Spoons

In case I forgot to mention, we eat all of our meals here with spoons. Random? Yes. It took a little getting used to. But now that I AM used to it, I think I've forgotten how to use a fork. Forks aren't really that practical anyway, but you can eat EVERYTHING with a spoon. (Ok, with the exception of meat, it's pretty hard - but hey - that's why we have hands!) Try it for yourself ;-)

Junta con las Tias

Last night I went to my section to hang out with the girls. My time there consisted of doing gymnastics for a solid 30 minutes and then having a dance party – good night! As I was walking out the door, Tia Fruc, the main tia in charge of Los Angeles, stopped me. She told me that she thought we should collaborate more on activities we could do with the girls – anything from making bracelets to having a movie night, creating posters to hang in their section to having theme dinners – you name it! The only problem is, for once, in terms of crafts, I’m fresh out of ideas (and lacking quite a few resources)! SO if anyone reading this has ANY ideas about, inexpensive projects I can do with 18 girls, ages 9-12 – let me know – I would love to hear them!

T.Q.M.

Te. Quiero. Mucho.
I. Love. You. A lot.

T.Q.M. is a message that the kids often write to their friends and siblings to tell them that they love them. It can be a greeting or a closing of a letter, or it can just be put onto a page when you're doodling. Yesterday I received my first T.Q.M. from one of my students, Daniela.

Needless to say it made my day :)

Proyecto Amistad

So on Sunday I had what’s called a Proyecto Amistad – aka a “Friend Project.” Some of the children at the home don’t have brothers/sisters/cousins/ etc., so instead of having Proyecto Familiar, they have Proyecto Amistad. One child gets to pick the other child/children that they want to spend time with that they may not get to see all that often. It definitely makes for an interesting time…

Sunday I was scheduled to have my project with Pedro Pablo, who currently lives in the bachillerato (the high school in Chimaltenango) and Jose Luis (who is here at our home) from 10-12. Beforehand I had asked the boys what they wanted to do and Jose had said he wanted to go to Chimaltenango, a town about 30 minutes away from the home, and eat pizza. Sounded perfect.

On Sunday I headed over to Jose Luis’s section to get him around 9:30 to start our travels. Of course he wasn’t in the section. I tracked down some of the boys in his section only to find out he WAS in fact in the section. Long story short, 20 minutes and A LOT of searching later, we were on our way. Luckily, we were given a ride to Chimal in a pickup truck from NPH that was already headed there – thank heaven we didn’t have to take a camioneta (chicken bus)! It took us half the time to get there and we were quickly on our way. After walking for another 20 minutes we arrived at the bachillerato to collect Pedro Pablo…who wasn’t home. WHAT?!? That’s what we were told. FORTUNATELY, we were told to wait and another 10 minutes later he came downstairs. After starting at 9:30, now going on 10:30, we were FINALLY ready to START our project! WHEW!

I asked the boys what they wanted to do…to which they replied…
Boys: “I dunno…what do you wanna do?”
Me: “this isn’t my project – you don’t have ANY idea what you want to do?”
Boys: “no, you can pick…”

OK! What to do what to do? We decided to go to the park and kick around the soccer ball I had brought from home for a while. We proceeded to walk for another 20 minutes, talking about life and school, etc. (Pedro just received a FULL 4 year scholarship from a private donor in the US to attend University here in Guatemala starting in January!) Anyway! We arrived at the park only to find out that the grass was completely fenced in and you couldn’t walk on it. FOR REAL???

Me: “what do you want to do now?”
Boys: “we don’t know, what do you want to do?”

After a LOT more of this, we decided to go get some pizza, Jose Luis’s other request. The boys then lead me out of the park in the direction of town. We walked for a solid 30 more minutes before we arrived at the pizza place the boys wanted to eat at: Domino’s Pizza. I should have known. Now it was around 11:30 and project should have been coming to a close…but of course it was just getting started.

