Mi Viaje a Guatemala! part 1

Hey everyone! Things going well here in Guatemala-my trip is at its halfway point already-I can’t believe it! I will try to make this blog informative but not take up fifty pages-though I’m pretty sure I could easily write fifty pages about everything that’s been going on since I left.

Coming down here was my first time flying alone! Turns out traveling alone is actually quite fun because there are always lots of other interesting travelers to talk to and learn their stories. And everyone’s very friendly and in a good mood, we’re all out looking for our own version of some adventure or another ya know.

The organization I’m working for is called the God’s Child Project, or in Spanish Asociación Nuestros Ahijados (try saying that 5 times fast-I can barely do it once. Often times we just refer to it as “el proyecto” instead). It was started 20 years ago by a guy from Bismarck, North Dakota. In the past twenty years it has absolutely exploded into a pretty large organization in this area of Guatemala (in and around the city of Antigua) that provides lots of different services including 2 schools, a homeless shelter, a malnutrition center for babies, dental and medical services, psychological services, and they also build houses for area families. They also provide some funds in several other countries around the world that I believe go to helping keep kids in school. It is a really great organization because they focus a lot on involving the whole family and educating them, so they truly ‘teach people to fish’ instead of just giving them fish. They have something like 80 full time workers-pretty much all Guatemalan people I believe-between all the sites. Then they also have ‘long-term volunteers’, which are mostly young 20-something year olds from places like USA or England who agree to be down here for 2+ years and only receive a small stipend for food/living expenses. Then there are some other volunteers like me who just come down for a couple weeks or months to help out. Some people come alone and others might come in groups, such as the service teams who construct the houses. It has been a lot of fun meeting lots of people in the organization, both Guatemalans and travelers alike here.

Okay, so now about what I’m doing. I am living with a very nice Guatemalan family in Antigua, which is a really nice city-actually fairly small and easy to navigate around. It is quite beautiful with old colorful buildings, a beautiful central park, pretty old churches, etc. It is pretty popular touristy place, so there are fun restaurants and shops, and I often run into other ‘gringos’ like myself who are here for various reasons-maybe just traveling through, maybe doing volunteer work like myself, and/or studying Spanish as there are lots of cute little Spanish schools here. Every day I ride the local bus (they are called chicken buses-not sure why-they are basically colorfully re-painted school buses, probably brought down from the US), which costs 2.25 Quetzales, roughly 30 cents if we’re talking dollars. Other volunteers and workers take the bus too so often times I will find myself on the same bus as them, but even if not the local people are quite friendly. After about a ten minute ride I get off in Jocotenango-a town just outside of Antigua, where I am working at the Scheel Center (yes, actually named after the sporting goods store family-they donated a lot of money to God’s Child I believe), which is a fairly small school-just 140 or so kids in 7 different grades. The kids have many different background stories, but this school is actually an accelerated program so that they get through about 2 years worth of schoolwork in just one year. Many of the kids are re-entering school or started school late. For example, a fifth-grade class has students from anywhere from 9 to 14 years old. The Scheel center also has a dentist and psychologist who work at this center and provide services to the kids and to other members of the community. I’ve been helping out in lots of different ways, it’s different every day really. I’ve been helping out some in classrooms, with the reading/library program, distributing new uniforms to the kids, and lots more random tasks. Getting to know and working with the kids and teachers has been really fun-and at times challenging since Spanish is my second language (I’ve gotten a lot of practice with communicating through hand motions and charades), but it’s been a really awesome experience so far. I thing that slowly but surely my Spanish is moving from “being able to survive sometimes” towards “being able to function at a moderate level”. But it’s a blast really! And there are other volunteers around at the school to help me translate if need be. It is quite a humbling experience really though: For example it is not uncommon to see a 22-year old college graduate (me!) trying to communicate with a ten-year old Guatemalan child, who just stares at her with a confused face simply because she’s not exactly using the right words/phrases to express what she’s trying to communicate. Or you might see the 22-year old staring blankly at the Guatemalan child, teacher, or staff member who is speaking way too rapidly or using words unknown to her. But, then you can just chuckle and give an ‘oh nevermind’ wave with your hand. No worries. But the kids are really fun and I am developing some special relationships with them.

I’ve also gotten to see some of the other areas of the God’s Child Program. I’ve seen the other school and main campus (the Dreamer Center) and I did one shift at the malnutrition center (Casa Jackson) just a few days ago, and I think I’m going to be doing one or two more perhaps.

So then, evenings and weekends I am pretty free, and I’ve been exploring Antigua and surrounding places with other volunteers. The first weekend I visited a beautiful lake (Lago Atitlan) with 3 other volunteers and this past Saturday a few of us went on a guided trail up a nearby volcano one morning.

Lastly, I will answer two questions that I might anticipate you asking: What’s the weather like and what’s the food like? The temperature here is quite nice right now, typically in the 65-75 degree range all day. At night it drops to maybe 55 or 60. The only little issue is that it’s the ‘rainy season’ here right now, which means that most days it will rain for several hours (usually in the afternoon, but sometimes morning or evening). The rain is sometimes strong but usually it is light or medium, so bringing a little umbrella along every day is a handy solution. Its hard to stay completely dry though, as the rain tends to collect on the streets and sidewalks during those several hours. Now onto la comida: The food is good! But you know me, I eat just about anything. Like with any touristy town, you can go out and get different kinds of food if you want. They even have McDonalds and Burger King here. Wait till you see picture of the McDonalds, it’s so incredibly fancy and aesthetically pleasing, you can’t even imagine it. However, I don’t eat out much as my meals are provided with my host family. Breakfast always consists of fruit (cantaloupe, watermelon, and papaya), and then usually either cereal, pancakes, or eggs. We usually also have bread and often times black beans with breakfast. Sometimes we might get fried sweet plantains too. My “housebrother”-he’s from Virginia and does construction with God’s Child-and I both take our lunches with us so that’s usually a couple of sandwiches with an apple or banana maybe. Dinner varies quite a bit but is always delicious, might be soup and some sort of cooked or fried vegetable, might be meat, we’ve had spaghetti, tostadas, sometimes accompanied by black beans and bread is always on the side.

Okay that’s all for now! I hope everyone is doing well in the States, I am having a great time but I miss you all as well! The nice thing is that I have quite a bit of internet access so i'm not completely disconnected from my world back home. I will try to post pictures on facebook but it might not happen till I get back since I have quite a few already. I’ll try to post again once or twice. I’m working coming up with a “top 10 things you didn’t know about Guatemala(ns)” list so maybe that’ll be my next blog! Adios for now!