Piatek z Pankracym
No bardzo Ci dziekuje Misiu za te piosenke! Piatki z Pankracym byly odjazdowe. I z Misiem Uszatkiem i Kolargolem. Chlip, chlip, rzeczywiscie nostalgia dopada czlowieka, ale to taka fajna nostalgia, taka ciepla, nie pelna zalu za ubieglym czasem. Siedze teraz przy komputerze Billa w mieszkanku dla gosci Ann i Billa. Uskutecznilam prysznic bardzo dlugi i cieply (ciepla woda to jest rarytas w tej czesci swiata wiec byl to gwozdz dnia, wiecej o tym bedzie zaraz w wersji angielskiej GDYZ zdaje sobie sprawe ze wiekszosc milusiow jest, w rzeczy samej, dwu-jezyczna). Ale tak mi sie fajnie jednak pisze po polsku troszke... W kwestii lap kudlatych to jest ich tu duzo ale sa w lepszym stanie od psiunciow meksykanskich: tlustsze sa i chyba zdrowsze. W samej Antigui w ogole nie ma dzikich szwedaczy, co mnie cieszy bo widok dzikich szwendaczy zawsze mnie jednak napawa smutkiem. A tak w ogole to moglibyscie sie do mnie odezwac milusie! Poprosze o wiecej kawalkow audiowizualnych. Niezaleznie od swietnych przygod na gwatemalskich drozkach tesknie za Wami i wszelkie notki powitam z wieeeelka radoscia. A teraz bedzie troche w jezyku mocno popularnym.
I came today with Ann and Bill to Panajachel. It was two hours of driving up and down on the slopes of hills of vulcanic origin. I have to say that at the end of the trip I was a little dizzy and it was difficult to breathe for some time. Bill says he experiences the same discomfort because we both have allergies and our sinuses are somewhat clogged... It really was like a roller coaster. We were passing through many very poor villages but from what I got from Mike they are actually not that poor - up north they are poorer. When we were driving through them the same thoughts came to my mind as the ones I had while hitchhiking in Mexico a year ago, that the colonization did a terrible thing to these peoples and what was started five hundred years ago hasn't really been stopped... I remember watching the movie THE MISSION with Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons and thinking how these poor missionaries were manipulated by the superpowers, the government and the church, to believe they were bringing the people light and a better way of life and in fact they helped destroy the culture and a way of life which was in no way better than theirs. I am not saying anything new but I have to mention this because it just strikes me how the westerners thought their civilization was the best and how they still think it is the best! It just sucks. I know it's not possible to turn the hands of the clock. There are the people who work on preservation of the ways of life of the indigenious peoples and those who think they should be educated and incorporated into the western system because it's just not possible for them to exist in any other way. It's hard for me to say who is right... It just makes me sad to see how much damage the white man did; his greed and craving for power over the world. I love the old buildings of Antigua and I loved seeing Merida and San Christobal de las Casas in Mexico but I am very aware of the fact that it caused a lot of suffering on the part of the indigenious peoples to build these cities. They exist so I enjoy them. For the generations of Mayan people it would be better if they were never built... I think I learned to appreciate little things during the martial law in Poland when there was just absolutely nothing in stores (except the famous vinegar - some of my Polish friends remember this grotesgue situation of a store with many many shelves on which only bottels of vinegar stood) and there were ration cards for everything including a pair of shoes a year. And my relationship to toilet paper is special to this day! It was just not possible to get any and when the government "threw" some in the stores people were walking with rolls of paper on a string around their necks and whoever saw them ran to that store - imagine half of town running to a drug store... and it was more of a sand paper than a toilet paper... I laugh when I write this... because these situations were so grotesque, they were in the end funny and people just had to laugh. I see the same here in Guatemala. People are so poor and they have so little that they enjoy whatever they have. They are so open and so generous and hospitable. It's amazing. The conditions in which they live are really bad but I see them laughing and joking around. Every morning I was woken up by the maid in the Luna Maya hotel who was singing while cleaning and sweeping. Last night the wind was so strong it knocked out six windows upstairs on the veranda and she was sweeping the glass from the stairs and floors and when I was shaking my head in anger at the wind, she was just smiling and saying "what to do?" It's the happiness of people in peace with nature and their existance, however rugh it may be.
