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
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