La Super Chiva Rubia

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Dia 27, 28, 29, 30
Friday morning I slept in late because I was feeling pretty crummy after my meds last night… turns out, just like Leti warned, parasite medication is sometimes worse than the parasite itself. I woke up several times during the night with nausea and diarrhea… but I just keep telling myself it will be worth it! Haha… around 10 AM I went back over to Eduardo’s house to talk to his brother about cowboy boots. He brought some samples of brown leather that I really like and I picked out a combination of colors. I then realized that he could do the embroidery in any color I wanted, so I asked if he could use turquoise thread! I am sooo excited, I get to incorporate my favorite color and make them much more personal! The size 41 sample fit MUCH better, and we worked out that the boots, which are all leather and all custom hand-made, will cost 600 quetzales- about 70 USD!! He is going to work on them fulltime for the next few days, and they should be ready by next Wednesday! I am sooo excited 
After a quick lunch with the family, I headed over to classes where Leti and I wrestled with my last few grammar questions of the week. I am sad that my 2 weeks with her is already over and wish I hadn’t been sick this week, I feel like I didn’t get to take full advantage of her teaching. Oh well, lo que sea.. (that’s life!). After class I came home and had a chance to meet Hau, a new student who will be staying at Julia’s house with me. He is extremely nice and funny, but poor guy hardly speaks Spanish! He is a math teacher from San Diego and has studied French before, but this is his first time speaking Spanish. I helped him struggle through dinner in Spanglish, but I can tell he’s going to learn fast. I invited him to go with me and the boys to Blue Angel, a small café that offers movies every night for 10 quetzales (about 1 USD). They have 2 small rooms with big screen TV’s and a collection of hundreds of movies to choose from. Each night there is a scheduled movie, but if no one else comes you can choose whatever movie you want. No one was there when we arrived, so we chose to watch “Volver,” a Spanish drama with Penelope Cruz. I saw it when I was in Spain 3 years ago, but loved it just as much the second time around- I would highly recommend it!! After the movie how and I decided to go hang out for a bit at Jaime’s restaurant, La Cueva del Lobo (the wolf’s den/cave). I chatted with Hau and Margarita for a while and we had a great time. I came back pretty tired and still a little nauseaus from my meds, so I headed to bed.
Saturday we got up early to catch a bus to go to Laguna Chicabal, a tiny lake in the crater of a dormant volcano about an hour out of Xela. The bus dropped us off at the bottom of a HUGE hill… in total the climb up would be about 5 km all uphill! It was pretty rough for me- not only am I already out of shape, but I was also totally weak from having spent the last few days sick in bed. The boys and Rachelle were way ahead of me the entire time, and I had to stop ridiculously frequently to catch my breath… About halfway up there was a truck that offered to take us the rest of the way, but the group wanted to get in some exercise. I tried to keep up for a while and quickly realized I was in over my head. I walked back down the to the truck and paid him about 6 USD to drive me the rest of the steep hills up to the base of the volcano- 6 bucks well spent! I had a few minutes to rest until the rest caught up, and we had even more uphill walking ahead of us. Finally, after about an hour of grueling uphill walking, we descended back down into the crater of the volcano. When we first arrived the laguna was blanketed in a thick coat of fog and clouds. But, over the next 10 minutes as we munched on our sandwhiches (peanut butter and jelly with carrot-pineapple jelly- soooo good!) the fog was whisked away from the lake by a strong wind, revealing a breathtaking view of the entire lake. It was much smaller than I expected, but a spectacularly beautiful little shimmering lake surrounded by jungle. Across the lake we could hear the chanting of a group of indigenous Mayans who were praying to the water. The lake is considered sacred by the indigenous population here and is the center of many legends. We spent about half an hour relaxing by the lake, watching the clouds come and go incredibly quickly. It would probably take about 15 minutes to walk the perimeter of the lake, but we hung out at one spot the entire time. A large group of Mormon missionaries, dressed in their dress pants and button-down shirts with ties despite the huge hike, passed by and chatted with us for a while. Apparently they had a day off and were exploring, but were still required to be in “uniform.” To get back up to the rim of the volcano, we had to walk up TONNNS of stairs (570 to be exact) and it was pretttty rough. I had to stop like every 50 steps, but I finally made it and it was all downhill from there  We finally got back home around 3 PM and went on a few errands before returning home to shower. We have started to make plans for our next free weekend- we want to go to Tikal, a beautiful ancient Mayan city in the jungle in the Peten region of Guatemala. This area is one of the few places in the country where malaria is a risk, so we went hunting in pharmacies for malaria prevention medication. WE had heard this would be easy to find, but we wandered in vain to almost 12 different pharmacies and we were only able to find one sketchy possible pill. None of us had ever heard of it before, but we bought it anyways cuz it cost like 3 USD lol… when I got home I rested for a few minutes and showered before heading back out for the big game!
