Guatemala in Third Person (for dramatic effect)

After several minutes of pacing back in forth of crowds he began to speak to himself. "Hmmm...I thought for sure that he said he was going to be waiting for me at the airport...
But I don´t ... see him in the throngs of people waiting here... No I don´t need a taxi, again. Well this could be kinda tricky if...Oh!" He spotted a white sign that allowed him to droop his shoulders in relief,

STVE
RENACIMIENTO

and he hurried over to shake the one of the hands that held it, lettting out a chuckle through his nose.

Miguel is the director of Associacion Renacimiento, which he founded when Steve was two years old. Warm and charismatic, he noticed his networking ability very quickly when they pulled into the office headquarters of Burger King a few minutes after driving away from the airport. Steve proceeded to sit through a brief, informal and gracious meeting between Miguel and a woman who worked in the plain, semi-vacant office building. Clearly he was receiving some sort of donation for the children in his school, whose names were printed on sheets of paper that made their way across the desk. (Later in Patzun, when Steve needed to exchange some money at the local bank, the pair waltzed to the front of a line of forty or fifty people and was immediately accommodated. Steve was acutely aware that this had nothing to do with his foreign face or wallet, but everything to do with the smiling man that walked slightly ahead of him. He also noticed that he always seemed to be the tallest person in the room.)

He wondered silently why Burger King would go to the effort of hiring foreign representatives, building the restaurants, establishing the legal framework for the franchise, and generally enduring the hassle of starting a business overseas to be able to cater to the relatively puny market that Guatemala City has to offer.

The two hour drive to Patzun was pleasant, any anxiety seemed to fade away as Guatemala quickly began to resemble rural Brazil. Steve asked about Honduras and Chavez and politics in Guatemala. His tentative, awkwardly phrased questions took some time to formulate and his responses were simple and short.

He would stay at a the humble hotel of a young family. Cesar and Reina have four children. Eulisa, Estuardo, Esraul, and Angelica range in age from nine to two years old; they all have cheerful dispositions and are affectionate and energetic. Cesar and Reina are trying hard to make ends meet between their small street front shop, simple and small restaurant, and their recently completed motel rooms. Reina is always smiling, and behaves with a mixture of maternal care and gracious hospitality. Cesar carries the weight of their financial situation in his eyes and delights in his children. After dinner Steve agreed to a price of $150 for the month, including breakfast and dinners. He also assured Cesar, upon request, that he would make any recommendations that might be fitting or helpful in improving their struggling establishment.

There are three other foreign volunteers in Pazun, all males.

Colin works for the Peace Corps, and is almost midway through his two year tour of Guatemala. His specialty, which he acquired while in Guatemala, is agricultural reform. He speaks hurriedly and passionately about organic agrictulture in his fully functional yet distinctly American Spanish. In his element, he´ll offer to teach lessons of basic agriculture techniques of sustainability and healthy growing to friends and associates of people he meets. He speaks with ease while jumping between topics of rabbit meat markets, brocolli prices, international certification standards, and overly theoretical and impractical solutions offered by international groups. He is twenty three and a native of Columbus, Ohio. He majored in economic development at USC.

Fabian is Spanish, as quickly becomes apparent when trying to comprehend him speak with his Castellano accent. His interest is psychology, but he has been working with the students at Renacimiento primarily as an activity instructor. He married a Peruvian woman three weeks ago. She lives in Spain, and he met her in Peru to have their ceremony and celebration but promptly returned to his volunteer work in Guatemala.

Max is nineteen, and has a background as confusing and mixed as Steve. Most of his life has been spent in Spain, but his parents are from Argentina and New Zealand. He is finishing his gap year in Patzun before beginning his freshman year at Hunter College in New York City.

Miguel suggested that Steve spend his first days assisting and traveling with the medical team that leaves every morning to offer their free services to neighboring mountain town populations. The small team returns to the Renacimiento headquarters in the afternoon to serve the needs of Patzun. After that, he might try assisting the English teacher in the position that Max will vacate.

The Guatemalan people are warm and welcoming. Their curiosity in Steve, when expressed, is polite and respectful. He could not help but contrast the dynamics of his situation with those of his trip to India. Here he was greeted, not harassed. The feeling of independence strongly contrasted his time in India, where he was always babysaty by drivers and tour guides. His costs would be less than his food costs alone would be in the US, a welcomed break from 100 dollars a day.

After his second day, a month seemed neither too short, nor too long.
(to be continued...)