A few days ago Pacaya erupted! One of the volcanoes to the southwest of Guatemala City. Ay dios mio! I was up in Concepcion though, so I only heard about it sitting around the tele with Concepcioneros who were like, Where's Pacaya? and That looks like a movie. Awww, Concepcion. Meanwhile, one of my friends down near Guate City says the streets look like black sand beaches. Black ash has fallen on the area - including the departments of Guatemala, Sacatapequez (Antigua), and Escuintla.

On top of that it has been raining for like 3 days straight. On Thursday I went to Concepcion and traveled the usual 7 hours or so to get there. Then returned yesterday, Friday, to the tune of 8-1/2 hours. I pretty much spent more time traveling than time spent there. Anyway, it had to be done because I had to get some details for some upcoming projects. Details that, for whatever reason, just simply cannot be handled by phone. That's just how it goes. So Concepcion was as typical as ever: wet, grey, foggy, damp, drizzly. Kinda loved it.

Funny coincidence on the way up, I left Xela and as we stopped at San Francisco El Alto (big market town a wee bit up the highway from Xela) guess who got on the bus?! One of my ex-students from Concepcion! Josefa! Now we are a good 6 hours from Concepcion at this point and basically, an entirely different neck of the woods. Josefa's got a baby strapped to her back and gets on the bus with a non-Concepcionera. Josefa sees me and smiles and then we proceed to chitchat for the next several miles until she gets off... all the while totally confusing the other bus riders like, What some gringa knows some girl in the middle of nowhere?

Well Josefa tells me after graduating from school in 2005 where I was her teacher, she studied a year in Guatemala City. But then her dad died. I was like, Oh so your mom is still in Concepcion yeah? And she totally gave me the look, and kinda mumbled, her mom has been gone for years. So she lived with her grandparents, stopped going to school, met a young Quiche boy who sold CDs in the Concepcion market, got married and here she is living in his village (hence finding her in the middle of Quiche country) with his parents. We talked about a few things, the fact her in-laws speak Quiche and she doesn't, she never visits Concepcion, her young husband has left to work in the US. Honestly, the girl did not look very happy. Which is more terrible than just terrible because Josefa was hands down one of the best and most memorable students I ever had in Concepcion Huista.

When I abordar'd the bus to Concepcion in the always-weird Huehuetenango bus terminal, there was Mateo and Anita, one of the all-time cutest Concepcion couples ever! Mateo's mom I once lived with, and brother Alonzo - who are all mentioned later on. Anita is such a beautiful young mom, her kids are adorable and she's got smart eyes. Like ok, maybe she didn't finish elementary school, but the girl is no dummy. I'm sitting in the back of the bus, which I hate but oh well - the back is always way bumpier, and they get on with one of their kiddos, a baby girl around 2 years old. They don't see me at first but later in the ride Anita does one of those cool-girl eye sweeps of the bus and does a totally legit double-take when she sees me. She quickly waves and smiles and then whispers to Mateo probably something like, Whoa dude we like totally know that mass rad big white girl back there Sweet! Something like that I'm sure. So they both turn around and smile and wave.

Later, past Todos Santos I move and sit right behind them and we catch up on stuff. Mateo quickly asks me about the Arizona law. When I lived with his mom in 2004, Mateo was in the states and his young wife Anita and their small baby boy also lived with the mom too, Doña Josefa. At that time it was Anita, Mama Josef, Anita's baby Rene, Alonzo, Carmello (now in the States) and Catarina (now in the States), oh and Erika - the youngest. I never knew Mateo or the dad. Carmello used to watch the dogs for us and Alonzo was a cute feisty little 10 year old. Erika was a little girl then, with the most beautiful long black hair. Her mom would bring her down to our house, which was part of their house, and sit her on a chair in our kitchen - like free babysitting. Although Erika never said anything, never cried, nothing... she always just sat their watching us, letting Norma come up and douse her with a little leg slobber. Now, Erika is about 10 and still doesn't say much. She's on her second go at 2nd grade. Not much for studying, they say.

