Gema, Lauren, & I - ps, I'm wearing glasses because I have a double eye infection =(
Ames & I playing a game outside!
SANGRIA- well done!
me, gema, and iain in Bajo for the night party!
Lauren and her "Hello Kitty" ghetto pinataFriday, December 14, 2007
Some random photos for your enjoyment
Gema, Lauren, & I - ps, I'm wearing glasses because I have a double eye infection =( Ames & I playing a game outside! SANGRIA- well done!me, gema, and iain in Bajo for the night party!
Lauren and her "Hello Kitty" ghetto pinata
T-giving & Xela living
It you think they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving down here – YOU’RE RIGHT! Luckily, they still sell turkeys down here, and although pricey, we bought two big birds for the big day. Gladis, the school director made the turkeys and everyone else brought a dish. The dinner turned out perfectly, and as always, I felt sick after eating so much food. But don’t worry; we still got a pretty traditional Thanksgiving even though we’re down in the Guat.
Since returning from El Salvador, the last 2 weeks have been somewhat crazy but also relaxing. Everyone started full time classes again (4 hours a day, 5 days a week). We also have been writing theses in Spanish, which is pretty tough in many different ways. Apparently, our teachers haven’t heard of a little thing called “plagiarism,” and they insist daily that we copy and paste articles into our papers. I’m writing my thesis on Child Trafficking in Adoptions and New Reforms to the Adoption Laws. The majority of the paper is done, but there’s still a lot left to correct. Sadly, the weather in town is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING (70-80’s), and it’s difficult to want to stay inside and work when you can be in the sun….especially since I know I’ll be returning to the FREEZING COLD of the Midwest in a week. We’ve been spending a lot of days chilling in the park- reading and playing cards, and I’ve now finished my second Spanish book (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe). I finished 202 pages in Spanish in 2 days, so I know I’m learning something still! The nights are filled with Discotecas, Bars, and the usual nightlife- always a guaranteed good time. One night at the local club, the “GALLO GIRLS” were there- the U.S. version of Miller Light Girls…you know, just promoting the beer and such. The sweet thing is that I happened to win a dance contest with the girls as judges. I won a beer baseball hat, which is pretty ghetto, but also pretty awesome. As if winning the contest wasn’t good enough, the Gallo Girls (who had fake boobs that touched their chin and look disgusting) asked me for advice on how to dance. Yes, they asked me, because they were very impressed with my skills. YEA ME!
The last couple weeks have also been filled with a bajillion hospital visits. Since a little after Tgiving, Amy felt pretty bad- but in kind of a weird, intense body ache type way. After her initial visit, the doctor said everything was fine. We waited a few more days, but she woke up a heck of a lot worse one day with a pretty sore throat, and we decided to return to the site of my nightmares – Hospital Privado. She ended up seeing the same crazy doctor I had, and we lost it laughing as soon as the poor guy walked in the door. All he said was she had a throat infection and everything else (including the bad aches) were secondary effects. We left and got some meds for her, but she kept getting progressively worse. Finally, third times a charm, she went to a hospital that actually ran tests…and found out she had MALARIA. We chilled in the hospital for a 6 hour IV drip, and left under the assumption that she was cured. About a week later, I woke up with mad shoulder pains and had to return to yet another doctor from my August bus incident. Apparently my nerves were all out of wack and muscles swollen, so I’ve been on some strong meds for a couple weeks. The following day, Amy woke up with a bad rash, so we called around and found an infectious disease doctor. After a thorough blood test – she has in fact also come down with Rubella – despite being vaccinated in 6th grade …MMR is now proven to be somewhat ineffective. As of now, the rash is finally going away and the doctor gave her the go ahead to be ACTUALLY TREATED for Malaria with a serious combination of meds in about 20 days (it turns out the IV was not enough to cure Malaria, and if she didn’t research treatments she could have been in serious trouble). Between the two of us, we live at the hospital and have by far dropped the most dough on hospital visits.
Yesterday, the 12th, was Lauren’s 22nd birthday. It was a pretty exciting and eventful day. We had classes in the morning, but left a little early with our teachers to get ice cream in Parque Central. It happened to be the Day of Virgin Guadelupe, so there was a big fiesta in the Park all day long. It seems that Guatemalans have more holidays than anywhere else in the world- its somewhat ridiculous. After lunch, I treated Lauren to a pedicure for her bday present, even if it was a bootlegged trip…the ladies didn’t exactly know what they were doing, but I guess it was the thought that counts. At 4pm, we had an amazing dessert buffet at Lauren’s house & her family also planned games and had a piñata for her. After the party winded down and everyone left…Lauren & I helped her roommate from Spain, Gema, make SANGRIA. We ended up taking the Sangria to Bajo La Luna and had a party for her there from 8pm-10pm. At 10, we headed out dancing for the rest of the night at got home at 3:30 in the morning. Needless to say, the her birthday was simply amazing and the day that followed was full of absolutely nothing since were all dead at school, as we sprawled across the lawn for classes and talked the whole morning.
Since returning from El Salvador, the last 2 weeks have been somewhat crazy but also relaxing. Everyone started full time classes again (4 hours a day, 5 days a week). We also have been writing theses in Spanish, which is pretty tough in many different ways. Apparently, our teachers haven’t heard of a little thing called “plagiarism,” and they insist daily that we copy and paste articles into our papers. I’m writing my thesis on Child Trafficking in Adoptions and New Reforms to the Adoption Laws. The majority of the paper is done, but there’s still a lot left to correct. Sadly, the weather in town is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING (70-80’s), and it’s difficult to want to stay inside and work when you can be in the sun….especially since I know I’ll be returning to the FREEZING COLD of the Midwest in a week. We’ve been spending a lot of days chilling in the park- reading and playing cards, and I’ve now finished my second Spanish book (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe). I finished 202 pages in Spanish in 2 days, so I know I’m learning something still! The nights are filled with Discotecas, Bars, and the usual nightlife- always a guaranteed good time. One night at the local club, the “GALLO GIRLS” were there- the U.S. version of Miller Light Girls…you know, just promoting the beer and such. The sweet thing is that I happened to win a dance contest with the girls as judges. I won a beer baseball hat, which is pretty ghetto, but also pretty awesome. As if winning the contest wasn’t good enough, the Gallo Girls (who had fake boobs that touched their chin and look disgusting) asked me for advice on how to dance. Yes, they asked me, because they were very impressed with my skills. YEA ME!
