Jo’s Jovial Jolly Jocular Journal

Cultural Difference #1: Guatemalans drink coffee, Australians drink tea*

Guatemalans drink coffee at every meal, especially breakfast and dinner. They have people over for coffee to their house. They make awesome coffee. They drink it a lot. Unfortunately for me, the fact that I did not get given coffee since I was 3 years old, as many Guatemalans are, means that after 3pm in the afternoon I cannot drink coffee or I wont sleep, so I miss out on being part of the important ritual of sharing coffee in the afternoon or evening.

Making a pot of tea is a ritual foreign to Guatemalans. I have shared it a few times, but it never evokes as much excitement from the Guatemalan side as from me. I own two pots and I think the busiest they have ever been is at the Australian-organised despedida. Apart from that they have mostly just been sitting quietly on the shelf, ready for service when they are called.

Recently, El Niño has been making his presence known in Guatemala. With a hurricane on the coast of Nicaragua sending cold rains up to Guatemala. So yesterday I arose to a cold and rainy morning, unusual here in Guatemala. I decided I was going to have my Quiet Time with Tea on the Side. Fantastic. I didn’t realise how homely and comforting making a pot of tea, pouring it and drinking it was going feel. It increased my happiness about 40%. Then, in the spirit of my mother and grandmother and generations of Australian, New Zealand and British women, I took Victor a cuppa in bed (although in my family, the women are the ones in bed and their husbands bring them a cup of tea, but I am all into role reversal when necessary).

In conclusion, tea is great and tastes like home (especially since I made a pot of a Madura Tea that Mil had sent me. Nice).

*I know that is not true for everyone, and any cultural difference is going to be a broad generalisation that doesn’t fit in every case, however, it is one thing that has been noticed by myself and Victor and thus counts as a cultural difference.