So I think it was 2007 or 2008 I actually met Mateo. I had my doubts he would come back, I assumed the worst: new girlfriend, possibly kid in the US, etc. a common story. I always felt bad for Anita because she was always a little sad during those years Mateo was gone. But one day, there was Mateo at the house. And Anita was glowing! Mateo looks like a young bear in a cartoon, like Alonzo too, like a forest squirrel. Well, I was so happy to see them together, as they should be. Soon they had a little girl and moved into a house that Mateo had bought and built with his American dollars.

Since then, they've been together. They are adorable! They actually seem like they like each other, which should be obvious but isn't. Many young couples are forced together by their parents or an unexpected pregnancy. But Mateo and Anita are delightful together and on the bus ride were laughing and I saw Mateo pour soda into Anita's mouth then chuckle together. Awwww. So imagine my sadness hearing that Mateo is thinking about heading North again, but is waiting because of the Arizona law. I looked at Anita when he said this and the despair was immediately visible. She doesn't want him to go, I don't want him to go... Mateo don't go! But of course it's not so simple. Up there are is dad, brother and sister... and he knows he can make more there in a few months than a year or more in Concepcion. I think Mateo wants to give his family everything he can, but at the expense of not actually being with this family. The eternal dilemma in these parts.

By the time I got to Concepcion, Josefa had already told Maria Margarita we ran into each other. Maria Margarita is the Basico secretary and former student of mine in the same class as Josefa. I started my story to Maria Margarita like, Guess what?! and goes, Yeah I heard. Hahahaha! This was mere minutes after arriving in Concepcion, but news travels faster than an old school bus.

That night I went to Luciano's family's house, of course, to say hi. They are my favorite. I walk up the muddy trail to their house and they see me, let me in and we sit around the wood fire stove... grandma, grandpa, sisters, brother, sister in law, children, mom, dad, Tarzan the dog. I start up with my tall tales of Gringa life and they laugh and smile. They tell me everyone is doing fine, all are healthy gracias a dios. Mom serves me up some very salty eggs cooked with onion and a pile of tortillas, with a cup of sugary coffee on the side. I make sure to tell her noj naj hinan afterwards, "I'm full" in Popti' to which everyone laughs again. The fog comes in their open window. The house is made of wood and some block, the floor is earth, there is one light bulb and the light of the fire. Luciano sits, the best dressed and most educated at his 9th grade standing, and smiles at me asking me something every now and then, and clarifying things I say in Spanish for his dad. Their dad is a very humble and timid man who plays with his kids and I think tries hard to talk with me in Spanish. No doubt I am the only Spanish-speaker that frequents their house. I hope someday to be able to have an evening like this one but all in Popti'.

After a bit, including my stupid joke that always gets a laugh - someone always mentions the color of the river as part of the regular weather and 'how are things?' chat, so now the river is brown because the rains have begun to wash everything down the mountain, into the Rio Azul, and off into Chiapas. So as part of my stand-up routine, I say, Yeah and it looks like chocolate! And everyone chuckles like oh that Colleen!

Then Luciano excuses himself to go work on homework with Alonzo, a neighbor who's in the same grade and who's family I lived with for a spell in Peace Corps (who's mom woke me up from a dizzy fainting spell in the middle of the night sprawled out on the cement on my way to the bathroom - didn't make it to the toilet that particular time and uh, it was very unfortunate...anyway...). So I started up with Dad about how if Fran or Maria (the next two kids in line for junior high) want to go to school, well by all means just holler and we'll find the money. But Dad says, Fran doesn't want to he says he doesn't like studying. And Maria, well, Maria has no encouragement to attend school nor does she want to. Girls don't go to school at her age, they get married. She's 16.

I slept at Doña Catalina's house in a room with two of her kids and their muchacha, or like full-time babysitter/house cleaner. Muchachas are young girls from town who get hired to do this work and usually live with the family even though their actual family lives somewhere else in town. I slept in one bed and William, Mercy and Muchacha slept in the other. I popped a Claritin (a Concepcion staple) and slept well under many blankets until Mercy, the 2 year old, woke up pissed about something.

