This is the short speech I gave at the graduation dinner on Thursday night. First in Spanish, so that you're impressed :) and then in English...
Yo no puedo creer mi tiempo aqui en Xela esta terminando muy pronto. Fue una experiencia muy buena y yo deseo la no tiene que terminar. Yo vine aqui para aprender espanol, pero you recibi much mas que eso. Yo encontre muchos amigos durante mi tiempo aqui y la experiencia no seria el mismo sin ellos. Yo aprendi mucho espanol desde mis maestros. Norma dos, Norma uno, y Joaquin- ustedes son muy intellegentes, amables, y pacientes. Muchas gracias por ensenarme. Hicieron apreder espanol muy divertido. Me gusta mucho sus historias y nuestros paseos alrededor Xela. Yo quiero decir gracias a los maestros que planearon las actividades. Ustedes hicieron el mes pesado una aventura divertida. Tambien, gracias a Edna por encontro un buen lugar para mi a hacer trabajo voluntario esta semana. Yo lo disfrute mucho. En el futuro, Yo deseo regresar y hacer esto el otro vez, pero sin la quemadura de sol, los verbos irregulares, y los frijoles.
I can't believe my time here is Xela is almost over. I have had such a great experience and I wish it didn't end so soon. I came here to learn Spanish, but I got so much more than that. I made some great friends along the way; my experience wouldn't have been the same without you guys. I learned a lot of Spanish from my teachers. You guys are so great- Norma, Norma, and Joaquin- Thank you guys so much. You are very patient, smart, and kind. You made learning Spanish fun. I enjoyed your stories and all of our walks around Xela. I also want to thank all the teachers who planned the activities- you made this past month a fun adventure. Also, thanks to Edna for finding me a great place to volunteer at this week- it was an awesome experience. In the future, I hope I can do this again, only without the sunburn, irregular verbs, and the beans.
Okay so that translation isn't exactly word for word and I know I made some mistakes, but everyone still understood what I was trying to say and that's the most important part. The dinner was a fun time to hang out with everybody one last time before I had to leave. I ending up sitting with a bunch of the teachers so I had to speak Spanish the whole time! But, it was a fun night and I tried to take a lot of mental pictures so that I'll always remember. It's sad to have to leave, but now I'm on to the next part of this adventure, which I'm so excited about. I'm sitting in Pollo Campero (fast food chicken restaurant) in Quiche right now waiting for Norm and Vickie and the team from Omaha. I've been here for about five hours and have about another hour left to wait because the team's plane was delayed! Can't write too much more because my computer is about to die and I haven't found an outlet, but hopefully I'll have time to update everyone while I'm in San Andres.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
5 Things I Won't Miss....
It's kind of sad thinking about leaving Xela and everyone at the school. So instead of focusing on the good things, I'm going to focus on the things I won't miss about this place...
1. The Smell. Xela does not smell very good at all. The cars and buses always give off this terrible exhaust smell and sometimes you can smell garbage burning and other gross odors, like when you walk by the meat store with all the raw meat hanging from the ceiling. I realize this is probably Guatemala in general, but San Andres isn't as big of city as Xela is so it has more fresh air, definitely looking forward to that :)
2. The Food. I'm pretty sure I've had enough scrambled eggs, black beans, and tortillas for a life time. I actually stopped eating tortillas and tomalitos a week or so ago because I just don't even like them anymore. The food at my house is so repetitive and uncreative. Sometimes its really good, but most of the time its just eggs and beans. And we hardly ever eat fruits and vegetables! Hopefully when I get to Hogar de Vida my meals will be a little bit more varied.
3. The Bugs. I realize there are bugs everywhere and when they're outside, it doesn't bother me so much. But when they're in the house, in my room, and in the shower, that freaks me out a little bit. The house that I live in has lots of areas when the only thing between the inside and the outside is a screen or nothing, so it's pretty easy for all sorts of bugs to make their way into the house. Gross.
4. Strange Sounds in the Middle of the Night. Guatemala is a noisy place. There's dogs barking and roosters roosting and fireworks going off at all hours of the night. I've gotten used to those sounds. But then every once in a while I wake up in the middle of the night and hearing banging on the roof (it's a tin roof so it's pretty loud). I just kind of ignored it but when Tim switched rooms and moved to the same part of the house as me, he heard it too. He asked Ana what it was and she said "It could be cats, dogs, or robbers. But don't worry about the robbers because there's no way they can get into the house." Remember, how I told you that there's multiple areas of the house with nothing or only a screen separating the inside of the house from the outside? Well, apparently Ana forgot about that. I've slept with my door locked ever since she said that.
5. The Weather. It is so cold here! People told me before I got here that Xela was cold, but I always thought well I'm from NY, cold in Guatemala is warm compared to cold in New York. And for the most part it is. Except that they don't have heaters in their houses, or even walls in some areas, so it feels a lot colder than it really is. There have been a few times when I've woken up in the middle of the night and was freezing and had to put more clothes on. I brought a bunch of pairs of shorts which was completely unnecessary- I've only worn them once!
1. The Smell. Xela does not smell very good at all. The cars and buses always give off this terrible exhaust smell and sometimes you can smell garbage burning and other gross odors, like when you walk by the meat store with all the raw meat hanging from the ceiling. I realize this is probably Guatemala in general, but San Andres isn't as big of city as Xela is so it has more fresh air, definitely looking forward to that :)
2. The Food. I'm pretty sure I've had enough scrambled eggs, black beans, and tortillas for a life time. I actually stopped eating tortillas and tomalitos a week or so ago because I just don't even like them anymore. The food at my house is so repetitive and uncreative. Sometimes its really good, but most of the time its just eggs and beans. And we hardly ever eat fruits and vegetables! Hopefully when I get to Hogar de Vida my meals will be a little bit more varied.
3. The Bugs. I realize there are bugs everywhere and when they're outside, it doesn't bother me so much. But when they're in the house, in my room, and in the shower, that freaks me out a little bit. The house that I live in has lots of areas when the only thing between the inside and the outside is a screen or nothing, so it's pretty easy for all sorts of bugs to make their way into the house. Gross.
4. Strange Sounds in the Middle of the Night. Guatemala is a noisy place. There's dogs barking and roosters roosting and fireworks going off at all hours of the night. I've gotten used to those sounds. But then every once in a while I wake up in the middle of the night and hearing banging on the roof (it's a tin roof so it's pretty loud). I just kind of ignored it but when Tim switched rooms and moved to the same part of the house as me, he heard it too. He asked Ana what it was and she said "It could be cats, dogs, or robbers. But don't worry about the robbers because there's no way they can get into the house." Remember, how I told you that there's multiple areas of the house with nothing or only a screen separating the inside of the house from the outside? Well, apparently Ana forgot about that. I've slept with my door locked ever since she said that.
5. The Weather. It is so cold here! People told me before I got here that Xela was cold, but I always thought well I'm from NY, cold in Guatemala is warm compared to cold in New York. And for the most part it is. Except that they don't have heaters in their houses, or even walls in some areas, so it feels a lot colder than it really is. There have been a few times when I've woken up in the middle of the night and was freezing and had to put more clothes on. I brought a bunch of pairs of shorts which was completely unnecessary- I've only worn them once!
