The Mayan ceremony

Wednesday 13.03

We were expecting this day since we first arrived in Rio Negro  The story of the massacre is described before from Nere here. The short version is that 20 years ago, bastard millitars massacred 177 women and children.
In a commemoration day for the lost people, like every year there is a kid of festivity on the very same place of the massacre. A school from the closest city as well as numerous other families which relocated after the massacre, visited in order to pay the respects. Our little village was full of new faces and a loot of voices.
The way to Pakoxom (the place of the massacre) was like a pilgrimage, that will end up in a Mayan ceremony (and a Catholic as well, but we don´t care!) lasting around 6 hours.

Our expectations were bigger than the actual thing that happened but still it was something really sacred and deep, at least for us and for few more people. The majority however, was tired from the long walking, the unusual for them overnight ceremony or more interested in the subsequent Catholic ceremony.

The place were the festivity took place (Pakoxom)

The ceremony was consisting briefly of offerings to the lost ancestors and to the Gods (I suppose from the actions of the Mayan priest).

After placing all the offerings in the altar, and the expected sacred smoking, the altar is set on fire. And the ceremony begins!

Big devoutness and a huge respect for the  indigenous people, who are still victims in an ongoing genocide...

Back to "civilization" and reflections about Rio Negro

The fieldwork in Rio Negro went quite good. Although, as Dimitris said in the previous post, the women were less open than men, so it took me a while to gain the respect and friendship of them (which was essential to interview them and get some information!). Therefore, I spent the first week cooking with them, trying to make tortillas (not an easy job) and trying to get some words of them, their live, how they make their crafts (they make beautiful textiles - bags, clothes, etc...), ... and I even tried to saw something (way simpler) in order to get closer to them. Well, it wasn't easy, they were talking in their language (Achí) all the time, and were answering me nearly with monosyllables... I was a little bit frustrated because I tried with all my heart to be closer to them and they were quite rude :( But, little by little I started gaining them, and after that week they decided in assembly that we were welcomed to  do our research with them! :D

An aggresive bitch!!

After that we spent the days walking from one side to the other to talk with people, which was not always easy, some people were living couple of km away from our hut and the heat was unbearable, and finally when we were getting there, the person had left for some days... oh shit!
But we finally did it! We even went to the school to interview those little rascals, it was the first time I was standing in from of a classroom to explain something and get something out of them. Just big smiles, lollipops and it went very smoothly :)

For the last day of our staying in Rio Negro we arranged a forest walk with our key informant to collect some plants. That morning we woke up and waited for him... we wait and wait and he doesn't come to us... oh nooo. At midday the chief of the village (who had to arrange our boat and pickup to get out of there the next morning) appears in our hut completely drunk!!! he almost could stay standing! It seems that we won't get out from here... We go to see our key informant at his place and we find him laying down on the floor... he was also completely wasted... we wake him up and with a smile he says, "ahhh, someone invited me.... "
Later that day we found out that the two of them had been drinking since the previous night until midday next day! No bad thoughts, we just postponed our forest walk one day and we got to our meeting in the university later.

Both of us, while emptying a cactus for making aour specimen collection . And it was not easy! We ended up with few spikes in our hands!! 

Finally, we can say that we spent a marvellous time over there, we really got to love the people and the kids... oh the kids were lovely! It was very peaceful to be in the middle of nowhere, without electricity, clock or phones. It was great to have the time to reflect, and we brought all the people we love in mind, childhood friends, teenage friends, netherlands friends, Copenahgen friends and family... and a lot, a lot of stories! And it also makes you realize that in the end the modern world also has it's good parts: music, information access, being able to speak with family and friends...

With my Achi grilfriends!! :P

Family coming back from their fieldwork

Margarita making tortillas!!

A tribute to Rufi...!

He was sad (and horny) for our leaving!!

Finally we hit the water!!

So now here we are, after one month of fieldwork we have arrived to Guatemala city. The city has, in my opinion, an unexpected charm. I heard that is an ugly dangerous place, and that it doesn't deserve even to get in... Maybe it's the lack of expectations and the fact that is quite different to the rest of Guatemala that makes me like it.
We have taken a cheap room at Pension Meza, where the majestic Che Guevara slept once, yes, at our bed :p
We are eating gorgeous vegetarian food, japanese food, italian food... yes, I know we are in Guate and it's time to eat local food, but we have been overloaded of  the invariable diet of rio negro, which included frijoles (beans) and tortillas (maize thing) for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We missed veggies and fruits, a lot! :)

So now we are trying to find out where to go next, relax and work peacefully! And next days we will post some new photos!! (Remember that you can click on them to make them bigger :p)

Lots of love to you all!!

Rio Negro

Saturday 02.03

Human without electricity = fish without bicycle!

Around two weeks ago we first arrived in Rio Negro. The scenery is majestic: 2 big mountain lines with a river in the middle. An overfloaded river, due to the stupid dam, which we had to travel for around 45 mins by boat in order to arrive to the "aldea" of Rio Negro. A community completely built in a couple hillsides of the mountains. You can take a look here:

However is the summer period, the hot is unbearable for 3-4 hours per day, and thus the mountains quite dry. This dissapoints us a little bit, in terms of our research but also in terms of the jungle that we expected to live in. Every obstacle for good. Let´s see. Life here seems easy.

Around 17 families with 90-100 people in total (yes families are overpopulated!) live here. The men sustain families with agricultural ativities and fishing while women cook and kneat beautiful and colourful guipils, bags, belts and other things that they can sell in close markets tha once in a while visit.
As you can understand electricity exists sparsely (for any turist group activity, or any celebration through generator), internet is an unknown word and mobile signal only for selective mobiles in one spot of the village. Our living spot is the "house of adobe" in the educative center of the village. A beautiful "cob" style hut mostly built out of mud , containing few beds and a table.

When we are not working with villagers, we pass most of our time in our verada, on a table which we use to study, make interviwes, eat and play cards. And these are the stuff we do when we are not around the village.
Just under our house is located a "kitchen" where different women of the village cook for us 3 times/day.

Our food is really simple and repetitive. We eat beans with pasta for breakfast, fish with rice for lunch and beans with eggs for dinner. Always with big amount of tortillas. that´s all. Every day. Every week. Yes we got bored already and we miss cooking and eating what we want and the times that we want. But is a minor problem.
The people of the village are different. The men are quite open and willing to share the knowledge, the women more closed, and we feel that we have to "gain them" somehow in order to interview them. The young people lost between religion and the wannabe westernalised and for the kids we are the "weirdos": they look at us, they inspect us and they play around us.We are something completely new and different for them, and we also enjoy it when we play with them!!

Actually we enjoy a lot the tranquil life in the silent village. here you can get plenty of time to think, to read, to have beautiful conversation, to reflect. There is no big light apart from the moon, so you can take the advantage and see millions of stars every night. Here I encountered the most star-full sky of my life and the most free time to spent looking at them. And something that we have misses: The most time to spend with each other under them!! And is wonderful!
And take some photos till next time:

This is our friend Patty or Pulgi!!! :D

This foto is dedicated to my friend Ilias who was ensuring me that I can find plenty of tobacco, filters and  rolling papers in such a country!! This is my rolling paper! Is baking paper which I had to buy from a bookstore!!!! Yes I lick a lot, and it is not always working!!! 

People we miss you all, and we send you lots of kisses and hugs!!