Hasta Pronto :)

The day has finally come. After over a year of living in Guatemala and working at NPH, it’s July 16. A year has gone by in the blink of an eye. It’s hard to believe that it’s over. It seems like just yesterday I arrived, bright-eyed and eager to meet and know every child at NPH. In a few short hours I’ll hop in the transport and take a ride through Parramos to the capital for the last time. It’s not a journey that I’m looking forward to, but I also believe it’s my time to move on. Being in Guatemala has taught me so much about myself – who I am, what I enjoy, how I work with others, what I think I want to do when I “grow up.” It has been insanely difficult. I have had more ups and downs in this year than I’ve probably had in my whole life up until this point. Yet it has all been worth it. When I get in that transport I won’t be thinking about the negatives – the frustration and the lack of communication. I’ll be thinking about all the good memories, like earlier tonight – all the hugs I received, the support I’ve felt from so many newly found friends here, and all the love that I have experienced in Guatemala. After a year here, it’s time to head back to the United States. And despite all the ups and downs, I don’t regret a thing. I’m happy that I was able to accomplish some of my biggest goals in life and proud of myself for sticking it out and for everything that I did this year. I hope to find myself back in the beautiful land that I have called home for the past year sometime soon, but until then, cuidate Guatemala. Te voy a extrañar y te quiero mucho.

Saying goodbye for real

Last night was my last night at NPH. While I’d been bracing myself for weeks for my final goodbyes to the kids…it was still one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. After finishing everything I needed to hand in, I ran down to the baby’s house for a quick snuggle fest before having a meeting with Erika. The baby’s were adorable as usual – we played on the culumpios (swings), pretended we were airplanes, and shared lots of hugs and kisses – exactly what I needed. In addition, Tony, who’d been giving me the cold shoulder lately, ran right into my arms and started calling me “mama.” I’m not gonna lie, it was REALLY weird – DEFINITELY not ready for that one…but also insanely adorable. He kept hugging me tight, giving me kisses on the cheek, moving my bangs out of my face, and saying “mama mama!” Absolutely beyond cute.

After that, I went to my meeting with Erika, and then I knew it was time. As calmly as I could, I wandered up to the comedor at 5:45 for dinner to say goodbye to all the kids. I spent the next 3 hours wandering from table to table in the comedor to say goodbye to the boys and then down to the girls’ sections for a last adios. I ended at my section. I walked in and immediately started bawling. Tia Fruc helped to comfort me a lot and gave me wonderful words of wisdom (per usual), before I said goodnight to my girls and gave them all a kiss on their forehead for the last time.

Saying goodbye was insanely hard, but I must say, it also made me feel incredible loved. There have been so many times this year where I’ve wondered if what I’ve said and done was worth it…if anyone will remember me, if I’ve really affected any of the children at NPH. And saying goodbye to the kids – receiving all their hugs, them still joking with me about things that happened in class, giving me little trinkets to take back as mementos, seeing the tears in their eyes (and feeling my own)…it was amazing. Hard yes, but I don’t remember a time when I felt more loved.

Despedidas abound

When I started thinking about leaving NPH, I thought about the despedida that I was going to have, and the big one that the house would throw us. Yup. 2 would suffice. The problem was, I forgot that despedidas are a REALLY big thing here. So instead of the two that I planned I had EIGHT: the one I planned with the section, the one Corinna planned with our section, the one with my año de servicio class, a surprise one in my tercero class, a surprise one from my section, a surprise one from the school, the large despedida for everyone, and then of course, my actual goodbyes.

On Wednesday my tercero class took it upon themselves to throw me a little party – complete with a HUGE cake and soda! It was beyond adorable and it was the first time I’d thought about leaving and let the tears really flow. They had planned so much for me – one of the boys, Alexander, played the guitar and sang a song we learned in class (Jack Johnson’s “Do You Remember?”), some of my students gave me homemade goodies, a few of the kids put on a skit (making fun of my ridiculous antics in class), AND I finally got something I’d waited all year for – a mordida! (aka when they shove your face in cake!) I was sooooooooo upset that I didn’t have my camera in class! It was an unbelievable class and I was so grateful for everything they put into making that day so special for me :).

