Update

I’m sorry I haven’t posted much the last week and a half, I got a new teacher (because I asked for harder) and I’ve easily had 3-4 hours of homework every night! But its good I’m hear to learn Spanish…and that has been going well, although the subjunctive might just be a deal breaker!

Also, I know many are concerned about Swine Flu, its definitely scary considering I was just in Mexico and I did have a cold which is very uncharacteristic for me, so hopefully I already have immunity;) But don’t worry I’m taking my vitamins, washing my hands and not playing with pigs. Even the pigs are taking it easy;)














So I’ve finished my time in Xela and I’m headed for a week to a place that sounds like Shampoo and Tikal some of the oldest ruins in Guatemala. Not sure what internet access will be like for the next week, but there are a couple of entries up to keep you all busy ;)

Guarderia

I’ve been spending most of my afternoons volunteering, which has helped make my experience in Xela good. The Guarderia is similar to a day care center for low-income families, usually the Dad is in America or absent and so the Mom must work here.

The day care center which has a cow for milk, a wood burning stove, dirt floors and with outside bathrooms, (things that I can’t help but think would not fly in the U.S.) Despite these kids being ‘low-income’ by Guatemalan standards are the sweetest kids ever! They are all so well-behaved and eager to learn. First we help with homework and then play outside or teach them English songs.

Edwin, an 11 year boy just blew me away - he needed help on his math homework and I thought I was a calculus tutor of course I can help. It was hard! He was learning binomial numbers, the Mayan number system, some other system based on 8 and then the regular decimal system, yet he and I managed to get through it, then play some soccer and he gave me a big hug for helping him. Do 11 year old boys in the US hug?

Stove Project

I think I wrote about my first day helping out with this project, building wood burning stoves for families in rural Mayan communities. Most use open flame in there huts which are literally just concrete and a metal roof. The smoke is bad for a number of reasons as children end up with a lot of respiratory infections and irritated eyes, its easy for kids to easily burn themselves and it uses lots of firewood.

This people literally have nothing yet were some of the sweetest and most kind people I have met. The first week we started by laying concrete blocks with cement to form the base of the stove.

The second week we laid 3 levels of brick with cement on the outside and clay on the inside to help keep the heat in evenly.


The following week we laid bricks on the inside, tiles on the outside and put in the stove top with 4 burners. It still is a wood burning stove, because there is no electricity out here, but it burns a lot less and it’s a lot less dangerous than open flames. And of course a little smoke stake out the top of the roof.

It was demanding physical work but I couldn’t help but leave smiling.

I didn't have my camera with me but I will try and find more pics, especially the one of me cutting stone with a machete;)

Jennifer Anniston in Guatemala?

So I'm not sure if they are instituting a new program here in Guatemala for Driver Licenses, but so many places are advertising that they can help you take the test, get photos, and the government office that issues them seems always to have 100 people standing outside it...but the best has got to be that the advertisement to get a drivers license, is a huge blown up photo of a Guatemalan driver's license and the picture is none other than Jennifer Anniston!!! For some reason I can't see her having a driver's license from here (and it seems like no one knows how to driver here, but that's a different story)...

Comida Tipica - not everything is better fried

As all of you know I love food, talk about it often, and may be wondering what food in Guatemala is like. It's interesting. Breakfast usually consists of ‘mush’ and I was very excited to have mush, because I like hot cereal and the mornings here are cold - but its not mushy - its extremely liquidy. Honestly its warm milk with 2 or 3 pieces of oatmeal in it, I’m not a huge fan of milk or warm milk, so I start the day with the breakfast of champions and cookie and a cup of coffee.

Lunch usually is stewed chicken, potatoes or rice (which is good), and then dinner is always an egg, scrambled, fried or omlette-ish and black beans, refried, fried, or just regular. Despite there being amazing fruits in Central America and this being a super agricultural area, my host mom doesn’t serve fruits or vegetables, so a few times a week I skip the egg and bean meal (I’m concerned about my kidneys having to process too much protein) and head to a restaurant for a salad. During the day I buy fresh mangoes and other peel-able fruits off of the street for a mid-morning snack.

I hate to sound like a spoiled American but its definitely been a bit of adjustment to the food. But the other day had to be the crux of my culinary dilemma, I came home for lunch and was so excited to have something other than chicken, I didn’t know what it was but it was fried and covered in salsa served with rice - everything is better fried, right? No. It turned out to be fried baloney!! I covered it in salsa and chilies but it still tasted like baloney. And after 2 bites I just couldn’t force myself to eat more…sadly the everything tastes better fried is not a universal axiom.

Volcan Tajumulco

I’ve always wanted to climb a mountain by the light of a full moon and this weekend I did! - and it was Central America’s highest mountain just shy of 14,000 feet.

