Life in San Mateo de Ixtatan

Things start really early here, and they shut down early too. Even before the sun´s fully up the town square is full of the sound of backfiring buses and trucks that have been driving in the foggy mountains through the night. There are roosters crowing everywhere, and the loose dogs area awake and barking.

The sun comes in in the morning and burns of the clouds at night, but it´s cold, especially if you´re inside. The house I´m staying in has a fireplace, but I couldn´t get it lit. I broke the lighter I borrowed. But I´m going to buy some matches.
As a result, last night was a cold one.

At 5:00 the clouds move over the whole town, with the smell of burning pine logs, and everything just shuts down. There just isn´t anything to do at night, so people just settle in.

I went to the Seeds of Change school this morning, and taught a class! Angela, who teaches at the school, was showing me around, and some kids were just standing aroud because their teacher hadn´t shown up. So I asked them if they wanted to do some math. They wanted to learn about algebra, so I gave them an algebra class with the help of some ¨como se dice¨s from Angie. The kids were so brilliant and enthusiastic and eager to learn that the language hardly seemed a barrier at all. They are learning English to, so it was a good chance for them to practice as well.

Everything is so steep, and my sea-level acclimated lungs have to take two breaths for every one. The whole valley is spread out hundreds of feet below, green and patched with milpas of corn and cabbage and carrots. There are pigs and dogs and chickens everywhere; I saw a bunch of piglets suckling this morning.

This afternoon I´m going to some local unexcavated ruins with Angie. I can´t wait.

Now I´m going to try to do some pictures below.