Wednesday night Corinna and I were asked to go to the section for a “surprise”…I wonder what it could be… we arrived at the section and were whisked into the sala to watch the girls perform a dance. Normally the kids do a special dance at the large despedida that’s for the whole house, so it was a little strange to see them perform the day before, but absolutely adorable. A lot of times our girls get stage fright, so it was so cute to see them doing the dance in a place they felt comfortable. They then sat us down in a big circle and the girls told us what they were going to miss about us, before being given tostadas for snack. In addition, the girls decorated banners for us that they later gave to us at the house’s despedida. SO adorable :).

Next came our despedida from the school on Thursday. AKA, by FAR the most random one, wherein the teachers all prepared items for a pot luck lunch (read: LOTS of tostadas) and then presented us with beautiful leather bags – it was SUCH a nice surprise!

Last came the house’s despedida yesterday. Definitely the one I was not looking forward to. The despedidas are a nice way for the kids to be able to express themselves, but they are also long and quite painful (ESPECIALLY if you’re leaving). Our was no exception. While it was great to see all the kids doing their thing and dedicating their songs or dances or skits to certain volunteers, it was also just a sad event to be a part of. I’m very glad I don’t have to do that again anytime soon.

Now just a few more goodbyes to go…the rest of the volunteers – aka my closest friends here…and I can certainly tell you it’s a despedida I’m dreading.

Last Año de Servicio Class

Tuesday marked my final class with my Año de servicio kids. To make it a little more special than usual, I invited the kids down to my house (ok, kind of a big no-no at NPH but it was a special treat!) and then we made pizza :). The kids chopped all the veggies and helped put it together, all the while with me saying “remember – we’re only speaking English right now!” To make matters slightly funnier, there were about 6 volunteers in the house, most of whom speak English as a second language, and I forced them all the speak only English during our class – quite fun (and educational!) ;-). We hung out for the afternoon and played Scattergories (my new favorite old game) and enjoyed our delicious pizza :). I REALLY am gunna miss that class.

Francis and Jonathan making our pizza :)

Passport Acquired

On Tuesday I had to make my final trip to the capital to pick up my passport. I had had it dropped off almost a week earlier at immigration (so that I would no longer be an illegal alien in Guatemala…) and was terrified of going to pick it up again. What if I couldn’t get it back? What if I needed to pay a fine? What if they just didn’t want to give it to me? What if I had to wait more than 3 days? SO MANY CONCERNS.

I got to immigration around 9 am, went inside, received my passport on the 2nd floor, and then was told I needed to pay a multa (fine) on the 4th floor. I went to the 4th floor to get my paperwork, then down to the 1st floor to actually pay at the bank and make more copies of my passport. From there it was back to the 2nd floor to show them my paperwork, before back up to the 4th floor to get my paperwork from the bank stamped. After that I had to go back to the 2nd floor to get my passport stamped, saying that I could stay in the country for 5 more days. After another TWO HOURS of waiting for ONE STAMP (and thank heaven no more visits to the staircase) I FINALLY got my passport back. Which means I'm coming home on Saturday!! Does anyone wonder why all the volunteers hate making that trip every 6 months???

Playing Santa

On Saturday night I went down to my section, armed with a huge box of goodies for my girls. Each time I’d gone home this year, I’d come back with a little something extra for my girls. By the end of the year, it had amounted to a good bit of random things to surprise them with. So! Thayer and I spent some time last week putting together goodie bags for my girls complete with: pens, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, stickers, Play-Doh, silly bands (thanks to my brothers…), and toiletries (soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste), a picture for each of them, and a handwritten card. On Saturday I brought the box to the section and the girls were totally enthralled by it.

“What’s inside?” “What are you giving us?” “What’s the surprise??”

After about 2 hours of chores, cleaning, etc. (and suspense!), I finally opened the box and gave each of the girls their goodie bags and they were elated with everything in it – especially the toiletries – HUGE hit! I wish I’d had a camera to capture the moment – they were so appreciative and absolutely adorable :). I think I might maybe miss these girls a bit…

Growing Up

There are a few girls in my section that you MIGHT say have been major pains this year – always giving attitude, never doing what they’re supposed to do, bothering the other girls, not listening…you name it. Luvia is one of those girls. She’s never exactly been my favorite…probably far from it. I kept giving it the best try I could, and yet things never seemed to get better between us…always something that made me a little sad...but then came this weekend.

