Sundays...Domingos

My host family is given Sunday as something of a day of rest from me (all host families working with Celas Maya for all the host students). We are supposed to take care of our own meals today, nonetheless, my host family provided Ria and I will a simple breakfast of bread, jam, bananas, and tea. It´s our impression our host mother wants us to be able to have some light food at home before we venture out for the day. Once again, I recognize how blessed I have been to be placed with this family.

Today is market day in Xela -- I should specify, it is special market day taking place on the first Sunday of each month. Every day there are a few areas in town hosting a food market, but today in the Parque Central there were stands of people (mostly indigenous persons, recognizable by their beautiful dress) selling handicrafts, clothes, blankets, jewelry, etc. I will be here for another first Sunday, so I decided only to look today. Nothing particularly called to me in a "must have" way, but then few things ever do.

Ria needed to purchase something warmer to wear in the evenings. Xela is in the mountains surrounded by mountains making it much cooler than the coastal regions of Guatemala. In the middle of the day when the sun is shining it is warm enough to wear short sleeves and a need for a dab of sunscreen. Most of the time, though, we need at least a light layer to keep us warm and at night it is cold. Following the advice of the school I brought my winter sleeping bag along with me and found it useful the first few nights as I adjusted to the temperatures. At this point I have been able to pull it out from under my other blankets and transform it into a big pillow, which is such a treat. I was missing my pillow desperately and not sleeping all that well because of it.

In the city center area of Xela it is not easy to find clothing large enough for us foreigners, and Ria is anything but large. So we had to make our way out to the big shopping center in town. Yep, I have only been here only four days, and I have already been to the mall! It was not safe for Ria to travel there alone, though, so it had to be done. There was nothing particularly unique about the shopping center. It had a large Target type store attached to a typical mall with two levels and a food court full of U.S. companies at one end. What I noticed the most was it smelled like babies` diapers and people seemed to be doing more eating than shopping.

Our transportation there was a minivan crammed full of as many people as could possibly fit, including small children and infants sitting on parent´s laps. The ride was approximately 10-15 minutes, depending on the number of stops and how long it took to unload/load the passengers. The drivers try to keep the process moving along fairly quickly, as the more times they make their routes the more income they collect for the day. Regardless of which stop you get on or off, the ride cost 1 quetzal (a U.S. dollar is worth approximately 7.5 quetzal today). Typically a boy between the ages of 11-16 acts as the manager of the minivan, calling out the stops, the final destination, and ensuring passengers fill every available inch of space. These boys are the right size to fill this position, as there is little room for them, if any, in the minivan. Sometimes they ride on the running boards outside the sliding side door hanging on inside the van through the open window.

Ria and I will be venturing out for dinner tonight. Our first meal out on the town.