When it rains, it pours (from June 4th)

This week…It's hard to remember. I've been working at Copikaj, the basket cooperative. Mostly it's been office assistant work. The first day was fun. We went and helped a family of weavers finish off their products to turn in that afternoon. They let me work with them and talked to me a lot in K'iche'. I was trying really hard to understand, but really I only got about half of it. It was really fun. They asked a lot about life in the United States. For some reason people have this idea that it is common for people to sign contracts upon getting married that say they are only going to be married for 5 years or whatever. I know that there were those who would get married to get a green card then get a divorce later and maybe they are thinking of pre-nups or the high divorce rate. I don't know, but it's one of the common questions I get all the time. If anyone has experience with that, do let me know.
Anyway, the second day, I helped Julio (the guy in charge of basket production and commercialization) organize the warehouse which was full of rat droppings and dust. The baskets were in fairly good shape for the most part, but it turned out that it was pretty disorganized. I tried to help by sorting the baskets according to type while he was out talking to a woman about buying land. When he came back in, he basically said, I was planning on putting something else in those spots. Then he threw all the piles I had made on the floor and did it his way, throwing baskets in whatever container. Oh well. Because of what I had done, he did keep most of the different kinds together, though, so that's something.

The next day I went in and worked in the office and did more organizing and pricing. Today we did inventory. I think they are taking advantage of the fact that I'm there to do the projects they've needed to do. That's what I'm there for, I guess. I'm excited to get to know some of the basket weavers and do interviews with them. My new goal this week is to get a bit of data on the people's concept of their town identity and traditions. I'll let you all know how that goes.
As far as fun and games go, I've been playing a little more with the little girls that are 2 ½ and 4. Ramona's (the older one's) favorite show on Discovery Kids is Lazy Town, so we do exercises in the kitchen after dinner. They are really cute, but really disrespectful to their grandparents and get into everything not to mention that they are constantly at each other's throat and touching each other and rough-housing. Kind of reminds me of me and Brian growing up actually. Sorry if we were annoying guys. :]
Anyway, we also went to San Pedro on Saturday night to see the election of the town queen. It was really stressful because the whole group decided to go because if more than 2 of us are going anywhere, it becomes a group activity. No one wants to be left out. I respect that. It was raining and we missed the first bus. Another bus came almost immediately though, but there were doubts cast by Craig's host mom about whether it was actually San Juan that we were supposed to be going to. The ride made Jessica sick and she threw up in the street when we got there. We had to find a hotel which ended up not being too bad. After dinner (about 8:20) we headed over to the program which was outside without chairs set up, so we had to stand the whole time.
The others weren't enjoying the program or felt gross, so they left after about 45 minutes. Craig and I stuck it out to the end (because it's his project and I'm interested in representations of their own culture). It didn't finish until almost 1 am. I was pretty sore the next day. I'm not used to standing in one place that long.
It was raining when we left that next morning. We had to wait almost an hour in the boat to go to Panajachel for church, so we missed sacrament meeting. Everyone was cranky on the way back because they were hungry (not because it was fast Sunday because they forgot. Craig reminded me luckily. I don't like surprises like that.), tired, sick, and wet. Anyway, we all love each other again and we got home fine.
Oh and it's been raining since Friday. We've had two tropical storms pass (probably depressions by the time they get here actually), Alma and Arthur. There has been flooding across the country and mudslides on the road down to the pacific coast and one by Nahualá (inter-american Highway) that I've heard of. We've been fine here except for the laziness (and depression) that accompanies the rain. Craig had to go to Momostenango on Monday, so I was worried about him ending up dead at the bottom of a muddy gulf, but all that happened was a delay because they had to go through the center of Nahualá to get around the mudslide. They said there is another storm that might be coming through, but I get confused information all the time, so I'm not sure how many more days of this we are going to have. According to the newspaper here, the ground is already to the saturation point of September. Yikes!
Anyway, the rain is driving me nuts and I just want the sun to come out again. The sun came out for about 5 minutes today and I went out and looked at it. It was so warm and happy! It reminded me of the story mom always talks about where they lock that girl in the closet for saying it is going to stop raining and when it actually does stop, they forget about her and she misses it. I'm glad I saw it.
Anyway, I think that's it. Life marches on and takes me with it.