Last post

I have had alot of fun watching the soccer games at various venues during the last few weeks. Most notably the 'fan park' where they have set up a huge screen TV and every crams onto the hill so close that during the Argentina games sitting down is definately impossible, it is free to the public and there is always lots of public there. Usually the aroma of tabacco smoke, human bodies, and marijuana smoke makes for an interesting time but the passion and constant jumping and cheering make it worth it!

The other night we also all went out for karaoke for a Birthday. It was my first time karaoking and was alot of fun.

This is my last post as such I would like to thank you all for all the help and support that made my whole trip possible. I look forward to sharing more stories than I have elaborated here with you.

This last few weeks consisted of final projects/exams and the world cup. Now that I have finished all my classes my days pretty much focus around great soccer games with passionate crowds. I am happy to report that as of now it looks like I have passed all my classes and actually done quite well.

As I continue the process of saying goodbye to people that I have met over the last 4 months here I am excited to see my loved ones in the States but I will miss Argentina.

A special shout out to Jordon, who after 6 months of travelling has shown himself to be a great friend. He was there to make fun times funner and during the hard times too.

Uruguay, Iguazu, and happy 200th birthday Argentina

So alot of things have happened in the considerable amount of time since my last post! This past couple weeks i have had a series of tests and papers and now that I have a slight break in the work load I am excited to let you all know a few of the things that have been going on.

A few weeks ago dad got to visit! He was working on World Concern projects in Bolivia. It was great to see him and hear abotu how the family is doing. I also enjoyed getting to show dad around all the places I have been exploring in Buenos Aires. I stayed in a hotel with him which was great to get out of the dorm for a few nights. That saturday we took a boat across the Rio de la Plata to Uruguay. It was cool to visit another country and it was great to be in a little town like Colonia. We spent the day looking at the Portugeuse ruins and even saw a giant bullfighting ring (a note here, the bullfighting stadium was opened in 1912 but closed in 1914 when bullfighting was made illegal in Uruguay, in it's whole 2 year history there were only 6 fights). Another highlight of dad's visit was going to a great steak restaurant. Argentina is famous for its steaks and this restaurant is famous for being one of the best steaks in Buenos Aires, I am assuredly not an expert on steaks but it was definately delicious! In addition both Jordon and I enjoyed getting giant jars of peanut butter, it was fun sharing it with our Argentinian friends who had never had peanut butter before.

The next weekend I went with a great group of other international students to Iguazu Falls. It was a 18 hour bus ride, but overnight so i was able to sleep pretty well. We stayed at a hostel which was fun because we met people from all over the world and cooked our own spaghetti dinner. The falls were absolutely incredible, they are spread out in several sections and absolutely magnificent. They are currently being considered as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. We got a boat that took us close to the falls and got soaked by the mist.

After we got back from the falls (literally hours after getting off the bus) we went to the soccer game, Argentina vs. Canada. It was super fun to watch and send the team of to South Africa! Speaking of I am very excited abotu the world cup starting in a couple days and I am definately not alone here. Argentina has a strong history in soccer, having won teh world cup twice. Right now their team is under the leadership of their coach Maradona, the legendary soccer star. It seems like every commercial on the TV has to do with the world cup and every shop is selling everything in the colors of the Argentinian flag.

That weekend was also the bicentenial of Argentina. All weekend there were huge events centered around the giant avenida 9 de Julio. We went on Tuesday which was the last day of the festivities. Getting there was an adventure in the subways (which were free for the day, waving the 25 cent fee) I was literally jammed into a subway car unable to move, getting became obligatory as I was pressed by the crowds from behind until i was in the subway. Once I got to the site fo the fesitivities I could barely move in the crowds as I worked my way through exhibits from various provinces, concerts, and food vendors. That night was the spectacular parade, which outlined the history of Argentina in various acts. It was great to take part in Argentina's 200th birthday.

"Saludes desde Argentina" My roommate, Walter, wanted to say hello to everyone!

things to include in next post

Dad is coming to visit me tomorrow! I figured I better do another blog before he gets here before he gets here and we do all sorts of other fun things for me to write about!

Since our dorm doesn't have a kitchen for us to use i often end up getting comida rapida, but pictured here are all the ingredients for guacamole sandwiches that i made. They were delicious and it was nice to prepare my own food. Next year I will be living in a house with some of classmates at Whitworth and I look forward to having a place to prepare food for myself.