Yesterday I went back to the home to volunteer again. Another girl from school came with me too because she wanted to have a tour of the place to see if it was a place that she would like to volunteer at for the next few weeks. When we left it was pretty much down pouring. By the time we got to Parque Central, which isn't even half way there, I was feeling pretty drenched and soggy. We got to this one street that was completely covered in water, it was basically a river. Sonal was wearing flip flops and lost one when we crossed the street. She went to grab it but it slipped down the drain before she could! It was pretty funny :) We stopped by the market to get her some new shoes before we kept going.
When we got to the home, they thought I was the psychologist girl again so I explained to them that I was nursing student, so they sent me to work with the doctor at the home for a little while. Me and Sonal worked with the doctor to cut all of the kids finger nails and toe nails and to clean their ears- there's over 80 kids so it took quite a while! When the doctor had to leave, she said we could go too, but I asked if we could go help with the babies until it was time for us to go and she said sure. So I got to go see the cute little kids again. There were so many kids that needed their diapers changed but I could only find one diaper so the baby that peed on me got it- the sqeaky wheel gets the oil :) When the woman working with the babies finally returned, she got more diapers for the rest of them. But, again the kids were unsupervised when we got there and some of the babies were wearing the same clothes that I had put them in the day before. It makes me really mad that these kids aren't getting better care. I'm going back tomorrow for one more day and to hopefully see the little ones again.
Tonight is the graduation dinner for this week. I have to give a speech! In Spanish! It's gonna be pretty short and to the point because I hate speaking in front of people. Joaquin was trying to talk me into singing something, but that was never going to happen haha. I can not believe that tomorrow is my last day! I'm getting a little nervous about figuring out how to get to Quiche from here because no one seems to know what time the bus leaves exactly. Hopefully, I'll get all of that figured out before Saturday morning!
When we got to the home, they thought I was the psychologist girl again so I explained to them that I was nursing student, so they sent me to work with the doctor at the home for a little while. Me and Sonal worked with the doctor to cut all of the kids finger nails and toe nails and to clean their ears- there's over 80 kids so it took quite a while! When the doctor had to leave, she said we could go too, but I asked if we could go help with the babies until it was time for us to go and she said sure. So I got to go see the cute little kids again. There were so many kids that needed their diapers changed but I could only find one diaper so the baby that peed on me got it- the sqeaky wheel gets the oil :) When the woman working with the babies finally returned, she got more diapers for the rest of them. But, again the kids were unsupervised when we got there and some of the babies were wearing the same clothes that I had put them in the day before. It makes me really mad that these kids aren't getting better care. I'm going back tomorrow for one more day and to hopefully see the little ones again.
Tonight is the graduation dinner for this week. I have to give a speech! In Spanish! It's gonna be pretty short and to the point because I hate speaking in front of people. Joaquin was trying to talk me into singing something, but that was never going to happen haha. I can not believe that tomorrow is my last day! I'm getting a little nervous about figuring out how to get to Quiche from here because no one seems to know what time the bus leaves exactly. Hopefully, I'll get all of that figured out before Saturday morning!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Hogar Temporal
Yesterday during class, Joaquin showed me the way to the children's home that I'll be volunteering at for this week. We went with another girl and her teacher and on the way we stopped for snacks. The teachers got these things that looked like snow cones except they put actual fruit on them instead of just juice and the one teacher got chili powder or something put on hers too. I tried hers and it tasted like puke, so I didn't get anything haha. I don't understand why you would ever think to put spicy powder with fruit.
When we got to the home, they gave us a tour of the place. There are almost 80 kids that live there and the majority come from abusive situations or were neglected. We saw some parents visiting with their kids but the visits had to be supervised by a social worker. I think the woman showing us around said that most of the kids can't be adopted because most of them still have parents. I couldn't understand a lot of what she was saying though because she talks really fast. They showed us where the kids sleep and it basically just these huge rooms with tons of bunk beds lined up and crammed in. It didn't look much like a home. The whole experience was just really sad. Then we went into the baby room and there was a volunteer in there with two super cute babies! She actually spoke English so that was nice. I decided to volunteer there three days this week because a lot of the activities this week are repeats, so I've already done them. I went yesterday and I'm going again today and Friday.
When I went yesterday, I got lost on the way there and couldn't find it. I asked a woman if she could help me but she said she didn't know where it was and then thankfully, another woman walked up to me and asked me what I was looking for and I was actually really close to the home, it was just around the corner. When I there I had to give them a letter from the school that explained my experience and when I wanted to volunteer, as well as the same information for the other girl who is going to volunteer there. They were mistaken and thought I was the other girl, who studied psychology in college. So they sent me to work with the psychologists. When I explained that I wasn't her and that I just wanted to help take care of the kids and play with them, we went up and got some babies and brought them back down to the room to play. One baby was new, so he cried pretty much the whole time. The only thing I could do to get him to stop was give him candy :) He had this big scar on the side of his face and the psychologist said it was from his parents. The other baby looked maybe 1 yr old, but she was actually 2 1/2! She was just beginning to learn to walk and she was so tiny! After a while we brought the kids back up to the baby room and there were more kids in there, probably about eleven. I'd say the majority were under 2 yrs old, but they were all under 5. When we got there to bring the kids back they were completely unsupervised. They were just in the room with the TV on. The babies were in cribs crying or with their bottles propped in their mouths. I think the majority of the time the babies are in their cribs, even when they're awake. There was this older girl (maybe 4 or 5) who kept trying to pick up the babies and I kept telling her no, she could've so easily dropped them. Then this other baby kept climbing all over the furniture- she somehow got on top of a dresser, so dangerous! There was only one woman assigned to work in the room and she was taking the babies out to give them baths and then bringing them back. She obviously needed help, so I'm glad that I could be there but it makes me wonder what happens when there's no volunteer. When she was changing some of the babies, she just walked away and left them on the changing table! They could've rolled right off! And the diapers were way too big for the little babies so there's basically no point in them wearing them.
I kept comparing it to Care-a-lot, the day care center I work at, and thinking how many laws they were breaking and how many things could go wrong. Ugh, it was so sad to see the kind of care these kids are getting. I mean, yeah its better then where they came from, but really, they need so much more to thrive and grow. A baby cannot stay in a crib all day and hardly ever be held. I'm glad I can volunteer there, even if it is just for this week, to give these kids a little bit more attention then they usually get.
When we got to the home, they gave us a tour of the place. There are almost 80 kids that live there and the majority come from abusive situations or were neglected. We saw some parents visiting with their kids but the visits had to be supervised by a social worker. I think the woman showing us around said that most of the kids can't be adopted because most of them still have parents. I couldn't understand a lot of what she was saying though because she talks really fast. They showed us where the kids sleep and it basically just these huge rooms with tons of bunk beds lined up and crammed in. It didn't look much like a home. The whole experience was just really sad. Then we went into the baby room and there was a volunteer in there with two super cute babies! She actually spoke English so that was nice. I decided to volunteer there three days this week because a lot of the activities this week are repeats, so I've already done them. I went yesterday and I'm going again today and Friday.
