I can't say that stepping onto American soil was the best thing I've done this year, but rather enjoyed stepping OFF American soil much more.
I was greeted by twangy Houston-ites at the airport July 23.
I MISS speaking Spanish to get what I need and go where I need to go.
I think about the amazing stories, adventures, milestones, people, food and lifestyle I lived and grew while I was there and I am teary to think it could be another year or more before I get to return.
Teaching is much much easier your second year. I would hear this mantra repeated by many veteran teachers over the previous year, but all I could think was: "please, shut up." Turns out they were right....oops.
I feel caught "in between" my life stages. I'm surrounded by many who are ready to marry and even planning to do so...but I cannot seem to find a person to sit and have dinner with for 2 hours. What's up with that!?
I have kept up my vegetarian diet and love it. I eat beans and rice 6 days a week and would be glad to share the recipe.
I'm glad to be home with my family.
I'm ready for the next stage of life...to begin it, to embrace it and to figure it out...or just to survive it.
Dear Corinne,
If you still read this...you'll never truly know how much you affected my life in guatemala. Thank you for your honesty, your amazing-ness and your ability to change the world...starting with me. I miss you and wish you peace and good health in Guatemala. Take care of yourself and send my love to Santos and Lydia.
K
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
What goes up....must come down.
Haven´t blogged, emailed, or chatted with folks at home for some time now and was getting an itch to do so. I had a busy weekend, keeping myself with some ¨typical¨ Xela activities.
Friday: Let me backtrack....on Wednesday I inquired about a hike up the Santa Maria Volcano, the 2nd highest peak in Central America. The guides told me I needed at least 2 people and I only had myself as most of my friends have returned to the States or are otherwise occupied with ¨fish-like¨ activities in Utila, Honduras....and Corinne has climbed it 4 weeks before with Ben. I checked back later that day and found that 2 other girls from another school were intersted and thus a group to go on Friday was born. Thursday I paid and went to the nearest grocery store and outside market for water, fruit and granola-ish type things to eat on my way up the volcano.
Back to Friday: I was told to report to the tour site at 5 a.m. at which point it is still pitch black out and surprisingly people in the street. I was completely freaked out, not to mention hung over. I forgot to mention that Corinne and I went to the Quetzaltrekkers event party at a club in Xela. All the proceeds go the school we work at and it had an ¨under the sea¨ theme. The drinks were cheap and we met some really great people. We left the party and headed for tecun were we had more rum and drinks and headed for much needed sleep around 11 (that´s late for here!). I woke up almost every hour thinking I had missed my alarm and the trip. Left my bed at 4:45 and headed to the site. NO ONE WAS THERE and so I curled up on the step trying not to be the only blonde, white girl in the middle of the street at 5 a.m. A car slowly stopped in front around 5:20, where a guy rolled down his window and asked if I wanted to get in his car cause it was warmer...I freaked and walked away...only to have the guy yell at me that the other girls going up Santa Maria were in the car...in Spanish. I asked for the girls to say something and they replied that they did exist and were in the car. I abliged seeing as how it was 50 degrees out and dark. The girls were both from Ireland and had only been in Xela for a week. Both are primary teachers and learning Spanish.
A shortwhile later another car carrying 2 more hikers came and we all piled in the jeep, this time to the volcano. One was from New York and the other from Scotland, and also the 2 girls who signed up with me on Wednesday to go. We got to the trailhead around 5:30-40ish and began pretty quickly. The pace was nice and the conversation was awesome. Fiona (the Scottish girl) was a social worker and Carol (from New York) was a med. student in NY and was leaving on Saturday to work in an AIDS clinic in the capital city. What are the odds?? All people that have professions that are somehow connected deeply to my own interests...and we were all hiking the volcano together.
After 30 or 40 minutes we took a short break, but the weather was cold and windy and it was better to keep moving. The higher we went the slower I went as I got altitude sickness pretty quickly. I took some Advil and it got rid of the altitude sickness pretty quickly, but I found that keeping a slow pace was better for me. Fiona and I stuck together most of the way and later Cora (teacher from Ireland), stayed with us. The beginning, the hike is beautiful, with corn farms and trees and amazing landscape. The further up we go, the steeper it is and literally my face is flush with the ground and I´m grabbing tree roots to keep from falling back!? Enter: HELL. Much further, about 3 hours later, Fiona, Cora and I are left without a guide as he is with the other 2. We´re sort of making our own trails on the volcano, but am having a really difficult time even seeing 10 ft above because we´re in a rainstorm in the clouds. The wind is blowing 30 mph and the weather is at least 30 degrees...and I have a small jacket on, with not much else to help. When we finally reach them, I´m literally almost in tears for feeling lost for an hour and asked the guide to go slowly with us up to the top. He abliged and we made it to the top after 3.5 hours. Thinking that once we were at the top we would of course have wind, but maybe not the cold....nope. Still 30 degrees and miserable. We couldn´t see ANYTHING, much less 10 ft. in front of us. Took a group picture, tried to thaw out my hands with toilet paper that the guide gave me (didn´t work...who would´ve guessed) and we split.
Down the mountain: Surprisingly 10 times as hard as going UP the mountain. Our bodies were dominoes, in which one of us would slide on loose gravel taking out 2 or 3 others. Insanity...and I paid to do it. It actually took us LONGER to come down that it had going up. Every time we would round a corner, we would see the town at the same height level we had seen only an hour before. It seemed we were not descending, just walking in circles and sliding on our asses. When we finally did make it down, we hopped in the jeep and headed for home. I saw beautiful sights, spent most of my day ABOVE the cloud line, but am not sure I would actually recommend the experience to ...anyone. I can say, now that I´m safely on the ground and only sore after 3 days, that the experience was one you ¨have to have¨ when you come to Guatemala, but actually, I think I would have been just as happy with Xela had I stayed on the ground. It was cold, windy as hell and I spent most of the time with my face in the dirt, but the incline was so steep. Yay.
Saturday: I went to Fuentes Georginas (natural hotsprings) in Zunil, which is a small town outside of Xela. Corinne and I took the chicken bus and it was a pretty day. One of the best parts is getting to ride in the back of the ¨pick-up¨ and see the views of the town on the way up. It becomes like a rainforest pretty quickly and is green and lush. The springs are naturally heated (by another volcano I think??) and open to anyone who pays the admission fee. For Q20, there are 3 different naturally heated pools for people to enjoy. Awesome. However, I must note, that these are natural, therefore there are no systems by which to filter the springs...which was something I was constantly thinking about while swimming. Lots o´people, who, from what it looked like, taking the opportunity to bathe for the first time that week, while others, looked like they come most days during the week. We met an incredibly nice person, a teacher from a nearby pueblo that help Corinne and I with our Spanish. I enjoyed our conversations with him immensely, and then we met an incredibly annoying person from the States (new york...another teacher), who spoke Spanish very quickly and I couldn´t understand a word he was say, and not for my lack of abilities as the teacher later told me he couldn´t understand him as well. He shouted when he talked and he had very little social abilities, like chewing and drinking with his mouth closed. He, however, was the key to Corinne and I getting a cheaper ride down. With just the 2 of us, the pick-up would have been more expensive, but with the annoying guy, it was to be cheaper...until the incredibly nice teacher offered us a ride...all the way to Xela!! Save for the annoying guy in the back seat, I had a good time talking with the teacher (he helped with my grammar). We gave him a donation for the ride and said our good-byes...to both.
We hung out, completely relaxed from the hot springs, in the park, until creepy Bible man came and disrupted the events. He claimed to be spreading the word, but what he was spreading was his hands and it was not so appreciated. After he asked for my address, Corinne thankfully, said we had to go...thankfully. We walked some more and agreed to meet up later for drinks, which we did at Tecun.
Sunday: Corinne and I went to Xela Community Church and both agreed that the sermon (most of it) had a good message and it was filled with interesting people from around the world. The service was in Spanish and English, but the pastors all from the States. We are definitely returning next weekend.
The final South American Soccer Cup was supposed to be on at 3 p.m. I made plans to watch solo at Tecun, while Corinne made plans to watch Harry Potter at the super mall (which I hate). I got awesome food at Tecun and read before the game came on. I chatted with the servers about who would win and the place filled up pretty quickly. Because I sat at a table for 4 by myself, that welcomed all types of people, but only Wilco, from Holland to note. He was nice and friendly and we discussed where we come from, where we´re going and watched the game. He was once the U.N. reprepsentative for the Netherlands in the U.S. for 6 months and he had many opinions about our country, most of which I agreed with. After Argentina suffered a huge loss against Brazil (damn!!), we went for coffee to further discuss the Latin American trade systems and relations with the U.S. Corinne joined us shortly after and we had an awesome discussion ranging from women´s rights to 2-party systems in the U.S. vs. Socialist government systems in Holland. Because Corinne and I were starving we went to the taco place..had 3 tacos for Q10 and headed back to Tecun for some chocolate pura. There, we met a woman and her husband (she was Guatemalteca and he was German...and they both lived in South Beach, FL), who asked us to take a picture and from there launched a 4 hour discussion about EVERYTHING. I now have a permanat place to stay (for free) in South Beach, and ¨get trashed¨ as she put it. Corinne and Andreas (the German) were having a heated discussion about immigration in Germany, while Claudia (the Guatemalan) and I were talking about her funding my AIDS non-profit....seriously a great weekend for meeting new people.
Today was uneventful as I seriously have done nothing but work with the kids in the afternoon. There were not many after the extra classes (16 total) and many (10) adults, therefore, I left after their break time! Now, I´m here, but am leaving to call home to folks and make plans for my return, in 6 days. I am starting to look forward, more and more, to my trip and home and to see everyone I miss so dearly. There are 2 more students that have joined the house and I anticipate it being busy at dinner. Also, my host brother has bought a brand-new beagle puppy that is only 2 months old. Essentially, the thing is so cute I want to squeeze it until it´s head pops off.
Also, I haven´t been very diligent about returning emails and to those of you who have sent one, and read this, please accept my apologies and be looking for your responses tomorrow! Much love and peace...and see you soon.
Friday: Let me backtrack....on Wednesday I inquired about a hike up the Santa Maria Volcano, the 2nd highest peak in Central America. The guides told me I needed at least 2 people and I only had myself as most of my friends have returned to the States or are otherwise occupied with ¨fish-like¨ activities in Utila, Honduras....and Corinne has climbed it 4 weeks before with Ben. I checked back later that day and found that 2 other girls from another school were intersted and thus a group to go on Friday was born. Thursday I paid and went to the nearest grocery store and outside market for water, fruit and granola-ish type things to eat on my way up the volcano.
Back to Friday: I was told to report to the tour site at 5 a.m. at which point it is still pitch black out and surprisingly people in the street. I was completely freaked out, not to mention hung over. I forgot to mention that Corinne and I went to the Quetzaltrekkers event party at a club in Xela. All the proceeds go the school we work at and it had an ¨under the sea¨ theme. The drinks were cheap and we met some really great people. We left the party and headed for tecun were we had more rum and drinks and headed for much needed sleep around 11 (that´s late for here!). I woke up almost every hour thinking I had missed my alarm and the trip. Left my bed at 4:45 and headed to the site. NO ONE WAS THERE and so I curled up on the step trying not to be the only blonde, white girl in the middle of the street at 5 a.m. A car slowly stopped in front around 5:20, where a guy rolled down his window and asked if I wanted to get in his car cause it was warmer...I freaked and walked away...only to have the guy yell at me that the other girls going up Santa Maria were in the car...in Spanish. I asked for the girls to say something and they replied that they did exist and were in the car. I abliged seeing as how it was 50 degrees out and dark. The girls were both from Ireland and had only been in Xela for a week. Both are primary teachers and learning Spanish.
A shortwhile later another car carrying 2 more hikers came and we all piled in the jeep, this time to the volcano. One was from New York and the other from Scotland, and also the 2 girls who signed up with me on Wednesday to go. We got to the trailhead around 5:30-40ish and began pretty quickly. The pace was nice and the conversation was awesome. Fiona (the Scottish girl) was a social worker and Carol (from New York) was a med. student in NY and was leaving on Saturday to work in an AIDS clinic in the capital city. What are the odds?? All people that have professions that are somehow connected deeply to my own interests...and we were all hiking the volcano together.
After 30 or 40 minutes we took a short break, but the weather was cold and windy and it was better to keep moving. The higher we went the slower I went as I got altitude sickness pretty quickly. I took some Advil and it got rid of the altitude sickness pretty quickly, but I found that keeping a slow pace was better for me. Fiona and I stuck together most of the way and later Cora (teacher from Ireland), stayed with us. The beginning, the hike is beautiful, with corn farms and trees and amazing landscape. The further up we go, the steeper it is and literally my face is flush with the ground and I´m grabbing tree roots to keep from falling back!? Enter: HELL. Much further, about 3 hours later, Fiona, Cora and I are left without a guide as he is with the other 2. We´re sort of making our own trails on the volcano, but am having a really difficult time even seeing 10 ft above because we´re in a rainstorm in the clouds. The wind is blowing 30 mph and the weather is at least 30 degrees...and I have a small jacket on, with not much else to help. When we finally reach them, I´m literally almost in tears for feeling lost for an hour and asked the guide to go slowly with us up to the top. He abliged and we made it to the top after 3.5 hours. Thinking that once we were at the top we would of course have wind, but maybe not the cold....nope. Still 30 degrees and miserable. We couldn´t see ANYTHING, much less 10 ft. in front of us. Took a group picture, tried to thaw out my hands with toilet paper that the guide gave me (didn´t work...who would´ve guessed) and we split.
Down the mountain: Surprisingly 10 times as hard as going UP the mountain. Our bodies were dominoes, in which one of us would slide on loose gravel taking out 2 or 3 others. Insanity...and I paid to do it. It actually took us LONGER to come down that it had going up. Every time we would round a corner, we would see the town at the same height level we had seen only an hour before. It seemed we were not descending, just walking in circles and sliding on our asses. When we finally did make it down, we hopped in the jeep and headed for home. I saw beautiful sights, spent most of my day ABOVE the cloud line, but am not sure I would actually recommend the experience to ...anyone. I can say, now that I´m safely on the ground and only sore after 3 days, that the experience was one you ¨have to have¨ when you come to Guatemala, but actually, I think I would have been just as happy with Xela had I stayed on the ground. It was cold, windy as hell and I spent most of the time with my face in the dirt, but the incline was so steep. Yay.
