Hola a todas. Yes I am behind as usual, but I thought I better get caught up seeing as how I only have 3 weeks left here! What I do is hand write or should I say roughly sketch out all of the things I have done in a journal so that I can remember and then write about it on my blog later. So right now I'm going to go start with the weekend of the 14th because that is the last thing I have written after my Santa Maria Volcano trip.
The biggest thing that I recall happening that weekend was that Jenna's sister visited. Jenna has three sisters all of whom attended St. Ben's. Beth is the one that came to visit, she attended the same Guatemala study abroad program four years ago, and then also came back to live here for 8 months after she graduated so she knows just a little bit about Xela! She stayed in a hostel in Xela with three of her friends. Jenna and I went out with them one night. It was so so much fun. Beth knows Xela really well and we went to some discotecas (places with loud salsa music) that we don't usually go to on a normal basis. Beth has remained in touch with a lot of Guatemalans and therefore it wasn't long before she was saying hi to a bunch of her old friends. Since I knew we would be getting back late from the discotecas I decided that it might be a good idea to stay in the hostel with Beth, Jenna, and Beth's friends. Luckily Beth invited me to stay so I didn't have to invite myself. All in all it was a really fun night.
Week of March 17th
Classes continue nothing really exciting happening there....on Monday night we had a group dinner with all 23 of us at Guisseppes which is an Italian restaurant close to school At dinner we talked about the upcoming trip to Lake Atitlan (it was going to be a short week because we left for Atitlan that Thursday) and tried to make some evaluations about our teachers and classes. On Tuesday after classes at the university I volunteered as usual but this time I helped the kids make a craft. Its getting harder and harder to come up with more ideas for them but sometimes they are already doing a craft with their teacher which I can help them with. On Wednesday morning instead of having classes at the university we took a field trip to the basuraro (the garbage dump of Xela). The purpose of the trip was for us to observe what extreme poverty in Guatemala was and to understand that some people live off the things they find in the dump either for food or by digging for recycable items and selling them but for very little money. It was a difficult experience. They burn the garbage and hence it was very hard to just even breathe as we were walking through the dump. We brought rice and beans as a donation to some of the people who live off the dump. At first we couldn't/didn't find/see anyone but then after about 20 minutes of walking we finally found some people. It was heart breaking to people especially young children digging for food in the dump. Now everytime I smell that same garbage smell of the basuraro when riding a bus or car I immediately think of the people living in the basuraro. Thursday morning we left on our last group excursion to Lake Atitlan.
Lake Atitlan
Thursday
-We arrived Panahachel in the afternoon and at lunch by the shore. Lake Atitlan is absolutely beautiful, its huge and is surrounded by volcanoes and there are many towns to visit around the lake.
-After eating we hit the market right away since it was supposed to be one of the best but I actually like the market in Mexico better. But don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean that I didn't buy things there ;)
-That night a large majority of the group ate Chinese food after a long day of shopping. Then I ended up heading back and chatted with my friend Steph before heading to bed.
Friday
-We woke up and had an amazing breakfast buffet at a five star hotel that was just right down the road from our hotel.
-After breakfast we took a boat to San Lucas Toliman where we visited a mission and got a tour from the leader of the mission and an inspirational leader of liberation theology: Father Greg. The mission actually has a good connection with St. Ben's/St. John's because it is one of the options for alternative spring break trips at our university so some of the students in our group had already visited the mission. Father Greg and the volunteers have done a lot with building a organic coffee plantation giving work and scholarship opportunities to men who promise to overcome their drug problems by working through the mission. There were so many other things that Father Greg has done with the mission but I don't have enough time to explain them all.
-Afterwards we took a boat ride back to Panahachel relaxed and I went swimming in the lake which was just a little chilly and there were a ton of weeds on the shore where 4 of us went swimming, but it was still fun. We met a young boy named Thomas and built sand aligators with him. We ate dinner at a pizza place with our friend Shannon's (from our group) mom who had come to visit her. We all had dessert afterwards and then took a Tuk tuk back to our hotel. A tuk tuk is an awesome three wheel tiny cab with barely enough room for three people in the back, they are so much fun!
Saturday
-We had another good breakfast brunch at Porta hotel.
-Then we packed up all of our stuff and brought it with us on the boat.
-Our first visit was going to be Santiago. We got the chance to tan a little bit on the boat and then we only visited the small town of Santiago for a couple hours. We mainly just shopped around for awhile. Then we took the boat to our final stop of San Marcos. We unpacked into our new hotel which was really cute with little cabins. Overall the town of San Marcos was kind of dead at night and there wasn't much to do but we found some fun things to do during the day. Jenna, Brianna, Nicole and I went kakaying...we didn't get very far haha but it was really fun regardless. A lot of the group ate dinner at the hotel that night because there really weren't many more options in town. The hotel owners were a nice young couple who chatted with us during dinner and invited us to play volleyball that next morning.
Sunday
-About ten of us played volleyball in the front yard of the owners cabin. I believe I forgot to mention that both of the hotels we stayed at were right on the lake. Anywhoo after volleyball I went kayaking again but this time with my friend Matt. It was easier the second time around and Matt and I actually made it down part of the coast.
-After kayaking we ordered lunch at the hotel but had to eat it super quick because it didn't arrive until right before we were supposed to be meeting our director at the bus to go back to Xela. Our director wasn't too happy...ooops.
Weekend of March 20th
I don't have anything written about the week of March 20th except for the fact that it started off a little rough with homework and homesickness...But the weekend of the 20th a large portion of the group decided to travel to Tulate beach! We took the all too famous chicken buses to go to Tulate which I believe I have explained before. We stayed in a cheap ghetto hotel but the best part of it (some people described the only part of the hotel) was that it had a pretty nice pool and a water slide! After we arrived we went to the beach right away. We tanned and played soccer with some locals on the beach. Most of the group that went to Tulate ate together on Friday but we had a late dinner. The food took so long that a large majority of the table was a little bit tipsy before the food arrived. After dinner I walked to the beach to see some of the most amazing stars I have seen in awhile. The night was really clear. Saturday felt a lot warmer because we woke up earlier. I got a lot more time at the beach and spent some good time catching the waves and swimming in the ocean. After getting worn out by the sand we headed back and hung out around the pool. Then I ate dinner with some other people in my group (Anna, Markie, and two Johnnie alums that had come to re-visit Guatemala who had studied abroad in Jenna's sisters group four years ago), afterwards we walked to the beach to see the beautiful sunset. Friday night I saw the sunset was well but I thought that the prettier of the two was Saturday. I will probably be framing some of the pictures of the sunset I took that night :) Sunday Jenna and I headed back earlier than the rest of the group because we wanted to go to a pool party that some of the guys from the salsa place that we go to were throwing. We got a little lost at first but we finally arrived at the right pool after stopping at the wrong one first! Unforunately it wasn't sunny at all for the pool party like it had been on the beach but there was a smal cover charge of about 8 bucks for tacos and a swim in the heated pool. After the pool party we made it back just in time for Carolina's birthday party (the director's daughter), which we celebrated at Celas. What a lucky 3 year old to be celebrating her birthday with a bunch of college students haha. Brought me back to my childhood. We played musical chairs, pin the tail on the cat, and of course there was a pinata too! Wow that seems like forever ago....we are getting closer to April :)
Alright well the next thing I have written in my journal is spring break....but I need to figure out a couple things that were in between there before I write about spring break. Also, after I write about spring break it might be my last entry until I arrive back at home since these last three weeks in Xela will be very stressful. But I do my best to try and write one or two more times. Love to all, I can not wait to be home in 3 weeks!
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