Tienes Sueño | 75 Palabras in Guatemala

On Sunday, November 27, I slept in. I slept in late. I slept til 1:30pm don’t tell nobody.

When I wake up on the weekend, my host brother sees my drowsy figure appear and asks “Tienes sueño?” Sueño means dreams, so it took me a few times to realize that “tengo sueño” means ‘sleepy.’

https://twitter.com/grandetexto/status/537127601962491904
https://twitter.com/grandetexto/status/537127601962491904

The night before, the three ladies of Ciudad Vieja had a failed cupcake date. With wayward ingredients and strawberry pan instead of strawberry cupcakes, the girls shared my twin bed and I posted up on the couch. My mom shook me out of sleep at 7am and moved me to another room, leaving me with the key.

I woke up at 9am and considered moving. The room reeked with humidity, probably mold. I touched the wall and it was sticky. Good thing sleep doesn’t discriminate. Vivid, weird dreams later and it was 1:30pm. I drug myself out of the room to the laughter of my family. I ate lunch with my host mom and brother.

I really like sleep. So I slept. And I take a medicine that does in fact make me drowsy. But sometimes I sleep because I just can’t deal with life: communicating clunkily in a foreign language, less privacy, no car, a fraction of the independence I’m used to and a new way of life. SO PRESS CHARGES, I LIKE TO SLEEP IN. But this last time was apparently one too many: “Natalia, haces esto en Los Estados?” with smiley disbelief on my host mom’s face. I shrugged and said: “Sometimes on the weekend.” And when I told them about the medicine my host brother said “Ese es una excusa, Natalia” jovially, but it hurt my feelings. I said “sí” and puttered on my phone the rest of the meal.

The reality hovered and sank into my drowsy bones as I walked to the camioneta: I can’t sleep in here. I love sleep and yes I take a medicine that makes me drowsy but the way my family has responded to me sleeping in, through jokes and questions and the fact that they never sleep in, has made me realize that I can’t. It’s like: yes it’s my free time except not really because oversleeping is not acceptable here. Nevermind that it’s one day a week. Nevermind that I woke up everyday last week at 5:40am. My host brother wakes up at 4:30am and my host mom wakes up with him to serve him lunch.

I heard from another volunteer that they set their alarm for 7, wake up, cough or laugh loudly, then go back to sleep. This way their host family doesn’t worry about them. What a drag.

But this is my privilege talking, and I’ve realized that. No matter how hard, how stressful, how strenuous, how bizarre the circumstances, Guatemaltecos (and it could be argued, Central Americans) don’t consider sleep a viable coping mechanism. Oversleep is not an option, it’s a matter of personal dignity that they wake up and carry on as usual. Sleep meets a need, nada más.

SO- I made my way to Antigua in a cloud of oversleep, my host family’s words stinging in my ears. Eventually I picked up the stuff I needed and took the camioneta back home.

I gave up and made cupcakes out of the box.

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