Road Trip

Ahhh… and the adaptation of "Cobanero" life has gotten the better of me, and once again I've fallen behind on my journaling. As with many other young travelers' blogs, it almost seems as if I might forget my familial audience of four or five readers. Fear not! I've been busy, but I intend on inundating you with stories and photos over the next day or so. For now, let me recap the last few weeks.

November 7 - 17

A majority of our work has been focused on the documentary project. We shot video 9 days out of those 10, and sometimes even twice in one day. We're now left with hours of footage to revise, narrate, translate, etc. We have the next week (November 28 - December 3) to solidify themes and a storyline. Our release date (via YouTube) is December 3, when Padre Pedro presents it to St. Patrick's Parish in Edina. Again, this video will serve as a informational video to heed new or further financial support from donors.

While I don't want to give away what is in the video, I can say we've shot over 10 interviews with monks and different community members (including the Bishop of Alta Verapaz). We got further exposure to aldea life, and furthered our understanding of the community's interaction with the people of Coban.

Aside from video work (which truly took up a lot of time), we did the typical routine: a few Sopranos here and there, a few late-night whiskey drinks, some cat-naps on the hammock and PLENTY of coffee breaks.

ROAD TRIP PART 1 November 18

As you folks may or may not know, the visa situation in Guatemala is very interesting. As an American citizen, I am permitted a 3-month visitor's visa very easily. In order to renew that visa for another 3 months, I must leave the country for 72 hours. For our first trip, Justin and I determined that our destination was Placencia, Belize. Translation: "Required Trip to Paradise"

We were even more excited when we heard that Raul and Donal were going to Road Trip up to Placencia with us.

Raul and Donal fit in a very similar character description. They are both in their mid-50's, only speak Spanish, and are rich family men. They both appear rather passive but LOVE to drink scotch whiskey (and their bellies show it). Raul started a radio station in Coban in the early 80's (his connection with Bernie) and knows everyone in town. Donal works in the cardamom import business but has struck hard times recently due to a loss of a daughter, wife and aunt all in the same year. They seemed worthy enough travel partners, and we were happy to get a free ride up with two locals.

The trip started out rough. I awoke at an early 6:00am to find myself with a massive headache. Raul and Donal picked us up at 6:30am, clearly excited to "road-trip it" with a couple of young rascals. On the way out of town, we stopped at a gas station for the famous "Abre de ojos" (eye-opener) drink that Bernie had told us so much about. As I sipped on my so-called "Something Special: Fine Scotch Whiskey" and tried to get into the spirit of things, I realized that I felt worse. 

We packed up and headed out in Raul's Jeep: old guys in the front, young guys in the back. As soon as we were on the open road, Raul pulled out a burned CD Titled "Ingles," put 'er in the CD player, and CRANKED the volume. A variety of Pop blasted over the speakers, including Spanlish cuts from Pitbull, Enrique Iglesias, and other unbearable artists. While this music can be fun to some in a bar or club setting, I can assure you it is no fun when it's 7:00am and you're about to find out you have food poisoning. 

After a few feeble attempts to car-dance and look like I was having fun, I began to curl in to the fetal position, feeling my stomach tighten up in complicated knots. With each curvy turn in the wandering mountain roads, I realized I didn't have much time.

"Necesitamos PARRAR!" 

Click. Plunch. Burp. BLAHHHH!

I dropped out of the car on my knees and could barely hold myself up as I revealed what was inside my stomach. After I was done, I was bound in a cold sweat, drenched in my "100% Guate" Gallo shirt that I won at Oktoberfest. After I had my intimate vomiting session with the side of the Guatemalan mountain road, we carried on (blasting music and all) to a place for breakfast.

I ordered up a nice meal of steak and eggs. This did not work very well. My stomach didn't even ponder the situation; I threw up in the restaurant bathroom. As I returned from my second hellish episode, I resolved I would only be eating what I felt like. All I felt like doing, though, was lying down. This was something I was not able to do until 8:00p.m. that night.

The rest of the day is rather hard to recount, as I was either sick as a dog or sleeping. I excused myself once more on the side of the road and was dry heaving for most of the day. I consumed several glasses of sparkling water with Alka-Selzer, as well as a few pieces of pineapple. We made several stops along the way, doing this or that. Raul stopped several times to say hello to friends and relatives (during this time sat hunched in the car, hoping to be struck by lightning). The whole trip was plagued with 100% volume from the speakers. We hear our far share of Reggaetone, Pop, and awful Maringa music. Our playlist was also fairly concentrated. The next few songs were played the most; often times twice or thrice in a row..

(I'm convinced this is the worst song I've ever heard)

Pitbull...

and more Pitbull...

I was exhausted but relieved when we reach Raul's cabin in Peten that night, and in no condition to explore the place. I found a half-inflated air mattress in a small cement room covered with a thatched roof. I briefly looked for a pump (didn't realize it was in a bag hanging from the bed post) and flopped down on the bed. That was it. lights out.

