Jess and Stacey’s Travels

Yeah-Lava!-click on photo for more pictures

Housekeeping Note:  If you click on the pictures and they first appear blurry, wait a bit, and they should adjust to be clear.  Or else, just select slideshow option and captions will appear with the pictures.

After three weeks based in Xela, we have packed up and moved on to Antigua.  The three weeks were fun and event-filled.   We went to jail, warmed our toes by some lava, and enjoyed a swing from the tree tops….but more on that below.  More importantly, we improved our Spanish at ICA, our school which was a great school.  We met many really nice people – students, teachers, and homestay families.   The school arranged many activities for the students everyday after classes and also on weekends.   Some of the more notable activities were:

• We visited a woman’s jail the day after Mother’s Day to bring them Mother’s Day gifts, dance and have cake with   them.   The women in this jail are from towns outside of Xela and do not have people coming to visit them.  They are all being held while their cases are being investigated which sometimes takes up to two years. [read on]

Xela-click for more photos

We are in Quezaltenango, Guatemala now, commonly referred to as Xela.  It is a big town in the mountains on the ‘Gringo trail’.  It is much, much cooler here.  I bought another sweater to wear here and broke out the blue fleece again.  We were told that Xela is at about 8,500ft altitude. It took us 4 hours by bus to get here from Guatemala city.  It was a winding road through the moutains of Guat.  I wouldn’t want to do it with stomach issues.  We met two other women from Washington also going to Xela.  They are also going to the same Spanish school, ICA, as we are.  We also moved in with our new family, the Lopez’s- Mario and Monica (parents), Javiar (15), Daniel (10), Alejandra (7).  They seem to be a really nice family in a nice house about a 20 minute walk from the school.  There is also another American woman, Helen, living here.  She has lived with the family for 7 years and works as a special ed teacher.  We don’t see much of her.  The family just built this house about 4 years ago.

The woman, Gilda Arroyo, that we stayed with in Guatemala city had told Jess and I that women are expected to do most everything in this society.  Gilda was frustrated at times because although she is a single mom with 2 teenage daughters and her own bed and breakfast business, her mom still expects her to wait on her brothers when they come to her [read on]