Just ask for Betty

“Just ask for Betty”

 Those words sum up the past week.   Over the past week, the five of us volunteers had our last week of language school, held in a Mayan village located in the cornfields.  Before we left, Marcia was briefing us a bit on what we might encounter and said, “for some of them (the volunteers), it involved bicycling for twenty minutes on little kids bikes… through cornfields.”  I thought that was so funny that I wrote it down.  I didn’t take her seriously.

And then, we got to school.

The trail to school

The first day, Tito, the coordinator of our school, picked us all up at the Seminary where we were staying and we drove out of town with him and the other teachers.  He turned up a dirt road and the van shook as we cruised up through the potholes.  He stopped “on the side of the road” (which in most of Guatemala I’m learning is more in the middle, but people don’t seem to care too much…) and the teachers piled out and walked down this skinny path through the cornfields.  We followed, and about 30 yards later, came upon a building that was perfect for school. As we met our teachers and began class, I thought – “this is perfect!” After being in Xela for a few days, I had come to realize that I am not really the cookie cutter city girl.  Walla Walla has cut me out with a more rural edge.  Studying in the corn felt normal.  I liked it.

The clothing line of trajes at the house

After class, we walked back through the corny path (sorry… I had to do it) to the road and met our host families.  Laura and I were with one family that was running late and Andrew, Tina, and Juli were with the other; the families are relatives.  We all had lunch together and then this adorable 10 year old girl showed up with her little purple bike and said that she would take us to her house.  As we began walking, Laura asked where she lived and she pointed.  Fifteen minutes later, I asked her if a horse that we were passing was hers – she looked at me like I was an idiot.  Probably 20 minutes (or more) later, we showed up at her house.  It was quite a hike through fields, along the river, and up and over a pretty decisively steep hill.  There were a few times that Laura and I just looked at each other and laughed; we were the ones who would be riding the little kids bikes to school (for the record, they are purple and have baskets and riding them is like BMXing on a trail covered in potholes and people who speak one of two languages: Spanish which you kind of know and K’itche which you have no idea about, no matter how hard you try to learn).

The normal bike trail... you have to be sure to go straight...

Karina showing us her school uniform

 When we got to the house, we were immediately surrounded by kids (we were quite the novelty… later that week when we were walking to the store, some kids at a house down the hill yelled “It’s the Gringoes!” and suddenly tons of little faces occurred frantically trying to get a look). We met the pigs, cow, chickens, eggs, puppies, and played clapping games in the empty chicken pen (empty because the chickens were anxiously waiting for the opportune time to sneak into the kitchen).   The mom tore us away at one point to show us our rooms and as she did, she casually mentioned how it’s a good thing she washed the blankets because there were fleas.  She didn’t mention washing the fabric cot mattresses that had the remainders of food on them and when she left, Laura and I were both a bit nervous.  Then, Laura (who, I might add, has dreads) saw a flea on her.  That’s when we went into overdrive and used ½ a bottle of bug spray on the cots and all our belongings.   Somehow that worked, and the crisis was avoided.  I think that our frantic prayers to not have to deal with fleas on top of the outhouse that didn’t have a door and was next to the stinky cow may have had something to do with that.

Every meal that we had with our family consisted of corn.  We had corn café (yes… in the Mayan world, at least this one, café’ is a delicious hot drink made out of corn and vanilla… I’m in love with it), corn pan dulce, and corn tortillas (I tried to make some and my kind host mom said, “that one can be for the chickens”) to use as utensils.  The second most used ingredient is limestone.  We witnessed limestone being used as the second ingredient in corn tortillas, to build houses (the cement), and to kill ants.  I was told that it’s used in tortillas because it’s a natural antibacterial, and I have seen it used in construction at Roche Harbor, but the ant killing?  If you have any leads, let me know… 

The community feel was palpable.  In this community, it was known that all you really need in life is family.  Corn and lime are important too…

Which brings me to Betty.  As we were getting ready to leave, the family was really sad (as were we!).  I promised them that I’d come visit but I needed some information.  The mom gave me the bus information and her phone number.  When I asked what their last name is in case I got lost she said, “just as for Betty”.  This was so cool for two reasons.  1) a group of girls from the Walla Walla class of 2010 decided to just call me betty for the first while I was there… it, in a strange way, was one of the most welcoming things that could of happened and 2) The people in the town care about one another so much that they are on a first name basis.

I’m excited to go and ask for Betty.