HIT BY A BUS... LITERALLY.

The weekend was crazier then previous week. Saturday started off with Las Fuentes Georginas – or the hot springs up in a volcano. Everyone was really tired, so there were only 4 of us plus our director Antonette. After about an hour bus ride and a short back of a pick up truck trek up the volcano, we arrived at the hot springs. They were pretty awesome, as you can imagine if you picture a giant/natural hot tub carved into the side of a volcano. The place was pretty touristy, but pretty relaxing and a short trip. We just missed lunch by the time we got back, so I headed out to eat with Molly. I made the mistake of going for some classic nachos with cheese and salsa- because when the plate was put down in front of me, it was a heaping pile of 1) non-tortilla chips 2) white nasty cheese and 3) heaping piles of ketchup or “salsa” according this country. I’m actually fairly surprised there was no mayonnaise since they are big fans of the ketchup/mayo combo. I returned the plate and refused to pay- and I doubt I will be returning any time soon. Saturday night was another night out with Lauren, the only other group member who likes to go dancing all the time, so we headed to La Parranda. The discos are a guaranteed good laugh as I saw: 1) a 3 foot Guatemala guy who tried to dance with us, 2) some boys who told us they liked to “drop it like its hot” – they said this in Spanish, and proceeded to do the dance move, I’m sure you can picture this situation, so do it, 3) the short man from my salsa classes was there who likes to say 1,2,3, pausa, 1,2,,3 pausa throughout the entire songs so I had to kindly refuse his offer to dance, 4) a man who had a Newsies like hat and kept taking it on and off like he was Dick VanDyke in Mary Poppins playing his little drums on the street, and 5) the American music played consisted of California Dreaming mixed in with techno, and as always, the very popular Nelly “Must be the Money” song.

Sunday morning came quickly, as we headed off to Chichicastenango, a huge Sunday market with EVERYTHING you can imagine being sold there. You walk around crowded street after crowded street, sorting through various Guatemala souvenirs. After looking for a couple hours, Amy, Lauren, and I said LET THE BARGAINING BEGIN. If you didn’t already know this, I was pretty awesome at bargaining in the DR, so I was like a kid in a candy shop at this market. We left the market with some pretty awesome deals as I bought some earrings, a traditional Mayan mask, a drawing on a leather hide, and giant patchwork quilt made with patches of all of the traditional Guatemalan traditional dresses. We constantly made amazing deals, as I overheard many American/non-Spanish speaking tourists get really ripped off. I left feeling really satisfied as we took a microbus from Chichi to Los Cuentos. We were waiting for a bus to take us the rest of the way home, and as I stood there with my back to the oncoming traffic and my hand on my hip, the bus pulled in too sharply and too quickly to stop and I got clipped by the bus. Yes, I WAS LITERALLY HIT BY A BUS. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve thought about being hit by a UofM bus, but this time it actually happened. The bus plowed through hitting my elbow with the front of the bus and my arm went flying forward. I was immediately shoved on the most crowed chicken bus of my life, and forced to stand for almost an hour before I could sit part of one butt cheek on a teeny piece of a seat. Kinda of in shock and really tired, I went to bed really early on Sunday night. I woke Monday with a really sharp pain in my shoulder, but still went to Spanish classes.
The pain increased throughout the day, and I finally made the scary decision to go to a doctor in Guatemala today (Tuesday). I went with Antonette to a private orthopedic doctor recommended by our directors. After arriving, we found out that doctor was on vacation until Aug. 30th, so they called another doc over from the hospital to check me out. After waiting an hour, he stretched my arm around enough only to tell me I needed X-rays. Conveniently, the x-ray machines were in a totally different hospital, so we picked up and walked to another location to wait, get x-rays, wait some more, and finally take my x-rays back to the other doctor. We returned to the original doctor during lunch time, so we waited some more. Eventually, he looked at the x-rays, and minus the 4 small fissure lines in my bones (3 in my shoulder bone, and 1 in my clavicle), there is nothing much to do other than wait for it to heal by putting my arm in a sling for 3-4 days, taking some pain killers, and put a topical massage gel on my shoulder. So after all the fuss, turns out I’m going to be just fine- or let’s hope. So far, the medicine has been pretty effective, and my piece of crap sling I bought has helped relived a lot of pain in my shoulder. The cool part is I got to keep my x-rays to bring back with me, a sweet little souvenir I suppose. Bad news is that I have to wear this sling on my birthday, what a nice little present. Other than all this commotion, I’m really excited for my birthday here. We’re having a pizza dinner at my house with my family, the whole group, and some of the teachers from school. I’m planning on baking a couple bday cakes for the snack during class on Thursday, and most of the teachers are excited to try American cakes. Feel free to call of my birthday if you want!! (011-502-5883-7736). Miss you millions!! XOXO!