The weekend

It's the weekend.  I've come down with a throat infection.  I can't figure out if it's viral or bacterial yet - i'll soon find out I guess.   Stayed in bed for a little longer than normal - i.e till 9.  Getting up at 6:30 everyday means i can't have a lie in anymore.  Who would've ever thought that i would get up way earlier on my "sabbatical/time off" than i ever did when i was working:-)

Went into town for a coffee and this American guy starts talking to me.  He's an ER/A&E doc, lives in NY right now and was here in Xela for some medical stuff.  An incredibly small world as he lived in Cincinnati for 18 years and was just there 2 weeks ago visiting family!  He was leaving Xela in the afternoon and needed to find an electronic store so i took him round a few places but we never found what he needed. 

The reason i mention this is because I have a little confession to make here: this little encounter gave me soooooo much pleasure as i realised that i'm actually able to speak in spanish without too many "uuuuuums" and "aaaaaaaaaams"!!!   I mean i was actually able to sort of help him AND i could translate too - almost like i was a real spanish speaker!!! Increible!!!!!!!!!!  When did this happen??:-)   He was a nice guy but it was a very short encounter as i was working in the afternoon with my chicas and had to leave.

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My little man Christian!

Soooooooo i had a couple of hours out with Christian yesterday and it was super cool!!  Quite honestly, i am amazed that they let me take him out...i did have somebody accompany us but still - i could have 5 guys in a car outside ready to bump off the teacher and kidnap the kid!  If i think back to the paperwork that i would have to fill out to actually make this happen back home, this would never EVER materialise!  I mean, they don't even know my name!!  STILL!!  Anyway, all the better for me:-) 

I turned up at the shelter at 2, all psyched and ready for our day out - for which I already had permission for- but i was told to sit and wait till the teachers finished socialising and hanging out...Needless to say i was not impressed!  The way i see it is if someone is offering to take the kid out and buy him some stuff, i'd expect them to jump on it - not make me wait for 40 minutes till they were done chit chatting!!!  It's not like they were busy doing something...they had just finished lunch and were just hanging out.  Anyway, I sat on the naughty step away from them, waiting, annoyed at their crappy attitude,feeling like i've done something wrong.  This little kid comes over and sits right next to me on the step.  She kept picking her nose.  We sulked together.  I tried to get close to her but she didn't wanna be hugged - which quite honestly is not that much of a bad thing considering alot of the kids have lice there:-)  So we sat side by side, just hanging out.  She was sad cos she missed her parents so i offered for her to give me her buggers as a compromise but she declined.  It's the least i can do....

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What a difference when you teach people who actually want to learn...

So yesterday was my first session with the young girls in that orphanage i told you about earlier and it was super super fun!  I turned up with Elbia and Hugo and all the girls were standing at the gates all giggly and excited.  I have to admit...due to the kid who drew that moustache on my face (referenced earlier on) I'm absolutely TERRIFIED of freaking teenagers!!  STILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!I was so nervous they were gonna bully me too and I know i'm twice their age and size but u never know - KIDS CAN BE EVIL!!!!!!  We all get into the class - there were 9 girls in total.  I was trying to suss out the bullies so i was giving them the Luma eyes -the good news is that I think i found her!!:-)

I introduced myself and then we went round the room for them to do the same.  I asked them to speak veeeeeeeeeeeeeery slowly and in very simple spanish.  I asked for their name, how old they are, how many years they been in there and what their favourite dance is.  They range between 14 and 18 and have been in there about 2 to 3 years.  I'm having a little trouble with the names but i'll get there. 

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Change in direction...

I´m super excited about my latest findings and wanted to share them with u all!

As you know, i was volunteering (or attempting to at el Hogar Temporal) and although i have really connected with Christian, something just didn´t feel right about that place.  Perhaps i have a naive point of view here but my perception is if someone is offering their time and help, then i expect the recepient to be happy about it...? But this shelter made me feel like i was in the way and was a burden...They also have a lot of volunteers so they seem to be sick and tired of us lot.  I am still gonna go back and try to talk to the director to see if there´s anything i can do to help Christian, but in the meantime i´ve been looking for something else. 

So, after my crappy experience there last week, i went straight to my spanish school and asked them if they are involved/ know of any projects that actually truly need help.  They did some digging around over the weekend and took me to 2 places today.  The first place was a private shelter for disabled kids and is run by nuns.  We had a look around and gosh...i couldn´t help myself but cry...It was really upsetting to see this.  Imagine this big giant room, with kids in wheelchairs scattered around.  Along the walls are cubicles made of net, where the kids are just placed there in their wheelchair inside this net to protect them from the flies.  They just sit in their chair, behind this net, staring at all the other kids all day...It looked like something from a sci fi movie when aliens are cloning humans and keep them in cylinders!!  These kids had Downs Syndrome, mental retardation and some just had an upper body...One kid just kept calling me mama and reaching out to me to pick him up but i was not allowed to:-(  They were all in wheel chairs and had a blanket tied around them and the chair in order to hold their hands down.  It seemed cruel...but apparently they scratch each other so they have to be bound. 

