Adventures in Guatemala 2008

Colegio Mesoamericano Patzicia

2008-06-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is. The school I've been working at this past month. It's truly a wonderful place. It's been a great experience working there!
The sports court where they do PE and where everyone hangs out during lunch and after school. The sports court is brand new! It was an eagle scout project from someone in the states. The students are so grateful for it. They're favorite sport to play is soccer. It's so cute, the little ones from kindergarten play too.
The playground. In the right hand corner is the comedor-a place they are building where the kids can eat lunch. Also it will be a place where they can sell lunch food for the kids. Right now they sell out of a little shack. It will be done soon so everyone is really excited.
This is the classroom I work in. I teach 3rd through 9th grade. We go to the classrooms of 3rd, 4th, and 5th. And then 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th come to us in this classroom. 7th grade is obviously the hardest. I give so much credit to middle school teachers - they are all truly awesome. I really learned to love that class though. They are a lot of fun to hang out with and are actually really willing to learn even though in class they don't act like it sometimes. View of Patzi from our school.
This is my electivos group. Some of my favorite kids - mostly 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. This is the last class of the day called electivos after all their academic classes where we play games practicing their English.
My last day at school. These are the crazy 8th and 9th graders. They're fun.This is Frank and Anne. The two teachers I worked with in teaching classes. I learned so much about lesson planning, controlling classes, and being a teacher from them. I really enjoyed working with them.
This is Mirium. As you can see she is an absolute doll. She is the lunch couple's daughter and also one of our neighbors at home. We love their family. The food is amazing that they cook for the school!
This is Carlos the PE teacher. He is probably one of the best PE teachers I've ever met too. He's only 19 and so good with the kids. He does a great job. When I had a minute I loved helping out in PE! I even got to teach a little gymnastics and soccer! It was fun leading exercises too.

Overall, my experience at the school was absolutely amazing. I learned so much about teaching, about the kids, about the people I worked with, and about myself. While teaching English I also learned more Spanish. I know that when I teach ESL students in the future I will have a little more background to help them than I had before. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to have worked at the school - I am glad to have been able to help them any way I could. This is the reason I came here and it has definitely proven worth while. Seeing their faces in the classrooms and being able to help teach them made every minute of the trip worth it.

La Casa de Las Voluntarias

2008-06-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

Our bathroom. We get it as clean as we possibly can. But it still looks like this. Oh well. Makes us all really grateful for our clean bathrooms at home. And after a week of living in the house we figured out how to make the shower warm! So we do get warm showers :)
Me and Jenna's room. I sleep on the top. Down below is our dresser drawers (aka our suitcases) It's cozy. I sleep like a rock at night because we are always so busy.
This is where the other 3 girls sleep. This is also the room where when it rains the water likes to leak on their floor - sweeping it out gets it out though. The stuff on the left bed is all donation stuff we are organizing and giving out to the families we know that need things.

These hammacks are like heaven. we love them.
The firepit in our backyard.
This is the first room seen when entering the house. This is where we all like to hang out. Where the kids color, watch movies, practice schoolwork, ect. It is also where our guests sleep.

Our little kitchen. On the other wall is a shelf where we keep our food.

Lawn Mower? What's that?
When your grass needs to be cut in Guatemala a Machete gets the job done.

The wonderful girls I have lived with: Anne, Jenna, Taryn, Kiley, & Me.

We have had a blast together! Right now its just me and Jenna because the other girls went to Panama - we miss them already!

When volunteering at the school this is our home away from home.

(I made a video tour but it won't upload - you all will have to see it when I get home)

A weekend in Antigua & hitchhiking in the rain = good times

2008-06-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

I can´t even begin to explain how exciting it was to see this blue sky! First time in 10 days!

The two above pictures explain the chicken bus experience. Check out our faces.
That´s a picture of our bus and the road next to our bus. The flood was further ahead.
Anne, Taryn, Leah, Megan, Jenna, Me, & Kylie
I´m going to miss her!
Our BYU friends.
The McDonalds park where we got to lay out. Here are the Holland kids.
I´m a fan of McDonalds here.

The cookies Anne made.
This is Mario, he lives next door and he is my favorite 3 year old here.
haha the million kids hanging out at our house.

Kiley, Anne, and Taryn leave this week from us to go travel to other countries and then head back to the states. We couldn’t think of a better way to spend their last weekend in Guatemala then heading down to Antigua for a good time. Antigua is the beautiful city where I spent my first week here in Guatemala. We packed up after school and headed on a chicken bus to this Spanish colonial city to spend the night.

