Finish Volunteering and leaving Antigua for travels!

Once again, we thoroughly enjoyed our volunteering experience. The organization, volunteers we met, both young and old and family we stayed with as well as each of our projects, all get high ratings! Our second week, we were joined by Shelley, from Seattle at our homestay. We enjoyed hanging out with her, caught Life of Pi at the local bagel place that shows movies and I finally had a buddy to go to free salsa classes with!!! Yep, went twice and still don´t have the right moves but I´ll keep trying! Thanks Shelley! Salsa class must have propelled my dance moves since I later joined our volunteer group in the ¨Harlam Shake¨ Can you find me in the floppy hat, grabbing the white board at end. Some say they have seen Aaron but he was watching a jazz concert down the street!!! SKG does Harlam Shake. OMG!!. Will include pics of salsa and jazz concert, love the church backdrop below to give you an idea of what we did when we weren´t working.

Shelley and Susan at salsa class

Jazz group from Minnesota!! Guitarist from Guatemala

 Our projects had bittersweet endings. I really enjoyed teaching the same children every day vs once a week, but the attachment both ways, was tough to say goodbye to, and after only 2 weeks. One girl in particular, caught my attention, probably because, like my friend Deni, she opted to call me Susie!! Aaron´s construction project continues but not without his leaving a bit of sangre aka blood, after getting a small nic from something in cement bag. Ouch. Since it is an animal shelter, no bandaids. They only had gauze and tape which made the nic look like he received a dog bite or worse!! Made for a laugh once he told me.

My fav, Anna on right

Preschoolers, age 4 getting lunch

SKG and her class!

 We said our goodbyes to our homestay family. Reina our host was away, but her brother Eduardo and grandson Diego enjoyed opening the 1000 English-Spanish picture word book we bought them. Hopefully, it will grow with Diego as he practices with family and new volunteers who visit. Their house, like the one we stayed at in Peru, was simply furnished and comfortable. Pics probably tell the story.

 

So, onward to other parts of Guatemala. Chichicastenango aka Chichi, is home to one of the biggest Sunday food and crafts markets, so that is where we were on Sunday. Like Antigua, the celebrations leading up to Easter called, Semana Santa, continue throughout Guatemala with Chichi being no exception. Just down the street from our hotel, an entire local neighborhood helped decorate the streets by designing and building alfombras, or sawdust carpets covered with various fruits, flowers and other things in anticipation of the passing of Saints, carried by 50 persons up and down the streets. Some of the saint platforms weigh 1 to 2 tons. Ugh! Take a look. All sawdust and fruits, veggies, candles and loving care to put these alfombra designs together, only to get walked on by the procession and immediately swept away. Some are truly displays of fine art! The church, cemetary, sacred grounds were all must see visits, often accompanied by Mayan shamans, chants, incense and other forms of ceremony and celebration. I even took it upon myself to will the Shaman to say a prayer or two of my own.

Alfombra built by our neighbors

Alterboys with incense during procession

Shaman does his magic at cemetary

Chili Rellenos and Guacamole for lunch

Tortillas anyone?

We took a local bus to Quetzaltenango aka Xela, pronounced ¨Shayla¨. Try saying that 3 times. Go on, I dare you! Our B/B is a few blocks from the main plaza. Beautifully decorated, lovely terrace and gardens and yes, wifi and cable. Today is a lie low day, trying to fend off colds we picked up. Aaron is snoozing as I type right now. Tomorrow, which is now today since I resumed this post,  we went to Fuentes Georgiana Hot Springs which are in the area, very hot and helped steam all our cold germs out. Or so we hope! We are looking forward to finishing up our visit in Guatemala at Lake Atitlan, one of the pretty areas we fondly recall from our last visit here, 12 years ago.

Our first day in Nicaragua, we will join friend, Jane and Marc´s daughter, Lauren for an international Seder. Lauren has just finished her Peace Corp stint and the seder is put on by a USAID worker. We are thrilled we will be able to celebrate Passover, see Lauren and share the holiday with a truly diverse, international table. To that end, we hope you have a nice holiday, whether Easter or Passover.
Stay tuned.

We would love to hear from you, get feedback on the blog and catch up on local stuff.
STRONG and HEALTHY wishes go out to Francine, Randi and Betty. Have easy weeks ahead.
Adios, Susan and Aaron

First Impressions of our Homestay and Projects

Week 1:
We are living with Reina who is about 60 years old and runs the house, her brother, Eduardo, 65ish, her daughter Claudia, 25, and Cladia's son, Reina's grandson, Diego, 6. A really nice, Spanish speaking family whom we practice Spanish with all the time, since they don't speak english, except for a bit from Eduardo. Reina is a great cook so far. We have a private room and bath. Next week, one more volunteer may join us across the hall and share the bathroom, but no issues for the moment. Yippee. The house is a 10 minute walk from the central plaza. San Francisco church is next door so no need for 6am alarm as the bells begin to chime then. 4:30am on Fridays, which no one told us about. Surprise!

