Una Historia de Guatemala

During our orientation today, they talked about the history of Guatemala, almost all of which i was ignorant. A much condensed version of that history:
In the 1800s a Boston based man "discovered" bananas and commenced to start the United Fruit Company which soon made alliances with the dictator of Guatemala and soon owned over 40% of Guatemala´s land (WTF!! a US company owning nearly half a country!?!). Alliances passed from one dictator to the next because the dictator would enjoy a percent of the fruit company´s profits. Also, the local people here were forced to work 90 days per year, unpaid, on the land (!!). So in 1944 when a real democracy overthrew the dictatorship, there were 10 years when people had healthcare and education and things were going the right way. Of course, the fruit company executives were buddy-buddy with the head of the CIA, the secretary of state and some other high-up figures in America, and all they had to do was cry "communism!" to the Eisenhower administration (even though it was not communism, and in fact was a legitimate democracy for once), and that´s when America supported the coup (1955) to install a new president that would maintain some of the ties that were held with American companies before the "Democratic Spring". Civil war broke out in 1960, and peace accords were signed (but legally non-binding) in 1996, so many people still feel that the country may still as well be at war.

No wonder I´m confused at the security of the area.

See you later, compy!

I'm headed to Guatemala via Belize tomorrow. Leaving the computer and phone behind. I am bringing my camera and a sd card to USB converter so I'll be able to update my posts with pictures from internet cafes down there. But basically it'll just be me and my journal for six weeks!

Boulder is beautiful right now, I'm sad to be leaving it right when it's SO green and lovely,

and I will miss my nieces (Tiger even loves me now,

and Phoenix is so frickin' cute. Little nugget.)

and Chelsea and Vinny. I've made some good friends at Snarfs, I've enjoyed hanging out with old friends a bit,

and had a great visit with Dad in town this past week.

But mostly, I am overjoyed to be moving on to the next phase, one step closer to being with Ben and the kitties again, one step closer to my new school and our new life in California.

This episode's purpose is to (re)learn as much Spanish as possible. I'll be doing 5 weeks of immersive intensive study. 5 days/wk; 4-5 hrs/day; Quetzaltenango (aka Xela "shayla") for 3 weeks, then 2 weeks on a coffee plantation.

Because of Volcan Pacaya's recent eruption and the sinkhole/hurricanes, Guatemala City is in a state of emergency and my flight (scheduled for right now, actually) was cancelled. So I opted to fly into Belize City instead. I'm entering the country of Guatemala through the backdoor (Belize). Belize City is closer to Tikal, the Mayan ruins I wanted to visit before my program starts, anyway. So it's all good. I just have a long stint of traveling ahead of me. Planes for >24 hrs (dang layovers), then 6 hrs of bussing.

I'll let you know how it goes soon!

Eyebrows

I once shaved my eyebrows off in order to be Marlene Dietrich for a costume party.

People knew something was different, but they couldn't figure out exactly what it was.

Girls Night Out

During my 2.5 months here, my sister and I went out by our selves together exactly once. We went to watch a movie with her girl friends the other night. Rode the scooter there. Fun.

Boulder Creek Festival

Dad was in town visiting this past week. It was a really great visit. We went to the Boulder Creek Festival, just me and Dad and the girls, one day. Giving Chelsea and Vinny a break. All that fun wore us all out.