We a dropped our stuff off at our 5 dollar a night hotel and got ready for dinner. Our friends Leah and Megan from our sister school, Momostenango, were also with us because of an English meeting in the school earlier that day. We all got dolled up and went to dinner at this place called the Rainbow Café. This place had awesome food and awesome live music. I ate a salad! My first one in a whole month! It was pretty amazing to have vegetables! For those of you who know me know how much I love salad – it’s one thing I really miss from the states. Leah and Kiley gave the mic a try and sang a couple songs using the guitars. Kiley had met some BYU boys who were here doing research, so they ate with us as well. It was a good time. Then we met some of our fellow teachers from the school for a night of dancing. Francis, Dorge, Odien, and a couple of their friends met up with us to go to a salsa club. It was SUCH A BLAST just hanging out with all the friends I’ve met here. I’m really going to miss the girls that are leaving!

The next day I woke up and went and got some banana bread and cheese (two things that don’t exist in Patzicia) from my favorite bakery in Antigua to take home. I also got a couple souvenirs and then all of us girls met back up. We decided to stop by McDonalds before we headed out. McDonalds is one of the nicest restaurants in town because it is ALWAYS so clean. A clean bathroom is a rare find here in Guatemala. It was also kind of nice to have American food for once too – it feels like it’s been a long time. This McDonalds also had a little garden in the middle (like most buildings in Antigua) for us to eat in. The sun came out! We laid out in this little garden for about 3 hours just soaking up the sun that had been hidden for over a week. I even got a little sunburn! It was pretty exciting. This Holland woman also had us watch her kids for her because she was pick pocketed right then in the McDonalds – even with the security. After going on the internet (which was fast by the way J) we were back on those chicken buses again.

Like I’ve said before, riding a chicken bus in Guatemala is an adventure in itself. They are the cheapest and easiest way to travel in Guatemala but they definitely are not the most comfortable. They are called chicken buses for the reason that they literally try to fit as many people as they can on these monster things. If you were claustrophobic you definitely couldn’t travel this way – at least 3 people to a seat, people standing, and people practically sitting on you. Then just when you think they couldn’t fit more on there, the doors open and more pack on in. A man called an audante pushes through the people to collect how much they decide to charge that time. Smells of goods and the body odor of cramped people fill your senses. Add a crazy driver driving like a maniac in the hurricane rain on windy roads. THEN add jumping off the bus while it’s still moving – all this creates an experience never forgotten. When riding these buses you have to be careful of pick pocketers! Taryn got her pocket of her shorts cut and her wallet was stolen. It’s so cramped and there are so many people touching you it’s so hard to notice. On our last bus ride she had to call her bank to cancel her card immediately –big bummer.

Our goal was to head over on a bus to Acatenango to a fair to meet the teachers from our school. They were going to drive us home when it got dark because it’s not safe to ride the buses at night. We left in plenty of time to get there, but of course it started raining which slowed everything down. We were about 2 miles from the town and all traffic stops. The driver and the audante get out of the bus to see what’s up – FLOOD. No one can pass. So we just sit there as it gets darker and darker. We’re in the mountains where Guatemalan gangs live just sitting on the bus waiting to get robbed. There’s no way that the traffic is going to be moving and there is also no way our friends are going to be able to meet us. The audante owed Kylie 45Q for her change on the bus so we waited for that until we realized we had to get out of there unless we wanted to spend the night on this bus. So in the torrential downpour rain all 5 of us girls (Me, Jenna, Taryn, Kylie, and Anne) start walking the other way down the road. The town we were 2 miles away from had no hotel or a place for us to stay – plus we probably wouldn’t have been able to get passed that flood anyway. Then we see this truck going the other way and Kylie asks if we could have a ride. Yikes.

So there we all were, in the back of this truck in the pouring rain on our way back to Patzicia which we thought was about 30 minutes away. That was another problema, we weren’t really sure where we were. We sat there drenched terrified thinking of all the million outcomes of the situation. And really we had no other option at the time – it was a bad situation that had turned a lot worse. These guys could have pretty much taken us wherever they wanted; done whatever they wanted to us. We didn’t know where we were and said a prayer that we would just make it back safe. We sat in this truck in high alert ready to jump out if they went off onto a different road. Anne watched to make sure they didn’t go on their phones to call their friends. I watched the road to make sure they stayed on the main road. And we all sat there very scared driving on these windy mountain roads and being scared or angry with each other would get us nowhere. After about a half an hour we were back on the other side of Patzicia. Oh the relief we felt to stop in our town. Then we walked over a mile home still in the pouring rain along the side of a highway. When planning my trip to Guatemala I wasn’t aware I was going to have to plan for hyperthermia haha. We had been soaking wet in cold mountain temperatures for at least 3 hours. We got back and did everything we could to get warm – BLAST this darn rain that NEVER ends. I was so happy we were all safe. By far the scariest experience I’ve had so far in Guatemala.

