December 26, 2014

After a well-needed and good night's sleep, the trusty cell phone alarm clock woke me at 8 AM. Showered and dressed, I emerged from my room and made my way to the breakfast room. The breakfast buffet was a bit expanded for our group, so we had the choice of pancakes or scrambled eggs with ham. I chatted with some people I had met last night in the hotel, a couple of Indian descent and their 16 year old daughter, working as engineers, and visiting from Fremont, California. Some new people were there who had arrived last night as part of the North Carolina group, so I sat down with them to get to know them. I spent most of breakfast chatting with Cindy, the lactation counselor, and met her daughter Ann who is high school. Cindy had been on the trip last year. We chatted about breast feeding, traveling, and started to get to know each other.

I came back to the room, posted yesterday's blog, did some work on my pictures, and got myself organized for the day. We met at 10:15 and departed in two vans to the village where we would be doing our work, San Antonio Aguas Calientes (hot springs are long gone). The village is about a 20 minute drive from Antigua. We drove through Antigua, passed the Antigua market and drove through some other small towns before arriving. San Antonio has about 15, 000 residents. As we entered on paved streets, it had the appearance of a small town in a developing nation. One and two story stucco or cinder block buildings, some partially completed which housed people and/or a variety of small businesses and shops. We turned off the main road and went down a narrower alleyway and were dropped off in front of a building which is the home of the Nueva Generacion pre-school. Mothers in their beautiful Mayan woven garments and children all dressed up were waiting to greet us with big smiles on their faces. We entered through the front wall into the open area on the side of the two story house. There was a display of colorful woven goods on several tables in the middle of the courtyard which we would visit and possibly make purchases from. In the back was the "cucina", a covered area with some fires heating pots with what would later be our lunch. In the front corner of the courtyard was a yellow and green parrot on a branch whose name I later learned was Pancho.

On the side of the open yard, was a covered terrace with chairs set up in rows at one end. After we wandered around a bit, looked at the goods for sale and chatted as best we could with the children and the mothers, we were invited to take our seats and told the children, all of whom were pre-school age, had prepared a show for us. We were delightfully entertained by songs and dances including the Guatemalan version of Hokey-Pokey and a Guatemalan hat dance(the boys put the hats on the girls and the girls put the hats on the boys.).

Once the show was over we had time to shop as long tables and chairs were set up for lunch. Ruth was the woman who had done most of the weaving of the goods we saw. She spoke English and was obviously a very skilled craftswoman. There were scarves, table covers, wall hangings. We had a soup with chicken and vegetables (a piece of sweet potato and a piece of squash, I think) and rice with corn to add to the soup as well as tortillas. After thank you's and hugs we departed. The children there seemed so happy and were soooo friendly and warm with all of us; different than what I would have expected to find in the U.S.

We departed and walked about a block up the street to Soraya's home, the cultural center. Shops were closed, but behind the bars that cover all windows on the ground floor for all buildings, I saw an intriguing handwritten cardboard sign. It was the office of the enferma, the nurse. The sign indicated services were available for high blood pressure, weigh control, blood glucose, and several other health concerns. The building was closed, so no opportunity to peek inside.

As we entered our next destination we passed through a front room that appeared to be a clothing store and we were told was new in the past year. There was a larger back room, and a side room that had about 7 women in engaged in various works of weaving and crocheting. We had a demonstration of the various things they were doing. About five women were crocheting kippot with various designs. Congregation Kol Ami had received a number of these which had been sold as part of the fund raising for supplies for this trip. We were told they could do any design provided if one would like. One woman was preparing the thread for the weaving and another woman was doing the actual weaving. Their hands moved so quickly The complexity of the design of the piece that was being woven was amazing. At first it looked like it was all done by memory, but when I asked, I was told that they did use patterns.

