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Hola!
It's been a while! So much to tell you all about!
Three Friday's ago (May 16th) there was a celebration in the Parque Central for schools from certain zones in the city, including ours! A few of our kids went up and rapped and another group got up and danced! Also there was a dance-off and one of the kids from our school got up and danced! It was very adorable! That night we left for Quetzaltenango (aka Xela) the second biggest city in the country which is in the highlands of Guatemala. It was a five hour bus ride and the driver didn't stop once! By the time we got into the city limits I was pretty sure my bladder was going to explode, but I lived. That night we went to a benefit dance which was fun but was more like a lame school dance where no one was dancing. On Saturday I got sick so I spent most of the day in bed. Sunday I was feeling much better so we went on a tour of all the indigenous villages around Xela. We saw the first church in Guatemala, the area where most of the
vegetables for Central America come from, San Simon and we also visited some hot springs! That night we went again for a five hour bus ride back to the city.
That week at school we taught most of our classes and we also got to help some of the girls practice dance routines for a talent competition. That Monday we visited a museum, went out to Chili's (haha yes, they have Chili's in Guatemala) for one of the volunteer's birthday. That night we also went to a movie. On Tuesday we had spanish lessons and our first salsa lesson! It was so much fun except the teacher, being Guatemalan, was extremely short and very awkward to dance with. On Wednesday we went to Sabana Grande (a little jungley type park with a waterfall) with the staff to celebrate a birthday (the same one we went out for on Monday night). We had a BBQ with cake and a piñata, lots of fun! Thursday we didn't teach but took the kids to a health fair instead. Friday was one of the teacher's birthdays so again we didn't do much teaching. We said good bye to one of the volunteers and
then we left for Rio Dulce. Rio Dulce is an area on the Eastern coast that is close to the Caribbean (and therefore insanely hot!) and has a lot of rustafarian culture. We got there at around 9:30, found our hostel, went out for a bit of dancing and then called it a night.
Saturday morning we went swimming in order to escape the heat! Then in the afternoon we caught a boat to Livingston. The boat ride was absolutely beautiful and we made a pitstop at a natural hot pool on the side of the river. It was so ridiculously hot, to the point where you could just stick your foot in for a few seconds! We arrived in Livingston, walked around and found our hostel. We also went out to the ocean but it was starting to storm so we couldn't do much at the beach! Livingston is supposed to have a very big nightlife scene but it was pouring rain that night so must of the parties didn't happen! That morning we said good bye to another volunteer and then later we caught a boat to Puerto Barrios where we caught a bus back to the
city. We came home to say hello to 23 new volunteers! A little bit of a shock to say the least. Everyone is really friendly and a lot of fun, but it sucks having to wait in a huge line to do your dishes!
On Monday we crammed 12 people into our van to go to work in the morning. After work we had a guest speaker who talked all about the health system in Guatemala. On Tuesday me and Elizabeth (the one who I work with and has came at the same time I did) ditched out on Spanish lessons and went to Antigua! We did some last minute souvenir shopping and just hung out. On Wednesday we didn't teach any classes because they had a bunch of doctors in that were doing blood tests on the kids. So we hung out with kids once they were done and some of the girls showed us how to ¨punta¨ dance. Basically all you do is shake your butt really quickly to insanely fast music, but it's fun! That afternoon we went to Antigua and saw a church that had been destroyed from the earthquake. Afterwards we went to a
little town outside of Antigua and we were shown traditional mayan clothing and a few of us participated in a pretend Mayan wedding to show the customs and what they typically wear. We also learned how to make tortillas and got to drink some yummy Guatemala coffee! A few of us stayed in Antigua and went out for supper and just had fun. Our Spanish teacher was the one to drive us and he has the craziest taste in music..we rocked out to lots of Backstreet Boys and Michael Jackson on the way home! On Thursday we helped to prepare for a party for the 13th anniversary of the organization our school was a part of. We had Spanish lessons and then had a birthday party to celebrate all of the birthdays in May. Again, we had cake and a piñata and firecrackers! I swear I have been to a birthday party every single week I've been here! That night a bunch of us went to Quatro Grados Norte which is a walking street with lots of restaurants and bars to go practice our salsa! On Friday we helped set up and then went to the 13th anniversary party. There
were about 300 people there and the main part of the party was a talent contest. The majority of the kids in our school participated and we won first place for both singing and dancing! That night was Elizabeth's (fellow volunteer) last night in town so we went out to a nice restaurant and said good bye!
This weekend has been very relaxing. Yesterday I hung around the home base and planned my lessons for the next week. It was nice because there was only one other volunteer there, it was eerily quiet! The other volunteers were going to places where I've already gone to and I really wanted to have weekend where I didn't spend 10 hours on the bus so I stayed back. Today I was kind of bored though so I came to Antigua. Anyways, I only have two more weeks left and I imagine they'll be just as jam packed as the last few so I promise I'll keep this updated so that you all don't have to suffer through another insane novel like this entry.
Hope all is well back home, miss you all!
Lots of love,
Amanda
xox
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Nicole
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Oh my gosh. I'm so jealous. You have been having an amazing trip! I wish I came! I miss you so much, but am very excited to hear that you are comign home in two weeks! I bet you are so tanned. loove you!