Livingston is Alive

Guatemala was our next stop and it was the only rainy day for us. It did let up after a couple of hours, but factor in that Anna and I were carrying a duffel bag filled with 80 pounds of school supplies and also a backpack with about 35 pounds of more school supplies. The supplies were given to Anna by some of her students. She had asked them to bring her school supplies rather than gifts for her. Anna had emailed a hotel owner from Livingston about bringing supplies for the children of the town because she had read that they really lack school supplies and that the teachers strike a lot. We had to carry both of the bags out in the rain from the ship, down the gangway, and to the actual warehouse which housed all of the shops. After we met the guide, we had to carry the supplies back out to the dock where we would get on a smaller boat which would hold 10 people and then ride about 30 minutes to the hotel from which we would sail to the schoolhouse.

We ended up waiting outside for over an hour, but once we got on the boat we took off immediately. I am from Louisiana which basically has a landscape just as exciting as my flat butt. At first I thought the mountains I saw were part of the storm raining on us, but then I figured out that those weren't dark clouds and at least three of them were volcanoes. This was freakishly mind blowing to me because I have been teaching my 8th grade students about volcanoes, tectonic plates, limestone formation, and erosion. This area in Guatemala was the result of two plates crashing into each other. Everything was made of limestone and it was even visible in areas where trees had not been able to grow. No eruptions of course, but the landscape was exciting to me.

We went down the river passing various homes on our way to the school. Most of the people waved at us nicely and a few kids actually rowed out to us to get some supplies before we reached our destination. When we reached the school area, 30 to 40 kids and some adults came to meet us and we gave out supplies. I was not satisfied with sitting in the boat so I got out and started handing things out to kids, mainly notebooks and paper. They weren't too excited to receive the reformed trees and seemed apathetic about them. I took a few pictures of kids and of Anna handing out things before I reached the candy which was deeper in the bag. It was like dangling a bloody stub in front of a shark; the kids mobbed me and started taking the candy out of my hands. I tried to give each kid a piece, but had to give up. The other adults with us on the boat had some supplies, but stayed in the boat handing them out as a master hands dogs treats for being good. I hated that. I wanted to interact as much as I could even though I couldn't speak a word to them in their tongue. This left me feeling shameful because I wanted to do more to help these people, but under the circumstances couldn't. Also add in that the people who were with us seemed to be looking down their noses at these people who have a totally different world view than us. I think I projected my feelings on to the natives while we were there quite a lot and in this instance I really wondered what these people thought about us being there. Did we look as if we thought they were spectacles when we stared and took pictures? Did the people think "Hey, it's those stupid, snobbish Americans again, we really hate them, but man we get to rip them off with our sweatshop souvenirs."? There's no way for me to know and I am thinking way too much about things once again. The Americans we were with made comments which led us to believe that they thought the natives were stupid because they don't live like us and that they feel adventurous by coming to this wasteland to stick it out for a few hours. When our guide proudly pointed out things they noticeably acted unimpressed and sometimes made comments to back this. I felt embarrassed to be with them sometimes and did my best to ask our guide questions about his hometown.

We stopped at a shop on the way back to the hotel where products were made from different plants and trees by hand. I bought a really neat journal which was all made from banana trees and we would have bought more, but the women could not speak English. We had to climb way uphill to go to the bathroom while at this place and something unusual about the bathrooms is that you can't flush toilet paper. Well you can, but they have signs in English asking you to not do it. I guess some lines can only handle so much waste.

The food back at the hotel was a surprise to us. My wife's bowl of soup featured an entire fish with its head, a crab which had only been boiled to death, and shrimp which had not been peeled at all but had at least one thing in common with Marie Antoinette. She wasn't that brave and just ate broth and shrimp. My snook was bland, but the hot chocolate was the best ever! The power had gone out and since there is only one power line running through the area, it goes out about any time it rains which is each and everyday in rainy season, so we aren't sure how things were cooked. We walked through the town for a while after eating and shopped at a few places. The people were very polite and didn't attack us to buy things too often.

Overall it seemed like the people we saw were content with their lives and that the merchants were the best off once again. Tourism seemed to reign supreme and the people were just accepting of this even though Livingston was the first port in the region and was now not much of one at all. It was nice to see a place almost as it should be rather than built into some unbelievable extravaganza by the cruise companies.