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Hola mi gente! 

Let's see, what's happened since i last wrote?hmmm, ok well the whole volunteering thing has been a bit sucky because Christian has decided that he doesnt like me!! WHATDA???? DOESNT HE UNDERSTAND THAT HE HAS TO, TO MAKE ME FEEL GOOD?????THIS IS ABOUT ME RIGHT??? :-)He refused to come with me on Thursday and the little one Josue, who was keen at first, also lost interest cos we had no where to study other than the playground - which is fine except that the other kids kept jumping ontop of us as we were trying to do our alphabet.   Definitely not an alphabet friendly environment.  So whereas he was able to write his name at the beginning of the session, he had no idea by the end:-)  So all in all, it was a complete and utter disaster!!  This is why i'm a childless accountant and not a mother of 3 kids who teaches at the local school.  FRUSTRATION!! 

Jessica and I decided, once again, that due to the difficult living conditions we had to pamper ourselves soooo we decided to go to a hair salon and get a hair cut!  I figured that i'm travelling for the next 2 months so this is a good opportunity for me to get all the crappy split ends (i.e most of my hair) chopped off.  It's to my shoulders - when it's straight so imagine what i look like when it's curly...  I'm never happy whenever i goto a hair salon in a developed country, so i'm not sure why i thought it would be any different in a developing country.  It all comes down to this: about 99% of the people here have straight hair - the only species with curly hair are genetic abnormalities or the flea-stricken stray dogs on the street.  So needless to say i was not a happy bunny once he was done with my hair and i did not try to hide it either.  Nevertheless, it did cost me $10 so i shouldnt really complain.  I've just never been a fan of the triangle look, u know?  I hate looking like a triangle, i really do! But ok, i'm just gonna eat all my greens so it grows quickly.

Here's a pic of the hair - it's straight tho so may appear longer...

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Christian and Josue.

Hola again - u lot must be getting sick of me by now. I haven't written in a week and now the inspiration just keeps coming! :-) i guess it helps that i'm actually doing stuff other than studying...

Well today i went back for my first one on one session with Christian and Josue. When i first got to the orphanage, random kids (who knew me and who didn't) just jumped on me and hugged me. They just wanna be cuddled so i wore my santizing gloves and shower cap and hugged them. Just kidding! I've been around kids with lice - i'm cool:-)

Christian was sick - he had a terrible cough - and so he wasn't really into our class, even tho i tried bribing him with a chocolate bar. He comes to about my shoulders and sits in a class with kids that reach upto his waist, he walks like he has a hunchback - all drooped over himself. When they all have to stand in line and stand with their hands on the shoulder of the person in front of them, he looks so weird!! It's like me making a choochoo train with an 8 year old. He really looks like the friendly giant! I learnt a little bit more about him. Apparently he was born in the US and lived there till he was 7, then he moved back here with his mum. The reason he is in the orphanage is cos he was living on the streets at some point? I couldnt quite understand what was going on to be honest. He doesnt know his dad. Everyone knows how much i ask questions:-) but i was careful not to do so with him...

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My first day as a volunteer!

Today was my first day volunteering and i was a wreck!! I was soooo scared! I mean seriously, why the hell am i afraid of a bunch of kids? Could it be cos when i was a little girl, i was bullied by a fat boy who sat on me and drew a moustache on my face? I have this unrational fear of children but today, i was a trooper! :-)
I'm working at a place called "Hogar Temporal". I haven't quite gotten the gist of exactly what it does - i think it's a temporary shelter. By "temporary", i mean it could be years.

I was meant to start teaching at 2 so i got there at 1:45. All the teachers were having lunch so they told me to wait outside. As I sat in the courtyard waiting, this little kid came shuffling over and sat next to me. I have to admit, i understood NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH, ZERO, CERO, WALLAISHI of our entire conversation but i enjoyed this encounter nevertheless :-).Whenever i asked about whether he liked it there, he would stiffen up tho so i didn't know what to think about that...

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The weekend - Antigua!

After my sucky friday, Jessica and I decided to do something different for the weekend.  We wanted to pamper ourselves so we looked for a spa or a 5 star hotel round here but couldnt find a decent one.  All we wanted was a shower with hot water, a tv and some nice white sheets to lay in but it was impossible to find!!  So we started looking for alternatives - a long story short, we spent about 3 hours changing our minds, calling around and then in the end we decided to goto Antigua for the weekend.   So Sat morning, we jumped on a bus and off we went! 