ROAD TRIP PART 2 November 19

I woke to find myself on a rugged but pristine lake shore property. It was like something out of Robinson Crusoe: thatched roofs, dirt stairs, simple structures (see photos below). 

Donal, me, Justin, Raul

I felt better, and although I was not inclined to have fried fish and an "abre de ojos" with Raul, Donal, and Justin, I was game enough to go for a swim in warm Lake Iztbal. I caught a pretty good one of Justin with an "abre de ojos" after swimming.

(see photos below).

Abre de Ojos

The second road trip day was as the first: less conversation, more loud music. This time, Raul pulled out matching Coban Radio shirts (you can see mine in the banner picture below). We courted around Belize with these matching jerseys.. looked like one heck of a crew. We stopped several times to visit more friends of Raul. Crossing the boarder was easy, and Belize was fun to sightsee. After countless stops and drive-bys, I was able to pull these two gems out of the camera:

Guy riding horseback, wearing Do-rag

Banner

I hope I win the drawing...

Turns out everyone in Belize speaks English: what a wonderful break for us! In fact, the roles were reversed: no one spoke spanish! Our position was "translator" for the rest of the trip. We arrived in Placencia late at night, coincidentally the same night as a Garifuni (remember Livingston?) celebration. Thus the town was shut down and booked out. After talking to a few of the locals, we ended up lucking out and getting some rather expensive sea cabins which were only yards from the beach and ocean. We settled in, got cleaned up and went out for dinner on a seaside bar and grill. Food was typical American (Thank God!), and I had my first meal since the previous Thursday: a grilled ham & cheese, fries, and onion rings. It tasted wonderful, but I was full immediately afterwards and I still couldn't stomach beer. We at and watched a few local rastamen dance with some touristy young white women. While this was incredibly entertaining, we were tired from our journey, and retired to our rooms soon after dinner.

Documentary Days

Recently the multimedia project was put on hold. Several factors, including Giovanni's accident and the closing of the Guatemalan academic calendar, have recently made us leave our beloved Dell 1998's. More news to come about the multimedia project soon!

Now, we've picked up cameras starting another great project. In early December, one of the monks from Resurrection Priory is going to visit Saint Patrick's Parish of Edina, MN. St. Patrick's Parish is a primary donator to Resurrection Priory's support of their 85 aldeas.  They've not only helped with the donations of the water filters distributed in August, but also have stood sponsor to several young, poor Coban students. Justin and I have been put in charge of making a documentary about Resurrection Priory. The documentary is intended to detail the monks' interactions with the surrounding community, especially highlighting instances in which St. Patrick's Parish donation dollars are at work.

This documentary will be helpful in two reasons. Not only does it signify a "thank you" to donors, but it also is intended to gain more financial support for future projects (wink wink). The movie should last between 10-20 minutes. We plan on utilizing 10 minute video interviews from around 8 monks and several Coban community members to best represent the goings on of Resurrection Priory. Thus, we've spent the last week or so catching some great footage, some of which included "Day of the Dead" celebrations, Confirmation (last blog post), and the healing of the sick. The following week will be full of interviews. Our deadline is to have the video completed by December.. we've got work to do! We are thankful for this project as it has provided to be a topic of critical thinking as well as a chance to get to know the monastic community.

Monday 10/24 - Sunday 10/30
Aside from working on the documentary and a few computer repair sessions, Justin and I have been trying to meet up with a basketball league that allegedly meets on Wednesday and Fridays. We've gone to meet them twice, and the gym was closed both times. Our contact, "Emerson," another friend of one of Bernie's friends, has informed us that the owner of the gym has been sick recently, so the gym has remained closed. while we have yet to meet up with this mysterious basketball league, they are supposed to be having a game this Monday (11/7). Hopefully we'll meet up!

Last week passed by fast. Our evening events included a visit to Raul's house for a wonderful fettuccine dish, as well as a few other slightly awkward graduation parties. On Friday, we attended a graduation party via invite from one of Bernie's friends. The party was very nice, but awkward as we didn't know anyone there. The three of us posted up with Raul at a table in the courtyard and slowly sipped on Scotch. While it was awkward that we were wearing jeans and the average male guest was wearing a suit jacket, it didn't turn out to be that bad of an event.

Carlos and Eric

On Saturday, there was a farmer's market in Parque de San Marcos, a plaza-like place next to the monastery. Our friends Carlos and Eric, were in charge of a stand at the market, so we visited them. We ended up posting up outside a nearby tienda and having a few Gallo beers. Both Carlos and Eric are from Zacapa, and they've invited us to visit whenever we can.