Xela’s soccer team had a game against the “Rojos,” the rival team from Guatemala City. Hau, Stephen, Matt, Mike and I headed over to Smoothies and Rum for a delicious dinner before heading over to the stadium. The neighborhood was bustling with activity and we all bought Super Chivos gear before heading in. We bought cheap tickets for the “super fan” section and were surrounded by hundreds of people equipped with face paint, homemade newspaper confetti, and a full band playing music and leadings chants. The energy was incredible, and the Xela pride was radiating from every direction. I was shocked by the amount of profanity coming from the crowd, especially considering how many children were in the stands.. but nobody seemed to mind and some of the kids were shouting profanities too.. only in Guatemala… haha. We quickly found out that in addition to profanity, fireworks are also a huge part of games in Xela. When I saw fireworks, I don’t mean put on by the stadium into the sky. I mean set off in the midst of the crowd, BY the crowd. Sparklers, roman candles, and a variety of other dangerous fireworks were haphazardly set off after big plays and before the game began. It was wild! We barely dodged a few misguided rockets during the game, but I survived with my hair in tact haha. The Super Chivos (rams) were playing pretty crummy the first half, but really pulled it together and played an exciting second half, winning in the end. The entire experience was incredible, the pride and unity in this city is as strong as the Trojan Family  After the game I headed home pretty exhausted and hit the hay.
Sunday morning we woke up bright and early for a Somos fieldtrip to Fuentes Georginas, some hot springs in the mountains just outside of Xela. We took a chicken bus ride to a small town where we had to commission a pickup to take us up to the springs. The first pickup we came across seemed pretty legit.. until we found a dead cat in the back… lol. We then found a better alternative pickup and made our way to the secluded springs. They were nice.. but not really what I expected. I have been spoiled by my trips to the Tabacon Hot Springs in Costa Rica with my family, which are huge pools of natural spring water funneled into natural lagoons. Fuentes Georginas was basically a few manmade pools of large stone bricks with some volcanically heated water passing through. They were pretty small and didn’t have very much room to sit.. and were VERY dirty. The water had large white flakes floating everywhere (skin maybe? Ew) and huge dead bugs, pieces of hair, etc… I don’t want to sound like a diva, but it was kinda gross. The water felt nice enough though and our muscles were pretty sore after our big hike Saturday, so we kicked back and enjoyed the water for a few hours. Just as we found a pickup truck to get back down the mountain, we were hit with a downpour in classic Guatemalan fashion. We were all huddled sitting in the bed of an open-air pickup truck… I had an umbrella which I hid under, but the others pretty much had to brave the sheets of water raining down on us for the entierety of the 20 minute ride. By the time we reahed our chicken bus to get home, most were soaked and freezing. When we got back to Xela, we went to a restaurant called Albamar for lunch. It was strange.. it was a chain restaurant with fast-food type menu items like fried chicken and hamburgers.. but it was very fancy inside and had other dishes like filet mignon. Most people were dressed up pretty nicely, so we felt pretty gross in our soaking wet tourist clothes.. I found a very intriguing type of tomatoe soup with a giant turkey leg in it, and it was DELICIOUS. After lunch we each headed back to our respective houses and I met my new housemate, Nahal. She is a recent college grad who just arrived for the extended 6 month Somos Hermanos program. Nahal, Hau, Mike and I headed back out towards central park to look for malaria meds for our upcoming trip to Tikal… we found chloroquine in a pharmacy, but it came with absolutely no instructions and I was sketched out by the woman’s instructions. Most pharmacists here are not trained professionally but seem to think they know best… We showed Nahal around and stopped for a nice sweet bread at Xela Pan before heading back to Julia’s house. Hau and I bonded for a few hours (he is awesome!!) and he introduced me to Podcasts. We listened to a radio podcast called This American Life, a themed radio broadcast that centers around a different theme each week. I really enjoyed it and hope to listen to them a lot more often….
