This Global Life | Day 11: Guatemala
Hi, I'm Michelle, a born and raised California girl who now calls Guatemala home. I moved to Guatemala as an independent 27-year-old carrying two suitcases and a dream of teaching overseas. I told my parents, “I’m just going for a year.” In the process, I fell in love with the country, the culture and a man, who later became my husband. And 6 years later I haven't left. Together we lead a community development program in rural Guatemala and juggle the joy and challenge of raising a daughter who is growing up differently from how either one of us did. I have a book baby coming out in December and a real baby due in early 2017. I like my coffee iced, my chocolate dark and 17 tabs open at once on my computer. Connect with me: Blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Good morning from Antigua Guatemala. Most mornings the sun is out, the horns on the buses are beeping and the church bells ring every hour- even throughout the night! Visitors always comment on it when they stay with us, but the funny thing is I don’t even hear it anymore.
Lately just after the bells chime 5 times my 3-year old wakes up. My husband and I take turns and rotate who 
By 6:30 AM she’s hungry so we head to the kitchen. The same carpenter that built our shelves also did our kitchen 3 years ago. I had to explain numerous time and show countless pictures to convince him that yes in fact we did want white cabinets. Most homes have dark stained wood or laminate cabinets. Painting wood white is not all that common here. Do you see those colorful Anthropologie bowls in my cabinet? They were from my old house in California and every year I bring another 2-3 in my suitcase because I love having a little pop of color and a fun reminder of something from home. Do you have something that although maybe unnecessary, you have sacrificed precious suitcase space to bring back with you?
My daughter goes to a local preschool 3 days a week, but on the mornings she doesn’t go our sitter comes at 8:00 AM. She has helped take care of our daughter ever since I went back to work when she was 5 months old. They play “birthday party” and make little hats for each of my daughter’s baby dolls and blow up balloons. I credit her with teaching my daughter Spanish and pretend play; two areas that are not my strong point.
By 8:15 AM I am usually out the door. Even though I have been for close to 3 hours somehow I am always a bit rushed trying to get out the door. And I almost never have enough time to eat. A few weeks ago I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts and the guest shared her freezer breakfast burrito recipe. Genius, right? So now once a week my husband and I prep and assemble breakfast burritos for the whole week. They are the easiest, most filling thing to take as I head out the door. The recipe can easily be adapted to the ingredients available in your country. Naturally, we add black beans to ours.
Unless I have a staff meeting or accounting to do in our main office, I prefer to work from a coffee shop most days. I drive to the center of town and set-up at the café on the corner with comfy chairs and the fastest wifi (a true gift in this country). I coordinate all of short-term servant teams that come to volunteer with our organization and do some freelance writing work on the side. Basically that’s a fancy way to say I spend a lot of time on my computer sending emails.
I usually try to do a few errands before heading home for lunch, grocery shopping being necessary today. A lot of expats complain about this grocery story because it is well, a whole cultural experience. We have a super nice Walmart-US style grocery store about a 30 min drive away. But in the interest of time I often prefer to go here. There’s no “parking lot” so you either search for street parking, pay to use the private lot across the street if there is room or a lot of people just pull up right there along the red line with their emergency lights on. Today I found a spot on the street, just ½ a block a way.
I have always kind of felt like a giant in Guatemala. Guatemalans often call me “grande” because I am tall. It took me awhile to accept that as a compliment :-) But seriously, I mean the grocery carts are small and the aisles even smaller. (Notice the box of Cheerios for reference). Items are often rearranged and in new locations and it’s almost guaranteed that they will be out of something that you need. I have learned to make a lot of things at home, that before I would have always just grabbed off the shelf at Trader Joes. Things like pesto, hummus, breadcrumbs, pasta sauce, granola, etc. You can find some of those things here, either imported or at specialty stores, but they’re super expensive. 