I looked at the prices at Domino’s and was APPALLED. We are given 5Q per child for activities to be done during a project…aka 65 cents a kid. The prices at Domino’s were the same as in the states!! How was I going to buy a pizza for $1.30?? After contemplating for a solid minute in Domino’s, I decided it had to be done. I sucked it up and bought the pizza…and how DELICIOUS it was. I don’t remember Domino’s EVER being that good in the states, but man, ham and cheese pizza was exactly what the doctor ordered!! Vale la pena…SO worth it.

After downing an entire pizza, I taught the boys how to play two of my favorite card games – Egyptian Rat Screw (my all time favorite) and Rummy. After about 30 minutes of cards, we decided to call it quits and head back home. Pedro lead us to the bus stop and Jose Luis and I got home 30 minutes later…right about at 1:30…QUITE a long day, but fun to say the least :)

Jose Luis and Pedro Pablo on the streets of Chimal

Finally...pictures of Señorita NPH!

Four of my girls ready for the “sports competition”…Vilma, Ana, Lourdes, and Deborah


Everyone in the comedor watching the performance


One of the girls giving her speech about powerful women…


Lourdes standing on stage after winning “Nina de deportes”


Three of the four winners!

Terremoto

Sooo I don't really know how I forgot to mention this, but last week I experienced my first earthquake! I was on my lunch break, reading a book at my house in the living room. Everyone else except for my roommate, Bridget, and I had returned to work. All of a sudden I heard the glasses on our shelves in the kitchen start to rattle and I felt a little motion. It took me a good 3 seconds to realize that what I was feeling wasn't just the results of the yardwork going on outside...and then it took another 5 seconds before it was over.

I sat there for a minute, not really knowing what to do or say before I called into our room...
"Hey Bridge..."
"Yea"
"Did you feel that??"
"yea"
"Was that an earthquake?"
"I think so?"

Goes to show how much experience we north-easterners have with terremotos. Needless to say, it was eye opening, although harmless. I hope I can say the same for any and all terremotos I ever experience again.

Señorita NPH

So as I previously wrote, I’ve been sick quite a bit in the last few weeks. BUT one day that I wouldn’t have missed for the world was el primer día del aniversario de la escuela (the first day of the school’s anniversary.) That was the day of Señorita NPH – and how could you miss that??

Every year during the school’s anniversary NPH has a sort of “beauty pageant” of sorts. Each of the girls’ sections is able to elect 5 girls they would like to be included in the competition and then these girls participate in a full day’s worth of events including a “sports” competition (aka walking down the aisle dressed in sports garb…), an evening gown competition (again, walking down the aisle looking all fancy), and a question and answer round, which included questions such as, “what are some values that strong women should possess?” “how should a woman present herself?” and, my personal favorite, “does a woman’s opinion matter, yes or no, and why?” WHAT??? QUE RIDICULO!!

There were about 20 girls in this year’s competition, which lasted from about 9 am until 12:30 and I took a billion pictures (the girls were just too adorable!) At the end of the competition, awards were given to 4 girls: Niña de deportes, Niña NPH, Señorita de deportes, and Señorita NPH: the first two for the younger, elementary school aged girls and the last two for the basico, or middle school aged girls.

And the best part?? One of my girls, Lourdes, won the Niña de deportes!! I was so proud and she looked so adorable up on stage as she was given her sash!

Unfortunately my pictures aren’t uploading right now, but I’ll update them soon!

20 Days...

After being in Guatemala for a little less than 2 months (SERIOUSLY where has the time gone?!??) I’m amazed at the fact that there are roughly 20 days of school left. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?! I feel like I just got here…and in some respects I did. But at the same time, I have about 20 days to cram in all the material the kids need to learn so they can move on to the next grade. HOLY CRAP.

Wish me luck!

Parasites

So unfortunately it finally happened. After being here a little less than 2 months, I got parasites. Unpleasant to say the least. Also unfortunately, I’m pretty sure I know how I got them. Last weekend the 5 of us left to go to San Marcos at about 12:30. Great timing for getting to the lake early, but it meant we had to skip lunch which is served between 1-2 pm at the home. Instead we decide to purchase food along the way. I TOTALLY forgot how hungry I was until we were on the bus. Very unfortunate. However, luckily for me (or unluckily I should say…) at most bus stops, vendors will get on and off the bus selling various goodies from bags of peanuts to tamales to tortillas, fresh fruit to bags of chips and sodas. After taking one look at the mangos I realized I was starving and asked for a bag of precut fruit.

