Graduated!

7 marzo

Spoiler alert: Tyler and I returned home safe and sound.  I definitely want to update you all on our last week of travels, though, and in order, if possible.  My next few entries are about our trek from Xela to Lago Atitlan, our day at the Lago, day in Antigua, and trip back home.


On Friday night (1 marzo), Tyler and I went to the Quetzaltrekkers mandatory information meeting to get the scoop on and gear for our big hike.  Afterwards, we made an amazing dinner from all of our market purchases: raddish, cucumber, and carrot salad with a lime vinaigrette, guacamole, huevos revueltos, fried plantains, and a side of fresh tortillas (purchased). 





I officially "graduated" from Celas Maya in a much smaller graduation crew than the prior week.  Most of the UVA students had left on Thursday, leaving only me, Molly, and Eric to accept our certificates and enjoy the "bebidas and talents" theme with a few other students, Tyler, a few teachers, and the tour guide/cafe guys from the school.  Jen and Michelle also made a guest appearance!  Eric and Molly, good Spanish students as they are, had of course prepared a Spanish karaoke duet as their talent.  The picture below is of them singing, just before the lights went out and they were forced to sing from memory in a cell phone spotlight.  Very classy.

 Real talent.

I, on the other hand, having only 1 talent, once again coerced everyone else into losing to me at limbo.  This makes 2 times in just over 2 weeks.  I was challenged by a fellow student from Germany, Kevin, the surprisingly flexible barista/guide/teacher from Celas Maya, and Michelle, whose technique improved considerably over the course of the competition. Their efforts were ultimately futile against my amazing limbo prowess which, impossibly, may have actually strengthened after 4 weeks of poneytailed-teacher-led backbends.  

 Kevin, me, Michelle

We ended the night with a celebratory drink and earring purchase at a place called Cafe Red (yes, it's called "Red," not "Rojo," which should clue you in to the percentage of gringos there.  Hint: it was close to 100.) We needed to go to sleep early but I insisted we stay for at least a half an hour so I could wear my new earrings.

Next post to follow shortly with more pictures and tales of mountains and erruptions....though not the kind you might be thinking of.

xoxo,
Rachel

Last post from Xela

1 marzo

This will probably, sadly, be my last post from good old Guru Cafe here at Celas Maya.  My last day in clinic yesterday was nice and we successfully completed Javier's first monthly disease surveillance report!

Javier, Orlando, Juan, Shayla, and I outside the clinic

I bid farewell to Claudia, my maestra for the past couple of weeks, with some almost-glamorous glamor shots:

Tyler arrived yesterday safe and sound around 6:30 and we've been busy checking out the sites since.  Last night, we huffed it up a hill to Panorama, a restaurant "romantico" known for its beautiful view of the city and availability of blankets and fondue, all of which we took advantage of:

Today we spent the morning walking around town and doing some shopping in La Democracia for our hostelmade dinner tonight.  We got a bakeshop donut, I introduced Tyler to the clinic and staff, and then we headed back to the school area for a tostada and a drink in el parque central.

Tonight we have a meeting with Quetzaltrekkers about our trip this weekend, from Xela (essentially) to San Pedro la Leguna on Lago Atitlan.  We might go out for a little while afterwards but have to wake up early to meet for the trip!

We'll be out of email touch this weekend but will hopefully be able to update you all and share stories from our trek.

Shabbat shalom and hasta luego!
Rachel

Mi ultimo and primero día en uno.

28 febrero

Hi everyone,

Today is the day that Tyler gets here!  It is also my last day of classes, last day of working in the clinic, and my last day with my host family.  As you can imagine, I'm having a lot of conflicting emotions...I want to stay and study more, I'm finally hitting my stride in the clinic, I am going to miss my host family, but of course I'm so excited to see Tyler and have a few days of a more independent and unscheduled lifestyle.

Yesterday was a very routine and busy day in clinic - 25 patients, mostly from a single bar, came.  I actually had to leave before the last ones to get back for lunch.  Today I'm going in a little later and will stay later to help Javier with his February report, which we can't complete until all the patient's for today have been seen. The reports track a few outcomes for the populations of interest: all females, all men, all trans, and the HIV-positive populations in each group.  We are calculating the monthly prevalence of HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomonas, condom use with partners, condom use with clients, and a couple other things I can't remember.

The rest of the day will be busy too.  I have class from 2-6, then am going to meet Tyler at the bus station, come back to town to hopefully introduce him to my host family and then go out to dinner!  Tomorrow we are planning to have a Xela day, full of avocados, the cemetary, and introducing him to all my favorite things and people here.

Will try to write more later but in the meantime, be well!

xoxo,
Rachel

Momentito Guatemalteco 5

Sunday

5:54 am

I must be on another planet.  It is pitch black except for the ring of illuminated ground in front of me, courtesy of my headlamp, which is all moon-dust colored.  I change the ground with each step, gray dust and gray pebbles and gray rocks tumbling lightly down in the wake of my shoes, occasionally meeting another persons' and continuing on down the slope.