When I went yesterday, I got lost on the way there and couldn't find it. I asked a woman if she could help me but she said she didn't know where it was and then thankfully, another woman walked up to me and asked me what I was looking for and I was actually really close to the home, it was just around the corner. When I there I had to give them a letter from the school that explained my experience and when I wanted to volunteer, as well as the same information for the other girl who is going to volunteer there. They were mistaken and thought I was the other girl, who studied psychology in college. So they sent me to work with the psychologists. When I explained that I wasn't her and that I just wanted to help take care of the kids and play with them, we went up and got some babies and brought them back down to the room to play. One baby was new, so he cried pretty much the whole time. The only thing I could do to get him to stop was give him candy :) He had this big scar on the side of his face and the psychologist said it was from his parents. The other baby looked maybe 1 yr old, but she was actually 2 1/2! She was just beginning to learn to walk and she was so tiny! After a while we brought the kids back up to the baby room and there were more kids in there, probably about eleven. I'd say the majority were under 2 yrs old, but they were all under 5. When we got there to bring the kids back they were completely unsupervised. They were just in the room with the TV on. The babies were in cribs crying or with their bottles propped in their mouths. I think the majority of the time the babies are in their cribs, even when they're awake. There was this older girl (maybe 4 or 5) who kept trying to pick up the babies and I kept telling her no, she could've so easily dropped them. Then this other baby kept climbing all over the furniture- she somehow got on top of a dresser, so dangerous! There was only one woman assigned to work in the room and she was taking the babies out to give them baths and then bringing them back. She obviously needed help, so I'm glad that I could be there but it makes me wonder what happens when there's no volunteer. When she was changing some of the babies, she just walked away and left them on the changing table! They could've rolled right off! And the diapers were way too big for the little babies so there's basically no point in them wearing them.
I kept comparing it to Care-a-lot, the day care center I work at, and thinking how many laws they were breaking and how many things could go wrong. Ugh, it was so sad to see the kind of care these kids are getting. I mean, yeah its better then where they came from, but really, they need so much more to thrive and grow. A baby cannot stay in a crib all day and hardly ever be held. I'm glad I can volunteer there, even if it is just for this week, to give these kids a little bit more attention then they usually get.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
My last week of Spanish school!
I can not believe this is my last week at Miguel Angel Asturias! The time has flown by! I'm getting really excited about going back to Hogar de Vida though.
Saturday I had a pretty relaxing morning because I decided to not do the activity with the school. They were going on a two hour bike ride to see a historical church and then to ride the two hours back again. That's not really my idea of a good time haha. I slept in and the walked around and ended up at a cute little cafe for a little while. Since it was Tim's last day, when he got back we went to Blue Angel to finally try their burritos. They were pretty delicious. Then Jodi met up with us and we watched a movie and afterwards we went to another restaurant because Tim really wanted to try a mango mojito before he left. It was a nice relaxing day. I went to bed early because I had to wake up at 5 AM the next day to leave for the market in Chichicastenango. It was a little difficult getting out of the house because the older son parked his motorcycle right in front on the door! Good thing I'm small or I wouldn't have been able to squeeze around it. I kept thinking please don't fall over, please don't fall over haha. Thankfully, this time we did not take a pick up truck, we were in a nice comfy microbus and I even slept a little :) The market was huge and crowded. I got to practice my bargaining skills and I think I got some pretty good deals. I bought all the stuff I wanted to and only spent $15! It seems like you're spending a lot when you're shopping because its like Q115, but then when you do the math and it's only $15, you realize that you hardly spent anything at all.
Sunday night we got a new student at the house. Good thing too because I didn't really want to be alone. Sometimes you just need someone you can speak English to. She seems nice and she's in med school like Tim was. So many med/nursing students come to Miguel Angel Asturias.
Yesterday during class, I had Joaquin take me to get a new phone. We went to the mall and I bought the cheapest one they had which came with 100 minutes and was only like twenty bucks. Then, I got a text message saying that Tigo (the phone company) was giving me a whole month of texting for free! I was pretty excited about that. Afterwards, we went to Taco Bell! I got some nachoes and they pretty much tasted the same as they do in the states except that they had guacamole on them. But, whats really weird is that they have french fries!
Today I'm going to a temporary children's home to play with some kids :) I can't wait!
Saturday I had a pretty relaxing morning because I decided to not do the activity with the school. They were going on a two hour bike ride to see a historical church and then to ride the two hours back again. That's not really my idea of a good time haha. I slept in and the walked around and ended up at a cute little cafe for a little while. Since it was Tim's last day, when he got back we went to Blue Angel to finally try their burritos. They were pretty delicious. Then Jodi met up with us and we watched a movie and afterwards we went to another restaurant because Tim really wanted to try a mango mojito before he left. It was a nice relaxing day. I went to bed early because I had to wake up at 5 AM the next day to leave for the market in Chichicastenango. It was a little difficult getting out of the house because the older son parked his motorcycle right in front on the door! Good thing I'm small or I wouldn't have been able to squeeze around it. I kept thinking please don't fall over, please don't fall over haha. Thankfully, this time we did not take a pick up truck, we were in a nice comfy microbus and I even slept a little :) The market was huge and crowded. I got to practice my bargaining skills and I think I got some pretty good deals. I bought all the stuff I wanted to and only spent $15! It seems like you're spending a lot when you're shopping because its like Q115, but then when you do the math and it's only $15, you realize that you hardly spent anything at all.
Sunday night we got a new student at the house. Good thing too because I didn't really want to be alone. Sometimes you just need someone you can speak English to. She seems nice and she's in med school like Tim was. So many med/nursing students come to Miguel Angel Asturias.
Yesterday during class, I had Joaquin take me to get a new phone. We went to the mall and I bought the cheapest one they had which came with 100 minutes and was only like twenty bucks. Then, I got a text message saying that Tigo (the phone company) was giving me a whole month of texting for free! I was pretty excited about that. Afterwards, we went to Taco Bell! I got some nachoes and they pretty much tasted the same as they do in the states except that they had guacamole on them. But, whats really weird is that they have french fries!
Today I'm going to a temporary children's home to play with some kids :) I can't wait!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
But God.
So I never really blogged about the reasons behind me taking this trip to Guatemala. There are actually a few. First being that I’ve always wanted to study abroad. Ever since my first trip out of the country, I’ve just had this love of traveling. I love experiencing other cultures, seeing different places, and just being somewhere new, doing something exciting. Well, I quickly found out that studying abroad as a nursing major was next to impossible. There are just so many classes you have to cram into your schedule and most of them aren’t offered in study abroad programs or they can’t be taken in another country because they have a clinical component. So I decided I would do the next best thing, study abroad for a shorter amount of time in the summer. I searched programs all over the world. Greece. Thailand. Russia. South America. None of them were affordable and you can’t get financial aid for a summer semester like you can for a regular one. So after some time went by, I finally just gave up. I decided I was going to stay home all summer and just work and pay off my stupid college loans.
