Good times Saturday night...I brought my ukulele along to a small bar in the touristy part of town where I met up with a my friend from Argentina I saw playing the other night at the Buddha. A few friends, my ukulele, Augustine on the guitar and two guys on the bongos rocked pretty hard and drew a decent crowd in the tiny room of the bar which overflowed into the street. Augu was really into my kazoo and wants me to send him one when I get back to the states. It was a great time and the owner of the bar comped most of my bar tab for playing. We have another "show" on Tuesday at the same place. May try to get some practice in tonight, but I dont want to let my spanish studys slip.
After the show I wanted to meet some friends at a bar down the way and as I approached there was a group of about 10 or 15 men standing in the doorway wearing sombreros, more like a cowboy hat than what one would imagine a sombrero. There is a lot of conflict between the local churches and the restaurants and bars. In talking with my teacher there are many families affected by the drugs and alcohol that are present in the country. Some of the fathers who have historically worked very hard throughout the day to provide the neccesities families need to survive are no longer providing which in turn has negative effects on the health and wellness of their family and community. The group of men are not police officers rather a group of locals who walk around at night blowing whistles and getting the drunks off the street and using their presence to try to get bars to close down early. Good enough for me, I decided to call it a night and head home.
Sunday was a day off from going to class so I took full advantage and slept in till about 10. I made my way down to a restaurant right on the lake and set up at a table to study the afternoon away. I am feeling pretty solid on my spanish, but still have a long way to go to meet my personal expectations of what I hope to get out of studying. At around 2pm my studies slowed down when they flipped on four tvs and started the colts/jets game. A friend I met at the bookstore also came in and sat down to watch the game. After the game my friend invited me to play some poker at another bar down the road.
On my walk back to the house, a little dog started following me. The culture of dogs here in San Pedro is pretty interesting. A lot of families have dogs I guess as a means of protection or to ward off people on their property. Fair enough, lots of people in the states have dogs. The big difference is that when it gets dark the dogs start up with their barking. And throughout the night there is seamlessly nonstop barking. Since being here a few nights I have somewhat gotten used to it, but occasionally wake up and hear the dogs singing the night away.
(25-10-2010)
Another great session with Christina (my teacher). I was able to kind of tell her exactly what it is I do back on Catalina. She knew I lived on an island and worked with kids, but when we started talking about the lake and how it had been so polluted in December I started digging through my dictionary to find words to describe my job. The gratification of learning spanish is so apparent when I am able to communicate with locals and get to know them and their culture on a personal level as opposed to a book. Although I am reading I Rigoberta Menchú, a great book about the life of a group of natives that lived in Guatemala...thanks Lissa! There is so much pride in the culture here, though some is beginning to be lost as there is more and more western influence and many people are starting to stray. Though you can still see a strong sense of the culture. The father of the household I am staying goes up into the mountains several times throughout the year to cultivate and harvest maize (corn), beans, and coffee which will be used to feed his family. And is soooo tasty and fresh.
Each village around the lake is named after a Saint...San Pedro - Saint Pedro, San Marcos - Saint Marcos, San Pablo - Saint Pablo, etc. for the day of the Saint on which the village was founded. Today happens to be the day of Saint Pablo and I decided to go for an adventure with two friends to the village across the lake. We hiked up to the back of the city and jumped in the back of a truck and were off to San Pablo. Ten minutes later there we were. San Pablo is definatly a bit poorer a village than San Pedro and with much less tourism. Besides myself and my two friends we saw three other Gringos. Being tall in this country really sets you apart. As we walked through the market I could see clear across the crowd of people pushing their way through the little space left over after the locals had set out different foods, clothes, kitchen wears, and just about anything else you could ever want.
A few highlights of San Pablo were the crazy ferris wheel that was rigged up on a crazy pulley system driven literally by a guy sitting next to a car engine shifting gears with a clutch to speed up the ferris wheel which was mounted on some percariously stacked bricks. We passed on that ride. One guy came up to me and asked me if I was from California...I started talking with him..in spanish...and it turns out he had a few guys from California working for him making oils from herbs he was growing in the hills...He invited us to his house to see some drums and dijerydo he had made. I was cautious at first, but he had two little kids with him and I had two friends with me. We made our way through an alley and he invited us in to his house. A little old lady sat in front of the wood stove making tortillas and there were probably 4 or 5 kids around the very meager 3 bedroom house. There was no electricity and he was very appolgetic, but showed us his beautifully crafted drums and dij and his essential oils. I did pick up a small bottle of almond oils, which smelled amazing...maybe I´ll hand it off to Lissa to make some lotion. We played with the kids for a bit before heading to the central square where we were no more than 25 feet from where they were launching fireworks. Everytime one would shoot off you could feel the wave of energy released from the blast. They cleared out the fireworks and the mariachi band came out and was raging. Odd thing was everyone was just standing there staring at the stage. And I mean everyone with the exception of two little boys dancing in the square. Not really sure, part of the culture maybe? So Im back safe from that adventure and ready to hit the books a bit before bed.
Buenas Noches
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