Sunday was pretty mellow compared to Saturday. We went to church and then had the kids in the neighborhood over to play. We must have had at least 25 kids over. They love watching movies on my laptop (we borrow kiddy movies from our director Denise). We also play games and do art stuff with them. They also help me practice my Spanish and I help them with their English. Anne made homemade peanut butter cookies that were simply amazing! The kids loved those!
So there you go - my first hitchhiking experience. Can you believe I’ve lived in Guatemala for over a month now? Crazy huh? It’s been a little tough but yet completely wonderful. Never a dull moment here. I will see you all in less than 3 weeks!

Tikal

2008-06-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

If you visit Guatemala you can’t leave without visiting the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal - so when Jenna and I heard a group was heading north to go we jumped on the bandwagon so fast.

Tikal is about a 10 hour drive from where we live without stops, so heading there in a Chicken bus for that long would be a very bad idea. It was important for us to go with a group because it meant the van there would be cheaper and we would be safer with more people. Traveling in Guatemala always means a huge adventure. Our group consisted of 3 girls from BYU, this young married couple, and then me and Jenna – 7 of us total plus our driver Salvador.

At that time I’d been in Guatemala for over 3 weeks without getting sick from anything I had eaten (and the only one living in our little house at that time that hadn’t gotten sick yet). OF COURSE I had to get sick as soon as we started this long journey up north. The worst stomach pain of my life and there I was in this HOT van on the windy mountains roads of Guatemala for 12 hour ride (I swear Guatemalans make these roads as windy as they could be). I got sick from eating from someone’s house the night before because there was no way it could have been car sickness. Whatever I had eaten my stomach wanted it to get out REALLY fast. I won’t give you the gory details but for about 3 hours I basically got the bathroom tour of Guatemala and was COMPETELY miserable. I was so embarrassed to be in this car full of people I didn’t even know and having to stop every 15-20 minutes. I was so happy when after about half of the drive I was finally feeling better and the roads got straighter. Our driver was awesome and was so sweet about the whole thing – I was so happy I paid for that van because chicken buses don´t stop for nothin! Since the trip my body hasn’t been completely normal – which really sucks. BUT at least I wasn’t that sick the rest of the trip.

On the way there we stopped at the Ruins of Quirgua – which are basically tributes to the kings that have lots of cool inscriptions on them. The picture with all the inscriptions is from that site. It was nice to get out of the car for a little bit. That’s when the heavy rain really started from the hurricanes.

We got in really late to our hotel that night and planned out our next day. It was such a bummer though because our group all wanted to do different things which ended up being really annoying. The next day at 5 am, Jenna, me, and the young married couple were ready to tackle Tikal. The rain was so bad and because of the horrible weather that there were trees, mud slide debris, and huge boulders in the road. What is usually only a 45 min drive across the National Park to get to Tikal, ended up being an hour in a half. We got there and bought ponchos that saved our entire day of getting soaked – and they make everyone look pretty attractive in these pictures. J

To get to the ruins from the entrance it is about a half an hour hike in the jungle. I loved it! We could hear all the animals, the plants were so cool, and it was SO HUMID. It poured nonstop all day long – but shorts and t-shirt were perfect to wear in the jungle. I so wish I would have bought Chacos (like hiking sandles) before I came – they are the perfect shoe to have here. I had my tennis shoes which of course got soaked and still are stinky and wet to this day. The trails were so muddy and flooded but I was so excited to be there it didn’t even matter.

Tikal was absolutely amazing! The pictures can’t even capture how breathtaking it was. We spent from 6:30 am – 6 pm there only taking a little hour in a half lunch break to dry off. We went to every single ruin there were only the ground except for one that wasn’t even uncovered yet (there were actually a couple that haven’t been unearthed yet, but you can tell they are there). I had no idea there were so many on the grounds before I came. All were a hike to get to and once you got to them they were a hike to climb. I LOVE HIEGHTS! We were climbing these scary wooden staircases up to the tops of these huge pyramids in the pouring pouring rain – I had the time of my life! It was so fun exploring and rock climbing these ancient structures. I have a really funny story about Tikal, a pyramid, and these three guys that asked me to take a picture for them – you’ll have to ask me about it when I get home because its pretty hilarious.

When we got back from Tikal and dinner we went to our hotel to find no electricity and no running water (they only had cold water at this hotel by the way). Luckily before we went to bed the water started working or else we would’ve smelled and looked like muddy jungle the whole next day. There were also these HUGE orange cockroaches at this hotel that ran all over the floor. Needless to say I didn’t enjoy my stay there all that much – but hey the hotel served its purpose which was just to give us a place to sleep.

The next day when the girls went to Tikal – Me, Jenna, and the young couple went on a boat around the island of Flores which was connected to the city we stayed in by a bridge. It had stopped raining for about an hour in a half which was absolutely perfect for our tour! For 10 bucks we got a private boat ride, a guide, and admission to this little Guatemalan zoo. The zoo there had the coolest exotic animals (and some not so exotic) – and some were barely in cages so we got to get SO CLOSE! There is a picture of this Jaguar seriously 50 feet away from us…it was so cool! The guide told us about the animals and also took us on this little hike in the jungle to a really pretty lookout point.

