El Salvador and bus etiquette

So on Wed. i left antigua for San Salvador. I am traveling with Stine, another volunteer from the project from Norway. we bought our bus ticket from a travel agency in antigua, we later realized we paid way to much. on wed we went to guatemala city, and then switched to a pullman style bus to go to San Salvador. It went well except for one hicup on the border. It took us a while to clear the border because on our last trip to El Salvador they gave us a stamp for 90 more days on our visa which they normally dont do because theres an agreement between the countries. i needed to renew my visa so we asked them and they said it was fine. This time around the immigration officer didnt understand why we had the extra 90 days, she had to talk to her boss but eventually said it was fine. We stayed the night in San Salvador and went to the immigration office in the morning to make sure everything was alright. there we found out that our extra 90 days stamp wasnt valid so we needed to get new stamps. we made friends with the immigration officer because she asked us to help her with her english homework. it only took us 3 or 4 hours to get the new stamp which was pretty good. then we left san salvador and got to playa el tunco. this required 2 buses but was very easy to get to. playa el tunco was very relaxing with not very much happening. our first night there, there was a bunch of locals playing in a mini soccer tournament on the beach that was fun to watch. the next day we just relaxed on the beach, i tried to surf a little bit but wasnt able to do much. this morning there was a surf competition at the beach right next to playa el tunco which we got to see some of. we left around noon for san salvador and then took a bus through town and caught another bus to the quiet little town of suchitoto, where i am now. the place we are staying isnt that nice but its only one night here so we think its going to be fine. this afternoon we walked around the town a little bit, it overlooks a nice lake. we had dinner at a pizza place that was very nice and we got to wath the sunset there. now were getting ready to have an early night because were getting up early tomorrow. We are starting at 6:30 in the morning and have to take at least 2 different buses to get to the el salvador/honduras border. then from there another bus up to copan. then either tomorrow afternoon or monday morning we will see the ruins in copan. After that I think i will split up with stine and try to go to utila to scuba dive. i had a little question with insurance but found out that the dive schools cover you with there insurance when you take classes. so hopefully by the end of this week i will be a certified scuba diver. after that i think i will head up to tikal and see the ruins there and then head back to antigua to relax for a few days before my flight home. All my plans are very rough and we will see how closely I will follow them.

Now I want to tell you about bus edicate, which I got to experience today in the buses. We were taking the equivelant of guatemalan chicken buses in honduras and here are some of the rules i learned.
1. Elderly people always have priority to sit in a seat and if they come on a full bus you should stand up to allow them to sit. It was interesting to see this in the buses because they always seem so hectic and chaotic but there also is some order to it.
2. Mothers with babys have next priority. this was not followed as closely but I had a first hand experience with this. A mother holding a baby was standing in the aisle for a little bit and I was thinking of standing up and leting her sit in my seat with my bags. then I looked around and caught the eye of a younger woman and kind of gestured to the mother and she noded. so i got up and let her sit down. Next time i looked around all of the el salvadorians were smiling at me.
3. You have to wait to pay for the bus. This seemed a little strange to me because I was trying to pay when we got on the bus, but actually the buses work with a team of 2 or 3 people. the driver, and two others. the others along long stretches of roads without stops will go around shaking change in the hand and thats when you pay.

It was a very fun experience going on the chiken buses because we got to see more of the el salvadorian culture and interact with more people. I felt even a little bit more safe in these buses then the pullmans because they seemed less likely to be targeted by robbers and the people running them seemed less likley to scam you.

I dont know when Ill have internet next and/or ill have internet long enough to upload my photos. but probably in a week or so ill have photos from my travels up!

Photos from the project

Photos from the project
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107873&id=516009306&l=b0ce52d29b

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107875&id=516009306&l=04e145924e

Already missing Camino Seguro

Yesterday was my last day at the project and I am already missing the kids. The week went well, everything was normal. We had a despedida (going away party) on Wed. because I'm not the only one leaving this week. There are 7 others leaving! After we leave the project is going to be pretty low on volunteers. I decided to make paper cranes for all my kids for my last day, so all of thursday I spent making around 50 paper cranes. My last day was really nice, all the kids kept on saying I needed to stay and asked why I was leaving. I got cards from all the kids which were really nice and really cute, I'm gona keep the cards for as long as I can to remember the kids. It was really sad hugging all the kids goodbye for the last time. My time at the project went by sooo fast. I can't believe its over now. From my time at the project I got to see first hand how hard the kids lives are, and also see how much Camino Seguro is helping the kids, and their whole families. I really want to come back because I think it would be amazing to see how the kids that I work with have grown up. One of my friends here has been here 5 times and he says its amazing to see the kids grow and change. This has been a very powerful experience for me, coming to a new country and the experiences I have had here are amazing. I have had the time of my life here, the past 2 months have been some of the best I have ever had... and now I get to travel. I have pretty much confirmed what I'm doing now. I'm going with my friend from the project who just finished as well, Stine, to El Salvador for 3 or 4 days, get to maybe try some surfing again, then go to Utila, Honduras for 3 or 4 days, get to learn to Scuba dive, then go up back into Guatemala and stay in Rio Dulce for a night, then head up to the Ruins in Tikal, and then get back to Antigua for 1 or 2 days before my flight home. It should be an action packed couple of weeks, hopefully I'll be doing enough stuff that I won't have time to think about the kids and miss them. Anyways, next time I post I might be in El Salvador so bye until then. And I might post some photos later when they upload.