Normally, the mangos here are DELICIOUS. Why anyone would decide to tamper with the delicious taste of a mango? I haven’t a clue. I was so stoked for my mango, and then I took the first bite. It was covered in cinnamon and something that tasted a little bit like peanut butter. Why would you EVER put peanut butter on a MANGO??? I think it was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever eaten, but alas, there were no more vendors and I was still hungry…what could be the harm?

What could be the harm I thought?? Parasites. That’s what. The next day was when I got quite sick in San Marcos, and since then I’ve been sick every few days – apparently one of the symptoms of parasites here – sick for a day, fine for 2, sick for a day, fine again. BOO. Fortunately, my roommates were well versed in the world of parasites and came fully equipped with medicine – 2 days of pills and I’m parasite free! Woo!

Luckily I haven’t missed any school, but instead I’ve missed a lot of really cool happenings at NPH. This week was the “Dia del muerte de Padre Wasson,” that is, the Death date of Padre Wasson, the founder of all the NPH homes. On September 16th every year since his death in 2004, our home takes the opportunity to honor the man that gave his life to creating homes for everyone here. There is a mass and the children create pieces of art to show their love of Padre Wasson, whom they all adore and think of as their own father.

In addition, I missed the festivities on Friday, the Aniversario del Escuela (school’s anniversary), which included a big baile (dance) where each of the grades presented different dances they had worked on in class, and then fun outdoor games including…toss the water balloons, potato sack races, more dancing, futbol games, giant tic tac toe, and even an arm wrestling table (because what party would be complete without an arm wrestling table??) Regardless, I’ve been quite upset about missing so many awesome things (although there was ONE day that I didn’t miss – look out for that blog post!), but I’m quite happy to finally have figured out exactly why I’ve been so sick.

So what’s the moral of this ridiculously long story? NEVER buy fruit on a bus in Guatemala.

San Marcos

Once a month the volunteers at NPH are given a half day on a Friday to take as they see fit. To most of us, it means getting to leave for our vacations just a little bit earlier than normal. I took my “mitad dia” this past weekend and I set out for San Marcos with Samantha, Maria, Corinna, and Christina for a nice relaxing weekend at Lake Atitlan. While I had seen the lake before, this was my first time SPENDING time there and I was ridiculously excited at the prospect of lying on the rocks, sunbathing, and swimming in the quaint little village, known for meditation, yoga, massages, and relaxation.

We arrived on Friday afternoon/night and headed to an adorable little restaurant owned by a friend of Sam’s, Alexis, and called “Las Mañanitas” or, the little mornings. We hung out at the restaurant for happy hour and then set out to find a hotel for the weekend. We arrived at “Paco Real” and inquired about rooms. The owner told us “of course we have rooms!” But only for those people who had made a reservation….oh well, I’ll just put in you in the house instead. So instead of us cramming into a small little space meant for 2 people, we were given a full size house - for the same price – 80Q a night (aka about $9.50.) SWEET. The house was pretty wonderful and the perfect size for all of us. We went out for the night, enjoyed ourselves at Las Mañanitas, and came back to get some rest before our beach adventure the next day.

Unfortunately, I never got the relaxing beach vacation I had been dreaming of :(. Instead, I woke up with the worst stomach pains and the biggest urge to vomit…which I proceeded to do for the next 6 hours :(. Not quite what I had been looking forward to. The girls went to the beach and I lied in bed. All day. I got up around 2 with little energy, but proceeded to feel better after awhile. Then, we went out to the restaurant at our hotel where I got some Jamaica Tea (aka Hibiscus tea – absolutely delicious) and some nachos. In hindsight, the nachos weren’t such a good idea, but hey – I hadn’t eaten all day. After that, we went to a community dinner that was meant to raise money and awareness for efforts to clean up the lake. There was also an all female band there playing music - random, but very nice :).

