Corrie in Guatemala

Hello to anyone still reading this blog. I know it appears that I gave up on my blog for quite a while, and that is true. The last week of my volunteering was similar to the others with some expections, and I said goodbye to all of my students on Thursday, so that on Friday I could enjoy the festivities in Antigua. Also on Thursday night I had my first ever solo gig! This was at the Rainbow cafe, where I had done the open mic a couple of times. The owners liked my performance and were actually sitting right next to our table. They asked me if I would sing there. I said sure! So, I got there at around 7:30 and started to sing. There was a group in the back of the place that was listening, and then, decided to sit right in front of me in these wooden recliner chairs. They were the best audience! At least 8 of them. There was a group to the side that was quite loud the whole time I played, but all of the other people in the place made up for it. As I sang, the family (Monica, Maritza, Brenda, and Yojana) Emily and Jake, Birgit and Andrea all came in. Also, a friend from UMass Boston also came with a group of people as well as friends from the Spanish school. It was a great encouragement to have all of them there. So, I played for 1 hour and half straight. Then I took a break, ordered some food and talked with all of the folks who were there. And then, as I was talking with the family, Carmen, the director of the project Los Niños de Jesus, came up to me. I had told them about the event, but was not sure if they were going to come because it was night and they do not have a lot of money. But, she was there with her two oldest daughters, but they left before I had the chance to say hello. I ate a bit and then played again for about another 30 minutes. I had run out of songs. I played in total around 20 songs, a few without accompaniment. My favorite moment was when I sang Cielito Lindo with out the guitar. At the end, the audience, including one of the waitresses seemed very pleased with it and gave me a generous response.  Animo! I also got paid!! I did not know that this was going to happen but it did. 100 quetzales! I have a photo of me with this bill. My first ever for a solo gig. After this, Birgit and Andrea and I went to the central park for a rock concert. There were so many young people there.

 There was a holiday that Friday and so in the morning we stood outside to see the parade of all of the school bands. We (Andrea and Birgit) and I went with Monica and Martiza. It was very nice, and a beautiful, and hot day, for what Andrea and I thought was our last day in Antigua. Ultimo día! I went up to Pastores for one last visit with Carmen, and gave her some 5 t-shirts and 3 pairs of sandles. Andrea also donated some clothes. Then, we hung out in the park some and just listened to the Marimba music in the Esamble de Marimbas (12 marimbas being played at the same time). That night, we ventured out to Cafe Sky (where they wanted to charge me 10 Q for butter!) and then to Cafe No Se.

The next morning, Saturday, we were planning to be picked up by the shuttle service at 11:00am. So, we pack, get everything together, have a long goodbye with the family, and as we drove away, thinking that we would be late and miss our flight, Andrea shouted out “Hasta mañana!” not really knowing the events that were about to occur. We had an uneventful drive to the city except for the backpack that went flying from the top of the shuttle.   Ok, here is where the story gets interesting. We were in line, waiting to check our bagsd when we someone in front of us asked us for the date. Andrea said the 26th. I said the date was the 27th. The people around us were all saying the 26th. I told Andrea that the date of our flight was the 27th, she said the 26th. She looked at the ticket and said ” Sunday, July 27th” Whoa! We both felt, all of a sudden, like complete idiots. She had always thought we were leaving Saturday the 26th, and I knew the date was the 27th, but hadn´t thought that the date was not the 27th!! We named this episode “Dumb and Dumber” o “Tonta y mas tonta” We got some Subway in the airport then lucky had extra quetzales to take a cab back to Antigua, saying the whole time, I cannot believe that this happened! How on earth did this happen? We showed up at the house to a smiling Monica.

Because of this event, and because of the torture it would have caused to return to the airport the following day, we called AA to see how much it would cost to say longer. So, we changed our flight for 30 dollars each to say an extra 10 days. Funny!