Saturday: I went to Fuentes Georginas (natural hotsprings) in Zunil, which is a small town outside of Xela. Corinne and I took the chicken bus and it was a pretty day. One of the best parts is getting to ride in the back of the ¨pick-up¨ and see the views of the town on the way up. It becomes like a rainforest pretty quickly and is green and lush. The springs are naturally heated (by another volcano I think??) and open to anyone who pays the admission fee. For Q20, there are 3 different naturally heated pools for people to enjoy. Awesome. However, I must note, that these are natural, therefore there are no systems by which to filter the springs...which was something I was constantly thinking about while swimming. Lots o´people, who, from what it looked like, taking the opportunity to bathe for the first time that week, while others, looked like they come most days during the week. We met an incredibly nice person, a teacher from a nearby pueblo that help Corinne and I with our Spanish. I enjoyed our conversations with him immensely, and then we met an incredibly annoying person from the States (new york...another teacher), who spoke Spanish very quickly and I couldn´t understand a word he was say, and not for my lack of abilities as the teacher later told me he couldn´t understand him as well. He shouted when he talked and he had very little social abilities, like chewing and drinking with his mouth closed. He, however, was the key to Corinne and I getting a cheaper ride down. With just the 2 of us, the pick-up would have been more expensive, but with the annoying guy, it was to be cheaper...until the incredibly nice teacher offered us a ride...all the way to Xela!! Save for the annoying guy in the back seat, I had a good time talking with the teacher (he helped with my grammar). We gave him a donation for the ride and said our good-byes...to both.
We hung out, completely relaxed from the hot springs, in the park, until creepy Bible man came and disrupted the events. He claimed to be spreading the word, but what he was spreading was his hands and it was not so appreciated. After he asked for my address, Corinne thankfully, said we had to go...thankfully. We walked some more and agreed to meet up later for drinks, which we did at Tecun.
Sunday: Corinne and I went to Xela Community Church and both agreed that the sermon (most of it) had a good message and it was filled with interesting people from around the world. The service was in Spanish and English, but the pastors all from the States. We are definitely returning next weekend.
The final South American Soccer Cup was supposed to be on at 3 p.m. I made plans to watch solo at Tecun, while Corinne made plans to watch Harry Potter at the super mall (which I hate). I got awesome food at Tecun and read before the game came on. I chatted with the servers about who would win and the place filled up pretty quickly. Because I sat at a table for 4 by myself, that welcomed all types of people, but only Wilco, from Holland to note. He was nice and friendly and we discussed where we come from, where we´re going and watched the game. He was once the U.N. reprepsentative for the Netherlands in the U.S. for 6 months and he had many opinions about our country, most of which I agreed with. After Argentina suffered a huge loss against Brazil (damn!!), we went for coffee to further discuss the Latin American trade systems and relations with the U.S. Corinne joined us shortly after and we had an awesome discussion ranging from women´s rights to 2-party systems in the U.S. vs. Socialist government systems in Holland. Because Corinne and I were starving we went to the taco place..had 3 tacos for Q10 and headed back to Tecun for some chocolate pura. There, we met a woman and her husband (she was Guatemalteca and he was German...and they both lived in South Beach, FL), who asked us to take a picture and from there launched a 4 hour discussion about EVERYTHING. I now have a permanat place to stay (for free) in South Beach, and ¨get trashed¨ as she put it. Corinne and Andreas (the German) were having a heated discussion about immigration in Germany, while Claudia (the Guatemalan) and I were talking about her funding my AIDS non-profit....seriously a great weekend for meeting new people.
Today was uneventful as I seriously have done nothing but work with the kids in the afternoon. There were not many after the extra classes (16 total) and many (10) adults, therefore, I left after their break time! Now, I´m here, but am leaving to call home to folks and make plans for my return, in 6 days. I am starting to look forward, more and more, to my trip and home and to see everyone I miss so dearly. There are 2 more students that have joined the house and I anticipate it being busy at dinner. Also, my host brother has bought a brand-new beagle puppy that is only 2 months old. Essentially, the thing is so cute I want to squeeze it until it´s head pops off.
Also, I haven´t been very diligent about returning emails and to those of you who have sent one, and read this, please accept my apologies and be looking for your responses tomorrow! Much love and peace...and see you soon.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
12 to go...
I have 12 days left in Guatemala and the more I´m hearing from friends who have already returned the more hesitant I am to return myself. Such descriptions as: restritive, boring, uneventful and HOT keeping coming up in emails and posts online...who wants to go back to that?
Here, I can freely ride in a minivan cramped with 25 people for $.20.
Here, I can eat from Xela Pan just about any minute of the day for less that $.50 and it is so so good.
Here, random people, whom I don´t even know their names, hand me food out of their windows that they´ve prepared in their kitchens...again, for less than a $1.
Here, I can hike volcanoes.
Here, I am greeted by just about every single person on the street, whether friendly or slightly weird...I´m still greeted.
Here, I can live and survive knowing conversational Spanish.
Here, I can have wild, rabid dogs chase me on the weekends.
Here, life is slow and sweet, where everyone can Salsa dance, eat picante till their blue in the face only to ask for more, where the food is ALWAYS fresh and the people (well...most of them) would give you their shirts on their backs to help out...
But...Xela doesn´t have good BBQ sauce and doesn´t have hot wings...that I will eat....therefore, I must return to the States to fix my cravings only to return another summer to do it al over again.
I had a relatively uneventful day yesterday..finished City of God, but am not going to see the movie as the book was enough violence for my imagination and I couldn´t imagine seeing it. I recommend the book to anyone and everyone. There were far fewer kids yesterday and my guess was it was due to the ¨discussion¨ the director, Guadalupe, had with the kids about stealing from us volunteers. As it turns out, 15-20Q per day has been stolen from various volunteers out of wallets and bags. Very little students have access to these as we diligently lock them up, therefore, giving suspicions to some of the older students who ¨help¨ out with the younger generations. The kids played dress-up of all sorts and we painted their faces as anything from the Devil to a butterfly. They loved it. After their faces were nicely covered, they turned to us and asked to paint ours. Karen covered my entire face in individual desigs ranging from tiger-stripes to flowers....someday those pictures will surface. Afterward...hung out with Corinne, who has taken to start helping the school in the morning and working and studying elsewhere in the afternoons...flipping our schedules. We usually meet up now after ¨work,¨ chat and make plans, if any, for the night. Tonight: Kokoloko´s. This ridiculous bar that has a reputation for gunfire, good drink specials and salsa. Should be fun, right?
I realized my feelings towards being a teacher and my students have changed dramatically. For most of the year, I had a feeling that these kids were headed in directions that wouldn´t help them in the future. They (or so I thought) have very little respect for teachers and appreciate very little the education they are receiving. Yeah, they were good kids, but for the most part, admittedly, they bugged the hell out of me. Now, after working with all types of kids both here and there, I have so much more appreciation for having a job, working with kids who actually do care (I completely ignored it) and have more respect for their teachers than most. I am actually, for the first time...ever, looking forward to teaching them again and hope to do it bigger and better this time around. The kids here have motivated me for the kids back home.
Ummmm....my bumming in the mornings has not gotten old yet and I hope it never does. I plan to hike the volano this friday and Corinne and I are headed to the hotsprings on Saturday and Sunday, I plan to sleeeeeeeeep....much more than I already do.
12 more days!....
Here, I can freely ride in a minivan cramped with 25 people for $.20.
Here, I can eat from Xela Pan just about any minute of the day for less that $.50 and it is so so good.
Here, random people, whom I don´t even know their names, hand me food out of their windows that they´ve prepared in their kitchens...again, for less than a $1.
Here, I can hike volcanoes.
Here, I am greeted by just about every single person on the street, whether friendly or slightly weird...I´m still greeted.
Here, I can live and survive knowing conversational Spanish.
Here, I can have wild, rabid dogs chase me on the weekends.
Here, life is slow and sweet, where everyone can Salsa dance, eat picante till their blue in the face only to ask for more, where the food is ALWAYS fresh and the people (well...most of them) would give you their shirts on their backs to help out...
But...Xela doesn´t have good BBQ sauce and doesn´t have hot wings...that I will eat....therefore, I must return to the States to fix my cravings only to return another summer to do it al over again.
I had a relatively uneventful day yesterday..finished City of God, but am not going to see the movie as the book was enough violence for my imagination and I couldn´t imagine seeing it. I recommend the book to anyone and everyone. There were far fewer kids yesterday and my guess was it was due to the ¨discussion¨ the director, Guadalupe, had with the kids about stealing from us volunteers. As it turns out, 15-20Q per day has been stolen from various volunteers out of wallets and bags. Very little students have access to these as we diligently lock them up, therefore, giving suspicions to some of the older students who ¨help¨ out with the younger generations. The kids played dress-up of all sorts and we painted their faces as anything from the Devil to a butterfly. They loved it. After their faces were nicely covered, they turned to us and asked to paint ours. Karen covered my entire face in individual desigs ranging from tiger-stripes to flowers....someday those pictures will surface. Afterward...hung out with Corinne, who has taken to start helping the school in the morning and working and studying elsewhere in the afternoons...flipping our schedules. We usually meet up now after ¨work,¨ chat and make plans, if any, for the night. Tonight: Kokoloko´s. This ridiculous bar that has a reputation for gunfire, good drink specials and salsa. Should be fun, right?
I realized my feelings towards being a teacher and my students have changed dramatically. For most of the year, I had a feeling that these kids were headed in directions that wouldn´t help them in the future. They (or so I thought) have very little respect for teachers and appreciate very little the education they are receiving. Yeah, they were good kids, but for the most part, admittedly, they bugged the hell out of me. Now, after working with all types of kids both here and there, I have so much more appreciation for having a job, working with kids who actually do care (I completely ignored it) and have more respect for their teachers than most. I am actually, for the first time...ever, looking forward to teaching them again and hope to do it bigger and better this time around. The kids here have motivated me for the kids back home.
Ummmm....my bumming in the mornings has not gotten old yet and I hope it never does. I plan to hike the volano this friday and Corinne and I are headed to the hotsprings on Saturday and Sunday, I plan to sleeeeeeeeep....much more than I already do.
12 more days!....
Monday, July 9, 2007
¨Work¨
Was off to Cara Allegres today for my first day of tutoring with the kids...
Got the times mixed-up and therefore did not show up on time...therefore didn´t tutor today, but got the schedule for this week and next!
Children in the school have now stolen almost Q60 from the volunteers, someway some how out of their bags (mine has since been spared) and into their pockets. The director of the school gave a speech indicating the seriousness of these implications and I hope, for the future of this program that the students will keep their hands in their own bags!
On a positive note, this week seems much more up my alley than organizing arts and crafts hour for the kids. That was VERY VERY difficult, in my opinion, for Corinne and I. But this week, I get to count, repeat, alphabetize, synonym, add and subtract with the students! Today I played baseball, endless soccer, jump rope (my arm is numb), jenga and pick`-up sticks with the kiddos...I´m wiped.
Had an excellent lunch today..I love the vegetables here.
The weather has gotten much weirder for the month of July ---very very hot and then very very cold.
I am reading City of God by Paulo Lins and it is BEAUTIFUL, if you don´t mind endless chapters and dialogue of gun fights, rape and murder. Besides that, he makes Rio de Janiero the next place I want to visit.
I am literally obsessed with the papas fritas at North/South Bookstore. I have them daily at 11 a.m.
I still, as much as I hate to admit it, hate riding microbuses.
I still, as much as I hate to admit it, love the cost of riding microbuses (Q1).
I cannot believe I only have 1 more week here. I realize that too often I have fallen into the habit of appreciating what I have here much too late for my own good!
I miss dearly Rachel, Sarah, Ned and Joaquim. I hope you 4 are doing very very well!
Last night, Corinne and I watched Goodnight and Goodluck. Even though I have seen it many many times before, it was the best with veggie burritos at Blue Angel.
On Sunday, I quenched my cheese craving with an excellent margarhita pizza from Tecun. So far, I´ve had really good pizza and Indian food here.
Today, in Spanish, I had a great conversation with a local about my life here. Not only did I understand everthing she said, but she understood me as well. AWESOME!
I finished another book yesterday, Museum Pieces, and it made me homesick for AZ. Hard to believe though that I´ll be there 2 weeks from today. Where did the summer go?
I am going to hike Volcano Santa Maria on Friday. I am THRILLED! I think I am going to head up to the Fuentes Georginas (natural hotsprings) on Saturday as a reward. I will...as soon as I can...post pictures, but that is becomming increasingly hard with the technology gap here.
My health has returned to somewhat normal....as much as it could be..lol. No more parasites or viruses..I think.
Tomorrow I start teaching....in espanol... Wish me luck...
Got the times mixed-up and therefore did not show up on time...therefore didn´t tutor today, but got the schedule for this week and next!
Children in the school have now stolen almost Q60 from the volunteers, someway some how out of their bags (mine has since been spared) and into their pockets. The director of the school gave a speech indicating the seriousness of these implications and I hope, for the future of this program that the students will keep their hands in their own bags!
On a positive note, this week seems much more up my alley than organizing arts and crafts hour for the kids. That was VERY VERY difficult, in my opinion, for Corinne and I. But this week, I get to count, repeat, alphabetize, synonym, add and subtract with the students! Today I played baseball, endless soccer, jump rope (my arm is numb), jenga and pick`-up sticks with the kiddos...I´m wiped.
Had an excellent lunch today..I love the vegetables here.
The weather has gotten much weirder for the month of July ---very very hot and then very very cold.
I am reading City of God by Paulo Lins and it is BEAUTIFUL, if you don´t mind endless chapters and dialogue of gun fights, rape and murder. Besides that, he makes Rio de Janiero the next place I want to visit.
I am literally obsessed with the papas fritas at North/South Bookstore. I have them daily at 11 a.m.
I still, as much as I hate to admit it, hate riding microbuses.
I still, as much as I hate to admit it, love the cost of riding microbuses (Q1).
I cannot believe I only have 1 more week here. I realize that too often I have fallen into the habit of appreciating what I have here much too late for my own good!
I miss dearly Rachel, Sarah, Ned and Joaquim. I hope you 4 are doing very very well!
Last night, Corinne and I watched Goodnight and Goodluck. Even though I have seen it many many times before, it was the best with veggie burritos at Blue Angel.
On Sunday, I quenched my cheese craving with an excellent margarhita pizza from Tecun. So far, I´ve had really good pizza and Indian food here.
Today, in Spanish, I had a great conversation with a local about my life here. Not only did I understand everthing she said, but she understood me as well. AWESOME!
I finished another book yesterday, Museum Pieces, and it made me homesick for AZ. Hard to believe though that I´ll be there 2 weeks from today. Where did the summer go?
I am going to hike Volcano Santa Maria on Friday. I am THRILLED! I think I am going to head up to the Fuentes Georginas (natural hotsprings) on Saturday as a reward. I will...as soon as I can...post pictures, but that is becomming increasingly hard with the technology gap here.
My health has returned to somewhat normal....as much as it could be..lol. No more parasites or viruses..I think.
Tomorrow I start teaching....in espanol... Wish me luck...
Friday, July 6, 2007
observations...
The weather is gorgeous...most of the time.
I have seen more Guatemalans with their fly down than I have ever seen persons in my life. Just today: 4
The traffic system is baffling and everyone seems to know it and I STILL can´t figure it out. Between the cobblestone streets and the incessant honking when one is approaching a 4-way crossing, it seems nightmare-ish to me to try and navigate. Corinne wants to rent bikes for a month. I haven´t told her yet that I think that will be suicide.
