Guatemala

el 21 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:13:00.000-06:00

I woke up at 4:30 and finished packing my suitcase. The bus arrived at 5:05. The morning was warm and dark. There were only three other people on the bus. I was the last person to be picked up. As we drove to the airport, I chatted a bit with the other girls. When we arrived at the airport, I went to the money changing place to see about changing my lempiras into dollars or quetzales, but the rate was horrible (about 28 lempiras for one dollar instead of the current rate of 19-20 lempiras per dollar). I decided to wait. When I tried to check my suitcase, the woman asked me if I had coffee in my carry-on. I did because it is a heavy item, but she told me I had to put it in my checked bag. I am not quite sure why. I went through security after eating my apple and juice box. I found my gate and wrote my journal on the computer for more than two hours before boarding the plane. Our bags were inspected one last time on the way to the plane. The plane left at 9:45 from Guatemala City. I had tea with sugar, and I didn’t like it that the stewardess spoke to me only in English, although she was speaking Spanish with the Guatemalan passengers. We arrived in Dallas at 2pm after a flight of 3 hours. I went through customs and security without a problem. I talked to Tammy and my mom. We entered the plane, but before we took off, the pilot informed us that there was a tiny problem with the plane and the mechanic had to come and check it out. We waited a half hour and I used my phone to text Tammy and my family. Finally, we left and I wrote in my journal and took notes from my Debbie Diller math stations book. I arrived in Chicago and found my suitcase. I called Tammy and she came in and helped me with my suitcase. We had to run quickly to where Brennan had parked because it was only a loading zone, not a parking area. It was wonderful to be at Tammy’s house with her. Laura arrived and we were together for the first time since December 12. It is so fantastic that Tammy and I get to spend six days together before she heads off to Costa Rica!

el 20 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:12:00.002-06:00

I slept rather poorly the night before. I kept waking up, I was cold, and my stomach hurt. The bed only had a sheet on it, so I tried to sleep under my towel, but it still wasn’t warm and the fan was blowing on me. I tried not to toss and turn too much since Amber and I were sharing the double bed. I woke up nearly every hour, and when the alarm went off at 5:30, my stomach was not happy. We got ready and I videoed Amber doing a Tato impersonation and we took a final picture. I took some medicine that Lauren had and went to the bathroom one last time. I was worried about being on buses (without toilets) for most of the day. It would have been better if I could have taken a shuttle at six. We left at 6:15 and we parted ways right outside our hotel. I headed toward the park and after asking a few people, I found the collectivos to the border. There was one waiting to leave, which was nice. I was feeling muy mal and spent the 20 minute trip to the border praying for easy connections for the four buses I was going to have to take and for my stomach to feel better. We arrived at the border at 6:45. I exchanged my meager amount of lempiras for quetzales and got my passport stamped. I walked across the border and found the Guatemalan customs office and paid 10Q to enter Guatemala and get my passport stamped there. While I was paying, a man came up to me and asked if I was going to Guatemala. I said that ultimately I was going to Antigua, but I was willing to take a shuttle to Guatemala. He told me that actually the shuttle was going to Antigua and that there was one seat available! What an answer to prayer and so fast! I climbed in the front middle seat, between the driver and a girl from UT in Austin who is getting her master’s in social work. Her friend was in the back and she is in the program, too. She is interested in working with people with disabilities. I got her email address so Emily can contact her. It was really windy because we had the windows all the way open. I talked to Nancy for about an hour and then she slept. I started feeling better soon after getting into the shuttle (another answer to prayer!) and I didn’t feel horrible again the rest of the day. We stopped at 8:30 for breakfast and bathrooms. I ate my peanut butter sandwich. We drove for another half hour or so and then Nancy and her friend Jennifer got out to take another shuttle to Coban. I now had the advantage of having the whole front seat to myself! I read my Bible and wrote in my journal. Then I worked on school stuff for two hours! I am so thankful that I can read and write in moving vehicles. Poor Amber feels carsick even if she is not reading and I don’t feel sick even if I am reading. There was a lot of traffic in Guatemala City and I think our driver tried to take a detour and got lost. Finally we made it out of Guatemala City and went to Antigua. We arrived about 12:30, which was hours before I would have made it taking four public buses! Our driver only dropped us off at one point, about a block away from the park. We drove right by where I needed to get off (about two blocks away from the house), but as my bag was on the roof, I could not just hop out. I met a family who had been in the back of the shuttle. Then I lugged my stuff to Elvira’s house.

Enrique opened the door for me and I went in and chatted with him and Elvira for fifteen minutes. I stayed in the room downstairs next to the kitchen. I put my stuff away and went to the bathroom. The only person who was still at Elvira’s from before was Alex. I met Luis from Quebec and Dexter from Minnesota who works at a school in Guatemala City. Rosa also ate with us. We had guisado de res (beef stew), rice, guacamole, and plantanos with mole. My Spanish was flowing nicely as I talked with the new guys, told Elvira and Enrique about my trip, and discussed recipes with Elvira. We all think that she needs to write a Guatemalan cookbook. After lunch, I stayed and talked for a while before heading out to do my errands. As I was preparing my purse for errands, I found 1,000 lempira in my other wallet! I was surprised that I had nearly run out of money, and now I know why. Ahhh! Why couldn’t I have found that before I crossed the border where you can get a great exchange rate?!

I needed to book a shuttle for the next day to get to the airport, but I had no idea how difficult of a task this would be. I went to an internet café for 15 minutes to make sure I knew what time my flight left (9:45am) and I chatted with Tammy and Laura for a few minutes. I then went hunting for a shuttle. I wanted to find one that left at 6, but there were not any, unless I wanted to pay big bucks for a private shuttle. I then settled on leaving at 5am, but most places only offered a 4am shuttle. The prices had gone up a lot from last year when I paid $5. This year I had to pay $10! After checking in about 12 travel agencies, I finally found one that offered a 5am shuttle (Ash Travel Agency). The woman working there (Maibely) was very friendly and gave me a 24 hour number in case of emergencies.

In between stopping at the travel agencies, I went to the grocery store and bought some unique foods that cannot be easily found in Indiana. I bought two pieces of milk candy from a little shop and a caramel ice cream from Pollo Campero in honor of my last day in Guatemala. I then passed by a Burger King, which I did not know existed in Antigua. In Honduras, I had seen an advertisement for green soft serve ice cream, and I was really curious about it. I wondered it if was lime or pistachio or fig. I went in to investigate, but this Burger King did not have that flavor and the ice cream cones cost nearly 3x the price of Pollo Campero ice cream! I went to the bank to see if it is possible to exchange lempira for dollars or quetzales (it isn’t). I went to the market and bought a few last souvenirs. In one stall, I talked with Tomas for a long time. He is from Chichicastenango and has 7 brothers and sisters. His father died and the three oldest all work in different cities to support the family. He only learned Spanish five years ago when he left his village where only Quiche is spoken. He also speaks two other Mayan languages and a bit of English. His boss is a pastor and Tomas earns $100 a month no matter how much he sells. I gave him the money for my purchase and a little more for him and his education. I bought an oil painting of Antigua for me at the next stall. The boy working there was named Jose. He really wanted me to buy his painting, but I liked his sister’s work better. I got the painting $15 when the asking price was $25. I need to find my oil painting from Hong Kong. I bought a tiny oil painting of Lake Atitlan last year. Too bad I don’t have a piece of art from South America. I guess I will have to go back sometime! I stopped a the Feria de Libros in the park and bought a book of kids’ riddles in Spanish. I headed back to the house to sort the clothes that I was going to donate. Our Spanish school collect donations. I left at 6:12 to walk all the way across town to the school. I got some atol de elote on the way since it was my last day. I needed Amber to share it with me, though, because I could not drink it all. When I got to the school, it was closed for some strange reason. I rang the doorbell, but no one answered. I booked it back toward Elvira’s and stopped in a tienda to spend my coins. I had actually accumulated a lot and bought candy. I got back just a few minutes before dinner, so I washed up and helped Elvira in the kitchen. Enrique did not eat with us because he was at a political meeting (maybe our joke about him running for office is coming true!). Dexter did not eat either. We had elbow macaroni with alfredo sauce and herbs, a hot dog with tomato sauce on it, and broccoli with lime juice on it. We talked about Lyme Disease at dinner. Alex has a friend in New Jersey who has it badly. After dinner, I headed to my room to pack. I say that I hate packing, but really packing up to come home is not too bad because everything must come. Luis had loaned me his travel scale to weigh my suitcase. It is really nice and small, too. Elvira came and said goodnight and asked me to turn off the light when I went to bed. I did a good job using stuff up and leaving stuff behind because my suitcase only weighed 40 pounds when I was finished! I moved some books from my carry-on to my suitcase. When I came, I had about 80 pounds of stuff not counting my backpack and when I weighed my stuff last night, I had about 60 pounds of stuff! I finally finished packing about 9:45. I rinsed off in the shower (good temperature, poor water pressure) and laid out everything I would need for the next day. I went to bed about 11pm.

el 19 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:12:00.001-06:00

We woke up at 6, and the other girls. My stomach hurt and I spent a good portion of the morning in the bathroom. After an hour, I started feeling a little better. I have felt like this since the Saturday in La Ceiba. Maybe we ate something bad. I tried to check my email, but Gmail wasn’t working. I sent a message to Elvira to say that I would not be coming back until a day later. We ate hot ham and egg sandwiches. Amber still didn’t feel well. We took a picture with Tio Victor and we left for the bus terminal at 7:25. We arrived and bought our tickets for 130 lempiras each. Tio Victor insisted on walking us to our bus and he carried my bag. The bus arrived a little before 8. It was an old school bus with bucket seats. I sat in front of the other girls and put my bag above my seat on the rack. A man entered the bus and preached for a while. I guess this was to make up for the fact that we have missed church the last two Sundays. The bus left at 8:10 and was supposedly going to only stop twice, but, in reality, the bus stopped more like 10 or 12 times. Each time, vendors would climb aboard and try to sell their wares before the bus pulled out again. An old lady sat down next to me with a cat wrapped in a plastic bag (except for its head). His name was Javier, and his owner told me that he likes to travel by bus. I’m not so sure. I took a photo of him and then I peeked back at Amber and Lauren. They were both asleep with their mouths open. They both looked dead. I took a picture of them, too. The next time we stopped, the police climbed aboard and randomly began checking people’s IDs. They asked for Lauren’s and Amber’s passports, but for some reason, they didn’t ask me. They asked the girls about our trip: where we were coming from, where we were going, and other questions. I don’t know why. We arrived at Copan Ruinas at 12:15 instead of the scheduled 11am arrival. Amber had to go to the bathroom right away, so we stopped at Hotel Patty so she could go. Then we walked to a hostel nearby where we reserved a room for 210 lempiras at Hostal Posada Honduras. We paid and registered and went to the ruins. We found them easily. There were lots of semi trailers parked along the road. The drivers hang hammocks underneath them and lots of them were taking an afternoon siesta when we walked to the ruins. We didn’t have a lot of money with us, but we wanted to get a guide. The entrance fee cost $15 or L285 each and our guide (Obed) cost $25. We walked with Obed to the biggest estelas (I am not quite sure how to translate this word… basically it means the different temples and buildings that are there… the “ruins”). Amber sat down on benches or rocks whenever she could. She is such a trooper to participate with us even though she was feeling awful. The Mayan structures at Copan are incredible! I learned that the Maya constructed temples and houses over already existing structures. For this reason, there are four other temples under the biggest temple. There are still many structures that have yet to be excavated. The guide told us that the archeologists estimate there are enough structures to excavate that it will take 300 years to uncover them all. The Mayan had three main gods: the god of the sun, the god of the rain, and the god of the corn. It made me laugh to see the god of sun shaded by a roof to keep the sun off of him. We saw the giant stairway covered with hieroglyphics. The stairway is a “book” about the history of Copan. The stairway was ruined when it was discovered, and for this reason, the stones are not in the correct places. We saw the field where the Mayan played their famous ball game. It was much smaller than I had anticipated. The best players were sacrificed to the gods three times a year after the game. We saw the altar where they did the sacrifices. We also saw the “disco” of the Mayan people. It was interesting to learn that there were three classes of people in the Mayan society. However, it was possible for a person to change classes simply by studying or playing the ball game well. The women were honored in the Mayan society and had certain rights in the community. The women were the astronomers and dentists. Finally, the community and the land could not support the population of 30,000 people. There were diseases and not enough food. All the people either died or moved. There were 16 kings in Copan, all from one family. The first king came from Tikal, in Guatemala. The Copan river was very near the ruins and it was eroding the land and destroying the structures of Copan, so the archeologists changed the course of the river to protect Copan.

After the tour, we returned to our hotel and lay down for a while. The other girls slept, and I wrote in my journal. I decided to walk through the town. Lauren woke up, but since she wasn’t feeling well, she decided to stay in the room. I went to the park and found a street of souvenirs. I looked at the earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. I talked to an old man named Carlos who makes jewelry. He had a necklace made out of a Honduran coin. I liked it a lot, but I didn’t have enough money with me. I looked for information about a shuttle to Antigua, but there was no more space on the 6am shuttle. There was only one spot left on the noon shuttle, but that was really too late for me. I bought ice cream: one scoop of lime and one scoop of caramel in a cup for L25. I returned to the room, and we decided to go walking together. I asked in two more places about a shuttle to Antigua with no luck. Each time, the owner assured me that there was room, but when he called to check, there was not. I realized that all of these tour companies share a common shuttle. I went to look for souvenirs with Lauren and Amber. I bought the necklace from Carlos and took a picture. We asked him about a good place to eat baleadas. He recommended a restaurant near his table called Vamos a Ver. We went to look for more souvenirs and information about buses before returning to the restaurant. We ate humongous baleadas (flour tortillas with beans and cream inside) and licuados. I had a watermelon licuado, Amber had mango pineapple, and Lauren had chocolate (which had a flavor similar to chocolate milk). The baleadas and licuados cost L30 each. A child served us. There was a man at the other table that looked very much like David Durica. After we left the restaurant, we went searching for an internet café. We tried in four different locations, walking all over the town, but it seemed like all the places were either closed or did not have working internet. We went to a small shop and bought water and cookies for Jenny. Lauren and I went to the hotel to get Tio Victor’s number while Amber went to call her dad. Lauren and I found the place where you can make international calls. Amber was talking with her mom and Kevin since her dad was at a church meeting. Lauren called Tio Victor and tried to call her family, but they didn’t answer. It only cost ten cents a minute to call the U.S. I tried to call my mom, but she didn’t answer. I left a message and paid two lempiras. We returned to the hotel and I gave Amber a foot massage. I showered, and then she gave me a massage while we talked. We went to bed at 10:40.

el 18 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:11:00.002-06:00

Amber woke me up at 6:30 because we wanted to take advantage of the morning. The plan was that Tato would come to the beach house to get us at 10:30. Amber wasn’t feeling well. I made scrambled eggs with cheese, and we also ate avocado and bread. We put on our swimsuits and sunscreen and went to the pool. I wrote by the side of the pool for more than an hour and a half. I finished Amber’s notes and I wrote in my journal. We rinsed off in the shower and finished packing. I cleaned the house a bit. Amber was feeling very poorly and was lying down on the bed until Tato arrived at 11:30. We left the remainder of our food for Sandra and her family. Tato had Homer with him. We put our luggage in the back of his truck. Homer sat in the back with Amber and me. He is a badly-behaved child. Tato told him to sit on the seat, and he wouldn’t do it. He doesn’t obey Tato at all. We arrived at Tato’s house and we left our stuff in the truck. We went in and greeted his family. After a short time, we went outside and ate lunch with Tato and his father, Roberto. We ate lasagna and plantains with cream and Coke and Pepsi. Amber didn’t eat much and felt worse. Someone gave her medicine (an antacid). It was white and she accidentally spilled a little on her jeans. She lay down on a bench. I saw my first avocado tree with huge avocados on it. I took a picture, of course. At 2, we left the house and went to the mall to see if we could find a Victoria shirt for Tio Victor. Victoria is one of the soccer teams in La Ceiba and Tio Victor’s favorite team. We stopped at a drive thru pharmacy on the way and bought Alka Seltzer Black for Amber’s stomach. When Tato had told us about Alka Seltzer Black, we all envisioned Alka Seltzer tablets that were black instead of white. However, when Amber took the Alka Seltzer, we were all disappointed to see that it was white, as usual. The package was the only part that was black. The actual name of the medicine was Alka Seltzer Extreme.

When we arrived at the mall, Tato forgot about our bags in the back of the truck. I asked him in Spanish if he was going to put our bags inside the truck before we went in. He replied in English, “That is already going to take place!” as he put the bags inside the truck. We looked for the shirt, but they do not carry them this time of year. We went to the bus station and we bought tickets. It was a really nice bus, which was reflected in the higher price. Each ticket cost 270 lempiras or about $13.50. However, it was well worth the extra price. This was the only bus I went on this time in Central America that had a toilet, and it was good because Amber was so sick. The bus had air conditioning (although it was actually too cold) and blankets and pillows. The stewardess gave us water, potato chips or a sandwich, and pop. Amber got sick about 40 minutes into the journey. I was so glad that we had a bathroom for her sake. She was really cold, so I stole another blanket off the rack. Amber and I sat next to each other, but we didn’t talk much because she was resting. The trip lasted three hours and when we arrived at the bus station in San Pedro Sula, we didn’t know where to find Tio Victor. Lauren went to look for information about a bus to Copan for the next day, and Amber went to the bathroom. I guarded our stuff. Tio Victor came to the bus terminal and found us. Lauren was still gone, so Tio Victor went to look for her. Amber and I waited with the stuff for them to get back. Then, Tio Victor drove us home and insisted on carrying our bags up to our bedroom. He is so thoughtful! He is a big man with a big heart. After a bit, Leslie came up to tell us that the dinner was ready. We went down and ate Honduran tacos. Amber didn’t eat very much. Doctora Vicky came down to ask about Amber’s symptoms. She sent Tio Victor to the pharmacy to get ciprofloxacina for Amber because the only Cipro we had was really old. Lauren used the computer when Victor finished. I massaged Amber’s feet and we talked. I went to bed around 12 and Lauren was still downstairs on the computer.

el 17 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:11:00.001-06:00

I woke up at 6:30 and went out to read on the balcony. Amber and Lauren appeared around 7. We wrote in our journals for a while. I ate cornflakes, and then Amber showed me how to cut mangos and we ate two. Afterwards, we put on our swimsuits and sunscreen. However, when we looked outside, the church party had already started at 9am! Tato had told Lauren that there was going to be a retiro of the church at the beach house on Sunday. We thought that there was going to be a retirement party. However, the people outside were all teenagers. Later, we figured out that “retiro” means retreat, not retirement. We decided to go to the beach instead of the pool. The sun was very strong (bien fuerte) and we were hot. After an hour, we put our stuff back in the house and we went swimming in the warm ocean. Later, we returned to the house and I showered for the first time at La Ceiba. With all the extra sunscreen, my body felt very dirty, so I was thankful that we had water working. Next, we ate sandwiches with some questionable lunchmeat that we had purchased at the grocery store. We also ate carrots (some of the biggest carrots I had ever seen, I might add) and apples with peanut butter. We relaxed a while and then we went to walk on the beach, looking for a place where we could buy water. We were nearly out of bottled water, and it is not safe to drink the tap water. We left a note for Tato in case he came over. The sun was still quite strong, so I was glad that I had put on more sunscreen. We found children selling pan de coco (coconut bread) and we bought two for 20 lempiras. They were in the shape of a spiral (kind of like a flat version of a cinnamon roll) and very sweet. While we were walking, we came across the woman who had made the bread. She noticed us eating it and told us that it was her grandchildren who had sold it to us. We talked with her and then we continued on our walk. Someone had told us that there was a shop nearby where we could buy water. We walked to a restaurant that was similar to the one at which we had eaten on our way to the beach house and then we turned around, still looking for the illusive shop. There is a picnic area near the beach house with lots of tables and grass. Families come and hang their hammocks and enjoy the weekend at the beach. We asked a family about the shop. The mother offered to drive us in their truck. We couldn’t exactly understand her directions about the location of the shop, so we took her up on her offer. We awkwardly climbed in the back of the truck (as some of us were wearing skirts) and the man drove us. It was farther than we had anticipated. We drove by a soccer field filled with people. We were the only people that I saw who were not Garifuna! We bought a bottle of water, four bags of water, and three granizados (icy fruit drinks) that were delicious. We offered to buy something for the man, but he refused our offer and bought beer. He drove us back to the beach. We returned to the house and Tato was there. He had brought us lunch (it was probably about 4 at this time). Although we weren’t very hungry, we ate chicken, tortillas, beans, and Coca Cola. Sam and other friends came also. Lauren asked Tato if there are any hammocks at the beach house because she remembered some from the time before. He ordered the man who cares for the beach house to get out the hammocks. When it started raining, we relaxed in the hammocks under the house. Tato and his friends sat out under the roof by the pool. Lauren and Amber shared the big hammock and I lay in the other. I continued to copy Amber’s Spanish notes for almost two hours. The man left at 6:30. We played Rummy on the floor under the house. Sandra, the woman who cares for the house, came over to talk to us. She has two children, Susana (~4 years old) and Fernando (~2 years old). After they went back inside, we played a bit more, but the bugs started biting us and we decided to go swimming before going inside. I was surprised that the water felt warm, or maybe even cool. The teenager who lives here (some relative of Sandra?) stayed out near us because of the danger of bad people passing by on the beach. We returned to the house and rinsed off. We gave each other massages. I read for a little and went to bed at 10:45.

el 16 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:10:00.000-06:00

Today is Lauren’s birthday. I woke up at 7:30 and read for a little while. I like the balcony a lot, from which you can see the ocean. Every morning there is tons of bright sunshine. Working together in the kitchen, we made scrambled eggs with spinach and onion, toast, and tea. We ate this elegant breakfast on the balcony. We talked about money, debt, and credit cards, an interesting birthday topic. We washed the plates and put on our swimsuits. We lay outside around the pool and wrote in our journals and read for a couple hours (covered in lots of sunscreen, of course). I have tried to be really careful about applying liberal amounts of sunscreen with frequency to avoid getting burnt, and so far, it’s worked! I copied part of Amber’s Spanish notes (her new words) but I still lack seven entire pages (both sides) to do. I spent some time in the shade of the roof that is over the table near the pool. Tato had told us that he was going to come over at one, but we didn’t think he would be on time. We stayed out by the pool until he arrived with his friends at 2:30. We went back inside and got dressed and then came back out. The next nine hours consisted of a big party at the beach house. We practiced our Spanish with Tato’s friends and they practiced their English with us. Most of his wealthy friends had attended bilingual schools and most had studied in the U.S. at some point. Four Garifuna children showed up while it was still light. They were trying to catch crawdads in the stream next to the house. We talked to them in Spanish and they tried to teach us how to count in Garifuna (abba, biama, oora, gahdrew, san-goo). The girl braided Amber’s and Lauren’s hair. Mine was all twisted back so she couldn’t braid mine. We tried coconut tablets (a Garifuna dessert) and casaba (a hard and salty cracker). We took pictures together and gave them orange pop and bug repellent. We were getting hungry and finally Tato had someone bring some food from town. We ate different kinds of meat and a little bit of beans with a tortilla. La Ceiba is known as the party city of Honduras. I found it interesting that three of Tato’s friends said that they want to move to another city because there are not many opportunities in La Ceiba to work or for entertainment other than drinking. However, other people said that they love La Ceiba and think that La Ceiba is the best place in the whole world. Tato drove home after the party, although he probably should have found a designated driver. He thinks that having a fun life is more important than anything else. Amber said something to him about what would happen if he had a wreck when he was driving when he probably shouldn’t be. He said that that it is not important if he has a wreck or even dies because he enjoys every day and that is what is most important. It is amazing how people can have such different perspectives on life. We stayed down there until about midnight. I went up at 11:30 and the girls followed within a half hour. I was in my bed munching on cornflakes when they came up. My stomach wasn’t feeling well, especially in the morning. I did a little bit of school work today, but I still have a lot left that I want to do before I return to the U.S. We gave Lauren her birthday cards, and I went to bed at 12:30.

el 15 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:09:00.000-06:00

We woke us at 5:45 and got ready. I went down first and posted an update on the blog so everyone would know that we were not going to have internet access. Tio Victor came out and made toast and orange juice for us. That was the perfect breakfast because we were still full from the night before. We went with Tio Victor to the gas station at 6:25 but Tato did not arrive until 7. Tio Victor waited with us until Tato came. Victor is so nice. He didn’t act like it bothered him a bit to wait for so long. We talked the whole time we were waiting. At one point, Lauren invited him to stay with her family if he ever came to the States. He mentioned his wife and how she is too sick to travel. He said that he wouldn’t want to leave her. Instead of making it sound like he has to stay in Honduras to care for her, he made it sound like he was the one that it would upset if they had to be separated.