Sam and I decided to come back a little early and arrived at our hostel around 9:30 to get some shut eye. Unfortunately, the hombre who worked at the hotel was nowhere to be found as we sat screaming “ALGUIEN ESTA ALLA?” (is anyone there??) through the window. When no one answered our pleas, we decided to take matters into our own hands…and climbed through the rather large windows.

Making my way into our hotel…


Sam making her way into the Paco Real…

Then there was Sunday. Oh dear, Sunday. One of the other volunteers, Maria, told us about a hike she had been on when “she was our age.” In her mid-forties, Maria is the oldest volunteer at NPHG, but probably still the spunkiest and most optimistic. The path was SUPPOSED TO lead us from San Marcos, the town we stayed in, to Santa Cruz, 4 towns over. We began the 3 hour hike around 9 am and made it to the first town in roughly 30 minutes. Not bad. To get to the next town seemed to be taking FOREVER. In fact, we walked from Tzununa (the first town) for another hour and seemed to be getting nowhere fast. Somehow, we ended up on a dirt path, in the middle of someone’s corn fields, on the side of a mountain. How we got there? I still have no clue, but for one reason or another, we continued to trudge along. After another 30 minutes we found ourselves at a rock ravine with nowhere to go but down. After all that time, we finally realized that the official path through the four towns had been closed, much to our dismay. We turned around and headed back to Tzununa to take the lancha (small boat) across the lake to Panajachel for some shopping. After the absolutely ridiculous morning/afternoon/weekend in general, we ended with a nice trip to the sweet mercado in Pana, arriving back at the house around 6 pm. Not quite the weekend I expected, although I’m looking forward to my next trip to the lake, and actually ENJOYING the lake :).


View from our ridiculous journey around the lake…


Another view from our ridiculously journey around the lake


Beautiful view of the lake :)

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

A BIG THANK YOU goes out to some of the best people around...aka my mother, my brother Mike, and the wonderful Christine Gee for sending me some of the most wonderful packages in the world in the last 2 weeks!! HOORAY AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THINKING OF ME!!

Visiting my Section

I usually visit my sections on Tuesday nights and Thursday nights, about 2 hours each night. Sometimes its hard to stay “abajo” (down) where the sections are until 8 because that’s the girls’ bedtime, but nonetheless, twice a week I bob alongside the girls towards their part of the “Casa de Niñas” (Girls’ house). Each time I find myself there it’s a little different: sometimes they want me to sing non-stop all the American songs I know, sometimes they want me to draw them pictures, sometimes we have a dance party, other times I just sit and talk to them. The last 2 times I went to the section, I brought my deck of Uno cards. The first time I brought the cards, the girls were ECSTATIC. They had a volunteer AND Uno cards. This time, not so excited for the volunteer, more just the volunteer who BROUGHT the Uno cards. Needless to say, it was an enthralling 2 hours for me, watching 6 girls fight over the proper rules of Uno. I think next time I’m going without the cards…

No Words...

Last Wednesday the head of the English Department, Carlos, my “boss” of sorts, shut and locked his locker with all of his keys inside. Well. What better way to remove a lock from a locker than by finding a sledgehammer and busting it open? Oh DEAR what a funny sight – I wish I’d had my camera!

Carlos tried for a good 5 minutes before one of the other volunteers, Sharon, piped in “we should go get a kid to bust open this locker – they’re really good at it!” So, after trying his best, Carlos conceded and we brought in 2 kids who had been playing soccer on the “cancha” (clay court) outside of our classroom. The kids proceeded to work at lightning speed, hacking away at the lock. FORTUNATELY, they did NOT succeed in opening the lock (thank heaven – I was worried for a minute!) Instead, Carlos went down to the herraria, found a pair of bolt cutters, and chopped them in half. Problem solved.

Proyecto Familiar

Last Wednesday was my first “Family Project.” Part of a volunteer’s job here at NPH is to participate in 2 proyectos each month. The projects are 2 hours where biological brothers and sisters (and sometimes cousins) get to spend time with each other. The kids look forward to projects because unfortunately they only happen about once every 3 months.