The last couple weeks have also been filled with a bajillion hospital visits. Since a little after Tgiving, Amy felt pretty bad- but in kind of a weird, intense body ache type way. After her initial visit, the doctor said everything was fine. We waited a few more days, but she woke up a heck of a lot worse one day with a pretty sore throat, and we decided to return to the site of my nightmares – Hospital Privado. She ended up seeing the same crazy doctor I had, and we lost it laughing as soon as the poor guy walked in the door. All he said was she had a throat infection and everything else (including the bad aches) were secondary effects. We left and got some meds for her, but she kept getting progressively worse. Finally, third times a charm, she went to a hospital that actually ran tests…and found out she had MALARIA. We chilled in the hospital for a 6 hour IV drip, and left under the assumption that she was cured. About a week later, I woke up with mad shoulder pains and had to return to yet another doctor from my August bus incident. Apparently my nerves were all out of wack and muscles swollen, so I’ve been on some strong meds for a couple weeks. The following day, Amy woke up with a bad rash, so we called around and found an infectious disease doctor. After a thorough blood test – she has in fact also come down with Rubella – despite being vaccinated in 6th grade …MMR is now proven to be somewhat ineffective. As of now, the rash is finally going away and the doctor gave her the go ahead to be ACTUALLY TREATED for Malaria with a serious combination of meds in about 20 days (it turns out the IV was not enough to cure Malaria, and if she didn’t research treatments she could have been in serious trouble). Between the two of us, we live at the hospital and have by far dropped the most dough on hospital visits.
Yesterday, the 12th, was Lauren’s 22nd birthday. It was a pretty exciting and eventful day. We had classes in the morning, but left a little early with our teachers to get ice cream in Parque Central. It happened to be the Day of Virgin Guadelupe, so there was a big fiesta in the Park all day long. It seems that Guatemalans have more holidays than anywhere else in the world- its somewhat ridiculous. After lunch, I treated Lauren to a pedicure for her bday present, even if it was a bootlegged trip…the ladies didn’t exactly know what they were doing, but I guess it was the thought that counts. At 4pm, we had an amazing dessert buffet at Lauren’s house & her family also planned games and had a piñata for her. After the party winded down and everyone left…Lauren & I helped her roommate from Spain, Gema, make SANGRIA. We ended up taking the Sangria to Bajo La Luna and had a party for her there from 8pm-10pm. At 10, we headed out dancing for the rest of the night at got home at 3:30 in the morning. Needless to say, the her birthday was simply amazing and the day that followed was full of absolutely nothing since were all dead at school, as we sprawled across the lawn for classes and talked the whole morning.
El Salvador Pics
War Memorial Wall
Lookout on the Nature Hike in Cinquiera
Coffee Plantation- the sole workers in the joint this day
Arts & crafts with the indigo project!
BEACH DAY & the Group on the beach!El Salvador
After a long and somewhat miserable week in Mexico, I was hesitant for El Salvador. Again, we left at 4:00am, but this time around we were taking first class buses (Greyhound-esque), all the way there. We also happened to plan for a 12 hour day and brought plenty of snacks to hold us over. The trip went well minus the fact that we had to watch the movie “White Chicks” on the way in Spanish, and I was sitting next to “Smelly McSmellsBAD” who laughed at every line in the worst movie ever and made me nauseous from his stench. As soon as we arrived in the capital, San Salvador, we met our host organization, CIS (Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad), waiting for us with our “coaster”, or a private bus and driver to lug us around the country for 2 weeks.
The whole trip turned out to be the exact opposite of Mexico- and by opposite I mean organized down to the very second. Our guide for the week was Cristy- and maybe because she was younger she had a better understanding of what we wanted to do. The 2 weeks started off with some orientation meetings about El Salvador and some trips to museums and the Cathedral. We also headed for the private university (UCA) for a big festival to see “carpets” done on the streets again (in sand this time) and chill for outdoor concert during the night.
During the weekend, we traveled to the small pueblo of Cinquera- a town in which a lot of warfare took place (their war ended between 1991 and 92). There happened to be a pretty big meeting in San Salvador that weekend though, so most of the inhabitants were MIA. Either way, we met our host families for the night- pretty much the only 8 people still in the town. After, we took a nature hike through the war zone up in the mountains, which included an awesome lookout point and ended with a waterfall where we went swimming. Amy and I stayed with the same family, which was only a host mom (the rest of the family went to the meeting), and we were barely there to sit down and talk with her. At night we shared the most uncomfortable bed I’ve ever laid on which sunk drastically in the middle so we couldn’t help but roll into each other. In addition, we had to be covered by a mosquito net which wasn’t really big enough for this size bed – so our feet and heads were touching the net thus rendering it clearly ineffective. The following morning we all looked liked zombies- no one really slept – but we pushed through a long war testimony, which was pretty depressing.
The next few days were PACKED with meetings, and that’s a LOT of Spanish to listen to each day. But, the best of the meetings included a morning trip to the U.S. Embassy and an afternoon trip to talk with the two major political parties of El Salvador. The Embassy meeting was unreal, and I was somewhat embarrassed to have these people representing the U.S. – they were pretty ignorant about the situation of the country, and it was very clear they rarely left their country club like compound. As for the political party meetings, they parties were like night and day. ARENA was first- and we sat in a huge a/c conference room, while their leader gave us quite the show and answered our tough questions by saying LIES LIES!, without really making a sensible point. The FMLN meeting that followed was the exact opposite, where we sat in a small kitchen, were served tea, and the woman calmly and clearly answered our questions with sensible answers.
The following weekend was spent in the tiny town of Comasagua. We had a meeting with the City Council and visiting the health center. The afternoon was arts & crafts time – as we learned of the Indigo Project run by the women of the community who make t-shirts & bags & other clothing – think T-dye but cooler. Saturday we rode in the back of a pick up truck for 3 hours to get to an even smaller community called La Loma. Once we got off our 3 hour truck ride, we had to hike up a pretty steep hill for about an hour just to get to the place. Some older Canadians were there with the CIS organization too – so almost their entire group took horses up to the community. Unfortunately, one lady tried to hike with us, and she was NOT cut out for it. We waited for her at the top of the mountain, and the second she got there she laid down and PASSED OUT in under 1 second. She must have just exhausted herself or something, but it was pretty ridiculous. We finally got to the community who had lunch prepared and gave a speech. The town was completely wiped out by warfare, and no aide was given to help repair the town after. The community has no light, no water (they hike an hour a day to get water), no schools, no books, NOTHING. It was pretty sad – the community leader was teaching the children, but had never gone to school before in his life. After a big lunch, we returned 3 more hours via pickup to the town and hung out with our families for the night. Amy, Joe, Elise, Antonette, and I shared the “mansion” as we called it. We lived in luxury compared to the other houses- and I slept like a rock. On the way back to the capital we visited a coffee plantation. It just so happened to be the 1 day break between working rotations, so we actually saw virtually nothing and it wasn’t too exciting.