One of the main reasons for my visit was to meet with the Director of the morning Basico. I even brought a spiffy letter. But, as my luck would have it, I get to the school and it's like a rainy ghost house. Up stairs I heard the click click clack of typing class (on typewriters!) and Maria Margarita is up there holding down the 8th grade class. She says, Looks like there's no class today, Seño. Yeeeah. So I wasn't able to get this done. Bummer.

I walked down to Maria's house, my Popti' teacher during Peace Corps and all around good bud who just had her 3rd kid. She admitted she didn't like the name picked, but it was Hector's choice. I have a feeling Maria makes the babies and Hector names them. So I chilled with her and her other kiddos for the morning. Although she loves her kiddos, I think she wanted to have a girl. The boy just born was really active during her pregnancy and she is worried he grow up to be just as mischievous and trouble-making as her other son, who is like 5 right now. Her first kid, now about 9, is a smart and responsible girl. Oh, Maria!

We watched the Pacaya news on the TV and Doña Cristina came over. I always want to see her more but I just never really have the time. She's a very sweet woman, the sister of Hector. Well Maria had just told me that Cristina had a kid like a week after her kid was born. I was like, Uh? Because Cristina is older and well... just didn't see her having another kid. Well I was mistaken and turns out her 1st grandchild was born.... To her 16 year old son. Ooooops. Yeah, they were not happy about their son's behavior but delighted by their new granddaughter nonetheless. Years ago Cristina approached me asking me to talk to her son because he was starting to become a troublemaker, stay out at night, not go to school. This particular time I just didn't have the time because I was running my '08 Dragons program. Anyway, it was THIS son who now has a kid. Not that any talk I would have given would have made much impact... but now I feel bad. And I should note, in this family, having a kid at 16 is NOT good. This family is educated and pretty well versed in politics and social issues. A family of teachers and town leaders.

After Maria's I tried to find Orlando, one of my former students who runs the mail office. After some questions and lots of hill climbing (Concepcion is in the mountains so you can't walk straight for very long) I discovered the post office had moved. My bus was leaving at 11am (the only bus out of town for the day!) and it was 10:57am when I found Orlando fumbling with a motorcycle having just got back from Jacaltenango, the town down the mountain. It's culturally inappropriate to hurry people so I stuck out my hand and was like, HiOrlandoHowAreYou blah blah blah of small talk and then, I NEED MY MAIL! He laughed and opened his office door and calmly set my packages on the desk while looking for the pad where he registers the mail upon pick-up. After a few minutes of what should have taken a few seconds I was out the door with my mail under my arm. I hurried up the street, across the center sport court, through the market, waived at Doña Clara in her comedor and passed the corner butcher shop only to find the bus was gone. I turned the corner and saw the bus was actually going up the hill and out of town so I started running. My phone slipped out of my hands and flew several yards into a pole then into a puddle of mud. Picking up my brown phone I made it to the moving bus and said, Huehue? Which I already knew it was going to Huehue I just wanted to doubly sure I wasn't boarding a bus in haste going to some random village. Yeah Huehue, a man said. I climbed up the bus and tried to squish my way along the people to an empty seat. But as I was going in, a woman was going out. She had just grabbed two cheap alcohol bottles out of, I presume, her husband's woven bag and was trying to leave. He was grabbing at her for his bottles and mumbling/yelling/grumbling "Oh I'll get you when I get home. " Talk about a nasty scene but this man was so stupid in his drunken state it was really no big fight to get those bottles out of his grasp. Of course during the bus ride, before he got off, he tried to talk to me. I have a pretty strict rule in which I feel pretty entitled to as both a female and a foreigner: Ignore drunk dudes.

The bus ride lasted 5-1/2 hours down into Huehue. After that plus the next 3 hours, my rear-end was totally sore. The first 3 hours out of Concepcion are unpaved and the road is terrible, especially right now that the rains have begun. Arriving into Xela it was getting dark and there was lots of rain. It took a long time through the changing buses and traffic to actually get home. When I opened the door Norma was there and she was so warm!