Hello! My mom asked me the other day for photos of the house where I am staying, so here they are. The family has continued to amaze me and all of us living in the house. Upstairs, believe it or not, they have 8 private bedrooms, holding a total of nine people (one room is occupied by a married couple). Here is photo of the stairs leading to the patio.Stairs. Here also are photos of my door and my bedroom. All of the doors are in a patio on the second floor. The patio and my door. My bedroom.

When Andrea and I first arrived there was only the two of us and two others (one a girl from Guatemala who goes to high school in Antigua). Then came Viktor and Felix from Germany and then the next week, two other girls, one from Holland, the other from LA (but orginially from Hungary) and the married couple from the States. Wow! Here is photo of us a dinner. The family at dinner. All members of the family Jimenez are so kind and considerate. Brenda, who is 18 or 19, knocked on my door today to ask how the singing went last night at the Rainbow cafe, and yes I went back (and by the way, I have a gig there next week!!).

Monica is the mother, and she is so sweet. Her Spanish is perfectly clear and slow, and one day I went to give her a greeting (a kiss on the cheek) and she embraced me. I was surprised, but felt very cared for. I really enjoy talking with her. Because my Spanish is better than the other times I have gone abroad, I feel closer to her than the other homestay mothers. She stays at home and cooks and cares for the family and house. We love her. Here is a picture of me with her and Omar (their nephew). Monica, me and Omar. The family also has a dog, Marcelo, who hardly ever lets anyone hold him. He let me hold him three times the other day. Here we are together! Me and Marcelo.

Lastly, there is another animal that hangs out around the house, no, actually many other animals, but here is a photo of one that likes to make its home on the laundry line. The Spanish name is araña. Here is the photo. La Araña. Until next time!

The previous blog was more a way to get some things off my chest than a real entry about some place great. But, here we have the real entry about a very amazing place. This past weekend, we made our second overnight trip. If you read the previous blog, you know that we took an overnight bus to a little town called Flores where our hotel was. The group was ten students. Here is a photo: Orso, Andrea, Felix, Natasha, don´t remember,  Sonya, Umo, Birgit, Viktor. The group. The morning we arrived we went to Tikal.

Tikal is a site of Maya ruins in the north of Guatemala, near the Mexican border. The Maya starting building this site around 500AD or something very long ago like that. These structures are very old. To visit Tikal, we took a 1 and half hour bus ride from Flores, and by the way, in el Petèn, where the ruins are, it is much hotter than in Antigua. I, unfortunately, had overlooked this important detail! We rode into the national park, which is actually a jungle, and I was wearing jeans–probably not the best material, but it kept the mosquitos off of my legs. Our guides led us through the jungle to various buildings, most only half-way uncovered, some temples where religious ceremonies were performed and others, dwellings. We would walk through a part of the jungle and arrive at a site of ruins, walk some more, and more ruins. Here are some of the ones we saw one our way.

Tikal 1, On these stones, DNA tests showed human blood,

Andrea and me in front of a temple, A dwelling

These were pretty facinating. The guide explained to us that all the of buildings are built with a purpose. Many are exactly north, south, east or west and the sun rises or falls directly behind them, making perfect 90 or 45 degree shadows.  There was one spot that archeologists are still working on that has an interesting story. The Maya have a calendar that ends in 2012–according to traditional beliefs, the world will end when this calendar ends. There are seven buildings that they say all of the Maya will return to on this time. Now, I don´t know if they mean, rising from the dead or ghosts or what have you, but here is a picture of some of these buildings. The seven buildings match up with seven stars in the sky. End of the World buildings. It started raining near the beginning of our time, there which made the topic of the next paragraph a little more difficult!

But, now, onto the most exciting part of being at Tikal…climbing the ruins. To clarify: we did not actually climb up the steps of any of the temples–aparently, a Mexican tourist died last year while on the steps of one pyramid and climbing that one is not permited. But we did climb stairs first to the top of a temple 70 meters high, or over 210 feet. The view was absolutely spectacular. This was my favorite part of Tikal. Here are some photos. Climbing the stairs, The view from the top–Ruins sticking out of the forest

Ok, so if you thought that was interesting or a bit dangerous, that is nothing. Remember that I said it had starting to rain. Well when we made it to the next temple the really hard rain had stopped but it was still raining.  Here is a photo of the temple as we approached it from the forest. I apologize for all of the sideways photos (Dad!). Temple from Forest.

