More Santiago first day pictures, house, room, view etc.
the view from my room
my room! it´s gotten messier since this picture.
view from the balcony on the 2nd floor
the dock near my house, sup volcano
monkey!
here´s a visual snapshot of the house that i did as an assignment:
Layout-The Sojuel house is situated on the corner of a hilly residential street about ¼ mile from the dock letting out onto the narrow end of Lake Atitlan. Directly facing a volcano (San Pedro, I believe), the house is comprised of 2 main stories and a roof used for drying laundry. The main floor is comprised of a small convenience store facing the street, a TV room and pantry directly behind it, and a small courtyard that leads to the adjacent kitchen and bathroom. There is another house directly connected to the Sojuel’s by a staircase behind the courtyard, but the homes are separated by a large lime tree that grows in the center of the courtyard area. Up the courtyard stairs, there is a U-shaped 2nd floor comprised of 3 tiled bedrooms and a balcony overlooking the lake. Another staircase outside the 3rd bedroom door and across the hall from the main staircase landing leads up to the roof, which is separate from that of the next house over.
Furniture-The furniture in the house is sparse as a result of the lack of common space, and all the chairs are plastic save for 3 tiny (1 foot high) rickety and seemingly ancient wooden stools that look like they were made for children but which serve as stepstools for the person working in the store and also as doorstops. There are 2 stacks of brightly colored plastic stools with plastic mesh seats, one stack in the kitchen and the other in the store for visitors. The stools each measure about 2 and ½ feet tall and about 1 foot across and are made of shiny plastic in red, blue, yellow, green and orange. There are 2 plastic desk chairs made of dull navy blue plastic which measure about 4 feet tall and have slatted backs, one in my room at a wooden school desk and one in the store behind a sewing machine table with the same finish as the school desk in my room. There are 3 1 and ½ foot by 1 and ½ foot light wood bedside tables, one in each of the 3 bedrooms. The kitchen table is also wooden and measures approximately 4ft by 3ft, 4 people could sit at it if it weren’t against a wall. The only other furniture item is a small TV stand which I think may be the same as the nightstands.
Appliances-There is an ominous electric showerhead in the bathroom with wires protruding from it and running to a hole in the wall. Every time someone changes the hot water setting (there are three: cold, warm, and hot) sparks fly out of the top of the showerhead threatening the lives of the operator and the appliance in one fell swoop. The only appliances in the kitchen are a wood-burning stove made out of brick and topped with aluminum, a huge aluminum sink and also a yellow electric oven and range with many dents in it. There are 2 refrigerators in the store, one of which is the same color yellow as the range/stove in the kitchen and which houses ice cream and soda for sale. The other refrigerator is well over 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide and contains more soda, as well as the family’s refrigerated food items such as meat and dairy products. There is one television, which I think measures about 15 inches in diameter.
Bathroom-The bathroom is off the main courtyard and separated from it by a wrought iron door. The room itself is very small, probably 5x5 ft total and outfitted with a sink, a small mirror and a shower. The shower curtain has a blue and orange flower pattern on it, the same pattern as the curtain that separates the store from the rest of the house. Under the small plastic-framed mirror, there is a soap dish where all the family’s toothbrushes sit. They are colored brightly, in the same cacophonous plastic tones as the stools in the kitchen and the store. There appears to be a window through the concrete wall inside the shower, but it has been covered with a brightly patterned floral oilcloth. Regardless of what goes on inside the bathroom, it always smells strongly of some minty sort of house cleaner.
Store-the store is the first thing anyone approaching the house sees, and takes up a third of the first floor of the building. Bread, school supplies and medicines/soaps/shampoos are all displayed in 3 separate glass cases, with a myriad of other products on shelves behind the cases. The inventory is comprised of bread, school supplies, snacks such as chips and candy and cookies, ice cream, telephone cards, shampoo, soap, hair dye, diapers, soda, water, soup, canned goods, thread, jewelry, medicine, toilet paper and other groceries-all in a space that probably measures around 15x15ft. In the corner of the store there is a sewing machine and treadle that the 2 elder sisters in the Sojuel family use, with a table alongside for brilliantly colored thread whose spindles match up to the ones I have seen in the Santiago market. Most of the colors are different shades of purple and blue, which seem to be the colors most of the women wear in the town. There are a few Audubon guides and other books about flowers and plants along with the thread, which are used as examples for the intricate embroidery that is usually sitting, unfinished, on top of the sewing machine. There are always children running in and out of the store laughing and asking mostly for candy or toys or ice cream, and there are also many people who come in solely to talk to Lolita or Cholita and it seems that the store affords just as much social opportunity as it does financial advantage.