For the new volunteers, it’s recommended that we do our first project with an old volunteer, kind of to get the hang of things. For my project, I was paired up with Leeah and a group of the 3 most adorable boys you’ve ever met: Esteban, Marcos, and Luis. We had asked the boys what they wanted to do a few days before, but they came up empty handed. Without a clear goal of what we wanted to do for the project, we set out for Parramos (the closest small town, about a 10 minute walk from NPH) with a soccer ball and a deck of Uno cards. The children, all who live in different sections, seemed to take a little while to warm up to each other. To me it seemed strange that they were so distant, but then again, they don’t get to spend much time together, and the age difference – from 14 to 11 to 7 – was pretty big, yet over time they slowly started to warm up to each other.

While our project was anything but planned, I think it turned out to be a success :). We played a LOT of soccer, a few hands of Uno, and then concluded with some pollo frito y papas fritas de la calle (fried chicken and French fries from the street vendors…don’t worry – I still have yet to eat street food…). Although I think I’m going to find that proyectos are a little awkward for the volunteer (being the coordinator but also an outsider…) I think it’s going to be a great way to get to know a lot of the kids here at NPH.

Celebrating the 4th of July…or err…the 5th of August :)

So last week I bought all the fixings to make an apple pie for my oldest class of students. One of their previous teachers decided to teach about cultural differences by celebrating American holidays with class parties. Since I arrived in Guatemala on July 4th, I decided August 4th would be a good day to learn about Independence Day, listen to some good ole American classics, and eat some Apple pie. I mean, what’s more American than that?? Unfortunately, about half of my class had band during my class on August 4th, and so our celebration was moved to the 5th. Oh well – same idea :)

On Wednesday night (August 4th) 5 of my students, myself, Michael, and Ruth all gathered in the English room to make an apple pie. What ensued was a LOT of hilarity, a LOT of random picture taking, as well as “Thriller” and “Single Ladies” viewings. EXCELLENT.


Me and Lidia making the apple pie!


Ruth, Michael, and Alex helping out in the English department


MMM APPLE PIE

In class, I gave the kids a presentation on the importance of the 4th of July in the US and then we enjoyed some wonderful apple pie – overall a pretty wonderful experience :).


Tacuch greatly enjoying some awesome American tunes and apple pie with Ever smiling along


All of the kids in my Basico Tercero class (aka 9th grade) Jaime, Edwin, Jenny, Tacuch, Elmer, Deisy, Alex, Ever, (then in front…) Feren, and Lidia

"Get Low"

There are a lot of words that don’t translate directly between English and Spanish ESPECIALLY slang. Today one of my students asked me what “get low” meant. How do I answer that when there’s so much more to it that “vaya abajo”…

So where exactly do I live...

Soooo Mom has been asking me for a while now for some pictures of my humble abode. well here, they are :) For now these are just pictures of MY actual house – I’ll put up pictures of the entire home soon-ish :)


THOSE are the 104 steps I have to climb every time I want to rejoin civilization from my house. It’s A LOT but my calves are looking good ;-)


My house – Casa 7 – at the bottom of the biggggg hill…


Our kitchen table and living room (and yes that is a hammock in the corner…)


More of our living room with 2 of the other new volunteers, Michael and Cassie


The kitchen area…


Our bathroom (don’t worry - we have an indoor bathroom sink, it’s just outside the bathroom door.)


Nuestra Pila – aka our kitchen sink…in the back of our house…unfortunately while we are lucky enough to have a bathroom sink in the house, we lack an indoor kitchen sink…it took some getting used to (and is still quite annoying) but hey – at least we have clean running water!


The outside of my locker (y fotos!)


The door to our room – decorated courtesy of me and Bridget


My part of my room – aka my bed, dresser, pictures :)


The other side of our room which houses our “bamboo monstrosity” as I like to call it – aka our makeshift closet!


My wall of pictures – hopefully you’re lucky enough to make an appearance ;-)

Enjoy - pictures of the home to come soon!