Without thinking too much about what I was doing, I walked up to the¨ladder” (it really was not steps like the last one) and began climbing.  As I climbed I thought, oh, if slip, wow, that might be the end… Here is a photo of the steps.  The ladder of death!! But, I made up and luckly back down, as it was raining and making the railings a bit slippery. Here is the view from the top. The view from the top of steep temple. Unfortuately, I was more awe of the height than the view, so I did not enjoy it as much as the previous. The landing was also very narrow, thus I told the guides when I got back down, “No querìa despegarme de la pared!” or I did not want to come away from the wall! Here are my feet dangling off the edge, well not really, but it looks that way. My dangling feet.

All in all, a great adventure with rain, bugs, temples, mud, and one slip (but luckily not on the temples!).  Come back for more later! I will have some info on where I live in Antigua. hasta luego!

I want to thank everyone for your comments, and for reading my blog. It makes me happy to know that you are following my trip. Becka and Michelle, I will be here still for 2 weeks more. It is not too late to join!

Wow! What a ride! We had a very great, challenging, and sometimes frustating visit to Tikal, the famous Maya ruins in the north of Guatemala. I do not have pictures right now, but this blog is more about the problems that we encountered as we were traveling. We booked our trip through a travel agency that was recommended to us by a girl who was staying in our house. At first it was just going to be 4 people, then 6, then 8 and last 10! This was going to interesting. Actually we all worked together pretty well to make everything work, but there were a few problems.

We took a stuttle to Guatemala City from Antigua at 6:30 at night. We got to Guatemala and then took a night bus to Flores from 9 at night until 6 in the morning on Saturday. Unfortuately, I did not sleep well on the bus and when we got to the hotel we were not able to get rooms to put our things in or to rest or to take showers (as had been promised). Now, I myself was a little clueless about the details of the trip because I did not get the info from the agency, so it was hard to me to not know what was going on. So, here we are 10 people who need to change clothes, rest, wash up and eat breakfast before going on our tour into the Peten jungle to see the ruins. The hotel gave us one room to go to. I was curled up in one piece of the bed for 30 minutes. Try to imagine it…it was a little crazy!

The tour went very well and after we got our rooms with cable TV and showers. Nice! Dinner, etc. This whole weekend, though, I was practicing my Spanish trying to communicate with the guy from the travel agency about numerous problems with the hotel. I think I was the go-to person when it came to urgent situations in Spanish, over the phone or in person. This was good, but very tiring and I am now through with bargaining and acting tough with people to make sure we are not ripped off! But, good practice!

So, I missed my volunteering this morning and will go this afternoon. I am now going to a cafe to have some cafe con leche y desayuno (breakfast), y voy a comer con CALMA!

Pictures of Tikal forthcoming. Breathtaking, you are right Michelle!

You will see links here. These are for the photos. Just click. 

This past weekend, Andrea and I and our host family “brothers” from Germany, Felix and Vicktor,  went to Lake Atitlan in the highlands of Guatemala. It was about 2 hours from our house and I was grateful to have some guys as traveling companions. This way we felt comfortable going places in the day and night. And plus, they are really fun.

We took a small shuttle bus that was packed to Atitlan. There were, including the driver, 16 people in the van and this road was full of curves that seemed almost like U-turns. The driving in Guatemala, needless to say, is quite different and a little more dangerous that we Americans are used to! But we made it there just fine, found a little hospidaje (hotel) to stay in, ate some pizza and played a german card game, Kames. Since getting to our homestay, the four of us have quite a few jokes now because we have shared so many new experiences. One is that Felix keeps on getting the same text message from his friend in Germany– a message about the European cup “I am getting my face paint on. I am so excited. Germany is the best club in the world!” He got it about ten times a day at first but now it has stopped. This is something that I guess you have to be there for to think funny.

