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 :).
Thursday, July 14, 2011
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!
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!
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!
Thayer had made Molly a cake and so after work we all gathered in my house to smash her face in it :).
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!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
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!
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!!
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 ;-).
Friday, July 8, 2011
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…)
(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 :).
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 :).
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