Vivir en el momento: 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 :).