Back in San Salvador, we returned the International Guest House, our base for the whole 2 weeks. I shared a gigantic warehouse looking room with 5 others dubbed “The Party Warehouse.” The place was a little sketchy and not the nicest, but nonetheless it was a hostel. Since our group so big we ate breakfast everyday in a big meeting room instead of the small kitchen table. However, 2 days during our stay, we had to eat in the kitchen because there was going to be a “conference” in the other room. We clearly obliged and thought nothing of it, until we saw what kind of conference it really was. Let’s just say….it was a Prostitute Convention, full of old nasty women learning about safe-sex, condoms, and STD’s. Only in the International Guest House I suppose!
The last day was BEACH DAY, full of FUNTIVITIES- about 1.5 hours outside the capital. The beach was BEAUTIFUL- and the food at the restaurant was simply amazing. After a week full of “papusas” which are tortillas stuffed with cheese, beans, or a combo of the two (which are El Salvador’s claim to fame), a change with seafood was delightful. The waves were huge, the weather hot, and it was the perfect last day for the trip. We headed for Guatemala City the next day, but 6 of us decided to stay behind in Antigua for the night. Antigua is a pretty tourist city, but I hadn’t yet been there for more than just a night and I wanted to see what it was all about. We had a pretty good time and returned to Xela on the 21st, just in time for Thanksgiving!
The whole trip turned out to be the exact opposite of Mexico- and by opposite I mean organized down to the very second. Our guide for the week was Cristy- and maybe because she was younger she had a better understanding of what we wanted to do. The 2 weeks started off with some orientation meetings about El Salvador and some trips to museums and the Cathedral. We also headed for the private university (UCA) for a big festival to see “carpets” done on the streets again (in sand this time) and chill for outdoor concert during the night.
During the weekend, we traveled to the small pueblo of Cinquera- a town in which a lot of warfare took place (their war ended between 1991 and 92). There happened to be a pretty big meeting in San Salvador that weekend though, so most of the inhabitants were MIA. Either way, we met our host families for the night- pretty much the only 8 people still in the town. After, we took a nature hike through the war zone up in the mountains, which included an awesome lookout point and ended with a waterfall where we went swimming. Amy and I stayed with the same family, which was only a host mom (the rest of the family went to the meeting), and we were barely there to sit down and talk with her. At night we shared the most uncomfortable bed I’ve ever laid on which sunk drastically in the middle so we couldn’t help but roll into each other. In addition, we had to be covered by a mosquito net which wasn’t really big enough for this size bed – so our feet and heads were touching the net thus rendering it clearly ineffective. The following morning we all looked liked zombies- no one really slept – but we pushed through a long war testimony, which was pretty depressing.
The next few days were PACKED with meetings, and that’s a LOT of Spanish to listen to each day. But, the best of the meetings included a morning trip to the U.S. Embassy and an afternoon trip to talk with the two major political parties of El Salvador. The Embassy meeting was unreal, and I was somewhat embarrassed to have these people representing the U.S. – they were pretty ignorant about the situation of the country, and it was very clear they rarely left their country club like compound. As for the political party meetings, they parties were like night and day. ARENA was first- and we sat in a huge a/c conference room, while their leader gave us quite the show and answered our tough questions by saying LIES LIES!, without really making a sensible point. The FMLN meeting that followed was the exact opposite, where we sat in a small kitchen, were served tea, and the woman calmly and clearly answered our questions with sensible answers.
The following weekend was spent in the tiny town of Comasagua. We had a meeting with the City Council and visiting the health center. The afternoon was arts & crafts time – as we learned of the Indigo Project run by the women of the community who make t-shirts & bags & other clothing – think T-dye but cooler. Saturday we rode in the back of a pick up truck for 3 hours to get to an even smaller community called La Loma. Once we got off our 3 hour truck ride, we had to hike up a pretty steep hill for about an hour just to get to the place. Some older Canadians were there with the CIS organization too – so almost their entire group took horses up to the community. Unfortunately, one lady tried to hike with us, and she was NOT cut out for it. We waited for her at the top of the mountain, and the second she got there she laid down and PASSED OUT in under 1 second. She must have just exhausted herself or something, but it was pretty ridiculous. We finally got to the community who had lunch prepared and gave a speech. The town was completely wiped out by warfare, and no aide was given to help repair the town after. The community has no light, no water (they hike an hour a day to get water), no schools, no books, NOTHING. It was pretty sad – the community leader was teaching the children, but had never gone to school before in his life. After a big lunch, we returned 3 more hours via pickup to the town and hung out with our families for the night. Amy, Joe, Elise, Antonette, and I shared the “mansion” as we called it. We lived in luxury compared to the other houses- and I slept like a rock. On the way back to the capital we visited a coffee plantation. It just so happened to be the 1 day break between working rotations, so we actually saw virtually nothing and it wasn’t too exciting.
Back in San Salvador, we returned the International Guest House, our base for the whole 2 weeks. I shared a gigantic warehouse looking room with 5 others dubbed “The Party Warehouse.” The place was a little sketchy and not the nicest, but nonetheless it was a hostel. Since our group so big we ate breakfast everyday in a big meeting room instead of the small kitchen table. However, 2 days during our stay, we had to eat in the kitchen because there was going to be a “conference” in the other room. We clearly obliged and thought nothing of it, until we saw what kind of conference it really was. Let’s just say….it was a Prostitute Convention, full of old nasty women learning about safe-sex, condoms, and STD’s. Only in the International Guest House I suppose!
The last day was BEACH DAY, full of FUNTIVITIES- about 1.5 hours outside the capital. The beach was BEAUTIFUL- and the food at the restaurant was simply amazing. After a week full of “papusas” which are tortillas stuffed with cheese, beans, or a combo of the two (which are El Salvador’s claim to fame), a change with seafood was delightful. The waves were huge, the weather hot, and it was the perfect last day for the trip. We headed for Guatemala City the next day, but 6 of us decided to stay behind in Antigua for the night. Antigua is a pretty tourist city, but I hadn’t yet been there for more than just a night and I wanted to see what it was all about. We had a pretty good time and returned to Xela on the 21st, just in time for Thanksgiving!
Friday, November 23, 2007
Mexico Pics.
Murals on the walls.
Getting ready for Day of the Dead!
At the Cemetary.
This is the drunk who fell asleep on Antonette- we named him Captain Morgan.
Day of the dead ceremonies- above and below.
The sign outside of the Zapatista camp we lived in
The road collapse- it was awesome!Mexico and the Zapatistas- like camp, but more militant.
