Nebaj Part II

I'm in Nabaj, Guatemala, which is about four hours from Ixtahuacan, passing over from the Mam region into Quiche/Ixil region. Regions are more or less divided based on the native languages. Here, in Nebaj, the language is Ixil. Quiche (key-chay) is the capital of the region, where Quiche is spoken. Although I'm only a few hours away, there are definitely cultural differences here that I've been adjusting to. Thus far, they've only been minor, such as greetings and thanking everyone individually after finishing a meal (in Ixta, we just said a general thank you). I imagine there will be more once I feel settled in.

In my time here, I've missed, along with my human family, my cat and my dog. Luckily where I am now, there are always lots of animals around, and the cat here loves attention, so we've gotten along well. Pet culture (I suppose that's what you could call it) doesn't exist here. Well, sort of. Many people have dogs specifically to guard the house or warn if someone (or something) is coming. The dogs are not allowed inside (most of the time) and are fed the scraps of leftover food. In the city, there are hundreds (maybe that's an exaggeration, but in any case, a significant number) of stray dogs or dogs who spend the day wandering the streets, as some of them have owners. It's a little overwhelming, but luckily, most of them are afraid of people or at least, not aggressive toward people. I feel terrible when there's a female dog in heat and there's literally a pack of males following her...

Michelle

Mali

They were hungry and came to let me know.

The one that is perched was cold and was trying to sit
beneath its mate, who wasn't interested in warming him up.
This is from my bed.

Nebaj is a little colder than Ixta, and a lot wetter. There's a lot of mud and not many roads are paved. It's been getting warmer, though, as we're entering the dry season, but it can still be cold at night. We've had several chicks die because they wandered from their mothers during the night (though, the two mother hens don't care for them very well).

I still miss home quite a bit. Since I've been in Guatemala I've seen lots of interesting t-shirts and other clothing from the States (clothes that don't sell at Salvation Army etc eventually make their way down here). Most interestingly I've seen a few from Indiana specifically: Indiana Hoosiers, Notre Dame University (10 minutes from where I grew up), a few from Indy, and one that said Manchester Township (not quite Indiana, but close enough for me). I'm not sure if the Universe is calling me home, or if it's trying to tell me that home is here...

P.S. Something I've learned recently: the term "ladino" (previously misspelled ladrino in an earlier post) is an offensive term for those of mixed culture. If you were to look up the word in the dictionary, you would find "robber" or "thief". I'm told the term originates from back when the colonialists first arrived, when a Spanish man would father a child, whose mother was indigenous, and neither the father nor the mother wanted the child, because it was associated with the other parent's culture. So in order to survive, they became thieves. I apologize for using the word so loosely earlier, but I suppose that's part of the learning process. The proper term to use is "mestiza", or mixed, for anyone who's curious.

Thanks for reading.