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!....