Volcano Pacaya

Guatemala is a land with a lot of volcanoes. Very close to Antigua are three. One of them, named Agua is very popular in photos of Antigua. I see it everyday as I walk to class. It is huge and you can see it from any of the north/south avenues here in Antigua. Volcano Agua is sleeping or dormant, as they say. We hope it doesn't wake up while we are here. Another volcano that is closer to Guatemala City is Pacaya. While Agua is dormant, Pacaya is actively spitting out lava daily. In fact, it is currently one of the most active volcaones in the world. Last night Ben and I were able to visit Pacaya. Here is our story:

After jumping into the van, we rode around town until the van was full of tourists (like us) who wanted to go to Pacaya. The trip to Pacaya was about an hour and fortunately Ben and I were in the front seat. The driver and I talked in Spanish. It is amazing how much I have learned, but the challenge is to recall the right words at the right moments. The trip in the van was pretty uneventful, but it was nice to see the Guatemalan countryside. At times it reminded me of the Dominican Republic.

Once at the end of the road, we stopped in a small village, used bathrooms and prepared to set off. The hike would be 1.25 hours up the volcano with taxis continually offering rides. In this context, taxis are people with horses that are more than willing to let you ride up the hill for a small fee. Pride kept anyone in our group from take this option, but after about half an hour, the pride had worn away for some and horses were there to carry them on. Ben and I hiked the whole way. Not so much because of pride. Ben really wanted to ride the horse but I needed the exercise and we wanted to see how hard the climb was so that we could report back to Becky and Elena. After an hour the trees began to disappear and we came to a dried up lava flow. In the distance we could see the lava flowing. It was about 5 p.m. and was starting to get dark. It was amazing how the lava glowed. After 15 minutes of hiking across grassy slopes we were there.

The closer to the flowing lava the hotter it was (no surprise). Very soon the trail was swallowed up by dried lava and we were walking across lava rock that had flowed just a few days earlier. It was difficult to walk because the lava rock was fragile and very uneven. The volcanic rock type is "Aa rock." With each step you didn't know if the lava rock would hold you or crumble under your feet. In addition, when I went to steady myself, I found that not only was the dried rock really hot, it was also very sharp. I wished I had brought leather gloves. At one point, the lava broke under me and I scraped my leg against some lava rock. Sure enough, it left a nice cut on my leg.

We could get as close to the lava as we dared (or could handle due to the heat). We didn't get close enough to cook eggs, but it was about 3 feet from us. The heat from it was amazing. The lava was moving, but slowly. It looked like a really hot fire, except it was florescent. A friend had told us to see it at night and we think she was right. It was amazing to see.

After about a half an hour of taking pictures and exploring, it was time to leave. Knowing we would be hiking down in the dark, we did have a flashlight and we set off down the trail. On the way down we passed two groups on their way up. From what we have heard people go up at all hours. The goal is to go when it is not raining (we are in the end of the rainy season). For us there was not rain while hiking. God held it off. But once we were driving away, the rain started coming down. We hope that those on the trail were prepared.

We did not climb to the top of the volcano. From what I understand, the lava broke out through the side of the volcano a few years ago. As a result it isn't necessary to climb that far up. In addition, the area around the cone isn't very stable and the gases can be deadly.

While our pictures...are as good as we could do, here are some more impressive pictures and a little history of Pacaya.

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/south_america/guat/pacaya.html

There is a lot of information on the Internet about Pacaya. If interested, do a search!

Settling In

We have been here for a month now and the haze of transition is beginning to clear. We have decided to make our temporary rental a permanent one after looking at numerous town homes and apartments. Although this two bedroom apartment lacks many things, it has some pluses we didn't want to give up. The essential pluses are cheap wireless internet (a rare find in housing), weekly cleaning, hot showers, and a good price. The neighborhood is beginning to feel like our spot with a kid's park and square two blocks away, a yummy coffee house on the corner, and Carlos' neighborhood store to supply us with basic essentials like milk, soap, and pop! Rick's school is about four blocks away.

Ben has made three neighborhood friends: Alexis, Danny and Sebastian. When it is not raining they spend most of their time playing soccer in the callejon (side street). Last week they made kites and tried to fly them in the street. Kites are for sale everywhere as November 1 is "Dia de Los Muertos" (Day of the Dead). On this day families remember and honor their dead by preparing the departed loved ones' favorite dishes to eat at the cemetery, decorating their grave sites, and flying kites with messages for their dead loved ones. Food in the market is very expensive this week because everyone is shopping like crazy to cook up their feasts. We will probably visit the local cemetery to observe the festivities. Our cultural learning this week is to ask Guatemalans what their plans are for November 1.

