Okay, so this weekend I took a trip to Semuc Champey, and it was amazing. Part of the tour was a cave tour into which I couldn't take my camera because we had to swim around, so for right now I'm just going to write about that so that I don't forget about it. Before I start I want to mention that I went on this trip with another volunteer and three of her Guatemalan friends. This is important to note because most Guatemalans don't have the privilege of learning how to swim as kids, and so some of their activities on the cave adventure were all the more impressive if you keep that in mind.
So after a 30 minute ride in the back of a pickup standing up (which required me to be very attentive of where we were going so that I wasn't flayed by branches) we got to a bridge and our guide had us get out of the truck. We didn't cross the bridge, but instead walked about 100 meters (yes I'm going to use meters, we ought to learn to use them anyway since the Metric System is so much more logical than the English System) to a little office-shack where we took off all our non-swimming clothes and put all our stuff into a big lock-box. The guide gave out life-jackets to all the people who weren't comfortable swimming, and we climbed the 30 meters to the entrance to the cave. At that point our guide gave us each a candle and lit them all and we started in.
Now as a rather tall person, I found myself oscillating between having a major advantage over everyone else to having a major disadvantage, depending on the situation. I started out at a marked disadvantage as we passed under low hanging stalactites and I had to crouch down where some of our Guatemalan friends could walk without stooping at all. Pretty soon, though, it turned out to be quite fortunate that I am a giant as we got to the swimming section. Two of the Guatemalan girls were kind of okay paddling along in their life jackets, but one of them was a little more reluctant, so I decided to help her a little. First I tried to just give her instruction on how to position her body and kick her legs, and I thought it was going to work out until she started to get nervous and unexpectedly grabbed onto me. Now this wouldn't have been as much of an issue if I wasn't holding my candle in one hand, making it much harder for me to tread water, but as it turned out, I was mostly able to touch the ground and stretch my neck out to get my mouth out of the water to breathe. There did come fun moments when that wasn't the case and she put a bunch of weight on me and dunked me completely under the water, but I knew that I could get a breath if I needed it, so it didn't freak me out much. As it was, it was kind of a fun for me, but I was really impressed with these girls, going into caves like that when they can't swim and keeping it together so well. A lot of people would have just freaked out and left.
At one point we got to a place where there was the option to climb up a ladder or to climb a rope up a waterfall. Impressively, one of our friends took the challenge and went straight up that waterfall. Unfortunately I don't know how to say, badass, or courageous, or hardcore in Spanish, so I had some trouble expressing how I felt about seeing her do that. I just think it's always interesting to see people step outside of their comfort zones and have a new experience like that.
The craziest part of the cave tour was close to the end. The guide led us to a place where the water was rushing down through a hole, and he basically helped us to slide ourselves down through it as well. There is something about being in a dark cave and pushing yourself through a hole that isn't much bigger than your body that evokes a bit of an adrenaline rush, but it wasn't actually very risky, once I was out the other side and understood what had just happened.
All in all it was a very fun part of the trip, but the crazy-beautifulness was yet to come. Semuc Champey is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Awake - Wasting Days
It is 3:13am and I am awake. I did not just wake up, I have not yet gone to sleep. Why, you might wonder, would someone stay up until 3:13 in the morning and then suddenly decide to write a blog post? Well, I'll tell you. It's because of a big bug. Now I have to go back a little bit to really explain this fully.
On Sunday I got back from a vacation to the U.S. My vacation was wonderful, restful, fun, and full of people that I love. Over the last couple days of the vacation, it was perhaps overfull, but that was just because I was so enjoying spending time with my friends. The result of this was several days of little sleep in a row, followed directly by my redeye (which I only recently learned means that it was an overnight flight, I never had reason to know that before Peace Corps) back here. Now those of you who know me, are probably aware that I am relatively taller than the average person, and one of the downsides of that is that I have trouble sleeping on planes, in cars, etc. because the top of the seats usually only come up to the base of my neck. It is quite difficult to fall asleep when your head is bent at a 90ยบ angle backward. Sure I've tried slouching down, but my knees press up against the seat in front of me without much slouching (even in First Class, I discovered on this trip). I tried sort of turning on one side, but my shoulders are too broad and my head kept lolling around and waking me up. Anyway, the point is, that I was on the plane and could not sleep much (maybe an hour total with all the nodding off and waking myself up with my falling head).