In Argentina their are a number of soccer teams, but the largest rivalry by far is between River Plate and Boca Juniors. A few weeks ago Jordon and I went to a Boca Juniors game (vs. another team called San Lorenzo), which was great! We were sitting in El Popular AKA the cheap seats and it was very exciting watching Boca win 2 to 0. The stadium was bursting with passionate fans chanting and jumping and flags waving all over. One particularly large sign was draped across a section of fans and read "no hicimos amistades" "we don't make friends" which was a good summary of the policy concerning the opposing fans. Our section was directly below the fan section for the opposing fans, in addition to very crude shouting matches this also meant that throughout the match i was obliged to wear my rain jacket because the fans from the other team were almost continually spitting on our section.

Another picture is of a very pretty park (with the bridge) i went running at in Palermo last weekend. Palermo is a very nice part of town and the park is extremely runner friendly. There is a sort of track that runs around it and on the weekends all the roads around the park are also closed. Also the park is exactly 1 mile in circumference so it was easy to track my progress. There are also a number of plazas and parks a little closer to my dorm which aren't quite as nice but i have enjoyed playing soccer and even rugby at with my friends from the dorm.

The picture of me and Batman was taken at the annual Buenos Aires book fair. This was a huge event that Jordon and I went to. It definitely lives up to its name as there were ALOT of books in a huge building. It was apparently extra large this year for the bicentennial of Argentina's independence which is being celebrated all year.

Happy Mother's day mom!

Activities around Buenos Aires

Hi everyone! It has been awhile since I last wrote, oops! What have I been up to? Alot of reading for my classes! A blog about my long reading assignments would be very educational, all about the rise and fall of Rome, the history of Argentina, and proper uses of various spanish verb forms, however, this post will neglect these topics and instead focus on various other activities.

A little awhile ago I went site seeing with a few other international students and some tourism majors (tourism is a major here, i figured they were probably the best people to go site seeing in the city with!). We visited various neighborhoods like the famous Caminato in the working class Boca neighborhood. All the colorful buildings and vibrant tango culture was fun to walk through. We also visited the stadium of Boca Juniors where Argentinean soccer legend (and current, not-so-great coach) Maradona played, hence the picture of me next to his statue in the teams museum. The day also included a trip to the wealthy, waterfront Puerto Madero and an antiques market in the old San Telmo.

Yesterday afternoon I went to a nearby park. The park is always full with students from a nearby medical school and people hustling in and out of the busy subway station. I walk by on my way back from a few of my classes and always notice the tables set up where people play chess, yesterday afternoon I just couldn't resist the urge to play a pick up game. After waiting for awhile for a spot to open up I finally got a chance to play a game. While I lost it was a fun experience, good memories and fun to play in a park.

Last week there was an international film festival here in Buenos Aires. I went with some friends to a film called "Don't Let me Drown" about innercity teenagers in the weeks following 9/11. I enjoyed it and since it was only a couple of dollars definately worth it.

Also my second roommate got here a few weeks ago! He is also from Argentina and is studying to be a hair stylist. He is a fun guy and free haircuts!

A short exploration of my diet here: My meals consist mainly of the cheap spots within two blocks of the dorm. Salami sandwhiches from the kiosk, empanadas (little pouches with meat or cheese inside) from the pizza place, chinese food, super panchos (hot dogs), or sausage sandwhiches from the parrilla (big grill). I have also been eating ALOT of mandarins since right now they are just over a dollar for 3 kilos (about 15 mandarins)!

important note: I am very excited for the world cup (El Mundial) and have already marked dates and times of games that i want to watch in my planner.

More dias buenos in Buenos Aires

This first picture is of the house of Sarmiento, a past president of Argentina. It has been encased in this glass box to prevent it from decaying. Anyway we saw the house from a boat tour that we took from the river town of Tigre which I visited over the long weekend. It was a nice little town with an amusment park (whcih we didnt go to) and a large market (which we did go to).

The second picture is of the very large cemetery located near our dorm. It has the graves of many famous Argentinians, including Eva Peron and Sarmiento. The graves are all enclosed by a large brick wall and are extremely ornate. They come in sizes from the ones shown here to giant sculptures and huge monuments. It was interesting to see. I chose this picture to talk about the cemetery becasue you can see the houes of living poeple in the background. After going to this cemetery we went to a market that was located in a park which was fun. There were bands playing, people dancing the tango, and people doing sort of acrobatics in the lawn.