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for the long drive by getting food and such. It was an adventure finding a bank – whenever I go to tourist places on weekends I have to get money out because there is no place for me to get it in Patzicia. We got some food and then started the long trek home. The storm was pretty bad our whole way home which slowed things down a bit. The rain hasn’t stopped since. That’s a whole blog in itself about this hurricane weather that been here for over a week!

Patzicia!

2008-05-30T09:31:00.001-07:00

Hola Estados Unidos!

After about two weeks of being in Patzicia I finally found time to write something! It’s been a whirlwind being here. I find it hard to believe sometimes that its already been 3 weeks! But in some ways I can believe it. After an amazing week in the beautiful city of Antigua, it took a little adjusting coming to a city like Patzicia. Life is completely different here than at home – here is a list of things I like and dislike about Guatemala so far:

Dana’s likes and dislikes about Guatemala

Dislikes

1. It’s filthy EVERWHERE – it’s almost impossible to stay clean. No matter what you do at the end of the day you’re covered with dirt. Oh well. It’s kind of what we signed up for - it just feels like we’re camping ALL the time. I like camping. It’s shocking looking around not understanding how the people live in dirt. They don’t notice that their houses smell.

2. Smog – smog checks do not exist here. It’s pretty awesome walking down the road and breathing in the black air. Once you get away from the roads it’s alright though.

3. Garbage- People just throw their garbage wherever the heck they want. It’s really sad. There is this creek past our school which is basically a dump. There is garbage EVERYWHERE. We either burn ours or pay to have someone pick is up.

4. The honking and whistling anytime a male sees us - seriously they NEVER fail - they will always do something to notice our existence. We get at least 15 honks on our way to school every day. It gets old…fast.

5. Bugs, rats and FLIES – Our first night in our house we killed 6 hug spiders next to our bed. We have a rat named Anthony that lives in our house too – we hear him every once in awhile. And Mom- even with your talent of killing flies you could NEVER kill the fleet of them that live in our house. I’ve lived in this house for about 2 weeks now and I’ve kind of gotten to them though. Thanks to Kylie’s dad we got this bug spray stuff that has lessened the spider problema.

6. We have to be SO CAUTIOUS with every little thing we eat and drink – so many people get sick. We call the curse “the BO”. I’ve been luck y so far, thankfully, in NOT getting it.

7. The water and electricity have minds of their own – every other morning we either don’t water or electricity. Sometimes they both decide not to come on. I’ve learned life still can function without them; it’s just a lot more work and obviously less convenient. We have learned to always be prepared with flashlights and water for our toilet.

8. BATHROOMS – are always dirty too, shocking right? When taking a shower there it is a tradeoff between hot water and water pressure – sometimes they both decide not to work. I can’t wait to but my toilet paper in the toilet! Haha OH and to see a white CLEAN bathroom again! BUT at least we have a shower in our cute little house right? We just shower in our flip flops.

9. The poverty - You could never get used to seeing how poor people are here. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing the kids crying because they’re hungry when they come to school. Or seeing the dirty little faces of the kids on our block. I will never get used to seeing the mothers that don’t know how to read or write. They work so hard that you can see the pain and worries in their faces. It’s all hard to see sometimes.

10. Communication skills – we’re still learning. I know it will all come with time, patience, and hours of studying. It’s just really hard not being able to say what you want when you want, and have the people around you understand you. It will all come with time – but it sucks sometimes.

11. Communication with the OUTSIDE WORLD – is kind of nonexistent sometimes. Calling can be expensive and there is only one small internet place in our little town that doesn’t work well. We use the internet at school but on overcast days it doesn’t like to work. I’m learning life can still function without internet and that calls/emails from home are a real treat.

12. NO LAWS- It’s dangerous here. We joke about how the copes get paid to stand there and watch the ground. The people tell us that if you called the cops (which by the way is a special number only certain people know) if they come the next day you’re lucky. We try not to go out late at night and we go everywhere in groups.

13. Transportation – because we’re tourists we get jipped on a lot of stuff….especially transportation. When we go places outside Patzicia on a chicken bus (which is our main mode of transportation besides our own two feet) they ALWAYS charge us more than everyone else on the bus. If we argue for awhile then we’ll usually get our way. OH MAN and just riding on these buses is a huge adventure. I think I could write an entire research paper on them. Haha Needless to say getting around Guatemala is never boring.

Likes

1. The fresh food - tastes AMAZING and is SO CHEAP. After a day at the market our fridge is filled with fresh fruit and vegetables. I love the market days here! Walking back from the market with all our groceries makes me very grateful for our American cars that carry our food home for us.

