Just another week in Xela

This week was a little bizarre as we actually stayed in Xela for the whole time. Last weekend we celebrated a group member's birthday in high fashion (with a Woody pinata!), started more class this week (as if we didn't take enough as it was) and just kind of relaxed otherwise!

On Monday, some of us started our second class at the university. This is a Mayan Societies class which I'm not sure what entails yet, but hopefully I figure it out soon! This brings our class time total up to 9 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.. and Mondays is just 7, so a little break? Wednesdays I still go to volunteering, but I only have 17 hours or so left, so in a few Wednesdays I should have those completely free to take class or to explore around Xela. The second picture is at the shelter playing some games with kids and volunteers.. I also went on an excursion with the mothers and children this week, which was very interesting and fun!

I have finished my time with another teacher. I really enjoyed my teacher because she challenged me with a few different forms of the subjunctive, which is one of the most difficult forms to pick up in Spanish, but I am working my way to making sense of it!

One whole paragraph needs to be devoted to food. I ate.... COW TONGUE AND STOMACH the other day. I also learned I am never going to ask my host mom what a certain food is again.. and the ones that she always tells me, I cross my fingers that they aren't direct translations. On the surprising side, the tongue was actually good, but the stomach.. after I found out what it actually was I don't think I'll be able to eat that again. My favorite meal is carne asada (I think it's some meat from a cow) with fresh guacamole, beans, tortillas and mangos for dessert. Really.. food doesn't get much better than that when I see the food sooo fresh!

This afternoon, I am going on an adventure with my host mom, so I am excited to explore Xela with her more!

I hope that everyone is still enjoying the MinneSNOWta winter.. I am currently sunburnt :)

Abrazos-Sarita

Guat it covered

Hola everyone!

I hope everyone is surviving the heat wave that passed/is currently passing through MN! I could not believe when I heard it was in the 40's and 50's, but that is great to get rid of all of that snow. We had a really busy week of traveling last week to Guatemala City, Tikal, Rio Dulce, Flores and some smaller places within those larger stops.

We left at 5 am on Monday morning for Guatemala City, capital of Guatemala. We began the trip with a surprise visit to the Cerveceria (beer company) of Gallo, which is the most popular brew of the country. We got to tour the establishment and we got to see the bottling and recycling process. They get back 80% of the bottles that they produce, which is huge and we were all very impressed by this fact. We didn't do much else in Guate because it is not extremely safe to walk around on the streets at night or during the day with valuables, so we had a card/game night and I found some other people to play 500 with, which I was really excited about. We toured a church and also a Human Rights Office, where we watched a movie about Nunca Mas, which is a series of books that describes the violations that occured during the armed conflict in Guatemala. It was very interesting to hear about because its something that not a lot of guatemaltecos feel comfortable talking about because it is still a sensitive subject. Then we got into the bus for a 10 hour trip to Finca Ixobal.

This Finca is all-organic and has grown basically because of work that volunteers have come to do over the years, such as installing bathrooms, electricity. The lady is originally from California and has lost 2 husbands in her almost 40 years on the Finca. One of them during the armed conflict when he witnessed a military action and, as a result of that, he was killed. She also adopted 2 Guatemalan children and raised them on the finca without many resources. I was a bit freaked out by the mosquito nets that covered the beds, and my legs did get eaten alive the first night, but after that I relaxed a bit more and really enjoyed the wonderful food and the beautiful surroundings. We stayed 3 nights there and then traveled to Tikal the next day.

Tikal is a site of Mayan ruins that have been partially recovered and reconstructed. We visited temples and walked for 4 hours around these ruins. Unfortunately, it rained. This would not have been a problem besides the fact that no one expected rain as we hadn't experienced it yet here in Guate. But.. we survived.

Then we headed off to the Rio Dulce to stay at Hotel Backpackers, which is actually a restaurant that helps fund an orphanage. This orphanage is called Casa Guatemala and it is not supported financially by the government, instead it just supplies the orphanage with children and they are forced to find donors to keep them going. It is an amazing establishment where they have learned to manage their electricity use and food with such skill for having to feed and support 250 kids. It takes about Q2000 for each child per year which is about $250. The kids were adorable and so ready to just play with us. One little boy that I talked to couldn't speak Spanish at all, and instead just knew an indigenous language, but he was full of hugs! We painted the kindergarten and library there, which was interesting and a funny experience. It was nice to do something to give back to the kids because other groups will come in and paint murals there.

After that, we stayed one night at a really nice hotel in Rio Dulce. Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy this one because I ended up getting sick and didn't get to enjoy the rest of the trip as I became good friends with the bathroom and all the bathrooms which we stopped at! On our long 10 hour bus ride home, we told life stories. It's my goal to hear the life story of every individual on the trip because it is great getting to know people in our group better and we have such a united group.

