Saint Francis of Assisi

Happy New Year to everyone! I haven’t written for a while, its hard to know when something is actually worth writing about, particularly since we are now somewhat settled so nothing seems so interesting or unusual anymore. We did leave Panajachel for several days this past week, first for a couple of days in Antigua, a beautiful, colonial walking city with lovely architecture and dramatic views of the surrounding volcanoes, as it too is a city in the Highlands. This is what the Lonely Planet guide says about Antigua: “This is fantasyland, what Guatemala would look like if the Scandinavians came in and took over for a couple of years”. That may be true, but we didn’t mind that at all, and after the somewhat limited food options in Pana we were very happy to dine on such delicacies as bagels and chocolate chip cookies. The colonial Spanish architecture makes wandering the streets endlessly interesting (except of course for the kids). I have included many pics from Antigua because its just so beautiful.

We also happened to meet with someone from Chapel Hill who was in town for a board meeting of an organization he supports called Safe Passage. This organization is housed near the huge garbage dump in Guate and was created to help those families who live around and make their living scrounging the garbage dump. I think there are something like 12,000 people living around the dump in a shantytown type set up, and the nearby center now has a school and afterschool activities for the children of these families, plus many other services. We plan to visit the site on our next trip to Guate. They have a website if you want to check it out, and I believe are having a fundraiser this month at the ArtsCenter (Carrboro). The guy we met with is Arnie Katz, if any of you know Svea Oster, local birthing teacher and midwife who was present at the births of both Isaiah and Aden, and probably some of yours as well if you’ve been in CH that long. Well, Arnie is her husband and a really nice guy. So nice, in fact, that he was kind enough to bring our passports to Guatemala City for us once we discovered that Yoni left them in the hotel safe in Antigua! They were so safe that he completely forgot about them. Yoni also lost his cell phone in Guatemala City. You might ask how I continue to live with this incessant forgetfulness. The answer is I am all out of cures.

Anyway, from there we went to Guatemala City to tour around a bit and attend services for Rosh Hashanah, which we did the first night. The security to get into synogogues here is incredible. We had to be picked up by the driver of one of the member families(which was very nice of them) and also had to have xeroxed copies of our passports to hand in, plus the car was searched. Oy! The synogogue is set behind a massive wall, you would have no idea that there is a large synogogue behind this thing, except of course for all the guards that are hanging around. We had this vague connection to a local Jewish family whom we had contacted and they had invited us over for dinner afterwards, but then that day we get a call from them that they have to leave immediately for Miami for a family birth, but not to worry, they have arranged for their children to host us. I knew their kids had to be in their early twenties, and I felt so badly that a family of 5 was suddenly hoisted onto their evening plate, but what could we do, so we went. And actually is turned into a great evening. Their son met us at shul, took us back to their house, and once I saw the setup I didn’t feel badly anymore. The two of them still live at home, as is the custom in Latin America, work for the family business, etc. Well, I wouldn’t leave home either if I could live like that. As we drove into the neighborhood, he apologized for all the security and attributed it to the President also living in the neighborhood! Do you get where I’m going with this? Behind yet another great big wall with a guard and a dog sat their huge house, with several wait staff and various other persons running around attending to who knows what. One lit a fire in the fireplace, another brought appetizers, etc, and I realized that it was not an imposition for these two young people to host us, as they really didn’t have to do anything. The table was set, dinner was served and cleared, dessert was brought out, and it was all lovely. And actually the two of them are smart, interesting people whose family business is a network of huge stores that are kind of Hardware meets Linen and Things meets Pier One Imports. They were extremely generous and insisted that we take one of their cars and driver the next day to make it easier to get around. Well, okay, if you insist. I guess I don’t have to point out the incredible discrepancy between rich and poor here, but that’s everywhere. It is definitely interesting for us to have tastes of both worlds. Services at the Shul were okay, it’s a beautiful temple, large, and the Jewish population in Guatemala is around 1000 people, so everyone knows one another. We had to sit separately, and many people engaged me in conversation since I obviously was a foreigner, but we were not inclined to go back, I think it just feels lonely not to be in your community for the holidays, at least it made me sad. The next day we had been invited to a Rosh Hashanah lunch by another branch of the same family, and we went to that as well, at the home of a 100 yr. old matriarch of the family who still seems quite with it. These people too were extremely welcoming, and it’s a huge family, tons of people kept coming, we stopped trying to meet them all after a while because why bother we’ll never see them again! It was interesting to be privy to this slice of Guatemalan Jewish life. We are thinking about going back there for Yom Kippur next week but it’s a schlep up and down and up and down those winding switch back roads, a very uncomfortable drive. I think the next time we leave Pana for that road it will be for good.

Once back here this week we were thrust into a weeklong celebration for St. Francis of Assisi, the town’s patron saint, and this is no joking matter. While we are in a Mayan area, and the people are very traditional, they are fiercely Catholic at the same time and it shows in these types of preparations. There is a big fair set up in front of the church with those traveling rides that look like they are from the 50’s and which the children will get on over my dead body, food vendors, parades, floats, fire works, dances, you name it, they are doing it for St. Francis. Second day Rosh Hashanah observance for us included the kids participating in one of the all school parades, in costume, nonetheless. That was a strange transition, to return from services in order to honor St. Francis. Guatemalans love firecrackers, and they have been in abundance all week long, day and night. The kicker was a 4 am cacaphony of firecrackers as well as live music broadcast from the Church courtyard for an hour, I assume to commemorate the exact time of his birth. Why St. Francis needs firecrackers and a live mariachi band I’ll never know. We have included pics here of the general revelry.

This past weekend we took a boat to the nearby village of San Marcos to check out Maya Works, a group of women who crochet kippot for sale via a website by the same name. We had arranged this in advance, and a couple of the women met us at the dock and walked us to a nearby outdoor porch where several women were sitting busily crocheting these colorful kippot. After a talk about how they started, how many women, etc etc, it became apparent that we would have to buy some kippot. Then one of the women suggested that we buy something from each one to avoid offending anyone. I took a mental count and saw there were 15 women working. Fantastic, now we have to buy 15 kippot at $4.50 each, did we even have that much with us??? It normally takes a while to burn through that much here. Yes, we did have that much with us…oh well. Yoni was chatting away, I told him to hurry up before more of them came to crochet. Now we have a lovely collection of mayan kippot the next time any of you come to our house for dinner!

We are now trying to decide how much longer to stay up here. While Yoni’s clinic experience is going well and the boys are doing great, Aviv is only tolerating school, and frankly its just a bit boring to amuse her every day from noon on. We are tempted by all the travel opportunities there are, and we would really like to explore more of the country while here. Though we do have a nice set up here, including a huge stone thermal tub in the backyard that is fed by hot water from the nearby volcano. It can fit 10 people comfortably, anyone want to come over? And have I mentioned that there are hummingbirds everywhere?

More soon and lots of love to all, Jordana