Riding in the minivan with Tato were his wife, his son Homer, and his father Roberto. Homer slept for the first hour. The three of us sat in the back seat. We stopped at a restaurant, but we didn’t eat anything. Lauren and Amber had coffee. When we got back in the van, Homer climbed over the seats up and down all over the van. The only time he stopped moving from seat to seat was when he was playing his DS. We talked about the use of technology by children. It is hard to believe that a three year old has a DS! Homer started being a little bit mean. He grabbed Lauren’s hair and dug his fingernails into my arm while making a mean face just a few inches away from mine. We stopped another time at a gas station where Tato’s wife works. Then they dropped us off at a grocery store to get supplies for the weekend. We had 40 minutes to shop. We bought what we needed for three days at the beach house. I went to the bank to try to exchange my quetzales for lempiras, but it was not possible. If I would have known that I couldn’t exchange them later, I would have changed more money at the border. If I would have not told my bank that I was only going to use my card in Guatemala, I could have taken out money in Honduras. (Can you tell I was practicing the imperfect subjunctive tense when I wrote this in Spanish?) Lauren took out more money from the ATM and loaned me some lempiras. Thank you, Lauren! I waited with Amber and the food for 40 more minutes while we waited. Tato came and took us to his house for a few minutes where we met his mother, Flor. She was going to be a candidate for mayor of La Ceiba, but she didn’t run (I think because of the coup two years ago). Roberto (her husband, Tato’s father) was mayor twice, I believe, and Tato told us he is thinking about running for representative (diputado). The thought of Tato running for office is a bit shocking. He lives to party and drink. After we left his house, we stopped at a bodega (warehouse store) where we waited in the van with Homer while Tato and his wife bought stuff for the gas station. Then we stopped at another gas station to drop those things off. We went back to Tato’s house because Tato was going to get a spare cell phone to give to Lauren, but the maid couldn’t find the charger. We went in the van for a short while and soon we stopped in a Garifuna community for lunch. It was a seafood restaurant and their grill wasn’t working, so I had fried chicken. It came with fried plantains (of course) and salad. I drank two glasses of lemonade. Lauren and Amber split a whole fish. Tato didn’t like the music that was playing and he asked the waitress to change it. Later, Tato was talking about his brother Mike who had been with his girlfriend for nine years before they got married and has only had her. With his wife sitting next to him, Tato remarked, “How sad! I can’t imagine life with only one woman. How boring!” We talked a little bit about the political situation in Honduras. Tato paid the bill and we went to the beach house. It was incredible! It is a huge house with an open area under the house for a party. There is also a smaller house for the servants who care for the property. There is a pool and the property is almost in the ocean, it is that close to it. There are covered areas and tables where you could eat or read. It is totally paradise and I can’t believe that no one uses it on a regular basis! We are staying here without paying a lempira and it is the most luxurious place we have stayed. Homer swam in the pool for a half hour until it started raining. They left and we read and relaxed. At 5, we had tea, a banana, apples with peanut butter, and Marias. We sat at the table on the balcony. It was raining, but the balcony is covered. We talked for a while and the rain settled down into a light rain (llovisma). We decided to walk on the beach. There is a stream near the house with cold water and the water in the ocean was warm. When we came back, we were wet but happy. We played cards: Rummy twice, the pile game that our friends from New Zealand taught us, and ERS. We ate cornflakes and candied cashews. I prepared the mystery fruit that was green and yellow and round. It tasted like an orange even though it was yellow-ish on the inside. I also had a piece of bread. During Rummy, a bat fell from the ceiling onto a rug. We took pictures and I picked up the rug and put it out on the balcony. After a while, the bat flew away. We continued playing, but twenty minutes later, suddenly we heard another bat fall to the floor. He began to climb the doorframe. I took a photo and used the rug to move him outside the door. How strange! We wondered how many bats were in the house, but we didn’t see anymore that night. We finished the games and went to bed. Amber and Lauren shared a bed in the room with air conditioning and I slept in a room with our stuff. We are very blessed to be able to use this house as if it were our very own!

el 14 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:08:00.002-06:00

I woke up at 4:30 because I was cold from the air conditioning. It was 64 degrees in there! I wanted to turn the AC off, but I didn’t know how. Amber woke up at 5:30 and I asked her to turn it off, which she did. After this, I slept until the alarm went off at 7. We got ready for the day and ate egg sandwiches with Tia Liliana. She has diabetes and is blind in one eye and only has 20% vision in the other. After breakfast, Vicky told us that we each had to pay $10 for gasoline for her to drive us to the beach. Gas was about $4 a gallon and we were only going an hour away, so I think that was a bit much, but we didn’t say anything. We went in a nice red car with cool AC. I sat in the back with Amber. We looked for the place where we could walk to the waterfalls that Lonely Planet suggested, but we had some trouble. Vicky asked several people, but they kept telling us that it was dangerous. It is interesting that there is such a spirit of fear in Honduras. People were constantly telling us that things were dangerous (bien peligroso), especially the buses because they stop every ten minutes and let on thieves. Vicky had never been on a public bus because she said they are too dangerous and expensive. She was surprised by how little we paid to get to San Pedro Sula. After driving down some gravel trails, we decided to head straight to the beach of Omoa. We looked for a beach, but it was not nice there because the water went straight up to the houses and shops. Vicky took us to another beach near Omoa that was better. We spread out on our towels. Amber and Lauren read and I thought. After a while, I walked up and down the beach. Vicky went to sit in the shade under a little roof and I went back to lie on the beach. We could hear music coming from a seafood restaurant on the beach. At 12:40, we went to the restaurant to get lunch. It was very expensive. Amber, Lauren, and I shared grilled chicken and some sort of seafood. I had a watermelon licuado. We were all really thirsty and finished our drinks before the food arrived. The meals also included beans with rice, tons of fried plantains, and salad. The plantains were similar to French fries, but they have more texture. We talked for a while and then Vicky suggested that we go to another beach that she knew about. We didn’t really care, so we headed off. When we arrived, it turned out that there was not a good beach. A man told us that the beach was dangerous and suggested we go back to the beach we had come from. We decided to return to San Pedro Sula so Vicky could nap. We arrived home at 3:30. We went swimming in the pool that Tio Victor had built so Liliana could do therapy in the pool. We showered and used the internet. Lauren and I put our laundry in the washer with the help of Lesli. We ate dinner with Tio Victor and Vicky. We had baleadas (flour tortillas with refried beans, cheese, and cream)… delicious! I ate two. Lauren had received a message from her cousin Allan with his telephone number. Lauren and Victor called him and Allan told us that he would come pick us up in ten minutes to spend time with his family. We quickly got ready and his driver picked us up and took us to a luxurious restaurant called El Portal. We were wearing casual clothes and when we arrived, we noticed that everyone was dressed up in suits and dresses. We met many of Lauren’s relatives (on her grandmother’s side). Allan ordered food and drinks for us, although we were quite full from dinner. Everything was very fancy. We talked with her family for more than two hours and her cousin Tato (Roberto) was going to return to La Ceiba the next day and told us that he could take us with him and we could stay in the beach house. We left the restaurant a little before ten. Allan paid another driver to take us back to our house. Their family has a lot of money. We assumed that Allan had told the driver where to take us, so we were surprised when the driver asked us how to get to our house. We didn’t have the address with us, but fortunately Lauren had Tio Victor’s number so the driver called him to ask for directions and we were very close to the house. We thanked Tio Victor and asked if he could take us to the gas station at 6:30 the next day to meet Tato. We felt bad asking him to cart us around, especially so early, but he was very gracious and assured us that he always gets up early anyway. We packed and went to bed at 12:45.

el 13 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:08:00.001-06:00

We got up at 7, got ready, and left the hotel around 7:45. We ate breakfast at Antojos Dana. It was a great breakfast with eggs (estrellados), beans, tortillas, cheese, crema, plantains, and a fresco made of seeds. The fresco had ice in it, and we were concerned that it might not have been made from pure water. We also had a big flour tortilla that we shared and was absolutely delicious, especially after eating corn tortillas for so many weeks. After we ate, we went to find a colectivo to get to the border. We found one and paid Q20 each. The colectivo had an interesting collection of people: a man who moved from the U.S. a year ago to teach English and travel (his relatives were from Guatemala), Maximiliano (a cute grandpa man), among others. The English teacher had had a motorcycle accident and had a huge infected wound on his arm. We arrived at the border and had our passports stamped on the Guatemala side. We also changed money. I only changed Q400 for 940 lempira. I should have changed more. The exchange rate was 2.35 between quetzales and lempiras, which was very close to the 2.4 that we had found online the day before. We rode a little farther in the colectivo when they deposited us on the border of Honduras. We had to walk to the immigration office where we filled out forms and paid the entrance fee of 60 lempira. A man advised us to take a taxi for ten dollars each. We just wanted to find a public bus. We walked for a bit on a slightly sketchy road and then found an old school bus. The temperature was very hot and humid. There was a pretty woman with a baby inside the bus and also a lot of mosquitoes! We left after 10 minutes. The bus cost 51 lempira. The bus stopped many times (every two minutes) and the driver played loud music. After a long time, we arrived at Puerto Cortés where the ayudante showed us the bus to San Pedro Sula. This next bus was very good with comfortable seats and air conditioning! I sat in the front with Amber and Lauren sat a few rows behind us. It was nice to have some time to talk with Amber about things I have been thinking. This bus cost 48 lempira and took one hour. This bus, too, stopped frequently, although it was labeled a “direct” bus. We arrived at the bus station at 2. The bus terminal in San Pedro Sula is connected to a mall. I wanted to buy a green soft serve ice cream cone from Burger King for 7 lempira, but we only saw an ad not the actual restaurant. We looked for a telephone so Lauren could call her uncle. We walked a long way to the terminal for Hedman Alas, the bus company Lauren had used when she came to Antigua. I watched the bags while Lauren went to call him. After this, we bought licuados for 20 lempira (one dollar). I had watermelon with milk. The watermelon flavor wasn’t very strong, but it was very refreshing after a dehydrating day of travel. Tio Victor arrived and we went with him and his daughter Victoria (Vicky) to their house. They have four dogs including two Golden Retrievers who like to swim in the pool and then jump on people, a Boxer, and a Chihuahua that bites. We went up to the room where we were going to stay. It worked out well that the room has two beds, a twin and a double. The room had air conditioning, which was wonderful. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading Lauren’s Central America book to decide what we wanted to do with our time in Honduras and then we showered. Around 6, Lesli, the woman who works for the family, came to tell us it was time for dinner. She came to their house in September when she was pregnant. Tio Victor is very generous. Lesli lives and works at their house with her baby Andrea Fernanda. There is another woman named Monica who lives in the house, too. She used to work for them a long time ago. She didn’t know how to read or write, so Tio Victor paid for her to go to school and then college. Now she is a nurse but still lives with them. We ate avocado, fried plantains, and beans with cheese and cream. After dinner, we talked for a long time about family history and Lauren’s family tree. Tio Victor wrote out a family tree for Lauren’s grandpa’s part of the family. Vicki spoke English to us most of the time and it was hard for us to keep speaking Spanish. Tio Victor showed us pictures of his farm and La Mosquitia (an undeveloped area of Honduras that has a lot of problems with drug trafficking). He also showed us the hair from his grandma (that was cut off in braids) and ancient documents from Lauren’s relatives including birth certificates, marriage licenses, and passports. At 9, we returned to our room and wrote for a while before getting ready for bed at 10:15. Amber was already asleep in the small bed and Lauren and I shared the large bed.

el 12 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:06:00.000-06:00

We woke up at 6:15 and packed everything up. We ate two plates of eggs with plantains, beans, plantains, and toast and a bowl of cereal with banana. We paid our bills (they kept a running tab during the time we were there) and I owed 535Q including our shuttle ride to Rio Dulce. We left at 7:40 with the couple from New Zealand. They want to open a hostel. On our way to Lanquín, we had to stop for a truck that couldn´t make it up a hill and was blocking the road. Finally we arrived in Lanquín and we changed to another bus. This time, it was just us and three girls from England. We got stopped another time along the road because a gas truck was stuck trying to come up a hill on a curve and couldn´t turn in time. Our driver maneuvered around the stuck truck with the other guy directing. We made it safely around with three inches to spare! The road to Río Dulce was not really a road, it was more like a gravel trail filled with hills, curves, and potholes. In two places, we had to get out of the bus and walk so that the bus could go up the hill! I gave Amber a massage, which was possible because she was sitting in the seat in front of me. We guessed when we would arrive in Río Dulce, and my guess was 2pm. We stopped at 11:30 at a restaurant and some people ate sandwiches. Amber was sleeping during part of the stop. We switched vans again, and I was happy that the driver put our bags inside the van because I was scared it was going to rain and our stuff would get wet. The new bus did not smell so good. I read the rest of my book (Cast Two Shadows) and then we arrived in Río Dulce at 2pm! We decided to look for a bus to get to Puerto Barrios because it is closer to the border with Honduras. A bus man wanted us to spend the night in Río Dulce and take a direct bus to San Pedro Sula the next day for 130Q, but when we didn´t want this option, he showed us a colectivo to Puerto Barrios that cost 30Q. We wondered if we had paid too much. I sat with Lauren and worked on my memory verses while she read the Bible. This trip was much smoother with a better road. We kept stopping and picking up people. We arrived in Puerto Barrios around 4:30 (which was faster than I had anticipated). We tried to find information about the bus for the next day, but we did not have success. We went to Pollo Campero for dinner. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and a vanilla ice cream cone. It began raining. We decided that Lauren and Amber would go look for information about a bus, find a hotel, find a grocery store, and call Lauren´s uncle while I stayed at Pollo Campero with our stuff. I was going to write about things I had been thinking about on the bus, but I met a new friend instead from the table next to ours. Her name was María José and she was 7 years old. Her little sister was named María Alejandra and she was 9 months old. María José sat next to me at my table and we talked for a long time. When she found out I was from the U.S. she asked me if I had seen a pregnant dark-skinned woman with black hair without any moles on her face: her cousin from Los Angeles. She was disappointed that I didn´t know her. I learned that there is a Chuckie Cheese in Guatemala City. The sky was very dark with lots of rain. María José wanted her family to take to a hotel. It was a bit awkward because she would go over to her dad and whisper in his ear and ask if they could take me to my hotel. I didn´t want him to think that I had asked her to ask him! Finally her family left and I began to write. I had scarcely begun when my friends returned. Their mission had been successful. They had reserved a room for us at a sketchy hotel, found information about the buses, a supermarket, an ATM, and a place for us to eat breakfast, and Lauren had talked to Tio Victor… all in the space of about an hour, in the rain! It was still raining a bit when we walked back to the hotel. I paid (Q123 for the three of us). A hotel man showed us to our room and it was funny because he pointed out the bathroom and the TV about four times each! We left our bags there and went to the ATM and the supermarket where we bought snacks for our trip (cookies!). The city was a bit sketchy, especially at night. The Lonely Planet book described Puerto Barrios as a sketchy and unfriendly place that most tourists leave as quickly as possible. There are many bars and brothels. We returned to our room. Amber gave me a massage which helped my tense muscles. I wrote a bit in my journal and we went to bed around 9:30.

el 11 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:05:00.002-06:00

We woke up at 7, although Amber had woken up an hour and a half earlier. We got dressed and went down to the restaurant where we said goodbye to Erika and Felippo. Felippo didn’t finish all his plantanos, so he gave them to us. We ordered breakfast and read/wrote while we waited for it to arrive. We shared two plates of eggs with plantains, beans, and toast. During breakfast, the couple from New Zealand, Alex and Paul, arrived and we talked with them. We were going to visit the cave of K’an Ba at 9:30, so we still had some time to kill before we went. For this reason, we read/wrote in the restaurant and the cabin before going. We went with Hugo, Alex, and Paul. When we arrived, there was a huge group of people waiting to enter. I was disappointed that it appeared that we were going to be part of such a big group. However, Hugo presented us to our guide, Carlos, and he was the guide for only the five of us! The cave is really amazing. In order to enter the cave, all you need is a candle and rope tied around your flip flops to make sure they don’t fall off. This would not be allowed in the U.S. We didn’t even have to sign a waiver; there was just a sign that warned of entering the cave at your own risk. The level of the water was higher than the day before due to the rain. We had to swim with our candles above the water, like I had the year before. Amber had been there four years ago. During one part, we had to cross under a furious waterfall. I went first. I could not see what I was doing or even where I was going. All I could see was the river pounding over the waterfall. I gripped my candle (that had gone out from all the water), held onto Carlos’ hand, and blindly followed him under the rushing water. It was a little scary, but I completely trusted Carlos. We all made it safely across, and after climbing a ladder, we relit our candles. The big group was in front of us, and because of this, we had to extinguish our candles (to save them for later) and wait for the group to advance. There were four pools that we had to swim across. Because it was dark and you couldn’t see through the water, once in a while, we would stub our toes on a rock. The next day, we could see bruises on our legs where they had collided with underwater rocks. After we had climbed a ladder, we had to grab onto a rope and walk across walks that were submerged in the rushing river. Carlos found some black ashes that were on a rock and made a cross on each of our foreheads that looked like a cross from Ash Wednesday. Finally we passed the other group that was jumping off a high rock and we went deeper into the cave into a big room with rock formations. One of the formations looked like a hat and because of this was called El Sombrero. When the big group caught up to us in the big room, the room was illuminated by all the candles. Their guide secretly climbed up on a high rock. Then he got our attention and jumped off. When the large group got ready to leave, Carlos directed us to swim first. We returned by the same route by which we had entered.

After the cave, we used inner tubes and went down the river with Carlos. We wrapped our legs around each other so that we were all connected. The water was quite cold, but the sun was out. We floated all the way down to Las Marías where Carlos left us. We showered, and it felt so good to be clean. We ordered two chicken sandwiches and a fruit plate to share. Afterwards, we played a card game that the couple from New Zealand had taught us during lunch. They went to Semuc Champey in the afternoon. Johnny taught us another game that was similar to the New Zealand pile game. His game was called Presidente. It was a bit unfair because the loser had to give the winner his-her two best cards the next round. While we were playing, a big tree fell down over part of a cabin and harmed the roof. Johnny and his brother Juan cut the tree into pieces. The sun came out and we decided to take advantage of it. We went to the platform by the side of the river. It had a roof over part of it, which we needed because it began to rain shortly. We did our nails, read, and wrote. Amber and Lauren left, but I stayed there for another hour or two, reading, writing, praying, and thinking. There was a group of three people from Argentina who were camping by the river. They were swimming and then they cooked dinner over a fire. Johnny arrived and jumped off the platform in the river because he said he had ants in his pants from cutting up the tree. Two children who lived nearby came and the people from Argentina shared their food with them. I talked with them and Ramiro read my journal over my shoulder (I had written in Spanish). José, the other boy, left, but Ramiro stayed for a while. He taught me two words in his Mayan language (Q´kek che?): notebook and rain. Both words began with H, but I could not pronounce either of them correctly. I left shortly after Ramiro did.

