Antigua and the Mormon Temple

So last weekend I headed to Antigua with some good friends for the day. I had been to Antigua before, but always quick trips. And this was also a quick trip. Antigua is like an entirely different country. It is very touristy and expensive. Lots of english, etc which was weird. But very beautiful. And every now and then, it is nice to step back into American-esque places. I didn't have to worry about getting run over. And it was exceptionally QUIET. Apparently their is a fine for honking horns in Antigua that most definitely doesn't exist in Xela. Kind of nice. AND I got to have a pumpkin spice latte! We walked around, and my friends showed me the place where they got married (they got married in Antigua about a year and a half ago). And then we went to some neat museums. It was quite a fun day.

On Sunday my roommate and I spent the entire afternoon deep cleaning our apartment... even though it is brand new, we already have mold issues. Rainy season and poor construction will do that... So we bleached, and vinagered and scrubbed and mopped. I thought I was going to pass out from all the fumes.

And today I went with friends to check out the new Mormon temple in Xela. It is only open to the public for a few more days, and then only special Mormons are allowed inside. Its pretty intense. You can see the glowing golden angel on top from all over town. I was pretty curious to see what it was all about, especially since "regular" people can't go in normally. Also, I believe they are saying it is the largest temple in all of central America. And they are expecting a crazy amount of people to visit it in the two weeks it is open to the general public.



The outside.  No pictures were allowed inside the gates.


It was pretty spectacular...millions of dollars went into building it. And stepping onto the premises it was culture shock in the opposite way of what you might think. I felt like I had magically morphed back into the United States or really, more like some other planet. It was intense.

It wasn't some cathedral type thing like I was thinking. But just special rooms. Oh, and lots of artwork. Including many a painting of Jesus when he was in the temple when he was young. Although I never knew Jesus had blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair…

There was a baptism room with this giant jaccuzi sitting on top of 9 giant white oxen things. And a special room where people go before they get married. And an "eternity" room for married couples where there are two mirrors on opposite sides of the room so if you look into one it is like it never ends. And then a celestial room where you aren't allowed to talk, but you ponder heaven. And it was beautiful and white and very "holy" like, except all I could fixate on was a tiny pink stain on the white carpet floor....Because, 1)this building is brand new. 2) this is supposed to be the perfect holy room. 3)The placed booties on our shoes before we entered the temple so we wouldn't mess up the floor.

It was an interesting experience for sure. Thinking about how devoted these people are to their religion. To think about the differences. To think about how much money was put into making that elaborate building, when people just a few feet from the gates are hungry.

Anyway, it was neat. And thought provoking. And one of the most organized thing I’ve seen here in Guatemala. AND they gave us a cookie and apple juice upon leaving…

Well, tomorrow it is off to El Salvador for Thanksgiving. Here’s to hoping I actually make it across the border this year! 
Happy Thanksgiving!  We have lots to be thankful for!

Get a little, give a little

Another thing to add to the list of reasons I appreciate Guatemala...  We got our first monthly bill for electricity and it was only $4.  I'll take it. 

Also, I'm excited because I finally got the closets installed in my room.  This has been a two month annoyance of broken/delayed promises.  And I think it was one of my first experiences with genuine culture shock/ anger against Guatemalan culture.  The landlady would tell us one thing (probably just because she knew that's what we wanted to hear, instead of the truth) and then we would wait and nothing would happen.  Anyway, 2 months later I have closets!!  It's exciting because I can finally unpack my things and it feels like a real home.  It is nice!

On the other hand, I do feel like here you can only have a few things going right at once.  As soon as you reach your cap, everything else starts to fall apart.  Case in point, I was so excited about finally getting closets!  And the next day, I woke up and the water was turned off meaning no shower, or really anything that involves the use of water...quite an inconvenience.  And then, on top of that, I was half way through baking muffins from scratch when our gas ran out.  I called the gas man to come and exchange our tank, but he said he probably wouldn't be able to bring a new tank until Monday.  Which means we can't cook anything until then.  But such are the inconveniences that come along with the good of living here.