One week of volunteering left

A week has passed by and a lot has happened. Last week was a short week because May 1st was a national holiday, and Thursday was family day. Monday through Wedensday went smoothley and were fun. Tuesday and Wedendsday I brought in my camera to the project to take photos. I had been a little aprehensive about taking my camera to the project because I had already seen some cameras get lost or stolen but it turned out to be great. I let the kids take the camera around and they loved taking photos of everybody. I will post the photos at the end of the blog. On Tuesday, two friends I met in Antigua came to the project. Aaron, and Taylor are studying abroad in Antigua and for one of their final photography projects they came in to Camino Seguro and took pictures. It was a good day and the kids loved having visitors. Thursday was family day and it ran very smoothley. I played bingo with the mothers while they talked with Julvia, my teacher, one on one. Thursday night there was a Camino Seguro party at a group of volunteers house which was a lot of fun. It was cool cause we got to see the staff outside of work. Friday was when the adventure started though... We decided to go to Semuc Champey, one of the biggest attractions in Guatemala, and one of the most beautiful places in the world. We left friday morning around 8, and took a chicken bus to Guatemala City, about 1 hour, that cost 8Q (1$). Then we took a taxi to the Monja Blanca bus terminal where we got a greyhound style bus to go to Coban, about 5 hours away, 50Q (6$). Then once we got to Coban we had to walk to another bus terminal that took us to Lanquin, the nearest town to Semuc Champey, 2 hours, 30Q (4$). This was a very bumpy shuttle that ended up taking us to the tiny town of Lanquin, hidden in the numerous mountains and valleys around there. When we got to Lanquin we got on the back of a pick up truck to head to our Hostel near Semuc Champey. This was another hour, hour and a half. We ended up getting there around 6 or 7 at night and set up our tents by the trucks headlights. There was a small kind of restraunt there and we had brought some food so we ate and hung out for the evening. The next morning we joined a tour of Semuc Champey (I will post my photos of Semuc at the end as well) First we went to the park and hiked for about 20 minutes up the steep side of the valley to get to the Mirador, lookout. This had an incredible view of the river and the pools of Semuc hundreds of meters below us. We then hiked down to the river. First we went to the start of the pools and saw what really makes Semuc Champey amazing. It is created by the huge river going underground and then the pools are above the river. You can see a little ways down the river as it goes underground. We then went and swam around the pools for a while. When we got to the other end of the pools, the guide tied a rope to a rock and we climbed down a fairly steep rock face to see where the river came out from underground. We had to swim across the river which had a pretty strong current and then climb up some rocks. We then were able to go up the cave a little bit and see the underground river. It was amazing, the rocks were incredible and there were bats flying around. We then climbed up the other side of the river and this is where I did one of the craziest things that day. Me and 4 other people jumped off a rock that was about 50 feet high. That wasnt the craziest thing, it was crazy because we had to aim where we jumped because there was a rock on onesided of the pool under about 3 or 4 feet of water so we had to jump to the right to land in the deep water. It was amazing, but I dont know if I would do it again. Then we chilled in the pools a little bit more and went back to the camp site for lunch. Then we went to the Maria Caves which was another amazing experience. These caves are formed by an underground river and so for the tour we just had candels we had to hold as we waded through the water. At some points we also had to swim so we had to hold the candel with one hand and swim with the other. At one point there was a rock about 10 feet high in the cave that we were able to jump off of which was fun. Then at the end we had to squeeze through a little gap with a kind of water fall and drop down 6 or 7 feet into a lower pool. That was kind of scary cause you were dropping down into pitch black. It was an amazing experience. Then we got back and the tour had included tubing but the guides had left so we just went by ourselves. It was getting dark so we just tubed down the river for 30 minutes or so, it was nice though. I fell asleep early that night because it was an exhausting day. We then got a shuttle straight back from Lanquin to Antigua which was nice, so we didnt have to worry about switches or anything and could just fall asleep. We got back to Antigua around 3 and had the rest of the day to relax and shower. Today was a good day in the project as well, nothing unusual happened. I will take the camera in my last couple days probably to get some last pictures of the kids. Here are the links to the photos and next time I post ill probably have finished volunteering. It went by so quickly and Im gona miss the kids so much...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106532&id=516009306&l=d6545ccb91
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106552&id=516009306&l=febc7b22b4
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106562&id=516009306&l=5fc00de166
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106563&id=516009306&l=4ffa2ee7cd
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106567&id=516009306&l=2575547d08