For dinner, we shared two plates of food: one of chicken and one of beef. After dinner, we played Presidente and then Johnny and Juan danced salsa with us. There was a new group from France and the United States there. I met a man who is part of the Peace Corps near Sololá. At ten, the lights went out, but we were still having fun, so we went into the other dining area and Johnny lit candles for us that he stuck in empty glass pop bottles as holders. We played cards (Johnny, Juan, Amber, Lauren, and I) and talked for three hours. The other group only stayed up for maybe another hour. Johnny gave us Gatorade to drink. It was pouring down rain. Finally, at 1:30, we went back to our room and got ready for bed. We went to bed at 1:45 with only 4.5 hours to sleep!

el 10 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:05:00.001-06:00

Lauren and I got up at 7:30. Amber already had awoken and was doing exercises. We got ready for the day and headed down to breakfast. We shared a fruit plate, an omelette, and fried eggs. The egg dishes came with beans and plantains, a great way to start the day. We ate with Felippo and Erika. After eating, we got ready to head over to Semuc Champey. We went with Felippo and Erika. We walked there together and crossed the bridge that Amber had jumped off of when she was here four years ago. We paid the entrance fee of 50Q and walked to the river. Semuc Champey is incredibly beautiful. When I imagine the Garden of Eden, I think that parts of it must have looked like Semuc Champey. We walked to the wells and we swam in the chilly water. There were small fish in the water that nibbled on our toes. Tammy would not have been a fan of this experience! I didn’t like the sensation, but it didn’t scare me, it just tickled. We enjoyed the wells while talking with Erika. Felippo was taking pictures with his high-quality camera. After this, we walked to where the river goes under the wells. We took some pictures there with Felippo. There were several security lifeguards around Semuc Champey, which impressed us. We hiked up to the viewpoint. The view was amazing, although I had been here just one year ago. We ate snacks and took pictures before going down by another path. It was difficult to get down because the mud was so slippery. Erika and Felippo were getting ready to head back to go to the caves, but we decided to stay one more day in Semuc Champey, so we could enjoy more time there and then go to the caves the next day. Lauren still was not feeling well and wanted to rest a bit. Erika and Felippo returned to the hotel and gave the message that we were not going to visit the caves that day. We went back to the wells because the sun (which had been non-existent so far) finally appeared. We were chilly so the warm sun was a welcome change. We sat down on some rocks on the edge of a well, but it was uncomfortable because there were lots of plants and insects. Lauren and I wrote and Amber was reading, but twenty minutes later, there was a storm. We left the wells and went to the shelter to wait for the storm to pass. We talked and continued our activities while we waited for the rain to subside. When the rain lightened up, we returned back to the hotel. We ate cereal (corn flakes with a bit of granola) with milk and banana. A couple from New Zealand came and we talked to them. Afterward, Lauren went to lie down. Amber and I found hammocks and we wrote/read for a short while. When it began to rain, I went to the restaurant and talked to the people there. Felippo showed us the pictures he had taken and Amber saved some of them on her flashdrive. The pictures were marvelous, even though it is hard to capture the majestic scenery. Each night, the restaurant serves one meal and tonight, it was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and salad of lettuce, tomato, onion, and lime juice. We each had our own plate (no sharing), and we were all stuffed after the meal. After dinner, we taught Erika how to play Hearts and talked with Gustavo and Eliana, the people from Argentina who were paying for their travels by making and selling jewelry. Amber and I bought coconut rings. After this, Amber called her dad to wish him a happy birthday. Johnny dialed the number and talked to her dad first. Then he played loud birthday music for him while Amber was trying to talk. Johnny offered us rum and coke in honor of her father’s birthday, which was funny since he doesn’t drink. We only had ten minutes left until they were going to turn out the lights, so I hurried and finished getting ready for bed just as the lights turned off and it began to rain.

el 9 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:04:00.000-06:00

We woke up at 6:20 and got ready for the day. At 7:15 we ate breakfast with the family. We had two pancakes with maple syrup or blueberry jelly, a tostada (similar to a sugar cookie), and pineapple. We said goodbye to everyone and returned to our house (#59) to wait for the bus. While we waited, we talked with Larry about his testimony. He had to give us the short version, and I wished we had had time to hear it all. The bus arrived a few minutes before 8. We were the first people on the bus and we chose seats near the front of the bus for Amber. I sat behind Amber and Lauren, on the left side of the bus. It was a big, nice bus. When we got on, I noticed that it was the same company that I had used last year when I went (when I had a less than desirable experience). One of the guys on the bus was even the same guy that had been in Coban the year before and sold me my tour package! We drove all over Antigua looking for the other people for more than an hour! We passed our house three times! We saw Enrique and Larry and Dorothy walking through the city. Finally, we left Antigua at 9:15. Again, we were the only Americans on the shuttle out of 19 people! There were people from Holland, Australia, England, Spain, and Italy. We talked to some interesting women from Spain. We asked how long they had been traveling and they said they’ve been traveling since 2008 (if I remember correctly)! We got to Guatemala City at 10:30 and then continued on. We drove for another hour or so and then we stopped by the side of the road so people could answer the call of nature in the bushes. I am not sure why we didn’t stop at a restaurant, like we usually do. A police officer stopped and talked to the driver. I think he was confused about why we were stopping. Later, we stopped at a restaurant at the side of the highway around 11:45. Supposedly we were going to be there 15 minutes, but in reality it was more like 45 minutes. We talked with the Italians, Felippo and Erika. Felippo works at a hostel in Nicaragua. Erika was visiting her boyfriend in New York and then came down to visit Felippo for a bit. Finally we left the restaurant and continued on our journey. We arrived in Cobán at 3:30. I am not sure why the trip took so long because the weather was good the entire trip. In Cobán, lots of people got off the shuttle, including the women from Spain. We got their contact info about their organization. When we asked them when they started traveling, they answered “2006.” We had been expecting an answer of a few weeks or months! They were really funny. Sara read the Spanish words I was copying from Amber’s Spanish notes and she told me that “chistista” is not a word.

We left Cobán at 4. The driver told us that the trip would last two hours to get to Lanquín, but in actuality, it took a bit less than that (for once). When we arrived in Lanquín, we got our backpacks and bags and immediately, a man from Las Marías, a hostel in Semuc Champey, asked us if we wanted to go to Las Marías. We had wanted to stay in Lanquín because it would be easier to leave on Monday, but he kept trying to convince us. We walked most of the way to El Retrato, a hostel in Lanquín, but we discussed it as we went. Transportation was our biggest problem. However, as we went over our options, we decided that it might be better to stay in Semuc Champey because we wouldn´t have to pay for a tour of Semuc Champey and the caves. We sent Lauren back up to find the man and tell him that we wanted to come with him to Las Marías. Amber and I stayed with the bags. We tried to ask several people about the public transportation from Lanquín, but everyone kept telling us that we had to take a shuttle. We were frustrated because we knew that if someone had a relative in Copán or Puerto Barrios, he or she would not be paying to take a shuttle to get there! Lauren arrived in the back of a pickup filled with other people. Amber and I got to sit in the backseat inside the cab. We tried to look at a map in the Guatemala book as we went. Our original plan had been to go to Copán from Semuc Champey, but it didn´t seem to be very possible. For that reason, we thought about going to San Pedro Sula first and then go to Copán at the end of the trip as I headed back to Guatemala. We arrived at Las Marías after a 30 minute bumpy ride. We found it interesting that the guide book described the road from Lanquín to Semuc Champey as “a long, hot walk.” The road was actually quite hilly, rocky, and quite far. I think it would take many hours to walk that distance. I am surprised that Lonely Planet said that it was even walkable!

We settled into the second level of a cabin in a dormitory (35Q/$4.50 per person per night). There were five beds in the room, but we were the only ones up there. We put our passports and money in the safe. We sat with Filippo and Erika. Amber, Lauren, and I shared pollo de la plancha (grilled chicken) and a ham and cheese sandwich. I drank peach juice in a can. After talking with Erika and Felippo, we returned to the cabin. During the dinner, it had started raining and continued raining heavily until we went to bed. Because of this, we had to walk up the hill to our cabin and then to the bathhouse in the rain. I forgot to use the bathroom while I was there and so I had to take an extra trip there in the rain. Also, I had to return to the main area of the hotel to ask Hugo about the light in the cabin. We couldn’t find a light switch anywhere. We had seen a sign down below that said that the generator (and therefore the lights) are turned off each night at 10. Hugo told me that all the lights would go out then, and if we wanted to turn off the light earlier, we could grab the lightbulb with an item of clothing and unscrew it from its socket. Lauren was feeling sick and, for that reason, fell asleep early. Amber and I wrote in our journals until the light turned off at 10.

el 8 de julio 2011

2011-09-17T20:03:00.000-06:00

Today we climbed the Pacaya Volcano. The shuttle picked us up at 6am from our house. We rode in the shuttle for more than an hour. We were the only Americans in the group. Some people were from Mexico, Australia, and other places. When we got to Pacaya, the air was very chilly. Everyone else in the group had worn shorts except for me. On the way there, I thought maybe I’d made a mistake, but when we arrived, I was glad that I had on long pants and hiking boots. The tour cost 70Q and the entrance price was 50Q. We stopped at a little shop, and I went to the bathroom (0/5 on the good bathroom scale). I bought marshmallows at the shop because we forgot to buy them in Antigua. There were men following us leading horses. They called out, “Taxi, taxi!” There was a lot of fog as we climbed up. We couldn’t see the view from the lookout point or the lake in the old crater. However, when we arrived at the volcano, the fog began to disappear. It was creepy-looking with black volcanic rock beneath the swirling mist. It looked like something from outer space. We talked with a guy from Mexico as we hiked. We came to the crack in the earth where you can roast marshmallows. The heat was intense as we leaned over the crack and roasted our colorful marshmallows on a stick. We shared with the other people around us. A dog followed us and wanted to eat the marshmallows, too. While we were standing around the crack, another volcano (Fuego) made some eruptions. I took pictures, but they aren’t as impressive as it was in real life. Apparently, it erupts about every 20 minutes. After that, we went over to the cave. We had to wait for another group to come out and then our group went in. When Pacaya erupted last May, this cave was created by the lava. We entered into the cave and were amazed by the heat inside! We chatted with the Mexican guy, Geraldo, and his mom. She gave us the unusual compliment that she thought we were Europeans because we spoke Spanish so well and usually Americans say that they speak Spanish, but their Spanish is horrible. She is a doctor and works in Cleveland, Ohio, which is where I was born. It felt so nice down in the cave. When we left, we felt cold because of the contrast. We hiked back by a different route and we saw where the journalist died last year during the eruptions, trying to get photos. We got back in the shuttle and drove back. The way back seemed longer and most people tried to sleep. Elvira had given us pineapple cereal bars and we ate cranberries, also.

When we arrived back home, we showered and then it was time for lunch. We had hamburgers (without buns), salad of lettuce, tomato, and avocado, pasta, and a crepe with crema and blueberry jelly. In the afternoon, we signed up for a shuttle ride to Lanquin the next day for 150Q and we went to the market where we bought a few souvenirs. Then we had our last dance class. I danced with Carmen and we took some pictures. I went to the internet café after that. For dinner, we ate black bean soup with corn chips on top of the soup, tamales with flowers and chicarrones inside, bread, and fried plantains. We talked for a while after dinner and then Elliott (Elvira and Enrique’s son) and his wife arrived, but they only stayed for a half hour. At 8:30, we walked together to Pena de Sol Latino, a favorite restaurant of Jenny and Amber. Sharon, Lara, Alex, Larry, Dorothy, Elvira, Enrique, Lauren, Amber, and I went. Amber, Lauren, and I bought desserts for everyone—hot brownies with ice cream, blackberry pie with ice cream, chocolate mousse, and pineapple flambé. We shared the desserts, just like a big family. The restaurant has a live band that plays fun music using interesting instruments. They kept taking breaks every time I got ready to take a picture. I think Lauren got some, though. I collected everyone’s email address and we talked and took some pictures. We headed back to the house around 10:30. We went to the house with E&E and paid them. Elvira gave us bracelets from Guatemala. We packed our stuff and went to bed at 1:15. I had more work to do to pack up my stuff since I had to decide what I was going to leave in Antigua. Amber just had to pack everything up.

Back in the USA!

2011-07-21T21:15:00.002-06:00

I am safely back in the US after a long day of travel (14 hours). I have written all about my trip in my journal, so when I get some time I will translate and type my entries about my trip. Hasta pronto!

Just Kidding!

2011-07-15T06:08:00.001-06:00

Last night Lauren received a message from her family from La Ceiba and when she called her second cousin, Allan, he sent his driver over to pick us up ten minutes later. We went to a restaurant with his family and while we were there, plans were made to go to La Ceiba, leaving at 6:15 this morning. So... I will not be posting anything else for a while, maybe a week. We will be hanging out at Lauren´s family´s beach house near La Ceiba, so don´t worry if you don´t hear from me!

Honduras!

2011-07-14T18:33:00.002-06:00

My blog is now incorrectly-titled because I am now in Honduras. We had a great time in Semuc Champey and actually ending up staying an extra day because we were having such a good time and Lauren was feeling a little sick and wanted to rest. I have been writing in my notebook, so eventually I should get around to posting the details. The short story is that we met many interesting people from all over the world and had a fantastic experience.

We left Semuc Champey on Tuesday and traveled through Rio Dulce as far as Puerto Barrios. We were not able to make it all the way to San Pedro Sula in one day, so we spent the night in Puerto Barrios, which according to Lonely Planet is an unfriendly town that most people try to leave as soon as possible! We had dinner in Pollo Campero where I made a new friend, 7 year old Maria, and had a delicious cheap breakfast the next day in a place called Dana´s. We made it to San Pedro Sula the next day using all public transportation (more details to come on that later). Lauren´s uncle picked us up at the bus station and today we went with her cousin Vicky to the beach. I was the only one who did not get burnt! Tomorrow we are heading to Tela, a beach town to the east with a unique tribe of people called the Garifuna. We will spend the night there and return on Saturday. Lauren´s uncle has internet in his house so I will probably be able to post short things off and on until we leave on Tuesday for Copán before I head back to Antigua to collect my suitcase and take my flight from Guatemala City. My travels are starting to wind down, but I am having a marvelous time with Amber and Lauren. I have also had a lot of time to think and journal, which has also been really refreshing for me. I am less stressed now than I have been in a long time, and I feel really good.

Heads Up... Honduras, Here I Come!

2011-07-08T17:59:00.002-06:00

We are leaving tomorrow to travel to Semuc Champey (in Guatemala), and then we are going to Copàn, Honduras. After that, we are going to visit Lauren´s family in San Pedro Sula and maybe La Ceiba or another beach area. For this reason, I will not be posting daily blog entries. Don´t worry about me, I haven´t fallen off the face of the earth! I just will not have access to my computer or the internet. Time to resort to pen and paper! :)

Hermano Pedro

2011-07-08T17:56:00.001-06:00

el 7 de julio 2011

We got up at 6:15, although I had been awake since 5am. I didn’t fall asleep for a long time last night, either. When I first got here, I was sleeping so well. I guess it’s time to move to a new location! We got ready and I wrote my blog from yesterday. Before breakfast, Dorothy and Lara were taking lots of pictures of everyone. We had fruit plates arranged in a spiral with pink yogurt in the middle, a sweet crunchy tostada, and tea/coffee. After breakfast, we came back to Amber and my room to make plans for the day. We decided to go to some ruins (Convento de las Capuchinas) on the way to a café to work on school stuff (for the first time!). We stopped on the way to get info about a trip to Volcan Pacaya tomorrow. When we got to the ruins, we saw that the entrance price was 40Q, and since we had not read up on the ruins in the book, we decided to possibly return another time. Instead we went to Dona Luisa’s, which is a fantastic café. We had a very cheap snack of ½ a loaf of banana bread to share (with 10 big pieces) and drinks. I had a watermelon licuado, Lauren had a pineapple licuado, and Amber had tea. We worked on school stuff for about three hours. I read my Math Stations book by Debbie Diller and took notes. Amber also shared some ideas with Lauren and me. A bit before one, we paid and walked home for lunch.

For lunch, we had soup (broth with rice), a cooked carrot, a potato, a piece of huisquil (similar to a potato), a piece of squash, chicharrones, and a piece of watermelon for dessert. We also had a pink lemonade type drink. After lunch, we headed back to our room to prepare for the afternoon. Lara decided to come to the hospital with us.

We brought our laundry along with us to drop off at the lavanderia, but we couldn’t find it. We stopped to ask at the school, but we realized we needed to get to the hospital since it was nearly three. We went to visit Hermano Pedro hospital where Amber and Jenny would come to volunteer four years old. When we arrived, we went to the volunteer office, but it was shut. There was a big group of tourists waiting in the hallway. They asked if we were there for the tour. We weren’t originally going to go on a tour, but it worked out well. We learned a lot about the hospital from our guide, Siomara. I didn’t realize that around 320 people are permanent residents. They also have normal hospital services except there is not an emergency room and they don’t have a maternity ward. The permanent residents are housed in seven different wards: elderly women who need physical help (“the grandmas”), a ward for women with psychological/mental disorders with similar wards for the men. There were also areas for teenagers and children. They have a daycare in the hospital, too. It is a very neat place. It made me think a lot of my friends in Hong Kong. Amber and I even saw a man that reminded us of Che Kin! It was sad because the guide told us that the area for woman with mental disorders has not had any foreign volunteers since the last one left three years ago. The ward is locked so the residents don’t leave, and she said that that scares some people. We met Wendy, a woman who came up to us and wanted to know our names. After we told her our names, she would either say “Me gusta,” if she liked the name (usually a Spanish name) or, “No me gusta!” if she didn’t approve. For one person’s name, she said that it was only a little bit bad! Then she wanted us to line up so she could count us. Amber saw Mercedes, a woman that she had worked with before. Throughout the whole hospital, I saw people who reminded me of Hong Kong. I wish I had more time to volunteer there! I definitely want to come back sometime and volunteer there!

The tour ran over and it finally finished at 4:10 and Amber and Lauren’s dance class was supposed to start at 4! I made sure Lara had some people from CSA that she knew to walk back with and I went back to the school and collected our laundry. The band from Pena del Sol was playing there! We are going to go there tomorrow. I went to look for the lavanderia, which happened to be next door to the dance studio! I turned in the laundry (Lauren’s two items and my laundry together weighed 5.25 pounds and Amber’s weighed 3 pounds). We each have a coupon for three free pounds of laundry. I went upstairs and practiced during their dance class. I also watched Lauren’s lesson and practiced what she was doing. During my lesson, I mostly danced with Frank again. We practiced the cross with a turn for the majority of the lesson. I was kind of dizzy to start out with, which is not the best for doing spins. However, after probably 100 more spins, my balance just kept getting worse and worse, I felt. By the time I left, I was super dizzy. Even now, nearly an hour later, if I close my eyes, the room is spinning. I came back to the room and worked on my blog. As I walked back, I saw Amber and Lauren in the internet café near our house.

For dinner, we had Pizza Guatemalteca, a new creation of Elvira’s which consisted of Tay-yuyu (which is beans rolled up in masa) with sauce and cheese on top. We also had broccoli and smooth vegetable soup made out of the same types of vegetables as we had for lunch. After dinner we talked for a while, and then headed back to our room for a while. Amber and Lauren went to Rainbow Café with a guy named Colin that we met at the hospital. I was still feeling slightly dizzy, so I decided that I would rather stay home. I started the process of sorting my stuff in preparation for packing tomorrow. I am going to leave my big suitcase here at E&E’s and just take my backpack and bag to travel. I also finished writing my blog and now I’m going to read before bed. We need to be ready tomorrow morning at 5:50 for the volcano tour!

Cerro de la Cruz

2011-07-08T17:55:00.000-06:00

el 6 de julio 2011

We got up at 6:15. I showered with cold water (not my choice, in case you were wondering) and worked on the blog a bit. For breakfast, we had eggs and meat cooked on a tortilla with papaya and bread and tea/coffee. We were late, as usual, to school. Sara and I talked a lot during my class. We discussed healthcare and I learned lots of words related to pregnancy as Sara was talking about when she had her baby and about her experiences with Guatemalan healthcare. During the break, we talked to the secretary in the office and she called Mike, the salsa teacher, for us. We set up an appt to talk to him after class. Then we walked down the road and found a place that sells licuados. Amber had pineapple and Lauren had strawberry. We returned to class and continued our conversation. We also talked a little bit about the environment. When class was over, I bought the book written by the director that is filled with phrases and slang. Then we walked back to our apartment and got ready for the afternoon.

For lunch, we had spinach soup and enchiladas. The enchiladas here are different from enchiladas of other places. These enchiladas are on a crunchy tortilla with a big piece of lettuce on top. Then cooked beets and other chopped-up cooked vegetables are placed on top, then a scoop of meat (that is similar to chicken salad) and then some more beets and some cheese and parsley are placed on top. We also had bananas with crema on them for dessert. After lunch, we got directions from Elvira and Enrique (two different sets of directions, I might add) to climb Cerro de la Cruz (the hill that has a huge cross on it that overlooks Antigua). We stopped at Lauren’s house for her to change her shoes and then we walked to the foot of the hill. We easily found Elvira’s shortcut. The “hike” was not difficult as there were concrete stairs almost all the way up. It only took 15 minutes or so to make it to the top. We enjoyed the view and took pictures before heading back down. When we were about three blocks from our house, it started sprinkling. We decided to go back to our houses and rest. Amber and I both wrote and then I worked on the blog.

Lauren came over at 4:30 and we headed south to go to salsa class. Amber and Lauren took class first from 5-6, so I went to the internet café and caught up on some emails, posted my blog entries from the past few days, and talked to my mom! I went to the dance studio (Salsa Dreams) and watched the end of their lesson. We were able to buy a package of ten classes and share them between us. We paid and then Amber and Lauren left for the internet café. The plan was for me to meet them at dinner, since I was going to be a little late since my lesson was going to end at 7 and then I would have to walk home. I had my lesson with Frank. It was fun and I felt like I learned a lot, especially with ways to hold my hands when I am dancing. Too soon the lesson was over. I started walking briskly home and when I turned onto Primera Calle (1^st street), I could see Amber and Lauren ahead of me. It wasn’t long before I caught up to them and we walked the rest of the way together. The bad thing was that they were later than anticipated, so Elvira didn’t know where we were. We finally arrived at the house around 7:20 (20 minutes late). We had frijoles volteados (which appear to be refried black beans, but I learned that they are actually red beans), pasta with seasoning, and fried plantains (yum!). After dinner, we talked for a while about Spanish grammar and what E&E would change about Guatemala if they were the presidents. Elvira told us how corrupt the legal system is. She said that if a robber broke into her house and started beating her up and she punched him in the face, she could go to jail for violating his human rights, never mind the fact that he broke into her house and was hitting her first. Enrique told a story of a shop near the park where a robber entered, and the owner’s son caught him, tied him up, and called the police. However, when the police arrived, they put the son in jail for violating the thief’s human rights. There is also a huge problem with witnesses of crimes because the police won’t do anything to someone who has committed a crime (murder, for example), unless there is a witness. However, most of the time, even if people saw what happened, they refuse to tell the police because they fear the repercussions of the murderer’s friends or family coming to get them. After we finished talking, we headed to our houses. Amber and I read and then talked for quite a while. We probably turned off the light at 10:00 and talked for another half hour. I did not fall asleep quickly and a half hour later, Amber woke up and thought we were still in the middle of a conversation. She said “Sweet dreams,” and then a few seconds later she apologized for responding so slowly. I told her that we had said goodnight a half hour before and we both laughed, then went to bed.