As it turns out, there is one and only one way to travel to Mexico from Xela – chicken bus. After quite a long night of Halloween and 45 minutes of sleep, we headed for the bus station at 5am. We lucked out by finding a cab for 6 of us kids on my side of town…it just happened to be the smallest car you could imagine. Regardless, we finally made it to the bus and I slept for what seemed like days- only to wake up and find that we were still in Huehuetenango, with hours and hours left to go. I also woke because I heard some man yelling. It happened to be some man, drunk at 9:30 in the morning, yelling at us for being Americans. He started by telling Antonette that “she started racism in California” and then rambling on in somewhat broken English through the back door of the bus Ben ended up closing door to shut him out, but he ended up getting on and yelling at us in our faces. His hate for Americans was very evident for the rest of his rampage, and the conversation including the following comments: I’ve been following you….following you around the world, you shut the door on me like you shut the door on the world, I know you and you don’t even know yourselves, You why you are trash….because you’re a piece of shhh…trash. We finally got the driver to kick him off the bus, and he finally agreed because he was out of beer (expressed by smashing the can under his shoe outside the bus and then taking a leak for all of us to see). As our bus started out after 2 hours in Huehue, we met our second drunk man of the day- this time only a 20 year old kid reeeeeeeking of alcohol and sitting next to Antonette and Lauren. He immediately passed out on Ant’s shoulder…and along the whole bumpy ride slid down almost fully to the aisle and kept banging his cheek on the corner of the metal seat across the aisle. He eventually woke up and realized he missed his stop and got off. After 12 hours, we arrived in San Cristobal in Chiapis, Mexico- somewhat angry and starving since our ETA was 11:00am, not 5pm. We met our guides for the week at a restaurant in town (Peter Brown and Susan. NOTE: Peter Brown decided to translate his whole name into Spanish- so he called himself Pedro Café…on his own will). After a quick meal that was our breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we headed to camp about an hour away with our gross driver for the week, whom we named Jabba the Hood.
We arrived at our home for the week dead tired- in a place that I can only describe as the Twilight Zone. The group stayed with the Zapatistas, a guerilla movement completely against the Mexican government. In case you don’t know, the Zapatistas all wear full black ski masks to cover their entire head only with a hole for their eyes…”We cover our faces so we can be seen, and we cover our mouths so we can be heard.” Arriving in the pitch black and seeing these masked people carrying huge rifles was terrifying, but I was too tired to be more concerned. After checking in and having a short meeting, we were shown our conditions for the following week. First, we saw the LODGE- a gigantic wood building with a dirt floor to sleep on. The kitchen was next, and Peter and Susan had bought food for us to cook the whole week. The food selection included a crate of avocados, a crate of tomatoes, a bag of onions and garlic, rice, pasta, and eggs. We also had three bags of “chips”…which actually were so stale they were soft and had the worst taste ever. The bathrooms were a mile away, so we usually just went outside. The weather was awful- misty and rainy every day, muddy and freezing cold. We failed to see people around the “caracol” or camp, so it actually felt like we were in the twilight zone. The only people we ever saw were the two guards at the gate as we left and returned. Other than that, the whole camp was full of murals on every building- and let me tell you, those Zapatistas are some great artists.
The first day, Nov. 2nd, we spent in the cemetery for day of the dead. It was a pretty interesting ceremony, but we stuck out like sore thumbs, so we couldn’t stay without getting stared out. We lit candles in the cemetery and had day of the dead bread, and learned a little more about the ceremony. Each day we visited different Zapatista camps to see their health clinics and talk to people who ran them. For 5 days straight we did this: although the first one or two visits were interesting, the following 3 days were repetitive and somewhat boring. The coolest day was passing a sinkhole in the road- which was actually just a road that had almost fully collapsed due to the landslides. We had to carefully walk across the path and get back into the car on the other side. We passed the nights in the kitchen- cooking feasts of guacamole and any combination of foods listed above. We also played a lot of euchre and eventually got really sick of our weird guides. Every day they became more annoying…and usually didn’t listen to our suggestions of what we wanted to do. Luckily, after 5 days without showers and wearing the same muddy/wet clothing, we headed back to San Cristobal for some civilized life for a day. We spent the day going to a Natural Medicine Museum and then we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Six of us went to get sushi for lunch- which was delicious and super cheap. HOWEVER, the delicious lunch was followed almost instantaneously by an MSG high (thanks to Amy who knew the feeling- she was in China for 6 weeks before)- which was one of the weirdest feelings I’ve ever had. We felt so loopy that we had to walk around the market before buying anything for about an hour. We finally came to our senses and enjoyed the rest of the day. Either way- we finally got rid of Pedro Café and Susan…and headed back to the homeland… for a whole 24 hours!
We arrived at our home for the week dead tired- in a place that I can only describe as the Twilight Zone. The group stayed with the Zapatistas, a guerilla movement completely against the Mexican government. In case you don’t know, the Zapatistas all wear full black ski masks to cover their entire head only with a hole for their eyes…”We cover our faces so we can be seen, and we cover our mouths so we can be heard.” Arriving in the pitch black and seeing these masked people carrying huge rifles was terrifying, but I was too tired to be more concerned. After checking in and having a short meeting, we were shown our conditions for the following week. First, we saw the LODGE- a gigantic wood building with a dirt floor to sleep on. The kitchen was next, and Peter and Susan had bought food for us to cook the whole week. The food selection included a crate of avocados, a crate of tomatoes, a bag of onions and garlic, rice, pasta, and eggs. We also had three bags of “chips”…which actually were so stale they were soft and had the worst taste ever. The bathrooms were a mile away, so we usually just went outside. The weather was awful- misty and rainy every day, muddy and freezing cold. We failed to see people around the “caracol” or camp, so it actually felt like we were in the twilight zone. The only people we ever saw were the two guards at the gate as we left and returned. Other than that, the whole camp was full of murals on every building- and let me tell you, those Zapatistas are some great artists.
The first day, Nov. 2nd, we spent in the cemetery for day of the dead. It was a pretty interesting ceremony, but we stuck out like sore thumbs, so we couldn’t stay without getting stared out. We lit candles in the cemetery and had day of the dead bread, and learned a little more about the ceremony. Each day we visited different Zapatista camps to see their health clinics and talk to people who ran them. For 5 days straight we did this: although the first one or two visits were interesting, the following 3 days were repetitive and somewhat boring. The coolest day was passing a sinkhole in the road- which was actually just a road that had almost fully collapsed due to the landslides. We had to carefully walk across the path and get back into the car on the other side. We passed the nights in the kitchen- cooking feasts of guacamole and any combination of foods listed above. We also played a lot of euchre and eventually got really sick of our weird guides. Every day they became more annoying…and usually didn’t listen to our suggestions of what we wanted to do. Luckily, after 5 days without showers and wearing the same muddy/wet clothing, we headed back to San Cristobal for some civilized life for a day. We spent the day going to a Natural Medicine Museum and then we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Six of us went to get sushi for lunch- which was delicious and super cheap. HOWEVER, the delicious lunch was followed almost instantaneously by an MSG high (thanks to Amy who knew the feeling- she was in China for 6 weeks before)- which was one of the weirdest feelings I’ve ever had. We felt so loopy that we had to walk around the market before buying anything for about an hour. We finally came to our senses and enjoyed the rest of the day. Either way- we finally got rid of Pedro Café and Susan…and headed back to the homeland… for a whole 24 hours!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
PICTURES!