On Saturday the girls in my section and I made the trip to the Posada for Corinna’s despedida…and Luvia walked next to me for a while…and then grabbed my hand and held it tight the whole way there. Definitely a first. In fact – she’s the only girl at night that doesn’t receive a kiss goodnight from me – her choice. It was a very nice surprise to feel her little hand in mine. But it got better from there.

While walking along, Cindy, another girl in my section, found a chicken egg on the ground (presumably having fallen from the nearby chicken coop.) She picked it up and was SOOOOOOOOOO proud of herself and happy that she had found something so special. We continued walking along and passed by a tin roof home that had two little boys, roughly the girls’ ages, peering out of the open door. Cindy passed by without much thought, but as soon as we were out of earshot Luvia said to her, “Dude – give them the egg” to which Cindy responded, “But it’s MY egg – I found it,” and then Luvia said the most amazing thing I’ve heard her say all year:

“We HAVE food at NPH. We ALWAYS have food – you need to give them the egg – you don’t know if they have anything else to eat.”

Tears immediately started to well up in my eyes. I could see Cindy’s inner struggle as she tried to decide what to do…until Luvia finally said “Come on – we’ll do it together.” And hand in hand they walked over to the two boys and, without saying a word, handed them the egg. The boys’ faces lit up as they ran inside and shut the door.

It was honestly one of the most unbelievable moments I’ve had since being here at NPH all year and I’ve never been prouder of my little diablita, Luvia :).

Corinna’s Despedida

This past Saturday was Corinna’s despedida from our section. While she had thought of a lot of different things she wanted to do, she finally decided to take our girls to La Posada de mi Abuelo here in Parramos. We left the house around 9:30 to walk to the Posada, an adorable little restaurant with a pool and horses to ride. We got there and I FINALLY got something I had wanted allllllll year – a picture of me with my entire section of girls!

After picture time we headed into the Posada. I had (of course) forgotten that there was a pool…and so also forgotten my bathing suit… but the girls really seemed to enjoy it :). They swam for about 2 hours, took roughly a million pictures on my camera and had a blast splashing around in the water! (Sorry for the lack of more photos - the internet isn't being cooperative right now...)

After that, the girls got to ride on horses – they were soooooooo excited…although a few were incredibly scared. They rode in pairs around a small corral and then it was time for a delicious lunch of carne, rice, and ensalada :). It was a lot of fun seeing the girls outside of their normal element and I think they really enjoyed it!

Celebrating Birthdays :)

Last Friday was Molly-girl’s birthday. Thayer, Erika, and I had decided we were going to surprise her with pancakes in the English Department…but Molly’s a fairly early riser…so first I needed to distract her and make her wait until 8 to go up to English where we were going to eat!

I decided to make her a smoothie, but it was still too early when we both woke up…so instead, I sat in my room for a good 30 minutes doing nothing…all the while with Molly wandering what the heck I was doing… At 7:50 I surprised her with a pineapple and banana smoothie (YUM) – and she was so happy! Little did she know about the awesome desayuno that was waiting for her in English! We arrived and SURPRISE! All the English teachers (me, Molly, Thayer, Marielos, and Carlos, and the new volunteer, Sam) and Erika (the honorary English teacher) had a wonderful breakfast together of chocolate chip pancakes, homemade whipped cream, and fresh strawberries :). Perfect!

Blowing out the candles in her pancakes!

The whole English Department :)

Thayer had made Molly a cake and so after work we all gathered in my house to smash her face in it :).

Happy birthday Mol!

Molly had a mordida...and then Karla wanted one too ;-)

Then we headed out for a DELICIOUS dinner at Ricky’s in Antigua (pizza!) with all of the volunteers, old and new, and for dancing at “La Sala.” Overall a wonderful way to celebrate a wonderful girl!

Everyone at dinner!

With my fantastic roomie - Gine!

