Life in Guatemala: the rainy season

Everyone in Guatemala dreads the rainy season. It doesn't take long for the roads to flood and you're walking in ankle deep water...in flip flops.

But on a more serious note, the rainy season in Guatemala can be a source of much pain and disaster.  Typically, the rain begins in May and lasts until October.  However, people are seeing changes in the normal cycles and the rain has been coming earlier.  It usually rains anywhere from an hour to a few hours each afternoon/evening.  But again, this can vary greatly.  Panajachel, and many of the towns around Lake Atitlan, are located in a basin and sit at the bottom of several surrounding mountains.  This makes these towns very prone to flooding and mudslides during the rain.

The rainy season officially started a few weeks ago (although it rained quite a bit in April).  For the first few days all the water coming out of our faucets (including our shower) was brown.  It smelled bad and was obviously bad for our health.  It's also not uncommon to have frequent power outages.  Just today at work we had no power for a few hours.  And most everything becomes damp.  Clothes, shoes, sheets...it all feels damp and easily grows mold.  And that's just from my personal experience, and I live in a well-built home.  One cannot imagine the dampness and mold growing in the homes built of aluminum and mud.  It has made us so thankful for a home that keeps us dry.

When we came in September we went through a month of normal rain each day.  But in early October a tropical storm hit and we got a taste of a bad rainy season.  It rained continuously for 4 days: all day and all night.  Panajachel's tiny river, which is usually only a few feet deep at best, grew quickly.  The dirty, brown water created fast currents that were very dangerous.  Several homes that were built close to the banks of the river were in serious danger of collapsing and some actually did, as pictured below.  Most people with homes this close to the river have to abandon their homes during these difficult times.  They often have no where else to go, so the town gymnasium becomes a temporary shelter.

There are 2 bridges that cross this river, but one was completely washed out in October.

Homes that aren't swept into the river are in danger of flooding.  Muddy water pours down from the mountains surrounding Pana and mudslides become a very real threat.  A few years ago there was a mudslide outside of Santiago that killed almost 300 people.  Homes that can withstand the flooding are filled with mud.  Other homes collapse under the stress.

We only have 2 roads that enter Panajachel.  If one of them is forced to close, which is not uncommon during the rainy season, then the other is used only for emergencies.  Mudslides often cause rock slides, and last October there was a boulder the size of a car that fell in the middle of one of our streets.  They had to use dynamite to break it open and remove it.

The rainy season is difficult on everyone, but it's a terrible risk for poor families who don't have adequate shelter. Their health, safety, and few material belongings are all at great risk. Many homes have dirt floors, which becomes mud in the rain and children who sleep on the floor easily get cold and sick. Sometimes it's difficult to sleep in our warm, dry bed at night thinking of how many families are wet and cold. So the next time it rains, let's all send up a prayer for those who are in the midst of the rainy season and without adequate shelter.

Life in Guatemala: food

Many of you have probably heard us describe our meals here. Lots of beans, carrots, and corn. It's hard to get too out of the box because our kitchen is super simple and our food options are pretty standard.

We mostly shop at the local outdoor market. It's a bright and colorful experience, but it doesn't always smell good thanks to hanging dead chickens, raw beef laying around, and piles of fish. But I think it's much more fun than normal grocery store shopping. Women in colorful traje offer you the best of their products, and even sometimes offer you taste tests! We usually buy carrots, potatoes, green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, and broccoli. There's no option to find out of season foods, so we enjoyed avocado season while it lasted and are now enjoying mango season!

We also go to The Dispensa, the biggest grocery store in town - the only one with a parking lot, to buy our meat. It appears to be the most hygienic place to buy meat because it's refrigerated and comes in plastic baggies. As opposed to the market where meat hangs in the open air and they chop off whatever amount you want. However, The Dispensa is actually owned by Wal-Mart (I know, it's everywhere!) so we try to shop local as much as possible.

There are lots of little tiendas all over town that sell basic products: beans, cereal, crackers, powdered milk. There are also 3 small stores that specialize in importing some of our favorites: brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, tahini, chickpeas, and canned peas. It's more expensive, but we're grateful that we can even get these products!

