Well, I had my first encounter with Guatamala no goodniks over the weekend. Mac, his girlfriend Ishi and I went to Antigua so Mac good pick up some CD's he had burned by some Germans who run a little business using Napster. Saturday afternoon I checked into a hotel and then we went out for awhile. When I returned my daypack was missing. My door was sealed by a padlock through two eye-hole screws. It turns out the screw on the right pulls out of the door without much effort, meaning the lock didn't need a key to be undone. Its the kind of things a more experienced central american traveller would have known to check, and Mac felt bad because he didn't think of that. I went to get Mac and ishi from their hotel so they could talk to the managers in compentent spanish, becaue when I tried they just seemed to act confused. Mac came and two kids took Mac upstairs where they randomly serached a tourists room, accusing him of stealing my bag, which of course wasn't there. Our theory, which I am 95% certain is the right one, is that one of the little punks of the family that runs the hotel stole my bag, becuase the door was obviously rigged, and who else would know that? And there is little point in going to the police to recover a backpack. The kids even said they could be suspects and we could go get the police if we wanted and have them search the place. Fortunately, all my irreplacable valuables, like glasses, contact lenses, passport, money and camera were on my person at the time. If the retards would only have taken a minute to look in the bag, they would have realized that there was nothing there of any use to a Guatamalan, like books in English, used clothes, and used personal hygiene supplies. Useless to them, but it was worth around $125 to me. Mac is supplying me with clothes he's leaving behind, and I picked up another spanish study book in the peace corps office, but I did lose the little yellow spanish dictionary from Senorita Bartels class, which is irreplacable, as well as my travel journal, plus I was in the middle of the novel I was reading. But like I said, I was just lucky I decided to where my glasses that day, and that I put my contact lense case in my pocket. Mac says I can get a new daybag off a bolo(drunk) cheap in Chiquimula(his hometown). And when I get back to the United States, I plan on robbing the first Guatamalan I see in retribution. It's like Mac told me about his experience in training. They were telling the new volunteers that they always had to be alert to thiefs, because there are a lot of people here who don't see stealing from AMericans as a crime, so Mac suggested that instead of waiting to be robbed, they should go on the offensive and start robbing Guatamalans before the Guatamalans could rob them. The best defense of course, being a good offense.

Antigua is nice otherwise. Its unique in Guatmala because they decided to save all their colonial buildings, so it is very picturesque, with brightly painted buildings, and cobblestone streets, sited right at the base of a volcanoe. It is also a very popular place to study spanish, and it is full of american and europeans. Friday and Saturday, we went out for Ishi's cousins birthday, and then to some party where her cousin was bartending, and I got to dance with hot Guatamalan girls, which partly made up for having my bag stolen. If they are going to take my belongings, I will take their women. It will be depressing going back to the states, where I will be just another white guy, whereas here, school girls giggle and smile and whisper to each other when you get on a bus, and hot girls want to dance with you because you are white. It's like being a Backstreet Boy. I haven't developed the Mojo yet like Mac, but i can see how it would happend if I spent a little longer here.

Other than that, it has been a slow week. We came to Guatay(Guatamala City) on Wednesday so Mac could start filling out the paperwork necesary for his return to the United States. The 1st day, the Peace Corps office was full of the sounds of good old fashioned Irish cursing as Mac tried to figure out how to get a surf board, a guatamalan street dog, and 4 volkswagon truck panels, among his other luggage, home. He also had a pleasent conversation with his parents in which they told him their town in Virginia had a law against keeping your dog in the backyard, while Mac explained to them that it is in their best interests, law or no law, to keep a dog born an raised on the streets of a 3rd world country in the backyard rather than in the house. I've just been mostly sitting around the Peace Corps office. THeir aren't a lot of sights in Guatay, unless you want to make a tour of American chain restuarants, because they've got all of them here.

There was more cursing today, because the office is closed for presidents day, so we will now have to spend an extra day here while mac gets that last of his stuff done. That's all for now, Jim