Encontronazo = a strong discussion with a person (literally: a bus crash)

So we moved! A group of 8 of us, all in the Agriculture department have moved to a smaller town about 30 minutes away from the Peace Corps headquarters to continue our language and technical training in a different setting. We looked over the calendar and for at least the next 2 months we have Spanish class almost every day (except Tuesdays and most Sundays) with our smaller groups, with some technical training in between. On Tuesdays all the smaller groups, spread over about 7 other towns, head back to the Peace Corps office so we can get further training in health and safety information. My new house is the bomb, and even has a three-pronged outlet so I can plug in my computer! I have new parents (Doña Cece y Don Julio), and a brother (Gerson, 18 years old) and sister (Leslie, 17 years old). The boy is studying to be an engineer! I can’t escape them. I really like talking to my host sister, Leslie, since she can explain things a lot better to me and is really funny. I’m pretty sure we’re going to be best friends.

So within my first few hours here, the family had already told me that they were Evangelical and that I would be going to church with them the next day for 3 hours. And they wanted to know if my whole family and me went to church as well. Needless to say, I embellished a little. I mean, I certainly come from a Christian background, and we are the type of family that prays before meals (on the rare occasions we all get to sit down together) but I could tell that I would need to be much more religious to suit my parents. Peace Corps doesn’t necessarily tell us to lie about our backgrounds, but they did stress that we need to claim that we have a God and encouraged us to put our families at ease about our poor souls. So I went to church with them the next day and wow. WOWWWWWWWW. So I had been confused about how almost an entire country supposedly doesn’t drink alcohol, but after one night at church, I completely understand. It was like a normal Saturday night! It started out with some amazingly loud music (though everyone in the audience was singing a different song) and then there was a lot of nonsensical crying and shouting (which was actually hilarious, because the entire church was quiet except for one lady just shouting) and then came the part where everyone fished around in there pockets for the tab (sorry, I meant the offering). I know this sounds a little mocking, but you sit through 3 hours of praise music and then get accosted by the preacher in front of everybody, and we’ll see how you describe it. It was a 3-hour long service, during which the pastor pointed me and the other gringa out and made us intensely uncomfortable. Then, my whole family and I came back to the house, climbed in the parent’s bed (yes, all 5 of us) and watched a movie about how God saves marriages. It’s called “Fireproof”, and is an American movie and I highly highly don’t recommend it. On the ‘up’ side, I mentioned to my madre that my exboyfriend was Catholic, and now she’s on a mission to get find me a good Evangelical boyfriend. All males within a 10-year age radius were introduced to me. Even the ones with children.

The first morning, my padre and I got into a fairly lengthy discussion about the Mayan history and a little bit of how it compares with Christianity. I can now tell you all, with complete confidence, that the world will NOT end in 2012!!! Hurray!!!! Apparently the Mayan calendar predicts the end of our “current world” (which is a material world, and many Americans equate to the entire world, according to my padre) but not the physical destruction of the land. What a relief! Obviously I’m paraphrasing (and I hope with at least semi-correct translation) that my padre says that the hype about the Mayan calendar predicting the end of the world is silly. The Mayan calendar predicts changes in increments all the time such as every 20 or 50 years, and that at the end of 2000 is just happens to be really big. This will be when the snake, which is our current representation of the world, grows wings and flies, and we ascend into a more spiritual world. I asked if this would happen overnight, and he says no, but I’m still pretty pumped to be in the land of Mayans when this all goes down. Hopefully I’ll make a Mayan friend or two just to be on the safe side. It’s interesting to see that although he’s pretty devoutly Christian, he still looks to the past for information and completely trusts the Mayan calendar, which he says is way more accurate than any other one. My parents are pretty great to talk to (when it’s not about religion) because they make a pretty huge effort to understand me and help me in any way possible, and let me ask questions about everything. Last night, I sat at the table after dinner with both of them and they helped me with my grammar homework, and then this morning my madre packed me my lunch and sent me off to school with my bookbag. I felt like a little kid, but I can’t complain about homework help and a homecooked lunch!

Anyway, it’s the week of “feria” here, which is their big celebration for their patron saint and also somehow includes Mayan princess celebrations too. I don’t quite understand the “mezcla” of cultures here yet, but the parades are beautiful and the markets are huge and a lot of fun.

Also, there’s this really creepy laughing that I keep hearing from somewhere. I’m not joking at all. I’m about 80% sure it’s one of the many birds my family has, but I really need to investigate before some killer Guatemalan clown comes in and chops me up. I’ll keep you all posted, and maybe try to get a recording. I’ll also hopefully be posting up pictures soon, but these past 6 days have included so much information that I’m just now slowing down and getting into a routine, and will be able to post more concise stuff. For now, HERE is a link to a lot of different videos that past and current volunteers have made, so that you can see what the country looks like and what people are doing here now.