But God. He had a plan for me all along. I was already planning on going on the two week Guatemala trip with the adult team from church in November. When I signed up for the trip I was so excited for it. But as I was getting into the Fall semester and the dates for the trip got closer, I was getting less and less excited and more and more overwhelmed. I couldn’t imagine how I was just going to take two weeks off of school and come back and have everything be okay. I doubted God’s plan. I went on the trip as planned, although I did consider backing out once or twice. I remember telling someone before I left that this would probably be my last chance to go back to Guatemala and see the kids at the home and that I probably wouldn’t be going back again. Oh, how little did I know. The trip was amazing. I realized how little I had been living and how much I had just been going through day by day doing the things I “had to do”. It renewed my passion for Christ and made me feel more alive. Before I left for the trip I was talking to my friend Mark, who also loves Guatemala. I was telling him how I couldn’t even feel excited about returning to Guatemala because I had so much school stuff to do before I left. He told me, “You’re going to love it and then you’re going to want to go back again in the summer to language school with me.” I was thinking, yeah right, I already decided I wasn’t going to study abroad so that’s definitely not going to happen. But, God used that short conversation to spark an interest in my heart.
While I was in Guatemala, I mentioned the whole language school thing to my friend Steve, who has been to Miguel Angel Asturias before. We ended up getting into a pretty long conversation about it and by the end, I was pretty convinced that I was going to do it, but I wasn’t sure how or when. Then, a few days later I had to leave Guatemala. It was a pretty hard goodbye. What was even harder was going back to school afterwards. God was beyond amazing, and I ended up getting straight A’s despite missing so much school and going through the whole reverse culture shock thing while trying to finish up the semester. I went to talk to one of my teachers about making up work and she said “Oh, don’t worry about what you missed. You don’t have to do anything.” Seriously?! Then I had to make up a few tests. One of them I was pretty sure I failed. I had to guess the answers to half of the questions. I was pretty shocked to find out I got over a 100% on it. I’m not saying this all to brag, but to show how awesome God was. He did so much more then all I could’ve ever asked or imagined.
After we got back, there was a sermon at church about the fish and the loaves of bread and how God takes what little we have to offer and turns it into so much more, if we only have faith and trust in Him. After this message, I knew God was calling me to go back to Guatemala. I wasn’t sure how the details would work out or what would happen with my job or if I could afford it, but I knew God was telling me that He was going to make this dream come true for me, if only I trusted in Him. I won’t get into how all the details of planning my trip came together, but I’ll just say that God is so good and it was clear that he wanted me to be able to go on this trip.
Now getting to my second reason behind wanting to come back to Guatemala. This one is a little bit scarier for me to put into words. I’ve been feeling for some time now that God is calling me to go into missions. It’s why I decided to study nursing at Roberts and it’s been the force behind a bunch of other life decisions as well. I remember when I was in high school, telling my Mom about how I didn’t want the boring American life of having a house and getting married and having kids. I wanted an adventure. I wanted to live and work and serve God in another country. When I think about just being a regular nurse, I think there are so many nurses out there. If I don’t take a certain job, someone else will. But when I think about being a missionary nurse, it’s different. If I don’t go out and serve where God calls me to, maybe no one else will. I want to be where I’m needed. I want to make a difference.
Looking back at that dream, I think I was a little naïve. It all sounded so fun and easy to me. I never once was scared by that calling that I felt. But then when I got back from Guatemala this past winter and I heard that message in church, I didn’t just feel that God was calling me to return to Guatemala this summer to study Spanish but also that He was calling me to something greater in the future. Like I said I had dreamed of doing missions work before, but I had never really heard God say to me “You are going to be a missionary.” But after Steve’s message, I felt very strongly that that is what God was calling me to. And it terrified me. There was an opportunity for those who felt God had laid something on their heart that day to go to the front of the church and to be prayed for. I couldn’t move my feet to do it. I was so scared. I’m still getting passed that fear I think. But, I know God is in control and He has something amazing planned for me. So my other reason for coming back to Guatemala was to further prepare myself for whatever God has for me in the future. Whether it’s using my Spanish at some inner city clinic in Rochester or using it as a missionary in a foreign country. I’ll just have to see where God takes me next.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Viernes
So today I had my weekly test and I was really happy because I did well! It wasn’t perfect, but close to it :) So now I know present tense, both past tenses and both future tenses. I don’t know if my brain can handle any more tenses or irregular verbs! I really just want to focus on speaking next week because I’m still not confident in my speaking. It’s so much easier to think things through when you’re writing them down or reading them, but when you speak, it speeds things up a lot and you don’t have as much time to think about how to say things the right way.
This was Tim’s last week. Most of the people that were here when I first got here are already gone. It’s kind of weird getting new people and losing friends every week. This week we had 22 students, which means the number of students basically doubled in one week. Some students study in the afternoons so I haven’t even really met them. Too many new names and faces for me to keep up with.
Today I talked to Edna (the director of the school) about volunteering next week. Before I came, I was looking forward to maybe observing at the hospital or doing something at one of the clinics, but now that I only have one week left (I can’t believe it!) I just decided that I would rather do something with kids. She said she would look into some stuff and let me know. I also requested to stay with Joaquin again for next week. He helped me learn so much this week and I did so good on my test, so why mess with something that’s working well?
Today we walked to the University of San Carlos during class. Joaquin had been telling me about it and he used to go there. He asked me if I wanted to go see it, so I was like well I really don’t want to sit in this classroom for another 5 hours so why not. We went with Tim and his teacher Rony too. It was basically a normal college campus, but not as nice. It’s also known for being a really politically aware and liberal school, so there’s a bunch of controversial murals all over the walls of the school. A lot of them are quotes that have a slight communist theme to them. There were murals of some guy that helped Fidel Castro and then was killed by Americans. Apparently, the Guatemalans like him and they like communist ideas. Another strange thing about this school is that it’s autonomous and it’s unconstitutional for the police to enter onto the school grounds! So the students drink and smoke and can pretty much do whatever they want. Oh and since it’s a public university they only pay Q250 a year! That’s $32! How ridiculous is that! They have to take a bunch of exams to get in and apparently they’re pretty difficult. The school is also really hard I guess because Joaquin and Rony were saying that only a few people graduate each year. The student’s grades were posted out in the halls and the majority of them were failing! Someone had a 3%! How does that even happen? Also, they were telling us how easy it is for the students to cheat on their tests. A lot of them will sneak in cheat sheets or even write their notes right on the desk before the test. They don’t have strict rules about cheating there, so the worst that happens is you get caught and you get a zero on the test. I certainly wouldn’t want a doctor that graduated from that school to be taking care of me!
After class today, a few of us had planned to go to Zona 3 and walk around the mall and get some Taco Bell. We got a little turned around and never actually found the Taco Bell which was pretty disappointing. Tim and I did find a gift for our family though, so the trip was somewhat productive. But then we decided to take a microbus on the way back and I lost my cell phone on it! I had it in my pocket and it must have fallen out without me realizing. It was my Guatemalan phone so it wasn’t terribly expensive, but still. Ugh.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Las Mujeres de Guatemala
So yesterday in class Joaquin had me read this article in English about the citizenship and rights of women and then he had me translate it to him in Spanish. It was a little hard for me to understand it in English so you can imagine how hard it was for me to put it into Spanish, but he said that I got the main ideas across. The article was in Spanish on the opposite page so he already knew what it said. But basically, it was about how women need to know what their rights are and what rights they need in order to fight for them. I don't fully understand the state of women's rights in Guatemala right now but from what Joaquin explained to me, it's the indigenous women that are really lacking rights. He said the only rights they have are to have kids, to have sex, and to clean their houses. What kind of rights are those? He also said that when they walk in the streets with their husbands they always walk behind them, not beside them or in front of them. From what I've heard, they don't even fully have to rights to have kids. They can be pregnant and deliver the baby but if their husband doesn't want another kid or doesn't want a daughter, then they have to abandon the child, unless they want to be abandoned or beaten by their husbands. They don't own their own property or earn their own money so they really have no control. I don't know how accurate all of my knowledge of this is, but I do know that Norma was telling me last week that it's common for women to abandon their babies at the hospitals out of fear of what their husbands will do to them. I've been told by two of my teachers now that it is common here for a girl my age to already have two kids by now! So you can imagine how dependent these women are on their families and how helpless they feel in that situation.
