Rain rain go away!

It has been raining for 3 days straight! No hiking, no running, no walking around, no nothing! Only Spanish class and then home. Apparently, there is a hurricane passing over the eastern part of Guatemala and we are getting all the rain from it! Que lastima!

To give you an idea of the proportion of this rain, here is a story from yesterday:

Marissa and I wanted to go to the Guardaria (the daycare here) and volunteer and hang out with kids. It's in a pretty rural area (dirt roads, 1 tienda, cows on the side of the road, wild dogs walking around, Mayan folks in traditional clothing...the works!) We took a bus to get there and it was pouring rain! We arrived at the Guardaria and the lady who runs the place tells us to get back home as soon as possible. "Es muy peligroso por tus" she says. Apparently, when it rains like that, there is so much erosion and the streets are so bad that they turn into rivers and creeks and it becomes impossible to get anywhere! She was worried that the bus wouldnt even come back for us! So we waded through the streets that were already beginning to fill up with runoff water from the crops and dirt 'streets' (ie- poop water from all the animals, giant broken off pieces of stone from the mountain, dirt and dung and what not) and made it to the main part of town where we had to wait in the pouring rain for the bus. Yes, it did finally come.

Thanks to North Face for my water proof rain coat...at least the top part of my body was moderately dry.

It was just so crazy to experience that because those people live there! I mean, this was heavy rain, but imagine what it must be like for them during one of the many full on hurricanes that the areas suffers per year.

It really makes me feel Santosha. Content to have what I have, content to be who I am, and mostly content to be able to have an experience to make me appreciate my contentment.

Just another rainy day in Guatemala

In Xela, it's been raining a lot and it's really beautiful to watch the rain and the mist in the mountains. We've been doing a lot of stuff the past week, so today we vegged out while it rained and watched that Mall Cop movie with the guy from King of Queens...in Spanish! The movie was terrible...I mean, really terrible, but watching it in Spanish was hilarious!

We had our first ride on the chicken bus this morning coming back from some natural hot springs not too far from where we are staying. If its has ever been possible for something one might imagine to be mundane to be super fun and also terrifying it was this! The chicken buses are recycled school buses from the USA. They send them down here, give them a makeover consisting of fresh paint, CD player, religious effegies, and maybe some crazy christmas lights. It felt cool to use the mode of transportation that most Guatemaltecos use, but I'm not going to lie, I did fear for my life a few times (especially when we passed a cargo truck going about 75 mph going around a curve on the side of a mountain). But we made it!

Tonight is Jason's last night here, so our family is throwing him a good-bye fiesta complete with comida Xelateca, globes, musica, and maybe a little vino. Muy excellente!

Guatemala: first update

Hola from Guatemala! So sorry I havnt been keeping up with the blogging. It´s been a bit crazy and the computers are super slow.

Anyhow..we´ve been here almost a week now (5 days) and it´s amazing. I can´t even really begin to describe how beutiful it is here, yet also poverty stricken and just SO different from the United States.

I guess I´ll try and say what I´ve done so far...

Well, first interesting thing was on the flight from Miami to Guatemala City. About halfway through the flight, midway over the Gulf of Mexico, our pilot comes on and says "Ladies and Gentleman we have to make an emergency stop in Cancun. We are having some problems with the air conditioner"
WHAT??? Thoughts running through my mind like dying, crashing, drowning, flying throught the air. But we landed safely and the airplane was surrounded by fire trucks! Again, thoughts running through my head like dying, exploding, burning. But we taxied safely and escaped the situation unscathed other than having to wait in the Cancun airport for about 5 hours.

But we made it. We drove to Antigua and sayed the night there. It was beautiful. The next day we traveled via mini bus to our town: Quetzaltenango (Xela).

Since I need to consolodate 5 days worth of posts into one I will now provide
highlights from the past few days:

- meeting our family (awesome mom, quiet dad, funny college student who lives with the family and goes to college in Xela, and three middle school aged daughters)
- 4 1/2 hours of Spanish everyday, one on one with my own private teacher
- building stoves for people with dirt floors
- good coffee
- sharing a tiny tiny tiny bathroom with 9 people
- walking around and feeling amazed and humbled
- hiking up a volcano to plant tree with children from the daycare
- tamales

I don´t know what else to say.

More to come...and pictures too!

Bon Voyage! Or should I say Bien Viaje?

In a few hours, I'll be waking up at 3:30 am to catch a plane to Miami and then to Guatemala. I'll be studying Spanish, living with a host family and volunteering in Quetzaltenango (Xela) for 3 weeks.

It's been a while since I've been anywhere for longer than a week. The preparation has been pretty intense. Either that, or I've been making it intense because I'm crazy. My head has been full of important decisions such as: Rolly bag or backpack? How many pairs of shoes do I need? Can I run while I'm there? Am I going to get diarrhea? Am I going to get robbed? What book should I take? What if I want those other jeans instead of the ones that I packed? What am I going to do without soy milk?

In the end, what does it all matter?

Important: Have fun. Be safe. Learn a lot. Do good things. Come home.

going...

We will be here.

That's what she said

When you think about it, any statement could qualify for a "That's what she said!".

I mean, when does it ever stop?

That's what she said!

packing

Packing is so difficult. I want to be prepared. And yet, every single time I go somewhere I don't even use half the stuff that I brought. I did to find the balance.

1 bag

3 weeks

Guatemala

urgh