Last night out in Antigua...

With the birthday girl!

Picking up my BOOTS!

A few weeks ago Sam, Erika, and I went to Pastores to order custom made boots. How exciting! We arrived at Luis’ boot shop around lunchtime, explained the kind of boots we wanted, and got our feet measured, and then left for the week long wait before we could pick them up.

On Tuesday Erika and I headed back into Pastores to pick up my boots! We left from NPH at 1, as soon as lunch started, and began walking to Parramos to take the bus. We got roughly 300 meters outside of NPH before it started to drizzle…luckily I had an umbrella in my bag so we kept walking. And then it started to POUR…and we were almost in Parramos and ready to take the bus. We walked to the bus stop, already soaking wet, and got on the first bus. We rode to Pastores and got off just in time – before BUCKETS of rain started to fall from the sky. We went into Luis’ shop and he took out my boots…and they were BEAUTIFUL!!

So pretty!

MY BOOTS!

I absolutely love them! But unfortunately they still weren’t weatherproofed and we had to go back to NPH while it was still down-pouring. We waited outside of the boot shop for the bus and then ran onto it as fast as we could…me unfortunately unintentionally whacking a whole bunch of locals with my bag of boots… We got back to Parramos and then had to walk back through the LAKE that had formed in the middle of the main park in Parramos! We were literally soaked all the way up to our hips! We quickly maneuvered the streets until we got back to NPH. We walked inside the gate and began climbing the massive stairs when…THE DIRECT BUS PASSED RIGHT BY THE FRONT DOOR. Who would have thought? Regardless, it was a ridiculously funny adventure together and my boots look AWESOME ;-).

Me in my new boots!

SCATTERGORIES!

Last Tuesday I found myself yet AGAIN without a plan for my año de servicio class (you’d think I would have learned by now…) So we fumbled through for a while, reading some magazines and talking about a book that one of the boys had received (anyone heard of “Heaven is Real”? I’m interested to read it…) When one of the boys suggested that we play Scattergories. Umm. Can you say AWESOME? For the next 30 minutes we proceeded to play the best game EVER – the 2 boys in English and myself in Spanish – what a great idea! Why had I never thought of that before?! It was so much fun and none of us wanted to quit when 5 o’clock rolled around.

(PS – in case you were wondering…I DID win…although I may have had a SLIGHT advantage…)

The newbies are here!

Sunday night after getting back from our gloriously relaxing beach weekend, we all headed out again to find all the newest volunteers at NPH Guatemala in town at La Familia, a local bar. It was crazy to wander into the restaurant and see the 9 of them there – remembering what it felt like to be in their shoes – how lost I felt, how little I understood in Spanish, the nervousness, the excitement. I remembered what it was like to be the newby and feel completely unsure of everything that I was doing…except for the fact that I was going to make it through this year…and yet here I am – nervousness and feelings of being lost aside…and I did it :). And so can you! So good luck los voluntarios nuevos and welcome to NPH Guatemala :).

Last weekend away

Last weekend almost all the volunteers headed out to Iztapa, a beach town located pretty much in the middle of nowhere in southern Guatemala, for our last salida as a volunteer group. Erika had told us about a house she’d stayed in on the beach there and, because there were so many of us, it cost us only 100Q (about $12 ) a person to rent the place for the whole weekend! Sweet deal! Add on to that about $14 a person for food/drinks/gas for the whole weekend and you’ve got yourself a pretty amazing deal!

We got picked up around noon last Friday in 5 cars, driven by Karla, Karla’s boyfriend, Miguel, Miguel’s friend, Juan Pablo, Nadia, and Nanna’s boyfriend, Alejandro. We piled in to the cars and I found myself in our new friend Juan Pablo’s (JP for short) car with Michael, Molly, and Thayer – score! For the entire 2 hour drive, we got acquainted with our new friend and had a blast – making tacos in the back seat complete with meat and guacamole (DELICIOUS), singing to the most AWESOME iPod that’s ever been assembled, and just generally having a rocking good time ;-). We made it to the house and were amazed at how large and beautiful it was – 2 stories with a walk up roof, 5 bedrooms complete with space to sleep 18, 4 full bathrooms, a kitchen, 3 hammocks, a basketball court, a SWIMMING POOL, lounge chairs, a backyard that looked out onto the water, and only about 100 meters from the beach – who could ask for more?!??

