Life in the Home of Our Guatemalan Host Family

Though our arrival into San Pedro and to our host family’s home was under less than optimal conditions (chronicled in Nothing adVentured, Nothing Gained Part 1), we now realize how lucky we are to be hosted by the Garcia family.

The three-story cinder block home we stay in likely totals about 1000 square feet and is owned by septuagenarians Santos and Magdalena Garcia.  The Garcias live in one bedroom on the first floor and their son Mauricio, daughter-in-law Mayda, and two year-old granddaughter Aweex (pronounced Avesh) live in the adjacent bedroom.  There is a small stall underneath the stairs that contains a toilet and an overhead spigot that serves as the cold shower for the 5 first-floor residents.

The second floor is our domain.  Two bedrooms are connected by a bathroom.  

Though tiny, our bathroom is superior to the one on the first floor in that it has a sink, the shower is separated from the toilet, and the shower head has an electric (!) heating element that provides lukewarm water.  Our setup is different from what we’re used to at home, but is plush by Guatemalan standards.

The third floor is the most communal area.  Mayda performs magic in a 10x10 eat-in kitchen doing most of her cooking over a stick-burning hearth.  

Though she is more fortunate than most of her neighbors in that she also has a propane stove-top, she uses it sparingly to preserve the gas stored in the canister.  We’ll write a separate post about food in Guatemala, but here we’ll note that she makes from scratch (meaning dried corn cobs) over 100 tortillas each day using the stick-burning hearth.  We’re growing quite accustomed to the clapping sound of tortilla-making.

The rest of the third floor is a roofless, low-walled verandah.  It’s here that the family strips the corn kernels from the cobs and sorts them before boiling them in the kitchen.  Since the kitchen sink is also located outside on the verandah, it’s also where the dishes are washed.  This sunny location is conducive to drying laundry and firewood.  Barrels of water and bags of corn are stored here too.  We’re used to stopping here first in the morning to greet Santos who is usually sorting corn kernels in a bin on his lap.

As Mauricio explained to me, Guatemalans fall into three different strata: wealthy, poor, and extremely poor.  There is no middle class.  The Garcias fall into the second bucket: poor.  But that hasn’t stopped them from being extremely generous with us.  Their house is better than many of their neighbors’.  But it’s their cheery dispositions, generosity, and general kindness that we most appreciate.  We feel wealthy sharing in their “riches.”