Balcony-At the end of the hallway on the 2nd floor there is a wrought-iron door much like the one that leads to the bathroom. Outside of it there is a balcony, probably only 2 feet wide but boasting an incomparable view of the Santiago side of Lake Atitlan. As Santiago is one of the only villages around the lake that has permanent fishermen, the view includes the brightly colored dots of men fishing in canoes as well as a sizeable hunk of the Santiago roofline that is comprised of lots of corrugated tin and stucco or concrete at varying heights. On top of the roofs are the roosters that I hear crowing all night, as well as dogs and a number of objects such as brightly colored plastic buckets and baskets that people throw up onto the roof either for storage or to get them out of the way. From the balcony it is also possible to see the patchwork of fallow or recently seeded milpas across the lake on the side of San Pedro volcano where most of the men in the village (including my host father) go to work during the days. It is amazing how uniform and pretty the squares of different greens look from far away. There is always either fog or the threat of more of it, and its rolling gray blanket is difficult to distinguish from the smoke of small fires on the side of the mountain save for the directions in which each travel.
Smells-The smells from my house are comprised mostly of smoke, ripe fruit, cooking food, laundry detergent and the specific smell of the breeze coming off the lake. The lake air smells almost salty, maybe it’s the fish? Smoke is the most easily distinguished odor, although it isn’t as acrid as it could be and seems to be comprised of plants burning more than anything. Often rain is another dominant smell, although it smells different rising up off of cobbled stone than it does rising off of asphalt and tends to mingle towards the end of a storm with the smell of excrement as it washes down the callejons towards the lake. Because of the house’s proximity to a bakery I can often smell freshly baked bread, and in the mornings the smell of baking is so powerful I have little trouble getting out of bed. As smell memory is especially poignant, the perfume I brought with me reminds me most of home and helps me feel more comfortable. It is interesting to smell something I associate with Raleigh in this context, but it’s helping me through the transition of arriving here and living somewhere new.
Colors-When thinking of colors here it is impossible not to start with the lake. In the mornings and evenings the water is icy blue, and I haven’t seen much of the sunrise or sunset reflected on the surface yet but I have seen the rosiness at twilight diffused through the fog around the volcano turning everything pink. In the afternoons the water is darker, sometimes teal and sometimes a deep hue bordering on navy. In terms of the village, all the women dress in deep shades of purple and red with designs embroidered on their huipiles and blouses in every color in the rainbow. The houses are mostly shades of rust, tan and concrete but from above you can see that many of the walls are painted raucous shades of green, blue and yellow. The brightness of the clothes and the houses as well as of all the bright vegetables and fruits at the market seem to be in direct competition with the magnificence of the lake, and at this point the contest is too close to call.
Plants-Apart from the corn and coffee plants, many of the forests and plants look similar to what I’ve seen in America, especially in Florida and other places throughout the south. The corn grows remarkably tall though, the larger of the stalks look to be almost 10 feet high! The abundance of the plant life here is the biggest difference, it seems like everywhere that isn’t covered with water or houses is bursting at the seams with shoots and flowers and leaves. It is as if the mountain is trying to restore itself by tacking down lush green wallpaper wherever it finds a spare inch.
Lights-Most of the lights here are fluorescent rings, in the house there is one per room. Much of the ambient light that floods the courtyard comes either from other houses or from businesses closer to the lake. In town as far as I can tell the only lights are those from other houses and also the stadium lights down by the dock. Lightning is also a staple. My favorite things to see at night are the lights from one of the mountain towns (maybe Santa Cruz?) twinkling in the distance over the water like stars and then slowly petering out. If you strain your eyes you can also see amber lights from the hotels reflecting off the water.