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