Post-Pictures

I thought I'd post some picture for those still listening, now that I have my camera cord available.

Antigua
(first one from right outside our door)





this is pretty much your typical Antigua cafe:


(note the volcano on the far left -half covered in a cloud - smoking! This was the day after the 6.7-on-the-richter-scale earthquake)


From the big cross on the hill overlooking Antigua



(that's me)


The view from our room at the house where we lived (Spanish colonial architecture, with a patio in the middle)


Lake Atitlán (on the way to Chichicastenango)


woman in the market at Chichi with a chicken on her lap


Mayan Ceremony
(ajq'ij, or Shaman or "Daykeeper" to the right)



Various tropical birds





When we were going to the beach, we had to cross a river, this is how we crossed it. On these crazy one-car boat things.


The Monterrico beach





Women weaving the day we went on a fieldtrip to Xenacoj. The guy in the hat is my instructor from the first two weeks.



Me and my teacher from the first two weeks (he happened to be wearing traditional dress this day):


My teacher from the second two weeks (you can see her huipil and skirt here)


Goodbye, Guate...
taken from the airport runway, this picture is very much "Guatemala" in my mind


I love how you can see that little hill poking up through the clouds on the left

xk'is

Wakami janila yib'sion roma chwaq xkib'e pa jotöl. Ronojel ri ik' kan wawe' pa Iximulew yalan xikikot roma xe'inwetamaj k'ïy winaqi' ütz kina'oj, yalan kikokem. Chuqa' ütz nintz'ët ri Iximulew chuqa' ronojel ri iximulew winaqi', ronojel ri mayab' winaqi', chuqa' yalan katzinel xinwetamaj jun chïk k'aslem, kichin ri mayab' winaqi'. Kisamaj ri mayab' winaqi' yalan katzinel, rïn yikikot roma rije' ek'o ütz kina'oj, ütz kik'ux. Rïn yikikot roma xikoje' wawe' kik'in ronojel ri iximulew winaqi' chuqa' wachijil, chuqa' ninwajo' yib'e jun b'ey chïk pa jun juna'.

I'm sad today because tomorrow I leave for the US. My month here in Guatemala has been a happy one because I've met many kind people who have great ideas. I like Guatemala and the people, and I've enjoyed learning about another culture, that of the Maya. The work that many people are doing here is very important, so that makes me happy because they have good ideas and good hearts. I'm happy to have been here among the Guatemalan people and with Terry, and I hope to come back again a year from now.

Today was my last day of class. It was a fun class... we learned animals, so all the instructors had to act out different animals, and it was hysterical. My teacher from the first two weeks had to be a dog, and he crawled around barking, and then he went over to someone, lifted his leg, and pretended to pee on them!! I seriously about died laughing.

The cultural differences evident through the teaching have actually been pretty interesting. One day, we were learning transitive verbs (verbs that have an object), and they included "kiss" and "hug" to teach us. The way this pedagogical approach works is that people act things out, using only the target language. So they told people to kiss other people, hug other people, push other people, etc. It was all quite funny because people were dramatic and funny about it, but you would NEVER be able to do anything like that in the US. Another day we were learning words to describe things, like soft, tall, short, fat, and thin. Then they'd have people describe someone else, or have them pick out four "fat" people from the class. This was all actually quite funny, too, because people were dramatic and good-spirited, but man, can you imagine that in a US classroom? No way. (We later learned that, culturally, being "fat" or "medium" was a lot better than being "thin"... the opposite of US culture).

I actually got to know a lot of the students and teachers in the Tulane program, and I really liked everyone. So it was sad to say goodbye. I didn't really expect that when I came down here, since I didn't know I would be with a group. It's nice to know other people with related interests, and this is why things like Facebook and MySpace are infinitely useful.

I also made a good connection with one of the teachers who's written books on Mayan spirituality, and I hope we can stay in contact. I know OSU is trying to establish some sort of program for our students to learn Mayan languages, and at least 3 (very good) instructors here would be interested in working on something like that. So when I get back to Columbus hopefully I can see what's possible there, if anything.

