2 trips to Antigua, 1 to the emergency room

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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 office where you have to wait at least an hour for anything! The hospital is one of the nicest in the city and is expensive, so that's why there weren't many people there. I had tests done and they even have me an IV, which I thought was a bit dramatic. Eventually they determined that I had a stomach infection and I had to take some antibiotics and other medicine. Now, I'm perfectly healthy again, so it was worth the experience!

Onto more pleasant topics... We have two new volunteers in the house now. One is named Carys, and she's my roommate. She's from London. The other is Davlyn. She's from Tennessee. They are both staying for 3 weeks, and this is their second week. They arrived the day that we said goodbye to Megan and put her on the chicken bus (the wrong one apparently) back to Guatemala City. So now there are four of us again and it's great fun.

2 weekends ago, after we spent Megan's last night in Antigua, we headed out for Chichicastenango. This is the biggest market in Guatemala. It was like a thick soup of people. When we arrived, we went to have breakfast at a restaurant that overlooks the market, so we could see the insanity from a bird's eye view. We watched in awe as native Guatemalans dressed in colorful clothing mixed with the overwhelmed tourists. A man with live chickens in a basket on his head walked by the man selling chocobananas and shampoo. It was truly a mix of humanity at its craziest. After breakfast, we braved the market ourselves. It was almost a sensory overload with the yelling, vibrant colors surrounding us, and just the massive amounts of things everywhere! We had to take a warm up lap before we could even concentrate enough to buy anything. Along the way we took a wrong turn and ended up in the food section for the locals. The smell was overwhelming, a mix of spicy things boiling, unidentifiable meats, and all kinds of fruits and vegetables. We tried not to think about what all of the dead, skinned animals hanging up were. Eventually we make our way back to the more touristy part, where the local artisans sell their crafts. As you can imagine, I made good skills of my bargaining skills and made quite a few purchases. Around 1:00, it began to downpour. All of the workers at the booths, quickly adjusted their awnings to keep their products dry. By this point, we were overwhelmed and out of money, so we went to find a shuttle home.

I've learned here the trip itself is definitely a large part of the journey. We meet the most interesting people on the buses and shuttles we take and there is never a dull moment! We never know what we'll encounter on the bus. For example, on our shuttle home from ChiChi, we learned all about the Norwegian education system from a friendly Norwegian guy (there are so many Norwegians here!).And on the chicken bus to Antigua last weekend, we ended up catching it on the street instead of at the bus station (thanks to a lame taxi driver) and therefore had to stand up the entire time because it was full. When I say full, it's hard to comprehend what this actually means from an American standard. Just imagine this...Adults sitting three to a seat on an old school bus designed to fit two 8 years to a seat (basically sitting shoulder to shoulder across both seats and in the aisle). Also, the space between the two seats is only about a foot. This is where we were standing, in the minuscule space between the seats, trying not to stick our butts in people's faces. Add to this, the brocha (sort of the conductor, who lets people on and yells "Antigua, Antigua" out of the door) just kept letting people on, so there were about 5 people hanging out of the door. Add also to the mix, that the road is very curvy and you start to get the idea. Plus the brocha had to push past us to collect people's money in the back. I'm really still not sure how he managed to make that happen. Then there's always the taxi driver from another trip to Antigua who pulled over the taxi so he could pee on the street! But coming back from Lake Atitlan this weekend, was the craziest yet. We had to stop the shuttle because the entire road was blocked with people. We got out to see what was going on. Apparently someone had driven over the edge of the very steep cliff and they were now trying to pull them up from the deep ravine using a thick rope. It was an amazing scene. Just hoards of people, Maya, Ladinos, and gringos alike all trying to look over the edge to see what happened. A paramedic climbed down the rope and came back up with a little girl who was badly injured. I didn't see this of course because I was trying to stay back, but I heard. As they pulled her up, the crowded came in all around her. It was crazy. They finally managed to get her in the ambulance. As it drove away, people started walking away a little dazed, and then for some reason it became a stampede! Everyone started running back to their vehicles all parked in a line like a parade. We hopped into our shuttle and we were off again. It was a sobering experience. These are just a few of the stories. Transportation here is always an experience!

So last week was Mother's Day here. It is always on May 10th in Guatemala. They had a big party at Casita Amarilla to celebrate. All of the kids' moms came to school and they put on a little performance. It was really cute! They did dances, sang songs, and did magic tricks. It was fun. Then for our Guatemalan "moms" we made clay mobiles and gave them flowers and candy. It was a nice day.

Last weekend we took the new girls to visit Antigua for Friday night. Then we went to Lake Atitlan. I had been looking forward to this for a long time because everyone says it's an amazing place. Our first view of the lake was astonishing. It looked just like an ocean. You couldn't see the shore at all on the other side. Plus it was cloudy and a little hazy out, so it looked very mysterious. We took a boat across from Panajatchel to San Pedro, where we stayed. This is the town where supposedly a lot of hippies live. We were curious and they had some good cheap hotels listed so we decided to give it a try. Well the hotel part was right! We got a private room with a private bathroom and cable tv for $5!! Of course there was 2 of us girls in each twin bed, but it worked! As for San Pedro itself, it was not all that exciting. The views of the lake were beautiful, but it felt like we were the only ones there in the town. It was weird. Berkeley has a lot more hippies! Every restaurant or cafe we went to we were the only ones or only 2 other people there. But it was a nice, relaxing night. The sunset on the lake was spectacular. The next morning, we headed back to Panajatchel. Pana has the reputation of being a sort of "gringo-ville" because that's where most tourists stay, but it must not be busy season, because we didn't see many tourists at all. It was a very cute little city. We did some more shopping and got some great deals because it wasn't as busy as some of the other markets. Then we got another shuttle back to Antigua and then back to Guate (from the same company because there are much cheaper! We should get frequent rider miles for taking them so much!)

This week we actually got to teach 3 days in a row! It's basically a record for us lately because we've only been teaching one or two days a few for the last few weeks because of various reasons. School is going well. The kids are continuing to learn and I'm very proud of them! This week we got a new class of kids from the afternoon classes who wanted to come earlier in the day to learn English too. There are only about 6 kids in the class, but they are very smart and learn really fast! It's very rewarding hearing the kids saying English words from memory. For example, one of the boys was playing for a toy and he turned to me and pointed to it and said "green and yellow," which was the colors of the toy. It's just little things like that that show they are really learning. And the older kids did a pretty complicated worksheet this week that we made. It involved the verb "to go," family members, and places. It was very proud that they all got it! I'm sad that I only have 2 more weeks with them!

Well that's it for now. This weekend we are going to Quelzaltenango (aka Xela), so stay tuned.

Hasta luego!

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Photos

Me, Amanda, Davlyn, Carys, Virginia, Sonia, Dona Marie, Dona Amabilia, and Dona Olivia
Us with the Country Director, our Program Director, and our great cooks!

San Simon
He's a Mayan god. We visited his shrine in Chimeltenango.