My host Mom has enterted a phase in her life in which I think it would be good for her to branch out and make new friends. It makes for interesting conversation at the dinner table.
I really like corn products...especially homemade ones here.
I am continuously impressed by Corinne´s willingness and want to help those around her. Inspiring.
In some ways I have come to discover that I will never truly fit into Guatemalan life as well as a Guatemalan could. Something or other about blonde hair and blue eyes....oh and having really fair skin. But! This has presented me with a unique opportunity to shatter any and all stereotypes about blonde women from the States.
Stray dogs are scary...especially when they are chasing you and your American friends in the dark, on the way to the bar.
I am obsessed with the Menonite bakery. This place is only open for 2 days a week: Friday and Tuesday. I am headed there after this post to by a chocolate donut and bread for breakfast this Sunday. Thank you Menonites.
I love love love the time I have to relax.
My roommate back home is truly amazing for not only bringing decorating surprises to our apartment before my return, but for taking care of a devil of a cat who eats through her computer cord every other month or so. Thanks Brit!
I like my new housemate here! Her name is Rachel and she is extremely friendly!
I have an ever-increasing urge to eat hot wings and bbq chicken pizza with goat cheese in the states...watch out ladies....it is out of control.
I miss my parents and my brothers.
I think I want to live abroad very soon after teaching.
Guatemalan children never stop smiling, no matter what age or living condition they have.
My health has improved considerably thanks to the Pina Colada nightmare.
I think I have changed in considerable and unique ways since coming to Guatemala....
I am HAPPY!
I have seen more Guatemalans with their fly down than I have ever seen persons in my life. Just today: 4
The traffic system is baffling and everyone seems to know it and I STILL can´t figure it out. Between the cobblestone streets and the incessant honking when one is approaching a 4-way crossing, it seems nightmare-ish to me to try and navigate. Corinne wants to rent bikes for a month. I haven´t told her yet that I think that will be suicide.
My host Mom has enterted a phase in her life in which I think it would be good for her to branch out and make new friends. It makes for interesting conversation at the dinner table.
I really like corn products...especially homemade ones here.
I am continuously impressed by Corinne´s willingness and want to help those around her. Inspiring.
In some ways I have come to discover that I will never truly fit into Guatemalan life as well as a Guatemalan could. Something or other about blonde hair and blue eyes....oh and having really fair skin. But! This has presented me with a unique opportunity to shatter any and all stereotypes about blonde women from the States.
Stray dogs are scary...especially when they are chasing you and your American friends in the dark, on the way to the bar.
I am obsessed with the Menonite bakery. This place is only open for 2 days a week: Friday and Tuesday. I am headed there after this post to by a chocolate donut and bread for breakfast this Sunday. Thank you Menonites.
I love love love the time I have to relax.
My roommate back home is truly amazing for not only bringing decorating surprises to our apartment before my return, but for taking care of a devil of a cat who eats through her computer cord every other month or so. Thanks Brit!
I like my new housemate here! Her name is Rachel and she is extremely friendly!
I have an ever-increasing urge to eat hot wings and bbq chicken pizza with goat cheese in the states...watch out ladies....it is out of control.
I miss my parents and my brothers.
I think I want to live abroad very soon after teaching.
Guatemalan children never stop smiling, no matter what age or living condition they have.
My health has improved considerably thanks to the Pina Colada nightmare.
I think I have changed in considerable and unique ways since coming to Guatemala....
I am HAPPY!
Thursday, July 5, 2007
thanks ms. A for making my day!
This is a special shout out to Colleen who posted on my last blog. Before leaving, she informed me of her own experience in Mexico where a parasite attacked her bowels leaving her family with no running water for a day...due to excessive flushing. Thanks lady for your insights.
I went to have my feces examined yesterday. I finally brokedown. It was a complicated process of sticking a plastic cup (thanks Corinne for the purchase) under my butt and waiting. Fun. I dropped off the cup to a clinic, waited 10 minutes and found out that I have an infection in my white blood cells = virus, in which there are no medicines and no antibiotics that can cure me. :(
Went to Marta´s house last night for typical Guatemalan food. Marta is a maestra at Celas Maya (Corinne´s first teacher). It was so good!!!! We had rice and green beans and a sauce of some sort. We´re cooking them Italian next time. mmmm.
The keychains for the kiddos at the school was a BIG hit. We couldn´t even pry them away to have bread and lemondade when the time came. It was nuts! Today: jewelry.
I am now drinking pina colada flavored drink shit that is supposed to help with my virus. It is a delicated powder that swims in my 1.5 ltr. bottle of water. I hate it.
My host mom sort of officially reached annoying (just a bit) this morning when she tried to convince me (and wouldn´t let up) that Coca Cola and water are the best medicines for a virus. She, apprently, swears by it. I wasn´t buying it, nor did I care at 7:25 in the morning.
Corinne and I are considering a cheap bus trip to the beach this Sunday. Stay tuned for details.
I have come to enjoy very much papas fritas in Guatemala. Something about the way they make it is amazing. ...and cheap.
I traded 3 books today for 2: City of God and Just Peachy. One is absolutely absurd fiction and the other is amazing realistic fiction.
I love my Guatemalan...feces-free (whenever that happens)...life.
I went to have my feces examined yesterday. I finally brokedown. It was a complicated process of sticking a plastic cup (thanks Corinne for the purchase) under my butt and waiting. Fun. I dropped off the cup to a clinic, waited 10 minutes and found out that I have an infection in my white blood cells = virus, in which there are no medicines and no antibiotics that can cure me. :(
Went to Marta´s house last night for typical Guatemalan food. Marta is a maestra at Celas Maya (Corinne´s first teacher). It was so good!!!! We had rice and green beans and a sauce of some sort. We´re cooking them Italian next time. mmmm.
The keychains for the kiddos at the school was a BIG hit. We couldn´t even pry them away to have bread and lemondade when the time came. It was nuts! Today: jewelry.
I am now drinking pina colada flavored drink shit that is supposed to help with my virus. It is a delicated powder that swims in my 1.5 ltr. bottle of water. I hate it.
My host mom sort of officially reached annoying (just a bit) this morning when she tried to convince me (and wouldn´t let up) that Coca Cola and water are the best medicines for a virus. She, apprently, swears by it. I wasn´t buying it, nor did I care at 7:25 in the morning.
Corinne and I are considering a cheap bus trip to the beach this Sunday. Stay tuned for details.
I have come to enjoy very much papas fritas in Guatemala. Something about the way they make it is amazing. ...and cheap.
I traded 3 books today for 2: City of God and Just Peachy. One is absolutely absurd fiction and the other is amazing realistic fiction.
I love my Guatemalan...feces-free (whenever that happens)...life.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Feliz Cuatro de Julio!
While all in the States are enjoying BBQs and fireworks, I am here, enjoying the sun and more diarrhea! So great! At this point, I don´t know what to say about my body here. I can´t tell if it´s because of yet another diet change in a new household or I have more amebas, but it is attacking and attacking muy fuerte.
Otherwise, the mask-making workshop with the kids went really really well yesterday. They seemed to love the project, although, I find it much much more difficult to wok with these kids than I do my own in the States. In my classroom, there are rules and order, and here, the kids literally grab supplies out of the teachers hands for their own purpose. Admittedly, this annoys the shit out of me! But, I am learning, slowly, to remain calm and let the kids do what they want.
Which, for me, begs a question: These kids, literally, have almost nothing that they possess besides this school and there smiles, therefore, should we allow them to grab, fight, kick and run around crazy because they don´t otherwise have parents, or should we give them structure and rules and planned activities to benefit from? Sometimes, I find that I feel so sorry for them that I let them do whatever they please, no matter if it´s not in the best interest of the group. Is this right? In my opinion...absolutely not, but then again, I am borrowing the classroom and the time with the kids!
Afterwards, Corinne and I had a break at Blue Angel, in which we tried to study, but I wasn´t really into it. After all day of navigating life with Spanish, sometimes it´s nice to sit in silence and read.
Otherwise...life is as it should be an I¨m planning my next week. Not sure, what I´ll do or where I´ll end up, but I like it :)
Otherwise, the mask-making workshop with the kids went really really well yesterday. They seemed to love the project, although, I find it much much more difficult to wok with these kids than I do my own in the States. In my classroom, there are rules and order, and here, the kids literally grab supplies out of the teachers hands for their own purpose. Admittedly, this annoys the shit out of me! But, I am learning, slowly, to remain calm and let the kids do what they want.
Which, for me, begs a question: These kids, literally, have almost nothing that they possess besides this school and there smiles, therefore, should we allow them to grab, fight, kick and run around crazy because they don´t otherwise have parents, or should we give them structure and rules and planned activities to benefit from? Sometimes, I find that I feel so sorry for them that I let them do whatever they please, no matter if it´s not in the best interest of the group. Is this right? In my opinion...absolutely not, but then again, I am borrowing the classroom and the time with the kids!
Afterwards, Corinne and I had a break at Blue Angel, in which we tried to study, but I wasn´t really into it. After all day of navigating life with Spanish, sometimes it´s nice to sit in silence and read.
Otherwise...life is as it should be an I¨m planning my next week. Not sure, what I´ll do or where I´ll end up, but I like it :)
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Vacation!
I would call this week, definitely, for the first time in a considerable time, a vacation. Literally, all I have to do is set my alarm on time for breakfast to have conversation with the family and then I can retreat back to my room for reading and more sleeping. I sleep on average 12 hours a day....which is much more than I can say for the amount I get back home. My diet here is much better as I eat fresh, homemade food, without meat. My exercise here is better as I´m walking constantly up and down hills and streets without a car and in a higher altitude. I would LOVE to keep up the regime in AZ, but find that my weeks are slowly becomming numbered here and I am learning to take advantage of them.
I went to EDLAC yesterday with Corinne and we had a hell of a time (in my opinion) getting there. Against our better judgement we used a microbus that was stuffed to the gills...literally 25 people in a minivan. Because we were the last to jump on, my ass and back were hanging out of this minivan as it coasted down the road to where we needed to go. Behind me, a young Guatemalan gentlemen who collected our money rubbed all up and down my ass as we went down the road no matter how hard I tried to stuff myself into the car. From then on, I told Corinne we are taking another bus route, one where I can eithe sit cramped or stand cramped...no more minivans for me. Because of the chaos of finding and riding the microbus, we ended up arriving a few minutes late. The kids were everywhere!! It was not their regularly scheduled classes as it was a time for celebrating all the birthdays of the kids. Caras Alegres (Happy Faces) is a Dutch organization that was started 2 years ago at the school and they are the ones I¨ll be helping in the afternoon. They had 4 rooms filled with 4 different games for the kids. Corinne helped out in the musical chairs room and it was INSANE from what I could tell. They loved it! I worked with Anneloes, a girl from Holland who has been volunteering at EDLAC and Caras Alegres for 7 months now. She was surprised that I was there to help out as she said it took her at least 6 weeks in Guatemala before she felt comfortable volunteering anywhere. Which brings me to the near panic attacks I was feeling at the school yesterday. It was a lot like learning to teach--having this feeling that I´m not good at speaking Spanish yet (or as good as the others), and these kids are in such a great need that i want to help in any way I can. It´s a feeling of kind of wanting to hide away and forget the opportunity exists because you´re too scared to take on 120 children. Oh yeah....there are just about a million of them at the after-school program. I´m so looking forward to helping and hanging out with them. I begin teaching next week on Monday and find this week to be a good starter for me. As it turns out, this week they are doing a series of workshops that Corinne and I were recruited to help with. We are heading up the handicraft area and have to design 4 different projects for each day for the kids. On Friday, they will present their final projects to the whole school and there are 4 different areas: handicrafts (presented by yours truly), sewing and making clothes, woodshop and cooking. Each day, the classes will go on for about 2 hours or so until Friday, which is only an hour, due to presentations. *Hopefully, my Spanish will improve as the days go on this week. I need to brush up on my vocabulary so the kids know what the hell I´m saying.
After time at the school, Corinne and I grabbed a drink at Tecun (gin and tonic were on special...mmmm) and went to our respective homes to eat dinner. I had a delicious (and my favorite) dinner of friend platanos, frijoles and some sort of queso de vaca. I found that I have a new housemate, who is also a teacher in the Bronx. She is not with TfA, but she said all of her colleagues are affliated. She seems awesome (her name is Rachel) and she´ll be here for the exact amount of time I will (she leaves 2 days before I do). I´m actually really really excited about having another person to talk to and hang out with in the evenings. She has been travelling for the last 48 hours and seemed really overwhelmed, but nonetheless excited about her opportunity to come!
Ummm....today...nada to talk about. I (think) I´m parasite free, but am not sure my pooping (honestly) will ever return to normalcy after the attack last week. It´s like forever altered my abilities. Nonetheless...I am now capable. As far as news...that´s it for today! I¨ll blog tomorrow about the ¨mask adventure.¨ yikes.
I went to EDLAC yesterday with Corinne and we had a hell of a time (in my opinion) getting there. Against our better judgement we used a microbus that was stuffed to the gills...literally 25 people in a minivan. Because we were the last to jump on, my ass and back were hanging out of this minivan as it coasted down the road to where we needed to go. Behind me, a young Guatemalan gentlemen who collected our money rubbed all up and down my ass as we went down the road no matter how hard I tried to stuff myself into the car. From then on, I told Corinne we are taking another bus route, one where I can eithe sit cramped or stand cramped...no more minivans for me. Because of the chaos of finding and riding the microbus, we ended up arriving a few minutes late. The kids were everywhere!! It was not their regularly scheduled classes as it was a time for celebrating all the birthdays of the kids. Caras Alegres (Happy Faces) is a Dutch organization that was started 2 years ago at the school and they are the ones I¨ll be helping in the afternoon. They had 4 rooms filled with 4 different games for the kids. Corinne helped out in the musical chairs room and it was INSANE from what I could tell. They loved it! I worked with Anneloes, a girl from Holland who has been volunteering at EDLAC and Caras Alegres for 7 months now. She was surprised that I was there to help out as she said it took her at least 6 weeks in Guatemala before she felt comfortable volunteering anywhere. Which brings me to the near panic attacks I was feeling at the school yesterday. It was a lot like learning to teach--having this feeling that I´m not good at speaking Spanish yet (or as good as the others), and these kids are in such a great need that i want to help in any way I can. It´s a feeling of kind of wanting to hide away and forget the opportunity exists because you´re too scared to take on 120 children. Oh yeah....there are just about a million of them at the after-school program. I´m so looking forward to helping and hanging out with them. I begin teaching next week on Monday and find this week to be a good starter for me. As it turns out, this week they are doing a series of workshops that Corinne and I were recruited to help with. We are heading up the handicraft area and have to design 4 different projects for each day for the kids. On Friday, they will present their final projects to the whole school and there are 4 different areas: handicrafts (presented by yours truly), sewing and making clothes, woodshop and cooking. Each day, the classes will go on for about 2 hours or so until Friday, which is only an hour, due to presentations. *Hopefully, my Spanish will improve as the days go on this week. I need to brush up on my vocabulary so the kids know what the hell I´m saying.
