the country providing cheap transportation for people.  Definitely a basic mode of transportation.  Some of the busses have not yet been pimped out and still are school bus yellow, some with the name of the school dristrict still painted on the sides.  Some, however, are eclectic works of art. 

The pimped out former US school busses are the main form of transportation in Guatemala.  They are known as "chicken busses".  Yes, some people riding them are carrying live chickens. 

It is interesting to watch the Mayan women walking around in their brilliantly colored clothing.  Nearly every Mayan woman I see has a basked on her head, many of which look quite large. 

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You cannot see it in this picture but this Mayan lady in traditional garb and with a load on her head is talking on a cell phone with her left hand.  The old and the new. 

 

It takes real balance to carry a full sized shopping bag on one's head over a rough uphill path from the shopping district. 

On Saturday  evening I took a walk into the center of town and went to an Italian restaurant I had seen.  I have been here for ten days without a glass of wine, or anything other than Guatemalan food, so I was looking forward to Italian. 

The restaurant was definitely very Italian, with posters of Italy on all the walls, wine bottles hung from the ceiling and walls, many of them the type that are wrapped in straw, and of course there was Perry Como crooning “Amora” on the sound system.  Later on Frank Sinatra and other Italian Americans were heard singing away on the background music.  Interestingly none of it was in Italian. 

 

There were large displays of Italian food items, like boxes of pasta, and the counter even had one of those huge old brass expresso machines.  The tables were covered in cotton red and white checkered table clothes, and there were bottles of wine on each table.  The kitchen had huge glass windows where one could see the people cooking in a large, well furnished kitchen all done in white tile.  (Quite different from my lunch experience today).  The menu was extensive, including 53 different pizzas.  There was lots of seafood and salads, but those are items that I am avoiding here, even in a good restaurant.  The wine menu was limited, and expensive by Guatemalan standards.   I decided to risk it and took a half liter of the house wine which was Italian and surprisingly good.  It was actually dry, had a good nose, and great body.  Needless to say the wine was most welcomed after almost two weeks without! 

The local Italian eatery in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.  The house wine was quite good.  

I did decide on the pizza, although I chose a safe one without pepperoni or peppers.  Mine was actually quite excellent, and had eggs, spinach, ham, and mozzarella cheese.  I left for the long walk home quite full and happy from a meal that seemed like home!  Although about 50 percent of the customers in this restaurant were Gringos, the cost for the meal, wine, and tip still only ran 125Q, which is about $15 US.  Outrageous by Guatemalan standards! 

The pizza here was remarkably good.  The one I ate had egg, spinach, ham, and lots of mozarella cheese.

 

Today, Sunday, is a beautiful day, but it is a day for studying grammer and vocabulary.  Sigh…..