Once I got into Guatemala I got a cab to the bus stop where I wait for the chicken buses from my town, and from there I was fortunately able to go straight home. Of course anytime you're on one of those buses you need to be semi-vigilant of your stuff to make sure that no one ends up taking any of it, so I spent my time trying to watch the front door to make sure that no one tried to make off with my suitcase (the ayudante [driver's helper] had put it up by the driver, right next to the door), although there is much less risk of that on my buses because the drivers and ayudantes generally recognize me and know a little about who I am, and thus help take care of me, which is nice. The point of this paragraph is that I was trying to stay vigilant, but was also quite tired, and through some sort of crazy fortune I had my own seat for my entire trip, which meant that I could get semi-comfortable enough to doze off some more.
About two hours after I left the capital I got into my house, and despite my body's insistence that I belly-flop onto my bed and not move for a couple days, I felt the need to check the status of my room first. I think this is how you know you've been in the Peace Corps for a while: you get home from a trip and go check the spot in your room that bugs love to hang out to make sure that there isn't anything in there that you can't stand. As per usual, behind this foam in my room had congregated a bunch of these little roly-poly bugs, the ones that tend to just casually walk under the one-inch gap under either of my doors and waltz their way into my room. Of course I had been gone for long enough that a predator had discovered the little colony, which is exactly what I was expecting, and planning to kill. This time the spider wasn't sooo big, but it wasn't a tiny little guy either. And it was black, which I think makes spiders look much more menacing. So I killed the spider and cleaned out all the other bugs and then swept and disinfected that area in an attempt to eliminate my infestation for another few days. Then I sat on my bed to do something, and an hour later I woke up groggy and confused.
You would think that I would have crashed right then, but I actually had a friend visit me that night, so I couldn't do that. This time I didn't stay up late, but we got up early (6:25 CST, remember that I have just changed time zones, so it's 4:25am my time at this point) to go on a trip. Now I can't complain about this because it was something that I needed to do, and leaving that early was actually much nicer than leaving later on for various reasons, but it added to my tiredness instead of taking away from it, which is kind of the point of this story. I had to take this trip because a pickpocket stole my Guatemalan debit card and my Peace Corps ID just two days before I left for the states, and I didn't have much money left, so I went to get a new card from the office. I got back to my house that afternoon (yesterday) around two, and then hung out with a friend before taking another accidental nap on top of my bed for an hour or so. Just long enough to give me some energy for the evening I guess, because I ended up staying up until after midnight for some reason.
Then this morning I woke up after some tossing and turning that was somewhat inspired by the buses and trucks that seem to enjoy driving past my house at 50mph even though the road is essentially cobblestone and thus makes it sound like the trucks are either driving directly into my room, or about to explode, depending on what gear they are in. I woke up with the intention of getting up and doing things, but as a result of my general exhaustion and lack of having anything concrete planned in my day I did not. In fact, I never got up. I got out of bed to use the bathroom when I needed it, but that was it. I keep some snacks in my room, so I ate all of those, and I just lay around all day and all evening. I never feel good after these kinds of days, but there is something about this time of the year and having no plans that means sometimes I just stay in bed all day. So today was like that. I didn't nap, but I didn't expend much energy either. I was planning on going to bed early, and getting up early tomorrow to try to start back into life here. Unfortunately that didn't work out.