Yesterday we visited Trama, which is a factory and a store for handmade textile goods. This cooperative of women is important because it empowers the women by giving them jobs so that they can earn their own money and support their families without having to ask their husbands for money all of the time. Some of the women are war widows from the civil war and so the income is especially important to them for maintaining their families. We got to see the different steps of weaving and hear about the history of the organization and then we looked around the store. The prices are a little bit higher then what you would pay if you were bargaining in the market but you know that the prices are fair and the money is going to the women who actually made the products and really need the money. I was shocked to hear that it takes 10 hours to make one scarf! But I think that might be for someone who is new to weaving, because they were talking about how they offer lessons there. I'm sure the women who do it daily are faster then that.
Yesterday during class I was trying to say some word, I forget what it was, but it has the double R in it, which means you're supposed to roll the r, which I can not do. Joaquin had me put my pencil between my teeth and try to make the sound. Apparently that's supposed to help, but all it did was make me feel like a fool haha. He said if I do it every day for a few minutes, I'll have a perfect doble erray soon. I don't know about that though haha.
Yesterday I went back to the chocleteria and bought some chocolate covered grapes and they were so delicious. My sun burn has been feeling better too, it went from excruciating (like seriously the worst sunburn I've ever had) to painful and now its just irritating haha. We're having the graduation dinner tonight instead of tomorrow because a couple students are leaving early. I offered to bring pop this week so I don't have to worry about preparing anything again. Friday, there's no activity so Tim and I were thinking of heading back over to the mall and getting some Taco Bell :)
Yesterday we visited Trama, which is a factory and a store for handmade textile goods. This cooperative of women is important because it empowers the women by giving them jobs so that they can earn their own money and support their families without having to ask their husbands for money all of the time. Some of the women are war widows from the civil war and so the income is especially important to them for maintaining their families. We got to see the different steps of weaving and hear about the history of the organization and then we looked around the store. The prices are a little bit higher then what you would pay if you were bargaining in the market but you know that the prices are fair and the money is going to the women who actually made the products and really need the money. I was shocked to hear that it takes 10 hours to make one scarf! But I think that might be for someone who is new to weaving, because they were talking about how they offer lessons there. I'm sure the women who do it daily are faster then that.
Yesterday during class I was trying to say some word, I forget what it was, but it has the double R in it, which means you're supposed to roll the r, which I can not do. Joaquin had me put my pencil between my teeth and try to make the sound. Apparently that's supposed to help, but all it did was make me feel like a fool haha. He said if I do it every day for a few minutes, I'll have a perfect doble erray soon. I don't know about that though haha.
Yesterday I went back to the chocleteria and bought some chocolate covered grapes and they were so delicious. My sun burn has been feeling better too, it went from excruciating (like seriously the worst sunburn I've ever had) to painful and now its just irritating haha. We're having the graduation dinner tonight instead of tomorrow because a couple students are leaving early. I offered to bring pop this week so I don't have to worry about preparing anything again. Friday, there's no activity so Tim and I were thinking of heading back over to the mall and getting some Taco Bell :)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
So yesterday during class I felt my first earthquake ever! Well, I don't know if it really counts as an earthquake because it was really mild. I was taking notes and my teacher stopped and said do you feel that? And at first I was like what are you talking about, but then I felt the room shaking a little. They just call it a "tremble", but I guess its kind of common here because we're right near two volcanoes.
Joaquin was also telling me about how after he finished high school, he did a lot of volunteer work and he volunteered in a children's home for a little while. He told me how there was this cute little boy and he asked the boy if he knew why he was in the home. The kid said he didn't know why, but one night the police showed up and took him away and then next thing he knew, he was at the home. He didn't know where his mother was and he had never met his father. Joaquin later found out that the boy's mother was a prostitute and the police arrested her and brought the boy there. How traumatic for that kid to not even know what happened to his family and to just end somewhere else the next day. He told me another story about this guy that was walking over to a garbage can to throw out his trash from his lunch at McDonald's. A little kid walked over to him and asked him "Did you just eat McDonald's?" and the guy said yeah. The kid asked "How does it taste? Is it delicious?" and then the guy said "You've never eaten McDonald's?" and the boy said no. He lived in one of the children's homes too and he had never tried McDonald's. The guy decided that he was going to get enough money to buy all of the kids (over a 100) a happy meal, which in Spanish is a cajita feliz or a happy box haha. It's kind of sad when you think that something that is so common and cheap to us, these kids had never even eaten before.
Last night we all watched this old movie called El Norte. It about this brother and sister who lose their parents in the civil war in Guatemala and decide to travel to the United States to try to escape the danger in their village. It was sad because they thought that by going north, all their problems would be solved and they thought that the US was perfect and life would be so good for them there, but they slowly realize that it's really hard to be an illegal immigrant in the states. It was a pretty sad movie.
Yesterday for lunch we had these tiny little green pumpkins. They were stuffed with a mix of rice, vegetables, and meat. They were pretty delicious, it was a little bit like a stuffed pepper, but the pumpkins tasted like squash. We've also been having a ton of beans lately. Tim decided that he wanted to learn how to make them so he asked Ana to teach him. Well, apparently there's like a million different kinds and she's teaching him how to make all of them. I think I've had enough beans for a life time.
Joaquin and I were talking about some Guatemalan politics the other day and he was telling me that the current president and his wife recently got divorced. There's a law in Guatemala that once somebody becomes the president, no one else in his family can ever be president. Well, now the president's ex-wife is running for president for the upcoming election. So obviously they just got divorced because she wants to be president, which is a little sketchy. He was telling me about all these bad political decisions she's made. But, there's never been a female president before in Guatemala, so that makes it a little more interesting too. Also, Joaquin doesn't believe that Osama bin Laden is really dead. We had an interesting conversation about that too.
Later today, we're going to Trama which is a fair trade place where Guatemalan war widows work together making all kinds of different things with Guatemalan fabrics- wallets, bags, blankets, clothes, etc. I think they're going to give us a tour of the factory or do a demonstration or something and then we'll have some time to shop.
Joaquin was also telling me about how after he finished high school, he did a lot of volunteer work and he volunteered in a children's home for a little while. He told me how there was this cute little boy and he asked the boy if he knew why he was in the home. The kid said he didn't know why, but one night the police showed up and took him away and then next thing he knew, he was at the home. He didn't know where his mother was and he had never met his father. Joaquin later found out that the boy's mother was a prostitute and the police arrested her and brought the boy there. How traumatic for that kid to not even know what happened to his family and to just end somewhere else the next day. He told me another story about this guy that was walking over to a garbage can to throw out his trash from his lunch at McDonald's. A little kid walked over to him and asked him "Did you just eat McDonald's?" and the guy said yeah. The kid asked "How does it taste? Is it delicious?" and then the guy said "You've never eaten McDonald's?" and the boy said no. He lived in one of the children's homes too and he had never tried McDonald's. The guy decided that he was going to get enough money to buy all of the kids (over a 100) a happy meal, which in Spanish is a cajita feliz or a happy box haha. It's kind of sad when you think that something that is so common and cheap to us, these kids had never even eaten before.