Volcan Acatenango

So i'll just go through how my weekend went from start to finish:
7:00- Wake up, have breakfast at my homestay, check my bag that everything is packed.
8:00- Billy comes over and we head out to meet the other people were going with, Jacob, Evan, Lizzy an Lily
8:30- Everyone meets up and we head behind the market to try to find a bus to La Soledad (Solitude), the pueblo near the trailhead. Are first offer came from a guy with a pick up truck who offered to take us there for 300Q (~$35) but we had heard that there was a bus that went to San MIguel, a pueblo near Soledad. The truck driver said it was another 30 km but he didnt seem very trust worthy. We then found the Chicken Bus that was going to San Miguel and decided to take it, luckily it was not very crowded. The bus driver said that La Soledad was only another 3km past San Miguel.
9:20- We get to San Miguel, the bus costed 3Q (35 cents) and we asked around and the locals said if we walked down to the bridge there are usually pick up trucks going to La Soledad that you can hitch rides from. Some of the locals told us it was 6km, and some told us it was 13km, we didnt really know what to believe.
10:00- After getting to the bridge we tried to flag down maybe 10 or 15 trucks but none of them stopped. We were starting to get anxious and so Billy went down the road to try to find a number of a taxi. Right as he went down the road he stopped to talk to a truck driver and the driver offered to take us to La Soledad for 10Q each. We hopped into the back of his pick up truck, trying not to squash the vegetables he was taking to the pueblo and set off. 13km was probably around the most accurate estimate we got for the distance, and it was about a 20 or 30 minute ride on a gravel road in the back of the pick up
10:45- The truck driver stops and shows us where the trail head is for Acatenango, we pay him and thank him and he drives off.
11- We have started heading up the trail and we start to see the beginning of why they say Acatenango is so hard, the trail started on a sort of ravine between corn fields where we were walking through volcanic ash. Making every 2 steps we took slide half a step back. After maybe 30 minutes we saw a sign for turning of this path to go to the summit. We went there a walked through some more cornfields before passing a little straw hut on our right. This was when we started to go into the forest. After about 30 minutes more we came to the first of 5 "Descansos" (a rest stop kinda place). It was better than what we expected to be on the volcano, with a little wood shelter and some benches.
12- We kept on walking up and up through the forest. It was constant switch backs and I would say the slope never was less than around a 30 degree angle.
1:30- We stopped for lunch at one of the Descansos and kept on heading up. We met 2 people coming down who said it was around 2 or 3 hours more. I think it was around then that we started heading up into the clouds. We started to only be able to see about 30 ft. around us and thats when things started to get worse. It started getting a little windy and a few drops of rain fell. We got a little higher and no more rain fell, it started HAILING. Little bee bee size balls of hail started falling for around 20 minutes. After that it was windy with a few on and off drizzles.
4- With the conditions still not being that great we finally came out of the tree line. This, however, did not mean we were very close to the top. We still had about an hour or an hour and a half of steep hiking up switch backs up the ridge, in the clouds, with strong winds. It was pretty intense but we finally got to what we later found out to be the first false peak. We didnt really know at the time because we could only see around 5 or 10 feet around us. The false peak was all volcanic rock and gravel so we decided to just stop and set up camp because we didnt want to walk in circles on the rock because there was no real path.
5:30- Freezing, in the clouds, and in the rain we ran around trying to set up the tent and get our packs under the tarp. Before the weather me, billy, and jacob, had been planning on sleeping on or under a tarp we brang but it was a unanimous decision that we all should just pile into the tent that lily, lizzy, and evan brought. It was a 2 person tent that ended up having 6 people in it all night. It took us about 20 minutes to set up the tent and then we all piled in and shared are body warmth.
All Night- I think the most anyone slept during the night was 1 or 2 hours and it was a small smelly oddly warm tent. It was warm because of the people but if you sat up in the tent you would just get wafts of horrible smelling wet or damp clothes, sweaty bodies, and the general dirtiness that comes from a day of hard hiking.
5am- Me, BIlly, and Jacob ended up getting up around 5 to try to see the sunrise. It was clear around summit but there were still lots of clouds which made it not that great of a sunrise. It was really cool though because we were above a huge layer of clouds and were able to see the points of other volcanoes and mountains, like Agua. I have some pictures that I will post at the end.
6-Billy and Jacob decided to go to the real summit, about 150 meters higher, and about a 1 hours hike up the steep gravely sides. The rest of us decided to stay and rest a little bit more, we decided the view was not gona be that much better and we could kind of see that Fuego, the volcano behind the actual Summit (a very active volcano) was not really erupting. The went there and back in about 1.5 hours and we broke camp, ate breakfast, and readied ourselves for the descent.
8-We started going down which was very cool because it was clear so we could really see what we had done the day before. We were impressed by what we had accomplished. Going down went very quickly, we were able to jog/run down the switch backs kind of like a slalom. So parts that took us 1.5 hours before took us 30 minutes. The descent was very beautiful because it was so clear and we stopped in many places to see the view. It ended up taking us around 2.5 hours for us to get down the volcano, as opposed to the 6 hours it had taken to go up.
10:30- Earlier in the morning at the top of the volcano Jacob had talked to the guatemalans who were up there as well and they had said that there was a bus back to antigua at 11. So we walked down the road at the bottom of the trailheads and asked some locals about the bus. They said we just had to wait on the road we were on and a bus would come heading to Chimaltenango and if we got of at Parredos, there were buses every 5 minutes to Antigua.
11:15- The bus came a little late but we got on and it was very crowded, like the stereo typical chicken buses. I had to stand right near the driver because I couldnt even get down the aisle. The guy on the bus ripped us off and made us pay 7Q instead of 3Q which is what I had seen the locals pay. But even so, thats still less than a dollar. The chicken buses are ridiculous because they pick so many people up and theres a guy at the door that will just kind of shove the person on, and as soon as his feet are off the ground he jumps on and shouts "dale" and off the bus goes again. Then there were people who had big bags of vegetables or firewood and the guy at the door would jump off and take it and climb/throw the bag on the top of the bus. To do this he has to climb the back of the bus, and one time, the guy was on the back of the bus and he just shouted "dale" and the bus went and then when the bus slowed for a speed bump he just jumped off and ran back up to the door and got on. The bus didnt even have to stop. It is a surprisingly efficient method of travel. We got back to Antigua around 12:15 and I went back took a nice long shower and have been relaxing the rest of the day.