At CIT (missionary school) we learned that we must enter a new culture with humility and an attitude of a learner. When all your norms of living have been left behind and there is so much learning to do, it is easy to try to reinvent America here or at the very least disparage what is done here as a poor substitute for home. As I have set up our home and naturally look for items I am used to using, I have needed to remind myself that if I can't find what I need, most likely there are two reasons: 1) I am looking in the wrong place or wrong store 2) Guatemalans use some other tool or product to accomplish the task than we do in the U.S. I had a hard time finding a garlic press. Surely in a land where garlic is in everything, Guatemalans have a tool for crushing or mincing their garlic! When I asked for a garlic press, I was shown to a different section of housewares and found what I needed. It was in a section I call the "smushing" area. There are a myriad of metal tools used in the kitchen to crush, smash or squeeze things. There were various types of juicers, tortilla presses, the garlic press, and some other things I wouldn't know what to do with.

By the way, the picture shows ladies making tortillas. Here in Antigua, most Guatemalans do not cook on fires, but use stoves. I won't even attempt to make tortillas as they are expertly made and sold everywhere. Our neighborhood grocery store sells them fresh and HOT, 4 for a Quetzal (about 15 cents). If you stop at lunch you can here the women slapping the tortillas in their hands in the kitchen. The ladies in the picture let us try our hand at patting the tortillas. It's harder than it looks!

Today I went to the grocery store AGAIN. I go about every other day. Each time I buy produce I get to the check out and the cashier calls out "PESO" (weight) and someone comes and grabs my produce and runs away with it to weigh it. There is no scale in the produce area and no scale at the check out. Each time I think "How inefficient, if they would just put a scale at the check out or the produce section everyone wouldn't have to wait to get their produce weighed. Oh, well, I guess that's how its done here..." So today I noticed this HUGE sign in the produce area which said, "Please, dear customers, take your produce to the meat counter to be weighed before you go to the check out." OOPS. So each time I have shopped here the workers are probably thinking, "Here comes this dumb foreigner who doesn't know she should get her produce weighed. Doesn't she know what a pain it is for us to run it back to the meat department for her?"

The kids and I stopped at a bakery on the way home for treats. We are trying out different bakeries. Each one has beautiful looking pastries, but some are don't live up to their image! We each got a pastry, plus one for Rick for $2 total. Not a bad reward for hefting our groceries home 6 blocks! Guatemalans enjoy fruit pastries that we are not accustomed to: pineapple pie (looks deceptively like apple pie) and fresh fig turnovers. We haven't tried these yet, but intend to. Also available are such yummy ice creams as: coconut, cheese, avocado, and shrimp. Hmmm not sure I am up for those!

UPDATE FOR MAILING PACKAGES: After talking with different missionaries, we think the best way for us to receive packages would be for them to come with an American ministry team. If you wish to send us a package, please let us know and we try to find a team that is coming from the U.S. You can send the package to them and they can carry it down to us. Honestly, even if a team is not coming for a month or two, it will be better for us and we may receive the package sooner than had it gone through the mail.

Mackey Communications October 15 2006

Things are going well here!  To learn more...look at our our BLOG (see below). 

Attached to this email is quarterly update!  Many of you should have...or will be receiving it in the mail.  But here it is in electronic form. 

IF you do not want to receive the "paper" quarterly newsletter, please let us know as it will save us some money.  You will continue to receive it electonically.  On the other hand, if you WANT a paper copy and are not receiving it, we will be happy to send it your way!  Our goal is that you would receive communcation from us how you want it. 

Today, we introduce a NEW method for communication.  We now have a BLOG.  Our BLOG is located at http://rbmackey.blogspot.com/.  If you click on the underlined words it may take you there.   But I am not sure I am doing this right and so you may need to cut and paste the address into your browser. 

About packages:  Some have asked if they can send packages.  While we appreciate the desire to help us, we haven't yet figured this out.  All we have heard is about how expensive it is to receive packages.  Fortunately, we have found that we can get just about anything we need here.  Some things cost quite a bit more than the US, but other things are less.  Thank you for your interest to help us.  Once we find out more, we will let you know. 