Me & Quailman- reliving childhood cartoons
IPOD, Night at the Roxbury, Redsocks fan
Me as Rainbow Bright!
Mario & Ben- night at the Roxbury.
Halloween- me & lauren the devil.
Lauren, Amy, Molly, Erin, Me.
Mario's BDAY at Parranda. with Mojdeh & Erin
The wall of blocks we built.
Sittin on the Bloques...takin a break
The School we built.HALLLOWEEN- guatemala style.
Halloween week is spent a bit differently down in Central America, and it’s quite the celebration.
Technically, they celebrate ALL SAINTS DAY – a 10 day celebration beginning October 21st and ending November 2nd. Here is an excerpt explaining the final day from Xela Who, a local magazine for extranjeros: “What a better way to honor the dead then to drink nothing but grain alcohol for 24 hours and then race horses? That’s right friends, the All Saints Day celebration in Todos Santos is capped by a spectacular drunken horse race. The goal? To stay on your horse as long as possible without passing out. And pass out they do. According to local legend, the death of a jinete, or drunken horseman, during the race is considered a sign that is will be a good year.”
There was a pretty big religious festival/market going on in Central Park starting in Xela on the 21st. The coolest part I witnessed was on Sunday the 28th, which was the Day of the Virgin Mary. I went with my Guatemalan friend Mario to the park to check out the “rugs,” which were basically giant paintings made of colored saw dust covering the whole loop of streets around the park. The rugs were all religious in content, and the day concluded by a big parade around the park carrying the statue of the Virgin Mary. The rest of the week was crazy, since we were leaving for our Mexico journey on November 1st to get there in time for Day of the Dead on the 2nd.
As you all know, Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year, and I CLEARLY was going to celebrate. American style Halloween is becoming more popular around Xela since there are so many foreigners in the town. Making a costume here is pretty cheap, although some resources were limited and we had to be creative. The group kicked off the night at Cuartito – our favorite café in town, mainly because they were giving out free drinks to those in costume. From there we went to Katy & Mojdeh’s house for a little fun before heading out for the night. We spent the rest of the night around the town at various discotecas dancing the night away. We were by far the best dressed so we got lots of looks. By the end of the night I managed to pull off a COSTUME PARTY WIN at the discoteca. I won 50 Quetzales (roughly only 7 dollars, but it goes a long way here), 2 pepsi’s, and a bottle of rum. Not too shabby of a follow up to my amazing Beetle Juice costume last year. The night was long and I was out til about 4am, and the bus for Mexico left at 5am. At least I was able to sleep all 12 hours to Mexico on the worst buses ever.
Technically, they celebrate ALL SAINTS DAY – a 10 day celebration beginning October 21st and ending November 2nd. Here is an excerpt explaining the final day from Xela Who, a local magazine for extranjeros: “What a better way to honor the dead then to drink nothing but grain alcohol for 24 hours and then race horses? That’s right friends, the All Saints Day celebration in Todos Santos is capped by a spectacular drunken horse race. The goal? To stay on your horse as long as possible without passing out. And pass out they do. According to local legend, the death of a jinete, or drunken horseman, during the race is considered a sign that is will be a good year.”
There was a pretty big religious festival/market going on in Central Park starting in Xela on the 21st. The coolest part I witnessed was on Sunday the 28th, which was the Day of the Virgin Mary. I went with my Guatemalan friend Mario to the park to check out the “rugs,” which were basically giant paintings made of colored saw dust covering the whole loop of streets around the park. The rugs were all religious in content, and the day concluded by a big parade around the park carrying the statue of the Virgin Mary. The rest of the week was crazy, since we were leaving for our Mexico journey on November 1st to get there in time for Day of the Dead on the 2nd.
As you all know, Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year, and I CLEARLY was going to celebrate. American style Halloween is becoming more popular around Xela since there are so many foreigners in the town. Making a costume here is pretty cheap, although some resources were limited and we had to be creative. The group kicked off the night at Cuartito – our favorite café in town, mainly because they were giving out free drinks to those in costume. From there we went to Katy & Mojdeh’s house for a little fun before heading out for the night. We spent the rest of the night around the town at various discotecas dancing the night away. We were by far the best dressed so we got lots of looks. By the end of the night I managed to pull off a COSTUME PARTY WIN at the discoteca. I won 50 Quetzales (roughly only 7 dollars, but it goes a long way here), 2 pepsi’s, and a bottle of rum. Not too shabby of a follow up to my amazing Beetle Juice costume last year. The night was long and I was out til about 4am, and the bus for Mexico left at 5am. At least I was able to sleep all 12 hours to Mexico on the worst buses ever.
Got (bloques) BLOCKS?
PEILE, the organization I volunteer through, builds schools and health clinics around the country in some of the poorest areas. I went to a first rock laying ceremony for a school in Los Pinales back in early September, and this weekend we got to actually go as a group and help build the school. The day started off pretty fun, as we broke up into different teams and had different jobs to do. Iain, Ben, and I were upstairs helping them build the second level. Jobs included: mixing cement, mixing “mixta” which is not cement, but close to it, carrying cement blocks up to the second level, handing blocks and mortar to the workers, and giving marked blocks to a man to cut them at an angle for the roof. After we finished, we had a nice little lunch and returned for more. What we didn’t know is that we were about to do some serious work. We spent the last 5 hours of the day moving cement blocks from the bottom of the hill up to the side of the school. We stacked these blocks in a wall like formation, and in total we moved about 1000 cement blocks. It was ridiculous- and our fingers were sore from the cement. We eventually started an assembly line and just started laughing, because it was clearly the worst job ever. We decided to return on Sunday, only to find out our new job was to spend the day moving the largest pile of sand to the second floor of the school via 10 old, rusty buckets and one makeshift ladder. Again, we formed an assembly line and laughed the whole day despite it being the worst job ever. The men were very appreciative of our work at the end of the weekend- and by work I think they were just overly happy to have 10 white girls there to look at…end of story.
Baby Shower & Birthdays, OH MY!
