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Jan. 15/16 – Guatemala

Saturday, January 21st, 2006

Day 167/168 – Woke up ready to get some writing and website work down, but to our dismay the whole city lost electricity. The power was nonexistent until the evening, so we spent the day wandering the city more and drinking coffee.

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ummmm.. coffee.


view from the cafe above Parque Centro America

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more pics of Parque Centro America

Monday, our first day of school!! We dressed in our best clothes and put on our backpacks to meet our new teachers and classmates. Okay, not really – we put on what was left of our non-dirty clothes, picked up our notebooks, and walked to school. The school has a very nice courtyard, rooms for focusing on studies, and a quaint kitchen where the bread, coffee, and tea are for break. In the middle of each morning we take a half hour break to consume the delicious treats and talk with all the teachers and students. The lessons are one on one and can be prepared according to each students motivation to learn. We both learned more on the past and present verb tenses, and I learned more vocabulary and general conversation. Jason learned more economic and social based conversation. On our second to last day, Jason’s teacher suggested we have a small group discussion on the social and economic situations in Guatemala. That was a very interesting and great discussion. INEPAS is located on 15a Ave 4-59 & 5 calle – t. 765.1308 www.inepas.org


Our host family!! They are wonderful! lft to rt: Ana Maria, David, Juan, Ana Maria, April, & Jason πŸ™‚

Today we also met our host family that we will stay with for the whole week. Their house is only 20 feet away from the school, so it is an easy walk for us. πŸ™‚ Ana Maria and Juan (aka Paco), the parents, along with their daughter Ana Maria (aka Ana) and her son David all live in the house. Also, Rosa lives in the home. She is a university student from the north of Guatemala and rents out a room from Ana Maria and Juan while she attends school. Senora Ana Maria Gutierrez de Fuentes is always welcoming guests to stay in the apartments while they are in Xela. Her address is 5a calle 14A-30, right near INEPAS, t. 7763.0237. Recommended.

Our luck with Xela’s utilities has not been too good. We found out this evening that the water in the city will be shut off for three days, starting tomorrow, while the water system is being worked on. The city was granted money by Japan to update their water system, but they had a strict deadline to complete it. We were also told that the water availability has been a problem all year. We took our last shower for a few days and hope all goes well with the work.

Jan. 14 – Guatemala

Saturday, January 21st, 2006

Day 166 – INEPAS invited us to attend their Saturday school event, which was a hike up to Laguna Chicabal. We gladly joined for the chance to be surrounded by nature and to experience the land outside of the city. We took a collectivo, which is a van that has three rows of seats, two fold down seats off the sliding door side, and a row of seats facing the back, behind the driver seat. To make as much money as they can they cram as many people as will fit inside and outside. I think we had up to 23 people once. A very efficient system! The hike was steep, but worth it because of the views of the valley and towns below.

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The laguna is a protected natural area and also a sacred area for the Mayans. They come to the laguna to hold rituals and place lilies and crosses (influence from the Catholics) along the waters edge.


lunch time and resting


Jason and one of the many people we met on the hike