A typical day in Guatemala

Today was a normal day not overly exciting. I woke up at about 6:30, laid in bed daydreaming until 7:00, at which point I got up to study K’iche for a half an hour before I ate breakfast with my family. I’m not really a morning person so breakfast usually is eaten slow, slow enough to allow me to wake up all the way. My parents wake up at around 4:30 to start running the corn mill, which is right next to our house and which occasionally wakes me up earlier.
Breakfast like all meals and drinks is served hot. The food is really simple; sometimes we just have a pair of hard boiled eggs; luckily we can load up on tortillas to make up for any lack of food. This morning we ate a type of vegetable soup with a small piece of meat. We are usually served one of two types of drinks Pinol, or Atole (and on a rare occasion we have a cup of milk). Pinol is a like a type of herbal tea, and Atole is a sweet drink made by mixing corn dough in water and adding sugar. It’s been hard for me to adjust to simple tasting food; I can’t even describe how much I’ve been craving a fast food value meal! Even when compared with the food I ate while in Mexico this food is still very simple.
It is interesting to make the comparison of Guatemala with Mexico, because I always thought that Mexico was really poor, but being here and reflecting back on the economic situation in Mexico I realize that as bad as Mexico is it’s considerably better off than Guatemala. You can tell just by looking at the diet of the people here. My father on a good day will earn about $3.50 from his mill. He also works at a school watching the main gate so the students don’t leave every other week, but I’m not sure how much he makes there. Having me here certainly helps the economic situation for the family; all of the BYU students pay about 30 dollars a week for room and board (200 Quetzals).
After breakfast I wash my dirty clothes by hand, a very laborious activity. Luckily however I’m a veteran at washing clothes by hand, and received plenty of practice on my mission. I only wash clothes once a week, and when I finished today I went and studied until lunch. I’m getting exposed to all the major Latin American Authors from the Spanish conquest to the present day, and looking for Pre-Colombian indigenous influence. I’m also reading various translations and original texts of Pre-Colombian texts.
We eat lunch around 1:00 pm and as soon as I’m finished I hit the books again. This time I review the materials I have on narratology, which is the main thrust of my Honors Thesis (A narratological analysis of the premier Pre-Colombian Maya literary text). In case you’re unfamiliar with narratology it examines the broad structure of stories, and how they’re told. After I study for a little while I head out to meet with some people from the community to do some interviews and to practice my K’iche. I’m trying to get as many interviews as I can, to record people in the community telling stories. I’ll save an explanation of the purposes of these interviews in my research for another blog entry.
Today like every other day it rains in the afternoon. Instead of having a four seasons here there are only two, rainy season and dry season. It’s not overly warm because we are in the highlands I’m actually not very sure what the exact elevation here is but I’m pretty sure it’s higher than Utah, and it counteracts being as far south as we are. By about 6:00 I’m back home and today I’m going to watch some soccer, it’s the American Cup right now, and US just lost their first game to Argentina, but Mexico beat Brazil so I’m still feeling pretty good. I really like Soccer a lot!! It’s a sweet sport; I really need to go see Real Salt Lake. I actually watch the soccer games on a channel that is broadcast from Logan and Salt Lake (I think it’s the Univision Spanish channel there), I’m not sure quite how that all works but during the breaks I watch all these commercials intended for the Latin population in Utah!! They actually always make me really homesick, which is something I never thought a Wells Fargo commercial could do.

WWF thriving in Guatemala

So here in Guatemala professional wrestling is huge! It’s kind of the cool thing for the teenage boys to wear these black WWF t-shirts with their favorite wrestler on it. So besides learning a lot about indigenous literature I’ve also been able to get caught up on the latest happenings in the WWF. In fact in case anyone was wondering The Edge defeated Battista for the heavyweight title last Saturday night (I watched it with my little brothers, it was pretty amazing…). In the WWF there’s this wrestler named The Great Kali, he’s like 7 feet tall and he doesn’t speak English very well. So somehow the neighborhood kids made the comparison with me; which makes sense, I’m taller than everyone here and I don’t speak K’iche very well. So my new nickname is “El Gran Kali!” and all the kids cheer me on when I go down the street, it’s been a really interesting experience for me, so don’t be surprised if I show up at the Airport in August wearing all WWF attire…
Or if I body slam Pace during a barbecue or something. Oh which reminds me, Pace we need to go out to visit the Terribilini’s when I get back, I would like to challenge you to a showdown on the floating trampoline! I’m just letting you know now so that you can start training, you’re going to need it.