Pueblos Tour

2011-07-06T17:34:00.000-06:00

el 5 de julio 2011

The alarm went off at 6:15. I had not slept very well because I was thinking about what I am going to do in the rest of my time in Central America. Amber had been up for a while, just dozing in bed and she decided to go on a walk a few minutes after the alarm went off. I didn’t need an hour to get ready, so I went back to sleep until she returned about 6:35. I got ready and journaled/read. We had breakfast at 7:15, which consisted of oatmeal with bananas and cinnamon, tea, and bread. We left for school a few minutes late, as usual.

I talked with my teacher for the first hour and a half, but I don’t really remember what we talked about other than the day before. I learned how to say the ordinal numbers 11-100. During the break, Amber, Lauren, and I planned what we are going to do with the kids tonight at the church in Parramos. The second half of my class, we worked on a few grammar issues, although I still do not have a satisfactory answer to my question about “a menos que,” and I read a magazine article and the Mayan underworld and then discussed it with my teacher.

Amber, Lauren, and I walked back to our house talking about our plans for next week. The original plan had been that Amber and I were going to meet Lauren in Cobán on Saturday, but she decided to come to Antigua instead. Then we were thinking of leaving Friday from Antigua to go to Semuc Champey (or at least get to the town close to there), but now we think we will leave here on Saturday, as long as Elvira doesn´t need our room. The next part of the plan consisted of staying in Semuc Champey two days and then traveling to Copán, Honduras for two nights. Then I was going to come back to Antigua and Amber and Lauren were going to continue on to Lauren´s family in San Pedro Sula. However, there is really not any reason I cannot go with them. We will already be in Copán and it is not too much farther to get to San Pedro Sula. I have plenty of time because I don´t leave Guatemala to fly home until July 21. Lauren took a direct bus from San Pedro Sula to Antigua, so it would be easy for me to get back. We wrote down a tentative schedule of our travels before going to copy our passports.

For lunch, we had soup with vegetables in it and a delicious salad. It was the best salad I can remember. It had lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, shredded carrots, cheese, lime juice, finely shredded chicken, and dressing made out of yogurt, ketchup, and mustard. It was delicious! For dessert, we had mole (chocolate sauce) with plátanos. We left lunch right when we finished to walk to the school for the tour of the pueblos (towns) south of Antigua at 2. We arrived right at 2 and paid for the tour. Then we sat around for a half hour while we waited for the people to be ready. Thankfully, we had brought Lauren´s Central America book, so we spent time perusing the section on Honduras.

Finally, it was time to leave for the tour at 2:35. Manuel took us in a van. We were the only three people who came on the tour! We drove around to different places and were able to get out and take pictures. Manuel told us lots of interesting facts about the places, all in Spanish. The places were went were: El Calvario (a church built by Hermano Pedro). Hermano Pedro came from Spain to be a missionary in Antigua. He helped heal lots of people using plants. He planted a tree in 1657 that is still there. I have a picture of it, of course! Next, we drove to San Juan del Obispo and we saw a big church and an overlook of Antigua. Manuel told us that this town is famous for its chocolate and a yellow fruit called nispero, but we didn’t get to try either one. Next, we drove to San Pedro de Huertas and saw an orange church and a public tank (tanque) where the local women come to wash their clothes. Lauren told a story of one town where although the women have washing machines, they prefer to come to the community wash area and wash the clothes with their friends. The tank was very big and had sinks all around the edge. I took a few pictures, although I felt kind of bad about taking pictures of them doing their laundry. There was a stand selling typical sweets. We bought some rice crispy treat things made out of popcorn that were colored and some hard cream candy in chunks. It started raining about this time. We got in another van with Ruben and Manuel returned to the school. We ate the popcorn treats. The brown ones were not chocolate, as we thought, but rather had a burnt sugar taste (not my favorite). The green, yellow, and pink ones were sweeter. My favorite thing was the hard candy that was called “cocada.” It was very good and I wished we had bought more. We shared some with Ruben, too. We drove through San Miguel Escobar and saw a church and a school. Ruben told us that during the school day, that road is closed so the kids can use it as a playground. There are school buildings on both sides of the road. We did not get out here. The fifth pueblo we visited was Ciudad Vieja which was the second capital of Guatemala until it was destroyed by a landslide from the Volcan Agua. The people named it “Agua” because they thought that is was erupting water instead of lava, but it was really a mudslide. It killed most of the people in the town and when they rebuilt, they decided to move the capital to Antigua (which was the 3^rd capital of Guatemala before it was destroyed by an earthquake and the capital was moved to Guatemala City). At the edge of town, we saw how much higher the town is today than before the landslide. The town is probably 50-100 feet higher today because of all the earth that was dumped on the town. The next place we went was San Lorenzo el Cubo, which is a town famous for its wood furniture. The main road is known as the Carpentry Highway because nearly every man in the town is a carpenter. We did not get out here either. We then went to San Antonio Aguas Calientes which is famous for its textiles. This town has a tradition that when people get married, the bride and groom walk through the streets so the town can meet the new family. The weddings last all weekend with celebrations on Saturday in the bride’s family’s house and then on Sunday in the groom’s family’s house. Girls learn to weave here at the age of 7 and by the time they are 14, they have to make a weaving for their future mother-in-law. When she gets ready to wed, she gives this fabric to her mother-in-law and the mother-in-law puts it around her shoulders. However, if she takes it off, it is a sign of refusal that she does not approve of her son’s choice of wife. We stopped at an artesania market and saw some women weaving. We ended up buying some things from a woman. Then we went upstairs and saw a museum of traditional clothing in Guatemalan. On the way out, I saw a scarf like Amber wanted. She bartered for it, but the girl would not lower the price very much. Amber decided she still wanted it, but when she went to get her money, she found that she only had 37Q and the girl wanted 45Q. She went to check if that was okay, and when she returned, she said it was fine. It was funny because Amber gave her mostly bills and a handful of coins worth practically nothing. I had more money, but she didn’t need it. I guess that’s a good bartering technique because the girl never would have given her the scarf for even 40Q! After this, we took some pictures of the church and fountain in the park, then we got back in the van and headed back to Antigua.

By the time we arrived, it was after 5:30. The tour had lasted three hours (and they had told us two hours) plus we had left a half hour late. We had less than a half hour to grab dinner before heading to Parramos. We went to a restaurant recommended by Ruben. We decided to order two items and share. However, one of them was going to take 10 minutes to prepare. We decided to get it anyway. We got the caldo de gallina (soup with chicken, corn on the cob, carrots, huisquil, potato, and onions) right away. It came with peace juice, three tortillas, flavored rice, and limes for only 25Q (about $3). It was a lot of food. We ate it all and asked for the bill while we waited for the other food to arrive. However, when we got the bill, our second dish was not on there. We didn’t have time to eat it anyway, so it probably worked out for the best.

We walked to the bus terminal and got on the bus around 6:20. The church service in Parramos starts at 7 and the trip takes 20-25 minutes. We shouldn’t have had problems, except for the fact that the bus didn’t leave the terminal until nearly 7pm! We read Lauren’s Central America book while we waited. When we got to the church in Parramos, it was after 7:30 because the bus stopped for a long time at each stop, probably because it was the last bus of the evening. They were singing when we got there. Bernabe was sitting at the back and he greeted us and we apologized for being late. We went and sat down and a woman shared her hymnal with us. After another song and a prayer, they dismissed the children to come with us. We went to the Sunday School classroom. The Nirmas came, too.

First we reviewed names, sang some songs, and then we played some games (Guess the Leader and a voice recognition game which led into the message). Amber read about Jesus being the Good Shepherd and how his sheep know his voice and then asked the children questions. When we were done with the lesson, we split up into groups to pray. I prayed with Esmeralda and Jocelyn. When all the groups had finished, I led a game where one person gave clues about a Bible character and the others had to whisper their guess into someone’s ear. The children were familiar with lots of the Bible characters that we used. After that, the service was over and we said goodbye. Bernabe drove us back to Antigua since there aren’t any buses that late. We got to Antigua a little after 9. I didn’t want to say goodbye to Bernabe. He has a very special family.

We went back to our houses and quickly got ready to dance. Lauren came to our house and we walked to La Sin Ventura near Parque Central. It was all salsa music, but no one was dancing when we arrived. We sat at a table and waited. Soon several couples started to dance and we tried to watch from our table, but people kept blocking our view. We went and stood at the edge of the small dance floor. Before long, all of us were asked to dance. I danced with Antonio for about a half hour. He was very good and we had fun. After that I watched for a while and then talked and danced with Mike, the instructor from our salsa class the other night. It was getting really crowded by this time and super hot. I went and stood in the doorway to cool off and watch the dancers. There were lots of really good dancers there. It was interesting to notice how many gringa/guatemalteco couples there were. At 11:45, they stopped playing salsa music and we got ready to go. Amber and Lauren said goodbye to guys they had danced with and we left. We walked Lauren to her house and then we went home. We weren’t very sleepy so I started writing this super long blog entry about our busy day and Amber worked on Spanish flashcards. We ended up turning off the light at 1:15.

Happy Fourth of July!

2011-07-06T17:33:00.000-06:00

el 4 de julio 2011

We got up at 6:15. I took a shower, talked to Lara, and worked on my blog from yesterday before breakfast! We ate at 7:15, as usual. I gave each person a mint in an American flag wrapper in honor of July 4^th. We had omelets for breakfast with lots of tomatoes and onions. We also had papaya and bread and tea/coffee. We left late for school, as always. Lauren came with us to register for classes and was able to start the same day. I talked with my teacher about the weekend and other things. I also asked her a few questions about grammar. I am confused because both my teacher in Xela and my teacher here told me the same thing about the phrase “a menos que,” but what they give me as examples is different from what the dictionary says and what I have learned earlier. I asked Elvira at lunch today and she agreed with me. It worries me that both my Spanish teachers were confused about this! During the break, we found Lauren and walked to the hospital Hermano Pedro where Amber and Jenny volunteered four years ago. I really wanted to go visit while we are here, although we won’t really have enough time to volunteer. We went to the volunteer office and talked with a woman. She said that we can come tomorrow and visit. I am excited! We went back to the school, used the bathroom, and talked for a while before returning to class a few minutes late. I don’t think we have been on time once, which is so not my usual style of doing things! There is a sign with facts about Guatemala outside the bathroom, and one of the facts on it is hard for me to believe. It says that the Happy Meal was invented in Guatemala and then spread to the rest of the world. I need to investigate this more. During the second part of my class, we talked some more about grammar and then I read a Mayan legend about the sun and the moon. When I finished reading it, I retold the whole story to Sara and then class was over.

We went to the internet café near the school because we get a free hour of internet there. We spent a half hour there (using one coupon each). I responded to emails and facebook messages and then I posted my blog. The time went quickly and soon it was time to leave. We walked to Elvira’s, just stopping at our house for a minute. For lunch, we had Pepian (a traditional food that is eaten for Corpus Christi) which is a kind of thick soup with meat and potatoes in it. Elvira told us it is a lot of work to make which is why most people only eat it on certain holidays and weddings, but she makes it more often. For dessert, we had cambray, which is similar to tamales only they are sweet with raisins and almonds and spices inside. It was very good. We talked for a long time after lunch. We were going to climb Cerro de la Cruz (a hill overlooking Antigua with a big cross up there), but when we went up to our room to get ready, we started talking to Lara and it was too late for us to go afterward. Lara showed us what she had bought in Chichicastenango and since Spanish is hard for her, she was talking to us in English. Elvira always says that she has ears in her house with which she can hear into the other house (where we live) so she will know if we are speaking English. Well, it might be true because this was really the only time that we have spoken English over here, and lo and behold, Elvira came walking in, scolding us! After she left, we continued our conversation in Spanish.

We decided to do a bit of sightseeing before salsa class. We went to La Merced (the big yellow church near our house) and went inside and looked around at the ruins. The church was originally built in the 1500s but was later damaged by the earthquake. Lauren and I took some pictures. It was sprinkling a bit but not too much. We were going to go to a free salsa class at one studio at 4 and then another class at 5. However, when we arrived at the 4pm free salsa place, the owner told us that they had moved the class to 5. Of course! All the dance studios have the same prices, packages, and times for free classes. We decided to go to Pollo Campero (which is kind of similar to KFC) for ice cream. The ice cream is vanilla, but you can choose a flavor to add and they swirl it in the vanilla. I had caramel, Lauren had chocolate, and Amber had plain vanilla. As we left Pollo Campero, some children who were selling gum followed us out the door and were begging us to buy them ice cream. They followed us down the road. We talked to them a little bit. We really need to break our large bills. I literally am down to only big bills. Amber didn’t have enough coins to buy gum from them, but she gave them a few small coins. We walked to the market and Amber and Lauren bought some scarves. Then it was time to head back for the 5pm salsa class. We had decided to split up and go to different dance studios to try out different instructors. Lauren and I headed to the one near our school. I couldn’t remember exactly where it was, but we went to the school and there was a group walking there.

The class was good, basic, but good. There were about 12 chicas and one chico taking the class. Fortunately, the dance studio supplied about 8 chicos to dance with us. The first half hour we learned merengue and the second half hour we learned salsa. We rotated partners every minute or so, which was nice because it was fair. After the class, we headed back toward the school and met the sole guy who attended the class. He goes to our school. His name is Sean. It was sprinkling again. Lauren and I headed back. However, I have not been paying close attention to how to get around Antigua because Amber knows where she is going and I am always with her. I didn’t turn where we were supposed to and we went way too far in one direction and not far enough in the other direction. We got really lost and I felt bad because she thought I knew where I was going. Whoops! We had a nice conversation, though, and we eventually made it back to the house an hour later, just in time for dinner.

We had an omelet-ish thing for dinner with egg, ham, cheese, and green leaves (not spinach) along with a corn and cheese and egg creation and rice. It was good, even if my description does not do it justice. After dinner, we talked for a long time with Dorothy and Larry, the couple from Canada about socialized medicine. Then we came back to our house. Lauren had forgotten shampoo and conditioner, so I gave her some of mine because I have plenty. Then she headed to her house. I washed my feet and got ready for bed. I wrote my blog. Amber is already in bed and it is 9:40. She has been sleeping an impressive amount here, for her. I am going to read my Bible and go to bed, too.

The Arrival of Lauren

2011-07-06T17:31:00.000-06:00

el 3 de julio 2011

We slept in this morning until 8:30, which is the latest we’ve slept in. We got up and had a relaxing morning showering, reading, journaling, and talking. We finally ended up leaving around 10:45 to go to a breakfast buffet called Personajes de la Antigua. We got a discount with our card from the school. We had pineapple, strawberries, cantaloupe, an enormous omelet made just for us with cheese, peppers, onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes, black beans, fried plantains, some kind of a tamale with leaves on it, and fresh pineapple juice. It was delicious. We sat and talked for a while and left around noon.

We headed back to our room where we made a list of everything we want to do before we leave Antigua and plugged our activities into a schedule for the week. Then we studied a little bit of Spanish before leaving around 1:30.

We went to La Merced, the big yellow Catholic church near our house and bought atol de elote, which is a thick, sweet drink made out of corn. It kind of had a flavor similar to creamed corn. It was hot and warmed us up; we had been cold wearing skirts for the first time here. We walked by the school to see if it was open to talk about classes for Lauren (it wasn’t) and searched for an internet café so we could check and see if we had any messages from Lauren, Amber’s friend who was going to arrive Sunday night. We finally found one and Amber quickly checked her email. Then we continued on toward the market where Amber continued the search for shoes to her liking. She found a cute pair of tan sandals (not for dancing), but the man was charging more than double what she wanted to pay. We finally made our way through the market and found the bus to Parramos about 3:15.

We sat together on the bus, which was not super crowded (meaning mostly two adults to a seat). We got to Parramos around 3:50 and walked to the church where they were already people. We went back to their house and talked to the family. Baby Nirma was wearing a tiny corte (the traditional skirt that the women wear). It was super cute and regrettably I did not get a picture right then. Later, after the church service, Mama Nirma had Baby Nirma tied to her back and you could no longer see the corte. We went into the service as it was starting. They sang lots of songs in Spanish, but we did not have a hymnal so we could not sing but we clapped along. After several prayers, more songs, offering, Communion (with bread and grape pop), and Scripture reading, they dismissed the children to Sunday school (about an hour after the service started) and we went with them to the other room.

Two teenage boys lead the class of 18 children. First the children went around and said their names. We learned all of their names! Then, we played Telephone with the message (Dios esta aqui/God is here) and then Hot Potato where the children (and us) passed around a glue bottle and Erick, one of the leaders, tapped the wall with a pencil and when he stopped, whoever had the glue bottle had to do something like sing a song, dance like a chicken, or make an animal noise. When we finished this, Walter gave the lesson about Naboth’s vineyard. The children worked on memorizing a verse from Proverbs. Then I prayed (in English, at the children’s urging, although I would have preferred Spanish) and it was over. We asked what time the last bus to Antigua would leave and some people said 7 and some said 7:30. It was a little after six. We went out in the courtyard of the church and ate crunchy tortillas with noodles on top. The noodles reminded me of fried noodles from Hong Kong. We also had atol de platano (a sweet drink made out of plaintains). We chatted with the people of the church. Mama Nirma was passing out invitations to Baby Nirma’s first birthday celebration. If I am in Antigua then, I will go. I am still not sure what I am doing. I might possibly travel longer with Amber and Lauren instead of returning so quickly to Antigua. We ended up leaving after 6:30. Bernabe walked us to the park to make sure we got on the bus okay. As we were approaching the park, we saw a bus pull up. I started walking quicker, but Bernabe said that we would never make it and that another bus would come. However, it stayed there for a long time, so as we got closer, we all began to run toward the bus. We made it with plenty of time to spare and found seats across from each other. We chatted on our way back to Antigua. It’s interesting that every time we go from Parramos to Antigua, my ears pop, but when we go from Antigua to Parramos, I don’t notice anything.

We got back to Antigua around 7:15. We walked back to our house and grabbed some school stuff to work on. The plan was to go to Café Condessa and work until Lauren arrived. However, when we got to the café around 8, they were starting to shut up shop. We decided to sit on a bench across from the café so we could watch for Lauren to appear. I read some of my math stations book while Amber worked on Spanish homework. It started to sprinkle. Finally, we saw Lauren wander up. She only brought a backpack (regular-sized) and a large purse bag. Pretty impressive for about 10 days in Guatemala! We walked back to our house where we met Elvira and Enrique. They walked us to Elvira’s cousin’s house where Lauren is going to stay. We went inside and met her and her white little dog. Elvira’s cousin had the honor of having special statues in her house that morning for the Corpus Christi procession. The priest came to her house and lit the candle in front of the statues. I have a picture to post later. We walked back home and journaled/read a bit and went to bed around 10:30.

Parramos

2011-07-04T12:31:00.001-06:00

el 2 de julio 2011

We got up at 6:15 and got ready for the day. Amber headed over to the house a few minutes early to help Enrique get things ready since Elvira wasn’t going to be there. I read a bit and then I went over, too. We had frosted flakes and cocoa crispies with strawberries and bananas with milk and I had tea. We left for school a few minutes later than we should have. It really takes the full 20 minutes to walk there.

School the second day was not quite as good for me as the first day, but still good practice. I learned a few rules that I was lacking. However, Amber’s day was not good at all. Her teacher does not even look at her when she talks and she doesn’t correct her mistakes. She also does tons of worksheets from the book. During the break, we walked to the candy store (Dona Maria ______’s) and bought some candy for Bernabe’s family and a few things for us to try. While I was waiting to pay, Amber walked across the street and bought bread from Dona Luisa’s. We headed back to school a few minutes late, as usual, but our teachers were not waiting for us this time. Maybe they realized that we are always late! They came a minute later. I talked a lot about education in the U.S. and my travels with my teacher. I don’t have any homework for the weekend. Part of Amber’s homework is to look through the workbook and choose exercises to do next week! That is crazy!

After class, we wandered back to our house, going slightly out of our way. We went back to our room and tried some of the candy we bought. It was delicious. We got our stuff ready to go for the afternoon in Parramos and then it was time for lunch. We had chili with beans and meat in it and rice on the side. We had a small bowl of strawberries covered in sugar and some kind of thick, sweet cream on top. We talked for a while and then we headed out to start our afternoon. Amber wanted to go to an internet café before we headed to Parramos, but the one near our house was not open. It was threatening to rain, so since we didn’t encounter an internet place on our way to the bus station, we decided it would be better to find a bus first.

The open air bus station is located behind the huge market at the edge of town. We somehow ended up going through the market instead of around it. I had never been through the market before, and I was surprised at its size. There were hundreds of women selling vegetables and fruits, but you could also buy shoes, meat, toys, packaged food items, make-up, clothes, and just about anything else you could want. I think this market is as big (or possibly bigger) than the market near the bus terminal in Xela. We finally wove our way through the venders and found the exit to the bus station. We looked around for a bus to Parramos and finally found a bus assistant (ayudante) who told us that the buses to Parramos are in the second row. We squeezed between two parked buses, but we were behind them, another bus came and turned and we were literally trapped between four buses. It was a little bit scary, but we eventually made it safely around the buses and found the one for Parramos and got on.

The seats were nearly full when we got on, meaning we were the last two people to get a sit with only one other person. However, in Guatemala, just because there are two adults sitting on each seat of a school, that doesn’t mean that the bus is full. People kept climbing aboard until there three adults in each seat. I was squished between a young man and an old woman. I talked a bit with the woman and she gave me a lychee to eat! It was hard to understand here because it was loud in the bus. As the bus left Antigua, it started raining and pouring. The bus ride cost 3Q and took about 25 minutes to get to Parramos. We got off in the park, in the rain. I had my umbrella, so Amber and I shared. We went under a roof for the bus stop and looked at the map Jenny had drawn for us. We were trying to figure out which direction we needed to turn the map when a teenage boy who was also under the roof on a bike offered to help us. His name was Flavio. Together we looked at the map and figured out which way to turn it. He offered to accompany us to the church. Jenny is a good cartographer because we made it to the church (Iglesia de Dios Galilea) without any more problems. We saw Anderson as we walked down the street, but he went into the house before we got there. We rang the bell and Bernabe came to greet us. We said farewell to Flavio and went in to see the family. I was introduced to Nirma (the mom), Anderson (12 years old), Kayla (9 years old), and baby Nirma who is getting ready to turn one on July 14 (I think). We sat in the kitchen and talked for a long time. Then we gave them the candy and bread. I had brought a rubber toy mama goose with three babies for Nirma and a cool collapsible ball for Anderson and Kayla. They played with their new toys and then we took pictures with them. We heard a lot of baby Nirma’s story. I already knew most of it from Jenny, but it was somehow even more real hearing it from them in the environment of their house, which is very simple. Here is a summary of Nirma’s story:

Bernabe and Nirma (the mom) had three babies between Kayla and baby Nirma, all of which died about a week after their birth. The doctors didn’t know why because all of them had appeared to be healthy when they were born, but shortly after, they became sick. When the same thing happened with Nirma, about a week after her birth, they took her to a hospital in Guatemala City. For a while, the doctors could not figure out what was wrong with her. One doctor, in particular, took interest in her case, especially when he heard that they had lost three babies before her. After much testing and time in intensive care, this doctor figured out that she had Maple Syrup Urine Disease, a condition in which her body cannot process certain amino acids and proteins correctly. As a result, if she eats those things, they act as a poison to her and she would die in about a week. She had to have special formula that is only available in the U.S. The hospital could get it, but once she left the hospital, the family would have to provide this expensive, rare formula for her. She was in intensive care for about a month and in the hospital for three months in all. During this time, either Bernabe or Nirma had to be with her. They took shifts of two nights at home with their other kids and two nights in the hospital, which is more than an hour away by bus. Finally, a Guatemalan donated some of this special formula to the hospital to give to whoever needed it. I am not quite sure why or how this happened other than that God was answering prayers. They were able to leave the hospital and with the help of Jenny, they could get the milk sent from the U.S. It really is amazing that she is alive and doing so well!