2. We eat much healthier here because of those market days. Candy, especially chocolate, is a MAJOR treat.

3. The food is SO GOOD – I absolutely LOVE Guatemalan food. They make the best tortillas here. Last night we went to the Stake President’s house for dinner and for 2 bucks we got a cooking class and an AMAZING meal. We eat at someone’s house about once a week for a nice meal – plus its so nice to eat with our new friends here. It’s going to be hard to leave some of these cute families.

4. CHEAP – It’s so cheap here. The food, the traveling, basically everything. Last week I found a pair of REAL gently used ugg boots for 15Q = 2 bucks! Pretty cool when you can go away for the weekend for only 50 bucks.

5. There are REAL salsa dancing places here – we’ll probably go back to Antigua and go dancing.

6. The people here are so kind and loving. If you ever need anything they are so willing to help. Like I was saying…there are so many families we know and love already! Even though they are so poor they would give us the shirt off their back.

7. The children love you instantly – and give you hugs even though they don’t even know you. It’s impossible not to feel their love.

8. We have hammocks in our backyard – three of them. We love it! The other day I came home from school SO TIRED and laid on a hammock outside reading a book. Seriously….I don’t know what could be more relaxing…

9. It’s so colorful here! The people paint their houses bright colors and they wear bright colors.

10. It’s beautiful here! The countryside is simply amazing. The views are amazing. I can’t wait to travel more and see more of this country. I have a list of places to go before I leave!

11. Laid back – the people are so laid back here. Some are obviously very stressed but most are so chill about things that would completely stress me out. Lol they change their minds at the drop of a hat about everything. Time is kind of just whenever you feel like it.

12. Cooking skills – I know. Me right? Cooking? Weird. I’ve learned to cook with very limited appliances, utensils, and food items.

13. Teaching and Learning – each day I realize even more what an opportunity this is. I’m learning the basics of different language. Through teaching English to these children and people here its like learning Spanish backwards. I’m learning to teach and control a class. By teaching I am the student learning new things each day.

I’m not going to lie – before I came I thought I was immune to culture shock. I was wrong. The first few days here were a little hard because it took more than 5 minutes to adjust to this completely different world. Patzicia is a little town that feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere. When we arrived the girls that lived in the house with us weren’t here to let us know what to do – but we’re now in a good routine. Going to school, working on projects for the community, playing with kids after school, taking care of the chores around our little house, cooking, exercising every day, and visiting the families we know. Our days are constantly busy with things going on.

It’s a privilege to help these children and the people here. The best part about this experience for me is the people. I am reminded everyday why I am here – to help them. I’ve learned to love this dirty place – it truly is beautiful. Sometimes it feels like we go back in time when we go to a different place on the road or go in someone’s house. Living this way and seeing the way the people in this little place live makes me SO GRATFUL for what I have at home. My troubles seem like NOTHING compared to these people who don’t have pluming, electricity, or water to their homes.

We work hard all week and get to play hard every weekend. Last weekend we went to one of the five most beautiful lakes in the world – Panajachel. I´ll have to post pictures when I´m patient enough to be on the computer more than 20 minutes. This weekend we’re going to visit Tikal!

Only bummer is I´ve had a really bad cold' slash flu bug for over a week and I´m really hoping I feel better by tomorrow morning. It´s hard to rest when there is always so much to do! There are so many amazing sites to see and people to meet here.

This is definitely an experience I will never forget. I can’t wait to do more.

El Volcan De Pacaya!

2008-05-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

We had such an awesome day yesterday! We went with a group from our school to El Volcan De Pacaya - one of the three active volcanoes in Guatemala. After a 2 hour drive up windy roads in a crowded van, we finally got there. We were mobbed by little kids wanting to sell us sticks to use to climb the mountain - we eventually gave in and bought one (about 5Q=60 cents). Seriously...it was so worth it! That stick saved my life climbing those steep hills! We hiked about 3 miles through lots of brush to get to the top - it was SO HOT and humid and there was lots of bugs! Thank goodness for deet and that stick! We finally made it to the volcano where we saw the most amazing view of Guatemala! Some of the prettiest sights I have ever seen! Then we hiked down ON the volcano about anther mile. Let me tell you US State parks would NEVER let tourists get THAT close to lava. We started hiking back down the mountain when it was very dark. I saw real fireflies! We were so filthy from the whole day of hiking. We ended up getting back to our casa about at 10 pm. Our water was turned on (it was off for about a day - no bathroom & no showers :( So we were pretty excited to take a shower finally after two days!
It was seriously an adventure I will never forget! Below are some pictures! And yes I did stand that close to lava and touch it with a stick - the ground was SO HOT!

PS. Dad I wish I would have brought hiking boots - those lame tennis shoes I brought are NOT good for climbing mountains or volcanos!

I love and miss you all! I hope to write soon!

It's been almost a week!

