martes, 28 de abril de 2009
My parents trip to Guatemala aka my mom brought me a new shirt and I wear it everyday.
Some pics from my parents trip to Guatemala! Most of them are of our time in Comalapa and the new baby! There are also a few of ziplining in Panajachel and our amazing trip to Tikal. Enjoy!
jueves, 2 de abril de 2009
¡Marzo en Guatemala! Un Mes lleno de felicidad.
March! What a month! It began in Belize and moved throughout Guatemala. Let me tell you a little about it.
I had been waiting all year for our retreat to Belize. When it finally came, I couldn’t believe we were already at that highlighted section of my calendar. It was a long journey from Comalapa, but it still felt strange to cross the bay to enter a country that spoke ENGLISH. For a country of only 300,000 inhabitants TOTAL, there is such a variety of cultures and peoples. The biggest mind blower was to see indigenous Mayans speaking their native language and ENGLISH not Spanish. I couldn’t bring myself to say “Good Morning.” My mind was still in “Buenos Dias” mode. The beach we went to was a little too occupied by tourists for my taste, but what can you expect at a place where the waters are bluer than any part of my name, the sand is whiter than the teeth on a Crest commercial, the fish are always dressed to go out to a disco, and boats are used as common transportation to get from place to place. Tourists search for happiness in places that look like that and they call it Paradise. I call it kind of strange and awkward but still undeniably beautiful. The national beer is called Belikan, but the people are called Belizeans. Houses are built of wood and sit on stilts. And, despite popular opinion by Guatemalans, they were NEVER a part of Guatemala. And I think I’m addicted to snorkelling. Really, I dream of being a mermaid now.
While on my trip, an emergency translating position opened for the YAVs to fill. So, just 4 days later, I was on a microbus to Xela at 5 am to meet with a group from Queens University, North Carolina. My friend, Hanna, had been with the group up until then, so I was a little nervous that they wouldn’t accept me as part of their group. But, oh the contrary. They were a very accepting group! And Hanna ended up missing everyone so much that she came back and we all just had a merry time together. We did a homestay in a very rural community outside of Xela. We made a trip (like the 5th time for me) to Lake Atitlan where Hanna and I got hair-wraps and called them our awesomeness. And we also spent a night in Guatemala City. Now, there was much more to the trip than just fun and games. But, I do remember fondly those fun and games. The day before I was to head back to Comalapa, I got a phone call from my host dad telling me the good news that my host mom had a baby…a beautiful, healthy baby boy! I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say. Mostly because I thought she was due in April and my parents were coming two days later and planned to stay at my house! For some reason I was really nervous to be around a baby. Though now it feels very normal and not scary at all, thank heavens. In fact, I might want one of my own someday it is just that cute.
My parents got here that Tuesday and of course our plans had to change. Instead of staying at my house, they stayed down the street at a hotel. And I did a lot of the cooking, so their meals weren’t quite as Guatemalan as I had hoped. But they were able to meet many people in my community and were served delicious Guatemalan meals by several different families. They came to my adult class with me and my parents did everything in Spanish while the class did everything in English. We spent a couple of days in Panajachel where we got to visit Anna at her community in Santiago Atitlan. We had a day excursion with my whole family to Iximché where we climbed Mayan temples, ate watermelon on the grass, and had a huge meal at a famous restaurant named Katok. The next week, I stayed in Comalapa to teach while my parents headed to Antigua to do their own thing. They took a trip to the Copán ruins and explored Antigua. I met them on Thursday night and we took a weekend trip to Tikal which is way up north in the jungle. We woke up at 3am on Saturday, so we were quite tired. But it was worth it. It was absolutely beautiful. Just from our bungalow room, we could see spider monkeys playing, shiny turkeys, and other wildlife. We woke up to find a pile of monkey poop on our porch! Inside the park, admist the ancient Mayan temples, you could see howler monkeys, parrots, toucans, etc. just living their day-to-day life. The whole atmosphere was just breath-taking. At sunset, we climbed a temple to watch the sun go down. The temple was higher than the canopy of the jungle and we could hear all of the animals making their nighttime noises.
We came back to Antigua and I meant to leave on Monday, but on the way to the bus terminal I was feeling a little sick. I was worried it would get worse, so I stayed behind. And yep, it did get worse. So, I left at the same time they left for the airport on Tuesday. I must say, despite the crazy beginning, the trip went so smoothly! I give a lot of credit to my mom to finding some fantastic places to stay. Everything just really worked out, and I will always remember that trip as a happy time. And here I am in Comalapa now. March is over and I have so many memories of the month. This Sunday I leave again to meet Drew at the airport on Monday. Holy Week is next week, then another retreat, and then a week-long class at CEDEPCA that I’d like to take. So, there goes April as well! Time is really flying now. And now that my flight ticket home is being FedExed to me right this moment, I am starting to realize how finite my time here is. Once I leave, it will be over. And another chapter of my life will close, though hopefully it will open up new doors and my experiences will continue to shape me and my life in positive ways.
