Walking to the bus stop one morning, I passed the milkman. He had 2 goats and a package of styrofoam cups. I watched as he milked the goat and sold the cup of foamy milk to a lady at her front door. Talk about fresh!
I was in the ice cream shop ordering an ice cream cake for my roommate's birthday. There was a mom with a few kids enjoying ice cream cones. Suddenly one of the young boys got up, walked to the entrance, dropped his drawers and started peeing out the front door onto the main street. I guess if there's no bathroom and you gotta go...
I was walking back from the high school when a short, elderly woman with missing teeth greeted me, or so I thought. She mumbled something unintelligible, which may or may not have been in Spanish. She was smiling at least. So I asked if I could take her picture. She mumbled something again, so I took that as a yes. After I took her picture and showed her her picture on the camera display, she pointed at herself on the screen, laughed, mumbled some more, and took my hand. We started walking down the street, her holding my hand until we parted ways at the next street. I got some funny looks, but I also got a priceless picture.
My roommates and I bought a new blender for our house from a store that sells furniture and appliances. To print our receipt, the lady working there sat down behind the counter at a typewriter and proceeded to type us a receipt for our purchase. I had to shake my head and remind myself that we really are in the 21st century. And in case you can't remember what a typewriter looks like, here's a picture of my roommate's typewriter because in high school they all had to take typing courses, and sometimes even still, university professors request that assignments be typed in that way rather than on a computer. I guess there's no copy and paste option, making it awefully hard to plagiarize.
Last weekend I went with my roommates and some other girls to a friend's wedding. The invitation said 11:00am. So, we planned to leave the house at 11:20. We left at 11:30, arrived at 11:45, and the wedding started at 12:30. We were good and early. People were arriving throughout the ceremony and there were even some who arrived just as the ceremony was ending, just in time for the food. I think we need to redefine the word "late" because time has a totally different meaning here in Guatemala.
For most students that I teach, English is their third language, for some even their forth. For most, their second language is Pokumchi, and others also speak Kekchi. Some words that I have taught in my English classes always result in a round of laughter. Specifically "See you next week" and when we count from 10-20. For them, "week" means "tortilla" in Pokumchi, and corn tortillas are the staple food here. The number "forteen" is a common last name "Fortin", even some of my students have this last name. So when my students laugh in class and start whispering amongst themselves, I always have to ask why, and not assume they're laughing at me.
So I hope these experiences I've had made you laugh, or at least smile and realize that not everyone sees things the way we do. It's humbling to know that what I assume to be right, may not be right to someone else, and what I think is normal, may be weird to someone else. And I always have to ask myself, "What would these people laugh at if they were to visit my home in Canada?"
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