Today is the second and final round of elections here.  After today there will be a new Guatemalan president.  I don't know much about the politics here, but I know that there is a ton of corruption and this country truly needs a strong leader to pull them out of a lot of the mess they are currently in.  I've heard not great things about both candidates, but still praying that the people will be wise in their decision making.

Another wonderful thing this week was that I got to meet the girl I'm going to be sponsoring.  I mentioned this in a previous post, but there is an opportunity for me to sponsor a girl to be able to go to school who normally wouldn't.  Several teachers from IAS are sponsoring students, and these students would not be able to afford to go to school otherwise.  They work during the day to help support their families and then go to school in the late afternoons. 

On Friday we got to go to their school and meet them.  Because of the differences in the school systems between Guatemala and the States, they won't actually start school until January.  But it was incredible to get to meet Heidy.  She's 19 and will be going into 7th grade.  During the mornings she works for a family, cooking and cleaning...that's pretty common here.  She wants to be able to go to a university one day.  My spanish is still limited, but it was fun to talk with her.  I feel really grateful to be able to have more of a connection with the indigenous community here.  We exchanged info, and will be keeping in touch throughout this year.  Exciting stuff. 

So, quick slightly humourous story of just how exhausted I get by the end of the week... This Friday I was trying to say rhinoceros during science class and I couldn't pronounce it to save my life.  I literally called it out loud a "rhino-saurus",  like some kind of dinosaur.  And my ESL students had to correct me.  Embarassing. 

Halloween and All Saints Day

What a wonderful 2 days it has been!!  Yesterday was Halloween and today we had a break from school because of a holiday.  So Monday was kind of like Friday.  Super fun.

Halloween is not a big deal here.  Actually, many people are anti-Halloween.  But some of the teachers got together to celebrate after school and dressed up.  It was fun!



Tacky Tourists



Hit of the party- Justin Bieber.  And they even did a choreographed routine for us!

Today was one of my favorite days I've had in quite a while.  It was nice to have a break from school and sleep in, but my favorite part of the day was going to the cemetery.  So beautiful...all the colors, the flowers, and hundreds of people.  All Saints Day was one of my favorites last year, and this year was the same.  The cemetery here is absolutely incredible.  But on this day especially, because EVERYONE comes to lay flowers and visit family members' tombs.  But its not a super solemn day.  Yes, there are some tears.  But overall it is a joyful occassion.  One of the things people do is fly kites.  And this year we purchased kites to try.
It was so, so fun!  We had some trouble getting started...
But that was all part of the fun.  Some Guatemalan boys were watching and giggling, and finally showed us how its really done.  It was an absolute blast.  The weather was beautiful.  Kite flying was super fun.  And the view was incredible.  Such a wonderful day. 




It's finally up in the air! With our Guatemalan buddies looking on with approval.

 


This was the best my camera could capture, but the view of seeing dozens of kites flying HIGH up in the sky with the mountains as a backdrop is incredible. 


Afterwards we all went out to dinner.  It was just a relaxing, joy filled day!  Much needed...although I'm not quite ready to go back to school tomorrow.  Wish I could have a few more days like this one.  Hopefully it'll keep me going to finish this week out strong!

So I've got to get a little vent out before I can move on to the rest of this post...

Dear Guatemalan Men I encountered on the street today (and all the rest of you that have acted similarly or even worse),
I really find it disturbing the way you treat women.  And I REALLY don't appreciate it when you try to talk to me while taking a piss on the street.  First of all, do your business elsewhere.  Second, I refuse to look at you or acknowledge you, despite your degrading attempts to get my attention.  I walked to the other side of the street for a reason.  And I'm sure you think it is appealing to try to talk to me in English.  But it's not.  Especially your crappy and inappropriate pick up lines.  Leave me alone.  I have a taser.   Furthermore, until you realize that females are not meat, you should stay away from them in general.   I kind of hope you get smacked. 