Too Many Jessicas!

So it turns out that Rachel, my girlfriend, and I both have little sisters named Jessica. This has caused many misunderstandings, and awkward situations (e.g. When Bro. Terribillini read my sister’s comments and was wondering why Jessica, his daughter, was telling me that she loved me). Therefore I have devised a solution to the problem, we rename both of them. We just need some suggestions on possible names for each one any suggestions? Please keep suggested names under six syllables.

Sweet Dance Moves

Sweet New Website
So check is this internet address www.mccullochs.info/blog/mcvideos, it has these sweet dance videos (e.g. terribilini girls)! I’ve been watching a lot lately so that I can… learn the dance moves. Oh and the dancers look pretty good too, don’t you think Pace?

Important Announcement:

Well today it happened again and this time I wasn’t asleep! That’s right this blog has additional validity because it is written by an earthquake survivor (Has Mcblog gone through any earthquakes? Didn’t think so)! Today at approximately 3:24 in the afternoon I was walking down the street to buy a some bread, the glazed kind with little sugar crystals sprinkled on top from the bakery; when suddenly I noticed the telephone wires shaking, I also heard what sounded like wind, yet I felt no breeze (dramatic pause); that’s when I realized I was experiencing an earthquake! Not to worry though! I didn’t panic because I realized I was in the safest spot possible (In the middle of the street away from any large buildings, or dangerous animals). Ok, perhaps this sounds a little too much like Dwight Schrute (a little over dramatic), but it was sweet! When I realized what was happening I stopped and just felt the ground bounce up and down. I’m going to check the newspaper tomorrow to see how severe it was! So yeah, I feel much cooler. I think now I can relate much better to Lindsey and Andy who lived through, experienced, excuse me, survived hurricane Katrina, you’re just never the same after you’ve overcome a natural disaster (spoken while staring off into the distance).
Ha ha! now I’m sounding like Micheal Scott, oh man I really miss The Office.

Does anyone know anything about BYU and UVSC track teams?

So it turns out my little brother is kind of a track star. He ran on the Guatemalan youth national team and was the champion for Central America in the 3k, he’s 16 now and his fastest time for the 3k is 8:45, he also runs the 5k but it’s not his best event his best time is 15:35. That seems really fast to me, Rachel you should find out what the times are for UVSC, and BYU track members who run the 3k, I’m just curious.

June 13, 2007

I have never been more tempted to be a vegan than this morning when I was served cow feet for breakfast. As I tried to eat them, I was reminded of this book I once read from a hari krishna I met in Mexico no less (In case you don't know they don't eat cows because they believe that they are reincarnations of humans), and surprisingly the teachings in that book seemed considerably more appealing! Speaking of food I made breakfast for my family last week, here's the journal entry in case you were interested on how it turned out.

