The Evolution of Goop Rocks

I’m not gonna lie. I love being over seas and experiencing the absolute weird things that I just have no hope of ever understanding. One example of this is something we very appropriately named a goop rock. 

When I first got to Guatemala and arrived at the house we would be staying at I walked around the house. As I did so I noticed in every room there were large (6-8 inch) round smooth rocks. Maybe three or four in each room. Some were by the bed, some on the windowsill, and some on the floor. The part that I really thought was strange is they all had this same goop all over them. It looked like a mix of chewed gum and boogers covered in dust. For a lack of a better word, goop. 

I brought up to the team my endless questions surrounding these rocks. There was so much unknown in them and honestly they kinda creeped me out enough that I gathered them up and put them in the closet figuring I wouldn’t see them again for the duration of my time there. Out of sight, out of mind was my goal. 

Well obviously that wasn’t the end of it otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this blog. 

Several days later we were at the market with our host. I saw these yellow things hanging from a shelf and asked my host if they were candles. She responded by telling me they were and then asking if I had noticed all the rocks scattered around my house. Immediately me and a couple of my teammates started laughing. How could we miss them? These odd things had become a joke amongst the team. We knew them well. It was also starting to click in my brain exactly what these rocks were for. She explained that the power frequently goes out here, sometimes for days, and that you melt the bottom of the candle and stick it to a rock so it sits upright. Basically these goop rocks were candle holders. The people who lived in this house weren’t witches practicing their craft or children collecting their boogers. They were completely normal Guatemalans. I was just unaware of how this culture functions in regular weekly life. 

My birthday was about a week later. It was great day and I felt very celebrated. They had a cake for me with candles but as they started singing happy birthday they brought out a goop rock with a single tiny birthday candle melted to it. I laughed so hard I cried. One of the Guatemalans that was there asked us “Is this some weird American tradition?” No, no it’s not.  

Maybe a week or so later we lost electricity and pulled all the goop rocks out of the closet to both make and eat dinner by candle light. Thank goodness we had them too! It would have been so hard without them! 

The last story I have for you is we were trying to make a taco style soup. We needed some spices and I thought I would go to the market to try to find some cumin. That was an adventure in itself not speaking the language or really even knowing what cumin looks like. What I ended up getting was whole pieces of cumin when I was really hoping to find ground up cumin. However, I was determined to make it work for the sake of the soup. So I went home and what else would I use to try and grind them up but a goop rock?  And to my actual surprise, it worked! 

These goop rocks went from something that confused me and creeped me out so bad that I tried to hide them, to being one of my favorite parts of my birthday celebrations, to something I used as a cooking utensil. 

Trying to figure out everyday life in other countries is always interesting and honestly so much fun! We get so accustomed to the things we have in America and the way we do things that it’s hard to imagine life lived differently. Getting out of that is both fun and makes me appreciate the the things I do have.