OUR list of TYDSITUS (pronounced "tid-sit-us")

"Things you don't see in the US"

- Women sitting in church with a hand towel on her head.  (This is a very popular custom for the Mayan women who live in the hotter climates.  It's a way to keep their heads cool.) 

- A woman hitting a dog with a corn cob to get him out of the house.
- A man sweeping the ground, i.e. dirt floor.

- Hot, pulpy corn juice in a tea cup

- 57% of the people living in poverty or extreme poverty. "Poverty" here means earning less than US$3.50 per day, and most people are contributing to families. That's reality. Ouch.  

- Five-foot tall women walking with baskets on their heads and men with loads the size of a small car on their backs.  

 

  - Women washing clothes and themselves in a  volcanic lake

- Ayudantes (chicken bus "flight attendants") running atop buses in motion

  - Kids hanging out around the highway.

  - Colorful, traditional garb (aka "traje") on Indigenous women everywhere

  - Diesel clouds at every corner (no pollution laws that I can see)

  - Live marimba players in restaurants  

 - One big cement sink (la pila)to wash everything in the house (yes that means clothes, too)

- Toilet paper goes in the garbage, not the toilet

- The best instant coffee ever (This is Charity's comment)

- Hot cocoa made with dark chocolate!  

 
- Signs for the dominant political party, FRG, on EVERY phone pole, rock, tree, etc.  

  - People squeezing themselves onto buses where the seats and aisles are already packed  

  - People swimming in hot springs under a volcano  

  - Women with fabric braided into their hair  

                             

- Women who will climb a fence to get into a locked building

- Fresh cheese that you buy in a cornhusk

- Little girls carrying their siblings on their backs

 

  - People cooking over open fires in their kitchens.

  - Cinnamon sticks as long as my arm

- Old US school buses painted every color under the sun called chicken buses used to go between towns and cities (There is even a Fairfax County school bus here.  It hasn't been painted yet.)  

If you have any questions, comments,
or advice for us, drop us a line!.