After time at the school, Corinne and I grabbed a drink at Tecun (gin and tonic were on special...mmmm) and went to our respective homes to eat dinner. I had a delicious (and my favorite) dinner of friend platanos, frijoles and some sort of queso de vaca. I found that I have a new housemate, who is also a teacher in the Bronx. She is not with TfA, but she said all of her colleagues are affliated. She seems awesome (her name is Rachel) and she´ll be here for the exact amount of time I will (she leaves 2 days before I do). I´m actually really really excited about having another person to talk to and hang out with in the evenings. She has been travelling for the last 48 hours and seemed really overwhelmed, but nonetheless excited about her opportunity to come!
Ummm....today...nada to talk about. I (think) I´m parasite free, but am not sure my pooping (honestly) will ever return to normalcy after the attack last week. It´s like forever altered my abilities. Nonetheless...I am now capable. As far as news...that´s it for today! I¨ll blog tomorrow about the ¨mask adventure.¨ yikes.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Familia Nueva
I moved into my new home on Sunday with my new family and I really enjoy their company and conversation. Admittedly, Senora seemed as though the arrangement we had was sketchy and I shouldn´t tell my teachers or other students in the school of our arrangement, but after our conversation this morning at breakfast, she seemed comfortable with her new house guest.
Apparently last week, she had gone to Celas to ask for more students in her home. Celas had said possibly in the next few weeks. Rumor has it the school will be extremely full the week of July 12. Corinne is continuing her studies while this week I have stopped. I have found it has its advantages and disadvantages as I really enjoy the vacation time and solitude, but I just returned from ¨morning announcemnts¨ at the school to see what activities they had in store and I missed the student/teacher learning environment.
I have a much smaller room in the new house and Senora does not fix food that is typically traditional. Something I missed this morning was huevos and frijoles negras. Ah well, I had toast and jam with papaya...just as good.
I was worried that with this new arrangement I was going to have miss lunch with the family because EDLAC needs me at 1-1:30 in the afternoon. Senora usually serves at 1:30 for her family who return for lunch from work, but she agreed to cook lunch for me at 12:45 (very early for Guatemalans) so I wouldn´t have to spend extra money in other places. Also, I feel admittedly strange eating the food that we prepare for the kids, considering I have enough money to buy myself something to eat and they do not. I would rather continue this arrangement and find my own means and keep the resources for the students and the staff who work there day and night.
Ben left on Sunday and I was very sad to see him go! I enjoyed our chats and experiences here in Guatemala and I was glad he came to visit Corinne and study. Him and Corinne went to the hot springs on Saturday and stayed in one of their bungalows for the night! I think Corinne and I will do the same for her birthday before I leave Guatemala on the 23rd. So...by myself, while on a transcontinental phone call to T...I ran into friends from the school at which point I took them to La Luna for some tea and chocolate pura. So good! There we met another friend from the school and chatted for a few hours. I left early to eat dinner with my family one last time. They made me my favorite indigenious food: platanos y frijoles negras y tomalitos. I went out just as I had come in! I got a phone call from David, a guy Corinne and I met who works for Habitat here in Xela for the summer, asking if we wanted to come make dinner with him and some friends at his hostel. Because I was solo, I was definitely down to meet new people and eat some good food. David made cilantro rice and mango salsa and Megan (someone staying at the hostel) made green chicken curry. Everything was AMAZING (i didn´t try the chicken, but I heard it was good) and we had chocolate pura with Kahluha (sp?) for dessert. David walked me back to Tecun where I met up with other students. I usually try and meet up with people who live close by so I can have others to walk with. This was one of the benefits of my move as now I live literally 1 block away from her on the same avenida.
On Sunday, I got up early to find that every 1st weekend of the month (similar to the art walk in Phoenix), the locals have a handicraft fest in the parque selling their goods and handicrafts. I wasn´t in the market and didn´t buy, but took long looks at what they had. I went to the monstrosity of a Catholic church that is in the parque for Sunday morning mass. I wanted to try it, but found it to be somewhat emotional for me. I sat in the back, as I noticed that when I was walking in the aisle way I was attracting a lot of attention and therefore decided the back of the church would be best. I stayed through till the reading of the gospel and really enjoyed the experience. Not sure I will return to the same one, but I want to find one to try.
I am forgetting my time on Friday! On Friday we had our weekly ¨graduation¨ that the school puts on for the students. There were a lot of us graduating this week from the school. Before the celebration the school offered a cooking class on typical Guatemalan food for us to try. The food we cooked was served at the graduation and was awesome. I loved making the tomalitos, which are small tomales that do not contain a filling and are steamed in corn leaves that grow on the stalks. It has become tradition to drink a lot at these celebrations and this evening was no different. I found myself drinking quite a bit of whiskey (of all things). When my name was called, they insist you give a speech at which point I said maybe 3 sentences. I was not a fan of the speaking Spanish deal in front of others. After the graduation a very large group of us went to Baja Luna, which is La Luna, but underground (seriously cave-like), where they serve wine and cheese. You can get a liter of wine for 50Q at which point 9 of us shared 3. It was awesome! Ryan and Courtney (students) live near me and they walked me home...safely.
Sunday morning, after church, went to Bavaria for a not-so-great breakfast, but has a GREAT conversation with my Mom and Dad. I was happy to talk with them. Wendy (another student) came into Bavaria and we shared breakfast together. On Saturday, before Ben and Corinne´s departure, we had all gone to the cemetary here in Xela, which was amazing. Right now I can´t figure out how to download my pictures onto the blog from the new computer site I¨m using, therefore, stay tuned, but these graves were incredible. As such, I took Wendy there as well on Sunday...the most time, admittedly, that I have spent in a graveyard. The way in which these people take care of their dead was incredible, if they can afford it of course. Ben said it reminded him of New Orleans. I don´t have any experience with the area, but apparently it´s very similar. I had Indian food with David, Adei (girl from his hostel) and Corinne at the Indian place...it was so good! Corinne and I went home and crashed.
This morning I had a great conversation with my host family about retirement practices in Xela. Apparently it´s very bad, which I¨ve come to notice among the workers here. It was great to practice the conversation as much as I could with Senora and the others. She will always correct me when I´m wrong and help me with my vocabulario. A brief description of my new family: 5 persons/Cleo and Cesar are the parents/Lijia, Alexis and Cesar II are the kids. They have 2 birds and a turtle and their dog of 2 years just recently ran away (so sad!). Lijia is an accountant, Alexis works at a bank and Cesar II is a computer engineer...I think. Cesar I is currently in the process of retiring but has been filing paperwork for Social Security for 2 years now...they are still waiting. Cleo works around the house!
That´s it for now as I must get back to bumming around the city. Today is my first day at Escuela de la Calle helping the kids and employees out. I´ll blog about my experiences later!
Apparently last week, she had gone to Celas to ask for more students in her home. Celas had said possibly in the next few weeks. Rumor has it the school will be extremely full the week of July 12. Corinne is continuing her studies while this week I have stopped. I have found it has its advantages and disadvantages as I really enjoy the vacation time and solitude, but I just returned from ¨morning announcemnts¨ at the school to see what activities they had in store and I missed the student/teacher learning environment.
I have a much smaller room in the new house and Senora does not fix food that is typically traditional. Something I missed this morning was huevos and frijoles negras. Ah well, I had toast and jam with papaya...just as good.
I was worried that with this new arrangement I was going to have miss lunch with the family because EDLAC needs me at 1-1:30 in the afternoon. Senora usually serves at 1:30 for her family who return for lunch from work, but she agreed to cook lunch for me at 12:45 (very early for Guatemalans) so I wouldn´t have to spend extra money in other places. Also, I feel admittedly strange eating the food that we prepare for the kids, considering I have enough money to buy myself something to eat and they do not. I would rather continue this arrangement and find my own means and keep the resources for the students and the staff who work there day and night.
Ben left on Sunday and I was very sad to see him go! I enjoyed our chats and experiences here in Guatemala and I was glad he came to visit Corinne and study. Him and Corinne went to the hot springs on Saturday and stayed in one of their bungalows for the night! I think Corinne and I will do the same for her birthday before I leave Guatemala on the 23rd. So...by myself, while on a transcontinental phone call to T...I ran into friends from the school at which point I took them to La Luna for some tea and chocolate pura. So good! There we met another friend from the school and chatted for a few hours. I left early to eat dinner with my family one last time. They made me my favorite indigenious food: platanos y frijoles negras y tomalitos. I went out just as I had come in! I got a phone call from David, a guy Corinne and I met who works for Habitat here in Xela for the summer, asking if we wanted to come make dinner with him and some friends at his hostel. Because I was solo, I was definitely down to meet new people and eat some good food. David made cilantro rice and mango salsa and Megan (someone staying at the hostel) made green chicken curry. Everything was AMAZING (i didn´t try the chicken, but I heard it was good) and we had chocolate pura with Kahluha (sp?) for dessert. David walked me back to Tecun where I met up with other students. I usually try and meet up with people who live close by so I can have others to walk with. This was one of the benefits of my move as now I live literally 1 block away from her on the same avenida.
On Sunday, I got up early to find that every 1st weekend of the month (similar to the art walk in Phoenix), the locals have a handicraft fest in the parque selling their goods and handicrafts. I wasn´t in the market and didn´t buy, but took long looks at what they had. I went to the monstrosity of a Catholic church that is in the parque for Sunday morning mass. I wanted to try it, but found it to be somewhat emotional for me. I sat in the back, as I noticed that when I was walking in the aisle way I was attracting a lot of attention and therefore decided the back of the church would be best. I stayed through till the reading of the gospel and really enjoyed the experience. Not sure I will return to the same one, but I want to find one to try.
I am forgetting my time on Friday! On Friday we had our weekly ¨graduation¨ that the school puts on for the students. There were a lot of us graduating this week from the school. Before the celebration the school offered a cooking class on typical Guatemalan food for us to try. The food we cooked was served at the graduation and was awesome. I loved making the tomalitos, which are small tomales that do not contain a filling and are steamed in corn leaves that grow on the stalks. It has become tradition to drink a lot at these celebrations and this evening was no different. I found myself drinking quite a bit of whiskey (of all things). When my name was called, they insist you give a speech at which point I said maybe 3 sentences. I was not a fan of the speaking Spanish deal in front of others. After the graduation a very large group of us went to Baja Luna, which is La Luna, but underground (seriously cave-like), where they serve wine and cheese. You can get a liter of wine for 50Q at which point 9 of us shared 3. It was awesome! Ryan and Courtney (students) live near me and they walked me home...safely.
Sunday morning, after church, went to Bavaria for a not-so-great breakfast, but has a GREAT conversation with my Mom and Dad. I was happy to talk with them. Wendy (another student) came into Bavaria and we shared breakfast together. On Saturday, before Ben and Corinne´s departure, we had all gone to the cemetary here in Xela, which was amazing. Right now I can´t figure out how to download my pictures onto the blog from the new computer site I¨m using, therefore, stay tuned, but these graves were incredible. As such, I took Wendy there as well on Sunday...the most time, admittedly, that I have spent in a graveyard. The way in which these people take care of their dead was incredible, if they can afford it of course. Ben said it reminded him of New Orleans. I don´t have any experience with the area, but apparently it´s very similar. I had Indian food with David, Adei (girl from his hostel) and Corinne at the Indian place...it was so good! Corinne and I went home and crashed.
This morning I had a great conversation with my host family about retirement practices in Xela. Apparently it´s very bad, which I¨ve come to notice among the workers here. It was great to practice the conversation as much as I could with Senora and the others. She will always correct me when I´m wrong and help me with my vocabulario. A brief description of my new family: 5 persons/Cleo and Cesar are the parents/Lijia, Alexis and Cesar II are the kids. They have 2 birds and a turtle and their dog of 2 years just recently ran away (so sad!). Lijia is an accountant, Alexis works at a bank and Cesar II is a computer engineer...I think. Cesar I is currently in the process of retiring but has been filing paperwork for Social Security for 2 years now...they are still waiting. Cleo works around the house!
That´s it for now as I must get back to bumming around the city. Today is my first day at Escuela de la Calle helping the kids and employees out. I´ll blog about my experiences later!
Friday, June 29, 2007
Changes!
There are a few changes on the horizon this weekend to mention:
My dearest companions are leaving for Honduras
I am MOVING!! This one I am most excited about. I have the same anticipation and feelings I had when I moved in with this family. Although I´ve very much appreciated and somewhat enjoyed the hospitality with my host family, I am looking forward to a) no curfew b) having an outlet to actually practice my Spanish (my current family is indegenious and their native language is Kiche, therefore, their Spanish is not so bueno) and c) living next to Corinne in a new part of town! We will be neighbors and it is a pretty centralized location, still in Zona 1 and still near the central park areas.
I finished my final Spanish class today with Tonia. She was GREAT!!! I loved working with her and she stuffed me full of information today to practice and use for the next 3 weeks with the ninos at EDLAC. I´m going to work a lot with my new host mom on practicing the conditional and future tenses in spanish. I am having trouble with indirect object but hopefully that will change with more practice. I figure as I´m teaching the basics to the little ones it can only improve my own Spanish.
Not sure of my plans this weekend as Corinne and Ben are headed to Fuentes Georginas (the hotsprings around here) for Saturday and Ben is departing from Xela on Sunday. I have loved having him here!
Here are more pictures but this time they are of my favorites in Guatemala: favorite views, favorite people and favorite places to study. Enjoy. Descriptions to come...some time ;)
My dearest companions are leaving for Honduras
I am MOVING!! This one I am most excited about. I have the same anticipation and feelings I had when I moved in with this family. Although I´ve very much appreciated and somewhat enjoyed the hospitality with my host family, I am looking forward to a) no curfew b) having an outlet to actually practice my Spanish (my current family is indegenious and their native language is Kiche, therefore, their Spanish is not so bueno) and c) living next to Corinne in a new part of town! We will be neighbors and it is a pretty centralized location, still in Zona 1 and still near the central park areas.
I finished my final Spanish class today with Tonia. She was GREAT!!! I loved working with her and she stuffed me full of information today to practice and use for the next 3 weeks with the ninos at EDLAC. I´m going to work a lot with my new host mom on practicing the conditional and future tenses in spanish. I am having trouble with indirect object but hopefully that will change with more practice. I figure as I´m teaching the basics to the little ones it can only improve my own Spanish.
Not sure of my plans this weekend as Corinne and Ben are headed to Fuentes Georginas (the hotsprings around here) for Saturday and Ben is departing from Xela on Sunday. I have loved having him here!
Here are more pictures but this time they are of my favorites in Guatemala: favorite views, favorite people and favorite places to study. Enjoy. Descriptions to come...some time ;)
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The water slide
I only bring this up because I got shit for not remembering it in my post about Tikal....friends here would consider this to be one of the best memories we had on our weekend excursion...so here goes:
At the zoo, off the island of Las Flores, there were actually 2 very large water slides available to zoo-goers who were interested in twisting and turning and dumping into the lake. Fun right?? Hmmm...
