There is only one place in the world where I feel the way I do right now. I get on a bus to a bus to another bus and I bounce along the mountainous unpaved roads for hours and things get grittier and rougher and then... Then I round "the corner" - the one the means I'm almost to Concepcion Huista. I see the plots of corn, the trees, the altar and cross on the roadside and then it fully hits me. This afternoon as the bus was coming into the village I checked myself physically: it was a sensation from mind and body that is only felt traveling into this town, never anywhere or anytime else.

I got off at the school and went in. A pounding drumline filled the air because it's about that time of year when all kids everywhere get ready for independence day celebrations. September 15th is Guatemala's independence day. The teachers were in a meeting but the first person I saw was Jesus, who is very special and may not know it. He's the school's Popti' Mayan language teacher, a young guy who's just adorable! I busted into the teacher meeting and sat quietly while they finished a heated discussion in Pop-pañol, which I've just coined as partly their Maya Popti' language and Spanish. Then Hector and I chatted a bit about upcoming activities and how they are really gonna give the runners up for the "queen" of the independence day celebration a run for their money by making them all study a topic to deliver in front of the whole town. There will be 3 final young ladies for queen - all students of the school - and their topics will be Mayan education, Mayan values and the Indigenous Woman. All this will be presented as part of a 10-night cultural festival of sorts. My school will present on September 11th. I hope to be able to come to see all these shenanigans. Hector said if I come, I'll be escorted. Oooooh! I probably just heard that wrong.

The other thing is that I love how Concepcioneros refer to their ancestors, they call them the "abuelos" or grandparents. Some Mayan communities refer to gods, spirits, great warriors as their ancestors, but good ol' peeps from Concepcion stick to the "grandparents." And yeah, that's how they tell the story of the town, it all came from an Adam and Eve type situation except the offspring of the g-parents separated to found two towns: Concepcion Huista and it's sister-town down the mountain of Jacaltenango, the hubs of the Popti' Mayas. Down by the river there are still "ruins" of where the grandparents are buried. I always thought it was a personal sign that the Grandparent ruins were made official by the town some years back, but on my birthday.

After school I went to my old Peace Corps house, where a current volunteer lives. He's not in town right now and let me crash here. So I'm sitting in my old PC house right now... After dropping my stuff earlier I went to make some visits. I hit up Doña Andrea's house, who has previously been referred to as "the sweetest cupcake." She sure is sweet. But after visiting with her, all the other houses appeared to be sleeping so I just headed back to my house.

Things have changed here, in this house. There's a semi-functioning hot water shower now, the walls are blue, there's a TV. But my old coat rack is up still (a board with nails as coat hangars nailed to the wall) and my shelves over the pila are still there. And "N+C '06" is still etched into the plancha in the kitchen, which Nick did before we moved out. The house on the outside is a bit changed, too. Where much mud was around the house there is now massive concrete, which is cool because now I'll fall less! The owners still live below and they've built a kitchen behind the house now. Other things that don't change: I asked Doña Josefa (the wife) where Don Mateo (hubs) was and she said, He's out drunk - Esta bolo, waving her hand off toward town. Poor Mateo leads a tortured life, I think. Spent some years in the States where he once, drunkenly, confessed he has/had another wife and kid. That night he cried about them, that he has no idea how to find them (good thing he found his real wife and three kids down here) and how much he loves rollerskating. I have mixed feelings about Mateo but I'd like to think he means well. I'm just super stoked to not be married to him.

Classic Concepcion Huista, circa 2008