 But about the Lake. It is beautiful, with a greenish blue colored water and hills and volcanoes surrounding it on all sides. During this part of the year, the rainy season, there are many clouds so it is not in all its glory, but the clouds give it a mystery that is also wonderful. This was so hard to capture in photos, in fact Andrea and I were saying that most of Guatemala is impossible to capture in photos, but I tried my best. Dad, if you are reading this, I believe that you would love this lake. It is your kind of place! See below for pictures of the lake.

Lago Atitlan, Lago 2

Two boys selling things to us at breakfast, El lago en el sol

We had a wonderful and big breakfast on the shore looking out over the lake and then headed out to the Reserva Natural Atitlan, a natural reserve with spider monkeys and hanging bridges and waterfalls. It reminded me of Costa Rica, which was a good memory. 

From the top of hill–reserva,      Suspended Bridges

Felix, me, Victor, and Andrea in front of the big waterfall

We then took a boat to a smaller town on the lake called San Pedro La Laguna. My guide book promised fire twirling which brought us there, but we did not find that. What we did find was a touristy place near the shore and further up the hill a very traditional Maya town with painting on the walls of sayings such as “Recuerda: Dios te ama” (remember: God loves you). Most of the people here spoke a Maya language as their mother tounge and learn Spanish is school. The young man who led us to the kayaks the next day said that is has clicks in the language. As we walked around the town, we heard singing coming from on the of the buildings–it was a beautiful harmony of all women´s voices singing a hynm in a 3/4 square–perfect harmony. I recorded a bit with my camera. Then it ended.

I went to the church service that morning at the catholic church–6am! I only stayed about 45 minutes, but it was special to be there. All of the women wore scarves that covered their heads–a special kind of scarf that I hadn´t seen yet. It was squares of white and other colors. I had my head covered too, but only with a bandana and a hoodie sweater. It was really nice to be there and to listen to the sermon. See below a picture of the church (the steamers are for a festival the town was having.)   La igelsia en San Pedro

I finally entered the 21st century; I broke down and bought a digital camera while I was here in Antigua. I left my desposible cameras at the security at Logan Airport. Stupid me!! But now I have a camera and I can share my photos with you all. This first batch of photos is of the little school (la escuelita) where I am working every morning. I was telling Andrea yesterday that it is difficult because everything has a small layer of dust on it, because the roof has some holes on the sides. So, I leave there every day dying to wash my hands, and when I do, the soap takes of a lot of grey! Selvin, el chico that is sitting in the far right of the first picture is a definite sweetheart who is every eager and well behaved. He is probably my favorite! Enjoy!

To see the pictures, just click on the links below.

Los Niños de Jesus, San Luisito

Bryan, Lester, and Nanci

The Patio where school takes place

La Camioneta, or Chicken Buses–”Pimp my bus!”

It feels like so many things have happened here, and I have been here only for about 10 days! But I think time is starting to pick up its pace. So about Ryan´s comment about the chicken buses, I actually have not seen any chickens yet. But the buses are packed with people! Today I got on one, and by the way, many of them emitt an ugly black smoke as they drive away, and it was full, three people in many of the seats. Older women and men all the way to babies, sometimes being breast fed while on the bus. And still the bus picked up more passengers. But this is not really about the chicken buses. This is about the open mike in a cafe in Antigua.

On Tuesday night, last week, some students went with a guide to a hangout spot called Rainbow cafe. I read that they have an open mike on Wednesday night, and I decided to go. So my host brothers, two from Germany and one from Guatemala, and Andrea and I went. I was a little nervous, but I sang three songs, the first being La Razon, the spanish/english song I wrote. It was really fun, and my host brothers from German, Felix and Vicktor, both made signs for me that said Corrie Rocks! It was very funny. At the end, I sang a couple more songs, one being a Ranchera (mexican cowboy music) that had some Guatemala muchachos laughing and predending to cry! It was great. Two times that asked for another song– Otra! Otra! This was really a blast and I will go again before I leave. But the random thing is that when we were at Lago Atitlan, in San Pedro La Laguna, there was an American guy who recognized me from singing that night–he reached across to shake my hand. Really strange! 