First things´s first, the slide must have water. So we turn on the water and oh! we find none other than a giant snake on one of the slides. This prompts the zoo guide-guy to remove it of course because you can´t have 26 Americans and 1 Swede heading down a slide with a snake on it! No! The snake should be in the water where they land!
Next: switch to alternative slide where there are no snakes but it seems that we now have a water pressure problem. Imagine if you will a giant water slide that hasn´t seen water in probably some time and the water that is coming down is a slow trickle so that it dries before the first turn. I know this is tough to imagine...but bear with me...
Next: American girl (we´ll call her Rachel...the one...the only) graciously decides ¨Hey! I´ll be the first volunteer to go down!¨ I say graciously because we just witnessed the snake incident and this slide hadn´t been fully inspected for life, therefore, she would encounter it, if any, on her way down.
So: Rachel climbs aboard...bathing suit and all and launches herself. We hear the sweet sound of ass being scraped against the tube. She stands up, a little bit of the slide still attached to her ass and she walkes to the turn...we figure if she passes the turn she´ll go down the rest of the way right?? Well...not really. She ended up taking a nice, curvy walk down the slide at which point i believe she launched herself into the lake.
Ok: We give it ago again, but this time a few of our trip friends had an idea to fill up an empty trash can (oh yeah...a random trash can found in a random Guatemalan zoo) with water to assist Rachel in her 2nd attempt down the slide. So...plan: fill it with water and send it with her...you know that extra ¨push¨ idea. Actual: the trash can has holes---that´s ok we´ll chew gum and cover the holes! Good--gum works.
Rachel and trash can water make their way ¨easier¨ this time and we hear a splash! woo! At this point slide 1 is free and clear of reptile or otherwise life and we think, as a group, we should give it a try. Rachel decides to try this one out too and by no means do we argue for a) she´s been in the lake twice now and b) we just saw a snake come off of it...no one was lining up. So Rachel goes and it was successful! She even said it was fast at the end...we didn´t believe her. She goes again...only this time she´s literally flying down the thing so fast that we could hear the echo of her splash back up the slide...WHAT!?!?
Another person in the group decides to go and on his knees (we have no idea why) and we hear a huge splash...ok! this is a water slide...in a zoo! Corinne goes next...it takes her literally 2.5 seconds for her to reach the water...they all love it...but one thing is for sure people are going faster and faster down the slide.
After about 10 people went...I decided ¨sure! I can go down, no matter that some people have red welts and scratches on their faces from the slap in the water¨ So I head down and scream a little, pray somewhat that I wouldn´t die, before launching literally 15 ft. off the slide and into grassy Guatemalan MUCK. Like, thick dark, snake-ridden muck. Woo! The top of my bathing suit came completely off, the bottoms were almost rapped around my next and my boob slapped the water so hard I actually stopped breathing underwater in the Guatemalan muck. Wow.
Got up...hiked my ass out of the water and left the zoo. Forever remembering the zoo slides.
At the zoo, off the island of Las Flores, there were actually 2 very large water slides available to zoo-goers who were interested in twisting and turning and dumping into the lake. Fun right?? Hmmm...
First things´s first, the slide must have water. So we turn on the water and oh! we find none other than a giant snake on one of the slides. This prompts the zoo guide-guy to remove it of course because you can´t have 26 Americans and 1 Swede heading down a slide with a snake on it! No! The snake should be in the water where they land!
Next: switch to alternative slide where there are no snakes but it seems that we now have a water pressure problem. Imagine if you will a giant water slide that hasn´t seen water in probably some time and the water that is coming down is a slow trickle so that it dries before the first turn. I know this is tough to imagine...but bear with me...
Next: American girl (we´ll call her Rachel...the one...the only) graciously decides ¨Hey! I´ll be the first volunteer to go down!¨ I say graciously because we just witnessed the snake incident and this slide hadn´t been fully inspected for life, therefore, she would encounter it, if any, on her way down.
So: Rachel climbs aboard...bathing suit and all and launches herself. We hear the sweet sound of ass being scraped against the tube. She stands up, a little bit of the slide still attached to her ass and she walkes to the turn...we figure if she passes the turn she´ll go down the rest of the way right?? Well...not really. She ended up taking a nice, curvy walk down the slide at which point i believe she launched herself into the lake.
Ok: We give it ago again, but this time a few of our trip friends had an idea to fill up an empty trash can (oh yeah...a random trash can found in a random Guatemalan zoo) with water to assist Rachel in her 2nd attempt down the slide. So...plan: fill it with water and send it with her...you know that extra ¨push¨ idea. Actual: the trash can has holes---that´s ok we´ll chew gum and cover the holes! Good--gum works.
Rachel and trash can water make their way ¨easier¨ this time and we hear a splash! woo! At this point slide 1 is free and clear of reptile or otherwise life and we think, as a group, we should give it a try. Rachel decides to try this one out too and by no means do we argue for a) she´s been in the lake twice now and b) we just saw a snake come off of it...no one was lining up. So Rachel goes and it was successful! She even said it was fast at the end...we didn´t believe her. She goes again...only this time she´s literally flying down the thing so fast that we could hear the echo of her splash back up the slide...WHAT!?!?
Another person in the group decides to go and on his knees (we have no idea why) and we hear a huge splash...ok! this is a water slide...in a zoo! Corinne goes next...it takes her literally 2.5 seconds for her to reach the water...they all love it...but one thing is for sure people are going faster and faster down the slide.
After about 10 people went...I decided ¨sure! I can go down, no matter that some people have red welts and scratches on their faces from the slap in the water¨ So I head down and scream a little, pray somewhat that I wouldn´t die, before launching literally 15 ft. off the slide and into grassy Guatemalan MUCK. Like, thick dark, snake-ridden muck. Woo! The top of my bathing suit came completely off, the bottoms were almost rapped around my next and my boob slapped the water so hard I actually stopped breathing underwater in the Guatemalan muck. Wow.
Got up...hiked my ass out of the water and left the zoo. Forever remembering the zoo slides.
finally...
....I can honestly post that the bathroom situation has finally gotten ahold of itself considering the rollercoaster it´s been these past 4 days!
The Cipro is doing its job.
My classes resumed today. We had a good lesson but she was hard on me for not having homework. The parasite excuse could only take me so far... as such we covered many topics and subject areas.
The school put on a conference today about the political system here in Guatemala as there is a presidential election come Sept. 9. After hearing the discussions and ideologies of the candidates...I can´t imagine having to pick between the upwards of 20 people and voting for 1. And...the political system is like watching the Godfather only with indigenious or non-indigenious family systems.
It is RAINING!!! but I love the cool weather here.
I just dropped off my clothes to the lavanderia and will received the best smelling, nicely folded and dried clothing possible at 6.
I am taking a Guatemalan tipico cooking class today...extremely excited.
I´ve started another new book (my 3rd) about a Peace Corps volunteer in the city of Fuling in China, who taught English and American Literature. He left to volunteer in 1996 and it details his travels and experiences. A lend from Rachel and so far so good.
I am anxious to begin teaching these classes for los ninos in Escuela de la Calle next week. The classes will only be in Spanish and I have to teach mathematics, reading and writing to reinforce what they´re learning in their schools in the morning. Typically students here are in school from 8 a.m. until only 1 p.m. and most schools are private. As such, some of these kids living at Escuela de la Calle and receiving all their basic needs from the volunteers receive classes in the morning and these extra classes as well in the afternoon. As I understand it, it is considerably different than a tutoring session and will require vocabulario. Aye! Wish me luck.
Yesterday, I watched the Rigobera Menchu story with Corinne and Ben. I really enjoyed the movie, but admittedly had a hard time with the descriptions of the torture that was performed on the peoples in the pueblos (small towns and communities) during the war. As such, she is running as Guatemalan´s first female president and we heard of her politics today. She has a fascinating and interesting life. Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigoberta_Menchu for more info about her!
Last night, Corinne´s former maestra, Marta, picked up Ben, Corinne and I and took us to her place outside of the central city area so we could cook Thai food and sushi for her. Turns out you can buy seaweed and rice noodles (or rice pasta...not really sure). The meal was GREAT! and we had the entire night in Spanish. I really really enjoy spending time with Marta and hearing her talk. Her pronounciations and language is easy to understand and she is always generous with her Spanish lessons in conversation. Also, she has led a truly inspiring life as a social worker in Guatemala and in the States. At one time, she spent 8 years travelling back and forth from Guatemala to the U.S. to counsel and teach other volunteers and social workers health care, education, etc. for immigrants crossing the boarder. Very inspiring.
This is my last week here at Celas Maya and I´m going to miss the atmosphere much. I´ve decided to come back during announcement times and see if there are any activities I´d like to join next week and maybe the following weeks.
I was going to climb Volcano Santa Maria this weekend on Saturday, but have declined due to health issues...but it remains a goal of mine, if not this trip, another when I return to Central America.
On that note, I am still very much enjoying my experiences here. I am learning a lot about my abilities to live within a different culture who have a different language than my own, different food than I´m used to, no water from a free-flowing mechanism that I can drink from or cultural customs that are significantly different and can only be learned after 3 weeks with a maestra. My spirits these past few days, admittedly were low, but with antibiotics and anticipation for a whole new 3 weeks, I´m ready to check out what´s next!
Rachel, Sarah, Ned and Joaqim are headed to Honduras on Saturday morning around 3 a.m. I´ve been told. Thanks to you all who made my last 3 weeks truly truly INCREDIBLE. I have laughed till I´ve cried, shared bathroom/lake/parasite/bottled water/Xela Pan/how to refinance my life/all food in general/stray dog/Blue Angel cafe/La Luna cafe and Tecun experiences with you all and would do it again if I could. Stay in touch and let me know you lived through the dengue and malaria in Honduras.
The Cipro is doing its job.
My classes resumed today. We had a good lesson but she was hard on me for not having homework. The parasite excuse could only take me so far... as such we covered many topics and subject areas.
The school put on a conference today about the political system here in Guatemala as there is a presidential election come Sept. 9. After hearing the discussions and ideologies of the candidates...I can´t imagine having to pick between the upwards of 20 people and voting for 1. And...the political system is like watching the Godfather only with indigenious or non-indigenious family systems.
It is RAINING!!! but I love the cool weather here.
I just dropped off my clothes to the lavanderia and will received the best smelling, nicely folded and dried clothing possible at 6.
I am taking a Guatemalan tipico cooking class today...extremely excited.
I´ve started another new book (my 3rd) about a Peace Corps volunteer in the city of Fuling in China, who taught English and American Literature. He left to volunteer in 1996 and it details his travels and experiences. A lend from Rachel and so far so good.
I am anxious to begin teaching these classes for los ninos in Escuela de la Calle next week. The classes will only be in Spanish and I have to teach mathematics, reading and writing to reinforce what they´re learning in their schools in the morning. Typically students here are in school from 8 a.m. until only 1 p.m. and most schools are private. As such, some of these kids living at Escuela de la Calle and receiving all their basic needs from the volunteers receive classes in the morning and these extra classes as well in the afternoon. As I understand it, it is considerably different than a tutoring session and will require vocabulario. Aye! Wish me luck.
Yesterday, I watched the Rigobera Menchu story with Corinne and Ben. I really enjoyed the movie, but admittedly had a hard time with the descriptions of the torture that was performed on the peoples in the pueblos (small towns and communities) during the war. As such, she is running as Guatemalan´s first female president and we heard of her politics today. She has a fascinating and interesting life. Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigoberta_Menchu for more info about her!
Last night, Corinne´s former maestra, Marta, picked up Ben, Corinne and I and took us to her place outside of the central city area so we could cook Thai food and sushi for her. Turns out you can buy seaweed and rice noodles (or rice pasta...not really sure). The meal was GREAT! and we had the entire night in Spanish. I really really enjoy spending time with Marta and hearing her talk. Her pronounciations and language is easy to understand and she is always generous with her Spanish lessons in conversation. Also, she has led a truly inspiring life as a social worker in Guatemala and in the States. At one time, she spent 8 years travelling back and forth from Guatemala to the U.S. to counsel and teach other volunteers and social workers health care, education, etc. for immigrants crossing the boarder. Very inspiring.
This is my last week here at Celas Maya and I´m going to miss the atmosphere much. I´ve decided to come back during announcement times and see if there are any activities I´d like to join next week and maybe the following weeks.
I was going to climb Volcano Santa Maria this weekend on Saturday, but have declined due to health issues...but it remains a goal of mine, if not this trip, another when I return to Central America.
On that note, I am still very much enjoying my experiences here. I am learning a lot about my abilities to live within a different culture who have a different language than my own, different food than I´m used to, no water from a free-flowing mechanism that I can drink from or cultural customs that are significantly different and can only be learned after 3 weeks with a maestra. My spirits these past few days, admittedly were low, but with antibiotics and anticipation for a whole new 3 weeks, I´m ready to check out what´s next!
Rachel, Sarah, Ned and Joaqim are headed to Honduras on Saturday morning around 3 a.m. I´ve been told. Thanks to you all who made my last 3 weeks truly truly INCREDIBLE. I have laughed till I´ve cried, shared bathroom/lake/parasite/bottled water/Xela Pan/how to refinance my life/all food in general/stray dog/Blue Angel cafe/La Luna cafe and Tecun experiences with you all and would do it again if I could. Stay in touch and let me know you lived through the dengue and malaria in Honduras.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Explanations and goings on...
Hello!
A friend facebooked me and asked if I was still ¨alive¨ whereas another friend emailed and asked if I had any explanations for the lack of posts, pictures and the two simulataneously...
They had good points...it´s been a few days...possibly close to a week since I´ve given a thorough post about my trip here. Truth be told, I have parasites in my intestines!! WOOOO!!! But, I am afraid I can´t give that information just yet as I need to catch up with my activities over the past 6 days. I left for Tikal on Thursday, June 21 around 2 p.m. on a private bus...about 27 of us left from Celas Maya together. There were, in all, 21 from Celas and an additional 6 from another school. Josque, a maestro here and our ¨guide¨ so to speak, posted ads for the trip all around popular places in Xela to invite other students on the trip. These 6 were interested and joined our group. I must preface that the trip to Tikal was supposed to take a long and tedious time to arrive. We left around 2 and ended up in the capital, Guatemala City, at 7 p.m. We pulled up to a ¨mall¨ in which we were told our bus driver needed a few hours to sleep (3 was all we could spare) and to stay in the mall until we left as it was one of the few safe places for 26 Americans and 1 Swede to stay until departure. As such, the mall closed at 8 and we decided Pizza Hut would be a good eating and gathering place for so many of us. We had delicious veggie pizza and garlic bread. During dinner, Corinne shared with me some of her Valium that she bought for 2Q (approximately $.30) per pill. I found out it was Valium after calling Mom in the States to find how much and if we should take it. I know this sounds like a crazy plan, but for godsakes were headed on a bus for another 8 hours...I had to admit that a night of sleep, without interruption due to a Valium coma, sounded like an attractive plan. As such, I can report, an Corinne I´m sure would verify, that the ¨Valium¨ actually caused extreme and ridiculous alertness on the bus. It was 8 hours of absolute paranoia and hell. Corinne reports taking another dose because she was experiencing the same thing, only to have neausa and weird dreams. No more Valium or ¨Valium¨ for me.