They served us coffee (which I was kind of scared to drink since it was 4pm and surely had caffeine) and some of the raisin cinnamon bread we brought. Anderson has a puppy named Perla (Pearl) and they have two blue parakeets and two chickens squished in a small rabbit cage. We heard more of Nirma’s story and then we left a little after 5pm to get back to Antigua. We waited just about 5 minutes for the bus and actually found an empty seat together, although the bus was full. Amber started feeling carsick from the hills, curves, and generally crazy driving of the bus drivers here. Right as we got back to Antigua, it started to rain again. It was really cold. Why do I spend my summers in cold places??? I was sure it would be warm in Antigua like it was a year ago, but they said this cool weather is typical for this time of the year. We have worn jeans or capris every day since being here. If I would have know that it was not going to be hot here, I would not have brought five skirts with me! (Si yo hubiera sabido que no haria calor aqui, no habria traido cinco faldas!)

We wandered through the market again, trying to find the way out. Amber wanted to stop at the shoe stalls to look for dancing shoes, but we didn’t find any, which was probably a good thing since we only had a little bit of money on us. We then tried in earnest to find our way out, but alas we hit a dead-end and had to turn around. The venders were starting to pack up all their stuff. That is so much work for them to do every single day! Eventually, after about a half hour of trying to get out of the market, we made it out. We walked back to our house, where we went to the bathroom and I grabbed my flashdrive with my blog on it before heading to the internet café near our house. We stayed there a half hour. I posted several days of my blog and checked my email. Amber’s friend Lauren is coming on a bus tomorrow and Amber was trying to tell her somewhere to meet. We don’t know if she is coming on a chicken bus or a shuttle. Hopefully she will be able to find us without too much trouble! We are meeting her in a café off the park.

After the internet, we went back to the house and washed our hands. We walked over to the house with Alex. Sharon and Lara are gone traveling, so we had a small dinner with just Amber, Alex, Elvira, and me. Enrique was picking up Dorothy and Larry from the airport. They are from Canada and will be staying with E&E. I am 99% sure that they were here last year when I was here! We had spinach soup and nachos with chili on them. After we talked with Elvira and Alex for a while, we headed back to our room.

We wanted to go salsa dancing, so we got ready and took our first picture together. Then we headed out to find a discoteca that was listed in Jenny’s Guatemala book. The first one we came to was not playing salsa music, rather English music, which was not quite what we had in mind. We walked to another place, but it didn’t appear to be there. The third choice was on the edge of the city, El Torrero, but we really wanted to salsa dance, so we headed there. According to the Guatemala book, this is where the locals come to salsa dance. We had to cross the creepy market/bus station area to get there. When we arrived about 10pm, we paid 20Q to get in. Well, the guide book had one thing right: this is where the locals come. We were the only extranjeras (foreigners) there. But they weren’t playing salsa music either. We got a free drink with the entrance fee, but it was so loud that we could not hear what the waiter was saying, so we both got a bottle of water. We sat there and sipped our water and screamed in each other’s ears when we wanted to say something. After ten minutes or so, two Guatemalan guys came up and started talking to us. They asked us if we wanted to dance, but we didn’t really want to dance to the music that was playing, so Jose went to ask for them to play salsa music. Alejandro was the other guy. After a bit, they put on some music that was not actually salsa but kind of had a salsa-ish beat. I danced with Jose and he was not bad. His cousin, on the other hand only knew the basic step and one spin. After a few dances, we switched partners and never switched back. It was marginally enjoyable. We never really got to salsa dance, but we did a lot of merengue. Finally, around midnight, we decided to head back. Jose and Alejandro offered to accompany us. We said we’d be fine, but they insisted. We compromised by saying they could walk us to the main road. We talked about dancing on the way and Jose’s travels to Canada. They walked us farther than the main road. When we got to where we needed to turn, we thanked them for walking with us. Jose insisted that he wanted to walk us all the way to our door, but Alejandro persuaded him to head back to the discoteca since we didn’t want them to come with us. Jose is going to look for us on facebook and they told us that Tuesdays at No Sin Ventura is all salsa and merengue. We said we might see them there.

We walked the rest of the way home safely. One guy said hello and asked us to come with him to a discoteca, but when we said no and kept walking, he left us alone. We started talking on our way home and continued our conversation when we got back. We talked until 2am and then finally went to bed.

First Day of Spanish Class

2011-07-02T18:46:00.002-06:00

el 1 de julio 2011

Today is the first day of July and our first day of class also. We got up at 6 (a great way to start the second half of this year!) and got ready for class. It was actually nice to have time to catch up on my blog before breakfast. We had breakfast at 7:15 which consisted of two large pancakes with syrup and banana slices and tea. Amber and I left for class a bit after 7:40 and we arrived a few minutes after 8. We paid for our classes and then were introduced to our teachers. My teacher is named Sara and Amber’s teacher is Amanda. The classes take place in a long open hallway lined with tables. I thought it might be distracting to learn in this environment, but I did not find it to be so.

Sara and I talked until the break at 10. I felt like my Spanish was really flowing and she let me do most of the talking. We each got a free Spanish textbook, a notebook, and a pen. However, we did not use the textbook at all. I talked a lot about my family, my mom’s volunteer work with the assistance dog training program in the prison, and my job. We also talked a bit about politics both U.S. and Guatemalan. During the break, Amber and I went for a walk. We walked to the central park and walked around a bit. We are still looking for a dance studio to take salsa classes. We had to turn back before too long. We got back to our school just in time at 10:30, but I had to go to the bathroom and there was a line, so my teacher was waiting for me at the table when I returned. I thought we might do some grammar work, but we continued the conversation. I guess she took me seriously when I said that I need to work on speaking more than anything! She would correct me as I spoke and I learned many new words. Sara has a seven month old baby named Karla Lucia. Before class ended, Sara and I went to the copy shop next door and she made three copies of papers for me to do as homework. I went back to the school and picked up my stuff and found Amber.

We walked around some more looking for dance studios. We stopped to ask in a gym and a girl from Holland said that she could take us to a dance studio run by her Guatemalan boyfriend. We went and talked with him. All the prices are the same, but they are more than what we would ideally like to pay. We thanked them and kept walking some more. Finally it was time for us to head back for lunch. We quickly stopped by our house to use the restroom and wash our hands before heading over to E&E’s for lunch.

We had spaghetti, lettuce/cucumber/tomato/onion salad, a canned pear, and bread for lunch. We stayed and talked a long time… almost two hours in total. Amber and I stayed for a while after the others left and continued talking. I love talking to Elvira and Enrique. They are fun, interesting people and are very good at correcting/assisting with our Spanish. We went back to our room and worked on homework around 3 for a while. Then we went out to look for a gift for Bernabe and Nirma (the family in Parramos) and to see a procession in the park. We went to a candy shop and waited in line for about 15 minutes, but we decided to come back tomorrow when there might not be such a long line and the candy would be fresher if we bought it tomorrow. Amber got some blackberry guanabana frozen yogurt and we walked to the central park for the procession. Today is the last day of the celebration of Corpus Christi in the Catholic Church which is why they were having this procession in the park. While we were sitting on a bench, several indigenous women tried to sell us things. We politely declined until the third woman came along with her daughter. The woman talked to Amber and showed her what she was selling and I chatted with the daughter. The daughter was six years old and her name is Damaris. I enjoyed talking with her. She wanted me to guess how old she was and then I made her guess how old I was. She counted up to 26 for me. When it started raining, I put up my umbrella and she came under it with me. I shared mine with Amber and Amber gave her umbrella to the woman. She is 24 and has this daughter and a 7 year old son. After talking with her for probably 20 minutes, Amber ended up buying a pretty scarf from her.

When they left, we left, too, because of the rain. We were going to stop at the internet café near our house, but it was closed probably due to the procession. We went to our room and journaled for a while and I took a shower. We headed over to dinner at 7. We had pureed black beans, scrambled eggs with tomato, fried plantains, and bread for dinner. We again stayed and talked for a long time, more than an hour and a half. It started raining heavily, so Enrique loaned us an umbrella to walk back to our house. The road was covered with water when we crossed the street. We were going to go to the park for the live music and dancing tonight or a discoteca, but we don’t want to walk in the rain. Amber finished her homework and rested and I wrote this blog. I read for a while after I finished. I woke Amber up at 10:15 to get ready for bed. We went to bed soon after.

Exploring Antigua

2011-07-02T18:46:00.001-06:00

el 30 de junio 2011

We set our alarm for 7am for breakfast at 7:15. We had a beautiful fruit plate with bananas, papaya, oranges, and strawberries with strawberry yogurt in the middle. We again talked a lot to Elvira after the others had left. We headed back to our room to unpack our stuff. I also took a shower. There are two bathrooms up here. The first shower I tried started smoking a bit when I turned on the water so I went to the other one. I unpacked first and Amber read and then we switched and she unpacked while I talked to her and did some other stuff. We finished a little before 10. We headed out to look for a Spanish school. I had found one online that looked cheap and good. I had not written down the address, though, so after wandering around talking for about an hour, we stopped at an internet café for 15 minutes to check our email. I wrote down the address and we walked to the school. It is about a 20 minute walk from our house, which is about as far away as you can get in Antigua!

The man we spoke with was very nice. It is a decently large school, but it is run by his family with at least 4-5 family members working there. We went on a tour and talked about prices. We had wanted to take classes in the afternoon because they are cheaper and it always rains in the afternoon. However, they only have openings in the morning. We decided to do one week (5 days) of classes. We will do class Friday and Saturday and then three days next week. By the time we had signed our papers, it was time for us to get back for lunch. We walked quickly back to Elvira’s where we had soup with rice in it. She had a green chile from her garden chopped up for us to add to our soup, if we wanted. I tried the tiniest pieces I could and it was plenty! We also had watermelon and salpicon, which is chopped up meat with tomato and onion and some green stuff. We also had vegetables: corn on the cob, huisquil (which is kind of like a potato), and a cooked carrot.

After lunch, we went back to our room for a bit and then decided to take advantage of the sun and went out again. We wanted to find a place we could take salsa classes cheaply, but the only two places were found were charging $10 an hour. We continued looking for another school, but we never found the place. However, we saw several shoe stores and Amber is looking for good salsa-dancing shoes. We looked around but we couldn’t find what she was looking for. In one store, Asusana (sp?) was very helpful and kept bringing her shoes to try on. After trying on about ten pairs, she decided that they weren’t quite what she was looking for and we headed out. It looked like rain, so we started to look for a café. As we were looking, Julia and Liz from my school in Xela came around the corner. We said hi and then we dashed off because it was starting to rain. We backtracked half a block and went into a café (Kashta?) that we had seen earlier. We went up to the terrace which had sections under a roof. Amber had chai tea and I had a strawberry licuado. We talked a lot about school stuff and what we want to change for next year. We were there about two hours. When the rain stopped, a bunch of people started coming in so we left. Amber almost forgot to pay since we had been there so long!

We went to the internet café near our house and we called Bernabe, the pastor from Parramos. Amber spoke with him and we are going to go there and visit on Saturday after school. We then went back to our house. We studied Spanish together for about a half hour before dinner. Amber has a list of phrases such as at that moment, for once, by chance, etc. that I want to learn. I copied the list into my notebook and she put them on notecards. Soon it was time to go to dinner.

We had soup with chopped up green beans in it, chuchitos (which look about the size of a baked potato and I think are made of corn on the outside with meat and a certain kind of flower on the inside), guacamole, and bread. We again sat and talked for a long time. When we got back to our room, we talked some more and then gave each other shoulder massages. Amber was very tired again, so I decided to go to bed when she did and that I would get up early with her tomorrow and write my blog. We ended up going to bed around 10:30 in our fabulously comfortable beds in a very dark room. It is wonderful to sleep here!

Xela to Antigua

2011-07-02T18:45:00.000-06:00

el 29 de junio 2011

I woke up super early today. It gets light here around 5, I think, and that is about when I woke up the first time. I dozed off and on until my alarm clock went off at 6:30. I got up, got ready, and packed up most of my stuff. I took my suitcase with me when I went up for breakfast because I had to leave all my stuff in Sandy’s apartment so I would not be charged for another day. It was annoying to have to carry my suitcase down one flight of stairs and up two. However, Juan Manuel, my Argentine neighbor, was leaving as I was making it down the stairs and he helped me carry it up to Sandy’s. There was yogurt and granola sitting out on the table for me, but when I opened the yogurt, it was moldy so I had milk on my granol instead. The granola here is very tiny and hard. It kind of reminds me of Grape Nuts a bit. I went downstairs and brought the rest of my stuff up and then I left for school.

I was early to school so I looked for some tea to wake me up, but there was not any. I was so tired that I could hardly keep my eyes open. I gave Ola the note that I had written to her and then I looked around for a place to put my handprint. My school, Sakribal, has a fun tradition that each student gets to put a handprint on a wall somewhere in the school. I decided to put mine outside my classroom door. I practiced my speech for the graduation lunch until Carolina came up. I gave her the blueberry ham I had brought and a card I was so tired it was hard to concentrate. We took a break about 9 so that I could got dfownstiars and get some tea. It didn’t help, so I had a cup of coffee after that. We worked on the imperfect subjunctive a little more and then we worked on the progressive tenses of the subjunctive and the future subjunctive that is only used in writing laws. We went to copy my lesson plans during the pausa so that I can take the lesson plans to my next school and show them what I have worked on recently so I don’t end up repeating the same things. After we went to the copy shop, we went to XelaPan because Carolina wanted a snack. They did have shecas with anise seed today so I got 3 of them, but I was disappointed because they tasted stale, which is very unlike XelaPan. When we went back, I checked my email and looked over my speech after getting more coffee. I wanted my handprint to be green so Carolina brought the green pain and tried to put in on my hand, but it was all dried up. I was going to wash my hand so we could use a different color, but Olga told us that there was more green in a cabinet. We got the other green and it worked just fine. I put my name next to my handprint and the year. If I come back again, I will add the year that I return. We continued with the subjunctive tenses and then we read the newspaper a bit. For the last twenty minutes, we played Bananagrams with the Scrabble tiles because I had not brought my Bananagrams game. When the bell rang to signal that class was over, I washed my cup, this time removing the masking tape label with my name on it. I went to the bathroom and had more trouble with the lock. It seems like I can never get out of the bathroom! Twice I have ripped the thumbnail on my left hand trying to get out. Today, I could tell that they were leaving for the restaurant and so I was trying to hurry and get out. However, when I shoved the lock to the side, somehow my knuckle got caught on the lock and my finger started bleeding.

We walked a few blocks toward the park and went to Andale, the taco place where Andrea had eaten gringas a week or so ago. I got vegetarian tacos because I wanted vegetables and a pineapple licuado. I sat next to William and Carolina. It took a while for the food to come and so we did the presentation of the diplomas and the speeches first. Olga spoke first and then Carolina gave me my diploma. Next, I gave my 13 sentence speech and it went well. We got our food and began to eat. An American man came into the restaurant and began to play his guitar and sing very near us. He spoke to us in English and Spanish and sang really loudly. It was kind of annoying because we trying to have conversations at our table. This went on for quite some time. Some of the teachers collected money to give to him at the end. He finally took the money and then he went around the table and started demanding that everyone give him money. Sander (from Hungary) and William didn’t want to give him money and he started yelling (in English) in this restaurant about how selfish Americans are and how America is going down because of people like all of us. He then started cursing and screaming. Sander and William tried to reason with him, especially about the fact that Sander is not American, but it just made him more irritated. This went on for almost five minutes. I was very relieved when the man finally stormed out. I could not tell what some of the teachers thought. Some of them said that he was very demanding and usually the people who play music in the restaurants ask quietly and nicely for coins, but that this man was very demanding. I think some of the others thought the boys should have just given a coin to him and not engaged in the confrontation. After we finished eating, I took pictures with Olga, Carolina, and Luis. Then I left.

I hurried to XelaPan (where you can always find someone begging) and gave a boy a banana that I was not going to have time to eat. Then I hustled back to Sandy’s apartment and finished arranging all of my stuff. I had to carry my suitcase, backpack, and other bag down three flights of stairs. I waited nervously by the front door, hoping that the shuttle would really appear. It finally did about 3:15 (it was supposed to come anytime after 3). I was the last person one from Xela. We had only four people in the shuttle, which was a very nice one. I knew it was too good to be true. I pulled out my laptop and started writing this journal entry (please excuse any typos). After about an hour of driving, we pulled into a gas station with another shuttle waiting. I thought they were going to get into our shuttle, but actually we had to get into theirs. As usual, it was a full shuttle. They had to put all of our luggage on the roof. I sat in the back next to some Israeli girls. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Overall, it was a pleasant ride for the shuttle being as full as it was. The people spoke quietly or were silent. I had to go to the bathroom, so I was thankful when we took a rest break. We continued on and it started raining. I was worried that our stuff on the roof was getting wet because I had my Bible, my phone, and a bunch of books in my bags. We finally arrived in Antigua about 6:30 and began dropping people off. I was the second to last stop. I was excited to finally be at Elvira and Enrique’s. The man unloaded my stuff, which was very wet on the outside. I rang the doorbell and Enrique opened it and took me to my room in the white house across the street. Amber was not there yet. I had about five minutes before it was time for dinner.

At dinner, I met Alex, Sharon, and Lara, the other people who are staying with Elvira right now. We had chile rellenos, rice, bread, and cake in honor of Lara’s birthday. Amber arrived during dessert. I gave her a quick hug and then she went to put her stuff in our room. She came back and joined us at the table. We talked a lot to the other people and Elvira and Enrique. We continued talking to E&E after the others left. Finally we went back to our room and talked and unpacked a few things. Our room is small with two twin beds, a table, a wardrobe, a chair, and a bedside table. The floor space is quite limited. Amber was very tired. We ended up going to bed about 10:30, but it felt more like midnight.

Farewell, Andrea!

2011-07-02T18:43:00.000-06:00

el 28 de junio 2011

It has been so long since this day that I can’t really remember all the details, so I will just write the highlights. I took my laundry to the lavanderia before class, and then I had class 8-1, and then I had lunch in Sandy’s apt. After lunch, I went to my room and tried to call Jenny and checked my email. I went to pick up my clothes at 2:30 and then I came back to my room for a few minutes before heading out to see Andrea at the hostel. She was sitting up in the room outside her bedroom when I got there. We talked for about a half hour. Ryan brought over a foam mattress pad for her to use for her last few nights there before she hadn’t slept well the night before because of the bed. I gave her and her mom the Karen Kingsbury book that I had finished reading so I don’t have to lug it back to the states. I said goodbye to Andrea and her mom, Lori, and I headed over to my place so she could take pictures from the terrace. After that, we went into the cathedral near the park. She wanted to buy Andrea some typical Mayan clothing, so I took her to a shop I had seen near the theater and I translated for her while she looked through everything. Finally we decided that it would be better if she would bring Andrea there the next day so she could get exactly what she wanted. We stopped for ice cream on the way back. I had a two-scoop waffle cone with Frutos del Bosque (vanilla and blackberry mixed together) and La Conga (which was my favorite flavor from last year). We walked back to the hostel and Andrea’s mom could not get the door unlocked. Finally Holly let us in, although she had a hard time getting the door open, too. I said goodbye again and walked back to my place. I talked to Jenny on the phone for a half hour and then it was time for me to go to salsa class at my school. There were fewer people there this week. I danced with William, a new guy from Washington, DC, the whole time. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to dance with Luis, the instructor. William had never salsa-danced before. I also met a mom and 14 year old daughter who are here for 8 weeks taking classes. I headed back to Sandy’s for dinner. Sandy and I ate black beans and eggs. Then she wanted me to come into her room to talk. We had the longest and best conversation of the trip. She talked a lot about the past year and how difficult it has been but how good God has been. Gabby came back and I prayed for them. Then I headed downstairs to call Tammy. We talked for more then 2 hours. Gmail calling cut us off after 2 hours saying that our phone call was too long! I called her back, though, so it wasn’t a problem. At midnight, I worked on my speech for the next day and packed. I finally went to bed at 2am! Ahhhh!

Antigua with Amber!

2011-06-30T11:19:00.002-06:00

I know I am skipping the past two days, but I wanted to let you all know that I arrived safely to Antigua last night. It has been great to see Elvira and Enrique again, and especially Amber. I will try to post when I can but it will not be as frequently as during the past two weeks.

TRAMA

2011-06-27T21:18:00.003-06:00

el 27 de junio 2011

I got up at 7 today and took a shower. As I was getting ready, I started feeling really ill. I spent a great deal of the morning in the bathroom, but I managed to go up to Sandy's and have some bread. I was a few minutes late to school since I had spent so much time in the bathroom, which was embarrassing because on Monday morning, they always have a meeting in the school to introduce new people and go over the week's activities. Today they went to Salcaja (a town outside of Xela) in the afternoon but I didn't feel well enough to go.