March 25th was a national holiday and my friends and I decided that we wanted to partake in some festivities. We took a bus over to Plaza de Mayo where we heard some activities would be occurring. I knew they were going to be political activities but I was not prepared for the passionate speeches (during the ones that fervently denounced the US we were especially careful not to speak english to each other) and huge number of people. The picture here is of one part of the crowd, you can see some of the flags waving and smoke from something. It was interesting and exciting to see people so passionately involved. The plaza area was packed but more people were pouring in from the streets in groups that denoted the organziation they were with (Argentinian socialist part, mothers of the plaza de mayo movement etc...). In the crowd snack vendors worked there way around. There was a very defined police line. Che Gueverra (the Socialist revolutionary who was born in Argentina) was a prominent figure in banners and flags along with Tupac Amaru II (an Incan leader who lead a revolution against the Spanish). I had heard that these rallies were not all that uncommon here (and been told by the US embassy security lady not to go), it was good to see people so passionately involved, but also a reminder of the political realities and past of Argentina.

Some pictures for the last post

So here are some pictures of the things I was talking about in my last post. The one with the pink (presidential building) in the background is a picture of the marching mothers. I also included a picture of the kosher Mcdonalds in our negihborhood as well as a big mall (which used to be a market place) near my dorm.

Buenos Aires

If you are reading this and there are still no pictures you should still read it but also check again later because I have every intention of adding pictures to this post.

After just over a week in Buenos Aires I believe I am really starting to like it. Not to say I didn´t before but in such a large city at least understanding where I am in relation to a few points counts alot to me. It is exciting to be in a place for more than a few weeks, I will be studying at a university here for four months and therefore have been able to unpack my suitcases for the first time in awhile! I don´t know where to start, although I have only been here for just over a week it feels like much more time has passed.

I guess I will start with where I live. Buenos Aires is big, by most measures at least in the top 20 biggest cities in the world. I live close to the Microcentro, around me are a number of plazas, old buildings, and large avenidas. More specifically my neigborhood has a large jewish population (hence the KOSHER Mcdonalds which i will hopefully post a picture of!), with alot of people wearing the orthodox outfit. I live in a dorm like building with 10 floors. There are alot of international students in the dorm but also local students. There are typically 3 beds to a room (my two roommates have not arrived yet but they are Argentinian and I am excited to meet them). The students here are not all from my university but go to 4 or 5 different universities in this area. The dorm rules are pretty strict as far as alcohol, visitation, and noise but i guess i will say people dont follow the rules very well given that my floor frequently smells like weed.

I am attending Universidad del Salvador. It is not a campus proper but rather a collection of buildings in like a 20 block radius that the university owns. Most buildings are 12 to 18 blocks from my dorm, i guess I am saying that it is pretty spread out. The student body at the university is bigger than Whitworth at 16,000 but it is divided into different schools and the different majors really dont interact at all. Most of my classes will be in the International Relations and Political Science building. I had my first class today! (some classes dont start until next week but others start this week, the whole registration process is different). I will be taking 5 classes, 2 or 3 (depending on a scheduling issue) with the general student body and the others with other international students (of course all classes are conducted in Spanish).

What I have been up to- Other than trying to work my way through the Argentinian burearcracy to get my student Visa I have enjoyed exploring little pieces of Buenos Aires with new friends. Crafts fairs and pretty plazas. We watched Las Madres de Plaza Mayo, who still March around the Plaza Mayo near the presidential building (which is famous because Madonna playing Evita Peron waves from it and sings in that movie). The mothers are part of an organziation protesting the disappearance of their children during the ´dirty war´of the late 1970´s in Argentina (the government says 9,000 people disappeared but the mothers say 30,000). During the dirty war the government made leftists and leftist sympathizers disappear. It is very touching as the slowly walk around the plaza carrying pictures of their children and reading their names outloud.

I guess that is a little taste of where I am, what I am studying and what I am seeing. Hope to keep you updated!

CHOQUEQUIRAO

On the third day of hiking we were descending into the valley. The day before we had visited Choquequirao, the ruins of an ancient Incan city high in the Andes mountains. I was hiking along in a good rhythm of descent, we were approaching the loud river at the bottom of the valley. Due to the roar of the river and the fact i was singing Aladin"s "A Whole New World" to myself I did not hear the large rocks crashing down the mountainside towards me, but i did hear the guide running down the trail yelling at me "corre! corre!" (run! run!). I was naturally obedient and began running, at this point i did hear the crashes of rocks. "A la pared!" (to the wall!), the guide yelled, so i threw myself against the side of the mountain bordering the trail (the idea here being that the rocks would pass over you if you were against the wall the rocks would pass over you), in doing this i sliced my hand on the rocks. It was a close call, but other than my hand the guide and I were fine. Jordon had been farther ahead on the trail and witnessed the whole thing and had to things to say. First that a very large rock had come very close to hitting me and that it had crashed down the hill where I had been and second that I looked really funny when I ran (given that i was running for my life I thought this was a strange observation). My hand was also taken care of very well and it was really a minor injury. There were two Spanish medical school students hiking with us who gave it the best care I have ever received for a cut.