I’ll try to get some pictures of my trips up here soon!
I had been waiting all year for our retreat to Belize. When it finally came, I couldn’t believe we were already at that highlighted section of my calendar. It was a long journey from Comalapa, but it still felt strange to cross the bay to enter a country that spoke ENGLISH. For a country of only 300,000 inhabitants TOTAL, there is such a variety of cultures and peoples. The biggest mind blower was to see indigenous Mayans speaking their native language and ENGLISH not Spanish. I couldn’t bring myself to say “Good Morning.” My mind was still in “Buenos Dias” mode. The beach we went to was a little too occupied by tourists for my taste, but what can you expect at a place where the waters are bluer than any part of my name, the sand is whiter than the teeth on a Crest commercial, the fish are always dressed to go out to a disco, and boats are used as common transportation to get from place to place. Tourists search for happiness in places that look like that and they call it Paradise. I call it kind of strange and awkward but still undeniably beautiful. The national beer is called Belikan, but the people are called Belizeans. Houses are built of wood and sit on stilts. And, despite popular opinion by Guatemalans, they were NEVER a part of Guatemala. And I think I’m addicted to snorkelling. Really, I dream of being a mermaid now.
While on my trip, an emergency translating position opened for the YAVs to fill. So, just 4 days later, I was on a microbus to Xela at 5 am to meet with a group from Queens University, North Carolina. My friend, Hanna, had been with the group up until then, so I was a little nervous that they wouldn’t accept me as part of their group. But, oh the contrary. They were a very accepting group! And Hanna ended up missing everyone so much that she came back and we all just had a merry time together. We did a homestay in a very rural community outside of Xela. We made a trip (like the 5th time for me) to Lake Atitlan where Hanna and I got hair-wraps and called them our awesomeness. And we also spent a night in Guatemala City. Now, there was much more to the trip than just fun and games. But, I do remember fondly those fun and games. The day before I was to head back to Comalapa, I got a phone call from my host dad telling me the good news that my host mom had a baby…a beautiful, healthy baby boy! I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say. Mostly because I thought she was due in April and my parents were coming two days later and planned to stay at my house! For some reason I was really nervous to be around a baby. Though now it feels very normal and not scary at all, thank heavens. In fact, I might want one of my own someday it is just that cute.
My parents got here that Tuesday and of course our plans had to change. Instead of staying at my house, they stayed down the street at a hotel. And I did a lot of the cooking, so their meals weren’t quite as Guatemalan as I had hoped. But they were able to meet many people in my community and were served delicious Guatemalan meals by several different families. They came to my adult class with me and my parents did everything in Spanish while the class did everything in English. We spent a couple of days in Panajachel where we got to visit Anna at her community in Santiago Atitlan. We had a day excursion with my whole family to Iximché where we climbed Mayan temples, ate watermelon on the grass, and had a huge meal at a famous restaurant named Katok. The next week, I stayed in Comalapa to teach while my parents headed to Antigua to do their own thing. They took a trip to the Copán ruins and explored Antigua. I met them on Thursday night and we took a weekend trip to Tikal which is way up north in the jungle. We woke up at 3am on Saturday, so we were quite tired. But it was worth it. It was absolutely beautiful. Just from our bungalow room, we could see spider monkeys playing, shiny turkeys, and other wildlife. We woke up to find a pile of monkey poop on our porch! Inside the park, admist the ancient Mayan temples, you could see howler monkeys, parrots, toucans, etc. just living their day-to-day life. The whole atmosphere was just breath-taking. At sunset, we climbed a temple to watch the sun go down. The temple was higher than the canopy of the jungle and we could hear all of the animals making their nighttime noises.
We came back to Antigua and I meant to leave on Monday, but on the way to the bus terminal I was feeling a little sick. I was worried it would get worse, so I stayed behind. And yep, it did get worse. So, I left at the same time they left for the airport on Tuesday. I must say, despite the crazy beginning, the trip went so smoothly! I give a lot of credit to my mom to finding some fantastic places to stay. Everything just really worked out, and I will always remember that trip as a happy time. And here I am in Comalapa now. March is over and I have so many memories of the month. This Sunday I leave again to meet Drew at the airport on Monday. Holy Week is next week, then another retreat, and then a week-long class at CEDEPCA that I’d like to take. So, there goes April as well! Time is really flying now. And now that my flight ticket home is being FedExed to me right this moment, I am starting to realize how finite my time here is. Once I leave, it will be over. And another chapter of my life will close, though hopefully it will open up new doors and my experiences will continue to shape me and my life in positive ways.
I’ll try to get some pictures of my trips up here soon!
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