2008-05-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

Random things about Guatemala:
1. It is their winter here – March through October. Guatemala’s seasons are opposite then ours. Winter here just means that the sun doesn’t beat down as hard because there are so many clouds. Therefore I haven’t received any sort of sunburn and haven’t had to wear sunscreen at all! I wish the sky was clearer though so we can see all the volcanoes around us. It usually rains for about 10 minutes then stops, and that only happens every once in awhile. The first time we heard it rain we ran outside because it sounded like it was pouring - we go out there and the sound is just from all the tin roofs! It is SO HOT and SO HUMID but because its winter there is a light breeze. I haven’t had to wear a sweater at all here yet –but we probably will when we get to Patzi.

2. We go to school at APPE – Academa De Profesores Privados De Espanol. There I get one on one instruction. I love my teacher! His name is Rodolfo and he’s awesome. I think I’ve learned a lot so far because he’s really challenged me. I have mucha tarea todos los dias. (PS I can’t do Spanish punctuation on my computer and it drives me crazy! So please excuse my lack of punctuation) We are in class for 4 hours, which is plenty because we talk and pay full attention for the ENTIRE 4 hours. The school also has optional activities for us to do after we go back home for lunch. We’ve been on a tour of the city, went on a hike to La Cruz (a view of the whole city), and we’ve visited a volcano! I wish I could stay in Antigua longer because I would love to study Spanish more!

3. There are people from all over the world in Antigua that are here to volunteer and study Spanish. I’ve met people from England, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Canada, and some more I can’t think of right now. In many of those countries the citizens are required to either serve in the military or do community service. It’s been really fun hanging out with all of them! Our roommate Afra is from Holland and she is absolutely adorable! It’s been fun going on the little trips with them.

4. It gets dark so early here – around 6pm. We’ve gotten a little bit braver about walking at night. As long as we aren’t carrying big bags and we’re with a group - we’re fine. We get a little nervous when it’s just the two of us though.

5. There are 33 volcanoes in Guatemala and 3 are active: Pacaya, Santa Maria, and Fuego. We went and saw Pacaya yesterday! SO COOL!

6. Guatemala has very old septic systems so they don’t allow you to put any toilet paper in the toilet. You have to put it in a little trash can next to it- yuck! That’s one thing I REALLY miss about home – clean bathrooms! I’m OCD about using hand sanitizer – I carry one with me constantly.

7. The currency used here is Quetzales. Here 7 Quetzales = 1 US dollar. 100Q = about 12 US dollars. The 10Q bill looks A LOT like 100Q bill so we have to be careful. Gas and food are not that cheap here at all. Clothes and things are though. So far I’ve bought a purse (about 7 bucks), a skirt of many colors (about 8 bucks), some leather sandals (about 8 bucks). Of course it’s really easy to get scammed on here because most of don’t speak fluent Spanish. For example, I spend about 3 bucks on a necklace from this poor little girl on the street when I should have bought it for a dollar or less– oh well it was a donation I guess. We talk to our teachers and they tell us what prices SHOULD be so we know what to expect.

8. Because we’re in the city the bugs aren’t too bad. Our house we’re in right now is really nice so there aren’t very many bugs. I put deet on about twice a day so I feel sticky ALL the time. I got my first bite yesterday. We will see SO MANY more bugs in Patzi when we get there.

9. Water is so precious here. The water that comes from the sinks is not safe to drink – we could get really sick if we do. We brush our teeth with it and take a shower in it and that’s about it. Jenna and I end up getting water from the school and or we drink the water from our house. They are turning off the water for two whole blocks to clean a part that supplies it – so we didn't have any running water today. This means we can’t go to the bathroom or take a shower.

10. Electricity is not always very reliant here. The past couple nights the light in our room just turns off for no reason. Five minutes later it started working again. It’s done this a couple times. It makes me a little nervous for when we go to our school in Patzi – which is a MUCH rural area.

11. The food here is really REALLY good. We love it! And we haven’t gotten sick at all! J Dolores our host mother cooks us three meals a day and they are always different. So far I’ve tried eggplant, fish, chicken, beef in the way the Guatemalan’s cook it. She cooks the most AMAZING rice and beans! For breakfast one morning we just had a big slice of fruit. Sometimes there are large potions and sometimes they are tiny. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day here.

12. Eighty-Eight percent of people that live in Antigua, Guatemala are Catholic. There are two huge cathedrals in the city that are absolutely beautiful. Last Sunday there was this huge parade in the streets with this really depressing band following it. We’re not sure what the occasion was but everyone in the parade was wearing black. The women not marching with everyone else were carrying this huge lit up float with the Virgin Mary on it. Anyway..it was interesting.

13. The city here is planned out in blocks – when you go through a door in the middle of the house or café is an open area (kind of like their backyard or patio) There are not very many two story buildings here. I have yet to go into a house, restaurant, or café that has air conditioning.

14. In front of all banks stand guards with huge guns – and you have to have a reason to enter. They usually let tourists in pretty easy. Some of the fancy stores have guards too. I was talking to my teacher and he said the biggest crime they have here is drug trafficking.