At one point of our journey today we reached a place from which we could see Lake Atitlan. It is, indeed, very beautiful. Bill said it was 12 miles long and I think 5 miles wide. It is surrounded by three volcanoes and there are a few towns on its shores. Tomorrow I will visit one of them, San Marcos, by boat. Today I walked around Panajachel and I visited with Ann and Bill an English school - 80 students study there and most of them get scholarships - and I also went to the library which Ann and Bill established in the city.
I came today with Ann and Bill to Panajachel. It was two hours of driving up and down on the slopes of hills of vulcanic origin. I have to say that at the end of the trip I was a little dizzy and it was difficult to breathe for some time. Bill says he experiences the same discomfort because we both have allergies and our sinuses are somewhat clogged... It really was like a roller coaster. We were passing through many very poor villages but from what I got from Mike they are actually not that poor - up north they are poorer. When we were driving through them the same thoughts came to my mind as the ones I had while hitchhiking in Mexico a year ago, that the colonization did a terrible thing to these peoples and what was started five hundred years ago hasn't really been stopped... I remember watching the movie THE MISSION with Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons and thinking how these poor missionaries were manipulated by the superpowers, the government and the church, to believe they were bringing the people light and a better way of life and in fact they helped destroy the culture and a way of life which was in no way better than theirs. I am not saying anything new but I have to mention this because it just strikes me how the westerners thought their civilization was the best and how they still think it is the best! It just sucks. I know it's not possible to turn the hands of the clock. There are the people who work on preservation of the ways of life of the indigenious peoples and those who think they should be educated and incorporated into the western system because it's just not possible for them to exist in any other way. It's hard for me to say who is right... It just makes me sad to see how much damage the white man did; his greed and craving for power over the world. I love the old buildings of Antigua and I loved seeing Merida and San Christobal de las Casas in Mexico but I am very aware of the fact that it caused a lot of suffering on the part of the indigenious peoples to build these cities. They exist so I enjoy them. For the generations of Mayan people it would be better if they were never built... I think I learned to appreciate little things during the martial law in Poland when there was just absolutely nothing in stores (except the famous vinegar - some of my Polish friends remember this grotesgue situation of a store with many many shelves on which only bottels of vinegar stood) and there were ration cards for everything including a pair of shoes a year. And my relationship to toilet paper is special to this day! It was just not possible to get any and when the government "threw" some in the stores people were walking with rolls of paper on a string around their necks and whoever saw them ran to that store - imagine half of town running to a drug store... and it was more of a sand paper than a toilet paper... I laugh when I write this... because these situations were so grotesque, they were in the end funny and people just had to laugh. I see the same here in Guatemala. People are so poor and they have so little that they enjoy whatever they have. They are so open and so generous and hospitable. It's amazing. The conditions in which they live are really bad but I see them laughing and joking around. Every morning I was woken up by the maid in the Luna Maya hotel who was singing while cleaning and sweeping. Last night the wind was so strong it knocked out six windows upstairs on the veranda and she was sweeping the glass from the stairs and floors and when I was shaking my head in anger at the wind, she was just smiling and saying "what to do?" It's the happiness of people in peace with nature and their existance, however rugh it may be.
At one point of our journey today we reached a place from which we could see Lake Atitlan. It is, indeed, very beautiful. Bill said it was 12 miles long and I think 5 miles wide. It is surrounded by three volcanoes and there are a few towns on its shores. Tomorrow I will visit one of them, San Marcos, by boat. Today I walked around Panajachel and I visited with Ann and Bill an English school - 80 students study there and most of them get scholarships - and I also went to the library which Ann and Bill established in the city.
posted by Asia Kabat at 6:37 PM
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