Roadkill and the holidays

I apologize for the infrequency of these posts. I swear I have plenty of material; it’s just the down time to write up a post that I’m missing. Anyways, since the last update, I’ve gone home for Thanksgiving, completed my 3^rd medical mission and spent another Christmas far from home in Guatemala.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Going home had never felt like such a vacation. I loved seeing everyone and it was totally relaxing. Coming back from KC to Guatemala, it usually takes me awhile to get back into things; however I had a medical mission the following week, so I was busy as hell and didn’t have time to dwell on it all.

We had the 3^rd mission in the Nebaj area of El Quiche about 5 hours due west of Coban in the highlands. I drove out there prior to the mission to set up promotions and then headed down to Antigua to pick up the doctors to bring back to the site. Between all this promotion and traveling is a whole of driving. During Peace Corps, public transportation was my public enemy #1. With that in mind, driving is a real privilege, yet it has some serious drawbacks. Actually, for me it’s been okay. Those who have really suffered at my driving are Guatemala’s street animals. To this day, my death toll is 2 dogs, 2 cats and 1 badly wounded chicken (my buddy Dave etched the tally into my kitchen table to remind me of the slaughter). Anyways, the real story was the last dog.

Driving to Antigua to pick up the docs, I had a long, frustrating day on the road that included multiple construction sites, blocked roads and a minor wreck. Driving the Quiche to Antigua route is really beautiful minus the last half hour driving through Chimaltenango—AKA Guatemala’s armpit. The town is a sordid strip of whorehouses and used car lots stretched alongside the InterAmerican highway that is always congested with traffic thus granting ample time to ogle the woe that is Chimaltenango. As I drove through town already irked by the delays, a little puppy decided to wander in front of the van. I skidded to a halt a narrowly missed flattening the little guy. However, the no-good tailgaters behind me did not fare so well and the two vans behind me ended up slamming into each other causing considerable damage (I barely got bumped, no damage).

In Guatemala, no one has car insurance, so you have to argue it out at the site and come to an agreement. At first, both drivers tried to blame me for starting the whole mess. In situations like this, the card I play is the “Irate Gringo.” Flexing my filthiest Spanish, I told them off and acted outraged that they didn’t understand the traffic laws (well they were tailgaiting). This worked for awhile, but then the cops showed up. With all the cars still in the middle of the highway and everyone telling us to get off the road, the cops explained that if we didn’t come to an agreement, it’d have to go to court and I would have to make a special trip back to lovely Chimaltenango. With that in mind, I swallowed my indignation at having to pay anything and coughed up 200Q under the condition that I never have to make a trip back to Chimal. So, 200Q less, I was able to drive on.

And what of the mischievous puppy that caused this whole mess? Well, after I skidded to a halt, he jumped back and then trotted into the other lane where he was pancaked by a dump-truck. All things considered, he probably got what he deserved.

With all that rancor behind me, I continued on to Antigua to start December’s medical mission. To be brief, it was a great mission. We found a ton of patients and the doctors that participated were great to work with. They were the kind of people that make me want to go home and study medicine. Also, we spent the whole mission in the Ixil area far from Coban. As such, it was rewarding to get to know anther part of Guatemala in such detail.

After the mission, I spent some time working in Coban before slowing things down for Christmas. My old roommate Dave and his sister Justine came back down to Coban and we rented out a cabin outside Coban for Christmas. It was relaxing and we stuffed ourselves silly. From there, we started a grand tour of Gautemala.

First, we hauled over to Nebaj to start a 3 day hike across the Cuchumatan Mountains into Huehuetenango. My new sitemate Mike also joined us with a couple other Peace Corps friends. The hike was awesome. We hiked out of Nebaj up onto the high plains through meadows and mountains. It was cold, but the scenery was stunning and it was great to stretch the legs after all our Christmas gluttony.

From Huehue, we made our way down to Lake Atitlan for New Years. Last weekend, I said goodbye to Dave and Justine and am now back in Coban to start preparing the 2008 medical missions.

Oh, I almost forgot. I finally spotted the quetzal up close driving back to Coban. Here he is.