Kermes

Once every six weeks the volunteers at NPH Guatemala put on a sort of “carnival” for the kids here. It’s usually 2 hours on a Sunday where we plan activities, have different game stations, and have some sort of snack, usually that revolve around a theme. This month, Sam and Katie planned all of the events and the theme was WATER since it’s the rainy season here. (In case I forgot to mention, it rains pretty much every day – sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes for 8 hours, regardless, I still think this is one of the prettiest places in the world :).)

The day of Kermes was BEAUTIFUL. It was one of the first days I’ve been here that the morning was ONLY hot and sunny – perfect weather for a day full of water games that included: water volleyball, the cup pass, an obstacle course, water balloon tosses, and coin tosses (into a baby pool of course). What better day then to get soaking wet with a bunch of little kids? Of course I stayed perfectly dry until some of my students came to my station. After that – FORGET IT! I was doused with pretty much ALL of the water that was at our game = slightly uncomfortable, but very fun :).

Anyway! Kermes was lots of fun. I was in charge of “The Cup Pass” with two other volunteers, Meghan and Katie. The kids were each given a cup and told to stand in a line. Two teams competed against each other to see who could pass water from one cup to the next using only their mouths - no hands. The team that had the most water in their bucket at the end of the game won points. After visiting each station, the teams with the most points won prizes. Los Angeles came in second and won some pretty sweet bracelets (kind of like “Livestrong” bracelets, although these just said “Glitter Critter” haha!) Enjoy the photos :).

Some of my girls doing the Cup Pass…


Some of the boys on the volleyball court


Los Angeles with their new bracelets and snacks!

One Month

So as of today, I have been living in Guatemala for one whole month! Where on EARTH has the time gone? I seriously can’t believe that I’ve already been here for that long, especially when it feels like it has flown by – but of course that’s a good thing :). I’m finally feeling more confident in my Spanish, my teaching skills, and my ability to budget my time for alllllllll of the things that I need to do here :). After our trip last week, I think the girls in my section are adjusting to having 2 new volunteers, and I’m finally learning more of the kids names at NPH (there are about 250 (give or take) that live here, not to mention the students I have who don’t live here AND all the local staff…it’s quite a lot of names!) Needless to say, things are going well and I’m looking forward to the next 11 months!

And in case I forgot to mention it…I really like it here :).

Talleres

So waaaaaayyyy back when I wrote about something called “Talleres” or workshops that each of the basico kids works in. The talleres are a set of 5 workshops which include: the panaderia (bakery), sastreria (tailor shop), belleza (beauty salon), herreria (metal workshop), and carpinteria (wood workshop).

Each of the children who attend school on the basico level (middle school level in the US) participates in one of these 5 workshops as part of their schooling. Before the school year begins, the kids preference which workshop they would like to be in for that year (and it changes each of the 3 years they are in Basico). During the school year, the talleres become one of their scheduled classes that they go to each day, have exams in, and in general, use to help out the homes. The idea is that, at the end of each year, the students have successfully learned a life skill that they can choose to use if they do not want to continue their education. In addition, the kids who work in the talleres have a HUGE part in everyday life here at NPH.

EVERYDAY In the panaderia: kids make fresh cookies for refa (snack that everyone receives around 10:30 am) and fresh bread which is delivered to each of the houses. In addition, the kids in the panaderia also prepare special baked goods, such as cakes for Quinceneras, and they are hoping to start selling products in nearby towns sometime this year to bring in money to purchase more supplies.

In the sastreria, the kids learn how to sew and use that skill to create all of the school uniforms that are given to each child. They can also fix almost any clothing you bring in that’s in need of a little TLC. (I’m hoping maybe I can learn a thing or two in this taller by the end of the year…)

The belleza is pretty much a beauty school. The kids learn how to cut, color, and style hair, how to properly give manicures and pedicures, and how to apply makeup. In addition, they cut EVERY child at NPH’s hair, as well as any volunteers (who are brave enough!) Apparently you can also get free manicures and pedicures whenever you want (they need to practice - hey it’s for the kids!) so I may be taking advantage of that soon…

In the herreria, the kids learn how to craft metalwork. This skill is used to make TONS of items we have in the house, ranging from doors to tables, chairs to desks to lockers. Most of the items at our home are created by the kids themselves.

