The Search for the Jews

It was not exactly a search as I knew where the Jews were but it did take some work. There are Jews in Guatemala and almost all of the 1,200 live in Guatemala City. I contacted the community upon my arrival in the country but had not really made a strong effort to connect with them up until this week. I decided that it was time to meet some people, check out the community, and learn a little bit. My first stop was to call a friend of a friend who I found out was Jewish and invite myself over to his house for Shabbat in the city (if he even celebrated Shabbat). Turns out, his family does practice Judaism but was not having any dinner this week but he said he will let me know when they do. Well I was going to stop there so I called the community center and spoke with someone there. She let me know that I could attend services on Friday night if I sent her a copy of my passport by email or fax. I asked about connecting with a family and she said it was best if I just went to the synagogue and talked to some people. But I really did not want to make the trip into the city unless I knew I was going to have a family with whom to share a meal. So I called up the Bianchis who told me before they had a Jewish friend. Got the number of that friend and called her. She spoke to me in rapid fire Spanish and I honestly had no clue what she said but she sounded really nice. So then I had my host mother call her to be the translator (from fast to slow Spanish). Turns out that she was happy to have me over but I needed to get security clearance first. In order to get security clearance, I had to call a guy named Shlomo at eight in the morning today. With the name Shlomo, how can you be the security guy but I guess he was. I first spoke in Spanish to him but he already knew I spoke English so then he abruptly asked “Who are you?” Haha, what a question. “Who are you?” Most people would have been turned off by the seemingly unfriendly nature of Shlomo but I understand how it works outside of America. Security is very high and they need proof you are a good person (and Jewish) before they let you in to the synagogue. So I told him who I was, my name was Avi, from Jacksonville, Florida, Jewish, and interested in learning about the Jewish community and coming to visit as I was close by in Antigua. Apparently this was good enough for him so he said ok, just bring your passport.

And this is why in about one hour, I am heading to Guatemala City for the night, possibly two nights (definitely staying with the one family tonight) for my weekend of Jewishness. I have no idea what I am in for….absolutely no idea. I assume I will go to the synagogue either tonight or tomorrow (possibly both nights) and talk to them about being Jewish. Haha, I definitely am curious to learn about the community here and I am sure I will achieve that goal this weekend, in what manner I have no idea. Stay tuned for an update after the weekend. Oh yeah, and I definitely do not have any clothes for the synagogue. My nicest outfit is some brown pants and a collared three button shirt. I will definitely stick out as the gringo without proper clothes! Oh yeah, I am excited!

Week of Transition

Howdy folks…its been a while…well a week. And I know that none of you were too concerned that I never made it off the volcano, fell into the lava pit, and perished because no one asked. So fyi, I did, in fact, make it to the top of volcano, way up in the sky over 12,500 feet, to see the amazing views of Guatemala, and completed this feat in around 4 hours which is pretty good time. I did not have nearly as difficult a time as I did on the last volcano and I have my sights set on climbing the tallest volcano/mountain in Central America, Tajumulco sometime in the next month.

For some reason during this past week, I did not really feel like writing so therefore I did not write. But I do owe you an update and have some thoughts to get out. This past week was a bit strange in that it was my first week without a real objective in mind. I did volunteer everyday but volunteering is different than attending classes or traveling. My time spent tutoring kids, playing with kids, and helping out at a homeless shelter was great but altogether not so meaningful. Not sure why I felt this way but I did so am unable to reject the feeling. You would think that volunteering would be a very meaningful experience but some of it just seems so futile in Guatemala. There will always be homeless people here who need to be served food every night. Many schools here do not even have their own teachers and rely on volunteers, like me, who do not speak Spanish that well, do not have a background in teaching, and leave after a couple of weeks. At the school I volunteered in the morning, there are around 70 kids, no teachers, and some classrooms go weeks or months without a volunteer teacher! How ridiculous is that! There are eleven year olds who do not know how to multiply and eight year olds who can barely write. All the kids are so far behind….it is a very sad thing to witness. I was also sick a couple of days this week with a stomach ailment that pops up about every 3-4 weeks to remind me that I am in Guatemala.

This may be one of the worst entries I have written so forgive me as there will be much better ones to come. The Ask Avi (it has been shortened from Ask Avi Anything due to a suggestion by an esteemed journalist) segment will appear early next week. Thank you to all for you questions and I would love to receive some more over the weekend! Get excited! Ok, onto the next entry….yes I am writing another one right now…as I do not like this one.

My First Last Day of Class

It’s Friday!!!! But why I am so excited as pretty much everyday is Friday for me (don’t be too jealous)? Because this Friday is a particularly special one. It is special because I have just finished my last day of class (I am actually writing this during my daily break from class from 2:00pm-2:30pm but you do not know this so lets just assume at the time of the time of this writing that I have FINISHED class). Today was my last day of REAL class. Almost definitely I will take more classes in the future as I have a lot more to practice and learn but I am completely done with all of the standard grammar of the Spanish language and hence do not really need classes anymore. I now know the two moods of the Spanish language, the 18 or so tenses, and the approximately 27 forms. How cool is that!?! Obviously I still have a lot work to do in order to become fluent; primarily expanding my vocabulary, cleaning up the details, and TALKING, TALKING, TALKING. But still today I celebrate my first (first of what will probably be many) last day of Spanish class.

And in order to celebrate my feat, I will be climbing Volcano Agua tomorrow! This will be my third volcano that I have climbed in Guatemala and hopefully not my last. I am really hoping that my body responds better to this climb than it did the last but nothing is certain. I am sure I will be in a tremendous amount of pain and short of breath but one thing is certain- I will make it to the top. I look forward to letting you all know how it goes.

As I will not be taking Spanish classes next week, the obvious question then becomes: Avi, what will you be doing? Well, mom, I am glad that you asked. This week I started to search for volunteer work and paid work around Antigua as I decided that I will stay in this city at least another two weeks. I like the weather, I like my host family, and I love Maritsa’s (my host mother) cooking. It is freaking amazing. I have been so lucky. For example yesterday I had an omelete and fruit smoothie for breakfast, fish, potatoes, carrots, rice, and guacamole for lunch, cereal with banana and soy milk for my 4pm snack, and tostadas, spinach soup, guacamole, and bean sprouts salad for dinner. And for dessert, FRIED PLANTAINS WITH VANILLA ICE CREAM AND CARAMEL! This is my absolute favorite dessert now. Please, please try it. Wow, it is a damn good thing that I have been going to the gym almost every day here.

Mom, I apologize for the quick aside and I will now let you know what I am doing this next week. I will be volunteering in two different organizations both give poor/street children the opportunity to live better lives through education and activity. Not sure exactly how my schedule will work but among the activities I will be doing are helping kids with their homework, working at a homeless shelter giving out food, playing with kids, and teaching English. I also tried to find a paid job as a bartender or waiter or something but so far I have struck out at the two places I have visited as they were not hiring. I will try some more this week to find some illegal work!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, wish me luck on tomorrow, and I will leave you with this prediction: 

Patriots 31 Giants 20. Sorry Giants’ fans but I will still be rooting for you!