One fine October weekend, we stayed settled down in Xela for a baby shower and a couple of birthdays. Luckily, the baby shower was NOT thrown for anyone in our group. Instead, it was for Helga, the daughter of Gladis, who owns the school. Don’t get me wrong, Helga is an amazing girl, but we definitely spent the majority of our day full of baby themed contests such as: making the best baby out of a clay ball, racing to hang up the most clothes on the laundry line, pin the dress on the girl, and chugging Coke out of a baby bottle. We did pass a platano between our knees and an orange by the neck which was definitely entertaining, but not enough the say we actually had fun.
The night and rest of the weekend were followed by craziness, as we celebrated Mario & Katy’s birthdays. We kicked off Saturday night with a power hour… they ARE in fact the same in Guatemala and we had a fabulous time and followed by dancing all night, of course. The next morning we threw together a breakfast for a little over a dollar per person that was out of this world.
The night and rest of the weekend were followed by craziness, as we celebrated Mario & Katy’s birthdays. We kicked off Saturday night with a power hour… they ARE in fact the same in Guatemala and we had a fabulous time and followed by dancing all night, of course. The next morning we threw together a breakfast for a little over a dollar per person that was out of this world.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Lago Fotos
"the girls"
"the boys"
Beer bottle showers in the Ghetto SPRINGS
"Oops- my shoulder strap fell" - Mario & Amy
The Lago #1
The Lago #2
Still representing Michigan Football Saturdays- even in Guat
fu man chu & captain morgan/frenchman?
Ben, Mario, Aaron, & Iain bringing out the feminine side
Me & my prom date...isnt she pretty?Makin a full comeback: BEST WEEK EVER!
If you've ever watched VH1, then you've most likely seen the ridiculous show called "BEST WEEK EVER." Luckily, after 3 weeks of deathly illnesses and recovering, last week has finally come around to be MY best week ever.
Monday was my first day shadowing a doctor at the TB/HIV/AIDS hospital. Like everything in Guatemala, time and punctuality are concepts that do not exist, and going in without a contact or doctors name never bids well. After Amy walked under a ladder on the way, we were sure we were doomed.... but much to our surprise, after only an hour of wandering through the hospital and only asking 50 people, we FINALLY found a contact, found her office, met with her, and did some work. But, just for precautions, Amy walked backward under the ladder on the way home to reverse the curse. Monday afternoon we taught our first womens health class - expected to go UN-smoothly. Again, surprisingly, our group of 15-20 women were very excited about our class and they were very smart. As we were leaving they gave us a list of things they would like to learn, so now we have amazing topics to teach: today we will be teaching about the heart & diabetes, next week AIDS, and the next week high cholesterol. It's a lot of research, work, and translation to prepare the lessons every week, but I'm really excited to teach these topics.
Tuesday was a day full of Spanish class, another days at the hospital shadowing, and our first kids health class. The kids are 8-12 years old, and we taught them about healthy foods and hygiene. After 2 days of successful classes, Amy & I rewarded ourselves with Sabor de la India for dinner- quite an amazing place... I'm glad I haven't really started to like it until now- they have fabulous food.
Wednesday was a day of work and planning, another day shadowing, and an AMAZING conference on HIV/AIDS in Guatemala. I ended up sitting with the doctors at dinner, and made a great connection to start investing the AIDS side of the hospital. We checked out a new bar that night and ended up having a fabulous time. Thursday was also spent at the hospital, followed by the best siesta (nap) ever in the afternoon, and another great night out with the group at our favorite wine & cheese bar followed by the discotecas.
Friday morning, Amy & I were both awake rather early and decided to go to the Lake (Lago Atitalan) early since the group wasn't going to leave until 4pm. We left Xela at 8, got to the Lake in 3 hours, met the editor who writes the witty, tourist magazine for Xela, had lunch with him and his friend Jeff - who happened to be the bartender at the place we were staying for the night, spent the day shopping and checking out the town of Panajachel, and left for Santa Cruz.
Let me back up a little- Lago Atitalan is a pretty famous place in Guatemala. It's centered smack dab in the middle of 3 volcanoes and multiple mountain chains- all to make one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. The lake is surrounded by 5 or 6 different communities- Panajachel being the one most people arrive at by bus, and housing great restaurants and shopping. We took a boat/lancha across to Santa Cruz and stayed at La Iguana Perdida for the weekend. We spent the day hanging out with the 5 member staff until the rest of the group arrived for dinner.
Saturday kicked off early, as the whole group decided to go on a scavenger hunt around the lake. Basically they take you to all of the surrounding towns and give you a list of questions to be answered in an hour. After Santiago & San Pedro, we did some serious CLIFF JUMPING into the lake - and by serious, I mean we jumped off a 15 METER cliff into the water. After doing it the first time, I immediately was so pumped up that I had to do it again - earning our team some serious bonus points for being the first girl to jump, and Amy & I both went twice. We hit up the hot springs on the lake for "happy hour" in the afternoon. We threw the cooler overboard and had a beer in the hot springs. The best part is that we started using the bottles when we finished to fill up and pour hot water on our heads and shoulders... eventually creating the theme of this trip to be "Beer bottle showers in the ghetto springs." We followed with a couple more towns in the afternoon and came home to BRING IN THE SILVER as we landed 2nd Place and a round of shots for the prize.
The day gets better, as Saturday nights are "DRAG NIGHTS" at the hostel, and all the staff dresses up as girls, as well as all boys staying there. Our boys looked great in the clothes they found in the dressing room, and Amy & I got decorated with some mustaches to be the "boys" - and thats all we needed for the night to be entertaining. Sunday was pretty relaxing as everyone did their own thing. Amy & I went back to shop in Santiago and both bought beautiful paintings. We lucked out, as the last 10 of us to leave Panajachel found a private bus that cost only 2 dollars more than the awful chicken buses and got us back to Xela in half the time (1.5 hours).
Yes, best week ever.
Monday was my first day shadowing a doctor at the TB/HIV/AIDS hospital. Like everything in Guatemala, time and punctuality are concepts that do not exist, and going in without a contact or doctors name never bids well. After Amy walked under a ladder on the way, we were sure we were doomed.... but much to our surprise, after only an hour of wandering through the hospital and only asking 50 people, we FINALLY found a contact, found her office, met with her, and did some work. But, just for precautions, Amy walked backward under the ladder on the way home to reverse the curse. Monday afternoon we taught our first womens health class - expected to go UN-smoothly. Again, surprisingly, our group of 15-20 women were very excited about our class and they were very smart. As we were leaving they gave us a list of things they would like to learn, so now we have amazing topics to teach: today we will be teaching about the heart & diabetes, next week AIDS, and the next week high cholesterol. It's a lot of research, work, and translation to prepare the lessons every week, but I'm really excited to teach these topics.