Mayan languages

Yesterday I went with the Tulaneys to a neighboring town of Antigua, called San Antonio Aguas Calientes (aka Meq'ën Ya' in Kaqchikel) to have pepián chicken, which is a traditional guatemalan dish. We ate in the store of a weaving cooperative, which I think are actually pretty common in Guatemala. Woman usually have to stay home to take care of their families, but they want to contribute economically and aren't able to. So since most of them weave, often they start cooperatives where they can weave things and sell them to make a profit to help support their families. It's always a great thing to see in my opinion, because it builds on the idea of the community, highlights women's contribution to that community, helps preserve a valuable part of the culture (weaving), and allows families to earn a little more money.

Today we had a discussion about languages and a little bit about the culture here in Guatemala. It's interesting because in the Tulane program there's an armada of teachers (14), so there are a lot of perspectives to hear. So for example, we talked about how there are 22 Mayan languages in Guatemala. Certain people have proposed that historically, a country that has more than one language is by definition "underdeveloped." So we discussed whether or not that's an accurate assessment in the case of Guatemala. I have an issue with the above assertion because the idea that the preservation of Mayan traditions has prevented the development of Guatemala has been used for a long time in order to justify the oppression of the Maya. Nowadays, most people agree that it's important to preserve Mayan culture, but the question is how do you achieve political representation for the Maya in a state that is totally multicultural WITHOUT assimilating, acculturating, or devaluing the indigenous. It's a very, very difficult and hairy topic, because there are so many problems, but there is no clear solution.

Here is a map of the Mayan languages and their respective regions in Guatemala. I think this map is missing one of them (one was just established recently):


Kaqchikel-wise, we've talked about some things that I've never learned formally and had been wondering about, so that made me really happy. I had also asked my teacher to explain reflexive verbs to me, but she wasn't sure she could. So she asked Judie if she would instead, and she did and made it crystal clear. So having the armada of teachers available has definitely been beneficial.

I already feel like my time in Guatemala is coming to an end, and I'm sad about it. I've been thinking that maybe next year what I'll do is do the Tulane class, and then have 2 additional weeks of private instruction. That way I get all the contacts through this class, but I still get the more intense practice from 2 weeks of study. Now the problem is... funding (this is why we have FLAS).

Monterrico

We just got back from spending the weeekend in Monterrico, at the beach. Let me tell you... it was HOT. Like, human-beings-cannot-survive-in-this hot. Too hot to do anything but jump in the pool and sleep in a hammock hot. Or keep as still as you possibly can while reading your book, because otherwise you start to sweat like mad hot.

But according to the owners of our hotel, who have lived there for about 8 years, it was the hottest day and night the whole time they'd been living there. It hadn't been raining all week like it usually does, so the night was almost as hot as the day. I went to bed early because it was too hot to do anything else, and I got up early because the sun was up and it was way to hot to stay in bed.

The beach was pretty impressive, but you can't swim in the ocean because it has massive undertow. They were the most threatening waves I've ever seen... but it was sort of raw and beautiful and mysterious because of that. (It's the Pacific Ocean, on Guatemala's southern coast). We were across the street from the ocean (and I use the term "street" here very liberally), so all night you could hear the ocean, and it was so powerful that it sounded like thunder.

Quasi-funny story... the first day there I went down to the town to buy some beach towels, and after buying bug repellant and water from a sparsely populated general store, I emerged to see a giant pig walking down the street. Yes, a 2-foot-tall pig. It didn't seem to belong to anyone nearby, and it was just walking along in the heat. Just me and the pig. It was pretty funny... I wished I'd had a camera.