I look up and see two figures in red hoods, self-illuminated in a column of light like mine.  They are 20 feet above me on the trail, so their heads appear disproportionately small as I crane my neck.  Farther up, a group of white lights and one red one bob upwards, detached from any visible bodies.  Farther up still, I can make out the border of the slope, defined by the start of stars.  The lowest star of Orion's belt is nearly tucked behind it.

I look left and see another border, this one intersecting bands of clouds and constellations of lights.  The bands continue on and on until I am looking behind me and see the edge of the planet, silhouetted by a linear beam of orange light.  The line is punctuated by 4 or 5 peaks that get taller from left to right, and one smaller one all the way right that is fuming, a vertical puff of smoke expanding upward

I am wearing a space suit of layers - a sports bra, tank top, wicking t-shirt, under armor long sleeve, cotton long sleeve, cotton zip jacket, my Patagonia trench coat, and a windbreaker.  I have a striped beanie, black ear warmer, and the hood to the windbreaker on my head. Every stimulus is completely unearthly except for my struggle.  My feet are leaden and my toes are numb as they move one in front of the other.  I am inordinantly proud of myself each time the left lands some distance, no matter how small, further up than the right.  A wave of heat starts in my core and moves up my neck over the front of my face and teeters on nausea.  Thanks, gravity.

Some pictures from Tajamulco

26 febrero

As promised, here are some pictures from our hike to Tajamulco

Claiming and organizing our gear in the am. (Michelle and Molly)

Packing up

Our private, chicken-less chicken bus

Michelle, me, my headlamp, Molly photo bomb

11:45, we arrived!

Obviously.

De-layering once before we started hiking

Tajamulco is tajall. (Get it? Like "tall")

The caballo and his caballero who carried all of our tents up.  Oof.

Pat, with a triple decker sandwich of beans, tuna, tomatoes, cucumber and onion.  At one point, I ate a hand-held salad.

Loading up with firewood before the summit.

Michelle, Gari

The view from our campsite

Talia with Sharky's long underwear, complete with butt snaps.  I think her exact question to him was, "Are those normal or are you quirky?"

The largest tent ever, in which about 14 college kids slept.

Michelle, Sharky, Me.  Sharky is really warm because of his long john onesie.

6:00 am or so, sunrise over Central America.  

It was good we brought our sleeping bags to the summit.

Almenacer.  We could see Santiaguito errupting!

El crater.

xoxo,
Rachel

Un buen día

25 febrero

Today was a great day.  This morning in clinic, I worked with Javier on some reporting tasks that he was given on Friday.  Some gentlemen from Guatemala City who work for the country's equivalent of the CDC visited and told him that he needs to be doing monthly reporting of the prevalence of various STIs and preventive behaviors.  (Coincidently, they knew of UNC-Chapel Hill because they had worked with the School of Public Health.)  This morning, I told Javier that it was interesting and he confessed that he didn't really understand what they wanted him to do.  We spent the next hour or so running reports from his electronic medical record, which is specially designed to track STIs internationally, and talking about the differences in calculating and interpreting incidence and prevalence.

Back at school, I skyped with Tyler, Owen, and Roy (Owen's duncle).  I donated 5Q to help pay for the school's ex-homeless cat's food.  My maestra and I talked about our weekends and, despite having spoken almost only English all weekend during the hike, my sentences were more coherent, the conversation easier.  It's been happening gradually but today I noticed it more, that my words are more liquid than individual solid states, like I'm starting to approximate the fluid in "fluency."

I walked back here, to school, from yoga feeling happy.  Despite my best efforts, I like the poneytailed teacher.  His classes are varied and I feel stronger but safer, with fewer twinges and asymmetrical aching than I've had in awhile and in spite of hiking to almost 14,000 feet yesterday.  I met a new friend from yoga, another medical student who is from San Francisco and is going into family medicine.  We are going to get dinner tomorrow.  I felt taller when I walked and realized that I actually kind of love the narrow, slippery cobblestoned sidewalks because they force a lot of "buenos días"es and other greetings as people squeeze past telephone poles and nearly run into each other.

Overall, I could appreciate a certain crescendo to my trip today.  I hope it continues!

3 days until Tyler gets here!
xoxo,
Rachel

Friday night

24 febrero

Just got back from an awesome hike to the summit of Tajulmulco.  Will write more about that in a subsequent post but also wanted to share a couple of pictures of our awesome dinner at school on Friday night.  Last week was the last of the busiest weeks of the year for Celas Maya because a large group of anthropology undergrads from Holland left.  The maestras worked tirelessly to put together a typical sit-down dinner for the whole school in the courtyard, which was both lovely and delicious.  At the end of class on Friday afternoon, I was so distracted by all the lights, flowers, and food being prepared:

Decorations:

Nice speeches.

Some of the UVA crew:

Jen, my new housemate, me, and Leon

Our delicious dinner: corn, grilled onion and eggplant, beans, and tortillas.

xoxo,
Rachel