15. The buses here are called Caminonetas. Another nickname is Caminoneta de Pollos – aka Chicken Bus because the fit SO many in each bus. They can only seat 50 and I’m told they try and fit 75 people in them! These buses are HUGE and VERY COLORFUL, and I’m not really sure how they fit to turn on these tiny little streets. Ninety percent of the population in Guatemala uses these buses to get to work and to travel. Oh and by the way these buses do not run on any kind of schedule at all – they just show up whenever. So if you need to go somewhere you have to leave REALLY early and just HOPE there will be one there going the direction you are going. (reflecting much of the Guatemalan attitude on life = VERY laid back).

16. Me and Jenna think they have no road laws here. The people here drive like maniacs: really fast and they don’t pay attention at all. You always have to make sure you watch where you are going because they WILL NOT stop for you. I’ve seen about a million yard cars here Morgan Family – the other day there were this huge casket in the back of one with flowers on it. Made me laugh and I thought of you guys. There are also these tiny things called Tuc-Tucs – they are like taxis but tiny little cars smaller than golf carts. We’re told they aren’t very safe to drive in at night because people kidnap tourists. But during the day they are a fast way to get across town. We just walk everywhere.

17. From what I’ve seen the people here are up 24/7 – and we’ve been up different hours of the day. One of our first nights we thought we heard gunshots or something – it ended up being this firework that makes LOTS of noise. It goes off every night because there is ALWAYS a reason to PARTY. EVERY night here is “Lady’s Night” so the different bars give free or cheap drinks to the ladies various nights of the week. My friends that drink you would absolutely love it here – its about 20 cents a drink on some nights. We went to this bar/salsa club with a big group of our friends from the school the other night and Jenna and I got free sodas (don’t worry not alcohol). Most of the bars play American music and American TV.

18. Finding internet here is a big pain – and a lot harder than I thought. There are a lot of internet cafes but their point in life is to scam on tourists – so it’s hard to find places that don’t charge a lot. If we go to a café and buy a drink we can stay on as long as we want on my computer. Jenna doesn’t have a computer though so I don’t like having to make her wait for me. Jenna has a cell phone that people from the USA can call and it doesn’t cost her a thing – BUT the person calling needs to have international minutes. OR if I someone calls me from Skype to that phone that is also a way to use international minutes for a really cheap price. I’m curious how internet will be in our new home next week.

Well, I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you guys. I’m so sad to leave Antigua because I love all the friends I’ve made here! We finally figured out the city too! On the new adventures! I love you all and I hope to write soon!

PS Things I forgot and wish I would have brought: more shirts! I don't know when we can do laundry and I'm running out! SNACKS: sometimes we're hungry but we're not sure what to eat. chips or something from America would be so nice.

I'm HERE!!

2008-05-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

HELLO America!!
Well, I made it here!!! I still can’t believe I’m actually here. After the most insane week of finals and getting ready to leave the country, it seemed like it took forever to make it here. Word of advice: never plan to leave the country for two months the day after completing 18 units of finals. BUT after all the stress it all ended up working out just fine. It was the greatest feeling to be done this semester! And to be almost half way through school!

It was also so nice to see some of my friends and family the night before I left! Thank you so much for those of you that got to come by – even for those of you that couldn’t I love you guys too. I feel so loved and blessed to have such a supportive family and so many supportive friends. Thank you for always being so supportive with all the things I want to do in my life. I don’t know where I would be without all of you in my life. So thank you.

DAY ONE:

After getting 3 hours of sleep, I finished packing my entire room up and finished packing for Guate. It was really stressful getting the airport because we were so late. But we ended up making it just in time. The bag with all of my things weighed exactly 49 pounds – the one of all of the donated supplies was 52 pounds. Because it was a whole suitcase of donations they didn’t make me pay the extra fee. By the way: check out all the stuff I’m able to bring! I can’t wait to give everything to them next week!

I flew through Houston and met Jenna and Megan who are both from Idaho. They’re awesome – I haven’t seen them since December so it was really nice to see them. The flight was going okay until we had to circle the airport because of the disabled airport on the runway. After an extra 45 minutes to our flight we finally got to land. The Guatemala City Airport is so bare – as in white walls, white floor, no chairs, no people, nothing. We got to baggage claim and walked through customs. We walked out to the street where saw lines of people waiting and then found a young guy that had our names on the sign. That was the moment where I thought to myself “What the heck am I doing???” He suggested we hold on tightly to our carts or someone might push them away from us and steal our stuff. There were police everywhere – but everything seemed so chaotic. This other guy pulled up that worked for the school APPE to drive us to 45 minutes Antigua. He greeted us with a little hug and a kiss on the check - which for us Americans is so weird, but here it is how EVERYONE greets each other. After tipping the young guy we were on our way. By this time it was about 10:30 at night but there were still so many people out on the streets. The driver spoke a lot of English which was nice – but he drove like a maniac! He was going 100mph plus on this windy freeway and would slow down to about 80 around turns – luckily there were not very many people on the road. It totally freaked us out.
When we got to our host family house there was a bit of a problem because he thought Megan was a different person, which meant she couldn’t stay with us. We wouldn’t let her leave us though and ended up working it out with the host family. Our host family is named Flores Vella –Dolores and Alberto are this ADORABLE old couple that have been married 67 years! They not speak a word of English. The family lives in this adorable house all together –I’m not sure of all their names yet but I do know that they are all related. In many homes in Guatemala parents, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins all live together – or next store to each other. We were so exhausted and so hungry. We ended up all three falling asleep in the same bed around 12:30 we think.