Otherwise, we have started classes at the other university, Landivar, and I am excited to be back in my host family's house, eating real food that wasn't cooked at a restaurant. My body is finally healing, so big success there! This weekend, it is the 21st birthday of one of our group members, so we are going to celebrate that and also going to a soccer game, sporting our official jerseys! It is so hard to believe we are in our 6th week of classes, and that my parents will be here in Guate in less than a month! Time is flying by and I hope that everyone is enjoying life back in the States!

Abrazos-Sarita

GUATEVER

It has been such a busy few weeks here down in Xela. I had a new change of professor and she worked me really tough with 2 books, 5 Guatemalan legends and lots of different types of homework. So… in the past 2 weeks, we took a big trip to the beach, Tilapita, and also took a big group trip to Antigua. We have also been taking private salsa dancing lessons, which I thoroughly love because that means I get to dance 2 times a week! Wonderful.

We went to the beach 2 weekends ago with the travel guides that present us with weekend trips and trips during the week as well. The beach and ocean were both gorgeous. Yay for the Pacific Ocean. However, the town was so small that the resort was really sketchy. Bats flying in during the day, cockroaches and scorpions during the night (thank goodness not in our room) and really sketchy beds and shower part. Therefore, we all preferred the natural showering method of the ocean or the pool. Needless to say by the end of the weekend, every female was complaining about how gross their hair was, but oh well! We also went on a boat ride through a mangrove forest, which was really cool.

Antigua- It was actually the former capital of Guatemala and it is nicknamed “Gringoland.” When we went to the discotecas, they played all American music, plus they closed at 12:30! Earlier than in Xela and than in Minnesota. On the positive, Antigua has some architecturally beautiful buildings that were untouched by the various natural hazards they have gone through. We also got to climb a volcano, Pacaya, which was beautiful. We actually didn’t get to see any lava which was a downside, but the view of the capital was amazing. It was absolutely crazy being above and at the same level as the clouds. We also toured an organization called Common Hope which has another office in Minneapolis that works directly with Minnesota. A former Bennie was a long term volunteer there, so that was fun to connect with her. We toured a macadamia nut farm that was solely dedicated to planting trees that were genetically different because there has been a large decrease in the gene pool. The tour guide was a retired fireman from the States and made lots of inappropriate jokes and wore a name tag that said “Heavily Medicated.” He was a card.

Private salsa lessons- A group of 8 of us have been going once a week to the instructor from La Parranda (the disco that we dance for free on Wednesdays) to step up our dancing abilities. Our favorite line of his for the girls “Mas Sexy!” (More sexy). It is fun and we are all determined to come back to the States and teach our significant others how to dance.

Salsa dancing- We have spent from about 8:30 to 1 out dancing and around Parque Central the last few Wednesdays just bonding as a group. The teachers have all said how great it is that we went to salsa dancing right away and love it because not all of the groups have gone at first and then they regretted it towards the end. No. Our group loves it and will continue absolutely loving it. It is the highlight of every one of my weeks and I love learning new turns and just having fun with our whole group!

1 on 1 classes: The last two weeks, I was a bit frustrated by my language teacher as she had a different style of teaching and she tended to not pay attention when she was not teaching me. Therefore, I struggled a bit with stress. I read Charlotte’s Web last week in Spanish and then this week I finished El Alquismista which was surprisingly really great. It talked a lot about living in the present, not in the past or in the future and I was actually really inspired by some parts and also surprised at how much I could understand. I also took my first big test today and I think I did pretty well except for 1 section that was worth 5 points. Otherwise my teacher said that the other parts looked really well.

Food: I am loving all of the food that I eat at home with my host family. My host mom is an incredible cook and I hope to come back bearing many recipes. I also enjoy hitting up the local XelaPan which is an amazing bread store.  I tried a Chevere finally, which is a hot dog with ketchup, mustard, mayo, cabbage and a green chile sauce. I didn’t throw up afterwards which I think is a good goal because it’s always hard to tell with street food. I had an unfortunate experience with street food yesterday which is kicking me in the butt slightly today and probably will for a little while but I’ll just have to be a little smarter about the food that I choose!

I was supposed to go to the beach with my family this weekend but because I wasn’t feeling well, I decided that I would stick around Xela by myself and relax for our big trip to Tikal this week! We leave Monday and 5 am and don’t get back until the following Sunday at midnight. It is going to be a LONG time on the bus, but I am excited. After Tikal, we will be starting our second phase, which means I will have 2 classes at the other university, Rafael Landivar, and then I will have language classes from 2-7 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.. but Wednesdays and Fridays with no class which will be nice.

I know that I was very delayed in writing this, so hopefully another 3 weeks does not pass until I get another blog up! Hopefully everyone is staying safe with all of the snowy weather you’ve had in Minnesota, classes are going well and life is treating everyone well J

Abrazos- Sarita