In all the 4 day hike was challenging (given the altitude and constant steep hill up or down) but extremely interesting. The ruins we visited were very impressive (we were not able to go to Macchu PIchu because of the flooding last month), this ruins had unique things and experiences that Macchu PIcchu wouldn"t have given us. For example these ruins can only be reached by hiking whereas Macchu Pichu has a train running to it, for this reason they are also much less crowded. These ruins are 5 times bigger but only one third of the ruins are uncovered. The ruins were very interesting with incredible terraces. The hike was also breathtaking and very enjoyable but challenging.

Tomorrow we begin our trip to Buenos Aires where we will begin international student orientation at La Universidad del Salvador.

Last days in Honduras

We will be flying out Monday morning from the capital of Honduras, Tegucigapla. We will go there by bus Saturday or Sunday.

The picture of Jordon and I with coconuts is from the coast which we visited this last weekend. It is great being able to go anywhere by bus very cheaply. It was great to explore another little city and it was also nice becuase we stayed with a couple that our host paretns know. The one downside to the trip was that I didn't apply sunscreen regularly enough and am still suffereing the consequences! On the coast many of the people are from another people group, Garfunas with much darker skin and most speak another language which apparently is more related to English than Spanish (not that I could understand it). We had the chance to talk to a few people in Tela (the coastal city) and it was nice to hear about the goings-on in that community. (For example oen guy we talked to kept talking abotu this one guy who never showers and everyone avoids.)

The second picture is me with a group of children from a school i volunteered at today. It is an after school program for low income students. Jordon cut some of the boys hair while I played games and generally entertained different groups, I also helped some with their homework.

Vultures on tin roofs

Last night and the night before there have been these banging sounds on our roof at random hours, reallly loud. It is a tin roof so rain makes alot of nose but these were thuds, hardly the pitter patter of rain. Finally this morning i realized that it is vultures. When a dog dies around here the vultures set in and a dog died near our house a few days ago and vultures were landing on our roof en route to the carcass, which by the way smells bad rotting outside our house.

It is weird at the beginning of this internship I felt like it would be forever (5 weeks! I thought what an interminably long period of time) but with less than 1 week left it seems like there is not much time remaining at all. After only 4 weeks i can feel connected to a place, when I go out and about it is not uncommon to see someone from work or church excited to see me and say hi (after all I am not hard to spot in a crowd). With most of the internship done I feel as though I will be actually a little sad to move on with our travels, at the smae time excited to move on to new adventures and will be gratefull to settle down in Argentina for 4 months and not have to think about moving about.

Today at lunch I went to the corner little store to buy hot sauce cause my food didn't taste right without it. I also talked to this new lady at work who was telling me how she had been laid off from her bank job and how (even with her family here) if she hadn't not gotten this job she was going to go to the US to enter illegally. It feels like every single person i talk to has a relative in the US (someone told me that while talking to a class they asked how many people had relatives in the US and eveyr child rose their hand).

Third week in Honduras

Good morning! It is Saturday morning and we have just finished our third week in Honduras. As far as the internship goes we are assembling a report regarding the donations Proyecto Aldea Global has received and where different medical materials have gone. Practically at this time it means typing up lists of items and quantities. It feels good to be assigned a report to complete and not just data entry (even though the actual work is similar).

Yesterday Jordon and I went to the town Minas de Oro with our coworkers bcause they had to do some interviews there for potentional employees. We got up at 4:30 AM! It was about a four hour drive away mainly on pretty rough dirt roads, which made sleeping in the car impossible. Good to see another little town. we didn't really help with the interviews they kinda just said "go explore and come back for lunch" so that was cool. I talked to a teacher in town who thoguht I was with the Peace Corps (Cuerpo de Paz) that made me happy but I told him i was with Aldea Global and we talked for a bit. The only disappointing part was that although the town name means "Gold mines" i did not find any gold there, I did not even see any gold mines because it turns out the closest mines are 2 hours away. The pictures here are both from Minas de Oro. The one with the sign is me with a sign describing a water project that Aldea Global does, it was exciting for me because that is one of the projects I have entered lots of data and forms about in the office, it is good to be reminded that our work is going towards a good cause. the second picture is from a hill that Jordon and I hiked up by Minas de Oro and I went ahead and took a picture of the town, as you can see no gold mines in sight!

When we got back there was this family at our house (they are staying with our host family for a little, i think something happened to their dad or something?) Anyway they have the cutest little daughter who i became very good friends with and everyone thoguht it was pretty funny as we played catch and kitchen etc... She was pretty nice and didn't seem that concerned that my Spanish was a little different! After that we went to dinner last night with the church youth group (or 10 or so other young people from the church...i don't know if it was an 'event' or just something we got invited to) it was fun but i was tired from getting up so early and that makes it hard to speak spanish but i did alright. It is always nice to interact with people similar in age in Spanish.