Cooking is often a longer process than normal. We have to sanitize most of our veggies by soaking them in a Clorox solution for 5 minutes. Then you rinse them in pure water before eating. For this reason, we hardly ever eat salads (so sad). Salad takes a lot of time to disinfect and even then it's the most high-risk food to eat since everything is wet and raw. It's a lot of work to go through for "rabbit food" as my husband would say.

I think I have branched out with a few things though. My favorite dessert is cookies, but we have no oven so I've made a few batches of no-bake cookies and no-bake cookie dough dip (thank you Pinterest!). I mash chickpeas with a fork to make hummus, but it's still super thick. My newest venture is veggie burgers. A co-worker was a vegetarian for years so she gave me some yummy ideas. I mostly stick to black bean, chickpea, garlic, carrot burgers. My dear husband, who would never eat veggie burgers in the States (how I miss Morning Star) actually approves and asks for me to make them!

And a huge thanks to the many of you who have mailed us seasonings, sauces, and ways to flavor up our meals. Thanks to you we have had some great, flavorful meals at home!

I don't know why I'm making the same face in the above 2 pictures

Two foods that we've really grown to love here are pupusas and empanadas. Pupusas are larger corn tortillas stuffed with beans, cheese, and meat (or whatever you want). They are delicious, cheap, and relatively safe street food. We have developed a tradition of eating them every Friday night. Mmmmm.

A co-worker made great empanadas from scratch and invited us over to teach us. I took notes. ( : We will definitely be making those when we have access to an oven back home!

So that's a synopsis of our food habits here in Guatemala. It's been a different diet for us, and we've learned to get used to the same dishes over and over, but we're thankful for the little variety that we do have. But we've already decided the first place we want to go when we return to the States is Arby's. ( :

Life in Guatemala: home

I thought I'd write a few blog posts about life in Guatemala. The posts are meant to share our lives with you. But also I'm afraid that as the months and years go by I'll forget some of the details of our life here. So this is also so that I don't forget the little things about living here.

I realized that we never posted pictures of our new home, where we've been living since December. We definitely sacrificed space, but it's a cleaner more mold-free home with hot water showers. We are breathing better and showering more frequently (you don't even want to know how much we avoided showering at our old house!). 

So, here's our home. It's basically a 10x18 room, a bathroom, and a storage closet turned into a kitchen. It's tiny, but it fits us and all we need.

This is the view upon entering our home. Bathroom door is at the top of the picture and kitchen doorway is to the right of that.

dresser and closet

office and big screen TV

living room

bedroom (that's the front door at the top right, view from the office)

bathroom

kitchen as you enter (the two towering buckets is our water filter, four burner stove-top on the far right)

dining room (yes, that is our Christmas tree in the corner)

kitchen view from dining room

a HUGE thanks to everyone who has sent us cards, we hang them on our wall and fondly remember you all!

We've enjoyed the challenge of living with less than we're comfortable with. I miss our oven, coffee maker, and microwave, but we're finding contentment with less. 

We're also getting creative, which I thoroughly enjoy. I really, really love the challenge of creatively finding a simpler answer to some of our daily needs. Sure, anyone can go out and buy the next storage gadget or plastic organizer, but when you creatively make it, now that's impressive. ( : For example, I use an egg carton as a jewelry box. We cut out silverware dividers from cereal boxes. We use old milk jugs for storing things. We always re-wash and re-use our plastic bags (but we did that back home too). I never knew it, but I can hang 2 shirts on 1 hanger and it works just fine. And our shoe rack and bedside table are simple, but work just fine.

bedside table made of cinder blocks

egg carton to store jewelry

cut out cereal boxes to divide silverware

old milk jugs cut in half

shoe rack made of cinder blocks and plywood

So, that's the full tour. It's been a happy home for us. The owner has 3 huge German Shepherd dogs, which we call horses (they're seriously the biggest I've seen). We have a nice garden area and locked gate. And besides bed bugs, normal ant invasions, and these weird flying insects that swarm every once in a while, we've been relatively bug free. Our kitchen sprung several leaks during the first rain, but I think it's all resolved now.

Well, thanks for stopping by!