My school is a 15 minute walk to where I get picked up by the school's blue VW bug for a 15 minute drive uphill!!! My first time actually riding in one of these. Old, but she gets up the hill. Classes start at 8. I am teaching a 4th, 5th and 6th grade class, same kids everyday. About 30 kids per class, 40 minute classes. Next week I will add a 4th class of 3rd graders to help cover during an absence. The school is in the village of Hato and is funded primarily by an N.G.O., Las Manos who have provided a slew of classroom resources for us to use. Check out their site for more information. http://www.lasmanosdc.org/teachers .
The area is poor and sadly, does not have a steady supply of fresh water or at times, any water at the school!!! Not good when ya gotta go and the door is locked for the day!!! What is a teacher to do? First day went well shadowing the current teacher who is Dutch. I get home from school around 1, have lunch with the family and am on my own to prepare, read, do whatever, until 6:30p when we have dinner. No cable, internet or wifi in our house, so we are "roughing" it. Ha! We go to bed early for 7am departure for school.

Part of this and all of next week, I will lead the classes, while the other teacher conducts annual assessments. This week's lessons focused on a review of family members, days of week, months, use of he/she, is/isn't and this/that. Lots of workbooks to use as resources which is nice. Midweek, there was no school for 2 days while the local Rotary Club brought about a dozen dentists from Portland to Hato to clean and treat the children's teeth. Get this, they were EXCITED!!!??? I ended up working at another school in town with 4 other volunteers. A public girls school. 450 Antigua students, all in uniform. Quite different from a class full of rural 30 boys and girls but those of you who teach know that only too well! Overall, using lots of skills, many songs/games etc. from my Camp Counselor days. Just a few pics of kids as well as more favorites from around Central Plaza (park) in Antigua. More next week of classroom kids etc. or when assignment ends.

 

Friday procession in Plaza



Girls this time carry the cross.

  

People watching in park...like the hat and shade?



As for Aaron, he is working at an animal shelter that helps rescue, care for animals, sterilization services for those who can't afford them for their animals in the rural villages and educate students in the schools about animal care. He takes TWO, yep, TWO busses and then walks UPHILL through farmland, 15 to 20 minutes to get to his project. Takes about an hour. Aaron's tasks are helping mix cement, skim walls and basically build the walls for cages in the quarantine section they are making. Check out the site. http://www.animalaware.org/ for more information. For a non-pet lover, he gets to see some 300 dogs and 100 cats everyday. Yesterday, he even got his photo taken with a bunch of them (visiting photo journalist).

The walk to work

Aaron is proud of his walls!!!

New kittens



Dog mountain



Come on, let me outta here!

More stories to come. Hope everyone is doing well. Great news for Betty! Randi, love the new do!Adios. Susan and Aaron




 

Arrival in Antigua, Guatemala!

Street Mime and Cobblestones

Flights, 3 of them, were uneventful. Arrived here last Thursday night. Antigua is as we remember. Historical, quaint cobblestones, stucco buildings and charming. If you want to know more, check out link on this blog re: Guatemala wiki. Walked the churches, did the Saturday market filled with beautiful fruits, vegetables, icky looking meat and a 1000 or more shoppers. Later, we took a bus to nearby town of San Antonio and just vegged in our lovely hotel with beautiful roofdeck view of all 3 volcanos in the area. Check out a few pics!

Trees in purple bloom from our hotel roof

View from our roofdeck Vocan Agua

 

Street decor before procession tramples on. Its the
creation which is the spritual part not the trampling.

Baroque style Catedral La Merced

Sunday was chilly for this time of year....like 50F. Day started with us following a funeral procession where pallbearers were 6 men who switched off to have 6 women carry the casket. Very impressive. But not nearly amazing as the holiday procession we followed later in the day. This is a celebration in advance of the holy Semana Santa week leading up to Easter. Big deal around here!!! Check out all the purple (Francine's

fav color). Thousands of locals, some tourists and more walk the streets of Antigua carrying these HUGE ceremonial platforms. Again, one for the men and one for the ladies. And I thought I could carry my weight, but not when it comes to these things! I'm told tourists can pay $75 to help carry for a street or two. Thanks but "no way, Jose". The night only got better when one of the active volcanos erupted, about 8 miles away, so no worries for our safety. It blew its lava flames/fumes approximately 100m into the air. A beautiful site on a cold, clear, dark night.    

Purple People all sizes and shapes

 

Equal opportunity for gals to carry the platform.

They couldn't pay me enough!

     

Tomorrow, first day of project work! Get a load of my transportation to my school up in the mountains of El Hato. Woo Hoo. A BIG GOOD DAY WISH for brother Bob who is having hip surgery, Francine, Betty and Randi. Thinking of you all and then some.  Buen Suerte.

Her name is Cellie