Roosters, Turtles & Other Blessings

At 1:00 in the morning the roosters had started crowing already. Don´t they know what time it is or do time zones affect these things? I lie awake, and somehow find happiness listening to the song of the day yet to come.

I´m living in San Antonio Aguas Calientes about 15 minutes outside of Antigua, Guatemala with a wonderful woman and her extended family in their guest house. (Above is the view of my deck, with the volcanoes hiding behind the clouds.) As I´ve discovered and experienced, in most of the world families support each other, live together, work together, cook together, eat together, and often sleep in the same room as each other. This family, though poor by American standards, has one of the richest collective lives that I´ve ever witnessed. Four generations of the family live in one house, with four bedrooms. They care for each other in a way that I envy, with genuine love and concern for each others well being. Great grandma is cooing and cuddling her 9 month old grandson while the in-between generations prepare the meal, feed the animals, do the morning´s dishes, sweep the floors and wash the laundry. I´ve been invited to stay with this family indefinitely, though my schedule will only permit one week at this time, unfortunately.

It´s such a striking contrast to life in the States. Which way would I prefer? What is better? It´s just too difficult, and frankly impossible, to compare cultures in that way, but it does make me think that they have figured out a way of living that the Western world needs to embrace

Yesterday I spent the day participating in the family life, and then receiving a tour through the lovely old town by my family´s two nieces, Eugenia and Mariela. We had a lovely afternoon enjoying ice cream, and teaching each other our native languages. In the evening I helped prepare a delicious dinner of fish, beans, tortillas, rice and salad. We all ate together at one table, as we do for each meal. The conversation is lively (all in Spanish) and the laughter is hearty. Above is Lidia, my Guatemalan mama, and below are my tour guides.

I spent a week in Costa Rica, with Joanie and a few other friends from the states. We had a great time, and it was so good to catch up with mi mejor amiga! Of all the fun things, we did the best will be no surprise to anyne who knows me...we got to go on a Leatherback turtle patrol at Estacion Las Tortugas (the project that Parsons PR has been involved with for more than 6 years) and help to midwife the births of more than 200 baby turtle eggs. We were also lucky enough to be there to see the hatchlings (tortuguitas) before they began their courageous journey to the sea. Our timing was perfect! The weather held out, and the turtles came out to play...magical!

We also had a few other pretty fantastic wildlife sightings including a mamma sloth with her baby eating about 20 feet or less directly above our heads, and a wild boar (think of Pumba!) with a slight disability who was disowned from his clan and had taken up friendship with tourists. Oh, and I got to hold a toucan and the largest (thankfully dead) beetle known to mankind. Eeeewwwww..........

This is my Spanish teacher Aura, who's been teaching me the beautiful language for four weeks in a row now, eight hours per day. Me gusta mucho este idioma!

Every single day, as I have been doing for several years, when I crawl into bed at night I allow my final thoughts before passing into sleep to count the day´s blessings in addition to those of my life. I am grateful that my life is so rich, and that this nightly tradition seems to take me longer each day. Life in Guatemala is keeping me up for more than one reason!

With love,

Pam