After arriving, my “cooking group” took to the kitchen to make a *fantastic* pasta and meatball dinner – SO delicious (although it did take us a solid almost 3 hours to cook it…) We cooked/cleaned in shifts all weekend and had amazing omelette breakfasts with refried beans (I think it might be hard to kick the habit of eating beans for breakfast once I get back to the states…), and an amazing BBQ dinner with hamburgers and chicken – YUM! Other than that, we spent the entire weekend hanging out between the pool and the beach, drinking, reading, sunbathing, playing twister, and just enjoying being together (I know…sometimes life is hard!). – definitely a great last weekend away from NPH in Guatemala :).

MY DESPEDIDA!

After being in Guatemala for a full year, it was finally time for the event that I had probably been dreading most all year – my own despedida, or going away party. It’s not that I didn’t want to spend time with my girls or do something fun and creative with them….it was more the fact that despedidas have kind of become a big deal to all the kids over the years. Just imagine: a rotating schedule of volunteers that come and go every 6 months – each trying to do something memorable, important, and lasting…so that their kids will always remember them. Not only that, but the kids start asking you about your despedida after you've only been here for about 2 months...so you can say it's kind of a big deal. That is a LOT of pressure to put on someone right before they’re about to say goodbye to everyone and everything they’ve known for the last year…

Regardless of being slightly intimidated, I had decided long ago that I wanted to do an art project for my despedida. I had seen lots of different ideas: taking your kids out to eat, doing a barbeque, going swimming at Aguas Calientes, ordering in/making pizzas, etc. But personally (although I hadn’t participated in any of them…) my favorite was Carrie’s. She bought felt and stuffing in Antigua and made pillowcases with her girls…that they all still have sitting on their beds or in their lockers. It was also awesome because the girls got to spend time with her in the section … aka the place they all know the best… while getting a wonderful gift out of it too - ergo the awesome craft plan :).

Thursday afternoon Corinna and I showed up at the section around 4 to set everything up. I hadn’t told the girls anything, beside the fact that we were bringing down food from the comedor (I didn’t want them to be excited about the party and then all of a sudden disappointed by the lack of pizza…) After a LOT of coaxing, MOST of the girls made their way into the living room so that we could set up my craft – PICTURE FRAMES! When I had gone to the states I spent a TON of time with my mom in Michael’s wandering up and down the rows searching for the perfect craft – and there it was – so simple! Corinna and I spent about 30 minutes setting up the: picture frames, paint, glitter pens, glue, feathers, sequins (hearts, stars, circles, etc), and my grandmother’s buttons (an awesome last minute addition :).)

When the girls came out of the sala they were awed. I think it was the first time I’d seen a few of them be quiet…and the first time I had successfully SURPRISED them with something! They were so shocked/excited to work on them. AMAZING! And then came the questions:

“Are these for pictures?” “Do we get to keep them?” “Are we going to get a picture to put in them?” “Can I put hearts on mine?”

After all the questions were sufficiently answered, the girls got right to work – the 21 in my section, along with the 5 who had already moved up to the next section, Fatima (Enma, Teresa, Mariela, Lourdes, and Esmeralda), and our 2 año de servicios, Natalie and Andrea.

After decorating the frames, the tias brought down dinner from upstairs…and then I had another trick up my sleeve…ICE CREAM SUNDAESSSSSSSS! I had 3 kinds of ice cream (chocolate, vanilla, and cookies and cream), caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, AND sprinkles. The girls had never seen sprinkles before and you honestly would have thought I gave them crack. Seriously. They went ballistic over all the little sugary colors! They ate their ice cream and stole my camera to take a bunch of wacky photos (see below)…We then all sat/lied down to watch the newest Disney movie, Rio, and I gave them the pictures I’d printed of each of them to put in their frames.

While I had been quite anxious about my despedida, I don’t think it could have turned out better (well…maybe with a few more “pleases” and “thank yous”…) Other than that – the girls LOVED the craft and the sundaes were a HUGE hit. It was a great final project to have with my girls to commemorate our year together :).