That pretty much sums up my trip to Acatenango, which to say the least was a real adventure. I'm not sure when i'll post next but here are some pictures.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=104809&id=516009306&l=525bb938ad
and the descent-http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=104827&id=516009306&l=0a9194382a

Less than 3 weeks left at Camino Seguro

Time has been flying by working at Camino Seguro. It's crazy to think that I'll be leaving the project in 2 1/2 weeks. I'm going to miss the kids a lot. It's been amazing getting to know the kids, its been a very interesting experience as well, with all the different characters. I'll give you guys a little overview of some of the kids in my classes. In the morning it's 7th graders and there are a couple of different groups, they're the girls from Inca JV school who always are making jokes with themselves and never seem to split up, then they're the three lovers from Penatt school who are always touching each other, whether it's fighting or hugging, then there are Oscar and Hector who always steal the toothpaste at lunch, and Julio who is the lady's man in the class. Then in the afternoon the kids are in 4th grade. There is the class trouble maker Carlos, then there is Miguel, Fransisco, and Eduar who always are together talking or fighting. Then there's Jonson who always shows off his breakdancing skills (they are pretty impressive, he can walk down a staircase while doing a handstand) and always says "Que onda voz" (Whats up dude). Then the girls in the afternoon- There's Katy, the daughter of the cook at Camino Seguro who is always everywhere at once, and whenever I pick up the guitar she wants me to sing Hallelujah. Then there is Kimberly who will always hang on my arm. Then there is Karen who is the one of the nicest and smartest girls in the class. Those are some of the kids that I have gotten to know during my time at Camino Seguro. Outside of the project I didnt do much this weekend. I am planning on hiking volcano Acatenango this weekend and spending the night there. I think it is the 3rd tallest volcano in Guatemala, and it looks over the crater of Fuego, one of the most active volcanoes in Guatemala. So if were lucky we'll get to see a huge fireworks display of lava at night, and then wake up for the sunrise on top of a volcano. The weekend after I am going to Semuc Champey with some other volunteers. This is supposed to be a beautiful series of pools with beautiful swimming and caves to explore. I am also starting to figure out what my plans after the project will be. I think I will first head north to Flores, and see the Mayan ruins at Tikal, then I will head south to Lago Izabel, with Rio Dulce and Livingston. Then I will head down to Utila, Honduras. I will spend the majority of the time in Utila I think, it is a bay island of the coast of Honduras. I think I will try to learn to scuba dive there, and I also am in contact with the Whale Shark Research Center in Utila and possibly might volunteer there for a week. This would be amazing, because this would give me the opportunity to swim and possibly scuba dive with whale sharks, the largest fish in the world. Whale sharks can get as large as 15 meters long. After Utila I will head back to Antigua and Guatemala City for my flight, and if I have time I might stop by Copan and see the Mayan ruins there. I am incredibly excited about this traveling and although I will miss the kids immensely, I think I am going to have a blast traveling. I don't know if anything else has really happened thats that interesting, work is going along well, I've been teaching some of the kids a little guitar at lunch but not much. I don't know if there will be enough time to organize any actual kind of lessons for me to give to the kids. I got to play guitar with the accountant at Camino Seguro today, Moises, which was a lot of fun. He new lots of American classics and we played together while I waited for the kids to finish showering in the bathrooms. I don't think there is anything else to say, so when I post next i'll probably have been up and back again from a Volcano and should have some good stories.

Back To Work

So work has started back up and things are getting back in a rhythm. Things are getting back to how they were before Semana Santa. Not that much has happened thats interesting, though I have noticed an interesting trend. As the kids get more comfortable with me and start interacting with me more they start to talk to me more, this is good and bad. Now with the kids talking to me more I have to try to understand them more and so more and more I have to tell them to speak slower and repeat themselves. Its a funny cycle because the more they want to interact the harder the interactions become. A good example of this was today, during my morning class, some of the girls started talking to me and I could not understand them. I kept on having to ask them "What?" and to repeat themselves. They kept on asking me why I didnt speak very much and I told them it was because Spanish was hard for me. Then during lunch there was a film crew for a TV show there and I was talking to one of the people there in english about the project and my time there, and at one point one of the girls in my class turned around and said "wow, you actually can talk a lot!" The film crew was kind of interesting. It was a group of people from New Zealand with a famous New Zealand singer Anika Moa. They filmed me and asked me some questions about the project and my time here. I'm not sure exactly what kind of thing it was, they said it was for some New Zealand TV show. So that was kind of interesting. One development that I've had in the project that I'm not sure where it is going is that one of the volunteers who has been here I think over 2 years started asking me about possibly giving guitar lessons to some of the kids. She said that there were a few who had taken lessons before from one of the teachers at the project but now the teacher doesnt have time. So I might be giving guitar lessons at some point, although I don't know exactly how the logistics will work out and how long it might take to work them out. Other than that everything has been going great as normal. I had Salsa classes this evening and I might be going out later to try to practice some of the stuff I learned. I'll probably post in a couple days, or when some interesting things come up.