It was incredible, we (my teacher - our guide and some other students) started off at 10:30pm Saturday night, with what can best be described as s nauseating ride to the Mexican border. We started hiking at 1:30 in the morning (at 2,800 meters), and the moon was full. It was absolutely fascinating the moon gave the trees a haunted look, while huge rocks looked menacing. At points I knew we were walking on a narrow pass, but I couldn’t see the cliffs on either side.

For the first 3 hours we climbed, but the last hour was getting difficult. Between the altitude, high winds and at this point it the only way up was to climb hand over hand over rocks. After about 45 minutes of bouldering and pulling myself up in the dark, I honestly picked a rock and thought that rock will be the summit for me. But then I remembered my Dad giving me advice on this trip and life, saying to make sure I climb to the top of the mountain and that I don’t look back or go back down, but to go over to the other side. I realized there was no way to get to the ‘other side’ if I didn’t get to the top. I took a deep breath and honestly found anything I had left and climbed for 10 minutes more and finally reached the summit 5:40 am (approx 1500 meter elevation gain) - just in time to see the sunrise!


Words cannot even describe the view. On one side I saw the moon lighting up the sky pink and blue, on the other the sun changing the sky to brilliant red and orange. We could see the peaks of other volcanoes and were well above the clouds, eventually as the sun came up the shadow from the volcano I was standing on could be seen on the clouds. It was really breathtaking and the pictures (courtesy of Sarah) do not do the experience justice. I must point out that it was cold and by cold I mean that when I spilled some Gatorade on my backpack it immediately froze - and stayed frozen for awhile.

Here are pictures, and a video from the top - that noise is the wind. While I considered it a once in a lifetime experience, it was my teachers 111th time climbing the mountain, that’s right 111.



The top in the background at 9am.

Semana Santa

They definitely take Holy Week to the next level here, processions, incense, floats, rugs out of saw dust, you name it. There are 29 churches in Xela and each one has 2 processions with different floats. These floats can weigh up to 2,000 kilos (4,400 pounds!) All the guys where long purple robes and march down, then the float with Jesus, a band, than all the women in white (virginal), than the Virgin Mary float, another band and more incense. The music is good and its interesting but a little intense.

El Ninos in the children procession

El Ninas... The floats














The men marching The women's float
Some videos of the procession, I liked the music...


They also make beautiful, intricate rugs out of sawdust on the ground, people start working Thursday evening and continue through to Friday morning. These are absolutely gorgeous and apparently require a lot of time and money to make. They represent sacrifice (a mix of Mayan and Catholicism) and then eventually the procession comes and walks over them and they are destroyed. Its kind of sad because they


This one is out of leaves, flowers and pine needles


The longest rug in Xela (200 meters, up a mountain)

My First Day of School

I had a first day unlike any other first day of school…it was absolutely amazing. My teacher said he had to go finish a project and if I wanted to come along, so we took a chicken bus (old school buses from the U.S. that seat 3 people to a seat even though they are made for 2 child butts) for an hour, hiked up a mountain and ended up in an incredibly rural Mayan village.

He has been organizing a project to build stoves in this community, because many of the families do not have stoves and instead they cook over open fire inside their shacks, the result being that many of the children have a lot of respiratory infections, its dangerous (I saw a little boy with both feet so badly burned, it was heartbreaking) and its bad for the environment. We met up with a couple of medical students and I spent the morning mixing cement and building a base for this oven. The children were so absolutely sweet and the mom was so incredibly thankful that she insisted on making us fresh tortillas, stewed tomatoes and an egg omelet. It was an incredible experience and I was so thankful to be apart of it as it ws a good reminder for me of why I am going back to school and how lucky I have things.

I didn't have my camera on me, but some others took pictures, so I will post soon.

Life in Xela

Xela is about 8,000 feet above sea level and a bigger city situated up on a plateau of mountains. To be honest it is taking some time to adjust , its definitely a little smoggy and safety for women unfortunately seems to be a concern, so I just have to be home by dark (unless accompanied by a chaperone, but please don‘t worry I have very concerned host parents and a brother here), So I will just have do some exploring and find some fulfilling activities for the day.

My family in Guatemala is very sweet, we live in a very tiny (1 tiny bathroom for all of us!), nice house a few blocks from school. My host parents are both retired teachers, she was a first grade teacher and he was Phys Ed teacher, and they have one son left at home who is finishing up his university degree in architecture. My host father was so excited that I had done a marathon, he too did one back in the 80s and was excited to point out he beat me by 2 minutes. My host mother was absolutely appalled when I drank a glass of cool water - she thinks it causes coughs and of course I have one (pollution and altitude?) so when I ask for water she hands me a glass of hot water…hmmm