The girls getting started...

Working hard

Glenda!

Kimberli concentrating VERY hard

Josefa with her finished project!

Luvia - look at all those hearts!

Me with Andrea

Elvira and Mariela

with Rosa!

Me, Linda, and Lucia :)

Most of the frames!

With two of the old girls from my section, Mariela and Enma :)

Raquel, Lupe, and Vilma

Ana and Mariela getting a little crazy...

Dancing up a storm

Enjoying their sundaes and watching "Rio"

Beginning of the end…

Last Thursday we had a meeting of all the leaving volunteers. I was expecting it to be just like all our other volunteer meetings – WAAYYYY too long and waaaaayyyy too little actually getting done. We met in House 1 (the visitor’s house) at 8:30 and spoke a little about what our lives were like after a year at NPH. Each volunteer got up and talked about their experiences: what they had learned, what they thought they had contributed to NPH, what they were going to take away from living here…and then each of the other volunteers got to say a few words to them about how they had seen them grow, or what it meant to share a year with them here. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting other people to say too much about me – I’ve been insanely negative throughout a lot of this year and ready to go home…and not afraid to say it. Yet people said some of the nicest things to me about my dedication, hard work and determination in my classes. For me, it was nice to see that my peers thought that way about me – it made me rethink, at least a little bit, how I feel about this year overall…maybe I have accomplished more than I thought I have…and maybe I am starting to grow up a little bit after all :).

All the volunteers (minus Cassie :( )

ONE YEAR

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone keeps asking me if I’m excited about the 4th…but it’s hard for me to get excited when my favorite things about the holiday (apple pie, parades, marching bands, warm summer nights spent at the beach with family and friends, fireworks, barbeques, etc…) are so far away (ok maybe not the fireworks part…). Regardless, I have another reason to be especially excited about Independence Day 2011 – IT’S MY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF BEING IN GUATEMALA!!!!!!!!!!

I still can’t really get over it. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been here for ages. Other times it seems like this year has all been just one fast-moving blur…yet here I am – 365 days later. After all the waiting and wishing and hoping that I could make it through a year living abroad – here I am.

And I still can’t believe it.

This year has been so incredibly full of ups and downs… It has been by far the hardest year of my life, but I’ve also learned so much about myself and what I’m looking for in the future. I think after all this time…I’m ready for a fresh start.

Lucky for me I don’t have to wait too long – a fresh start begins in 12 days!

Starting the goodbyes

We have 5 teachers in the English Department: Jorge and Carlos (2 local teachers) and then myself, Thayer, and Molly (all volunteers). I have worked with Jorge and Carlos this entire year…and they have certainly helped me through a lot of tough times – always there with a smile and a hug whenever I’ve needed it. Last Thursday was Jorge’s last day in the English Department. He’d been working at NPH for the past 2 years and got offered another job teaching Math in the capital. Although he was sad to leave NPH, it was definitely the right choice for him. So last Thursday I said goodbye to one of my first friend’s from NPH...and I'm just getting started...

You will be missed Jorge – Buena suerte en tu escuela nueva!

Jorge and I saying goodbye

Last trip to the lake…

The last weekend in June Erika, Michael, and I took our last trip to Lake Atitlan…at least for the time being…. We boarded a transport on Thursday morning and got to the lake mid-day – just in time for our massages in San Marcos! I had never had any sort of professional massage at all and I can honestly say it was worth the wait. I got an hour long, full body massage for roughly $30 and IT. WAS. AWESOME. SOOOOOO relaxing! After our little detour in San Marcos, we headed to San Pedro, where we stayed from Thursday through Saturday.

Lago Atitlan

Thursday night we went to an awesome restaurant called D’NOZ (highly recommended) that had the most DELICIOUS chocolate, banana, and ice cream crepes, and got a special treat – Thursday’s movie night there. We ate some amazing food and watched “Everything is Illuminated” (interesting story…) and enjoyed hanging out by candlelight as all the electricity went out from a huge storm (don’t worry – it came back on right before we started the movie and we got to watch the whole thing!)