El Salvador and Semana Santa

So a lot has happened since my last post and i'll try to recap it all. Monday morning we got up around 8 to go to the surf shop where we would be taking a van to El Salvador. We decided to go and buy a camera we had been looking at before we left because mine broke and Billy lost his or it got stolen. We did something that we are now doing quite frequently now is saying that we are volunteers and lots of places have discounts. I got about a 60 or 70q discount on the camera. So we left Antigua and it was a much much smoother ride than any of the other times I have gone out of the city. It took about 2 hours to get to the border of El Salvador. There we just had to go to a window and get our passports stamped and that was about all the border security there was. It took another 1.5-2 hours to get to El Zonte, the beach we were staying at. The hotel we were staying at was really nice and beautiful. I have some pictures that i'll post at the end. We stayed in a little bungalo type room that was really nice. The beach right near the hotel was for more experienced surfers so we walked about 5 minutes down the beach to start our lessons. The lessons were alright, but once we learned the basics the teachers basically would say go out and practice it. There were 3 teachers, Ga, who was the most helpful one, and to others who would really only say "dale dale dale!" (go go go) when it was a wave they thought we should go on. We only really went on the white wash the first day and didnt get much bigger the second and third day. It was a little disappointing because the waves we went on werent big enough to be able to ride across so we would really only be riding them in straight towards the beach. It was pretty hard but I kind of got the hang of it after a while. While we werent surfing we would hang out on the beach throwing the frisbee or chill in the pool at the hotel. The food was amazing and all in all we had a great time. We came back on Wedensday afternoon and I was tired and sunburnt so I had a relaxing night. The same for thursday as well, I was still tired and sunburnt so I relaxed a lot of the day but I did do something really fun and interesting. I went with my friend Billy and there was a procession near our houses so we walked around and looked at the alfombras. Then we saw some friends we had met earlier in Antigua and they were helping create an Alfombra and invited us to join. It was outside one of their host families houses. For people who dont know exactly how an Alfombra is made I can now tell you. First a frame is laid out on the street in varying sizes, the one we helped with was maybe 6 feet wide and 20 or 30 feet long. Then sand or plain sawdust is put down as a base for the color to go over. After that using a sort of siv, they evenly spread whatever the base color is going to be, usually there is a main color in the middle and another one as a border. Then they have wooden or cardboard designs that they carefully place on the base color that are filled with many different colors. They have boards that go over the alfombras so that the workers can reach the designs. I have lots of photos of this to that I will post at the end as well. All of this takes the whole morning and into the afternoon, and the end product is a beautifully designed carpet. Then when the procession comes they people walk over the Alfombras and the remenants are swept up when the procession has passed. I went to sleep early on Thursday night because Alicia, my host mother, had invited me and the other volunteers at my house to go out at 5 in the morning and see the alfombras before one of the main processions. It was very interesting, there were tons of people out that early in the morning and there were some incredible Alfombras. There were ones that had little detailed models of churches on them, huge ones 40 or 50 feet long made completely of fruits and vegetables, and really detailed ones with butterflies and birds. Everything is going great, my week of vacation and Semana Santa are coming close to an end. I don't have any plans for this weekend so we'll see what comes up. Here are the photos of:
El Salvador - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100574&id=516009306&l=d32e1548e9
Alfombras -http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100584&id=516009306&l=06e347d22f

Finally Better

A lot has happened since i posted last... ill try to remember everything that has happened. First, on monday I talked with Yaelle, the volunteer coordinator, and she told me I should go to the doctor. The hospital happened to be on the complete other side of town so I ended up having to walk a good 20 minutes to get there. What I found out there was that I had parasites so the doctor gave me a perscription for 3 different medications. I returned by way of the supermarket and got the medicine at the pharmacy there. I took the medicine but still wasnt feeling to great that night, I was thinking I probably wouldnt be able to go into work on Tuesday as well. I decided I would wake up and see how I felt in the morning. It was amazing, overnight I seemed to get almost completley better, I was able to eat breakfast and go to the project. It was definantly a more tiring day but I was able to do it and I missed working at the project, as almost a week had past since I last worked. I had enough energy that night to go to Salsa classes which were great as always, and I went to sleep early and exhausted. Wedensday was a little bit different then normal. Yaelle asked me and couple other volunteers to help with food bags in the morning, I didnt know exactly what this entailed but wanted to help. We went to the Guardaria where all the supplies were and we had to fill up bags with all the supplies. There were bags of rice, beans, noodles, chicken broth, sugar, salt, bottles of oil, even bottles of some sort of acne cream that someone donated. All of this was put in bags that during the next day would be picked up by the parents. Camino Seguro does this once a month for all the families. We ended up having to fill over 400 bags, it took us the whole morning. There was a barbeque at lunch which was very good and I was invited to a soccer game later that night with a group of the Social Workers from Camino Seguro. So that night around 7:30 I walked about 10 minutes outside of town to the soccer field. It was a lot of fun, it was a sort of mini tournament with 3 teams, one being from Camino Seguro, the one I was on, one was some bus drivers from the city and the other I think was a local team. It was a small pitch and we played 5v5, my team lost 6-5 but it was a lot of fun. I think I scored 2 of the goals. I got a ride back from Eric, one of the Social workers at Camino Seguro later that night. Thursday was very different from normal as well, it was family day at Camino Seguro. This meant that all of the parents of the kids came to the project and got to meet with the teachers and visit the program. It seemed like it went very well, all of the parents seemed interested. They would talk with the teachers and then there were some other activities, like a skit about communication from the Social Workers and meetings with counselers from the project. I was able to talk with the parents a little but mostly I entertained there kids while they were meeting with the teacher. That night I got to switch rooms in my homestay because one of the volunteers just moved into an apartment. So now my room is much bigger and I have a much bigger and softer bed. Today was the last normal day before the week long Semana Santa break. It was interesting because the project is just starting to try out a new way of doing attendance. They now have a thumb print scanner at the door so when all the kids come in in the morning or afternoon they just scan there thumb and they get put into the computer system. This way they also can be marked as late or absent. Today was more of a relaxing day because most of the kids have finished their exams that they had been studying for during the past 2 weeks. Im writing this during my lunch break so I need to go and be with the kids now. I dont know when I will post next because there is a possiblity I might be traveling to El Salvador for Semana Santa during our week off. We are figuring out tonight whether we are going tomorrow morning or on monday, I think were going to try to learn how to surf there. It should be a lot of fun. Then when we come back we will be in Antigua for one of the largest Easter celebrations in the continent!