We hope all is well with you!

Rick and Becky Mackey

About Antigua - by Becky

So what is Guatemala like? Well, we actually haven't experienced much of real Guatemala yet. Antigua is a very unique town. We have been told that it is different than most of the rest of the country. We don't know if this is true or not....but we can tell you about Antigua.

It is a very, very old city having been founded several centuries ago. In the early 1700s it was destroyed by a massive earthquake and was abandon for a long time. Even today there are many ruins still untouched from that earthquake almost 300 years ago. Many of these are cathedrals or churches. One hotel, the Santo Domingo, is actually built from the ruins. We haven't seen it at night yet, but it is supposed to be beautifully lit with candles.

The city is all walls to the outsider. The streets are all cobblestone, with narrow sidewalks. All the properties are walled in. Behind the walls could be anything, beatiful homes, hotels, McDonalds, or a garbage heap, or a parking area. It is a very dusty town so as we walk to get everywhere we end up quite grainy. We are getting used to scrubbing our feet each night if we wear sandals.

Antigua is a launching point for tourists going to see Mayan ruins, the volcanoes, and other attractions in Guatemala. We see people from all over the world, well at least the "rich" world. Many of them are backpackers. We have learned that when doing business here it is important to state that we are LIVING in Antigua, not just visiting. Otherwise it is assumed we are tourists.

So how is the food? Pretty good so far. We ate out a lot our first week since we were in a hotel. Chicken, rice, beans, chile rellenos, and chubby corn tortillas are all popular. Frozen yogurt and fruit popcicles are cheap and we regularly stop for them. We found we can get the best values for lunches, about $8-9 for all of us, drinks included. Now that we are in a temporary apartment for the month we are cooking at home and enjoying more American type food, which is a relief to the kids. Fortunately Ben and Elena both like chicken and rice.

Because of all the travelers, there seem to be a lot of things available that we didn't expect. Peanut butter isn't as expensive or hard to find as we thought it would be. There is a DVD rental place here. The trick of shopping is finding out where to get what you want. One humorous adventure in shopping involved trying to find Ziploc bags. Firstly although I speak Spanish, I don't know how to describe a Ziploc bag other than to say "ZEEPLOK." Apparently you don't buy them at the grocery store (although they have aluminum foil and saran wrap). You go to the "plastics" store that sells office supplies and plastic stuff like garbage cans, food storage containers, etc. Who knew?

What are Guatemalans like? They seem very polite and calm. In Antigua, they are pretty used to foreigners who are trying to learn Spanish. We have gotten to know the workers here at the guest house a little and they have been very helpful in telling us where to shop. Also a convenience store owner on the next block named Carlos, has been very friendly. The society here is more formal than we experienced in Jarabacoa. "Buenos Dias, Buenas tardes etc." are used. As well, it is important to excuse yourself when passing someone on the narrow sidewalks or in the equally narrow store aisles with "con permiso."

Besides Rick learning the language during this time, we hope to become somewhat adjusted to the culture here so that our adjustment in the DR will go smoothly. Obviously things won't be exactly the same, but the more we learn to handle here, the less we have to learn there. Some major differences will be the climate (moderate here and hot in the DR) and the electricity (pretty consistent here and very intermittent in the DR). Here we are without a personal vehicle while we will purchase a truck in the DR. It is a good experience to live without personal transportation since so much of the world lives this way.

The Learning Environment --- by Rick

It might seem like a comforable surrounding, but this is a picture of where they seek to "re-program" my mind. I know...how beautiful! And yes, it is! But the beauty is lost pretty quick into the first day as you see what you have gotton yourself into. If you don't feel confident with your own language, try learning a new one. I spend 4 hours each day here. The format is simple...Each day I sit one on one with a language helper. There is a workbook and a grammer book that guides the learning. Days begin with conversation (in español) and any word I don't know becomes an additional vocabulary word to learn. There is no place to hide if I didn't get the work done. The attention is never on another student... A great place to LEARN and I am so thankful to be here!

I have finished my first week and am doing well. I am currently in Grade A and made a lot of progress through it this past week. Unfortunately, I have been told, that people typically hit a wall at some point. Becky and I hope the wall is THIN. Everyday my vocabulary cards increase. Why do languages have to have so many words? Did they have so many prior to Eve's creation? Oops, dangerous ground...better go buy Becky flowers (fortunately they are about US $3 for a dozen down here!)