Carolina and I talked a lot today and I reviewed clauses that require the subjunctive (things like unless, if, so that, in case that, for the purpose of, etc.). We talked a lot. I felt rather ill for most of the morning. I drank some tea and that warmed me up. During the break, I checked my email and made a to-do list of all the things I need to do before I leave Xela on Wednesday. It poured all morning due to the tropical depression. Carolina told me that it is supposed to rain most of the next 48 hours, which is basically the rest of my time in Xela! We ended the break late, which meant that we got out a few minutes late from class. I headed back to Sandy's and did my homework while I waited for lunch. We had salty mushroom soup, small potatoes covered in sesame seeds, and a seed of tomatoes, avocado, and onions. I ate my soup and some potatoes. I was feeling better than I was this morning. I checked my email, but I hadn't heard anything from Andrea. After lunch, I called Angela to wish her a happy birthday, and then I went to arrange a shuttle to get me and my stuff to Antigua. Surprisingly, it was not raining! I easily found the place I was looking for and I booked my shuttle for 3pm on Wednesday. I am so excited to see Amber!

Next, I finally made it to TRAMA, a women's textile cooperative. I never made it here last year and then I was going to go on Friday until I found out about Andrea being in the hospital. There were two women weaving with backstrap looms when I got there. The women sit on the ground and have their weaving tied to a post or a tree and then they hold the looms close to them by wearing a strap that goes around their waists. It is amazing to see how much work goes into making a scarf or anything else. I looked around at all the items they had for sale. It is a fair trade organization, comprised of 98% women. The women are part of 17 cooperatives from around Xela. Each cooperative chooses two women who can read, write, and speak Spanish to represent them (many of the women speak only Mayan languages). The women decide together on fair prices for their work. I bought several things before leaving.

I next went to visit a fair trade cafe that sells coffee and other organic, fair trade items. I found it with little trouble, but I did not have enough money with me to buy what I wanted. The man there was really nice and explained the different types of coffee to me and let me smell the ground coffees to help me decide. I went back to the apartment, did my homework, and checked my email. I had a facebook message from Andrea saying that she was back at the hostel. I got more money, went to the cafe, and then headed over to the hostel. I brought playing cards for them to use tonight. They had a few complications in paying for her surgery and hospital stay, as might be expected, but the cost was much less than they had anticipated. They had to leave her mom's passport at the hospital so that Andrea could leave without paying the full total. When I got there, they were getting ready to head to Cafe Baveria. I decided to go with them. I had spearmint tea and they ate dinner. We had an enjoyable time talking. Andrea is still in a lot of pain, but she looked better today. All too soon, it was time for me to head back for dinner. It still was not raining!

I got to Sandy's about 7:25 and we ate within a half hour. Kristin had spilled a bag of milk in the refrigerator and on the floor so I helped her clean it up. She made a pasta bake for dinner with bacon and canned asparagus. After dinner, I went up on the terrace and took pictures of the cathedral lit up.

I came back to my apartment and got ready for bed. I tried to call Tammy when she got home from Bible study, but for some reason my calls would not go through. After emailing, texting, and calling her multiple times, I decided it probably wasn't going to work tonight. For some reason, the internet has been spotty today, although my picture uploaded faster than ever. I wrote my blog and I will soon go to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day! I am glad I am feeling better. I think I might have to blame that delicious corn that I bought on the street near the park! :(

The Arrival of Andrea´s Mom

2011-06-26T21:48:00.006-06:00

el 26 de junio 2011

Last night was terrible! I felt like I hardly got any sleep. My window panes do not meet each other so my room is drafty and loud. Last night was the soccer game between the U.S. and Mexico. I don't know if that is why people were so loud or if was just because it was the weekend. A bar up the road put speakers outside and was blasting music. I thought that was bad until they started using those same speakers for karaoke. There were people walking, talking, and yelling outside my window until the wee hours of the morning. There was also the usual dogfight around 1am, but I did not hear the 2am rooster last night. I woke up very tired and have been tired all day.

I got up at 7 and took a shower (my first in this apartment). I have to give this shower higher marks than the last one. With this shower, you can have great water pressure (with very cold water) or hot water (with very low water pressure) instead of the lukewarm, low water pressure that came out of the other shower. I ate the biggest banana I've ever seen and a granola bar before heading out to meet Ryan in front of McDonald's at 8:15.

I stopped by XelaPan and bought a sheca con frijol and some anise rolls to have for lunch at the hospital. I met Ryan and he decided that he didn't want to walk to Bethania (the church which was about a 30 minute walk away) so we took a cab to the church. When we got there, we couldn't go in because there was a church service going on right inside the doors. We walked around the corner and went to a XelaPan cafe because Ryan had not had breakfast. I showed him my recommended items and he got a few things. We went to the cafe part and sat down. We had about a half hour before church, but by the time the waitress came to take the order, we only had about 10 minutes before church, so Ryan didn't order any food. When he had finished, we headed over to the church.

People were pouring out the doors and many people were waiting in the street for the church to clear. There are three morning services (7, 9, and 11) and each one lasts two hours. I couldn't believe how many people were there. We finally entered the church and there was already a countdown going on the screen. When the church service began, they turned off the lights and had a fog machine with strobe lights. It was pretty intense! We sang lots of worship songs that I knew from other Spanish churches but none that I knew from English. There was a dance team that danced with tambourines, scarves, and ribbons. There were really cute babies in the church service, some of them tied to their mother's backs. I want a Guatemalan baby to tie on my back! I already bought the colorful fabric that they use! The sermon was about having a family that is built upon the Rock (Jesus Christ). It was interesting because he started off talking about all the political candidates and how everyone hopes that if the right person is elected, they hope it will change Guatemala. His opinion is that what is going to save Guatemala is building strong families. He said to build a strong family by praying together, by loving God's Word, and by blessing the people in your family with your words. After church, about 11, we walked to the hospital to see Andrea.

Ryan only stayed 15 minutes because he was going to go to the hostel and change the sheets on Andrea's bed. Her pain meds were wearing off, so she wasn't feeling that great. We walked around the hospital and then she got into bed for a while. It is so hard for her to get in and out of bed that she often chooses to stay in the chair. She needed a lot of help getting around so I could tell she was hurting. She is supposed to go eight hours between pain pills. She said she had her first pill at 5:15 this morning, so she should have had one at 1:15. About 12:30, she gave in and asked for the pill, but they wouldn't give it to her. They said that she had to wait until 2 since morning meds are given at 6. It was a long 90 minutes. I tried to distract her with conversation and helped her move around as needed. We attempted the crossword in the paper (in Spanish, of course), but we could only get about one-fifth of the words. Holly showed up a bit before 2 and then Andrea's mom arrived at 2:30, just as the pain medicine was starting to kick in. Andrea and her mom talked for a few minutes and then went on a walk. Andrea's mom was hungry, so Holly and I took her to the XelaPan cafe where I had been that morning. She ate a meal and Holly and I had sweets. I had a piedra (rock), which is a dense cake-like cookie with chocolate on top. It kind of has a cinnamon flavor. It was huge and very sweet. I could hardly finish it. I also had Hibiscus juice. When we finished eating, it was pouring down rain (due to a tropical depression), so we waited a half hour, but the rain showed no sign of stopping. Andrea's mom had forgotten her umbrella in her car, so she didn't want to walk. I didn't really, either! Holly and I went out in the rain and tried to flag down a cab, which we eventually did. The driver was really nice and we were soon back at the hospital. We hung around for another hour or so and then Holly and I headed back around 6. Andrea's mom was going to spend the night at the hospital. It was still raining quite hard, so we looked for a cab, but we could not find one. We started walking back, still looking for a taxi but without success. It was so wet and Holly didn't have an umbrella. I mainly used mine to protect my backpack that I had on my front to protect my Bible and camera. We walked the whole 25 minute walk back and I was so wet there was really no point in trying to stay dry. I was wearing a long black skirt and it was soaked in the back from the rain dripping off my jacket and umbrella. It started wrapping around my legs and it was hard to walk. When I finally got back, every single item of clothing that I was wearing was wet, including my jacket, sweater, and shirt! In the photo below, please note that the dark black part is the wet part!

I changed and went upstairs to see about dinner. Sandy was on the computer and Alvaro and Kristen were over. Gabby came out and started playing Speed with Alvaro. I couldn't tell if they had eaten yet or not. I wrote about a political article I had read in class on Saturday as part of my homework. We had some popcorn (dinner?) and I played Speed with them. Finally, Sandy went and made some very greasy microwavable pasta with meat for my dinner. I also had some dry bread with a few raisins in it. I miss vegetables! I headed back downstairs around 8. I met one of my roommates (Javi) that I hadn't yet met. She works with med students who are doing clinicals and residencies here. I went to my room and caught up on email and other stuff. I still need to finish reading my Isabel Allende short story. I am really tired!

Here is a picture of Holly and me standing by Andrea's hospital door (#2).

Happy Day of the Teacher!

2011-06-25T22:22:00.002-06:00

el 25 de junio 2011

It has been a busy day, so I will use some bullet points to keep it short...

I got up at 7:15 and went up and knocked on Sandy's apartment door for ten minutes before she let me in and fed me cornflakes with milk and gave me a banana. She is leaving today for San Pedro, so I won't see her until tomorrow at lunch time.
Today is the Day of the Teacher in Guatemala. I brought Carolina some chocolate as a gift.
I had class 8-1, as usual. We talked about Andrea and more about healthcare. I learned some new vocab words like IV, catheter, stitches, and staples. Olga came to work, so during the break I used the internet, but I had a terrible keyboard and the spacebar didn't work so I only replied to a few people using a minimum of words and I put periods in between the words (which is what I did in kindergarten!) since I couldn't use the spacebar.
After school, I went home and packed what I needed for the afternoon. I ate some dried fruit, a banana, and my sheca con frijol. I stopped by XelaPan and bought some more bread and gave a roll to a woman begging outside.
Walked halfway to the hospital and stopped and got a dulce de leche ice cream cone. It was kind of disappointing because the flavor was very mild. It almost tasted like vanilla!
I got to the hospital at 2. Holly was there, too. Andrea seemed to be doing much better. She was in less pain and her IV was out. She is supposed to walk a lot. We walked around the hospital 3-4 times while I was there. She has to go very slowly because it hurts her. Holly left around 3:30, I think. Andrea and I chatted and I helped her with her soup, jello, and water throughout the afternoon. In between helping her get in and out of bed, walking around the hospital, and eating, it was a busy afternoon. Andrea's mom also called and I talked to her for a while and Andrea talked to her for a bit. She is coming tomorrow instead of Andrea's dad. After getting Andrea settled into bed for a rest, I left around 6:30.
Went to Holly's to use Andrea's computer to call Andrea's mom's ride in Guatemala City, but I didn't have her flight info, so I called Andrea's mom and she actually has a friend of a friend who is going to pick her up at the airport and drive her 4 hours to the hospital!
Went to the grocery store and bought some food for tonight and breakfast tomorrow and also a gallon of water. I bought an ear of corn on the cob from a woman selling it near the park. It was the best thing I've eaten here with the exception of the shecas con frijol!

Called Andrea's mom to give her the address of the hospital.
Called my mom and talked for an hour.
Realized why my room is noisy and freezing... there is a gap of at least a half inch between my window panes. It makes it quite drafty in here. There is a soccer game between Mexico and the U.S. tonight and it is loud outside. There is also a bar blasting music on speakers outside. I am not sure I will be able to sleep.
I really need to take a shower, but it is so cold that I think I might wait until the morning, even though I know I will regret that decision tomorrow.
I am meeting Ryan (a new friend of Andrea's) to try out a new church tomorrow!

Hospital!

2011-06-24T23:27:00.003-06:00

June 24, 2011

Andrea had to go to the hospital last night and have emergency surgery for a twisted intestine. I will just write the highlights of today.

Could not sleep last night until 2:30 thanks to the tea I had at dinner.
Woke up feeling really anxious about traveling this weekend for some reason.
School 8-1 during which we mainly talked about healthcare and hospitals.
During the half hour break, I talked to Sander, a man from Holland.
Checked my email when I got back and had a message from Holly that Andrea is in the hospital.
Ate lasagna for lunch with Sandy and Kristen in Sandy's new apartment.
I was told that I had to move to a different apartment with three people I had never met. I was anxious to find Andrea, but I quickly hauled my stuff down two flights of stair and up one flight. I now live with an English girl, a girl from Boston (still haven't seen her), and a male artist from Argentina (according to Sandy).
Called Jenny to wish her a happy birthday.
Went to Andrea's place and asked the owner which hospital Andrea had gone to.
Walked 20 minutes to the private hospital.
Visited with Holly and Andrea (3:30-5) and talked to Andrea's mom on the phone about how her dad can get from Guatemala City to Xela. Andrea seemed to be in a lot of pain, but she said she was much better than last night.
Went to my school to ask for Patricia's number so she can pick up Andrea's dad.
Went home to get Sandy's number for Andrea and to look up the number for the private hospital.
Tried to call the private hospital but got a recording with a different number for the hospital. I called back several times but could never hear all 8 numbers.
Asked a woman on the street to call for me and get the number, but it took her about four tries. She tried the new number and it didn't work so she called the old number and confirmed that she had the right one. She did, so she tried the new number again, but it still didn't work.
Decided to walk back to the hospital, even though it was starting to get dark. Stopped at XelaPan on the way and got a sheca con frijol to eat on the way. I got there about 6:45.
Visited with Andrea, gave her Sandy's number and some water, and left about 7:10 when nine (yes, I did type that correctly) nurses came into her room. I think the head nurse might have been training some of the others.
Stopped at a tienda and bought toilet paper and water.
Went back to Sandy's apartment and ate the chicken drumstick covered in sauce that she had left for me. (She had a dinner at her school.)
Came back to my apartment, emailed Andrea's mom, and talked to Tammy for two hours!
Called Andrea's mom and talked for a half hour.
Looked up possibilities of accommodations for Andrea and her dad.
Wrote my blog, did not do my homework (for once, I am not going to worry about it), and I'm going to get ready for bed. I have had a crazy day of running around the city, and it is almost midnight!

My French/Spanish Day

2011-06-23T21:45:00.001-06:00

el 23 de junio 2011

I woke up at 7:15. My throat seemed really dry and swollen like yesterday. However, it was so much better by the afternoon that I forgot to write about it yesterday. It doesn’t really hurt too badly, but it is hard to swallow. Sandy was here making oatmeal. I asked her what was going on with the moving around. She said that the apartment people told Gabby yesterday afternoon that they had to move to another apartment because the owner is going to use this one as an office. She said that I will move into the new apartment with her when the girls next door move out (tomorrow?). I am still kind of confused, but she said that she will keep cooking here in our old apartment until I move and we are totally kicked out of this apartment. She also gave me a banana and bread for breakfast. I saved the banana for later and got ready for school.

I arrived a few minutes early and talked with some people while I waited. There was not any tea made which was unfortunate for my throat. Carolina and I went over my homework and then we reviewed the perfect tenses. All of this was accompanied by a lot of conversation. During the break, I went with Carolina to the market to buy carrots and green beans already cut and some onions and peppers for the dinner tonight. Each person has to pay Q15 to come and the teachers are going to prepare all the food. When we got back, it was time for the fair trade conference. A man came and spoke about the coffee cooperatives. He said that out of 100 pounds of raw coffee beans, a coffee producer will end up with 12 pounds of beans ready to brew. He talked about some of the obstacles of fair trade and the difference between conventional trade and fair trade. It was interesting to hear him talk about the certification of fair trade because he said it is very costly so some fair trade organizations do not pay to have their products certified, yet others are not fair trade producers but they pay the people who certify the products so they get the certificates. The conference lasted an hour and a half. A man from the Canada group translated the lecture into French, but there was no English. After the conference, we returned to our table and began reviewing the conditional tense. We didn’t finish before it was time to go. I checked my email and when I went downstairs, everyone was gathered in a circle and they were giving Bernadette her certificate from the school because she is leaving before the dinner. When that was over, I paid Olga for my second week of school. Then I headed back to the apartment.

Sandy had something similar to fettuccini alfredo (with American cheese mixed in also) waiting for me. After eating my lunch alone, I grabbed my book and journal and headed up to the terrace for an hour and a half of peaceful reading in the sun (mostly). There were lots of big white clouds in the sky and sometimes the sun would disappear for a bit. It is amazing the difference in temperature when the sun is out and when it goes under a cloud. I headed inside and washed some clothes in the sink and took a long shower. Afterward, I did some stuff in my room while listening to music. Then I did my homework. I wrote my summary of the fair trade presentation and I read one of the short stories in my Eva Luna book. Then I got ready for the dinner. It had warmed up a lot during the day, so I wore my long black skirt and I wasn’t too cold.

I headed over to the school at 6:30. Carolina was making the ensalada rusa (Russian salad) with the vegetables we had bought during the break. I talked with the group from Canada (in Spanish) for a while. Then we went upstairs to my classroom for the dinner. Olga gave a speech and then each teacher presented his/her student with a diploma and said something nice to the student. Then the audience began to clap and chant, “Que hable, que hable, que hable,” and the students each had to give a speech. It is good to know this now before it is my turn! When all the diplomas had been given out, it was time to eat. A few of the teachers served us. We had two tacos and the ensalada rusa (see photo below). There was not anything to drink and I had not brought my water. I went downstairs to fill my mug with water and surprise! There was not any water! I was so thirsty I had to drink something so I had some hot tea. I am hoping that it will not keep me up all night. I only had ¾ of a cup, but I was so thirsty and the tacos were kind of salty. I talked with the Canadians while I ate. I especially enjoyed talking to Mari Eva, a 32 year old teacher. She has only taken four days of Spanish classes and so she can’t speak very well, but we both tried hard to communicate and another Canadian would sometimes help her if she got stuck. It was hard because she spoke with an accent and pronounced most words incorrectly. We celebrated when we understood each other. I like hanging out with people who don’t speak English. (I know that they speak some English, but what I mean is that they were not speaking English in the school.) When I am with Americans or Holly, it is too easy to break into English. I need to be banned from English except when I am writing my blog or communicating with people who don’t speak Spanish (i.e. my family). Tammy, when I get to your house, let’s try to be really good and speak lots of Spanish, okay? It was all too soon time to clean up, so we moved the tables and chairs back to their correct locations and we washed our dishes.

I headed back to my apt. When I got here, Sandy and Kristen were watching House and Alvaro was eating at the table. However, they have all moved out. I am actually the only person left in the apartment and I suspect I will be evicted tomorrow. There is no more room in Sandy’s new apartment. I hope those girls do leave so that I can move in! Sandy and Kristen and I had a massage train and then I went to my room to write my blog and get ready for bed. It is only 9:40, but I am so tired and I hardly did anything today!

La Guardería (daycare)!

2011-06-22T21:16:00.007-06:00

el 22 de junio 2011

I woke up at 7:15 this morning still thinking about the movie from the night before. I got ready for school and had cornflakes with milk and a banano (yes, that is what they are called here). I went to school at 8 and chatted with people until the bell rang for class to start. We went over my homework and then we reviewed all the prepositions. It was completely review, but we incorporated a lot of conversation into it. We talked a lot about Guatemalan holidays and schools. During the break, I checked my email, got some hot tea (which actually did help warm me up), and spent the rest of the break in my classroom reading. After the break, we continued talking and I also read some short stories for children. They were very easy.

After school, I checked my email again and asked more questions about the activity for the afternoon. They were going to Las Cumbres which is a sauna and spa. It is about 45 - 60 minutes away. I didn´t really have the desire to go, although many people from the school recommended that I go. They were also showing a movie about the mines in Guatemala at 4. I went home and Sandy was giving Spanish classes through Skype. I was really hungry, so I helped myself to two slices of bread and made a sandwich with the peanut butter I brought. I also had some dried fruit and a granola bar. I read some of my book and then I got ready to go visit my friends at the daycare from last year. I checked my email and saw that I had a message from Holly saying that she would like to go with me. I sent her a message saying that I would come by and get her.

I walked to Holly´s place and then we headed to the daycare. Surprisingly, I did not get lost at all, even though it is kind of hard to find and I had always walked there from my house. A girl came to the door and I asked for Elisa. She went and got her. Elisa remembered me and let us in. Yadira, her daughter, was there, as was Juanita, the cook. They were happy to see me. I introduced Holly and we chatted for a while (all in Spanish, of course). I had brought pictures from last year and I gave them to Juanita and Elisa. They liked them a lot. It was good to see them again. Most of the children I knew were gone. Rosy Bella, the 9 month old baby from last year moved to Nicaragua. Estephani, Victor, and Katy go somewhere else since Victor and Estephani are too old to go to the daycare now. Carlitos was there, as was Jimmy. There was also a new boy named Juanito. Jonathan was there, too. After a bit, Elisa wrote down the address for me to give to my school in case someone else would like to volunteer there. We were getting ready to go so I could make it to the movie about the mines, but Holly wanted to ask if she could volunteer there a few days. Elisa had gone to her office, so we had to wait for her to come back before she could ask.

By the time we left, it was too late for me to go to the movie, so Holly and I went to the Dispensa (the grocery store) and I took more money out of the ATM to pay for the second week of class. I also had my first ice cream since I´ve been here. It was a mandarin flavored nieve, which is kind of like a sherbet. I walked Holly back to her place (since I had an umbrella and she did not) and then I headed home. I read more of my book and then I got to talk to Laura and Tammy simultaneously. Tammy was stuck in the Houston airport. I hope she makes it back to Chicago tonight. Sandy came back. I helped her cook dinner (refried black beans which we cooked with garlic and onion). Then we ate. We also had shecas (which are big rolls) with the black beans and eggs fried over a piece of lunch meat. Sandy and Gabby also added Philadelphia Cream Cheese to their shecas. After dinner, I had a message from Andrea that some people were going to meet at Bajo La Luna (Under the Moon) at 7 or 7:30. We had talked about meeting to watch the Copa de Oro fútbol game between Mexico and Honduras. I walked there, but they were not there yet. As I was leaving, I saw their group coming. The restaurant did not have a TV to watch the game, so I sat there and chatted while they ate dinner. We were a group of seven people: three from the U.S., two from England, one from Holland, and one from Finland. Andrea and Holly shared a cheese and fruit platter. The cheeses were very strong and no one liked them much. After they finished eating, they were heading to a bar to watch the game. I was tired and I still have homework to do, so I decided to go back home.

I said goodnight to Sandy who was heading for bed and then I went to write my blog. As I was writing on my bed, I saw the man who opens the door moving Sandy´s stuff out of her room. I was so confused. Gabby and Sandy were taking loads, as well. I asked where they were going and Sandy said they are moving to another apartment next door to mine. At first, I thought they were just moving to the other hallway, but they will actually not be in my apartment at all. I am so confused! I also wonder what this will do to meals. Spanish immersion is not that great if I am basically living by myself in the midst of strangers who either speak English or do not talk to me at all. I wonder if it is too late to get a host family for my last week in Xela...