Thank you all for your support and messages!

Copan Ruinas

This weekend Jordon and I took a series of buses to Copan Ruins. The ruins of an ancient Mayan city. Our weekend was very fun and tiring. We explored the ruins, went horseback riding, and ziplining. It was incredible to see such a large area of an civilization that no longer exists. The temples were impressive but Copan is best known for its 'ball court' where a 'game' was played with a ball and usually ended with at least one player being sacrificed. Which brings up another interesting thing, alot of the archeticture was in altars for sacrifice with places for blood to drain out and other such pleasantries.

Here is a video of me zipling, it was filmed by our guide on one of the 15 ziplines. It was pretty exciting and also cool to look out while ziplining and see Mayan ruins (not in this video).

Second Week of Internship

Last weekend our plans to go to the national park with our coworkers were changed and we ended up going with Devin and Mario (from work) to another town close by. We left Saturday morning and met up with our friends and after running a few errands caught a bus over some hills for a couple hours. We visited Paola (a lady we work with) who served as lunch (Jordon, Mario, and Devin are pictured having lunch here), I 'helped' make tortillas with her. My tortillas were not always shaped in the perfect circles like hers but it was fun. After that we went with our coworkers to a pool/river and went swimming. I share this story because it was definately a highlight to go out and spend time with friends. It was great because Mario and Devin are studying in a beginning English class so we were able to help each other with language things (although we communicate in Spanish). We returned in the back of a pick up truck (similar to the picture i put up, this is probably the most common form of transportation we use... other than walking. It is legal here but only for four people in the back of the pick up.). After we got back to Siguatepeque we went to a burger place called 'Queen Burger' and ate probably the biggest burger of my life with two giant patties, double cheese, and fried eggs all in these giant buns. Devin had wanted us to try this place and it was definately worth it. At about $3.50 it was a more expensive dinner but they justified it because the burgers are just so huge. Hanging out with Mario and Devin made me more excited for Argentina because I realized that it is fun to spend time with peers and do things they like even if there is a language barrer. Sunday we went to a beautiful lake with our host parents, it was relaxing and refreshing.

Work this week has been similar to last week with alot of data entry. Basically the field officers collect data on the health of communities, sell medecines, and conduct prenatal seminars. In doing all these things they fill out various forms, which we input into the computer after they turn them in.

Last night we went to a prayer service at the house of a family from our hosts church. There are these meetings every Tuesday, it was good to chat with people and I look forward to getting to know people in this community more.

two stories I forgot

There are two stories I wanted to write about in my last post yesterday but forgot:
1- Yesterday after work while we were walking back I bought a little baggy full of coconut milk and coconut meat for less than 50 cents. It was delicious and extremely refreshing. I bought it off the side of the street and just poked a hole in the bag to suck out the agua de coco.
2- Two days ago Jordon and I got back to our host house and unlocked the door to the house (no one was home) and the loudest craziest alarm ever started going off. We just stood there not knowing what to do. After what felt like awhile our neighbor came over to turn off the alarm. After she had put a stop to the siren she introduced herself and asked our names in extremely fluent English. She was Honduran and I had assumed she would greet us in Spanish so for a wonderful split second I thought that she was speaking Spanish and I had become completely fluent because I understood her so easily.

Internship

As I said in my last post we have arrived here in Siguatepeque in Honduras. We are staying with a couple from Argentina in a very nice house. We have worked three days at the internship and I am starting to get a feel for the rhythm of the days. The first day was probably the most exciting because after an orientation and getting a computer station set up (we had to get a really old computer from the attic out of a 'graveyard' of computers and it took hours to find a combination of keyboard, monitor, and computer that worked) we went, in the afternoon, to a small town about an hour out of town for a ceremony. One of these pictures is of the car we were in as it fjords a river on the way to the town. The other picture is of the crowd that had gathered to watch the new mayor be inaugurated. When we got there I didn't really know what was going on and we were just standing in the crowd when all the sudden i heard them announce their thanks for Proyecto Aldea Global (our organization) and we were ushered to these special seats in the front. All in all it was interesting to watch the ceremony and in teh end I understood that the reason we were there was because Aldea Global was receiving an award from the town for their help in development.

The last two days of the internship we have been putting numbers into excel worksheets, which is mundane but at the same time valuable experience to understand office work. Basically we are working with the health and disease prevention part of the organization and therefore the data we are inputing deals mainly with health statistics of the various communities and medecines that were distributed. Another thing I enjoy about the office is the people we work with, it is good to practice spanish and fun to just get to know people. A few of the younger guys have invited us to go hiking in a national park with them this Saturday so I am looking forward to that.