DAY TWO:

We woke up with the sun and these singing birds – which we figured was about 5 am! We found out later that those birds were birds that our family raises. We got showers and got ready. Dolores and her daughter walked us to “La Capilla de Mormons” – I have to say I have NEVER been so excited to see a meeting house in my life! After a long night it was so nice to hear English speakers! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Guatemala is exactly the same as the United States – it was so comforting to see something familiar in such an unfamiliar place. The people were so kind and were so fun to talk to – just like MANY of the people here. My favorite part about going was singing the hymns and seeing how music connects people from so many different countries. I knew the melody it was just in Spanish. The English speaking people also helped us find a bank, internet café, and a place to get water!
We went shopped and explored the city all day. The city is absolutely beautiful and the weather is so nice – especially in the evening. The rest of the day is hot, sticky – combine that with the deet smell we smell beautiful all the time. J We meet this group of college students today that wanted to interview us about what we thought about their country. We hung out with them for awhile (they were super nice) and then continued on with our shopping. Jenna, Megan, and I finally found a bank pretty easily once we got into part central - there are police men with huge guns standing in front of the buildings. We bought really cute Guatemalan bags and finally found more water. Our host family feeds us 3 meals a day, Monday through Saturday. BUMMER. We didn’t know where the safe places to eat were so we just survived off water, beef jerky, and trail mix. I know…so silly. We were fine though. We came back in the middle of the day and took a nap. We then meet our roommate Afra who lives in the other APPE Spanish School room. She’s from Holland and is very friendly. We ended up going back out that night around 5 and walked more around town. There was a huge Catholic Parade with a huge group of people marching in black. There was this huge float that only women were carrying with the Virgin Mary on it and this really depressing band following. We aren’t really sure of the significance but it was interesting to see. We came back to our house, talked, and went straight to sleep.

DAY THREE:

Today we woke up, took showers, and Dolores had breakfast for us – eggs with tomatoes. For those of you who know me you know how much I love tomatoes – ehhh not so much. It wasn’t all that bad though. Julio, the director of the Rose Foundation we’re working with, picked Megan up to take her to Momostenango. Jenna and I walked to the APPE Spanish School where we will be receiving one on one instruction for a total of five days. There are people from all over the world that come here to the school and who are also living with host families. We’ve meet people from Holland, Germany, France, Canada, Norway, and only a few from the United States. After class we went an had lunch at our house and then went back to school for a tour of the city. I love Antigua! It’s absolutely beautiful! There are so many more shops open then there were yesterday –so we’ll have fun today.

We have so many fun plans this week in Antigua! Tomorrow we're getting salsa lessons at school after our Spanish classes. Wednesday we're hiking up this mountain to see a view of the ENIRE city - so you will see LOTS of pictures from that soon. Thursday we're going to an active volcano that has been erupting the past two weeks! We might leave Friday or Saturday - we're not sure yet!

I hope everyone is doing well!

Welcome!

2008-04-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hello Family & Friends!

Welcome to my blog site!

This is what I will be using when I'm traveling and teaching in Guatemala!

I leave May 10th and I could not be more excited!

I learned about the Rose Education Foundation last October and have been planning on this trip ever since. This has been a dream of mine to do something like this all my life and I am so excited to ACTUALLY be doing it! It's an awesome organization too!

My travels will be for a 7 week period. Leaving May 10th and returning home June 30th. In that time I will be going to a language school for a week, spending 6 weeks teaching in an elementary school, and hopefully being able see lots of sites as well!

About 2 more weeks and I will off on my adventure! It's been a crazy semester but I will finish my classes May 9th, get my Associates degree and be on my way! I've been studying Spanish in a class since January but I'm excited to learn more when I get there! I've also been collecting school supplies to take down there too! If you have anything you'd like to donate please let me know! I've been able to get so many things that are needed down there - I can't wait to hand them all the things I have collected for them!

May 9th there will be an open house at my house. Kind of a goodbye/happy graduating kind of get together. All are welcome to stop by and say goodbye!

I will keep you updated on everything!

I love you all! Thank you for always being so supportive!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