All in all, it was probably one of the most relaxing mini-vacations I've ever had, because it was probably the least I've ever done. Ever. In my entire life. Seriously, it was too hot to do anything besides jump in the pool (and I don't really like pools typically, but I was in that thing within 2 hours of arrival) and fall asleep in the hammock under the coconut trees. We planned and did absolutely nothing other than watch the sunset on the beach and eat. I studied a little bit on Saturday night before going to bed, but since it involved writing and that brought on profuse sweating, I opted to change to reading a book, which apparently (I never would have thought about this before) requires much less body movement than writing.

So although the weekend "vacay" was quite relaxing, it was nice to get back to Antigua today... this place is so familiar to us now. I actually recognize people around town every now and then (the bartender from Reilley's, a teacher from the PLFM). AND, it's much cooler, since it's in the highlands.

(FYI, I didn't bring my camera cable with us since I knew I'd be using cafes, so none of the pics I post here are mine. Later I'll post the ones I took. The waves in the above picture are nowhere near as threatening as they were when we were there.)

Appropriated by the Tulane-ites

I went to the market today, and I had an interesting linguistic experience. I usually talk to the people in Spanish, though I know a lot of them speak Kaqchikel (I think I need to learn the numbers better before attempting market Kaqchikel. Either that or all my purchases need to be less than 20 quetzales). A lot of the workers are pre-teen or teenage boys, oddly enough. So I asked one about something, and he asked his friends about it Kaqchikel. I know there's been some risk of the language dying out because people don't always speak it at home, although there has been a resurgence of Mayan culture, language, religion, etc. recently. Maybe it's too much to generalize from food and dress, but it seems like typically in Guatemalan Mayan culture, the women are the ones who preserve traditions more frequently or diligently. So I feel like the fact that teenage males were speaking it is a good sign that it's not dying out. And, I could understand some of what they were saying.

This week I started with my new teacher. I guess I'd have to say that it's been less than ideal. She doesn't have as much pedagogical experience as my previous instructors, so it's not really a well-structured class, and she hasn't gone through the PLFM's training program. This is an issue because Kaqchikel has just been starting to be standardized in the last 10 years, so there are a lot of variations among different towns, but the PLFM teaches them how to teach standard Kaqchikel. So pretty soon into the first day, I realized that something was up because her verb tenses were not how I learned in the past: they were more confusing and not regulated. (For the linguists out there, I learned later that some of it is actually from Spanish's influence on the language - like to form the future, she sticks the verb for "to go" in the middle of the verb after the time and subject/object prefixes and before the root, so it's like ir + a + infinitive). So, things like that made it a little frustrating, but we ending up doing a lot of conversation, so I figured that at least it was good practice.

Though we also had some pedagogical issues. Like there were times when we just sit at our table, not doing anything. Not talking, not writing, just sitting and staring. Seriously. Then she would say something along the lines of I already know so much that she doesn't know what to teach me, so what do I want to learn? Not exactly a question that a student can answer easily.

But today a (at least temporary) solution seems to have cropped up. The group of students from Tulane are at the same school where I am, having their class. The directors of the program invited my teacher and I to sit in, so today we went, and it was tons of fun. They use really great pedagogical methods that I like (our beloved communicative approach, TPR, etc.) Like today they were doing commands with intransitive verbs, so we all worked as a class and had to tell each other things like "Sing!" "Stand Up!" "Dance!" "Swim!", then we broke into small groups, then we cam back together and did present tense intransitive verbs. All communicatively, in Kaqchikel, no Spanish at all (which is how I like it). It was all things I already knew, but it helped me quite a bit to reinforce it. And in our small groups the Tulane-group teacher could tell I knew more, so she started having me do other things (like instead of having me repeat saying things like "I sit" which I already knew, she taught me how to say "I am seated," which was great because it tied together a couple of things I had been reading in my grammar book, and it really clicked).

After the session, I went up to the director who invited us and thanked him and said I really liked the class. My teacher asked if we could join their class for the next couple of days, and he said sure. I think my teacher liked it as much as I did because it was fun, and because honestly, I think she has no idea what to do with me.

