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Published: August 8th 2012
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Well, the school has kept me pretty busy. I study during the day and and then there is some sort of activity in the evening, such as watching a movie in Spanish, going to a museum, going to the baths (I'll explain). The best school activity so far was going to the hot baths about a 20 minute ride on the "chicken bus" (see photo) which was an adventure in itself. The baths are hot volcanic spring water in a rather large tub. I'm not sure how the Mayan people use it, but we put on our swimsuits and used it like a hot tub. It felt wonderful because it´s the only hot water I've been in since the States. I absorbed the heat like a rock in the sun and enjoyed every minute of it. I was going to take pictures but, really, there is not much to take a picture of. The tub was in a private room and was big enough to hold ten people. It cost an outrageous 25 quetzals for the room (about $2.50) for and hour and a half.
On the chicken bus there and back, I got to experience a little of the Mayan
village life. We drove through a Mayan village and the bus filled up with people carrying their loads to and from the market. The women's clothes are so beautiful that when the bus was full it looked like an explosion of embroidered color inside the bus. They often carry their bundles on their heads. On the bus there was a kid that took the money. When he would get pushed to the back of the bus and couldn´t get forward, he would jump out the back door and run to the front while the bus was moving and jump back on.
Life at home is interesting. I'm sending a picture of a guatemalan kitchen sink/clothes washing area/everything else.
The lady of my family, Ilse, probably can't wait until I leave. Their diet minus the meat and eggs and dairy is just not enough for me to exist on. It is basically pasta, white bread, and white rice. My head was beginning to spin and I thought that maybe I wouldn´t survive another week without a nutritious meal. Vegetables are not an everday thing here and my intestines are tied up in knots trying digest this stuff. I talked to the
international coordinator at the school here and she talked to Ilse. Ilse went running around town looking for "hamburgesa de soya" (a veggie burger) and found it. I felt a little bad that she went to all the extra trouble, but I need to eat. I think I might relieve her of the burden a bit and go out to some of the many very good vegetarian restaurants in the area that service the large population foriegn students and aid workers in town. How did I get to be so whimpy?
I have found a really neat place across the street from the school. You knock on the door of the house and someone answers. You ask for a chocopiña or a chocobanana or etc. and they close the door and come back and give you a piece of fozen fruit on a stick dipped in chocolate. It costs about 15 cents (US) and makes me really look forward to the break.
Well, tomorrow I got to and archelogical sight and then to a black sand beach.
Last night there was a fundraiser dinner for Quetzaltrekkers which is a tour company that gives all it's profits to La Escuela de
Calle (The School of the Street). The school serves the street kids that have no home and very little chance of an education. There were about 80 gringos there for a veggie burger dinner and a chance to get to know other foreigners here. They had a raffel and I won half price ticket for a two day camping trip to hike the Volcan Tajamulco which is the highest peak in Central America. I'll be going the day after I'm finished with school here. I'm really excited about it. I'll let you know how that goes when I come back to Xela.
I'll write again soon.
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