Tuesday was a day full of Spanish class, another days at the hospital shadowing, and our first kids health class. The kids are 8-12 years old, and we taught them about healthy foods and hygiene. After 2 days of successful classes, Amy & I rewarded ourselves with Sabor de la India for dinner- quite an amazing place... I'm glad I haven't really started to like it until now- they have fabulous food.
Wednesday was a day of work and planning, another day shadowing, and an AMAZING conference on HIV/AIDS in Guatemala. I ended up sitting with the doctors at dinner, and made a great connection to start investing the AIDS side of the hospital. We checked out a new bar that night and ended up having a fabulous time. Thursday was also spent at the hospital, followed by the best siesta (nap) ever in the afternoon, and another great night out with the group at our favorite wine & cheese bar followed by the discotecas.
Friday morning, Amy & I were both awake rather early and decided to go to the Lake (Lago Atitalan) early since the group wasn't going to leave until 4pm. We left Xela at 8, got to the Lake in 3 hours, met the editor who writes the witty, tourist magazine for Xela, had lunch with him and his friend Jeff - who happened to be the bartender at the place we were staying for the night, spent the day shopping and checking out the town of Panajachel, and left for Santa Cruz.
Let me back up a little- Lago Atitalan is a pretty famous place in Guatemala. It's centered smack dab in the middle of 3 volcanoes and multiple mountain chains- all to make one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. The lake is surrounded by 5 or 6 different communities- Panajachel being the one most people arrive at by bus, and housing great restaurants and shopping. We took a boat/lancha across to Santa Cruz and stayed at La Iguana Perdida for the weekend. We spent the day hanging out with the 5 member staff until the rest of the group arrived for dinner.
Saturday kicked off early, as the whole group decided to go on a scavenger hunt around the lake. Basically they take you to all of the surrounding towns and give you a list of questions to be answered in an hour. After Santiago & San Pedro, we did some serious CLIFF JUMPING into the lake - and by serious, I mean we jumped off a 15 METER cliff into the water. After doing it the first time, I immediately was so pumped up that I had to do it again - earning our team some serious bonus points for being the first girl to jump, and Amy & I both went twice. We hit up the hot springs on the lake for "happy hour" in the afternoon. We threw the cooler overboard and had a beer in the hot springs. The best part is that we started using the bottles when we finished to fill up and pour hot water on our heads and shoulders... eventually creating the theme of this trip to be "Beer bottle showers in the ghetto springs." We followed with a couple more towns in the afternoon and came home to BRING IN THE SILVER as we landed 2nd Place and a round of shots for the prize.
The day gets better, as Saturday nights are "DRAG NIGHTS" at the hostel, and all the staff dresses up as girls, as well as all boys staying there. Our boys looked great in the clothes they found in the dressing room, and Amy & I got decorated with some mustaches to be the "boys" - and thats all we needed for the night to be entertaining. Sunday was pretty relaxing as everyone did their own thing. Amy & I went back to shop in Santiago and both bought beautiful paintings. We lucked out, as the last 10 of us to leave Panajachel found a private bus that cost only 2 dollars more than the awful chicken buses and got us back to Xela in half the time (1.5 hours).
Yes, best week ever.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Emergency Trip to the Hospital =(
As I’ve said, I have been sick since I got back from vacation in Livingston with my parents. The symptoms would come and go, so for a while I thought that I was getting better – slowly but surely. It turns out that I was not getting better but almost deathly ill, and after getting home from using the computer on Sunday night I could barely move. Luckily, I now live with Amy, who called our directors to take me to the emergency room right that second. I was pretty out of it, and they took me to the only private hospital open on a Sunday night: which happened to be ridiculously named “The Private Hospital.” I was pretty out of it when I arrived there, and I had to be wheeled in for an exam by the cutest medical student ever. My resting heart rate is usually between 65 and 70: my heart rate Sunday night was up to 130bpm… sooo scary. Needless to say, they had to keep me overnight.
I was going to a private room, but they nurse forgot which one and opened the door to a room full of Amish people. Turns out I was next door in my lucky number Room #4. They took a blood sample – which was BLACK, very poorly inserted an IV in my arm (and by poorly I mean, blood squirted all over my bed and they had to change my sheets after they got it in, and right when I was about to pass out they told me I needed to take X-Rays of my chest. At first I refused to take them because I was so weak I couldn’t stand, but the cute doctor convinced me otherwise. The X-Ray man looked like he has lived in that little room for 40 years and never left- so I was a little scared of him. He also tried to convince me the straps of my tanktop had metal clips (they are plastic…it is from Forever21…seriously). Either way, he won the battle, and I had to put on a pink hospital gown without snaps or ties over my head and my IV bottle had to be woven through the sleeve also. It was almost impossible and I almost refused to get the x-rays altogether. After he took the 1st one, he came in screaming that I didn’t breath in enough and I had to redo it. I FINALLY got it the 2nd time and returned sweating and exhausted to my room. I was planning on leaving the stupid pink gown on to sleep and the nurse told me I wasn’t allowed. She told me they had to return the gown to the x-ray room… apparently they only have one. GO FIGURE. I finally got to sleep, but they nurse kept coming in saying I was bending my arm and my iv wasn’t working then, so they had to chain my arm flat to the bed for the night. Amy & Antonette stayed with me the first night too- and they basically shared a very small, uncomfortable wooden board for the night. They left at 5:30am and Lauren came at 7:30am the second day.
I forgot to mention my doctor: who had to be the most annoying man in the world. There was NEVER a split second of silence, as he filled any pause or space with Mmmhmm, mmmhmmm, mmm, hmmm…repeatedly. I had a big rash on my stomach at the beginning of day 2, so he told me I had to stay another night. My teacher Marta came to visit in the morning, and she made sure to ask the doctor everything, so we knew exactly what was going on. Other teachers and a few kids in my group filtered in and out all day, so it was nice to see people. I was on an IV all day Monday, and they finally stopped it at 10:30pm. Four to six nurses would come in at a time to do a one person job, so I was annoyed because they were ALWAYS there. One nurse came in at 5:00am Tuesday to ask if she could change my sheets. I told her I was still sleeping and she was out of her mind, and she eventually left. More nurses woke me at 6:00am JUST to ask me how I slept. I told them I was still sleeping and they giggled and left. Lauren stayed with me for night number 2, so it was nice to have some company again during the night.