The same goes for the carpinteria, where kids make all of the beds, desks, shelving units, etc. that we use. In addition, in both the carpinteria and the herreria, you can specially order ANYTHING you want custom made, and the kids will create it in their class for just the cost of supplies. Pretty sweet!

Anyhoo! The talleres sound like a lot of work but in truth I think they are most of the kids’ favorite part of their day. It allows them a little time outside of a structured classroom where they are learning AND using skills that they can take into the real world :). Overall, I think it’s one of the coolest parts of NPH.

Aguas Calientes

Yesterday I decided to take a trip with my section of girls to a place called “Aguas Calientes” – literally Hot Waters. This was a difficult decision for me to make as, on my day off, I would have to wake up VERY early (the bus was leaving at 7 am). However, after being assured that there would be a second bus leaving at 8:30, I decided it would be a great way to spend the day with my girls outside of NPH (an opportunity we don't get too often).

Corinna and I showed up in front of the office at 8:25…we should have known that we would be running on Guatemala time and not normal people time, aka, the bus didn’t leave our home until after 10 am. WOO! However, despite the time delay, I am SOOOOO glad that myself and Corinna went with our girls. Aguas Calientes is basically a swimming area about 20 minutes away from our home that just has giant, pool-sized hot tubs. AWESOME. Our section, Los Angeles, and the slightly older girls' section, Fatima, both went together. Picture this: 30+ girls, aged 9-13-ish, most of whom can’t swim, in a pool that I could barely stand in because it was so deep. That makes for a lot of girls screaming “Levantame alla!” (Take me over there!) Needless to say there was a lot of water up my nose, scared girls half strangling me as I swam them to the other side, and bids for my attention so that each individual girl could cross the pool a few times. After 2 hours in the pool I was EXHAUSTED and didn’t think I could swim anymore! So instead, I decided to make a productive use of my time there and started giving swim lessons. Now I know what most of you are thinking... “what were you thinking?” But it turned out to be a really awesome experience (and kept me away from all the “LEVANTAME’s”…at least for a while :).

Two tiring hours later, it was out of the hot tubs for some DELICIOUS lunch prepared by the tias! They made us: carne asada (on an open grill – que rico!), salad, refried beans, homemade salsa, and fresh tortillas – SO GOOD. It was by FAR one of the best meals I’ve had here :). Overall a wonderful yet very very very tiring day :).


Me and Corinna waiting for the buses…


Some of the girls making a splash!


Lining up for the world’s most delicious lunch!


Me and Magdalena :)


A lot of the girls in my section swimming in the little pool

Fireworks

Little known fact about Guatemalans…they LOVE fireworks. I can’t stress this enough. In fact, I think the word LOVE isn’t even strong enough to express exactly HOW MUCH they use fireworks. Here, fireworks are used to denote: celebration, waking up in the morning, welcome parties, goodbye parties, and everything in between.

Now the thing is, they aren’t just pretty, light-up-the-sky fireworks. They are more like Roman Candles – big explosions of light on the ground that last about 15 seconds before they’re over. It’s a good thing that before I got here I was thoroughly warned of this fact by Carrie, otherwise, on my 2nd day here, when I woke up to what sounded like gun shots, I would have been a lot more nervous (don’t worry – I’ve NEVER heard gunshots here – just fireworks :)). Even then, Christina, another volunteer from Germany who was my roommate at the time, just mumbled in her sleep, “Don’t worry, they’re just celebrating, go back to bed.” After rolling over in my bed to check the time I realized that it was 4:15 in the morning. What does ANYONE have to celebrate at 4:15 in the MORNING?? Needless to say, it happens about every other day here…just something else to get used to.

Friday night was the first time that I actually ever SAW people light off fireworks. There had been a group of visitors here from Minnesota for a week, and as part of their despedida celebration there was a dance, which of course, included fireworks. Hundreds of kids standing around as two of the older ones lit fireworks and ran like hell – quite an interesting sight :).