Monday I got up bright and early to go work at Nuevos Horizontes, the women’s clinic in Xela. Unfortunately for me, the staff had to do a bunch of paperwork before we could head out to the site. When we got there, I spent 3 hours shadowing Dr. Tere. It’s amazing how young most of the mothers are here… if a woman is over 25 and not married, she is almost like a spinster.. and if she doesn’t have kids by 28 she is doomed… a cultural thing I guess. After volunteering I had a huge, delicious lunch with Julia and then had my first day of class with my new teacher, Eduardo. Eduardo is pretty much a stand-up comic during the snack breaks at school; he is a real ham and loves to crack jokes and tease everyone. He has called me “Miss Teen USA” since I arrived and is constantly busting my chops during our breaks. Which is why I was surprised to see how he completely transformed during our classes. He was extremely professional, all business during our class time. He had a very to-the-point conversation with me to find out my goals, to lay out a plan of action for the next 2 weeks, and to assess my level of Spanish. We talked about a lot of things, and I found out he is much more conservative and deeply humble- all his jokes and big persona during snacks are all kind of a show. I really connect with him as a teacher, and can tell I will get a lot of our two weeks working together.
After class I had a quick dinner with the family before returning to the school for a documentary called “Which Way Home?” The movie dealt with an extremely depressing topic- the difficult lives of young children who attempt to illegally enter the United States by hitch-hiking trains that travel from Mexico to Texas. The main characters were a small group of 4 boys, aged 12-18, who had left home (in Guatemala, in Honduras, and in Mexico) to try to find a new life in America. None of the boys had any sort of realistic expectations or plans for when they arrived- they dreamed of being adopted, of finding families willing to help them go to school or find good jobs. Some of the boys ran away from home, while others were given permission from parents hoping for a brighter future for their kids. One boy left home to try to find a job to send money back home to his mother, who could no longer afford to feed her 13 year old son. Some scenes were happy- boys lazing on top of moving trains as they passed through gorgeous landscapes. The boys playing together, finding food and helping keep eachother entertained on the long journey. The movie also showed the dark side of the journey, however, exposing what happens when these journeys fail. Many children are injured in trying to mount the trains, either crushed dead by the wheels or mangled with missing limbs… many die in transit, either left behind by stronger contenders in their group or after falling pretty to illness, starvation, or dehydration. The stories were horrendous, haunting… some families chose to send their children with coyotes, or smugglers… and the children often didn’t survive the treck even with this help. I had always imaged that illegal immigrants crossed the border as families- I never imagined that children tried to do so alone, or that some families might even encourage or pay for hteir young children to do so. It was a humbling reality to see that these people were so desperate in their current situation that they would rather risk the lives of their children than continue living as they are. It was a pretty hard message to swallow.. but I feel like it was an important reality to learn about. Well… I am off to bed! Hopefully I can write again soon!!! Besos 

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