We then entered the back room. Little did we know the treats we would enjoy. Next to the room there was a small open area. There was a fire and some women were roasting coffee beans over the fire. During the time we were there those coffee beans finished their roasting, were ground by hand with a metate, and became coffee that we were served. Later at the time the coffee was served we also watched how tortillas were made by hand, and we got to eat those. We enjoyed a concert of marimba music by some boys from the village and their instructor. The students we were sponsoring were introduced individually and we were able to present them with the gifts we had brought. Finally, we had a re-enactment of a Mayan wedding, complete with gift giving (bread) to the in-laws, the presentation of the bride and the groom, and the marriage. Sheila and Kevin graciously were volunteered to be the participants and were very good sports about it. The wedding ceremony ended with the bride and groom dancing and then everyone getting up and dancing. It was all great fun.

We departed with hugs and thank you's after an afternoon of joy. As the opportunity presented itself during the day, I tried with my limited Spanish to speak with the women who were so very friendly. As the coffee and tortillas were served I spoke with one woman who had an infant wrapped and on her back. Natalie was 11 months old and the eighth child in the family. I asked her if she wanted more and she said no. I acknowledged how much work I knew she did. I sort of felt ashamed when she asked and I told her I only had one.

We drove back to Antigua, passed the Antigua market and main supermarket which are at the other end of the street past the central square that the hotel is on. We had some downtime for about two hours before our next departure. I spent some time in the room walked down the street to look at some of the shops, and went to the ATM to get some more money.

At 6:15 we were back in the buses and headed off to Guatemala City. Our destination this eveing was Shabbat with members of Congregation Adat Israel. There are three synagagoues in Guatemala, two are Orthodox, one of which is Chabad, and the congregation we were going to visit. As I understand it, this congregation is about 15 years old. Its members are just about all Guatemalans, possibly a few expats. These are people who most likely are conversos with a Spanish heritage dating back to the Inquistion at which time many Jews converted to Catholicism but retained secretly their faith and/or some rituals. Currently the congregation is supported by a rabbi in Canada, and the congregation has its own Torah. Some years ago, there was a formal conversion of the members, and the Congregation belongs to the World Union for Progressive Judaism. There is friction between this reform congregation and the two Orthodox congregations, with the latter not recognizing the reform Jews as Jews. The congregation's home is in what appears to be an apartment or condominium complex. I was in the van with our resident rabbi, Lucy Dinner, who shared the congregation's history during the ride. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted and saw in the entry way a rack with Tallit hanging on it. Hanukah decorations were still up on the walls. There was a large room with an ark at one end, but the room was set up with tables for dining. We all took our places with mingling between the congregants and our group. We started Shabbat all singing Hine Mah Tov together. Candles were lit and we all joined in together with the prayer for the candles, the Kiddush for the wine (Manischevitz), and the Hamotzi for the bread (raisin Challah). Dinner was served (stuffed peppers, black beans, and rice, chocolate covered bananas with optional sesame seed sprinkles, and we all engaged in active conversation. I was sitting with a woman who is a high school teacher and her two children, a 25 year old daughter who is a chemical engineer working in the cosmetic industry and her 22 year old son who is studying marketing in business school. He is the only one who had been to the U.S. as he had been sponsored to attend a Jewish camp in Chicago. They were curious about my work, my family, my reasons for coming to Guatemala, where I had traveled before, and my participation with my synagogue. I learned from them that have Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, come from a converso tradition, and heard about the friction with the Orthodox Jews as well as significant anti-Semitism. For the young people a real challenge is finding a significant other/spouse in Guatemala who is Jewish. My new friend, Susy, very much would like to come to the U.S. so she could find a Jewish husband. She and I exchanged e-mail addresses and we had mutual group photos. Individual and group Thank You's were exchanged, and we all parted filling so much richer for the experience. It was a joy for me to be sitting with these people as one community, sharing Jewish songs and prayers, and validating for them their Jewishness. Jews in Spanish are known as Judeo (male) and Judea (female.)

We got back in the vans for the drive back to Antigua. I was sitting next to Cindy of Nueva Generacion and we were talking about traveling. She and I learned that we had both ridden the mules up the steps at Petra in Jordan. She is feeling like she would like to see more of the world, has been to Guatemala about 20 times, and would like her husband, an interventional cardiologist, to cut back on his work. Back to Antigua and "good-night."