Blogs from Quetzaltenango, Western Highlands, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 13

I just got back from Caras Alegres and the monthly birthday party to celebrate all the birthdays of August. It was really fun. At our meeting last week, we had divided into four groups for four games. Seno Ruth and I were together and the kids covered baloons with shaving cream and shaved it off with razors. A little strange, but the kids really enjoyed it- especially the older ones popping their balloons by Ruth or I to cover us with shaving cream. Anyway, the kids moved from station to station, and then, we all had cake, chocolate milk, and the kids got candy. We also sang to all the August birthdays. The kids loved it, and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to be part of it. This week, I also visited my ... read more

Caras Alegres means happy faces in Spanish, and it is the name of the after school program that I have been working with this week. I am so thankful that I was able to get plugged in so quickly. It is located in a section of Xela called Las Rosas, near a very poor barrio. There is a free school for these kids called Edelac on the premises that is sponsored by a non-profit hiking company in Xela. Hopefully I will be able to get involved with Edelac as well during my time here because it is all the same kids as the ones that come to Caras Alegres. Also, housed at this location is La Guardaria, which is a daycare for the working parents. It is a really neat set-up, although they are all ... read more

So, I just completed my first day at my new school, Miguel de Cervantas. I greatly prefer it to my old one. For one, there aren't screaming children in the classroom, or annoying American ex-patriots that feel the need to rant about Muslims, women, or Obama every time they walk about your table. My old school had classes near apartments, so that didn't work out so great. My new teacher's name is Linda. She is incredibly hyper. She told me she has ADHD, and she also drinks coffee. Yeah. Still, her grammatical explanations are much clearer. But, she told me the same as my other teacher, which is that all I can do is read, listen, and speak. There's not much more in terms of grammar for me to learn, it is all just practice. So, ... read more

Well, I have some funny stories! So on Friday, my friends and I saw a flyer for a live music show, and we thought it would be to go. So we did. It was this nice-ish bar/club type thing. There were quite a few people there, but there's two main characters of interest. One was this young dude wearing a headband, sandals, and shorts, from the US. he had a girl hanging off him that was about as pale as a vampire. We sit down, and about 15 minutes later, we see the dude carrying the girl out of the bar. She's collapsed. Naturally, we all think he has drugged her and is going to rape her, so we rush over. He drops her near the door, as he can't carry her farther. I roll her ... read more

It has been a few days since my last update, apologies. So on Sunday night, I went to the Indian Restuaurant with some people I met. They ended up inviting their Guatemalan roommates, a family that had just moved to Xela. The wife is an architect, and the husband helps the poor somehow (I didn't quite understand the details), and they have one small child. So it ended up being like 9 of us at the restaurant. The food was quite good. It is probably one of the most expensive restaurants in Xela, which means it cost like $12 per person for a huge thing of food. I had a lot of fun. The Guatemalan family didn't speak English (well, the wife spoke a little), and the Americans i was with didn't speak much Spanish, so ... read more