Friday, we woke up just in time for our 3 hour horseback riding expedition up a volcano! Erika and I had been trying to ride horses for literally MONTHS (ever since I’d gotten sick wayyyy back in February…and then when I got sick again in May…and well…you get the picture.) So we were SO excited to hop on our horses and start our adventure :).

I hadn’t been on a horse probably since I’d stopped taking lessons back in the fourth grade…but Mom and Dad you’ll be happy to know I put those lessons to good use and discovered that riding a horse is like…well…riding a bike – it just came back to me all at once ;-) We darted off – trotting, galloping, and running all over the streets of San Pedro and enjoying the gorgeous view of the lake!

With my horse, Morena, in front of the lake

Group shot!

We also stopped after about an hour and a half and took a little detour down to the shores of the lake, to take some pictures and relax for a bit before mounting our horses and heading back to San Pedro.

Me, Michael, and Erika

:)

After our strenuous horseback riding experience, Erika and I decided it was about time for another massage. So! Less than 24 hours after my first amazing, wonderful, incredible massage, I received my second…which was a LOT less awesome…and less relaxing…and well…yea. Not only was the massage not as good, the massage therapist got jasmine oil in my eye and I literally thought I was going to go blind! I was in so much pain and kept screaming “ME QUEMA! ME QUEMA!” (it burns me). After a good 20 minutes, a couple of towels, and a WHOLE lot of water, I could finally open my right eye without tears and screams of pain…needless to say…it wasn’t the best experience of my life…

After the second of our massages, we hung out with our friends who had arrived – Sam, Thayer, and her friend Christine – ate delicious food, and called it a night after a long day.

Saturday we wandered around and absorbed all that we could of the lake. It’s such a beautiful, relaxing place, and by far one of my favorite spots in Guatemala. I’m really going to miss Lago Atitlan, but I hope I make it back there one day sometime soon :).

love.

Pizza Night!

Last week Karla came in to our house and announced it was pizza night! Only Karla, Frannie, and I were left in the house (everyone else had gone on vacation) and so I thought, “what a nice, quiet evening at home – just the three of us”…how wrong was I! Instead, Karla called in all the troops (aka volunteers) and we had ourselves a HUGE pizza dinner with everyone that was still in town. Karla asked a few of us to go up to the bakery to help make everything and so Josh, Frannie, Karla, and I got to work making 4 large pan pizzas (think: bakery cooking sheet sized. Aka GINORMOUS!) We ended up with wayyyyyyyyyyy too much pizza, but had a great time enjoying it all together :)

The gang chowing down :)

Me, Frannie, and Karla...the only ones left...

Our clinic staff: Michael, Corinna, and Nadia

Peter Pan!

Last weekend the NPH Theater Company (Ok I just made that name up but it sounds official…) presented “Peter Pan” to the family of NPH. Julissa, one of the girls from Bachillerato, thought of the idea and pitched it to Meghan back in March and the process began. A bunch of us translated the script from English to Spanish, which was then adapted to Chapín Spanish (aka Guatemalan) by one of the tios. After that, the kids began auditions and practices for the play. They practiced 2-3 times a week every week and, with the help of a bunch of the volunteers, they created sets, made costumes, received donations, and worked incredibly hard. After all that work (and 3 very long months) they put on 3 awesome performances of the show :). Congratulations to everyone involved!

The audience getting revved up!

Wendy (Rocio), Peter (Oscar), and Peter's shadow (Angel)

Smee (Jonathan) with a fellow pirate (Iris)

Smee and Captain Hook (Elmer)

Some of the Lost Boys

The Indians capturing "Juan" (Alejandro)

Tiger Lily (Suceli), Smee, and Captain Hook

Smee, Captain Hook, and Peter

The Lost Boys and the Indians getting together

Tiger Lily, Peter, and the Indian Chief (Cesar) after bringing Tiger Lily safely back home

Peter reading a ransom note!

Peter arguing with Campanita (Tinker Bell...aka Darling)

Some of the Lost Boys and Wendy and Miguel (Kevin) after being captured by the pirates

Peter and Captain Hook!

Some of the cast after their last performance :)