For my last weekend in Guatemala, I went to the Caribbean, specifically to Rio Dulce and Livingston. Rio Dulce and Livingston are located in the Eastern part of Guatemala on the Caribbean sea. We arrived in Rio Dulce on Friday night. It was sweltering hot! As I was riding the bus, I was sticking my head out into the darkness to try to cool myself off. When we arrived, we went straight to the bar for a cool drink. We quickly had to adjust to the island lifestyle with everyone half-dressed and way more relaxed than us city folks. After we [View Full Entry]

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For our traditional weekend excursion last weekend, we went to Quetzaltenango, otherwise known as Xela (pronounced shay-la). It's Guatemala's second largest city and it's located in the highlands. This is the place to go to learn Spanish and volunteer. I think if I were to do something like this again, I would go there. There isn't too much to do as a tourist in the actual city of Xela, but the surrounding highland villages are really interesting to visit. On Saturday, Amanda got sick so I was flying sola. I went to a travel agency to see if I could join [View Full Entry]

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Well it's been awhile, and you might have figured out why based on the title. Last week I was very sick. I finally got hit with the "Montezuma's Revenge". I had been getting progressively worse for over a week, so last Tuesday, the Director and I decided that it was time to go to the doctor. It really wasn't an emergency, we just went to the emergency room because it was faster. And was it ever fast! Within 2 minutes of stepping foot in the door, I was already in a private room with a bed. Nothing like an American doctor's [View Full Entry]

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This week has been eye-opening. After being here for nearly a month, I'm only now really experiencing the two sides of life that I had heard about. The dichotomy between rich and poor is very evident here, as I talked about in my former blog. This week I had first-hand experiences with both sides. On Monday, we visited the Popol Vuh, a Mayan museum at a the fancy, private university here in the city. We had an interesting tour with the docent, and then afterward had a little pottery activity to practice making pottery like the Maya. During this time, I [View Full Entry]

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Last weekend we went to Paradise, otherwise known as Semuc Champey. It is a series of limestone pools set atop a cave where the river flows through. The water is crystal blue/green, with tiny fish swimming in it. It is an oasis in the jungle. It's not very easy to get to either, as the roads are still partially unpaved. But the bumpy ride is worth it. It is a beautiful place. We spent all of Saturday swimming in the pools. Our accommodations for the evening were quite interesting. We did the whole weekend as a package deal, so we had [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday afternoon was a sobering break from the constant celebration of last week. We started our afternoon activities at the tomb of Monsenor Girardi, who was a bishop in Guatemala who wrote a book entitled "Guatemala, never again" in which he listed all of the names of those who were murdered during the civil war and the people responsible. He was murdered two days later. He is looked upon in Guatemala as a martyr to peace. Last week we visited the human rights foundation that he created. The tomb was decorated with colored sand, flowers, and messages. This week is the [View Full Entry]

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What a week it was last week! I'm still recovering... Last Thursday was mi compleanos (my birthday!) It was a really great birthday. At school, the kids surprised me a card that they drew and all signed and little chocolates. It was so sweet! And they all came up and gave me kisses and hugs and wished me happy birthday. At the end of the school day, one of the administrators pulled me away from doing administrative tasks for them to "help the kids with an activity". It turns out that they had planned a surprise party for me! I really [View Full Entry]

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Wow, this has been quite a week and it's only Wednesday! This weekend we went to Antigua, the original capital of Guatemala. We left on Friday afternoon and took a bus from the city. It was quite an interesting experience! There was a guy who hung out of the open door as we were driving and shouted "Antigua, Antigua" as we went down the street (he's called a brocha, the same word as a paint brush). People would randomly get on where there were no bus stops, and we squeezed in there about 7 to a seat, where only 4 usually [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we learned how to make chocolate! We went to the house of our driver, Don Francisco, and his 82 year old mother taught us how to make chocolate, Guatemalan style. She was so sweet, and obviously a very hard worker. First we roached the cocoa beans (which they buy from the market) on a giant metal piece over an open flame, then we had to deshell them (which was quite messy!), then we rolled it out on a giant stone. It was an interesting, messy experience! In the end we got to sample some already finished product, in the form [View Full Entry]

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These past two days have been pretty crazy! Yesterday I started at the school were I was assigned to teach with my partner, Amanda. The first day was supposed to just be observing the classes. We arrived and met with the Principal. She was very friendly and explained how their NGO, CAFNINA, functions. The school is actually only one of their programs. She of course explained all of this in pretty fast Spanish, but I caught the gist of it. After that, we went to our first class. This class is the older level. They are between 12-20 years old. We [View Full Entry]

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