Adventures With My Bosses

A week ago I sat around the office talking to my two bosses and was struck by how amazing and odd the entire situation was. It was a combination of realizing how wonderfully strange my life is and being overwhelmed by the rare opportunity that I was participating in. It was a great follow up to a very weird day we shared about a month ago. There is a woman who runs a Spanish school in the same building as our office and she also owns a paca (the local word for a used clothes store). I was in search of some jeans since all of mine were at the end of their lives and the holes were becoming noticeable. The problem with jeans shopping in Guatemala is that every pair of jeans is bejeweled and glittered across the bottom (not my favorite look) and jeans seem to only come in one size (too small). So I asked Ruth if she knew where I could buy jeans and I lucked out because she's just gotten some clothes from the US and had a lot of jeans. So I went over one afternoon before lunch and the two women from my organization joined me.

We made quite the motley crew walking towards Ruth's paca: an indigenous woman in her traditional clothes, a ladino (non-indigenous Guatemalan) woman, the very Western Ruth, and myself. As I tried on jeans the women discussed body sizes and shapes. They found my curvy figure quite interesting since it is very different from the typical Guatemalan shape. In the end I found 2 pairs of jeans and we had a laugh when I pointed out that someone in the US donated or sold these jeans only for me to buy them in Guatemala and to eventually take them back to the States with me.

The thing that has stuck out to me the most recently is how different our lives are and how without Spanish we would not be able to communicate at all. My one boss, Amparo, is the president of the organization. Although she considers herself a ladino, she speaks Spanish and Mam (one of 9 indigenous languages spoken by members of my organization). My other boss Oralia speaks Spanish and Kaqchikel. Oralia is from an indigenous community in Solala and still dresses in traditional clothing (although her 4 year old daughter refuses to wear it). As for myself, I speak English and Spanish. I have to admit that my Kaqchikel lessons are not going very well with Oralia but they are convinced that I will pick it up one day and then can begin learning Mam. I guess I can't complain since I have two amazing and very supportive bosses.