Last night we all watched this old movie called El Norte. It about this brother and sister who lose their parents in the civil war in Guatemala and decide to travel to the United States to try to escape the danger in their village. It was sad because they thought that by going north, all their problems would be solved and they thought that the US was perfect and life would be so good for them there, but they slowly realize that it's really hard to be an illegal immigrant in the states. It was a pretty sad movie.
Yesterday for lunch we had these tiny little green pumpkins. They were stuffed with a mix of rice, vegetables, and meat. They were pretty delicious, it was a little bit like a stuffed pepper, but the pumpkins tasted like squash. We've also been having a ton of beans lately. Tim decided that he wanted to learn how to make them so he asked Ana to teach him. Well, apparently there's like a million different kinds and she's teaching him how to make all of them. I think I've had enough beans for a life time.
Joaquin and I were talking about some Guatemalan politics the other day and he was telling me that the current president and his wife recently got divorced. There's a law in Guatemala that once somebody becomes the president, no one else in his family can ever be president. Well, now the president's ex-wife is running for president for the upcoming election. So obviously they just got divorced because she wants to be president, which is a little sketchy. He was telling me about all these bad political decisions she's made. But, there's never been a female president before in Guatemala, so that makes it a little more interesting too. Also, Joaquin doesn't believe that Osama bin Laden is really dead. We had an interesting conversation about that too.
Later today, we're going to Trama which is a fair trade place where Guatemalan war widows work together making all kinds of different things with Guatemalan fabrics- wallets, bags, blankets, clothes, etc. I think they're going to give us a tour of the factory or do a demonstration or something and then we'll have some time to shop.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
La Tercera Semana
So there hasn't been a ton going on this week so far. The activity yesterday was a tour of historical sights around Xela, but I missed it because lunch went late at our house so I couldn't get to school in time. So Tim and I were sitting at school with nothing to do, so we decided to go over to this restaurant called Blue Angel. They have a ton of DVDs there and you can pay 10Q to watch one on a big flat screen TV, so that's what we did. We watched The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which was a little strange.
My new teacher this week is Jauquin. So far he's been really good because he doesn't go through stuff too fast or too slow and he always makes sure I understand everything before he moves on. He likes to talk a lot which is good for me because I need to practice speaking. He also likes music a lot so we're gonna listen to some Guatemalan music sometime this week.
My new teacher this week is Jauquin. So far he's been really good because he doesn't go through stuff too fast or too slow and he always makes sure I understand everything before he moves on. He likes to talk a lot which is good for me because I need to practice speaking. He also likes music a lot so we're gonna listen to some Guatemalan music sometime this week.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
La Playa
So I went to bed pretty early Friday night because we had to leave early for the beach on Saturday. It takes a little more than two hours to get there and we were in the back of a pick up truck the whole way! The driver was nice though and laid out a sheet and gave us foam pads to sit on. It was actually decently comfortable until about the last half hour of the trip.
There was me and three other students that went, along with the teacher leading the trip and her daughter. It's the Pacific Ocean so everyone was saying that it would be super cold water, but it was so perfect! It was around 95 degrees and the water wasn't cold at all. The sand is black/gray because it's volcanic sand so that was kind of cool to see. We spent the whole morning laying in the sun and playing in the water. There were some pretty rough waves and I saw one guy get stuck and the lifeguard had to go out and get him. A few of the waves knocked me over they were so strong! When we first got there we ordered lunch so that they could have it ready for us when it was time to eat. There was also a pool near the restaurant so we swam in there for a little while too. I ordered fried shrimp and it came with a little bowl of soup which had a non-fried shrimp in it as a sort of garnish and the shrimp still had eyes! They also fried the shrimp with the heads still on them so that was different haha. My friend ordered two meals because she couldn't decide what she wanted and one of the things she got was ceviche. I tried some of it, but I don't think I'll be eating it again any time soon. She couldn't eat all of the food so she fed a stray cat some of the ceviche and she loved it. The cat had a kitten and another family that was at the restaurant for lunch, took the kitten home with them! They just put him in a box and poked some wholes in it. The poor mother cat lost her kitten :(
The ride back to the school was a little bit more painful then the ride there because I got sunburned pretty bad. I don't know what I was thinking- I should've definitely put more sunscreen on after I got out of the water. I'm burnt all over and it's so painful. It was so weird on the way back because one minute it was warm and sunny and then the next second it was down pouring and the streets were flooding. Good thing we had a cover over the back of the truck! But the tarp leaked so I still got pretty wet. I didn't feel too good after we got back, so I ended up taking a nap and then going to bed at 8:30. I don't know if I got too much sun or if it was the shrimp I ate, but I got sick in the middle of the night. Not fun :( I've been feeling better today, but I'm still pretty wiped out.
This morning Tim and I went to the market in Parque Central that's only there the first Sunday of every month. They sell more touristy stuff and lots of jewlery, scarves, etc. I wasn't super impressed with it because it was pretty small and I've seen nicer stuff in other markets in Guatemala so I didn't end up buying anything. For lunch, my host family had a bunch of their extended family over to eat so I played a bunch of games with the kids before it was time to eat. As soon as we were done eating most of the family got up and left, which was kind of weird. You would think they'd want to hang out for a little while but apparently not.
Well, my third week here starts tomorrow! Five more weeks in Guatemala left! I'm starting to miss my own bed and my own shower, etc.
There was me and three other students that went, along with the teacher leading the trip and her daughter. It's the Pacific Ocean so everyone was saying that it would be super cold water, but it was so perfect! It was around 95 degrees and the water wasn't cold at all. The sand is black/gray because it's volcanic sand so that was kind of cool to see. We spent the whole morning laying in the sun and playing in the water. There were some pretty rough waves and I saw one guy get stuck and the lifeguard had to go out and get him. A few of the waves knocked me over they were so strong! When we first got there we ordered lunch so that they could have it ready for us when it was time to eat. There was also a pool near the restaurant so we swam in there for a little while too. I ordered fried shrimp and it came with a little bowl of soup which had a non-fried shrimp in it as a sort of garnish and the shrimp still had eyes! They also fried the shrimp with the heads still on them so that was different haha. My friend ordered two meals because she couldn't decide what she wanted and one of the things she got was ceviche. I tried some of it, but I don't think I'll be eating it again any time soon. She couldn't eat all of the food so she fed a stray cat some of the ceviche and she loved it. The cat had a kitten and another family that was at the restaurant for lunch, took the kitten home with them! They just put him in a box and poked some wholes in it. The poor mother cat lost her kitten :(
The ride back to the school was a little bit more painful then the ride there because I got sunburned pretty bad. I don't know what I was thinking- I should've definitely put more sunscreen on after I got out of the water. I'm burnt all over and it's so painful. It was so weird on the way back because one minute it was warm and sunny and then the next second it was down pouring and the streets were flooding. Good thing we had a cover over the back of the truck! But the tarp leaked so I still got pretty wet. I didn't feel too good after we got back, so I ended up taking a nap and then going to bed at 8:30. I don't know if I got too much sun or if it was the shrimp I ate, but I got sick in the middle of the night. Not fun :( I've been feeling better today, but I'm still pretty wiped out.