I left the hospital with Amy & Antonette at 11am Friday after a throat infection, a parasite, a UTI, a fever (still not sure how high it was, they use Celsius), tachycardia, and extreme dehydration which they tell me was all caused by food I ate… I still find that hard to believe. I feel better but am confined to 2 more days of pure bed rest with a little walking. I think I’m gonna make it! It was a pretty scary experience, but also very entertaining in the end. Quite the experience…
I was going to a private room, but they nurse forgot which one and opened the door to a room full of Amish people. Turns out I was next door in my lucky number Room #4. They took a blood sample – which was BLACK, very poorly inserted an IV in my arm (and by poorly I mean, blood squirted all over my bed and they had to change my sheets after they got it in, and right when I was about to pass out they told me I needed to take X-Rays of my chest. At first I refused to take them because I was so weak I couldn’t stand, but the cute doctor convinced me otherwise. The X-Ray man looked like he has lived in that little room for 40 years and never left- so I was a little scared of him. He also tried to convince me the straps of my tanktop had metal clips (they are plastic…it is from Forever21…seriously). Either way, he won the battle, and I had to put on a pink hospital gown without snaps or ties over my head and my IV bottle had to be woven through the sleeve also. It was almost impossible and I almost refused to get the x-rays altogether. After he took the 1st one, he came in screaming that I didn’t breath in enough and I had to redo it. I FINALLY got it the 2nd time and returned sweating and exhausted to my room. I was planning on leaving the stupid pink gown on to sleep and the nurse told me I wasn’t allowed. She told me they had to return the gown to the x-ray room… apparently they only have one. GO FIGURE. I finally got to sleep, but they nurse kept coming in saying I was bending my arm and my iv wasn’t working then, so they had to chain my arm flat to the bed for the night. Amy & Antonette stayed with me the first night too- and they basically shared a very small, uncomfortable wooden board for the night. They left at 5:30am and Lauren came at 7:30am the second day.
I forgot to mention my doctor: who had to be the most annoying man in the world. There was NEVER a split second of silence, as he filled any pause or space with Mmmhmm, mmmhmmm, mmm, hmmm…repeatedly. I had a big rash on my stomach at the beginning of day 2, so he told me I had to stay another night. My teacher Marta came to visit in the morning, and she made sure to ask the doctor everything, so we knew exactly what was going on. Other teachers and a few kids in my group filtered in and out all day, so it was nice to see people. I was on an IV all day Monday, and they finally stopped it at 10:30pm. Four to six nurses would come in at a time to do a one person job, so I was annoyed because they were ALWAYS there. One nurse came in at 5:00am Tuesday to ask if she could change my sheets. I told her I was still sleeping and she was out of her mind, and she eventually left. More nurses woke me at 6:00am JUST to ask me how I slept. I told them I was still sleeping and they giggled and left. Lauren stayed with me for night number 2, so it was nice to have some company again during the night.
I left the hospital with Amy & Antonette at 11am Friday after a throat infection, a parasite, a UTI, a fever (still not sure how high it was, they use Celsius), tachycardia, and extreme dehydration which they tell me was all caused by food I ate… I still find that hard to believe. I feel better but am confined to 2 more days of pure bed rest with a little walking. I think I’m gonna make it! It was a pretty scary experience, but also very entertaining in the end. Quite the experience…
Jodi & Aaron's Wedding
I want to start off by clearing up any confusion: Jodi is NOT marrying a Guatemalan man. She was proposed to right before she left for this trip in July, and her and her fiancée Aaron decided to get married down here after our vacation. The wedding was held in the garden of the school, which to quote the director and owner of our school, Gladis, “the garden gives off good vibes… if anyone else wants to get married here.”
The day started early: most of the group was in charge of setting up everything at the school while Amy, Lauren, and I were helping get Jodi ready. As always, I was in charge of the hairdo of the bride, so we played around until finally deciding on something. The wedding was supposed to start at 11:00am, which is 12:30pm Guatemalan time. Weddings here are pretty different: the bride and groom sit at a table front and center facing the guests, and a lawyer (who is also our very own teacher Marta) sits with our back to us and does more of a legal speech than a love speech. Then, after they sign a paper, they ask for witnesses out of the crowd to go up and sign also…kinda weird. Jodi & Aaron did say their own vows at the end, and then they were whisked away under this hand made paper mache thing where a cord was pulled and rice rained down directly on their heads. We then had all had a glass of wine to CHEERS with, and the after party began.
They served up some traditional style Guatemalan food for the “reception” part. A hired Guatemalan ELVIS PRESLEY was the entertainment as a gift to J & A…and he sang the 2nd verse of the happy birthday song when the cake was being brought out. Elise (our director) made the biggest cake ever for the occasion and it was delicious. We finally got to play some of our music for the 1st dance. Following the dance was the bouquet toss: where the bride stands on a chair as the single women walk around her in a circle. She randomly throws it to the circle, and whoever gets it on the 3rd time keeps it. Erin caught it for the girls and this boy that works at the school that we loathe caught it for the boys. Those two were then forced to dance together to “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira. We followed and ended by more dancing and talking. It was fabulous.
The day started early: most of the group was in charge of setting up everything at the school while Amy, Lauren, and I were helping get Jodi ready. As always, I was in charge of the hairdo of the bride, so we played around until finally deciding on something. The wedding was supposed to start at 11:00am, which is 12:30pm Guatemalan time. Weddings here are pretty different: the bride and groom sit at a table front and center facing the guests, and a lawyer (who is also our very own teacher Marta) sits with our back to us and does more of a legal speech than a love speech. Then, after they sign a paper, they ask for witnesses out of the crowd to go up and sign also…kinda weird. Jodi & Aaron did say their own vows at the end, and then they were whisked away under this hand made paper mache thing where a cord was pulled and rice rained down directly on their heads. We then had all had a glass of wine to CHEERS with, and the after party began.
They served up some traditional style Guatemalan food for the “reception” part. A hired Guatemalan ELVIS PRESLEY was the entertainment as a gift to J & A…and he sang the 2nd verse of the happy birthday song when the cake was being brought out. Elise (our director) made the biggest cake ever for the occasion and it was delicious. We finally got to play some of our music for the 1st dance. Following the dance was the bouquet toss: where the bride stands on a chair as the single women walk around her in a circle. She randomly throws it to the circle, and whoever gets it on the 3rd time keeps it. Erin caught it for the girls and this boy that works at the school that we loathe caught it for the boys. Those two were then forced to dance together to “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira. We followed and ended by more dancing and talking. It was fabulous.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Livingston Pics!
Thee gran hotel
Mom & Dad relaxin by the poolside
Lauren and I at 7 altares
Mom & Dad at 7 Altares
The mouth of the Rio Dulce
Dad, Mom, and Me out for dinner
Lauren and I day drinking... it was so hot.
Round #? ...tequila shots
SALUD!
Dad, host mom, Mom, and me at the bus station
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