Un Poco Enfermo

So on wednesday night after I posted last I ended up starting to feel sick. Thursday we did not have work because of the situation with the buses and I ended up trying to relax as much as I could. Friday I didnt go into work because I was still feeling sick. I started feeling better on Saturday and ended up going to The Earth Lodge that night which i'll talk about a little later, but then when I got back home today I started feeling sick again. So i'm not sure if I'm going to go to work tomorrow. The Earth Lodge was a cool place, it is about 7km away from Antigua in the hills. It is a kind of nature resort place. We got there around 7 and there was an amazing family style dinner there with about the 10 or so other people who were there. I was kind of mad because I my stomach was still feeling bad so I wasnt able to eat much. I had an early night because I wasnt feeling completley better and the next morning we got up and were able to see the view. It was a really nice view of one of the surrounding pueblos of antigua in the valley. We had a relaxing morning with some more good food and met some cool people. When we came back we had to get dropped off at the edge of town because there was a huge procession going on and the streets were packed. It took a long time to wade through the crowd and get back home. I think that today was just a sample of what easter will be like here, with all the streets completely packed. Anyways I don't have much to talk about seeing as I've just been trying to fight of my sickness, I'm not sure if i'll got in to work or not, I might end up going to the doctor. I'll post soon though when I have some more to talk about.

More time at Camino Seguro

Things have been going pretty well down here, although I have been having to deal with huge shocks from the different culture and just the completely different and terrible situation that is currently in Guatemala. One of the first things I encountered when at Camino Seguro I already talked about a little. It hard while in the project with all the kids are running around and laughing and screaming, to think about the situation the kids are in. I learned very quickly once I arrived because I had to do questionnaires. It was hard to do just because I was talking with kids and I had to ask if they had a father before I was able to ask one of the questions on the sheet, what was their parents jobs. Then it really struck me when while asking about the kids favorite activities many of them said coming to Camino Seguro everyday. It really struck me that this was a place that the kids were able to escape there day to day life. I think this was the reason that it was so easy for the children to run around and play even after I had just been talking to them about the hardships of their family. Today I had another shock to the system though. The day started off fine and the morning ran smoothly, but then during lunch Yaelle, the volunteer coordinator told us that the project would be closing early today. This was because just today 4 of the inner city bus drivers in Guatemala City had been killed. She told us how it wasn't uncommon for gangs to demand money from the bus drivers, and if the say no then they get killed. Already this year 30 bus drivers have been killed. As a result of this all the inner city busses stopped running because they are demanding more protection from the government. It is possible the project won't open tomorrow because the busses may still be on strike and so many people rely on the busses around the city. It is crazy to think that almost 1 bus driver every 3 days is killed. These are realities in Guatemala. I am starting to read the news paper around here and would encourage people to look at local Guatemalan news. Prensalibre.com is a good Guatemalan news website, i'm not sure if you can get it in english but it is a good local news station. Apart from some of these shocks things are going well, i've been writing and grading some review quizes for the kids homework and been helping them out with there work. One of the best things that has happened was one lunch at the project I was playing the song Hallelujah on the guitar. As many of you may know this is one of the main songs in the movie Shrek. A bunch of kids started coming over and singing along to the chorus and afterwards kept on wanting me to play "Cancion de Shrek". Anyways, I will be getting a call tonight saying whether I will go to work tomorrow or night. Tonight also it my friend Billy's birthday here so I'll be going out, and I also am playing a basketball game with Yaelle's boyfriend which should be fun. I'm going to Salsa lessons now so I'll post in a couple days.