This morning Tim and I went to the market in Parque Central that's only there the first Sunday of every month. They sell more touristy stuff and lots of jewlery, scarves, etc. I wasn't super impressed with it because it was pretty small and I've seen nicer stuff in other markets in Guatemala so I didn't end up buying anything. For lunch, my host family had a bunch of their extended family over to eat so I played a bunch of games with the kids before it was time to eat. As soon as we were done eating most of the family got up and left, which was kind of weird. You would think they'd want to hang out for a little while but apparently not.
Well, my third week here starts tomorrow! Five more weeks in Guatemala left! I'm starting to miss my own bed and my own shower, etc.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Week 2 done!
So the soccer game yesterday was actually pretty fun. Somehow the other team ended up having 4 Guatemalans and my team only had one, so that pretty much set us up for failure. We lost 4 to 12. On the walk back to the school afterwards we saw a dog eating some kind of meat and when we got closer, we realized that is was actually the head of a dead puppy! It was the saddest thing ever! My friend said well it´s a dog eat dog world, which would´ve been funny if it wasn´t so gross. For those of you who have never been to Guatemala, there are tons of stray dogs everywhere. They just run around the streets barking and looking for food and they´re dirty and gross. Some are cute and I want to bring them home and feed them but most of them aren´t. My teacher was telling me that the government doesn´t care enough to do anything about the problem and the most they´ve ever done is try to kill them. She said sometimes they´ll put poison out in the streets at night!
Today during class, my teacher and I walked to this bake shop that´s only open two days a week. It´s run by an American Mennonite family, which seems kind of random for Guatemala. They had huge fresh donuts and bagels, tons of cookies, breads, cupcakes, pies, yogurts, and granola. I got a pineapple filled powdered donut and it was so good. I asked my teacher if there were a lot of Mennonites in Guatemala and she said that there was actually a pretty big congregation here in Xela, so there´s an interesting fact for you :)
I also had my test today and I really haven´t been doing that much studying this week. I studied in the morning today and during the break. I did okay on it but not as good as I would have hoped. They don´t actually give you a grade on it, they just correct it and show you what you got wrong. I mostly just messed up on conjugating irregular verbs in the past tense- there´s so much to memorize! I´m going to switch teachers again next week. I really liked my teacher this week but I feel like she moved too fast for me. I didn´t have enough opportunities to review and practice what she was teaching me. So hopefully next week, I´ll get a teacher that goes a little but slower through the material.
After lunch today Tim and I went for a walk to Zona 3 of Xela to the bigger market there to buy fruit for the fruit salad we´re bringing to the dinner tonight. I got three big mangos and a watermelon for 10Q! I can´t beleive how cheap fruits and vegetables are here. Last week for my salad, I bought like 8 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, an onion and a lime all for $1. I was kind of dissappointed though because none of the mangos I bought today were good enough to put in the salad. They were either rotten on the inside or not ripe yet. I don´t know, I´ve never bought mangos before haha. Hopefully the salad tastes good with out them.
To Haley, my neice, I watched iCarly in Spanish today! Analy said it´s one of her favorite TV shows too :)
I learned some pretty interesting things about Guatemala and Xela this week from my teacher. One thing is that the reason that the streets aren´t paved and theres not many stop signs or traffic lights in this area of the city is because it´s considered a historical part of the city and the government wants to try to preserve the history. The streets are really narrow and made of stones like old fashioned cobble stone streets and apparently they´ve been that way ever since people used to ride around them on horses. The people that own the houses and businesses on the streets in this area can´t remodel their houses to be a more modern style and they can only paint their houses certain colors. They also can´t have certain kinds of advertising like bright neon lights. Another thing is that most people here do not use their refridgerators or their ovens. My host family has an oven but they just use it to store left over foods and pots and pans, never to cook in. My teacher said it´s because they can´t hook their ovens up to the wall like we do in the states, they have to buy little tanks of gas like you would for a grill and I guess that gets to be really expensive. I still don´t understand why they don´t use their refridgerators but my host family leaves out mayonaisse, eggs, fruits, vegetables, leftovers, and even milk sometimes. We also hardly ever eat fruits and vegetables, which is weird because they´re so cheap. My teacher told me that a family that eats a lot of fruits and vegetables is seen as having a diet of poor people, which seems kind of strange. My teacher was asking me if I like to cook and bake. She asked me how to make chocolate cookies and I told her about break and bake cookies and she was saying how food in the US is so much easier to cook because we have pre-prepared foods and frozen foods and everything. I´m pretty thankful for that :)
I helped Ana (my host mom) cook again earlier this week. She had shredded up a ton of carrots and then she put in a block of this soft, crumbly cheese (which is wrapped up in a huge leaf when you buy it), an egg, salt, sugar, flour, and some seasoning stuff. She had me mix it all together with my hand and then she made it into these little patties and fried them in a pan. They tasted okay but I don´t think I´ll be making them at home haha. We also had this weird soup the other day. The broth was basically just water and it had huge chunks of vegetables in it. I had like a whole carrot stick, a whole potato, a quarter or this pumpkin squash thing, and like a half of corn on the cobb all in my bowl. I don´t understand why it just wasn´t cut up haha. It was kind of difficult to eat. There was also a chunk of meat in there attached to this huge bone that looked like a lumbar vertebrae which made me not really want to eat it. I said something to Tim about it afterwards and he was like yeah that definitely was a vertebrae! haha- I love that the majority of students at this school are in some sort of medical field and can understand the way I think :)
Anyways, I think I´ve gotten used to the weird meal times and foods here by now. If at home my main food groups are pasta, chicken, and veggies, here they´re eggs, beans, and tortillas. And I´ve actually began to prefer the repetetive eggs and beans to some of the other things we eat.
Today during class, my teacher and I walked to this bake shop that´s only open two days a week. It´s run by an American Mennonite family, which seems kind of random for Guatemala. They had huge fresh donuts and bagels, tons of cookies, breads, cupcakes, pies, yogurts, and granola. I got a pineapple filled powdered donut and it was so good. I asked my teacher if there were a lot of Mennonites in Guatemala and she said that there was actually a pretty big congregation here in Xela, so there´s an interesting fact for you :)
I also had my test today and I really haven´t been doing that much studying this week. I studied in the morning today and during the break. I did okay on it but not as good as I would have hoped. They don´t actually give you a grade on it, they just correct it and show you what you got wrong. I mostly just messed up on conjugating irregular verbs in the past tense- there´s so much to memorize! I´m going to switch teachers again next week. I really liked my teacher this week but I feel like she moved too fast for me. I didn´t have enough opportunities to review and practice what she was teaching me. So hopefully next week, I´ll get a teacher that goes a little but slower through the material.
