This afternoon over some eggs with tomato and onion I made and watered down beans from a can, Doña Catalina (mama), Mario, Andres and I talked about mostly nothing. I was just focused on the deliciousness of my lunch plate while trying not to look/eat over anxious.

Well Andres started laughing a little remembering a story. I don't know why it came to him but he started telling us about Chusin, a guy up in the Ixcan who was originally from Jacaltenango, near Concepcion and of the same Mayan language. Andres told us a silly story about how Chusin was known for being a little "off," usually walking around just staring at stuff or saying something kinda off-the-wall at random.

After the silly story about the students at the school telling new students that Chusin was the Director and the hilarity that ensued, Andres said more about Chusin...

He's a Jacalteko and was a teacher, had been highly educated and well-known. Then the violencia started, the civil war, and Chusin had apparently witnessed some unknown amount of trauma and massacre before fleeing to Mexico, as many others did. In Mexico he "changed" and after those few years of refuge came back to this village in the Ixcan. But now he was a "loco," staring off into space, randomly mentioning places based on how many people were killed there, and saying things without really knowing what.

All of a sudden I perked up in this story and was like, What?! I have read stories, accounts and heard stories - mostly 2nd hand, about people who had survived these tragedies and were living with the trauma silently. It's a known topic among human rights groups, or anyone really, who knows what happened here and that survivors are still living with the horrific memories, traumas untreated. But this story of Chusin really bothered me. Mama was like, Yeah lots of people are scarred by being 'frightened' by the war or the 'fear.'

So after Chusin came back to the village, probably in the 90s sometime, he was put in a hospital in Guatemala City. Then he returned to the village and was more 'normal', Andres said. Chusin's brother tried to give him a job as the fare-taker on the local bus route, but Chusin would forget to take people's fares, or give people change who didn't actually need it. And Chusin kept on being the "loco" and walking around staring at the buildings, folding his arms and not saying a word.

According to this lunch time story, Chusin was again put in a hospital and hasn't since been sighted again in the village. Who knows what this guy saw, what he experienced, but at one point was a highly educated man, a schoolteacher. Andres says every now and then Chusin will be 'normal' and they discuss politics, social problems, and Chusin always has really intelligent opinions. But then later he can be found shuffling around town, arms folded, in his silent world...apparently always followed by a stray dog, also named Chusin.