In a recent conversation with another PCV, we agreed that blogging becomes more difficult with time, because after a while, things no longer feel "new" and start to feel like "life". I feel that this couldn't be more true. Although I am always used to expecting the unexpected here, there are certain things that I will almost consistently encounter: lateness, wordy speeches, and super sugary coffee...no matter what the actual context of the event is.
The most recent example that I can provide is the wedding that I attended over the weekend. It was my first Guatemalan wedding and I was so excited to cross it off my two-year to-do list. The wedding was for a friend's brother, the youngest in a family of 7 older sisters. So, as you can imagine, it was a really big deal, especially in a society where the groom's family is in charge of the wedding (including ALL costs. What a difference from the wedding tradition of the bride's family paying in the states!) My friend, a sister of the groom, told me they'd be arriving at 6:30, so I figured at 7:15 would be a good time to arrive...not too early, not too late. But of course, I arrived before them, walking into a huge gymnasium filled with the other early arrivals who stared at me in confusion. The wedding venue was a huge indoor basketball gym that was covered in white balloons and streamers, which seemed tiny in comparison to the size of the room. There were plastic tables covered in white plastic tablecloths, each one adorning a plastic figurine of a bride and groom. More guests trailed in, wearing everything from sparkly puffy dresses and high heels to dirty jeans and cowboy hats. And of course, there was the DJ set up, blasting marimba music so loud that I was convinced we'd all lose our hearing by the end of the night. We all just sat and waited...nobody really conversing with each other, just staring around the room, and at the kids who had already ripped the balloons off the wall and were engaged in a full-on balloon war in the middle of the room.
All of us sudden, the DJ stopped the music and announced that the flower girls were entering the room! Then the godparents! Then...the bride! It startled me that there was no introduction or welcome...basically just all the guests sitting around for 1+ hours while waiting for the event to start, and all of us sudden it started when the DJ told us to stand up.
The bride walked in looking terrified, joined the groom, and with both their families sat at a long table where the wedding officiant waited, wearing jeans and a leather jacket. He gave a speech over the mic about the institution of marriage, and not a single person listened except the bride, groom, and their respective families. Everyone seated at the tables was carrying on their own conversation, as if completely unaware that the two people who had invited them were getting married. Then, he announced them as husband and wife, and they went and stood under the balloon arch, where their godparents blessed them and then cracked open a bell-shaped piñata, leaving them covered in white confetti. We raised our plastic dixie cups for the champagne toast. I almost choked on the orange liquid, and my friend asked with a big smile "Do you like it?!" and I of course said "It's great!!" and she told me the secret recipe: beer, orange juice, 7-up, and some sparking wine all mixed together. Yum.
They had their first dance, to a marimba song nonetheless, and then their parents joined them. During this time, my friend gave me the "inside scoop" on the couple...the groom is 26 years old, and the bride 16, and three months pregnant. The mother of the bride looked to be on the verge of tears the whole time, and my friend told me that the bride didn't want to leave home to live with the groom's family. "I hope this marriage will last" she said. It felt so strange to be talking about the future of their marriage and the couple had barely been married for five minutes at this point. Also, in Guatemala, there exists the "church marriage" and the "civil marriage". For different reasons, couples will opt for one over the other, or do both. But I was told that the priest did not agree to officiate their wedding because he didn't want to marry a minor. I felt saddened to put myself in the position of this young bride, who was being married not so much by choice as by obligation, and would be living with a large family in one house, a family of a man she's only even been dating for 8 months.
After the first few dances, we received our dinner: tamales and hot, sugary coffee. The grooms family had prepared over SIX HUNDRED tamales, because in an event like this, you never know who is going to show up! I couldn't believe my ears when they told me. The family was running around to serve all the guests, because unlike the states, there was no caterer or wait staff. One of my favorite parts of the wedding was seeing the guests taking all the decorations off the walls and tables as souvenirs. I have never before been to a wedding where people fought over who would get to keep the centerpiece, or ripped off the decorations from the walls before the event was even over. But it was fun to see all the kids running around playing with the decorations, as their parents enjoyed dancing to the music.
All in all, it was a really interesting experience that I am thankful for having taken part of. And the wedding followed another big celebration, which was Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary, just the day before. All of us PCVs were invited to a reception at the Ambassador's residence, where we had many people give speeches on the Peace Corps and its contribution to Guatemala. It made me feel so proud to become part of a legacy of hundreds of thousands of volunteers who have served worldwide and imagining what the Peace Corps will look like in 50 more years. I think it really helped me to reflect on what this experience is supposed to mean for me personally, because sometimes being out in my site, I feel like I forget sometimes what Peace Corps really signifies, as I get caught up in the daily life here (and frustrations that go along with it). Plus, the last time I was dressed up and in that same location was in October 2009 when my group was sworn-in as volunteers...it is amazing to think how far we've come along since then!
A recent story that made me really happy was something that Rosario told me about her university class. She studies full-time, which means one Saturday a week, from 7:30 am to 6:00 pm (I recently accompanied her to a full day of classes, which was really cool. Will share more in another blog!) Her major is Social Work, and one of her recent classes was talking about different social groups, one of them being homosexuals. Her professor told the class that people become homosexuals because they suffer something in their past that makes them choose to be that way. Rosario raised her hand and said "I have a friend who knows a lot of information and she told me that people are born that way" and that the professor was like, well that is another theory, this is just something I read somewhere... It made me outraged that the professor would proclaim as "truth" a theory that she read somewhere, but SO proud of Rosario for speaking out about what she knows is right. To be so honest, plus contrary to what a college professor says (a step below royalty as far as Guatemalan society is concerned) definitely took some "cajones" on her part.
In other news, we are in the final stages of my USAID Small Project Assistance project, which should be completed before Semana Santa (holy week) in mid-April. It feels so good to finally see the project come to life, after so much time and work. More news to come soon!
PS. I can't post photos right now because my internet is too slow, but hopefully within the next few days!
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