Antigua is a 3 hour drive from Xela - sorry, i mean a 3 hour crazy freaking boy racer drive away.  My GOODNESS! i felt so sick by the time i got there - driving like a lunatic on windy roads in the mountains with mudslides all over the place just doesn't do it for me!   We got to Antigua at noon, checked into an ok hotel then went walking around. Antigua is v pretty - it feels like a European city: cobble stones, tons of cafe's, lots of english speakers.  U wouldn't even know that ur in Guatemala if it wasn't for the Mayan folks walking around trying to sell u flutes and necklaces.  I was getting soooooooooo annoyed with them....The flute guys would really get in ur face and try and sell u this flute they've been blowing on.  All i wanted to say to them was "dude, quit waving that flute, which u've been sucking on for the last hour, in my face.  In fact let me tell u what u can do with that flute..." but i restrained myself:-)

The theme of this weekend was initially going to be about volunteering in a center for malnourished kids.  We rang them several times and kept getting passed from person to person and in the end we were told that they had enough volunteers so we changed the theme to "pampering" and boy did we indulge!!  For the first time in my life, i ate with the purpose of wanting to get fat - that's such a novelty for me:-) We had lunch in one cafe,

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My first week in Xela.

Wow, has it really only been just a week...it feels like so much longer! i feel like i have been living in this prehistoric dinasour era for at least a year! My skin is all shriveled up from the cold at nite and i've lost about 10lbs.  My spanish is coming along nicely (kind of).  I mean i definitely understand alot more now than i used to and it's cool that i'm using my brain again - it's been a while:-)  5 subsequent hours of class a day is definitely a shock to the system but im really lucky to have the opportunity to do this so no complaints here!
I really enjoy my morning walks to school - about a 20minute walk.  I am starting to recognise the same people every day standing on the streets.  i'm even getting the nerve to say good morning in spanish to some of them!

I study in the mornings and then in the afternoons i've been catching up on emails and trying to research volunteer opportunities round here.  I found myself checking my emails a bit too much so decided to take a time out and focus on properly finding volunteer work. 

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My first hike!

“Oh dear Lord” and “Ya Allah” is all i was saying on this hike...We got up at 5 to go up this volcano called Santa Maria – the 4^th hardest climb here in Xela but super cool cos u can see the Pacific, Mexico and the other volcanoes too. It’s 4hrs up and 3hrs down...Luckily Allah was looking out for me cos it was so misty and cloudy that had we hiked all the way to the top we wouldn’t have seen anything anyway. Soooo we decided to do a smaller hike (6.5miles only) at a place called Chicabal. Piece of cake, NOT!!! 

It was just me, Jessica and our tour guide Franklin.  He’s a gynecologist who does tour guiding on the side (weird i know...) but he knows a ton about alot of random things which was super cool.  I just wish i could remember anything he said tho...i’m just too exhausted and in agony!!  I was like the fatty at band camp who ate all the chocolate, was crap at all games and that no one wanted in their team!J They were v nice about it though and even gave me an excuse: i’m not used to the altitude in Xela yet (it’s 2335m above sea level) so that gets me out of breath apparently.  Dunno what my excuse will be next time but i’ll play along for now.  Separate from this, i’m thinking that i should sue my gym for my lack of fitness.  I mean seriously, i have spent so much money and time there –now is my time to shine and what do i do?? I failed!!!J

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I've finally arrived!!

Great news guys: The plugs here in Guatemala are the same as in the US so i’m gonna be able to use my hairdryer and curler – isn’t that great?? For a min there, i thought i had to go au naturale...not sure Guatemala is ready for this just yet. The bad news though is that whilst the temp during the day is 80F (25C for the Europeans out there),it gets down to 23F (-5C ) and ive barely packed any winter gear!!

So, I arrived in Guatemala City and it all went really smoothly! Due to the fear instilled in me about how dangerous Guatemala City is, I was expecting to get harrassed and mugged so i held onto my stuff for dear life.  I slowly creeped out of the corner of the airport, looking terrified and standing out like a sore thumb!  I got picked up by a sweet older lady called Raquel who took me to her home - she was supposed to make me dinner and breakfast the next day before putting me on a bus to Xela (my final destination) but i was so afraid of getting sick that i just stopped eating completely ! I didn’t get to see alot of Guatemala City but from the airport run it seems pretty modern – compared to what i’ve been expecting at least.  There were high rise buildings and everything!  The overcrowding is unreal tho...I felt like i was watching the making of James Bond – people were jumping onto the back of moving buses just to get to their destinations and scooters held an entire family!  If only i could talk to Obama now and explain to him why Guatemalans come to the US, he’d totally get it and that would cure our immigration problem!:-)

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Florida!

Wow, what a beautiful luxurious stay i had in Florida – both in Fort Myers and Miami.  Thanks to Lisa and the Jolly’s for letting us stay in their gorgeous home! I had a lot of fun out there –and learnt all sorts of healthy eating tips! (thank u Meg!!).  I may be older but she was definitely the mama in this trip!  As a good P&Ger, we should always list out our achievements.  Here goes:

-Finally chill out and lounge around

- kill a cockroach.  Once again, thanks Meg.

- goto the beach and do some baywatch running while catching some rays.

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