Buenas tardes desde San Pedro La Laguna! Right now, I am in a small town on the shores of a beautiful lake Lago Atitlan. More about the lake later, but first I want to write a little bit about my volunteering placement. I think I wrote a little bit about the project earlier, but I now know exactly what I will be doing…well, maybe not exactly, but I know where I am working, what times, and with what age group. I went to visit with Carmen, the director of the program, in her house, that acts as the office for the program. We decided on a working schedule and she suggested that in a little town called San Luisito there was a lot of need for a teacher to teach ages 3-6. Now, this age group is not the one that I would have chosen, but I wanted to work in the mornings, so I think it will be fine. I also will be teaching in the afternoons on Monday and Tuesday in Pastores, where Carmen lives. In the afternoon, I will teach English. I taught two days in San Luisito and there are photos of the school in my camera. I just can´t get them out right now. Next time, yes! The school is not official, but there are tables, chairs an out house (quite literally–I have to put water in the toilet after the children use the toilet because it does not flush) and limited supples of games, worksheets, paints and colored pencils. I will work with the children from 9-11:30 Monday through Friday. I don´t have time to write much more now, but I will include info on the character of the children later. Thanks for reading…oh! and On the way to San Luis, I take the (im)famous Guatemalan chicken buses! It feels like a rollar coaster! 

I arrived at the language school (the place that arranged my volunteer placement) at 7:30 am and waited until the new student orientation. Even thoughI am not taking classes, I have access to all of the programs and perks of the school, such as trips to local sites, evenings out, free coffe! and internet. I met with Jorge, the director of volunteer placements and he and I talk (mostly him!) about the placements and the orgnization that I will be working in. It is called “los niños de Jesus”  and is situated in a small town outside of Antigua called Pastores. Pastores is well-known in Guatemala for their leather work and especially cowboy boots! To make a long story short, I did not start today…only today was given information, asked questions, etc. Tomorrow, Jorge will meet me at a bus stop near my house (the direct bus is just a few blocks away from where I am staying) where there is a big tree. We will catch the bus together and go to the placement. I am very happy about this because it is challenging to figure out local buses without help from locals. I have tried it before and was not successful.

 Jorge showed me a website where there are photos of the project with volunteers who painted it this past January. There are many photos of volunteers but also of the children that I will be working with. In these photos you will see them painting and working on “una cancha” or a court where the children can play basketball or soccer. It is http://losninos.badoo.com/entry/149647. The organization has now three pieces of property: the house of the family who runs it, a room where the teaching and other activities take place and the court. They are trying to become an NGO but need $ to do that. Jorge and I will ask the students of the language school for donations.

Ok, before I bore you, something intersting. Omar, the son of my homestay family, I found out, really likes country music and he has two CDs of classic country–Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, etc. This is so interesting to me! It just goes to show how small the world is now. The family put on Ranchera music which is like mexican cowboy music full of drinking and lost loves… sounds a lot like country! So I am enjoying that part of the family as well. Signing off… I send my love!

Hello! We saw a very old, very beautiful convent today, that is basically ruins. There are so many churches, convents and monastries here in Antigua. But, a lot are in disrepair and are remains of churches that were in use prior to an earthquake that destroyed most of the city in 1773. It is pretty amazing. From the roof of the convent, there is a beautiful view of the mountains that surround the city. We saw volcan fuego and I could even see the red lava falling from the mountain even though it is quite a distance away. So, that is some of my day today. Have to go now. Oh, interesting…there is a plant here that has red leaves around its flower to protect the flower, to trick anyone or anything from harming the flower…the part of the plant that makes the fruit and seeds. Pretty facinating! As a science teacher, I found that very cool! Till next time…