So, the good thing about this Tulane class is that a lot of the academics that are working in Guatemala (in history, anthropology, linguistics, etc.) are associated with this program. So it really helps me make connections with them. The bad thing is that I already know most of what we're doing, so I'm not really advancing, although I am becoming more confident with what I already know. There IS an advanced group that goes off on their own for a couple of hours, but so far I haven't managed to break that ice.

But it any case, it's better than what I had the past two days, and I hope it'll help me more career-wise.

Time to sign off and go back to the house because it's... Latin American Idol time!! (Yes, it's exactly the same but with Spanish-speakers).

Week two bites the dust

So week two has come and gone. Class last week was fun, and I feel like I learned a lot. Occasionally I'm able to bust out some good sentences impromptu, but mostly I sort of feel like I'm at a turning point... that point when you're learning a foreign language and everything starts to get really cloudy and complicated and confusing, and you can't really produce very well, but you can see little flickers of understanding the greater structure on the horizon. I feel like I have a lot of bits and pieces, and with hopefully just a little more instruction those bits and pieces will all start to come together in a more coherent way. Like I've been learning at light speed, and now I've slowed down and it's not as easy to grasp, but that after I get through this part, it'll all make more sense. We'll see if that happens in the next two weeks, or if I'll have to wait until next summer.

It's been a pretty calm weekend. Terry's been getting over being sick, so we've been taking it a little easy, and I've been venturing out here and there. Friday was Teacher Appreciation Day here in Guatemala, so the school had a party on Friday night for teachers and students. I went for about an hour... before I got there, I was picturing something like our departmental parties. A bunch of people standing around with drinks, basically. Was I wrong! I got to the back room of the school, and they had a DJ and spinning lights. One of the little cubicles where people have class nearest to the room was turned into a bar (when asked what they had, the reply was "rum... and coke" so that pretty much narrowed down that decision). The whole thing was actually quite hysterical because of the clash of cultures occuring. If there was salsa/merengue playing, then all the teachers were dancing and no students. If hip hop/pop was playing, all the students were dancing and no teachers. They proceeded to have a salsa contest for the students, which was pretty funny to watch since nobody knew salsa. Then afterwards I somehow got tricked into being on the dance floor when they had a general dance contest for the students (I had no idea this was going on), and I won a PLFM t-shirt (the PLFM is my school). So the party wasn't a total bust, I suppose!

Saturday morning I went on a walking tour of Antigua with another woman staying in our house, given by a famous tour guide/sort-of-activist here whose name is Elizabeth Bell (so I've been wanting to meet her since last year, for obvious reasons). It was actually really great. She's been living here since 1969, and she was great about answering questions and being direct.

Saturday night Terry and I went over to the Casa Santo Domingo because there was an interesting art gallery opening there. Here in Antigua, there are a group of artists who generally sit around the prominent arch, painting watercolors. They'd never had an exhibition, so they gave them one. On the way out of the exibit, we passed by the giant ruins of an old church (they still have mass there, just without walls, and the roof is a big white tent) that's on the grounds of Casa Santo Domingo, and there was a beautiful candle-lit black tie wedding about to start. So we watched the people come in for awhile (either the bride had about 10 bridesmaids, or it was fuschia full-length silk dress night), and then we decided to eat there at the restaurant in the hotel. It's an excellent restaurant, and it was nice to be able to eat a salad for the first time in weeks.

Today was really busy in Antigua (Sunday people from the city usually come in), so I poked around the market and went to my favorite huipil store (I think I'm addicted), Nim Po't (don't be surprised if that website doesn't load - it goes down all the time), where they sell huipils on consignment. I love going in and just looking at all the colors and patterns, even if I don't buy anything.

I think that's it. I'm off to study a bit, finish the book I'm reading, and practice my clicking.

Field Trip

Today we went on a field trip for my class. It was an adventure by nature, if nothing else because we took chicken buses to get there (the public transportation), which was a little crazy but fun nevertheless. On our way out of the school, my instructor told me that four of his friends would be joining us - two girls and two boys, and that the girls only spoke English but the guys spoke Kaqchikel. So we went to their hotel, and they were four Americans. The guys were both fluent in Kaqchikel and had studied with the Tulane program (the girls were their girlfriend/wife). It was actually cool for me to meet them, because I've never actually met an American who knew the language fluently. So it makes it seem a little more possible for me.