We have arrived safely in Siguatepeque. It has been a long few days of travel. Friday morning we seperated from the group and stayed at a house in Guatemala City that was very nice. The seperation went well except a small miscommuncation about the time we were supposed to be picked up at the airport but after waiting awhile I was able to use the phone number for the language school to get that sorted out. Our bus for Tegucigalpa (honduras) left at 530 in the morning and arrived in Tegucigalpa at 6pm (with an hour stop in El Salvador) this was uneventful and the borders were fine. When we arrived in Tegucigalpa it was immediately apparent that the city is more dangerous than those in guatemala, but we were fine and got a taxi with a friend we made during the bus ride (Danielle she is from Spokane and volunteering with another organziation). The hotel that had been recommended to us was in a pretty sketch part of town so we just got a room at the same hotel she was going to. this worked out great cause then we went out with the other volunteers from her group (all 5 of them are a few years out of college) and watched the US vs.. Honduras soccer game (US lost 3 - 1 whcih is probably for the best given that there was some hostility in the restaurant we were watching it at).
This morning we bused to Siguatepeque from Tegucigalpa and are now staying at a very nice place here (the director of the scripture unions house). Tomorrow morning we are going to Aldea Global at 7am to start our internship!

This town is a very different and smaller town feel than the other places we have stayed (but apparently it is bigger and more modern than it was even a few years ago). We had lunch at the church of our host parents, which was very nice since we had not eaten since yesterday.

End of langauge school and time in Antigua

Tomorrow Jordon and I seperate from the group as they fly back to the States tomorrow morning. We will be busing to Honduras early Saturday morning. The time here in Guatemala has gone so fast and I am excited for the next leg of our journey. So many great memories and activities since my last blog but I will just focus on what comes to mind here.

We are staying at a retreat center in Antigua for the last couple nights in Guatemala with the group. It is nice to have a change of scenery, but Antigua is much more touristy than Xela. Things here are also more expensive, it didn't take long for me to get used to getting full meals at nice restaurants for the equivalent of a few dollars (which is much harder to come by here). It was sad to say goodbye to my host family and teacher in Xela, it is incredible I quickly i became accustomed to life there. Starting the trip with the group has been great, not only has it built on my spanish skills but having this first leg me fairly structured with activities and a good group dynamic has been invaluable.

These pictures are of the last days in Xela. The first one is of some political grafitti that means "Justice: not just for capitalist," I probably have half a dozen pictures of grafitti from Xela, for the most part it is political messages that for some reason I find very interesting.

the second picture was taken after we played soccer with a group of guys we 'challenged' to a game at a futbol field in Xela (we lost 5 to 7). It was by far the most fun soccer game I have played here and Jordon scored! The game pictured here is with a group of young guys we just encountered. Before that game we had played with an organization that helps children who are street vendors as a group. That was fun and it was incredible for me to be juked and beaten by very small children.

The final picture is of Jordon and I on top of La Muela, which is a hill near Xela. We had a free afternoon and trekked up there with Courtney. It was gorgeous and there was some pretty fun scrambling up rocks to reach the peak. In the background is Xela.

Some pictures!

So here as some pictures! I guess if I spent more time I could probably get it so that my words would go with the corresponding picture but as it is I will just give a short description of each picture. Most of these correspond to the things I talked about in my last blog. Also they are not chronological at all.

This first picture is me at the hot springs... It was very warm especially by the rock wall I am at and extremely relaxing.

The second picture is of a Mayan ceremony that we just had demonstrated for us. It was interesting to hear about the beliefs of the Maya and everything. We also go to help lay out all of the things in this circle (they had to be laid out counter clockwise). The man conducting it was dressed in western clothing and is a part of these traditions. he has been charged with educating other people about Mayan beliefs. It was interesting to hear about the emphasis they place on taking care of the earth and the balance between humanity and the environment. Everything we placed in the circle is significant of various parts of nature or various ´protections´against ills. It is also all very flammable whcih made for an exciting finale to the presenation. Also GOOD NEWS the world may not be ending in 2012! but Dec. 2012 is an extremely significant time in the Mayan calendar. Apparently the Mayan calendar is in cycles and the one ending in 2012 is the longest one (the long count) at over 5000 years. Whenever a count ends there is a significant change in the world, which he says is a great danger but also oppurtunity.

There is also a picture of my teacher and I at the zoo. He is super funny and always joking with everyone, especially the ladies, at the language school. This day we took a field trip with another student, teacher pair for the second half of our class.

