Day 3 of language, with sugar on the side.

My professor knew that I liked and was interested in Maya culture, customs, and spirituality so she brought me a copy and explanation of one of the Mayan calendars-- “El Tzolkin” so that I could practice my K’iche’ as well as learn about the culture. My favorite one, a.k.a. the one that I remember without looking is B’atz’ which means thread or monkey.
During coffee break again today I heard some of the other teachers talking about how sugar had risen in price, I asked what was going on and it was explained to me that after the earthquake in Haiti, Mexico sent out a substantial amount of their sugar. So then Mexico didn’t have enough so they bought sugar from Guatemala, who apparently preferred to sell it at a high price to Mexico than to provide sugar to it’s own people. Not sure how true or false this is. Later on in the news tonight I saw that the government denied everything, that there was enough sugar. How come then is sugar being rationed and has doubled in price in two weeks? (photo: sign saying that a max of 5 lbs of sugar can be purchased, in smaller towns it’s 1lb).
I met the other student, who studies in the afternoons because she volunteers at a nearby school in the mornings. She is a retired social worker from Whidbey Island (shout out to Alicia A.!)--near Seattle--and has been here for 3 weeks already, she was also in Xela at the same school studying Spanish 15 years ago. We decided what we would make for that Friday night school dinner (every week students and teachers switch off making the dinner). I went to the market (Mercado) to buy the veggies that would go into our chicken soup and salad. Even when I asked for price per pound, they sometimes gave me the price per item assuming I would know it wasn’t per pound. So when I was asking around for the onions, I thought it was a bit expensive per onion, but every one of the women selling them told me the same price. Finally, I summoned the courage to ask whether it was per pound or each, and the reaction I was dreading came true: they laughed out loud and said it was obviously by pound. I was embarrassed, and tried to brush it off by saying “you never know with sugar the price it is today.” The women selling me the onions liked it so much that I felt I had redeemed myself. They even started to ask me what I was cooking and giving me tips…always good to know what is going on with the local economic goods.