Wednesday June 6, 2007
Today I woke up early in the morning and prepared breakfast for my family! It was pretty exciting! I started by mixing up some Oatmeal. After that I made the batter for the Pancakes. Finally I cut up the potatoes for the hash browns and got cooking. It was a little different using a wood stove, but I got used to it. My family was really excited to watch me juggle all three dishes at about the same time. I first served them a dish of oatmeal, they really liked it. I think they really liked the fact that I served it with milk because they don’t eat milk very often (I’ve never eaten it with my family, surprisingly enough I think it’s a luxury item around here). Then I whipped up a bunch of hash browns for everyone. They weren’t quite sure how to react to them and most everyone used their hands to eat it instead of their spoons (we don’t have forks). They liked all the food up to this point (or at least that’s what they told me), but judging by their facial expressions I think they really loved the pancakes. Maple Syrup is super expensive here so I served them with strawberry jam. I felt bad when that the batter ran out so quickly but everyone got to try some and they were very excited!
After finishing the father told me repeated times, “if we were to eat like this for 15 days we would soon be like Matt (Matt is another student here who’s a little more heavy set; my family has given him the nickname “baaq,” which is k’iche for skinny!). After breakfast I went to play basketball with the oldest of my little brothers Xuan, and Luis Miguel. It’s pretty fun playing basketball here because the locals really like it but they’re not real good and they’re much more impressed with my moves than most people back home. I’m feeling really good right now about this whole experience; it’s just a good time away for me. I’m really learning to value what I have, including economic possibilities, family, and educational opportunities. I’m also able to spend a good amount of time reading some really good books and to think very deeply about what I am reading and how it concerns these people that I am interacting with each day. I am also being able to give the deep thought which my Honors thesis requires. All of this I can accomplish without feeling rushed or pressured to do, it’s like a study vacation abroad! I love it; I just wish Rachel was here, of course if that was the case I would not get too much studying done!

“Men do less than they ought unless they do all they can.” –Thomas Carlyle

June 8, 2007
So this morning there was a small earthquake here! Unfortunately I was asleep when it happened so I missed it!! I was really bummed out when I found out I missed it, hopefully there will be another one when I’m awake, a small one of course just so that I can tell people what it’s like to be in an earthquake and then its cool. You see Jason is like my mentor and he taught me how to talk about things so that people think you’re really cool. The conversation goes something like this:

Me (when anyone in the conversation brings up anything even remotely similar to an earthquake): Oh yeah, earthquakes feel really weird, I remember when I was in one it was kind of scary.
Other person: You were in an earthquake!?
Me: Oh yeah! I don’t know if I told you that, but I was in Guatemala for the summer and anyways there was an earthquake, it was crazy.
Other person: Oh wow that’s amazing!
Me (really humble): oh yeah well it’s not really that big of a deal, I mean I guess they only happen to people like once in a lifetime, but whatever, I guess I was just lucky like that!

I’ve seen Jason use this formula a 1000 different times talking about anything he thinks is cool. The key he’s shown me is in a phrase like, “Oh I don’t know if you knew this… but etc…” If you can’t think of any cool thing that’s happened to you can always just use the default phrase, “I don’t know if you knew this but I’m kind of a big deal… People know me.” And if you use the two in conjunction, the combination is deadly! Sorry Jason I don’t mean to be telling your secrets I just wanted to increase the traffic to my blog and I know that this is a sure way to do it!

23 The number of separate indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala
1,000,000 The approximate number of K’iche speakers worldwide
25 BYU football’s preseason ranking according to the Sporting News
7.56 The number of Quetzals that equal 1 dollar
7 The amount of money in dollars my little brother earns for a days work
as a tuktuk driver (A Tuk Tuk is a little three wheeler motorcycle taxi
thing)
1 The number of times I’ve bathed in the last week (It’s not my fault mom
I just have to wait until my family uses the tuj that’s the only chance I
get!)
1.28 The amount of money, in dollars, it costs for a huge 72 pack of Can o
Can’s (The Guatemalan version of Oreo)
67 The number of days till I come home (Rachel I don’t know if your busy
but could you come pick me up from the airport?)