The next picture is of the church we visited in San Diego near Lake Atitlan. It is interesting because during the long civil war here in Guatemala (whcih lasted from 1960 to 1996) many bodies were thrown in the lake. Also the pastor of this church was killed by government troops inside of the church. Politics here are very interesting and I am glad I did the report last year on the role of the CIA and United Fruit Company in the coup in 1954, but in reality that is only the beginning of US involvement in Guatemala including the supporting of the repressive government before and during the civil war.

Current politics are also interesting. Just today all the newspapers in this city were sold out because everyone wanted to know about this investigation that was just completed. Anyway my host brother told me all about it (in spanish) so more or less this complicated tale boils down to this: about 8 months ago a troubled man from the upper class (the upper and middle classes here do not all like the current president because he has increased taxes to fund social programs, but he does enjoy wide support from the lower classes) hired assasins to kill him and set it up to appear as though the president had ordered it. He left a video before his (alleged) elaborate suicide accusing the president of all sorts of atrocities (like killing a hundred people). Anyway there was a huge international investigation and apparently he was a fraud and was just trying to discredit the president. This is, according to my host brother, illustrative of the class tensions here.

This last picture is of Jordon and I on the way to San Diego across Lake Atitlan. It is beautiful because there are volcanoes all around the lake and little cities nestled between them.

More Guatemala Stories

I feel like alot has happened since my last post (that could be related to the fact that alot has happened!) This last fin de semana on Friday we went to the fuentes, hot springs, they were way up in the mountains but very relaxing and fun to swim in. When I am able to figure it out I will have to post fotografias of the springs because it was really pretty.

On Saturday we left Xela and took a bus to Lake Atitlan. We stayed at a hotel near lake Atitlan and went sightseeing and shopped in the market ! it was a big market and I remembered my bargaining skills from Kenya which helped! I got some pretty good deals. It was also good Spanish practice...The lake was beautfiul. Other people got sun burnt but I was like a shade magnet so nothing bad... it was interesting becasue the town we stayed in was alot more touristy and therefore different, but I like Xela better with our host mama. We also took a boat across the lake to a little town and went to this beautfiul church... there are alot more indigenous people and the culture was different. When we got back there was this other lady from Canada living in a room next to Jordon and I´s ... that was a surprise! She is nice enough but I liked it better when it was just us two up there and we had all of mama Flors attention!

I got to know some of the other guys on the weekend trip better, they are pretty fun and random. Also it was super windy and the hotel was rickety and we were on the top floor so all night there was banging and it felt like the roof was going to fly off!

Last night a group of us went to the same place to play soccer, it is pretty far so we took a bus on the way there but for some reason we walked all the way back, which took like an hour! So by the time we had walked girls back and returned to our host house (which I am convinced is the farthest) it was like 10, but then we went back out to get dinner cause our host mom had already gone to bed. Also this guy who works had McDonalds had promised to give Jordon his Big Mac tie if we came back at 11... It was nice to go out and get something to eat not to mention that Jordon got an awesome tie for free! I guess the only downside was that I had to do my homework after we got back and we have class early every day.

Yesterday an old man stopped Jordon and I in the street and told us (in English) to ¨go away yankees! get out of here...s$%·¨ I didn´t know what to say so we just kept walking.

I did laundry yesterday! it was super easy, I just took my laundry before class to the place then picked up afterwards all clean and it only cost 4 dollars (whcih sounds liek alot here cause I am used to the cheaper prices, when the guy said ¨that will cost 32 Q¨I was upset and thought it was super expensive cause you can buy so much for that (like two meals at nice restaurants) but then I realized that it is only like a dollar or two more than I pay at school for the machines and way easier!

Anyway today we also went to volunteer at a school for the second time, it was pretty fun playing with the kids, but different than my counselor job at the YMCA. Also today during class my teacher and I teamed up with antoher student and teacher and went to the zoo... it was pretty small but free! I like it when we go on fieldtrips during our class times, it is pretty open and while we have specific grammar things to look at the other times we can just talk about what I want to or going on little ´field trips

I guess that is all for now! I hope to put up some pictures soon!

A few pictures that go with yesterdays post.... if I can figure this thing out

One picture is of El Parque Central and the cathedral that is there. This is typical colonial spanish construction with a central square that has banks, government buildings, and a cathedral on its perimeter... Jordon and I walk through Parque Central multiple times every day (at least 6) as we go and return to school, lunch, and activities...

The other picture is of us making chocolate, which I describe in my post... It was really fun, but I talked to my host mama about it and she said that the method we used wasn´t as authentic as the one she used in her pueblo growing up because she used sugar, and an oven whereas the way her parents did growing up was with fire and stones... but I guess the method we observed is still the most natural chocolate I have ever seen or tasted!