First Week of Camino Seguro

This past weekend I went to Lake Atitlan and it was amazing. It was about a 2 and 1/2 bus ride through windy mountain roads but once we got there it was definantly worth it. We got into Panajachel but then took a boat across the lake to San Pedro. San Pedro was a really hippy town with lots of bars with hammocks and animals and stuff. We had a beautiful dinner sitting on a deck looking over the Lake. On Sunday we went to San Marcos, a more quiet town (i don't know if you could even call it a town seeing as the only roads were skinny dirt paths to walk between the various hippy stores and resteraunts) and we went Kayaking. It was beautiful and I have some pictures that i'll post the link to. Then we got back and I found out the results of the ACC basketball tournament and my weekend was even better. I started at Camino Seguro on monday and I've been pretty busy since. I was assigned to a 7th grade class in the morning and 4th graders in the afternoon, all with the same teacher, Julvia. The classes are going amazing. For the first 2 days all the volunteers had to do some questanares that were being sent to the children's sponsers. I got to meet all the kids this way. It was kind of hard asking some of the questions though because we had to ask what their parents jobs were and too many to count either didn't know where their father was or he was dead. The kids are amazing though, it is incredible that they are able to stay motivated with their education even in the situation that they are in. My back is kind of getting sore though from picking up all of the kids. Everything is going great though and I am really happy with the program. On monday night after I got back from the project I went to the Monoloco where there was a speaker about the history of Guatemala for the volunteers. She was very interesting, she was a reporter in Guatemala during the civil war and has wrote a book about it. She was able to tell first hand accounts of the situations that Guatemala had in it's past. It is crazy too because she was talking about how now is a really important time too, because around 60 million pieces of paper were found in a police building recording ever arrest, legal or illegal for around a decade. These papers are in the hands of the military right now and the court is currently handling this situation. So I am starting to try to read the newspaper more to keep up to date with these current events. Then last night I had some salsa lessons which were fun and then went out with some other volunteers to celebrate St. Patty's day. I am getting pretty tired from all of the work and I think this weekend I might just stay around Antigua, so maybe i'll post again sometime this weekend.
Here are the photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94453&id=516009306&l=ba23d94f6e

Done with Spanish Classes... Off to Atitlan

So today was my last spanish class at La Union, in Antigua Guatemala. I felt like I learned more in these past 2 weeks than I did in all my years of taking spanish in school. I got a little certificate from the school saying I achieved a middle intermediate level of spanish, which for me I think is pretty good. This week I did some afternoon activities with La Union, on Monday and Tuesday I went to Salsa classes which were a lot of fun. Then on Wednesday I went to a Cafe Plantation which was very interested. We got to see how the Coffee was made and stuff. It's really cool, they figure out the good and the bad coffee buy floating it in water and the good Coffee is denser and heavier and will sink to the bottom while the bad Coffee rises to the top. When we asked where the bad Coffee went we learned that that was what was sold mostly to the Guatemalans and all of the good Coffee was exported. We also learned a little more about the History of Guatemala and the problems that Guatemalans have had to deal with. Things like supposedly one of the nations leading exports is children. Which I have no heard from 2 different guides on 2 different tours. Then yesterday, on thursday, I took a tour of the ruins in Antigua with La Union. They were amazing and had a tremendous history of lots of earthquakes and reconstruction. I will post links to my pictures at the end. I am now getting ready for traveling this weekend to Panajachel, a small city on the coast of Lake Atitlan which is supposed to be amazing. I am going with a group of students and volunteers that I have met since being here. I am looking forward to starting with Camino Seguro next week, i'm not sure where I will be placed but I am definitely ready to help out. I'm not sure if i'll be able to find a bar in Panajachel where I can watch the ACC tournament but I am going try. Well, I won't be here this weekend and I start working next week so I don't now when I'll post next but in the mean time here are some new photos...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=93317&id=516009306&l=8947e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=93925&id=516009306&l=559ff

1 week past

I have been in Guatemala for a little over a week and it's awesome. Yesterday I hiked volcan pacaya. It was amazing, it was about 1 hour away from Antigua and is the most consistently active volcano in Guatemala. It was about 1 and a half hours steep climb up the volcano. We got fairly close to the top and the guide said that we could go higher if we wanted to but it was at our own risk. There were lots of people doing it and it was amazing. When we got higher I came across some lava under some rocks. It was amazing because you could feel it getting warmer as you neared the top and then there was the lava. We had walking sticks and i just stuck it in the hole where the lava was, without touching anything, and it burst into flame. It was amazing. Going down was a little bit scary because the rocks were very loose and slippery. We ended up going down most of the rest of the volcano with flashlights. We got back safely and returned to Antigua around 9. When we returned I went out with some of the other volunteers and some other people we had met. Sunday morning I went to Quaker meeting in Antigua. It was at a woman named Martha's house and there was a total of 5 people, including me. It was very nice and we had a nice potluck afterward. It was nice to meet Quakers in Guatemala. This afternoon I went to a local bar and watched the Duke UNC game, which was fun even if the result wasnt what I wanted. I was tired from Saturdays hiking so I slept a lot today. I'm about to go outside because there is a procession from a church near here at 9:30. Every church has a procession on one of the sunday going up until easter. The family I am staying with has been making a type of alfombra for the procession. They made their alfombra with grass and flowers and it is very pretty. Well thats it for now, I'll be going to more spanish classes this week, so i'll post again in a bit.

Photos

i have some new photos up
antigua - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=92002&id=516009306&l=bd0c7
el basurero -http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=92004&id=516009306&l=f293a

Camino Seguro

Last night I went to the Monoloco for a fundraiser for Camino Seguro. It was a lot of fun, I got to meet up with Josh Lozoff, for those of you who don't know, Josh is an amazing magician who actually went to Carolina Friends School when he was young. I also met up with Arnie, the father of Leah, a CFS graduate who has spent lots of time with Camino Seguro. Arnie is on the board of directors. Barbra, the president of camino seguro, was happy to hear that I made it and had come because of there presentation at CFS.