Happy Summer Solstice!

2011-06-21T22:43:00.000-06:00

el 21 de junio 2011

I woke up early to take a shower a little before 7. Waiting to shower until the morning was a terrible idea. It was a colder day today than it has been. The water pressure and the water temperature are indirectly proportional to each other. I think I haven’t warmed up all day as a result of this shower. I got dressed, putting on lots of clothes. Holly still had my pink jacket from yesterday, so I put on my black one.

Sandy gave me yogurt and very crunchy granola for breakfast. When I finished eating, I got ready to go, but someone was in the bathroom so I waited until I got to school to go. I chatted with some girls from my school and then the bell rang to start class. Carolina and I went up to our table. The only other group in our room is Liz and her teacher. Carolina taught me another children’s song in Spanish. This one has addition facts in it! We reviewed the future tense and the progressive tenses. I was so cold that I had two cups of tea during the morning! During the break, I talked to Liz and then refilled my tea and went upstairs to get a head-start on my reading for tomorrow.

After class, I headed back home and checked my email. Sandy came home and I talked to her while she made spinach with mushrooms, onions, and garlic. We had this very salty mixture with tortillas and super salty pasta (with grains of salt on it). I think I eat about 15 times the amount of salt I eat at home and one-fourth the sugar! I checked my email and worked on my blog entry for yesterday. Soon it was time to leave for the Mayan Summer Solstice presentation at the museum. Kristen came with me and we met Andrea and Holly at the school. We chatted with people and I showed them the activity schedule. I think it is nice that the schools let outside people attend the activities! I like that Andrea and I attend different schools so that we can take advantage of the best activities! It was 2:30 when we met at the school and we waited about ten minutes before leaving. We walked to a street near the park and caught a microbus that took us near the museum. It was nice that we didn’t walk since it was starting to rain. It was really cold and rainy today! When we got to the museum, the man at the door told us that there was not a presentation today and that there were no displays to see. The teachers from our school were confused and called Olga, the director of the school. I had seen a poster from the museum that advertised this event. We stood in the rain for a few minutes and then someone figured out that the presentation was taking place in the museum next door. We filed in and sat in a room crowded with mainly gringos. Three women in typical Mayan clothing led the presentation. It lasted a little less than an hour. They had a powerpoint explaining the rotation of the sun and what causes the summer solstice. It was interesting to learn that the Mayan name for the summer solstice means “the stomach of the sun is big.” We learned how the Maya weave the meaning of the four seasons and the solstices and equinoxes into their clothing. After the presentation, they answered questions for a while. Then we paid Q25 and entered the museum. They had traditional clothing from each part of Guatemala displayed. One of the women gave us a tour. The same guy who translated for the presentation followed us around and did his best to translate. We saw everything in the museum and then we left because some of our group had been waiting for a while. We caught a chicken bus back to the park.

Andrea, Holly, and I went to EntreMundos to see about Holly volunteering somewhere and then we tried to find a café. First we went to the one next door to my apartment building, but it was really expensive so we went to one across from the park. I had hot chocolate with milk. Andrea and I read the newspaper. We sat and talked for a while and then the girls headed back to their place and I went to XelaPan and got a sheca con frijol. I am only here eight more days so I need to eat all the shecas con frijol that I can while I’m here! I went back home and worked on my blog and then Sandy came home.

We had black beans and a very runny egg and sliced wheat bread (pan integral) from XelaPan and guacamole that Kristen had made. Sandy wasn’t feeling very well today. The people in my apartment have been passing around a cold. After dinner, I wrote my composition for school tomorrow about what my life will be like in ten years, using the future and progressive tenses. Then I continued reading my story for tomorrow. Soon, it was time for me to leave so I could meet the girls at 7:30.

I had to ring the doorbell three times and knock a couple of times before they heard me. We were supposed to bring snacks to share, so we stopped by a tienda, but they did not have much. We had to walk past La Dispensa Familiar (the grocery store), so Andrea and I bought microwave popcorn and Holly bought gummy bears. We then walked to Celas Maya, Andrea’s school. When we got there, we tried to make our popcorn, but apparently the microwave does not work! So much for microwave popcorn! We went and sat down on the couch and talked while we waited. It turned out that we were the only three who showed up for the movie, Voces Inocentes (Innocent Voices) about the Civil War in El Salvador. It was a horrific movie following the story of a boy named Chava. The violence the children and families experienced was unbelievable. Many nights, the entire family had to hurriedly duck under the bed and hide behind a mattress to avoid the shooting. The soldiers entered the schools and took away all the boys aged 12 or older. It is so incredibly sad that so many people have to live in the face of such terrible violence. Sometime during the movie, the guy working at Celas Maya came and brought us very rich hot chocolate. When the movie was over, the atmosphere was very solemn. We walked slowly back to my apartment discussing the movie. It is definitely worth watching but very sad. The girls walked me to my apartment and then they headed back to where they are staying.

I wrote the rest of today’s blog and I still need to finish about 8 pages of my short story for tomorrow, and it’s 10:45. My mind is still filled with the movie that we watched. I don’t think I’ll sleep for a while…

Más Fotos

2011-06-21T18:10:00.003-06:00

Here is a picture of me coming down the steep rock wall on La Muela. Kristen took the picture and I was NOT posing for this. She actually caught me nearly doing the splits in order to reach the next step. I thought I was going to plunge to my death, but I didn´t.

This is a picture of Andrea and me at our Costa Rica reunion. It has been fun having people to hang out with, even if we do speak too much English!

Salsa Dancing

2011-06-21T18:06:00.002-06:00

el 20 de junio 2011

I woke up at 7:15, got dressed, and had breakfast (oatmeal with cooked platanos). I was a bit concerned because these are the same platanos that have been sitting cold on the stove since Saturday. I finished getting ready and left for school at 7:50. My school is just two blocks from my apartment, so it didn’t take long to get there. I was one of the first students there. I chatted with other people while I waited for everyone to arrive.

The director, Olga, had a little meeting in which we all introduced ourselves and she went over the activities for the week. There are about 12 students studying during the morning and a group from Canada is studying in the afternoon. As I saw the activities, I felt a bit disappointed that I would not be able to attend most of them if I work in the orphanage.

When the meeting was over, Carolina and I went upstairs to our same table from Friday. Went over perifrasis, which are the connecting prepositions that go began certain verbs and we reviewed the imperfect tense. I felt like we did too much review. It seems like the problem is we spend too much time on what I already have mastered. After lots of practice, during which Carolina mostly gave me example sentences, I suggested that we move on to something else. We comprised by me doing one more exercise. I read some short stories aloud and retold them to Carolina. During the pausa (break) I checked my email to see if Andrea had emailed me about volunteering in the orphanage. She hadn’t. I got some tea and went back up to read some more of my Isabel Allende book. When the half hour break was over at 11, Carolina and I studied more and we talked a lot. She also taught me three Spanish children´s songs. Some of them are games that are played in a circle. I hope my kids next year are excited to learn Spanish!

After school, I checked my email again and I had a message from Andrea saying that we can’t volunteer in the orphanage. I was disappointed but also relieved because I feel like I have a lot going on, and I want to be able to participate in the school activities. I had lunch with Gabby (which consisted of some curry rice with vegetables, potato salad, and half of an avocado) and then I went down to talk to the people in the office of the apartments to get some info for Jenny. It is very cheap to live here… $100 a month for one person and that includes electricity, water, gas, internet, and cleaning, as well. Someone cleans the apt every day and your room (including fresh sheets) every week. I then went to meet Andrea and Holly in the Café La Luna. They had finished eating, so we sat and chatted for a few minutes before we headed out. We stopped by EntreMundos to see about Holly finding a place to volunteer, but no one was there. We went to my building to show Holly my terrace and then we went to a taco place so Andrea could get more food (the servings were really small at La Luna). She had gringas al pastor and ending up only eating two so I ate the other one. Then we headed back toward their place and I went to find Sandy’s school to ask her if we were going to eat dinner together. She said that we were at eight, which was perfect for me since I had dance class at seven at my school. I walked by a museum and decided to go since it was only Q6. I had read in the guidebook that the museum is not that great, but I figured it would be somewhat interesting. The lower level had lots of old documents and old typewriters and telephones. Something I thought was funny is that all of the objects had a tag attached that told what year they were donated to the museum, but they didn’t say what year they were made. However, the upper level was much more interesting. There were lots of old Mayan pots and photographs of Guatemala from the 1930s, which were fun to look at because I know some of those places. The very best part was the section of stuffed animals. There were many stuffed birds, including a quetzal. The funny thing is that they had really fake google eyes on the birds. It was cool to be able to see the birds up close. The next room had animals. It was quite a strange collection including a whale skull, a two-headed calf, an eight-legged goat (I think), some big cats, a Chow Chow, snakes, and a collection of fetuses in jars. There were kitten, puppy, rat, bird, fish, cow, and even human fetuses (eight weeks and four months). Very unusual!

After the museum, I went to XelaPan to get a snack since I would be eating dinner late. They didn’t have any Shecas con frijol so I got one long tostada with sugar and two anise rolls. I stopped at a shop and bought some postcards of Guatemala. Then I munched on my bread while I walked home. When I got back, I talked with Kristen for an hour and we looked for transportation options to get to Antigua. Andrea is sure that she saw an option to take a first class bus to Antigua from Xela. I don’t know of this option but would much prefer it as I hate traveling in shuttles. We tried to look some up online but several of the bus companies surprisingly do not have websites. We decided that we would go to the Galgos bus station some afternoon and ask because they might have one that goes to Antigua. I went and got my computer and tried to post some pictures. For some reason, the internet appeared to be working fine, but I could not get photos to post. Finally I got three to post, but it took each one about 20 minutes to upload! You might just have to wait until I get back to see more pictures! Maybe I’ll try facebook to see if that is faster.

Soon it was time for me to leave for my dance class. I walked the two blocks to my school. The four New York girls were there and Bernadette and some guys, including two male teachers who were leading the class. We moved all the tables and chairs out of the room and then we decided to move to a different classroom (mine) that is bigger so we had to move all the chairs and tables out of that one. Most girls were dancing barefoot but some were in socks. I wore socks and let me tell you, I did a nice job of cleaning their floor. When we finished, the bottoms of my socks were nearly black. They were so dirty I took them off before putting on my shoes! I guess I know which socks I will wear if we have dance class next week! The class was really fun. We reviewed the basic steps and then danced together as a group. Then after a half hour, we began to dance in partners. We had two too many girls, so we took turns having one pair of girls dance together. It was fun and all too soon, it was time to go. We finished about 8:15. I quickly put some chairs back and then I hurried home for dinner. No one came to open the door of the apartment building for about five minutes, but finally a girl was coming out and I slipped in.

Sandy had dinner waiting for me: an egg fried on top of a tortilla and a vegetable stir-fry with green beans, red peppers, carrots, and tons of onion. It was good, but later in the evening my stomach began to hurt a little, I think from too many nearly-raw onions. After dinner, the rest of the people in my apartment were going to a bar to listen to someone they knew sing. I was really tired, so I wrote a composition for class tomorrow and finished reading my story from Cuentos de Eva Luna. Then I went to bed around 10:30. I was too tired and cold to shower tonight.

Fotos

2011-06-20T18:09:00.003-06:00

This is the cathedral that is off of the park. This is the view from my roof.

This is the view from the terrace on the roof of my building. I like to watch storms roll in from over the mountains. I think the mountain straight ahead is La Muela (the molar), which is the mountain I climbed on Sunday with Sandy and Kristen.

This is the political rally for the presidential candidate Otto Pérez Molina. ¡Mano dura!

Sunday Funday

2011-06-19T21:44:00.000-06:00

el 19 de junio 2011

I woke up to my alarm at 6:30 and quickly got dressed and ate a granola bar before leaving the apt with Sandy and Kristen around 7:15. We walked a block and turned to the right and continued straight the rest of the way. We walked through town for about 10 minutes and then the road began to climb. In just a few minutes, we were surrounded by poorly-constructed, one-room houses surrounded by tiny yards littered with garbage in the midst of fields. We climbed up this road for quite a while. I was surprised by the number of cars and trucks that were going up. Sandy said the people were going up to work in the fields. The roads up mountains here are interesting. The actual road is made of irregularly-shaped cobblestones, but there are two smooth tracks (that look like sidewalks) for the tires of the vehicles to drive on. It easiest to walk on these, but we had to keep getting over for vehicles. After about an hour of walking, we came to a place where lots of people were getting off a bus to go to church. We stopped for a moment and drank some water. I anticipated that it would be cold both because it was early in the morning and that we were climbing even higher than Xela already is. However, I was surprised by how hot I got. Luckily, I had dressed in layers, so I simply removed a few (only one of which ever made it out of my backpack the rest of the hike). Next, we came to a dirt trail in the woods that was more like usual hiking through the woods. We had to cross a meadow that had been turned into a soccer field. There was a group of people having a church service in the woods. We saw a horse tied to a tree. As we walked farther, we heard howling coming from the distance. Sandy told us it was coyotes, but as we listened more, we realized it was people. Apparently, it was a Pentecostal church service. We could hear them, even when we were at the top of the mountain! At one point, we could hear two separate services coming from different places. We walked along this trail for about fifteen minutes and then we came to a place with huge boulders. I would have stopped hiking at this point, had I been by myself. However, we continued our hike, climbing up, over, and around the huge boulders, using both our hands and feet. Each step brought us 12-18 inches higher. Finally we reached a part I thought was the end of our climb. However, I was wrong. Sandy began to climb a vertical rock wall. I tried to take a picture of her, but my camera batteries were dead. I tried my spare set and they wouldn’t work, either. I was disappointed. I really wasn’t sure I could make it up the wall, but it wasn’t as hard as it looked. I made it to the top and then Kristen climbed up behind me. We kept climbing over the big rocks and finally came to a part with a rock spire rising about twenty feet in the air. We climbed the rock tower and seated ourselves on its pinnacle. I imagine that the place where the devil took Jesus and tempted him to throw himself off the mountain was very similar to this place. We drank water, ate yummy graham crackers (so much better than the U.S.), and took pictures. I think I had accidentally combined one old and one new battery when I tried to take pictures earlier because my low battery light was not even on. Unfortunately, there was a lot of fog, so we didn’t have a perfect view of Xela. However, the fog kept shifting so we could see all of it, just in bits and pieces. After about a half hour, we started back down. Sandy couldn’t find the way down at first, which was a bit worrisome because all the ways down looked scary to me. We tried a few ways which were not right. The scariest one Sandy tried sent loose rocks and gravel tumbling down the mountain and off a cliff. I was glad that she abandoned that way! She finally found the way we needed to go. It was difficult to go down but not impossible. However, when we came to the rock wall, I needed some help from Cristina because it was hard to see where to put your feet since the outcrops were directly underneath you. I had to hang by my hands at one point and lower myself that way since my legs weren’t long enough to reach. I was impressed by Sandy’s climbing because she is even shorter than me. Getting down the boulders took more time getting down than it took us to get up. However, when we made it to the dirt path, it went quickly. As we came down, we could hear one of the church groups singing Majesty in Spanish. It was cool to hear. I was hoping to make it back in time for church at 11, but I know it would be close. We saw lots of animals on our way down: a cat, several cows, a sheep, and many dirty, sick dogs.

When we got back to Xela, Kristen and Sandy headed to get ice cream, but it was 10:45 and I wanted to try to make it to church. I booked it back to the apartment and ran in, all sweaty, and threw on a skirt and top. I was really hot, so I decided to wear flip flops, which was a bad idea. I grabbed my bilingual Bible and dashed out the door. I had to hurry to make it on time. I stepped on a metal plate on the sidewalk and a gush of wet, muddy water shot up and got my feet and legs dirty. Yuck! As I was crossing a street, one of my feet slipped on my wet flip flop and it fell off. There was not anyone coming so I grabbed my flip flop and dashed across the street barefoot. I shoved my flip flop back on and decided that I am done wearing flip flops here! I made it to church on time and sat down and wiped my foot off with a tissue.

The church service was good. I went to the Presbyterian church that I attended last summer. I was not in time for Sunday school which was my favorite part last year because I got to meet lots of young people. However, we sang lots of songs and then the pastor preached on Moses and the burning bush. After the church service which went until 12:30, I hurried back home to call my grandpas for Father’s Day. I was able to reach both of them. I finished calling them and it was time for me to leave to meet up with Andrea.

I met Andrea in the park at 2 by the big tall statue. She looked the same as I remembered. We walked around a little bit and then we headed to my apartment building. I showed her my terrace and we sat up there in the sun and talked for about an hour. It was good to catch up with her. She has been teaching in Honduras for the last year, so we had a lot to talk about. After a while, I took her on a tour of the important places in Xela. We went to XelaPan, my favorite bakery. We each got a sheca con frijol (roll with black beans inside) which were delicious and also a little roll flavored like anise. We went to the theater and they were getting ready to have an orchestra concert put on by a local school. Then we went to the grocery store and she bought food since she is staying in a guest house with a kitchen. We went back to her place and put her food away and sat in her bedroom and talked. Then her friend Holly arrived. Holly is from England. They taught together this past year. We talked for a while and then we talked to some guys who were there. Then we decided to go to a café. Andrea took us to her favorite café, which turns out to be Café Bavaria, which I had been to several times last year. I got hot chocolate. We sat and talked for a couple of hours, and then I felt like I should leave to make it back in time for dinner with Sandy. We made plans to meet up tomorrow. Andrea is going to volunteer at an orphanage and I am going to try to do so, also. They want volunteers to make a minimum two week commitment, and I won’t quite be here that long, but I want to see if they would take me anyway.

I got home before 7, but Sandy and her daughter were not around. I talked to another woman who apparently lives in our apartment but has been gone since I’ve been here. Her name is Tyra. She was very helpful. Sandy never appeared so I helped myself to a bowl of cornflakes and milk that I had to eat with a fork. I think maybe I should start doing my own cooking, like Andrea. I checked my email and called my dad for Father’s Day. Then I took a shower and ate pretzel sticks with peanut butter, almonds, and dried apricots while writing my blog entry. I really need to try to get some pictures posted, but I have been having trouble with the internet. Tyra recommended going down by the office, so maybe I will have to try that tomorrow, if I have time. I have class tomorrow morning at 8.

Relaxing Day in Xela

2011-06-18T17:57:00.004-06:00

el 18 de junio 2011

I slept surprisingly well last night given the noise level in the street outside my window. I ended up going to bed about 10, before Sandy got home. I woke up at six for the first time and then dozed until eight. It has been much warmer than it was last year. I actually slept in a t-shirt and pants and was plenty warm! :)

I got up and took a shower (poor rating on the water pressure scale, not too bad on the temperature scale) and then I unpacked my stuff. I really like my room. I have two dressers, a double bed, a double shelf by my bed, a wooden stand, a fold-down desk/tabletop, and a plastic chair. This does not leave much floor space, but it is a very homey place. I love my two windows. I don't know if it is because I am so much higher than last year, but I think it is less damp and cold here. Because my room is small, it is hard to back away far enough to get pictures of the whole room at once. For that reason, I have lots of pictures showing small parts of my room. I will try to post the whole panoramic view (for you, Jenny). However, for some reason, uploading pictures is taking forever. We may have to have a part 2...

Sandy got up while I was finishing my unpacking. She had fixed eggs and canned refried black beans (which were very salty). After breakfast, I decided to go find an ATM because I have no quetzales. I found an ATM across from the park. There was a line so a man who worked at the bank next door told me to use another ATM that was supposedly the same but was on the other side of his bank. I went and tried it, but I think it was out of money, so hopefully I won't be charged for the amount I tried to withdraw. I went back to the first ATM and waited. I didn't really like standing outside the ATM waiting because it kind of advertises that I am about to get money. I took out the largest amount that I could (Q2,000 or about $250) and walked quickly back to my apartment. I made it back with no problems. I stashed my cash and went back out with just my key to walk around. I walked to the church (after a bit of wandering around and then having to ask directions to the theater which is across the street) that I went to last year when I was here to find out what time the services are, but there is not a sign in front of the church giving this information. I went around to the side and spoke with a boy who looked about 10 and had trouble understanding my Spanish. He told me that the service is at 7. I asked "in the morning?" and he said yes. I asked if there is another one and he said he thought it started at 10. Sandy and I are going hiking tomorrow morning early so I don't know if I will be back in time for church. I hope so! Last year, I attended Sunday school with the young adults and that was how I found out about volunteering with them at that shelter for child workers who were taken from their parents. I also saw the Teatro Municipal (theater) and wandered up and down the roads around the park. They were setting up for something around the park and had several streets closed off. Everything I saw seemed so familiar from last year. I headed back to the apartment after about an hour and a half.

I stopped by the apt to get my books, journal, and water. I also put on sunscreen! Yay for sunny weather! I went up to the terrace or la terraza (teh-RAH-sah), which is more fun to say. It is really nice up there. They have tables and chairs and chaise lounges (sillas de playa), as well as many potted flowers. I took some pictures of the view. Then, I sat on a chaise lounge and read and wrote in my journal and started my Spanish book Cuentos de Eva Luna by Isabel Allende. I watched dark storm clouds roll in over La Muela (the molar), the mountain that we're going to climb tomorrow. It went from being hot and super sunny to cold and rainy. When it starts raining, it gets really cold. I went from being hot in a t-shirt and capris and bare feet to being cold in jeans, tennis shoes, socks, and a t-shirt with a sweater over it, all in a matter of minutes.

When it started to rain, I came inside and spent some time on the computer. I got to talk to Huseyin, the man from Turkey who stayed with Sandy last year when I was here. Sandy gives him Spanish lessons twice a week through Skype. It was fun to talk with him. His Spanish has improved so much since last year when he was just beginning to take Spanish classes. Sandy fed me some lunch which consisted of a quesadilla and a tortilla and something else that I can't remember (but wasn't a fruit or vegetable).

Andrea Sheridan (one of the "strangers" that Tammy and I shared our hotel room with in Costa Rica) and I tried to meet up. It is difficult to communicate because we have to use the internet and she doesn't have easy access to it. We wrote back and forth several times, but we never were able to meet up. Since then, we have planned to meet at 2 in the park tomorrow. I also practiced my English by talking to my family. Other than writing the blog and talking to my family and responding to friends who don't think Spanish, I have been trying to have complete Spanish immersion. I think it is working because I have been really tired. I remember when we got to Costa Rica and last year when I got to Guatemala, I was unbelievably tired the first few days, which I attribute to Spanish overload and my brain trying to compensate. Kristen is another girl who lives in our apt. She is from Sydney, Australia! She has been in Guatemala for 7 months.