At about 1:15am I finally felt tired and decided to try to go to sleep, only to discover that the snacks I had eaten throughout the day were not sufficient for my stomach, and that it would not be denied. I got up, heated up some water and had some hot granola with extra oats and some cereal (I know all those things were cereal, but you know what I mean). By the time I finished eating it it was a little after 2:30, and since I had just eaten I wasn't feeling terribly sleepy so I put on a TV show to help myself unwind a bit. The show ended at 3am, and I turned off my computer screen, finally ready to go to sleep. I switched off the light, rolled myself over, situated my pillows and had relaxed for quite literally two seconds when BOOM, I felt a quite large bug land on my bare shoulder.
I reacted quickly, rolling onto that shoulder to push the bug onto the bed, and popping up and turning on the light. My first reaction had been that it was going to be a big spider like the one I had killed two days before, but I was wrong. It turned out to be an ENORMOUS grasshopper-looking thing. I am talking the size of my palm (and remember that I have pretty big hands). I snapped this photo and then grabbed it with a plastic bag, went outside and just left it out there in the open. At that point I came in and started writing this post.
I have grown accustomed to insects these days, and they don't usually bother me, but there is something different about being attacked by an extra-large one RIGHT as I turned off the light that has me a little twitchy. I find myself slapping at the shoulder where it pounced, and feeling sort of itchy all over, and that makes it hard to settle myself down to sleep, which is why I wrote this post. It turned out to be much longer than I had planned, in large part because I AM still quite tired and so my filter for what is interesting seems to be not functioning terribly well, but perhaps that's okay. If nothing else this whole experience describes a part of my life here that I don't talk too much about because I wish it didn't happen. I really wish that there weren't days in which I didn't leave the house, because it would be better for me and better for my community, but some days it just seems like an awful lot of work. When I have work I love my job, but when I don't, well, I love my bed...
On Sunday I got back from a vacation to the U.S. My vacation was wonderful, restful, fun, and full of people that I love. Over the last couple days of the vacation, it was perhaps overfull, but that was just because I was so enjoying spending time with my friends. The result of this was several days of little sleep in a row, followed directly by my redeye (which I only recently learned means that it was an overnight flight, I never had reason to know that before Peace Corps) back here. Now those of you who know me, are probably aware that I am relatively taller than the average person, and one of the downsides of that is that I have trouble sleeping on planes, in cars, etc. because the top of the seats usually only come up to the base of my neck. It is quite difficult to fall asleep when your head is bent at a 90ยบ angle backward. Sure I've tried slouching down, but my knees press up against the seat in front of me without much slouching (even in First Class, I discovered on this trip). I tried sort of turning on one side, but my shoulders are too broad and my head kept lolling around and waking me up. Anyway, the point is, that I was on the plane and could not sleep much (maybe an hour total with all the nodding off and waking myself up with my falling head).
Once I got into Guatemala I got a cab to the bus stop where I wait for the chicken buses from my town, and from there I was fortunately able to go straight home. Of course anytime you're on one of those buses you need to be semi-vigilant of your stuff to make sure that no one ends up taking any of it, so I spent my time trying to watch the front door to make sure that no one tried to make off with my suitcase (the ayudante [driver's helper] had put it up by the driver, right next to the door), although there is much less risk of that on my buses because the drivers and ayudantes generally recognize me and know a little about who I am, and thus help take care of me, which is nice. The point of this paragraph is that I was trying to stay vigilant, but was also quite tired, and through some sort of crazy fortune I had my own seat for my entire trip, which meant that I could get semi-comfortable enough to doze off some more.
About two hours after I left the capital I got into my house, and despite my body's insistence that I belly-flop onto my bed and not move for a couple days, I felt the need to check the status of my room first. I think this is how you know you've been in the Peace Corps for a while: you get home from a trip and go check the spot in your room that bugs love to hang out to make sure that there isn't anything in there that you can't stand. As per usual, behind this foam in my room had congregated a bunch of these little roly-poly bugs, the ones that tend to just casually walk under the one-inch gap under either of my doors and waltz their way into my room. Of course I had been gone for long enough that a predator had discovered the little colony, which is exactly what I was expecting, and planning to kill. This time the spider wasn't sooo big, but it wasn't a tiny little guy either. And it was black, which I think makes spiders look much more menacing. So I killed the spider and cleaned out all the other bugs and then swept and disinfected that area in an attempt to eliminate my infestation for another few days. Then I sat on my bed to do something, and an hour later I woke up groggy and confused.