There is also a picture of us playing futbol at the field, which I also describe in my post. I also have pictures of my knees all bloody because the turf is like little black rocks (i don´t know what they are called, but they are like artificial turf or whatever) and I tore up my knees pretty bad, but I figured that this picture better captured how much fun it was.

Guatemala

We are here! The trip so far has been full of activities and adventures so this is the first time I have been able to sit down in an internet shop (which are all over... think Starbucks in Seattle). The language school has a computer lab but more than half of the computers do not work and the ones that do are very slow with strange keyboards... Anyway I hope to give people an idea of what I have been doing but also some of my impression with this post.

After being dropped off at SEATAC around 8pm I met up with the group and we flew to Houston en route to Guatemala City. We then took a bus to Xela (the nickname for Quatzeltenango), the bus ride was exciting because it was great to look out the window and see my first glimpses of Guatemala. Initially I was simply struck by similarities between Guatemala City and Nairobi... burning trash, buses driving crazy, little shops all over etc... Throughout the trip thus far I have also noticed a large amount of foreign businesses, unlike in Kenya there are so many chains and other things here... there are Mcdonalds, Burger Kings, Pizza Hut, stores owned by Walmart, and many more. It is interesting to me... this probably represents a large amount of foreign capital that is coming into Guatemala from the States but I wonder how it is impacting local businesses. My host mom said that the Walmart store she goes to has driven some stores out of business... it is interesting that this is also occuring in guatemala. This kind of global phenomenon are certainly a result of globalization and will probably continue.

Anyway it was hard to sleep on the 5 or 6 hour (that is another thing I have less concept of time becuase I always used my cell phone to tell the time but now I do not have it...I think I will need to buy a watch, but it has been interesting to just not know the time sometimes.) bus ride because of the winding roads that we climbed into the hills. Once we arrived in Xela all of the host parents were waiting for us and we searched for our host mama, once Jordon and I found her we went to get our luggage. When we turned around we could not find her! Suddenly we saw her get in the car with two other students Tommy and Ryan, they had inadvertently stolen our mama! In the end we are staying with the lady who was originally there mama which has worked out great. We are a 15 or 20 minute walk from the school and the house we are staying at is wonderful. Our host family is well educated and relatively well to do. We each have our own room and a bathroom just for the two of us! In addition to our host mama her husband, (who during the week teaches psychology at a university on the coast) her son, (teaches engineering at a few universities here in Xela and is 30)and her daughter, (is a nurse here in Xela and works long days and is in her late 20´s)live in the house. There are all very nice, I have connected and talked to Mama Flor the most though.

Sunday we did not have classes but explored the city, I prefer exploring when I am not with the whole group but just a few guys... of course I stick out no matter what but something about 30 gringos is a little alarming (Gringos is the word used in latin america for white americans... my Spanish teacher told me that during the Mexican American war the american soldiers wore green hence "green go" became Gringo). Anyway i do stick out, I realized this the first day when a few of us attended a church service in the main cathedral by Parque Central. We were in the very back with hundreds of people in front of us, but I had no trouble seeing, in fact I believe I am at least a head and shoulders taller than most Guatemalans. This has lead to me hitting my head numerous times on various doors but also to the conclusion that right now I am probably the tallest person in this whole city.

I will now lay out a daily routine:
-We eat cornflakes con leche
- walk to class which starts at 8am- my teacher is named Luis and is very good natured. I feel like even after two days it has been helpful. The classes go by fast because in between grammar exercises we just talk about things (in Spanish of course!)
-After class finishes at 12 30 pm we return to our casa and eat lunch (the meals are delicious, don´t worry Ariella I am taking pictures of food! She makes soup, tamals con pescado, salads, chicken)
-then around 230pm we meet up with our group and have some sort of activity... for example today we learned how to make chocolate. It was incredible! we went to a ladies house and she showed us how she takes cocoa beans and peels them and mixes them with sugar. She then bakes them into cake-like things. Then we helped her hand-pound slices of the ´cakes´ into bars for eating our making hot chocolate. It was so good! very rich and natural!
- Whenever our afternoon activity finishes we have free time for exploring and homework. For example last night a small group of us went with Jaime (a young teacher at the language school= and took a bus to play soccer. Taking the bus was an adventure of its own! Rocketing down narrow streets in a minibus with a guy hanging out the side and the driver flirting with a lady in the front seat. Once we got there we played futbol with Jaime and his friends... So much fun!


Anyway I have many other stories to tell already but I want to save some for when I come back!