After lunch today Tim and I went for a walk to Zona 3 of Xela to the bigger market there to buy fruit for the fruit salad we´re bringing to the dinner tonight. I got three big mangos and a watermelon for 10Q! I can´t beleive how cheap fruits and vegetables are here. Last week for my salad, I bought like 8 tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, an onion and a lime all for $1. I was kind of dissappointed though because none of the mangos I bought today were good enough to put in the salad. They were either rotten on the inside or not ripe yet. I don´t know, I´ve never bought mangos before haha. Hopefully the salad tastes good with out them.
To Haley, my neice, I watched iCarly in Spanish today! Analy said it´s one of her favorite TV shows too :)
I learned some pretty interesting things about Guatemala and Xela this week from my teacher. One thing is that the reason that the streets aren´t paved and theres not many stop signs or traffic lights in this area of the city is because it´s considered a historical part of the city and the government wants to try to preserve the history. The streets are really narrow and made of stones like old fashioned cobble stone streets and apparently they´ve been that way ever since people used to ride around them on horses. The people that own the houses and businesses on the streets in this area can´t remodel their houses to be a more modern style and they can only paint their houses certain colors. They also can´t have certain kinds of advertising like bright neon lights. Another thing is that most people here do not use their refridgerators or their ovens. My host family has an oven but they just use it to store left over foods and pots and pans, never to cook in. My teacher said it´s because they can´t hook their ovens up to the wall like we do in the states, they have to buy little tanks of gas like you would for a grill and I guess that gets to be really expensive. I still don´t understand why they don´t use their refridgerators but my host family leaves out mayonaisse, eggs, fruits, vegetables, leftovers, and even milk sometimes. We also hardly ever eat fruits and vegetables, which is weird because they´re so cheap. My teacher told me that a family that eats a lot of fruits and vegetables is seen as having a diet of poor people, which seems kind of strange. My teacher was asking me if I like to cook and bake. She asked me how to make chocolate cookies and I told her about break and bake cookies and she was saying how food in the US is so much easier to cook because we have pre-prepared foods and frozen foods and everything. I´m pretty thankful for that :)
I helped Ana (my host mom) cook again earlier this week. She had shredded up a ton of carrots and then she put in a block of this soft, crumbly cheese (which is wrapped up in a huge leaf when you buy it), an egg, salt, sugar, flour, and some seasoning stuff. She had me mix it all together with my hand and then she made it into these little patties and fried them in a pan. They tasted okay but I don´t think I´ll be making them at home haha. We also had this weird soup the other day. The broth was basically just water and it had huge chunks of vegetables in it. I had like a whole carrot stick, a whole potato, a quarter or this pumpkin squash thing, and like a half of corn on the cobb all in my bowl. I don´t understand why it just wasn´t cut up haha. It was kind of difficult to eat. There was also a chunk of meat in there attached to this huge bone that looked like a lumbar vertebrae which made me not really want to eat it. I said something to Tim about it afterwards and he was like yeah that definitely was a vertebrae! haha- I love that the majority of students at this school are in some sort of medical field and can understand the way I think :)
Anyways, I think I´ve gotten used to the weird meal times and foods here by now. If at home my main food groups are pasta, chicken, and veggies, here they´re eggs, beans, and tortillas. And I´ve actually began to prefer the repetetive eggs and beans to some of the other things we eat.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
La Clase de Salsa y Pescado
So I ended up going to the salsa class yesterday. I had nothing better to do and pretty much everyone else was doing it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but I was still as uncoordinated as I thought I would be haha. We mostly just learned basic steps but when we got to the spins and stuff, I just couldn't figure it out haha. There was a woman who was teaching us and then a younger guy who was helping out, so when the guy saw that I was clueless, he came over and helped me. So I got to salsa dance with a Guatemalan :) Today a bunch of the students are going to play futbol with some of the teachers. Yet another chance for me to show off how uncoordinated I am haha.
Today lunch was so disgusting. It was these little patty things made of fish and like potatoes or something. But it wasn't like regular fish. It was like tiny little sardines or something. While we were eating, I heard Analy say to her mom "Tiene una cabeza! Y ojos!" (It has a head! And eyes!). Oh my goodness, I wanted to throw up haha. I don't like fish to begin with but this was really fishy tasting and crunchy. Probably because of the eyes. She gave me three and I was thinking, okay, I can eat two to be polite. But after that, I couldn't even finish one.
This weekend, we could choose between going to the beach or hiking to a lagoon on top of a volcano. I'm gonna go to the beach beach because last weekend was enough of a hike for me and apparently there's not much to do at the lagoon once you get to the top. My teacher said the beach has black sand because it's volcanic sand. Hopefully it won't rain. Surprisingly, it hasn't rained for the past two or three days.
Today lunch was so disgusting. It was these little patty things made of fish and like potatoes or something. But it wasn't like regular fish. It was like tiny little sardines or something. While we were eating, I heard Analy say to her mom "Tiene una cabeza! Y ojos!" (It has a head! And eyes!). Oh my goodness, I wanted to throw up haha. I don't like fish to begin with but this was really fishy tasting and crunchy. Probably because of the eyes. She gave me three and I was thinking, okay, I can eat two to be polite. But after that, I couldn't even finish one.
This weekend, we could choose between going to the beach or hiking to a lagoon on top of a volcano. I'm gonna go to the beach beach because last weekend was enough of a hike for me and apparently there's not much to do at the lagoon once you get to the top. My teacher said the beach has black sand because it's volcanic sand. Hopefully it won't rain. Surprisingly, it hasn't rained for the past two or three days.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
This week has gone by so much faster than last week! I can´t believe that it`s Wednesday already. Yesterday at school we watched Maria Llena de Gracia, or Maria Full of Grace, which is a movie about drug trafficking from Colombia. It`s a pretty intense movie. I`ve seen it before because we watched it in Spanish class in high school. Today in class, my teacher asked me to tell her about the movie, so we got into a conversation about how drugs are a big problem here in Guatemala. She said there are people here in Xela that drive around in Hummers and there`s no way they can afford them so they must be involved with drugs haha. Also during my class there was some guy out in the street talking through a sound system and I asked my teacher what he was talking about. Apparently he was selling medicine out in the street for cheaper then you can buy it in the pharmacy. You don`t need a perscription here for most medicines, so he was out there selling antibiotics and Xanax for like 10Q. So different than in the states.
After lunch today, Tim (the other student living at my homestay) and I walked around Xela exploring for a little while. We walked through some of the market areas and stuff. They sell a lot of clothes from the states for a lot cheaper. And you can buy Pirates of the Carribean 4, and other movies that are still only in theaters, on DVD for only 5Q.
I feel like my Spanish has definitely improved. Today Tim and I were trying to read a local newspaper and there was an article about Arnold Schwarzenegger because of the affair that hes been having. Apparently the woman is from Xela! Such a small world haha.
After lunch today, Tim (the other student living at my homestay) and I walked around Xela exploring for a little while. We walked through some of the market areas and stuff. They sell a lot of clothes from the states for a lot cheaper. And you can buy Pirates of the Carribean 4, and other movies that are still only in theaters, on DVD for only 5Q.
I feel like my Spanish has definitely improved. Today Tim and I were trying to read a local newspaper and there was an article about Arnold Schwarzenegger because of the affair that hes been having. Apparently the woman is from Xela! Such a small world haha.
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