After my little cart is full, I head to the check out line. You have to bag, or rather box, your own groceries. Plastic bags cost money so almost everyone brings their own bag or grabs one of the boxes that are stacked under then check-out counter. The cashier gives me a my total and I hand over my local debit card and identification card. In Guatemala for any transaction with a credit/debit card you have to physically hand it to the store employee. I sign my name in an almost illegible scribble. She looks at down at my signature and then at my card, “no es igual.” I sigh. I still forget. My signature on the voucher has to be exactly like the one on my credit card. I take the pen back and carefully re-sign my name making sure each letter and loop is the identical. I then leave one box on the back counter and carry my other box to the car. Shopping carts can’t leave the store, so no one just pushes their groceries to their car. What you buy you carry. I think of it like backpacking, except with a box. When my daughter was little I would carry her in the ergo on my back and a box or two in front. I have learned I don’t get too frustrated if I just think of it as my workout for the day.
After my daughter’s nap we drive to the the local mercado. It’s where we get most of our fruit and veggies. Guatemala has such a colorful array of fresh produce. Almost year around we can get local papaya, mango, pineapple, strawberries and blackberries. And I love it.
I also love that my daughter is growing up eating fruits that I had never heard of before. We love granadillas (passion fruit), guanabanas, (I think they’re like Cherimoya in English), jocotes (I don’t think we have them in the U.S.), but my daughter’s favorite fruit are these round little hairy looking things, called lichi in Spanish. Marta, at our favorite fruit stand, always gives her a few to snack on while I’m shopping.
It rains almost most afternoons in Guatemala from June to October. By the time we get home, unload and soak all of our fruit & veggies in a quick disinfectant wash, the rain has stopped. (Did you know Grapefruit seed extract works great for this? I always bring back a little bottle or two from the states—it’s so small and gets rid of any unwanted bacteria or parasites that might be hiding on our fresh fruit & veggies.) We walk down to the little playground in our neighborhood, usually with a baby doll or two in tow. At first I was surprised by the lack of railings and the simple wooden structure, but now I kind of like its charm.
My husband often travels for work and is gone at least a week a month, but today he is home by 4PM so we walk up to the local tienda together. Like most kids who live in diverse communities or come from biracial families, my daughter started noticing and talking about skin color when she was learning her colors, right around 2-years-old. We talk a lot about race and help give her a vocabulary for understanding the skin color in our family and the differences in the people she sees. One of my all-time favorite children’s books says, “Looks don’t make a family, love does.”
There are little pop-up fruit stands and tiendas in the front of people's’ homes all over town. My daughter asks for a paleta (like a popsicle), my husband gets a choco-banana (a chocolate covered banana) and I grab a pound of tomatoes that I forgot to get at the market for dinner tonight. We walk back home on the cobblestone streets, dodging tuk-tuks, motos and an occasional horse.
I don’t cook tons of traditional Guatemalan food, but the way I cook has definitely changed since living in Guatemala. Instead of buying canned tomatoes, its cheaper (and way tastier) to buy a pound of tomatoes and make your own. I do make a lot of fresh salsas and soups with local ingredients. A few years ago my mom got me this for Christmas and I use it almost more than my blender. Tonight I’m making pollo guisado, the one Guatemalan recipe that I have learned from my mother-in-law. Almost every Guatemalan home will have a comal, it’s like a metal grill that traditionally was used to make tortillas, but it’s also great for roasting tomatoes or toasting nuts. Funny thing is we don’t even own a toaster for some reason. We’ve just always toasted our bread on the comal.
It’s 7:30 PM. Why does it always seem like kids get more energy before bed, not less?
8:45 PM: It’s my husband turn to put our daughter to bed. He often tells her stories about life when he was growing up or when he and I first met. She will often ask him, “tell me da story of when you and mama got mawwied.” And I may or may not listen in from the monitor downstairs. I clean up the kitchen and put away leftovers and if I have energy I will usually get out computer my to catch up on a few emails or personal things. But today, like most days, especially since being pregnant, I just head upstairs and get ready for bed. I love that from every window upstairs we can see one the volcanos that surround Antigua. Even when I am tired and worn out that view never gets old. 