So after our chicken bus adventure part 1, we got to a house in Santo Domingo Xenacoj (for those of you who may not be able to read that, the town is 45 km from the capital and at the 2002 census had a population of 7,940 of which 97% is indigenous), and there were a couple of women there weaving. All the people were talking and I was pretty much just trying to follow along. Then (seemingly out of nowhere) the other people I came with got out video equipment, and one of the other girls whipped out watercolor stuff from her smallish purse and started to paint. I was a little confused as to what was happening, given that I had no context for why they were filming. So I asked them what the deal was, and it turns out they wanted to record the women in the house weaving for an exhibit they're doing in Indianapolis in the spring on Mayan weaving. Once I figured it out, it made perfect sense... but before that I was a little surprised because I wasn't expecting them to pull camera equipment out of their bags. I think we basically went to this town so that they could film these women, and it was just kind of a good cultural experience for me.

So all in all, it was an amazing thing to see (because the weaving is so impressive), and I did get to practice listening and a little speaking, and I liked seeing the town. I was definitely happy with the amount of the language I was able to understand, too (more than I thought I would).

And our chicken bus adventure part 2 back to Antigua also went smoothly.

Oh, and Terry did end up switching schools. He found another one that was cheaper, and he likes his teacher a lot better. So that was a good move. I need a new instructor for next week since mine is teaching the Tulane course, so I'll be anxious to see who it is.

Chichi and huipiles

Chichi was really interesting. Our driver was nuts... but at least we got there quickly. When we were there, we went to a church that was built over an old Mayan religious site. I found a government guide there who explained the church to me, and then he also took us about 20 minutes away on foot up a mountain. On the top, there's a 500-year-old Mayan altar, and they have Mayan ceremonies there. We watched several of them that were going on at the time. I was also able to talk to the guide a little bit about the politics and the way religion is structured in society, so that was really interesting (and potentially useful for my project). Going to the ceremonies wasn't planned at all on our part, but it was definitely the best part of the trip to Chichi.

Here is a picture of the church. The stairs are part of the original Mayan structure (which is obvious when you're there because they feel much older than the church, which is still quite old - from the 1500's). The smoke is from the Mayan shaman outside the church burning incense.



Here is a picture of the Mayan altar on top of the mountain:



I also got three huipiles that are typical of that area, and they're gorgeous. I'm very happy with my purchases. I honed my bargaining skills and got them for a good price... which is a great deal for something handwoven that takes 3-6 months to make. They're used, too, which to me makes them even more beautiful.

Huipiles are actually quite interesting. They have fashion, just like we do with western clothing. There are different patterns that are popular at different times, and things go out of fashion. Different towns have different patterns that they use, or a particular feature.

For example, this is a typical huipil from Chichicastenango - the brown background, the colors they use, the geometric pattern, and the sun pattern around the neck are all typical to that town. Mine all look similar to this:


And I love this typical huipil style from Sololá, but I've never ever seen one for sale for less than hundreds of dollars. So I figure I'd just come back in 10 years and then there would be a lot of them for sale, because they'd be out of fashion and everyone would be trying to get rid of them. (Typically the huipiles you buy are used, brand new ones on commission are thousands of dollars):



And for another example, this is a typical huipil from Santiago, Lake Atitlán... they have the square pattern with embroidered birds.


And just for more info... hand-woven in this case means woven on a backstrap loom, which is an ancient process for the Maya. Each huipil is made out of two or three of these hand-woven canvases. I find it really impressive.