We arrived in Las Flores (the island we were staying on that bordered Tikal) around 6:30 a.m. We walked the town and stopped at our hotel. Because it was so early, we dropped our things in 1 of the 2 hotels rooms we had reserved for our ¨things¨ until the other guests had checked out. As for pictures of it...these would be the sign reading ¨La Tablita¨, the name of the restaurant we ate at every morning for breakfast and the one to the left of it with the car parked close. This was a few from the restaurant. I absolutely LOVE the cobblestone streets here in Guatemala.
We didn´t have much time to change or clean up, before we were headed off to the ruins in Tikal. The ruins were rediscovered in 1848 at which time excavation began to restore and renew the area. To this day, they have only excavated (I think) 60% of the park and 20% will not be changed or excavated (not sure why...a conversation I overheard). As for corresponding pictures, those are the 5 below the restaurant sign. 4 are of the ruins themselves and one is of the view after I climbed to the top!! It had, in my opinion, quite a few steps, but was worth being above the treetops!! We walked around the park for some time, but I have to admit, it wasn´t as much fun as I would have liked, with the intense INTENSE rainfall while we were there. I must preface this story with: I have NO rain jacket in Guatemala. Turns out, I have come during the rainy season. What´s an Arizona girl to do!?! So, back to the ruins: We were there for about 30 mins. or so and soon the rain begain to fall...hard. It rained for about 40 mins. and with no jacket that meant soaking wet...pretty much all of us in the group!! I protected my camera sufficiently, but for some, they weren´t so lucky. All in all, I was elated to see and experience the history but frustrated to be cold and wet for so long. After the ruins, we came home, Rachel, myself and others went into the ¨hot¨ tub in the hotel. Turns out it wasn´t heated and after, oh 10 mintes, it was warm enough to hang out in. It helped to have bottles of whiskey and wine and the company. Later, we had dinner on a dock next to our hotel. The view was gorgeous and we chatted with friends we have made here at the school. After dinner, we took a shower and headed for BED!
The next morning, after breakfast, we boarded boats, which sat close to the water and had benches for seating. Over our heads was a tarp that came to a point in the middle. The view, the breeze and the lake was absolutely beautiful. We took a tour of the lake area and came to the Zoo on another island. The two pictures above the restaurant pictures are from the Zoo. We walked across a bridge (15 people at a time) to the other side to view the animals. The picture next to it is that of a few I took next to the leopard´s cage. It was a small lagoon with a beautiful intertwining fence on our pathway. Zoo systems, admittedly, in Guatemala are considerably different. For example, I couldn´t see the giant leopard from where he was resting below by just looking over the fence, so I crawled over the fence and stood looking into the cage that way...much easier...perhaps a little more dangerous, but seriously 20ft away from this thing! Also, with the monkeys for example, Ned had an encounter in which he shook hands with one (several students as well) because they had broken through parts of their cage. Neither better nor worse...just a different experience. We continued with our tour to a ¨hill¨ of some sorts, which at the top had a treehouse-ladder thing to climb and see the entire view of the island of Las Flores and the lake (see the picture of me next to the tree!) After the view and the climb, we headed to a clean ¨beach¨ and swam for an hour or so. After we got out it POURED and our ride back in the boat to Las Flores was a little wet and a little cold. All the same...fun. We had dinner on another dock, which was also just as good! We tooled around the island for a few hours in search of hammocks for Rachel and goodies for the others. We were successful and now she was a ¨recliner¨ when she takes off for the peace corps in September.
We had drinks and hookah with the whole group and a restaurant owned by an unusual German man. He was friendly enough, but we had a hard time actually getting the food into our possession before it was time to leave the island altogether.
At 10 p.m. we boarded the bus and headed to Antigua. This time, I slept considerably better and considerably longer. We arrived in Antigua at 7 a.m. and had a fantastic breakfast at small garden spot. The restaurant was called ¨The Enchanted¨ and we sat on the patio, where above us were vines and beautiful flowers hanging down for us to enjoy while we ate! After the breakfast, Josque took us through the town on a ¨tour¨of various convents and missions. We paused for 20 minutes at one point to let a parade come through the town. It was the local Catholic church (the photo next to me at the top!) celebrating Corpus Christi and the feast of San Pedro. It was incredible to watch practically an entire congregation of people marching, playing instruments, children dressed as angels spreading flowers and the elderly men and women wearing veils and gloves in a procession around the padre who was praying into a microphone.
After half a day in Antigua, we boarded the bus and headed for home, in which we arrived here around 6:30. Because the host families do not cook for us on Sundays, we are to find our own means on Sunday. We headed to Blue Angel cafe, our favorite spot as it caters well to vegetarians here in Guatemala, for soup and sandwiches. It was there, that I find I wasn´t feeling so well...stomach pains and a headache. To be expected considering we had spent the better part of 20 hours on a bus!
Monday, however, it was much much worse. I have a new maestra this week and she is GREAT! Her name is Tonia and she is extremely dedicated to her teaching practices. She has good methods to teaching and we work well with each other. I feel lucky to have her. Also, Monday was ¨Teacher´s Day¨ in Guatemala and as it turns out, all this week, students do not have class due to the holiday. The stomach cramps and fever persisted both Monday and Tuesday. I took every anti-diarrheal I could get my hands on (luckily no vomitting) but the problems have not slowed down. Called Mom finally and asked if it was safe to take Cipro...supposedly the end all, be all of parasite-ridding medicines out there. I bought some here for less than $10. I´ve been taking for 1.5 days now and am starting to feel somewhat functional. Thus the reasons for the lack of posting! But! I´m hopefully bouncing back and killing any and all parasites in my body..woo!
As for today, I did not head to school and stayed in bead for most of my time before lunch. My host family has been serving me ¨soup¨ as they call it, but actually Ramen noodles (shrimp to be exact). Currently it´s hailing here...very strange...so strange that I´ve taken pictures to capture the moment. The other pictures are of Atitlan lake (the previous weekend excursion), my ¨treehouse¨ for a hotel, the hammock I frequented, the view of San Pedro Volcano from Santiago Island (it looks amazing with the cloud-coverage) and our group on our double-decker boat. The other pictures are of Escuela de la Calle´s walls we painted (which we finished YESTERDAY!!!...will post those pictures soon also) and of the Celas Maya sign outside of school..oh and a view from the top of the city here in Xela.
That is PLENTY for now!! will catch up with further news tomorrow
A friend facebooked me and asked if I was still ¨alive¨ whereas another friend emailed and asked if I had any explanations for the lack of posts, pictures and the two simulataneously...
They had good points...it´s been a few days...possibly close to a week since I´ve given a thorough post about my trip here. Truth be told, I have parasites in my intestines!! WOOOO!!! But, I am afraid I can´t give that information just yet as I need to catch up with my activities over the past 6 days. I left for Tikal on Thursday, June 21 around 2 p.m. on a private bus...about 27 of us left from Celas Maya together. There were, in all, 21 from Celas and an additional 6 from another school. Josque, a maestro here and our ¨guide¨ so to speak, posted ads for the trip all around popular places in Xela to invite other students on the trip. These 6 were interested and joined our group. I must preface that the trip to Tikal was supposed to take a long and tedious time to arrive. We left around 2 and ended up in the capital, Guatemala City, at 7 p.m. We pulled up to a ¨mall¨ in which we were told our bus driver needed a few hours to sleep (3 was all we could spare) and to stay in the mall until we left as it was one of the few safe places for 26 Americans and 1 Swede to stay until departure. As such, the mall closed at 8 and we decided Pizza Hut would be a good eating and gathering place for so many of us. We had delicious veggie pizza and garlic bread. During dinner, Corinne shared with me some of her Valium that she bought for 2Q (approximately $.30) per pill. I found out it was Valium after calling Mom in the States to find how much and if we should take it. I know this sounds like a crazy plan, but for godsakes were headed on a bus for another 8 hours...I had to admit that a night of sleep, without interruption due to a Valium coma, sounded like an attractive plan. As such, I can report, an Corinne I´m sure would verify, that the ¨Valium¨ actually caused extreme and ridiculous alertness on the bus. It was 8 hours of absolute paranoia and hell. Corinne reports taking another dose because she was experiencing the same thing, only to have neausa and weird dreams. No more Valium or ¨Valium¨ for me.
We arrived in Las Flores (the island we were staying on that bordered Tikal) around 6:30 a.m. We walked the town and stopped at our hotel. Because it was so early, we dropped our things in 1 of the 2 hotels rooms we had reserved for our ¨things¨ until the other guests had checked out. As for pictures of it...these would be the sign reading ¨La Tablita¨, the name of the restaurant we ate at every morning for breakfast and the one to the left of it with the car parked close. This was a few from the restaurant. I absolutely LOVE the cobblestone streets here in Guatemala.
We didn´t have much time to change or clean up, before we were headed off to the ruins in Tikal. The ruins were rediscovered in 1848 at which time excavation began to restore and renew the area. To this day, they have only excavated (I think) 60% of the park and 20% will not be changed or excavated (not sure why...a conversation I overheard). As for corresponding pictures, those are the 5 below the restaurant sign. 4 are of the ruins themselves and one is of the view after I climbed to the top!! It had, in my opinion, quite a few steps, but was worth being above the treetops!! We walked around the park for some time, but I have to admit, it wasn´t as much fun as I would have liked, with the intense INTENSE rainfall while we were there. I must preface this story with: I have NO rain jacket in Guatemala. Turns out, I have come during the rainy season. What´s an Arizona girl to do!?! So, back to the ruins: We were there for about 30 mins. or so and soon the rain begain to fall...hard. It rained for about 40 mins. and with no jacket that meant soaking wet...pretty much all of us in the group!! I protected my camera sufficiently, but for some, they weren´t so lucky. All in all, I was elated to see and experience the history but frustrated to be cold and wet for so long. After the ruins, we came home, Rachel, myself and others went into the ¨hot¨ tub in the hotel. Turns out it wasn´t heated and after, oh 10 mintes, it was warm enough to hang out in. It helped to have bottles of whiskey and wine and the company. Later, we had dinner on a dock next to our hotel. The view was gorgeous and we chatted with friends we have made here at the school. After dinner, we took a shower and headed for BED!
The next morning, after breakfast, we boarded boats, which sat close to the water and had benches for seating. Over our heads was a tarp that came to a point in the middle. The view, the breeze and the lake was absolutely beautiful. We took a tour of the lake area and came to the Zoo on another island. The two pictures above the restaurant pictures are from the Zoo. We walked across a bridge (15 people at a time) to the other side to view the animals. The picture next to it is that of a few I took next to the leopard´s cage. It was a small lagoon with a beautiful intertwining fence on our pathway. Zoo systems, admittedly, in Guatemala are considerably different. For example, I couldn´t see the giant leopard from where he was resting below by just looking over the fence, so I crawled over the fence and stood looking into the cage that way...much easier...perhaps a little more dangerous, but seriously 20ft away from this thing! Also, with the monkeys for example, Ned had an encounter in which he shook hands with one (several students as well) because they had broken through parts of their cage. Neither better nor worse...just a different experience. We continued with our tour to a ¨hill¨ of some sorts, which at the top had a treehouse-ladder thing to climb and see the entire view of the island of Las Flores and the lake (see the picture of me next to the tree!) After the view and the climb, we headed to a clean ¨beach¨ and swam for an hour or so. After we got out it POURED and our ride back in the boat to Las Flores was a little wet and a little cold. All the same...fun. We had dinner on another dock, which was also just as good! We tooled around the island for a few hours in search of hammocks for Rachel and goodies for the others. We were successful and now she was a ¨recliner¨ when she takes off for the peace corps in September.
We had drinks and hookah with the whole group and a restaurant owned by an unusual German man. He was friendly enough, but we had a hard time actually getting the food into our possession before it was time to leave the island altogether.
At 10 p.m. we boarded the bus and headed to Antigua. This time, I slept considerably better and considerably longer. We arrived in Antigua at 7 a.m. and had a fantastic breakfast at small garden spot. The restaurant was called ¨The Enchanted¨ and we sat on the patio, where above us were vines and beautiful flowers hanging down for us to enjoy while we ate! After the breakfast, Josque took us through the town on a ¨tour¨of various convents and missions. We paused for 20 minutes at one point to let a parade come through the town. It was the local Catholic church (the photo next to me at the top!) celebrating Corpus Christi and the feast of San Pedro. It was incredible to watch practically an entire congregation of people marching, playing instruments, children dressed as angels spreading flowers and the elderly men and women wearing veils and gloves in a procession around the padre who was praying into a microphone.
After half a day in Antigua, we boarded the bus and headed for home, in which we arrived here around 6:30. Because the host families do not cook for us on Sundays, we are to find our own means on Sunday. We headed to Blue Angel cafe, our favorite spot as it caters well to vegetarians here in Guatemala, for soup and sandwiches. It was there, that I find I wasn´t feeling so well...stomach pains and a headache. To be expected considering we had spent the better part of 20 hours on a bus!
Monday, however, it was much much worse. I have a new maestra this week and she is GREAT! Her name is Tonia and she is extremely dedicated to her teaching practices. She has good methods to teaching and we work well with each other. I feel lucky to have her. Also, Monday was ¨Teacher´s Day¨ in Guatemala and as it turns out, all this week, students do not have class due to the holiday. The stomach cramps and fever persisted both Monday and Tuesday. I took every anti-diarrheal I could get my hands on (luckily no vomitting) but the problems have not slowed down. Called Mom finally and asked if it was safe to take Cipro...supposedly the end all, be all of parasite-ridding medicines out there. I bought some here for less than $10. I´ve been taking for 1.5 days now and am starting to feel somewhat functional. Thus the reasons for the lack of posting! But! I´m hopefully bouncing back and killing any and all parasites in my body..woo!
As for today, I did not head to school and stayed in bead for most of my time before lunch. My host family has been serving me ¨soup¨ as they call it, but actually Ramen noodles (shrimp to be exact). Currently it´s hailing here...very strange...so strange that I´ve taken pictures to capture the moment. The other pictures are of Atitlan lake (the previous weekend excursion), my ¨treehouse¨ for a hotel, the hammock I frequented, the view of San Pedro Volcano from Santiago Island (it looks amazing with the cloud-coverage) and our group on our double-decker boat. The other pictures are of Escuela de la Calle´s walls we painted (which we finished YESTERDAY!!!...will post those pictures soon also) and of the Celas Maya sign outside of school..oh and a view from the top of the city here in Xela.
That is PLENTY for now!! will catch up with further news tomorrow
Monday, June 25, 2007
i promised pictures!
