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We were graciously invited to be a part of a Posada celebration.  It is a celebration re-enactment of Joseph and a very pregnant Mary traveling up from Egypt and trying to find lodging in Bethlehem. At the end of the re-enactment, the “pilgrims” stand outside the “inn” and sing a request for lodging.  Inside the “inn” the “innkeepers” sing to the “pilgrims” outside the closed door that there’s no room in the inn and to go away.

The dialog goes back and forth and finally, in the chorus, the door is opened and both the “pilgrims” and “innkeepers” sing together in a welcoming of lodging (here’s a YouTube video of the beautiful Posada song).

We started the evening at our language school with Leslie helping make tortas for later in the evening.

We then hiked for 20+ minutes or so up a steep road to an orphanage high above Xela (over 8,000 feet elevation – lots of huffing and puffing!) where we assembled to gather our “torches” for the procession back to school.

There was an “ark” with statuettes of Joseph and Mary that was carried along on the procession.

Leslie and I were given “torches” which were lighted candles wrapped in a red cellophane enclosure – and the kids were really excited to carry their own torches!

Once everyone had their torches lit we assembled to start down the trail back to school. Notice how high we are over Xela…

This time, going down, we took a trail – I suspect to more realistically re-enact what Joseph and Mary might have experienced.

Reaching the school, we waited for the people inside the door to get ready to sing…

Now we’re singing back and forth to the “innkeepers” inside…

…and this is the Posada song we sang back and forth.

The door is opened!  We all sang the welcoming chorus and went in to mix, mingle and eat!

The celebration of Christmas is huge in Xela.  Several blocks from our apartment is the “democracia” – a commercial area of several square blocks of small shops surrounding a small park.  During the year, makeshift vendor stalls crowd the sidewalks, streets are shared with people, buses (old Bluebird school buses from the U.S.) belching diesel fumes, small passenger vans (“micro buses”) and lots of motorcycles.

Someday I want to spend some time photographing the variety of “chicken buses” that provide the transportation from/to/and around town.  These are all former Bluebird school buses from the U.S. and for some reason, everyone keeps the Bluebird logo on the roof.

The “micro-buses” come in two sizes: small and packed…

and a bigger version. Leslie and I usually ride this version because it’s taller inside for standing.  Every bus or micro-bus has a young assistant riding the step calling out the destination/route, helping people on and off, and collecting the fares.  A lot of the time he’s helping the driver navigate through traffic, intersections, around obstructions (other buses, stopped trucks, etc) with shouted instructions and  whistles while always hawking for more riders!

But over the past couple of weeks, the streets have been completely shut down.  Vendors have built stalls in the street selling everything related to celebrating Christmas – food, firecrackers (LOTS of firecracker vendors!), clothing, children’s toys, etc.  It has created traffic jams and delays that would make LA rush hour proud.  It takes us almost an hour to go across town when it used to take maybe 20 minutes.

Each section of street is generally geared to one type of product – this street is the fruit and vege section where Leslie’s picking up some stuff for dinner.

Living here during Navidad is certainly exotic, adventuresome (sometimes challenging!) and fun!

Guatemala allows visitors 3 months in country (Mexico is 6 months), then you’ve got to leave.  And so a lot of ex-pats make “border runs” back to the US or another country to re-start the time clock again.

We’ve made a border run back to California where we’re staying with my brother-in-law Toby and his wife Judy in the beautiful foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains north of Sacramento.  While there I’ve helped Toby with some home improvement projects from re-sanding floors to painting.

First – moving all the furniture outside the living room!

Starting to sand…

A little painting…

Many have heard about California’s multi-year drought and this reservoir near us shows the extent.  We need rain and snow, but there’s lots of concern the coming El Nino will bring more than just rain, but damaging floods.

This has been an interesting two weeks for us – especially this past week.

Corruption is endemic in Mexico (from our experience of living there last year), and now after living here in Guatemala and listening to our local friends, apparently is true here as well.

In May the former Vice President of Guatemala resigned and is now in prison awaiting her trial on gross corruption issues.  The President is under intense pressure to resign but refuses to do so – and the national presidential elections are next Sunday.

The country is fed up.  This week has seen mass demonstrations around the country demanding the resignation of the President.  Here in Xela, we saw three days of mass demonstrations, all very peaceful, but intense.

Across the street from our apartment is an electoral voting office.  It was shut down by the demonstrators who hung large banners across the front demanding the resignation of the President.

Cars would stop in the narrow street and men would write with white shoe polish on the windows “renuncia Otto”  (resign Otto Pérez Molina) to loud cheers, blowing whistles and honking horns.  Many cars, trucks, buses, etc, here in Xela have these messages.

The Guatemalans dearly love their country but hate the corruption and suffering it brings on the people (which is exactly like what we saw and observed in Mexico).  The next two weeks will be interesting to see how all this plays out.

Leslie and I started with a new school last week.  Our previous school was very good but it focused on conversational Spanish which is what a lot of people want.  We see a lot of young backpackers here who want maybe 3-6 weeks of conversational Spanish before heading off to travel and explore.

We signed up for a more academic, structured and intensive program.  This program is designed for young people who want to get credit for university language courses back home.

There are 4 three week courses, each course the equivalent of one semester of Spanish back home.  Our goal is to complete the 12 weeks by this fall (2 years worth of college Spanish back in the states).

Every day is 5 hours of teaching – all in español – and homework at night.  Starting at 8 (school bell goes off!) it’s non-stop teaching and conversation for 2 1/2 hours, a 30 minute “break”, then another non-stop 2 hours before we head home around 1:30 pm.  We’re mentally tired after getting home!  I spent almost all day Saturday and yesterday memorizing new words (verbs, adjectives and nouns) and doing written assignments in the textbook.

The school is just a little further from our apartment than our previous school, but it’s up a hill and because the individual teaching rooms are at the top of the building, we have spectacular views of the city.

To get to our school, we climb a bit, and after getting to the top I’m reminded again Xela is over 7,500 feet!

Every teacher has his/her own private room.  Leslie’s new teacher is Aury.

My new teacher is Judith.

Finally, the school’s visible from our apartment roof top.  The school’s the tall building with the “penthouse” room at the top.  The teacher’s rooms are all the windows on the top floor.