People often ask me what a typical day is like for me here, and the answer really is, I don´t have typical days. Every day ends up being quite different, and office days are different from community days. But I will try to give you an idea of an idea of each.
Office Day:
An office day starts around 5:13 am when I wake up to go to the bathroom. Seriously, I feel like an old woman with my bladder here. Every single morning I wake up really early because I have to pee. I try to stop drinking any liquids earlier in the evening, but I still have to pee. After that I wake up at 7 am and then there are a variety of factors that decide if I will shower.
First, and most importnatly, how cold it is. I have hot water, but sometimes I can´t face getting into the shower and getting out.
Second, how dirty I feel. If I don´t feel dirty and I can throw my hair up in a scarf, I´m not showering.
Third, if there is water. Often, we just don´t have water.
Then I wander into the kitchen and find something to eat for breakfast. Sometimes Elvia is making something, sometimes not. Sometimes I make something for both of us and sometimes I just eat some fruit and a bowl of ceral. Then around 8 Elvia and I head for the office. Well leaving at 8 is an ideal time, but really our time flucates from day to day. On my birthday we did not leave until 11 and often we are closer to 9 leaving. We go to the office and sometimes they give me something to do, and sometimes I just sit around. I like running errands, but they don´t send me very often because I get lost a lot and take a while getting back. Around 11 is snack time were we drink tea and eat a snack. Snack time lasts for a long time because various people come in and out and we drink more tea and have another snack with them. Around 1 we go home for lunch. Usually Elvia and I eat with her sister Terri and Terri´s little boy, Josedavit, and sometimes Terri´s husband when he is not working. Really lunch is from 1 to 2, but usually we don´t go back to office until closer to 3.
Back at the office I usually have less to do, and if Elvia is gone or Eluvia, I have internet time, like right now. Then between 5 and 6, usually closer to 6, we leave the office. Once home I generally read some, or sometimes watch TV. Depending on how big lunch was, we might or might not have dinner. Dinner might be left over lunch, or eggs, or some bread and tea. That is usually around 8 pm. Then between 9 and 10, I go to bed.
Most days there os something else that is happening, a birthday party, graduation, market, or I go somewhere with some nun. I often find myself going to random places with nuns, and I don´t always know where I am going, or why exactly. Usually I am taken along so I can meet new people or see a new place.
Community Vist Day:
Community days are more difficult to give an average idea because they vary so much. The first varying factor is if we are traveling in caminotea, or car. Generally we travel in caminotea, which means we wake up at 5 to catch a 5:30 or 6 am bus to wherever we are going. We generally travel for 2 to 4 hours. In the communities we give workshops, which vary. Every month we try to hold a workshop with each parish. Many of these women walk for 1 to 6 hours to come to our workshop. Many of them say the workshops are their ¨vacations¨. We do a lot on the different types of violence, physical, pyschological, sexual, paternal. We also talk a lot about rights, and everything we do has an emphasis on education. The workshops last 2 to 3 hours, and then we eat a snack after and talk with the women. A lot of the old women like to talk to me a lot, which I like too, but generally they are missing most of their teeth and I have trouble understanding them. They also like to touch my hair because it is soft and my hands, which are not calloused like theirs. They think their hands are ugly compared to mine, but I try to explain I don´t work with my hands and their hands tell their life story, which mine do not. Many of the older women don´t speak much spanish, their primary language is Mam, but the middle generations speak both, and the younger only understand Mam, but don´t speak it. The next generation won´t even understand the indiginous languages, which is sad.
I often find myself thinking about development here, and how is always comes with a loss of culture, which as I am here, seems inevitable at times. Most modern women stop wearing the corte, which is the indiginous dress. I have worn corte, and it is uncomfortable and inhibiting at times. The corte is also different based on wear you live, and when you get married, you have to adopt the corte of your husbands pueblo. While the corte is beautiful, there are very inhibiting factors to it, and at times it keeps women supressed in indiscreet ways. Elvia, who I live with, comes from a very traditional background, but was given the opportunity to go to school, although she had to work to support herself since she was 12 years old. But she is a highly independent, and almost scandalous woman because she lives by herself. While she appreciates Mayan customs, she would not go back to that way of life because it is so masculine, and she can´t be as indpendent as she would like in that culture. I am still learning and my thoughts are constantly changing, and I will probably write more on culture and development later as I have more discussions and my understaning growns.