Because I have promised and failed to deliver here a few times...this blog will only include pictures and I will include descriptions of my weekend tomorrow!!
take care...
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
the Wednesday funk
I´ve decided Wednesdays in Guatemala, or maybe in general, seem to present a funk for me and the others here at the school. Perhaps it´s the feeling of wanting a break from the strenuous pace the Spanish lessons can sometimes...can´t say for sure, but today I woke up feeling sore and wanting to sleeeeeeeeeep!
Not much to say about today or the rest of yesterday. Had a great night with Ned, Sarah, Rachel, Corinne and Ben at Tecun. I love their drink prices and they offer freshly popped popcorn at the table...sounds crazy to mention, but after black bean paste for 2 weeks, popcorn is a nice change...lol.
I´m glad to have met the people I have here as it would not be the experience, I think, I would have imagined. They keep me entertained, they give me a social scene to look forward to and they give me good reasons to try new things!
Today I had studies with Karen, but wasn´t into it. I had a difficult time responding to her and I don´t know how she keeps her attention on what I´m saying as literally I talk like a 3 year old child with ridiculous grammar. But! I´m getting better, or so she says, with my conversation.
Tonight is Brian and Bridget´s last night in Xela as they have to return home on Friday. They are leaving here tomorrow morning to head to Antigua to visit a coffee plantation. We are planning a good bye for them tonight at Tecun (to start).
After school today...went back to EDLAC (Escuela de la Calle) to finish painting below the Mayan symbol names we had painted on Tuesday. We brought Joakim, Ned, Sarah and Rachel this time and they seemed to absolutely love the experience and being with the kids. SO GREAT! I find that the kids today took me, so to speak, out of the funk for a bit. They are helping me with my Spanish as I point to things and they tell me either their meanings or names in Spanish. They speak very very quickly in tiny high-pitched little voices and its sometimes difficult to understand.
My teacher also told me of another school today that is interested in having me volunteer in the afternoons with kids that are 4-6 years old. They need tutoring with their math and reading homework. She said it would be a good opporunity to help out and learn vocabulary....very quickly. So...it would seem that I have found what I am to do here for the next 3 weeks. I figure I can keep myself busy during the morning touring the city and practicing my Spanish and in the afternoon I will be volunteering!
I head to Tikal this weekend...needing to pack tonight as I leave at 2 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. Not sure when I´m returning.
I promise to post more pictures either tonight or when I return from Tikal. For those that are interested...here is a link as to what Tikal is! Check it out...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikal
Not much to say about today or the rest of yesterday. Had a great night with Ned, Sarah, Rachel, Corinne and Ben at Tecun. I love their drink prices and they offer freshly popped popcorn at the table...sounds crazy to mention, but after black bean paste for 2 weeks, popcorn is a nice change...lol.
I´m glad to have met the people I have here as it would not be the experience, I think, I would have imagined. They keep me entertained, they give me a social scene to look forward to and they give me good reasons to try new things!
Today I had studies with Karen, but wasn´t into it. I had a difficult time responding to her and I don´t know how she keeps her attention on what I´m saying as literally I talk like a 3 year old child with ridiculous grammar. But! I´m getting better, or so she says, with my conversation.
Tonight is Brian and Bridget´s last night in Xela as they have to return home on Friday. They are leaving here tomorrow morning to head to Antigua to visit a coffee plantation. We are planning a good bye for them tonight at Tecun (to start).
After school today...went back to EDLAC (Escuela de la Calle) to finish painting below the Mayan symbol names we had painted on Tuesday. We brought Joakim, Ned, Sarah and Rachel this time and they seemed to absolutely love the experience and being with the kids. SO GREAT! I find that the kids today took me, so to speak, out of the funk for a bit. They are helping me with my Spanish as I point to things and they tell me either their meanings or names in Spanish. They speak very very quickly in tiny high-pitched little voices and its sometimes difficult to understand.
My teacher also told me of another school today that is interested in having me volunteer in the afternoons with kids that are 4-6 years old. They need tutoring with their math and reading homework. She said it would be a good opporunity to help out and learn vocabulary....very quickly. So...it would seem that I have found what I am to do here for the next 3 weeks. I figure I can keep myself busy during the morning touring the city and practicing my Spanish and in the afternoon I will be volunteering!
I head to Tikal this weekend...needing to pack tonight as I leave at 2 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. Not sure when I´m returning.
I promise to post more pictures either tonight or when I return from Tikal. For those that are interested...here is a link as to what Tikal is! Check it out...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikal
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Back from the lake...but headed out AGAIN!
Hello All!!
It´s been a few days since I¨ve had the opportunity to post my adventures from the lake and of course my life here. I am, as I´ve said many times before, having an incredibly wonderful experience.
Admittedly, last week, it was very difficult for me to adjust to my new surroundings, my insanely odd host family and Guatemala lifestyle in general. Not feeling entirely comfortable and used to the surroundings did cause a few moments of anxiety. To be expected, right??
However, this past weekend at the lake changed everything for me. We headed out to Panajatchel around 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. Because of construction in the nearby towns, we had a 3 hour private bus ride. I have found, after oh 4 different modes or types of transportation locally, private buses are an extremely nice asset to have. The bus ride was uneventful. I had the opportunity to speak with a 15 yr. old who has come with her mom, Susan, to Xela to study Spanish for 6 weeks. She has apparently started dating her host brother, as in, they refer to each other as ¨novios¨ and this Friday she is headed to what some would consider in the States, the Prom with him. She was going on about how she tends to dangle information to her Mom, giving her (and I quote) ¨just enough information to not ask too many questions.¨ It was an incredibly unusual experience, for the first time, to be the one on the other end thinking this girl was way to young to be talking about this crap! Especially as she´s experiencing so much in a new environment.
After we arrived in Pana, we walked the town a bit, but there wasn´t much to see other than vendors and well, the street. We then charted this massive double-decker of a boat to the nearby island of San Marcos, which was also our home for 2 days. We found our rooms, dropped of our stuff and boarded the boat again to tour around the lake. The best way to describe my living quarters was essentially a ¨bungalow¨ or maybe treehouse even (!?) in a truly tropical environment. We had to climb a set of stairs to get to the room and inside were 3 beds for Rachel, Sarah and I, my treehouse mates. The 2 beds were on the bottom floor and the third could only be accessed by way of another ladder to a loft-type area. It was truly gorgeous.
After boarding the bus, we headed to Santiago Island where we did some shopping in the rain. Truly, I cannot mind this weather considering I live in the hottest place on Earth, or just about. The shopping was incredibly fun as I found some good finds to take home with me. The people here are very talented in their abilities to make jewelry and weave, but more importantly paint! I met an artist who has his work displayed in the Heard Museum downtown. AWESOME work he did and the others on the island. After Santiago we headed to San Pedro Island, which is known for having ex-pats. head to for vacation and end up staying, opening their own tiendas and such. We ate at the Freedom Cafe in which the menu proudly displayed the world smoking a joint. The food was AMAZING (I had veggie fajitas in a honey-soy sauce) and I enjoyed the company. The atmosphere was cozy (on pillows and mats) while it rained outside.
After San Pedro, the group headed back, in the cold and rain, to San Marcos, where we ate dinner and went into another natural sauna. Myself, Ned, Tyler, Joaqim the Swede and Sarah all crammed into a stone sauna that is headed by natural fire and wood. Again....AMAZING! We brought in red and white wine, water and some beers and had a great time for an hour...seriously a truly awesome time with these people!!
Went to bed shortly after as we were exhausted by this time. I slept fairly soundly and woke up way too early. It´s been hard for me to sleep in for what seems like a year now. After getting up early, myself and some others took a short walk to get some breakfast at ¨Moon Cafe,¨ which is a remote cafe that overlooks the lake and serves only natural vegetarian foods for a reasonable price. I got a breakfast burrito with unusual ingredients, namely brown rice, and LOVED it. Also, I haven´t had a bad cup of coffee in Guatemala (of course) yet. After breakfast, I hoofed it back to our hotel (the Paco Real) and had a massage for an hour and a half from a Berliner woman who now prefers ¨the third world¨ and has been living on San Marcos for at least 3 years now. She was great and I felt wonderful. Had lunch with Rachel, hung out for some time and then headed back home on the bus. Admittedly had LOTS o´car sicknes on the return and had to get creative on my breathing methods, but eventually made it home, had amazing Indian food here (who would have thought??) and crashed for the night. A great weekend of relaxing...finally, after a year. Hard to think, that a year ago I was essentially slaving away at this idea of becomming a SpEd teacher in Atlanta. Admittedly, this is way better...lol!
As for Monday and Tuesday, I have kept Karen as my instructor for this week, but will probably change next week. We have been having great conversations and I´ve learned a lot from her in a short amount of time. Turns out my former teacher is not working this week either and it´s almost as if he is no longer working with the school. I´m not really sure of the situation surrounding his whereabouts. Monday was extremely uneventful except for the movie we went to, which was a documentary about the Buena Vista Social Club. For those of you who have the music, GREAT! but for those of you who haven´t heard it yet....GET GET GET!! Had the movie and vino...relaxing evening. Oh! and I got to talk to Ash. back home on the telephono. Esta muy bien!
Today: went by so quickly! Had studies in the morning, of course, signed up for a trip to Tikal...will explain when I know more about the trip and eventually ended up at Escuela de la Calle with Ben and Corinne. There, I drew, by hand, on a wall, the names of the 20 days of the Mayan calendar. LOVED being with the kids. I find that, apparently, my Spanish is actually getting to be pretty good and I feel comfortable conversing with the kids. They are really kind and sweet and so eager to please the volunteers! After studying design for the past 5 or more years has really paid off as now my artwork is painted onto the walls of EDLAC here in Guatemala...lol. We were there for about 3 hours. The ride there, in my opinion, sucks. We take what´s known here as a microbus, which is essentially a van that should only seat 6 and instead carries literally on average 20 people for 1 quetzal, which equates to like 7 cents. It´s not my favorite and I did ride the famed ¨chicken bus¨ on the way back as well. It is extremely cheap transportation but there is a ton of pollution and you have to not mind small children, the possibility of animals or individuals in your lap. Muy intersante.
Not sure yet as to the future I have here in Xela, past 3 weeks of studying. I may ask my family if I can pay them to stay where I´m at and receive meals. I would really enjoy having that as my homebase! and then volunteering at various schools (I have 2 offers here) in the area. It´s a great way to learn Spanish and I love love love los ninos in Xela.
That´s it for now as I must head to study!!
pictures to come on the next post...
It´s been a few days since I¨ve had the opportunity to post my adventures from the lake and of course my life here. I am, as I´ve said many times before, having an incredibly wonderful experience.
Admittedly, last week, it was very difficult for me to adjust to my new surroundings, my insanely odd host family and Guatemala lifestyle in general. Not feeling entirely comfortable and used to the surroundings did cause a few moments of anxiety. To be expected, right??
However, this past weekend at the lake changed everything for me. We headed out to Panajatchel around 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. Because of construction in the nearby towns, we had a 3 hour private bus ride. I have found, after oh 4 different modes or types of transportation locally, private buses are an extremely nice asset to have. The bus ride was uneventful. I had the opportunity to speak with a 15 yr. old who has come with her mom, Susan, to Xela to study Spanish for 6 weeks. She has apparently started dating her host brother, as in, they refer to each other as ¨novios¨ and this Friday she is headed to what some would consider in the States, the Prom with him. She was going on about how she tends to dangle information to her Mom, giving her (and I quote) ¨just enough information to not ask too many questions.¨ It was an incredibly unusual experience, for the first time, to be the one on the other end thinking this girl was way to young to be talking about this crap! Especially as she´s experiencing so much in a new environment.
After we arrived in Pana, we walked the town a bit, but there wasn´t much to see other than vendors and well, the street. We then charted this massive double-decker of a boat to the nearby island of San Marcos, which was also our home for 2 days. We found our rooms, dropped of our stuff and boarded the boat again to tour around the lake. The best way to describe my living quarters was essentially a ¨bungalow¨ or maybe treehouse even (!?) in a truly tropical environment. We had to climb a set of stairs to get to the room and inside were 3 beds for Rachel, Sarah and I, my treehouse mates. The 2 beds were on the bottom floor and the third could only be accessed by way of another ladder to a loft-type area. It was truly gorgeous.
After boarding the bus, we headed to Santiago Island where we did some shopping in the rain. Truly, I cannot mind this weather considering I live in the hottest place on Earth, or just about. The shopping was incredibly fun as I found some good finds to take home with me. The people here are very talented in their abilities to make jewelry and weave, but more importantly paint! I met an artist who has his work displayed in the Heard Museum downtown. AWESOME work he did and the others on the island. After Santiago we headed to San Pedro Island, which is known for having ex-pats. head to for vacation and end up staying, opening their own tiendas and such. We ate at the Freedom Cafe in which the menu proudly displayed the world smoking a joint. The food was AMAZING (I had veggie fajitas in a honey-soy sauce) and I enjoyed the company. The atmosphere was cozy (on pillows and mats) while it rained outside.
After San Pedro, the group headed back, in the cold and rain, to San Marcos, where we ate dinner and went into another natural sauna. Myself, Ned, Tyler, Joaqim the Swede and Sarah all crammed into a stone sauna that is headed by natural fire and wood. Again....AMAZING! We brought in red and white wine, water and some beers and had a great time for an hour...seriously a truly awesome time with these people!!
Went to bed shortly after as we were exhausted by this time. I slept fairly soundly and woke up way too early. It´s been hard for me to sleep in for what seems like a year now. After getting up early, myself and some others took a short walk to get some breakfast at ¨Moon Cafe,¨ which is a remote cafe that overlooks the lake and serves only natural vegetarian foods for a reasonable price. I got a breakfast burrito with unusual ingredients, namely brown rice, and LOVED it. Also, I haven´t had a bad cup of coffee in Guatemala (of course) yet. After breakfast, I hoofed it back to our hotel (the Paco Real) and had a massage for an hour and a half from a Berliner woman who now prefers ¨the third world¨ and has been living on San Marcos for at least 3 years now. She was great and I felt wonderful. Had lunch with Rachel, hung out for some time and then headed back home on the bus. Admittedly had LOTS o´car sicknes on the return and had to get creative on my breathing methods, but eventually made it home, had amazing Indian food here (who would have thought??) and crashed for the night. A great weekend of relaxing...finally, after a year. Hard to think, that a year ago I was essentially slaving away at this idea of becomming a SpEd teacher in Atlanta. Admittedly, this is way better...lol!
As for Monday and Tuesday, I have kept Karen as my instructor for this week, but will probably change next week. We have been having great conversations and I´ve learned a lot from her in a short amount of time. Turns out my former teacher is not working this week either and it´s almost as if he is no longer working with the school. I´m not really sure of the situation surrounding his whereabouts. Monday was extremely uneventful except for the movie we went to, which was a documentary about the Buena Vista Social Club. For those of you who have the music, GREAT! but for those of you who haven´t heard it yet....GET GET GET!! Had the movie and vino...relaxing evening. Oh! and I got to talk to Ash. back home on the telephono. Esta muy bien!
