Day Four

Day Four 9/7/08

Today was brutally hot! We only got two sites done because we couldn't find any mosquitoes! We spent forever walking around going into peoples houses, searching them out, but nary a mosquito to be found. Which is actually a good thing. Apparently in one of the towns there had been a lot of cases of Dengue in the past couple of years and they had really put a lot of effort into cleaning things up, and it has worked! I loved the town, Esquintla, we visited today. It seemed a little more prosperous and a little more clean (not so much trash lying in the streets and in peoples yards, and the cemetery had some truly impressive monuments in it. One very interesting thing we have notices is the presence of a lot of Chinese and Japanese names in the cemeteries (along with lots of Chinese or Japanese characters on the graves. We don't have any clue why this is and why they would come here. My thought is that it's from the 1800's when things were booming in America and probably some places in South America. Anyway, just a thought.

Music abounds here in beautiful Tapachula:) Last night our treat consisted of a single old man and his guitar, serenading us as we finished our dinner and drinks. Of course he played and sang more than we wanted, and of course he made us pay for it, but it was sincerely wonderful. I'm sad I didn't get any pictures. He seemed to have stepped out of the Mexico of 50, 60, 100 years ago. He had a beautiful, strong voice and even though his playing was somewhat lacking, he mangaed to strum incredibly well on the beat-up old guitar that had been patched in several places over the years. I wondered why he was out playing for money on a Saturday night when perhaps he should have been home with a family and playing for tons of small grandchildren.

Speaking of which, it's been hard for Megan these past couple of days being away from her son. He actually got out of the hospital today which is a good sign, but they still aren't out of the woods by any shot. She spent a lot of time looking at all the childrens graves today, I felt terrible and didn't know what to say other than for right now, things are out of her control, but not to give up hope on the new treatment yet!

Tonights music was another group of old men playing giant xylophones (marimbas??) They were excellent (again, wished I'd brought my camera!!!). The funniest thing I noticed was, as they played, their faces remained completely neutral; no expression of boredom or excitement, or passion, or anything. They just played. It was quite amusing, as the music was very upbeat, you could dance to it! (I didn't though...)

My Spanish has improved immensly in only the four days we have been here! I'd forgotten how much I enjoy languages. Dr. Black is now insisting that I take a Spanish class next semester. I think it will be great fun, and the next time I come down here I'll suprise all the technicians and scientist with my fluency...:)

I should go to sleep, it's midnight! I was just so excited that I found internet!!!! I thought they might have it, this is a pretty nice hotel, I think I was just too far away in my old room.

Love you all,
Megan