Week One... down

I had my test today (Friday)... it went well! There would a couple of things on it that we just saw in passing and I had to guess, but I pretty much got them right. So I was happy about that. He told me that I need to work on my fluidity and my pronunciation of the q' sound (which is the gutteral click sound). That's hard, though. I *can* do it, but Kaqchikel is hard that way because it has 4 different k-type sounds: k, k', q, and q'. The k' and the q' have glottal stops, which means your vocal chords touch together for a moment, blocking off the air... i.e. it makes a click. Clearly this is one of the hardest things for non-native speakers... I can actually physically make the sounds, it's just hard for me to always do it right when I'm speaking because it takes time for me to locate where to form the sound in my mouth. So, I guess I need to practice that more. Here's a speech sample of Kaqchikel, should anyone be interested.

I think Terry and I are going to Chichicastenango this Sunday, which is a huge, famous market. There are some things I want to buy (like huipiles! - the hand-woven mayan garments), so I'm excited to go there.

Classes so far

Classes have been fun so far, but my instructor (Gonzalo) has been giving me more vocab than I had last time. So class is from 8-12, then we eat lunch, run errands, and I do my homework and study the new words and grammar. But, I really love studying Kaqchikel, so for the most part it's a good time. And Antigua is so gorgeous... there are so many nice places with beautiful flowering patios to hang out in and study. And cheap coffee! It's been harder than last time, though, and I worry that I'll never know the language well enough to actually converse with real people, you know? I think I could with enough practice, but getting that practice is the key issue.

Spanish-wise I love Guatemala because the people are so easy to understand. Terry is less than thrilled with studying Spanish so far. It's kind of cute. I think his teacher is trying to do the communicative approach (where you teach by hand motions, pictures, etc. entirely in the target language, so entirely in Spanish in this case), but she doesn't really know how. It's what she has to do, though, since she speaks basically no English. So he's been frustrated with it so far, but I think that's somewhat just from learning a new language. He is learning things, though.

I found that professor I was supposed to talk to yesterday, the one that the other grad student knows - her name is Judith Maxwell. The other grad student here told me where I could find her in the afternoons, and so I went there (it's a cafe) to check it out, and she was there. So I introduced myself. She's a very important academic in this area... although in linguistics, not cultural studies (which is more what I'm in). But she's written Kaqchikel textbooks and other stuff, so she knows what she's doing, clearly. She works at Tulane, and they have a summer Kaqchikel program for grad students that last 6 weeks - you have class in the morning, and in the afternoon you go out and do your research. So I asked her if she had some time and I could talk to her about their program, and she told me to just stop by the class when it starts on the 25th. I really think I should consider doing this program next summer. But in any case, I was glad to have the opportunity to meet her.

I'm also considering taking classes all day instead of just in the morning. I always study in the afternoon, but since I'm here where there are Kaqchikel instructors, I'm wondering if I'm really using my time best. I think Terry is going to look for another, cheaper school (there are a lot of schools around here), so that would be less money there. I think I'll do that for the last two weeks, maybe.

Here!

So... one day down, 29 more to go! We got into Antigua yesterday almost without a hitch, except that we hadn't seen that the email confirmation the school sent us had the wrong day on it - it had Saturday instead of Sunday. So we called the school where we're studying, and they arranged the pickup with the same guy. But he had already driven out to get us the previous day, and it took him a long time to get there because of traffic. So, we ended up paying him for BOTH days (we felt bad he came out, and while putting the wrong day was the school's mistake, we didn't catch it), but that ended up being $80.

Then today we found out today that even though Terry signed up for a half day of classes, you're not allowed to do that during the busy season, and so he has to pay for a full day. He would do classes in the afternoon too, but I'm only scheduled for the mornings (and my instructor teaches elsewhere in the afternoon), and he doesn't think his brain can handle it. But we're going to see how he feels next week, and then maybe the third week we'll do full days. But he thinks he's just going to do 3 weeks now instead of 4 as a result. There's also a grad student working at the school here who studies Kaqchikel linguistics! So I talked to him for awhile about my possible doctoral project, and he had some good advice. The bottom line is that I can probably make some good contacts to further my research if not this summer, then the next.