Making a Difference

Tuesday June 5, 2007
Ok so a few announcements, first I think that I’ll be coming home a week early this summer… It’s the reunion, I can’t miss it, yeah I really want to be back for that, and there may be a few other reasons, motives, explanations, raison d’être, people, friends, a girl. But yeah the point is I’m coming home seven days early... Well, actually that’s the only announcement I have.
I appreciate all the responses on stuff I can do to help the people out down here. My favorite suggestion was from Robert who offered to donate his truck and have Jessica drive it down the Pan-American highway to donate to the community. Robert I am fully supportive of that idea, I think that it would be a great experience for Jessica! And because it might be a little dangerous she should probably take Rachel with her, and a gun. So there you go, Jess and Rach I’ll be waiting for you guys within the next week (Rachel it might be a good idea to borrow your dad’s Tom Tom. (Mom, a Tom Tom is a GPS device like what Grandpa and Grandma have in their car)).
In the meantime I have been flossing with my lil’ brothers everyday, I’m trying to think of ways to motivate them, but so far have only thought to offer them gum for each day they do it and tell them that if they floss girls will like them more because their breath won’t stink. Both of them have stains already on their teeth, and their only 11, and 8. I don’t know if a tooth stains like that can be removed or if some people are just more predisposed to that (Mom, Brother Terribilini do you know anything about that?). I also will be going to a High School here every Thursday to teach English, I’m really excited for that and I start next week. I’ll still think of other ways and as always I’m very much open to suggestions.
In thinking about helping to make a difference, I’ve reflected a lot on a few conversations I’ve had recently, most notably with a few European students who are here working in an orphanage, and my buddy Dave Lindes a Latin American studies major. One problem that Latin America has is that even the people who dedicate their lives to studying it look down on it. When you tell someone you are majoring in Eastern European studies, people think something like, “oh wow, that’s cool, they have a rich culture, great fine arts etc…” There’s a respect, and honor given to the people and place. However when you tell someone you’re majoring in Latin American studies they think something like, “Oh those poor people you’re going to go help them lift themselves up by their bootstraps, and make quilts for them etc…” While this is a noble thought it is also demeaning to the people you “want to help,” and it presupposes that you are so much better than they are, which is kind of prideful. It turns out that a lot of teenagers in Europe take a one to two year break after High School to be able to travel to some part of the world, but they don’t go thinking they are going to go save the world, rather they go with the mentality that they may have things that other countries don’t have but that there are also many things that they can learn from other countries. It’s an attitude which is slightly different than many Americans and it is more respectful of the people they are going to live with. Now there are many things that I think are really wrong with the majority of Europe’s mind set, (don’t get me started on Euro-trash tourists, or socialism), but I like that idea of people travelling with this mindset, it puts the traveler and the native on a more even plain, in which both can benefit from the reciprocity of the interaction, rather than the conception of the benevolent traveler coming and granting a gift to the poor downtrodden native. After all part of teaching a man to fish is giving him the self confidence to stand on his own, and go out and catch those fish! So yeah sorry if that was overly philosophical, but it’s important.
That’s all I’ve got for now. I like my family here a lot, tomorrow I’m cooking breakfast! My family has never eaten Hash Browns before, and my youngest brothers have never had Pancakes, or Oatmeal! I’m pretty excited we’ll see how it goes! Good luck with everything and as my good friend Stephan likes to say “The Church is true and the book is blue!” ha ha ha! I love that quote! Much love and I’ll see y’all later.

p.s. (Jessica [my sister, although this could probably apply to the other Jessica as well] my oldest brother Xuan Carlos wants to marry you… That’s not going to be a problem is it? Ok great!)

Jessica (my sister) don't read this

May 30, 2007

Well, we have an etymologist in our group here and she’s really interested in all the different bugs here. It’s been really nice because she’s been able to help all of us deal with the different problems that all the different insects can present, like fleas (I’ve had much better luck with fleas than some of the others here in the group). But one thing that she told us to do is to try and leave spiders alone that we find in our rooms because they will protect us from the bugs which are more likely to cause us problems. So there’s two spiders that live in my room and I tried to have a new attitude towards them, so I allowed them to live in my room on the condition that they keep all the kissing bugs, fleas, bed bugs, mosquitos, and other small animals which like to suck my blood under control, and I’m glad to say that they have been very good tenets, and my bug bites have been few and far between; it’s totally a win-win situation, they get food, and I don’t get bitten!, I like to think of them as my arachnid allies. Here’s a picture of the one, the other one’s a little camera shy so we’ll have to see about that picture later.