Near sunset, Sandy and Gabby and I went out to see what was going on in the park. Sandy said that one of the presidential candidates was coming to Xela. He was from the Partido Patriota. The color of this party is orange and they had given out orange rain ponchos to all the people who were attending in the drizzle. They had set up a huge stage with orange balloons. The slogan of this party is Mano Dura and the symbol is a raised fist. Supposedly, he wants to take a hard stand against violent crimes in Guatemala. He is probably going to win. Several of the people I have talked with do not like him, but they think he is better than the other candidates. It was funny because after each point he made in his speech, the band would play a short, lively tune. At the end, they sang the theme song "Mano Dura" and Otto Perez Molina and other members of the party would shake their fists in time to the music. I tried to take some videos and pictures, but it was getting dark and rainy. After the speech, two bands played (one on each side of the stage at the same time playing different songs). One band consisted of about thirty men playing mainly brass instruments in a circle around four girls who were dancing to the music. We only stayed about a half hour and then we came back.

I helped Sandy get the dinner ready. I made the chicken covered in bread crumbs and Kristen made the salad of avocados, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Sandy made the rice and platanos, which we did not eat tonight. Then, Sandy, Kristen, and I played Bananagrams Espanol. We had fun. I actually won, which was a surprise because I think I know the least Spanish out of the group, but I have had experience playing the game. I am also very competitive. After our game, the food was ready and we ate together, which was nice. When we finished dinner (about 8pm), Sandy cleaned up the kitchen and everyone went to bed except me. They were all out late last night. Tomorrow Kristen is going hiking with us. I am finishing up with this blog entry and then I am going to head to bed, as well. I can tell that I got some sun on my face today from la terraza. Not burnt but definitely close. We leave tomorrow at 7am to hike La Muela. I hope it doesn't rain! I have pictures of the political rally, pictures of the view from la terraza, and pictures of my room to post when the internet is feeling more cooperative (probably when it's not raining!).

Guatemala City to Xela!!!!!!

2011-06-17T20:42:00.003-06:00

el 17 de junio 2011

I woke up at 6:10 this morning (by alarm clock) after a surprisingly restful night. Patricia's is not far from the airport and it was very noisy. I slept 9 hours. It was not too cold in the morning, which was good because I had a very lukewarm shower with poor water pressure... welcome to authentic Guatemala! I packed up my belongings and Patricia told me it was time for breakfast. She served pancakes, pineapple, watermelon, bananas, and coffee. I ate breakfast with a woman named Ellen who has lived in Guatemala for twenty years. She was a teacher at a Christian school when she came. We left at 7:15 to drop her off at the airport and then we continued on to the bus station for me to catch my bus to Xela.

I bought a ticket and got on the bus without a problem. I was a little worried that I would only be allowed one piece of luggage, but they accepted both my suitcase and my duffel bag without a word. The bus was only about half full so I had the seat next to me empty. I spent the first part of the trip looking at the window and enjoying the view. Things of note that I saw included an advertisement for Special K, a Walmart, and lots of advertisements for presidential candidates. They showed the movie Rango on the bus. It was in English, but I could not hear the audio. I kind of watched it, mostly preferring the view from my window. There were subtitles in Spanish, but they were hard to see because I was kind of far from the TV. We stopped about 2.5 hours into the journey at a restaurant with bathrooms. I went to the bathroom and then sat and read my (Jenny's) Lonely Planet Guatemala book. We eventually left about a half hour after we arrived. The rest of the trip I fluctuated between reading the Guatemala book and looking out the window. I got excited when I began to recognize places from last year. I was actually surprised by how clearly I remembered places (like the restaurant where we used the bathroom). At the bus station, I was met by a man from the school (or so they said... I think the school hired him to drive me). He spelled my last name with a T! Dad, I bet you don't have that spelling in your collection! I chatted with the driver while we drove to the school. He told me I know a lot of Spanish! :)

When I arrived at the school, I was told I had to pay Q30 for the taxi. I did not realize that, although I should have known. I only had Q25 left over from my bus ticket, which was embarrassing. The man said it was ok after I offered him my two Guatemalan coins worth about 15 cents. I talked with Dora and signed some papers. Luckily she didn't ask me to pay then because I have not had a chance to get to an ATM. I took a tour of the school and met my teacher Carolina. Since they already have a Carolina in the school, I am not called by my Spanish name, but rather Caroline. Sandy, my host mom, was going to meet me at the school after she finished her classes. When I saw her walk in the door, we went running to each other and she couldn't stop hugging me. We were so glad to see each other! Sandy helped me move my stuff to her apartment. She only lives two blocks from the school! Her apartment complex is very famous (according to her) and it seems nice and safe. It is interesting because it is a shared apartment. Sandy and her daughter Gabby (and I) live here, but so do other people. I think there are six in total. We have our own bedrooms which lock, but we share the kitchen, dining/living room, and the bathroom. There is a balcony off the apartment and there are stairs to the roof. Sandy took me up and showed it to me. It is very pretty with lots of flowers in pots and a great view. Sandy fed me a fast lunch consisting of a soup with greyish pieces (mushrooms?) and tuna on crackers and potatoes. I was nearly late to school, but I made it right on time (2pm).

Carolina and I went upstairs to an empty classroom. She gave me a Spanish exam which was easy. After she saw how well I did on it, she made me conjugate a bunch of verbs and I only messed up on one verb! We did lots of oral exercises and a few written ones. We are doing a very fast review of the grammar. I kept telling her that I am decent with Spanish grammar but what I really need to practice is conversing. We took a break at 4:30 and I used the internet at the school to email my family. I went downstairs and met some of the other students, in particular a girl named Bernadette. She is leaving Xela soon. By the way, Xela (pronounced SHAY-lah) is another name for the city of Quetzaltenango. After the break, we did more exercises and then I read some short stories and answered questions about them. At the end of the class, it was quite dark. We went downstairs and I talked with Olga, the director of the school. She is an exuberant person. I borrowed a book by Isabel Allende (in Spanish). As my homework for the weekend, I have to write a composition using the preterite past tense and read at least the first chapter of the Allende book.

I walked home and made it there safely. I had a bit of trouble getting the door to the apartment unlocked, but I finally got it open. Gabby (Sandy's daughter of about 20 years) was the only one home. She said that Sandy would not be home until late. She helped me get some dinner (two eggs, a flaky roll with unidentifiable meat inside, and water. I talked to Gabby while I ate. She is reading a book in English. I explained the words deer, doe, and fawn to her. It was like a guessing game because how do you explain a deer without using that word (and being limited in your Spanish vocabulary). I gave the following clues: it's an animal that lives in the forest and hunters like to hunt them, and the males have horns. She guessed the word and I recognized it. We high-fived to celebrate our accomplishment. From there, it was easy to explain doe and fawn. After dinner, I washed my dishes and Gabby helped me connect to the internet. There is good signal in the living room, but none in the bedrooms.

A man came home and was cooking and watching TV. Gabby went out. I replied to emails (most in Spanish) and then wrote this blog entry. I am really tired even though it is just 9pm. Sandy still is not home, but I am getting sleepy. I think I will go to my room and unpack a little and get ready for bed. I think I might meet up with Andrea Sheridan (the "stranger" Tammy and I shared a room with in Costa Rica) tomorrow.

Indy to Chicago to Guatemala City!

2011-06-16T17:29:00.007-06:00

Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The majority of today was spent frantically packing. The laborious process of selecting my clothes and other required items is almost enough to make me not want to travel. I do so detest packing! About a half hour before I was supposed to leave, I finally had loaded all of my belongings for the next five weeks into an overstuffed, hot pink suitcase, a green duffel bag, and my backpack. I took some pictures with my family before leaving. It was especially hard to say goodbye to Emily, knowing that she will be back in Texas when I return. (The picture with Emily is on my mom's camera, hence why it is not included here.)

I ended up leaving around 4:30, which was only half an hour later than I had hoped. My main goal was to avoid rush-hour traffic in Chicago. The drive up to Chicago was uneventful, other than my phone battery nearly dying. I talked to Tammy for about two hours of the drive and also Grandpa Bob (for 10 minutes). It was a strange feeling, talking to Tammy as I drove to her house, knowing that she would not be there. Around Chicago, the sky became very dark and looked like a bad storm was coming. I didn't have to drive through too much rain, though. When I arrived at Tammy's house, two men were in a boat in her pond with the waterfall. They were scrubbing the lights with a mop. There was also a guy standing on the rocks drinking a beer. They were speaking Spanish, so I guess that was the first part of my immersion experience! Tammy, I took this picture for you since you could not be there to see it:

Tammy's brother, Brennan, was there to welcome me, along with the two Golden Doodles, Mibby and Manzi. They (the dogs) are such enthusiastic greeters! Soon after I arrived, Tammy's friend Erin came over to play games. She brought banana cupcakes with chocolate icing. Yum! We talked for a while and then played games. We started with Forbidden Island, a cooperative strategy game where you are trying to save treasures on a sinking/flooding island. We won. Then we played Ticket to Ride, a strategy game where you are trying to build railroad routes through Europe.

Within five minutes of Erin leaving, Tammy called. I talked to her for about a half hour and then Tammy's parents came home. After talking about two logistical matters (car keys and departure time in the morning), we went to bed. It was weird staying in Tammy's room without Tammy. I had a good night's sleep, although it was too short. I was kind of excited at first so it took me a while to fall asleep. I slept about 12-5.

Thursday, June 16, 2011
I got up at 5:10 and got ready to go. I didn't have a lot to do, so I finished quickly. I went down and ate breakfast with Tammy's dad. We loaded my suitcase into his car and left for the airport about 5:45. The nice thing about the Michaelis Bed & Breakfast (other than the price and the hospitality of the staff) is that O'Hare is very close by, just a short "shuttle" ride away. I got to the airport without a problem and began the process of checking in my bags. My suitcase weighed 52 pounds so I removed my bilingual Bible and stuck it in my other bag. Then my suitcase weighed 49 pounds. I had looked online to see how many bags I could check, but I obviously wasn't looking in the correct location. I thought I could check two bags for free, but it turns out that I could only check one for free. I checked my suitcase and decided to take my green duffel as my carry-on (my backpack fits under the seat). The line for security was long but kept moving slowly. After I made it through security smoothly, I headed for my gate. Well, if I had planned on carrying-on my duffel, I probably should have brought one with a shoulder strap. I had a sweaty, long, heavy walk to my gate carrying my duffel which weighs 30 pounds and my backpack which probably weighs as much. When I went to board, shortly after finding my gate, a steward made me check the size of my carry-on and it was too big to fit into the overhead bins. After a momentary panic attack, I was much relieved when they said that they would have to check my bag (for free) through to Guatemala. It really worked out quite nicely!

My flight to Miami (leaving at 7:45) was uneventful. I started writing in my new journal. I love new journals, especially at the start of a new adventure. The promise of the blank pages excites me as I try to imagine the experiences I will soon be having. I also did the gentle and moderate Sudoku puzzles and tried my hand at the Mensa questions. I miss racing Tammy on the Sudokus (even though she always wins). When we landed in Miami, I scarcely had to walk to find my new gate. I immediately whipped out my cell phone and started calling people and making the most of my last few minutes (or so I thought) of my time on U.S. soil. However, most of the people I called did not answer. :( I ended up texting some people and talking to my mom for just a few seconds. We boarded about 11:45 for the flight which was supposed to leave at 12:15. I was one of the first people on the plane, so I got a chance to call a few more people (Tammy, Anne, my mom, and Emily) and texted back and forth with Jenny. We appeared to be leaving on time until the pilot came on and announced that there was a delay. He came back on a few minutes later to say that some people had checked bags for our flight but had not boarded. As a security precaution, they had to look through all the suitcases on the plane and pull off those suitcases. We didn't know how long it would take. We were allowed to keep talking on the phone, which was nice. The steward delivered cups of water to us. Finally, we left almost an hour and a half late. I was worried that I was not going to arrive in time for my bus. One thing I really like about flying to/from a Spanish-speaking country is that all of the announcements are made in both Spanish and English. I started feeling really excited to use my Spanish. There was a family sitting next to me (and across the aisle) traveling to Xela also. I spoke a bit with the mom (in Spanish). She has lived in Washington, D.C. for over 20 years, but she is from Xela. There was also a cute kindergarten-aged boy sitting behind me (who enjoyed kicking the seat until he fell asleep) and a dog in the row in front of me (grey Shih Tzu), who whined for the first half hour of the flight. We could see a lot of the coast of Mexico as we flew. The water looked so beautiful. I am posting a picture, but it does not quite do it justice.

We arrived in Guatemala City about an hour and twenty minutes late. I power-walked to customs and was the first passenger from our plane to get there. I went to the bathroom and exchanged some money while I waited for the suitcases to start coming out. I found mine (both arrived safe and sound) and headed outside. I saw Patricia holding a sign with my name (with some creative spelling of my last name). I greeted her and she helped me load my stuff into the van. Alberto drove. They told me that it was too late to catch the bus to Xela. It was 2:50 and the bus leaves at 3 across Guatemala City. I was really disappointed that I would not be able to make it to Xela tonight to stay with Sandy, but I tried to be gracious. Patricia's Bed and Breakfast is close by the airport. I am going to stay here tonight and then tomorrow morning I will take the bus to Xela. I left a voicemail for Sandy and Alberto told me how to access the internet, which they thankfully have here. I haven't really seen Alberto or Patricia since they left me in my room around 3. It is 6:20 now. I am assuming that they will feed me some dinner, but I'm not worried. There is a pretty courtyard outside my room, but it has been drizzling most of the afternoon. I was sitting out under the canopy, but there are little holes in it, and I was afraid for my computer. Here is a picture of the courtyard and one of my bedroom:

I am still getting used to throwing my toilet paper in the trashcan. I think habits are very interesting. I have to really remind myself not to throw the toilet paper in the toilet right now, but when I return, I will have to remember to not to throw it in the trashcan! I think studying people's habits and how they are formed would be a fascinating study.

Well, if you have made it all the way through this post, congratulations! I will NOT be posting this much on a normal day. However, sitting in a room by yourself can lead to excessive writing. Also, the internet is excellent here so it is fairly quick to post pictures (not that I'm in a hurry).

Hasta mañana!

Guatemala 2011

2011-06-14T17:39:00.003-06:00

I am starting my journey to Guatemala. I will continue posting on this blog this summer. Thanks for sharing in my adventures!

Back Home

2010-08-06T05:50:00.001-06:00

I still have a week's worth of blogs to finish and pictures I want to post, but I wanted to let you all know that I made it home safely. I hope to finish the blog soon.

Iglesia La Merced

2010-07-27T18:36:00.000-06:00

This is the beautiful yellow Catholic church that is near Elvira and Enrique´s house.

Arch

2010-07-27T18:34:00.001-06:00

Here is the arch that connected the two parts of the convent so the nuns could cross from one building to the other without being seen.

Antigua Cathedral

2010-07-27T18:31:00.001-06:00

Here is a picture of the Cathedral in Antigua. It is very beautiful, as you can see.

Fun fact: this is the 4,444th picture that I have taken on this camera!

Girls of the Household

2010-07-27T18:27:00.001-06:00

Here are all the girls that lived in our house. Left to right: Erica, Sandy, me, and Gaby.

Indian-Guatemalan Meal

2010-07-27T18:22:00.002-06:00

Here is the meal that Sandy and I cooked for Erica`s goodbye dinner: rice with tomatoes, onions, and carrots in it, curry chicken, and potato tortas.

Students

2010-07-27T18:14:00.001-06:00

Here are some of the students who have attended my school, Educaciòn Para Todos. Left to right we have Hussein, me, Filippa, and Benjamin.

Any and Carolyn

2010-07-27T18:12:00.002-06:00

Here is a picture of my teacher, Any, and me. I haven´t mentioned that I enjoy being one of the tallest females in Guatemala. Now I know how Tammy feels all the time!

Laguna de Chicabal

2010-07-27T18:08:00.001-06:00

Here is what Laguna de Chicabal looked like when some of the fog cleared away.

Monday, July 26, 2010

2010-07-27T18:02:00.000-06:00

I got up this morning at 6:45 and did my usual morning routine. Breakfast consisted of a bowl of sliced bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe, and pineapple. I guess you could call it a fruit salad. I thought it was funny because each time we have had the yogurt-fruit breakfast, there is less and less yogurt on it until today when there was none! I also had a little bit of coffee. Hussein and I left for school at 7:50.

I read my homework assignment to Any, which consisted of a diary of my trip to Antigua. I had to write it from the perspective of three days (before, during, and after my trip). I had also written out an itinerary of my last week here. Any and I talked about it. Then I reviewed the conditional progressive tense and the conditional perfect tense. There are seven uses for these tenses, in case you were wondering. Next, I read two Guatemalan legends. One was about the creation of the world and it explained why people can’t communicate with animals. The other was about Hernando Cortes and his horse that broke its leg so he left it with the native people. They didn’t know what to feed it so they tried to give it snake meat, and deer meat, and fish, and all kinds of meat, but the horse starved because horses don’t eat meat. The people end up making a stone horse to remind them of the real one and they kind of worship it. It is a long story and I am tired and I don’t really speak English anymore, so I am not going to take the time to tell all the details, but what I really liked about the story was that when the Spanish came and taught them about God, the native people realized that if there is only one God, then when they were offering sacrifices to the stone horse, they must have been praying to God, so then they start praying to God instead of their deities. It was a neat story. Then we had the break. I was hungry, so I went to the bakery next door to the school, but they hardly had anything. I wandered around a bit looking for another bakery, but the other ones were closed, so I returned the first bakery and ended up getting some regular roll-type things. I went back to school and talked to Elizabeth and Gareth, a couple from England. They are only at our school for one week. Any came back and we finished talking about the second story. Then we played animal memory. If you turned over two different animals, you had to give a sentence using the two animal names. I beat Any 17-8. Then we played again and I beat her 13-12. I was very lucky, often turning over two cards we had never looked at before and they would match! Then we read a third story about a conceited girl who turned into stone because she bathed on Good Friday. By the time we finished discussing and retelling this story, it was time to go home. Any and I had fun today. I kept making her laugh when I stumbled over names of places. I also told her my story of bartering in Antigua when I told the man that “the lowest price I will pay is Q90” instead of “the highest price.”

Hussein and I walked home. We had soup with noodles in it and black tortillas. We also had rice and black beans and a potato-chicken-lentil-curry dish. When I finished, I went back to my room for a few minutes before leaving for daycare.

When I arrived at the daycare at 2, Rosy Bella was sitting on the floor waiting for someone to hold her. I gladly obliged and soon rocked her to sleep. I held her while she slept for an hour. A group of students from a church were painting the tables and chairs. I was excited because they really needed it. Yadira was back but still was kind of sick and cranky. The kids woke up around 3:15 and they had snack a little after 3:30. Rosy Bella was fussy and didn’t want to be held but neither did she want to be put down. Carlitos, the little darling, tried to cheer her up, but she just screamed louder. Eventually she calmed down. I left about 4:30 in a rainstorm.

I had to go all the way to Central Park to talk to different tour agencies about my options for my last week here. I visited Adrenalina Tours and then went to MonteVerde Tours (the group I was supposed to climb the volcano with), but they were closed. I wandered around and found the Bridge of the Chacoyos and realized that the bridge I had thought was the Bridge of the Chacoyos really wasn’t. I also found Icaro Tours right by the bridge. I talked to Erica’s friend Josue. He tried to convince me that I have time to go to Semuq Champey AND Tikal with the excellent tour he would set up for me. I am really only interested in a shuttle to Antigua, but I listened to him talk for a while. I forgot to mention that it was pouring by this time. I headed back out into the downpour. It had been raining hard for a good hour and the streets were flooded. I had to step into a stream of rushing water. My shoes were completely drenched and my jeans were drenched, too, up to my knees. It wasn’t super cold, though, so I didn’t mind too much.

I went to XelaPan and bought some tostadas for tomorrow during the break. They are my favorite thing from the bakeries here. I then kept walking home in the deluge. I stopped at a tienda and bought some candy to give to the kids at the daycare tomorrow since it is my last day. I kept walking home. I stopped at a libreria (a store that sells notebooks and pens and stuff like that) and looked at folders. It was kind of funny because I didn’t know the word for “folder” so I told the woman what I needed (a thing to put papers in that opens and shuts). She brought me a selection of folders. I asked what you call them (in Spanish, of course), and she told me “fol-der.” Oh, I should have tried my Spanglish in the first place! They were not cheap, but I bought a plastic one that opens and shuts (perfect for file folder games at school).

I went back outside and walked to the internet café near Parque Bolivar. Every time a car passed me, it would spray dirty water from the street onto my shoes and pants. I had to wait for a bunch of cars to go by until I could cross the road and enter the internet café. I waited two minutes for a man to finish working on my favorite computer, and then I had my turn. I read my emails and responded with a short reply to a few people, but I spent most of my time working on my potential plan for this week. I think I might go to Antigua Thursday afternoon and then go to Semuc Champey Friday-Sunday. Then I would return to Antigua until I would take a shuttle to the airport early Tuesday morning. I emailed Elvira to see if any of this would work for them. My time was up, so I headed back to my house. It was only sprinkling by this time.

I did a few things in my room, and then headed into the house to chat with Sandy and help set the table. We had rice, black beans, the lentil curry dish from lunch, a salsa that I don’t remember its name, bread, and a strange egg creation that was basically a leftover black tortilla from lunch with an egg cooked on it. After dinner, I went to my room and took a shower. Then I did my homework (rewrite the creation story from this morning in my own words). I am really tired and my brain finds it hard to write in English. I keep writing Spanish words and then have to erase them. I take this as a good sign for my Spanish. I guess it’s a good thing that I will have nearly two weeks of English immersion before I have to teach students proper grammar!

I put all my pictures on my computer and worked on the blog. I estimate I will go to bed around 10:30. I am going to try to catch up on my blog entries from this weekend.

I am really proud of myself that I have not accidentally used tap water to brush my teeth. I think this is the first country I have been to (that you shouldn’t use the water) that I haven’t accidentally dunked my toothbrush in the water at least once. I also have only twice thrown toilet paper in the toilet, in case you were wondering. What I am looking forward to the most about returning home (even though I really don’t want to leave), aside from seeing my fantastic family and fabulous friends, is taking a nice, long, hot shower and washing my clothes in a washing machine… both now possible thanks to our new septic system and washer!