You would think that I would have crashed right then, but I actually had a friend visit me that night, so I couldn't do that. This time I didn't stay up late, but we got up early (6:25 CST, remember that I have just changed time zones, so it's 4:25am my time at this point) to go on a trip. Now I can't complain about this because it was something that I needed to do, and leaving that early was actually much nicer than leaving later on for various reasons, but it added to my tiredness instead of taking away from it, which is kind of the point of this story. I had to take this trip because a pickpocket stole my Guatemalan debit card and my Peace Corps ID just two days before I left for the states, and I didn't have much money left, so I went to get a new card from the office. I got back to my house that afternoon (yesterday) around two, and then hung out with a friend before taking another accidental nap on top of my bed for an hour or so. Just long enough to give me some energy for the evening I guess, because I ended up staying up until after midnight for some reason.
Then this morning I woke up after some tossing and turning that was somewhat inspired by the buses and trucks that seem to enjoy driving past my house at 50mph even though the road is essentially cobblestone and thus makes it sound like the trucks are either driving directly into my room, or about to explode, depending on what gear they are in. I woke up with the intention of getting up and doing things, but as a result of my general exhaustion and lack of having anything concrete planned in my day I did not. In fact, I never got up. I got out of bed to use the bathroom when I needed it, but that was it. I keep some snacks in my room, so I ate all of those, and I just lay around all day and all evening. I never feel good after these kinds of days, but there is something about this time of the year and having no plans that means sometimes I just stay in bed all day. So today was like that. I didn't nap, but I didn't expend much energy either. I was planning on going to bed early, and getting up early tomorrow to try to start back into life here. Unfortunately that didn't work out.
At about 1:15am I finally felt tired and decided to try to go to sleep, only to discover that the snacks I had eaten throughout the day were not sufficient for my stomach, and that it would not be denied. I got up, heated up some water and had some hot granola with extra oats and some cereal (I know all those things were cereal, but you know what I mean). By the time I finished eating it it was a little after 2:30, and since I had just eaten I wasn't feeling terribly sleepy so I put on a TV show to help myself unwind a bit. The show ended at 3am, and I turned off my computer screen, finally ready to go to sleep. I switched off the light, rolled myself over, situated my pillows and had relaxed for quite literally two seconds when BOOM, I felt a quite large bug land on my bare shoulder.
I reacted quickly, rolling onto that shoulder to push the bug onto the bed, and popping up and turning on the light. My first reaction had been that it was going to be a big spider like the one I had killed two days before, but I was wrong. It turned out to be an ENORMOUS grasshopper-looking thing. I am talking the size of my palm (and remember that I have pretty big hands). I snapped this photo and then grabbed it with a plastic bag, went outside and just left it out there in the open. At that point I came in and started writing this post.
I have grown accustomed to insects these days, and they don't usually bother me, but there is something different about being attacked by an extra-large one RIGHT as I turned off the light that has me a little twitchy. I find myself slapping at the shoulder where it pounced, and feeling sort of itchy all over, and that makes it hard to settle myself down to sleep, which is why I wrote this post. It turned out to be much longer than I had planned, in large part because I AM still quite tired and so my filter for what is interesting seems to be not functioning terribly well, but perhaps that's okay. If nothing else this whole experience describes a part of my life here that I don't talk too much about because I wish it didn't happen. I really wish that there weren't days in which I didn't leave the house, because it would be better for me and better for my community, but some days it just seems like an awful lot of work. When I have work I love my job, but when I don't, well, I love my bed...
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