Today: went by so quickly! Had studies in the morning, of course, signed up for a trip to Tikal...will explain when I know more about the trip and eventually ended up at Escuela de la Calle with Ben and Corinne. There, I drew, by hand, on a wall, the names of the 20 days of the Mayan calendar. LOVED being with the kids. I find that, apparently, my Spanish is actually getting to be pretty good and I feel comfortable conversing with the kids. They are really kind and sweet and so eager to please the volunteers! After studying design for the past 5 or more years has really paid off as now my artwork is painted onto the walls of EDLAC here in Guatemala...lol. We were there for about 3 hours. The ride there, in my opinion, sucks. We take what´s known here as a microbus, which is essentially a van that should only seat 6 and instead carries literally on average 20 people for 1 quetzal, which equates to like 7 cents. It´s not my favorite and I did ride the famed ¨chicken bus¨ on the way back as well. It is extremely cheap transportation but there is a ton of pollution and you have to not mind small children, the possibility of animals or individuals in your lap. Muy intersante.
Not sure yet as to the future I have here in Xela, past 3 weeks of studying. I may ask my family if I can pay them to stay where I´m at and receive meals. I would really enjoy having that as my homebase! and then volunteering at various schools (I have 2 offers here) in the area. It´s a great way to learn Spanish and I love love love los ninos in Xela.
That´s it for now as I must head to study!!
pictures to come on the next post...
Friday, June 15, 2007
So you wanna see...
...where I live!?!? I have taken many pictures since I´ve been here, but haven´t and won´t be able to label them on here. Therefore, I´ll give the rundown of what I´m posting!
The first few are of my first actual moments in Guatemala City with Corinne and our friend David (not shown). This was the area where the B&B was located, etc.
The next few are of the crazy ceremony I went to my first night. The little boy is Jesus #2! So cute!
After these, the next few are of the view from the natural saunas on the mountain top. It took about an hour and a half to climb and was absolutely gorgeous. The area goes from city to instant agriculture, which apparently is very common and popular here. The cinderblock looking rooms are the actual sauna and Corinne and I are standing outside the doorway. In one you can almost see the steam however it was difficult to get to close as my lens would become covered.
The final set is from Xela itself. Some are a 180 degree view from the park, others are of my walk to school, some are of friends at the bar in the evenings and others are of my home (look for the small room with lots o´crap). Like I said, my home here has a large courtyard and many rooms that surround it. These many rooms either house people or things (I took a photo of the shrine in the living room...needless to say bizarre). Hopefully this will give a good idea of my life here!! I think, in order to put the most photos that I can, I will make several posts. Stay tuned...hopefully this will work!
Today was another great day with my instructor, Karen. We studied and chatted in Spanish for 5 hour straight. During the break, I received the information about the lake trip this weekend, Atitlan Lake to be specific and I AM going to Panajatchel. So...confusion gone and I have some clue of my surroundings. We´re heading to San Marcos (I think) Island. There are a series of islands around this lake to visit. San Marcos, from my understanding is a ¨new age¨ sort of place for cheap spa care. I think I¨m going to spend most of my time reading, listening to music and drinking cervesas on the beach. From what I understand, several expatriots have visited these islands over time and like it so much, they stayed and opened tiendas of their own. Lots of English is spoken, which is good and bad and there are many things to do. I´m heading to a market to buy ¨handicrafts¨as it is described tomorrow...so watch out gifts for back home.
The weather here has been super rainy and wet and I had my first AWFUL lunch. Literally, one of the worst things I´ve ever eaten. Christina, our cook, claims it was cream, I´m positive it was mayo. Essentially, she boiled pasta, put some herb crap on top and made a mayo sauce. She, I think, would like to think that it´s alfredo, but no folks...this was freakin´ mayo on my pasta. For those of you who know me well...mayo is perhaps in the top 3 types of food I hate. Ah well...had fresh tortillas and salad to go with it. I think Corinne and I are going to a taco stand for dinner...mmmm. After studies and lunch, I accompanied Corinne and Sarah (friend from the B&B) to an actual mall here in Xela. Not like any mall, but like a nice mall with brands like Lacoste and Nautica and so forth. I don´t really own any warm clothes here or ones that protect from the rain. As such, I´m on a mission to find a cheap rain jacket in Xela. So far...not so successful. However, I´m hoping for better in the market tomorrow in Atitlan. The mall experience was so so. Not planning on returning while I¨m here as I couldn´t find anything cheap and we have Payless Shoe Source in the States.
Corinne got good news today as well: BENJAMIN, the boyfriend, finally got his passport and is on a plane tonight to Guatemala. He should be in Xela by 1:30 tomorrow! I am very excited to see him on Sunday and say hello!
This will be my last post for a few days as I don´t get free internet here on the weekends and I´ll be at the lake! Stay tuned for proof that I´m actually in Guatemala :)
Ciao
Thursday, June 14, 2007
I FORGOT TO POST ABOUT...
...THE EARTHQUAKE. I cannot believe I didn´t mention it (well can a little) because it wasn´t so major here in Xela. I felt the earth move (under my feet...he he)during lunch with my host family. They said it happens here often and not to worry about it. It wasn´t until Corinne told me that CNN had major news of its devastation. Apparently, some died and buildings were disrupted in the capital. I can assure you nothing like that happened here. We walk EVERYWHERE in Xela and I find that it´s a lot like a treadmill..when I stop I feel like I¨m still going. I had just stopped walking home from school and sat down, thinking that I was having that feeling, but when the table was moving and other students staying in the home mentioned they felt the room moving, we inquired.
All is well..the most we have to worry about here is staying dry!
All is well..the most we have to worry about here is staying dry!
the best of the best...
Admittedly...yesterday was appropriately titled ¨funk day¨I wasn´t interested in Spanish, I wasn´t interested in any more fucking black beans and I really couldn´t think about Guatemala for at least a few hours...culture shock maybe??
Today...much much better than yesterday. Last night, went to Tecun again with some friends from the B&B and had a few beers, some more beans (seriously...i could never say no to these things) and chatted about all things amazing in Central America and our lives back home. I´ve met some incredibly amazing and interesting people in the city and at the school, and have begun to think twice about my next steps. Originally, I had definitely planned to stay here for the 6 weeks and study and become acquainted with the language. After 4 days, I find myself, for the first time, feeling good about communicating and having conversations in Spanish. It´s in the present tense for 90% of it albeit, but we´re making our way!
As such, after 3 weeks, a tentative plan is to rent an apartment for approx. $13 per week here in Xela and use that as my base from which to travel from. I want to cut down some of my costs while I´m here and find it´s very expensive to stay with the school. Therefore, I also want to take a trip being offered here in Guatemala that would take 6 days and hike through las montanas and the volcanoes. We would end up in a small town somewhere (more information to come). As of right now, 6 of us are planning a week in Honduras and should be leaving about 3 weeks from now. The plan is to stay in the coastal town and take a ferry out to the island of Utila. There, we´ll rent a small place with a kitchen and make our food and bum on the beach. Not sure what or where I´m going after that! I know I have a return flight for July 23rd to make!
I have also discovered the most amazing woman across the street from the school. She sells chocolate covered EVERYTHING out of her home and it´s AMAZING for Q.2 (about 30 cents). I´m in love with her and her fruit. LOL. I had chocolate covered coconut...like a chunk of fresh coconut covered in chocolate...on a stick. Why are there none of these in AZ???
Um...today...for lunch I had a fish. I would like to say that I had like a piece of fish or a fish fillet, however, no. I had a FISH. I guess that´s how they do it here?! It was coated in something yummy and fried whole, at which point I had to peel away at it and eat. Good...but filling and kind of weird. Thinking I¨m going to stick with the black beans. Christina our cook said she would teach me how she makes them ..so so good. I mention the food a lot here only because literally everyday is something new and different and worth mentioning.
My teacher did not show today for classes. I´ve been informed that that´s really rare, however, they found me a new one. Where Jose went, I have no idea. As I said before, he´s a manager of a nightclub down the street. He told me last week he ended up in jail because he was out way past curfew here (no later than 1a.m. in the bars) and was sent. Maybe a repeat?? Ah well, truth be told, I loved my new teacher way way more today. In the span of 1 hour, I learned more and felt extremely comfortable. She was great! I requested to have her next week as well. We also had a guest speaker from the mountain regions who fled Guatemala 20 something years ago to escape the war, kidnapping and torture. She told her story of her return back to Guatemala. AMAZING. And it was translated...much easier to enjoy, lol.
Now, I´m off to watch a movie about I don´t what, but I´ve heard its good and it´s raining so I need to pass the time until cena! (dinner).
ciao for now...
Today...much much better than yesterday. Last night, went to Tecun again with some friends from the B&B and had a few beers, some more beans (seriously...i could never say no to these things) and chatted about all things amazing in Central America and our lives back home. I´ve met some incredibly amazing and interesting people in the city and at the school, and have begun to think twice about my next steps. Originally, I had definitely planned to stay here for the 6 weeks and study and become acquainted with the language. After 4 days, I find myself, for the first time, feeling good about communicating and having conversations in Spanish. It´s in the present tense for 90% of it albeit, but we´re making our way!
As such, after 3 weeks, a tentative plan is to rent an apartment for approx. $13 per week here in Xela and use that as my base from which to travel from. I want to cut down some of my costs while I´m here and find it´s very expensive to stay with the school. Therefore, I also want to take a trip being offered here in Guatemala that would take 6 days and hike through las montanas and the volcanoes. We would end up in a small town somewhere (more information to come). As of right now, 6 of us are planning a week in Honduras and should be leaving about 3 weeks from now. The plan is to stay in the coastal town and take a ferry out to the island of Utila. There, we´ll rent a small place with a kitchen and make our food and bum on the beach. Not sure what or where I´m going after that! I know I have a return flight for July 23rd to make!
I have also discovered the most amazing woman across the street from the school. She sells chocolate covered EVERYTHING out of her home and it´s AMAZING for Q.2 (about 30 cents). I´m in love with her and her fruit. LOL. I had chocolate covered coconut...like a chunk of fresh coconut covered in chocolate...on a stick. Why are there none of these in AZ???
Um...today...for lunch I had a fish. I would like to say that I had like a piece of fish or a fish fillet, however, no. I had a FISH. I guess that´s how they do it here?! It was coated in something yummy and fried whole, at which point I had to peel away at it and eat. Good...but filling and kind of weird. Thinking I¨m going to stick with the black beans. Christina our cook said she would teach me how she makes them ..so so good. I mention the food a lot here only because literally everyday is something new and different and worth mentioning.
My teacher did not show today for classes. I´ve been informed that that´s really rare, however, they found me a new one. Where Jose went, I have no idea. As I said before, he´s a manager of a nightclub down the street. He told me last week he ended up in jail because he was out way past curfew here (no later than 1a.m. in the bars) and was sent. Maybe a repeat?? Ah well, truth be told, I loved my new teacher way way more today. In the span of 1 hour, I learned more and felt extremely comfortable. She was great! I requested to have her next week as well. We also had a guest speaker from the mountain regions who fled Guatemala 20 something years ago to escape the war, kidnapping and torture. She told her story of her return back to Guatemala. AMAZING. And it was translated...much easier to enjoy, lol.
Now, I´m off to watch a movie about I don´t what, but I´ve heard its good and it´s raining so I need to pass the time until cena! (dinner).
ciao for now...
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Update
Not much to post today...
Had a rough night sleeping...received an email from Rio Salado informing me they were speeding up my payment system for a few classes by almost twice as much as I had orginally agreed on. Extremely frustrating, especially when I´ve budgeted carefully for this trip!
Today, I paid the $$ for the trip to Atitlan Lake. Not sure at this point if I´m going bungee jumping or not due to cost. I want to do as much as I can here in Xela and don´t want to blow 6 weeks worth of funds on one trip! I´m excited to consider volunteering here very shortly for an organization in Xela to meet new people and pass the time.
Yesterday Corinne and I walked about 7 blocks to the Mercado Democracia. It´s a HUGE outdoor mercado that sells essentially everything you could ever need (and find in the U.S.) just much cheaper. We chatted, ate pan from Xelapan and had overall a really great afternoon. Woke up this morning very very sore from climbing the hills! Got to talk with my family for 20 minutes or so...loved hearing from them in the States. Also called up T and spoke with him for 15 or so! So great! Last night, after dinner, met up with Corinne and we headed out to a bar (Tecun) for a drink and to watch the futbol game. AMAZING! I will post (seriously, I promise) soon the video I took of the people in the bar reacting to Guatemala scoring a goal against Trinidad and Tobago (sp?). They went NUTS..some even throwing bottles and food at the T.V. LOL. Walked home...and spent most of the night restless. Admittedly a little cranky for my lessons this morning. Poor Jose...I had to tell him that I was funky (at which point he began to sing funky town...a quality moment indeed) and wanted more verb practice, which I got!
Today, the school is offering a class for all students on ¨common phrases¨ spoken in Spanish in Guatemala. Hopefully a good review for me...I find that commonly the family I´m staying with has many phrases that I cannot understand...hoping this class sheds some light on what the heck they´re saying, lol.
ciao for now!
Had a rough night sleeping...received an email from Rio Salado informing me they were speeding up my payment system for a few classes by almost twice as much as I had orginally agreed on. Extremely frustrating, especially when I´ve budgeted carefully for this trip!
Today, I paid the $$ for the trip to Atitlan Lake. Not sure at this point if I´m going bungee jumping or not due to cost. I want to do as much as I can here in Xela and don´t want to blow 6 weeks worth of funds on one trip! I´m excited to consider volunteering here very shortly for an organization in Xela to meet new people and pass the time.
Yesterday Corinne and I walked about 7 blocks to the Mercado Democracia. It´s a HUGE outdoor mercado that sells essentially everything you could ever need (and find in the U.S.) just much cheaper. We chatted, ate pan from Xelapan and had overall a really great afternoon. Woke up this morning very very sore from climbing the hills! Got to talk with my family for 20 minutes or so...loved hearing from them in the States. Also called up T and spoke with him for 15 or so! So great! Last night, after dinner, met up with Corinne and we headed out to a bar (Tecun) for a drink and to watch the futbol game. AMAZING! I will post (seriously, I promise) soon the video I took of the people in the bar reacting to Guatemala scoring a goal against Trinidad and Tobago (sp?). They went NUTS..some even throwing bottles and food at the T.V. LOL. Walked home...and spent most of the night restless. Admittedly a little cranky for my lessons this morning. Poor Jose...I had to tell him that I was funky (at which point he began to sing funky town...a quality moment indeed) and wanted more verb practice, which I got!
Today, the school is offering a class for all students on ¨common phrases¨ spoken in Spanish in Guatemala. Hopefully a good review for me...I find that commonly the family I´m staying with has many phrases that I cannot understand...hoping this class sheds some light on what the heck they´re saying, lol.
ciao for now!
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