here goes...

Sorry it's been so long since my last update... Since this post is going to be pretty long, I'm going to make it into several subject-divided posts so you can skip around easier if you want :)

I haven't written in a while, because I have been kinda sick this week. I got a stomach thing on Sunday night and was in bed all of Monday and so this week my activities have been dictated by how long I can go between trips to the bathroom and then needing to be really close to a bathroom when at all possible. So the days that I've had time to go to the internet cafe this week I haven't, because there's no bathroom at the one in San Juan. Today has been a turning point, though, so I think all is going to be well. I just need to watch more what I eat, which is kinda difficult since I eat whatever my host family eats. I'm realizing this is just one of the joys of the life of a "Gringa" in Guatemala.

So let me start by picking up where I left off 2 weeks ago. Sundays are our lazy, study days, because our families don't have to feed us on Sundays (just to give them a break), so all the YAVs eat together either in Antigua or San Juan and we have been studying a lot together on Sundays as well. I haven't been to church here yet... I'm a little nervous, because in Guatemala, Protestant is an equivalent word to evangelical...

We tried to go to a Lutheran church in Antigua last Sunday, but we were late so we ended up just hanging out and studying for the day. This past week was also Independence Day on Tuesday, so last weekend there were lots of parades and such to watch on Sunday in the park. There was one family of about six kids who were really cute.The two girls weren't more than about two years old and both had on little trajes (the traditional Maya dress), which kept coming undone and the brothers (the oldest of whom was about seven years old), had to keep trying to tie it back and keep the other brothers from fighting with each other. There were no parents around that we could see, but I think they may have been selling things in the central park. (There are lots of people who try to sell bracelets, necklaces, and other things to tourists).

Then this white lady came up and starting taking pictures of them, which really bothered me. She didn't ask their permission, just started clicking away. The kids didn't seem to mind, but there was something about it that made it seem like she just thought they were cute to look at... cute Guatemalan kids so she could prove to her family back home that she had experienced the real Guatemala. It just seemed to dehumanize the kids a little, to reduce them to something a little less than children who have lives and stories. Maybe I over-reacted, but it bothers me a lot how a lot of tourists take pictures of Guatemalans who do wear the traje.