On Saturday night, we attended the graduation party of one of Oscar's nieces. Oscar's family is Qui'Chi, so we knew that the experience would be a bit different than that of other other graduation parties we had visited. We weren't disappointed.
Alberto picked us up from the monastery and brought us right to the party. The party was held in a public park, amongst old cement and stucco buildings adorning entrances without doors. There were several tables lined up in a long line across the middle of the room. Atop the tables was a white linen tablecloth and plastic utensils wrapped with pink curled ribbon.  As we entered this long, cold cement  room with his abnormally shy wife and two young timid boys, no one said a word to us. 20 sets of eyes  stared on blankly as we quietly sat down and twiddled our thumbs until Oscar arrived. Except for the occasional whisper to another Qui'Chi relative or friend, the general population of the party was silent.
When Oscar finally got there, we went to a different table and sipped on our party emergency kit (tasty Scotch).

Alberto Playing with his Son

We hung around for a couple hours or so, mostly keeping to ourselves. When dinner was served, the young graduate (dressed in a beautiful light blue Prom-like dress) served all the attendees their dishes first. After serving all the guests, she was then required to dance with any men at the party that would oblige. Justin and I were, of course, pressured into dancing with her. As I awkwardly spun around with this young girl, I told her that the worst part was almost over, and asked if she received gifts from the guests. She blushed and nodded, saying that there were lots. As I bid her adieu for her next dance with a portly middle-aged man, and wished her best of luck with everything (especially writing thank you cards).
Before leaving, Justin and I were ushered into the long cement room with the tables again. This time, several young girls were sitting around the table. They all giggled and timidly looked at us. The other adults beckoned us toward the table, and while the awkwardness of the situation was unbearable, I tried my best to make conversation to the girls.
Conversation with these girls was a little better than trying to spark up a conversation with a brick wall. Granted, my spanish is still quite rusty, but they gave answers to conversational questions in as little words as possible. Responses were mumbled and jumbled. They said they were all in their twenties (but were most likely younger) and were in a university I had never heard of. A few were pretty enough, but uninteresting to say the least. Justin, who was engaged in conversation with only one of the girls, was a bit more successful than me. As we were leaving, suave Justin pulled a number from Mary, one of the cuter girls from the group. He has since been bombarded with text messages, and even a call at 6:30am the next day to see "what's up." Ahh... young Guatemalan love. As for now, better him than me I say.

Sunday 10/30 was fairly typical. We were invited to our friend Angel's house for lunch, which is right next door to the monastery. During the afternoon as I was playing a few folk songs on the deck, a few young teen Guatemalans asked if I might be able to play some songs for the kids in their faith formation class. I told them that I had not yet learned any Spanish songs, but they were welcome to use my guitar. I ended up shooting some nice footage of the group performing a few Church songs, along with a prayer session. Here are a few products of that Sunday afternoon...

Quite the Audience

Jump for Jesus!

Deep in Prayer

Monday 10/31 - Sunday 11/6
The past week was riddled with several opportunities to shoot some great footage. On Monday, we followed Padre Carlos to a local food shelter, where Padre goes every Monday to help distribute a lunch to poor, mostly orphaned children. On Wednesday, we followed several monks to the Cemetery to celebrate Mass for Day of the Dead. On Thursday, we visited several very poor houses to witness Padre Carlos administer Communion and Anointing of the Sick to old or disabled community members.
Because all these instances will be well detailed in our documentary, I'm being rather brief in my description. I assure you, however, these were incredible experiences, as you will soon see in our finished product.

Day of the Dead Pilgrimage 

Fulfillment of Will

Aside from brainstorming interview questions and meticulously editing footage, we did have a few parts of our schedule for  free time. Tuesday (All Saints Day) is a holiday here, and we took it as one. On Saturday we were completely open, so we decided to take a trek out to the Caves of Rey Marcos. After turning down a few rickety roads (more like a constant stream of potholes and washed-out gutters), we finally arrived at Rey Marcos. The area not only included caves, but also a few waterfalls and hiking trails. Justin and I were happy to escape the structured monastic life by exploring this terrain..

Spelunking Rey Marcos

Later on that evening, after visiting Carlos Estrada's house for a few whiskey drinks, we made our way out to our friend Chato's house for a birthday party. In the Guatemalan Constitution, it is illegal to consume or sell liquor 36 hours prior to a presidential election. Our good Guate buddies had forgotten this. We arrived to find our friend Eric, Chato, and Carlos as sober as can be, chain smoking cigarettes and hanging out. We gave Eric a crappy cigar as a birthday gift (recall, no liquor stores were open), and chatted for a bit before returning to the monastery. It was good to catch up with our friends again.

We wrapped up our weekend with a Sunday lunch at Carlos Estrada. I got the great pleasure of meeting Carlos' friends, siblings, and sons. The food was phenomenal, and the company cheerful. In the next week, we've got quite the work cut out for us in regards to the documentary. More great footage and pictures to come!