Today I had my orientation for Camino Seguro and I am going to try to remember all the stuff I learned today. I had a very good tour of the basurero, garbage dump, and the different projects of Camino Seguro. I went to the Camino Seguro office at 8 in the morning with my housemate, Daniel, where we met others who were going on the tour. It was about a 45 minute bus ride from Antigua to Guate. First we went to the Basurero and Freddy, our guide, told us about some of the history of Guatemala and the dump. It was striking, I don't think it would have been possible for me to have had an idea of how big the dump was. It was in a huge ravine, and we looked down on it, and everything around it was dead because of the terrible methane gas produced by the dump. Freddy told us about how the people would collect anything and things like a huge stack of cardboard were worth maybe 4 or 5 quetzales, about 40 cents. The people who worked in the dump would maybe be able to make a dollar a day. Freddy told us about the terrible corruption and the municipality as well. Just to work in the dump the people need to buy ID's from the municipality, gov't, for 40 Quetzales. And then the municipality does stuff they say to help the workers but it is terrible. They created a day care except it costs around 10 or 15 Quetzales for every person. And there is a clinic, except it costs 5 to 10 Quetzales per pacient, and when your working for around 10 quetzales per day its crazy. The municipality also has "donated" money for the kids for school but it comes out to less then 10 Quetzales per kid, which is no where near enough. Freddy said that with supplies and the stupid required uniform it costs over 500 Quetzales for a child to go to school. The tour was a real eye opener. After the dump we visited the Guarderia, nursery, where kids from 1 to 4 years of age go. It was a very nice facility and it was impresive what they did. With donations they are able to focus on a healthy diet and for the first time in the 9 years of the programs existence every kid in the school passed the nutrition test. Meaning none of the children were malnurished. Then we went to the womans project which was impresive. This was a project for the mothers in camnio seguro because if the mothers are sick and not doing well then there children are going to as well. The women were starting to make jewlery out of recycled materials from the dump. It was very pretty, and it was cool because the women were starting to try to form a buisness out of it. Then we went to the escuela, this was the main building in Guate and is where the main school is. It was very pretty. Freddy told us about how the University of Washington comes down each year with of group of architecture students and builds something new. This year the finished a very nice garden in the central courtyard. We watched a movie about Camino Seguro which was very powerful. After all of this we returned to Antigua where we met Yaelle, the volunteer coordinator. She took us around Antigua and talked with us. Through talking with her I decided to take another week of Spanish lessons at La Union because they are very helpful and as Yaelle was saying, to get the most out of the experience the better your spanish the better it will be. I also bought a cell phone today in el mercado. It was a long day and it was very tiring so I have been sleeping most of the afternoon. And later tonight I am going to the Cafe Sky with daniel which is a place with a terrace on the 3rd story where you are supposed to be able to see Volcan Fuego errupting at night.

5 days down

Hello Everybody, it is wedensday night and Guatemala is still amazing. The spanish lessons are going very well and I am thinking about possibly taking another week of lessons next week. Yesterday afternoon I participated in one of the activies of La Union, the spanish school. It was called a mayan afternoon and I got to learn about the mayan culture. There were about 10 other students on the trip and we went to San Antonio, an indegenous town about 15 minutes from Antigua. It was fun, we reenacted a mayan wedding and got to try on traditional mayan clothes. I volunteered and was the husband in the pretend wedding. We also had traditional wedding food, it was very good. In my free time I have been studying spanish a lot and going around the town. I´ve visited a music shop here and have been playing some guitar. Today after my lessons I was supposed to go to La Volcan Pacaya, with La Union. We left around 2 but there was a huge traffic jam and we were not able to go. I will be going on Saturday now. Pacaya is the most consistnetly active volcano in Guatemala so it should be amazing. Tonight I am going to a local resteraunt ¨"monoloco" where there is a fundraiser for Safe Passage. Josh Lozoff is performing there, who is a magician who attended Carolina Friends School. Its a small world. I need to go now so I will post again soon.

Arrival

I arrived in Guatemala City 2 days ago. I was picked up at the airport by Cesear and his wife. On the way to Antigua we had to stop at a gas station because it was so hot and Cesear needed to pour water on the engine to cool it. The traffic was very chaotic and seemed to be very dangerous. I got to Antigua which is very different from Guatemala City. Antigua has cobble stone streets and is very beautiful. There are 3 huge volcanoes surrounding Antigua. In Antigua I met my host mother, Alicia Ramirez, and her husband Mario. The house is small but nice. There are 2 other volunteers staying in the same house, Daniel, from New York, and Maria, from France. I went out my first night with Daniel and Maria and was introduced to La Antigua. Antigua is an amazing city, with lots of small cafes, bars, and restaurants. I slept in on sunday and then went to lunch and met some of the other volunteers. Sunday night me and my house mates attended Catholic Mass. It was crazy. It was the first sunday of lent, so there was a parade, and lots and lots of loud fireworks. Today I started my spanish lessons at "La Union" a spanish language school that is literally right around the corner from my home. My teachers name is Delia and my lesson went very well. The school is very nice and I had my lessons on a small table in a small grassy courtyard. I'm taking a nap now before dinner. I have posted some photos on facebook and you can see them at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=91231&id=516009306&l=8ac1e