Okay, done.  There's really nothing else I can do about the disgusting males here, and its even more degrading to just have to walk by and take it.   So I needed some kind of outlet. 

Glad that in this case, a few bad apples don't spoil the bunch... My roommate is in the States this week, and so I've had the whole apartment to myself.  A little lonely, but a lot of time to reflect.  And last night as I was eating my dinner of beans and eggs (huevos rancheros style, made of my own volition), I was reminded of just how much I love this place.  Although, ironically, I sometimes feel the opposite, big picture wise the thing that I love the most about here is freedom.  That's the word that comes to mind.  At least in regard to the burdens and weight that come from living in the states.  But I think you don't notice those things as much until you get out for a while. 

Anyway, this place is a gem.  It really is.  Diamond in the rough...gotta look past a few things, or maybe its just all part of the charm.  It is easy to complain about little things, but I certainly hope that I haven't misrepresented how wonderful this country is.  Its hard to put a finger on what it is that makes it such a treasure, but it certainly has a special place in my heart.

Some things I love...
1) the view.
2) the fact that I can buy fresh produce, herbs, etc for mere cents
3) Tortrix Limon
4) Riding in a micro and having the driver pull over to buy some tamales from a woman selling food out of the trunk of her car
5) the colors
6) the walkability
7) paca shopping
8) the people
9) Triple Saldo days
10) the language

So, so much.  You know what else I have loved this year?  The way I've been challenged to cook/bake more things from scratch.  You have to get creative in the kitchen sometimes, when you just can't get certain ingredients here.  Or certain conveniences that are easy and cheap in the States are crazy expensive here.  Some successes I've made this year?  A few successes I've made so far (and will continue with)-- hummus, salsa, granola, and I'm forever sold on stove-top popcorn...so easy, so cheap, and so much better.

Life at school is getting back to normal.  This is the first full week we've had in a while.  Last Friday was my rescheduled birthday after school, at none other than Pizza Hut!  Funny, I think I actually had my birthday at Pizza Hut when I was in 2nd grade...full circle.   It was fun though.  Pizza Hut is MUCH fancier here.  I was kind of shocked.  And the kids were really excited about it.  My class present was some Victoria Secret lotion and spray called Love Spell... and on the way my class mom asked me if I was single.  Hmm, trying to send a message?  Haha.  PS and by the way, my class mom who has a son in my class, is only 2 years older than me.  Scary. 

Speaking of my students, they are definitely growing on me more and more.  Today as I walked out of school to the teacher bus I was the recipient of a hug sandwich from two of my students.  I also get frequent encouraging notes from them in my mailbox.  They are super sweet.  And my students from last year stop by to visit often, which is fun too.

And on the spiritual side of things, the Lord has been teaching me a lot.  Some of the female teachers have been doing a study on the book Prodigal God by Tim Keller.  Its been pretty thought provoking.  And I have taken a pause on the church search...I was getting really discouraged.  But I've started a Sunday tradition of going to a little cafe and spending some time in the Word, which has quickly become a treasured time for me.

In other words, I'm enjoying life!  And I don't want to jinx it, but it just might officially be dry season!! :)

When it rains, it pours...

So I left off with the disastrous field trip.  And you know they always say when it rains, it pours?  Well, in this case it was quite literal.
Tuesday night we all stayed late at school because we had a silly skit night.  One of the parents and her highschooler son were driving my roommate and I home because it was late and the buses were no longer running.  Well, it had rained all day long and was still raining when we left school.  I made a comment about when we got in the car.  To which the highschool boy negated my comment about the unusual amount of rain by simply stating it is rainy season.  (Which I did know, but it usually only rains for a few hours in the afternoon,not all day). 
Anyway, I went to bed that night, and I didn't sleep well and I remember thinking many times in my half asleep state "It is still raining." 
 Well, morning came and I was ready to go to school and celebrate my birthday with my students.  That's when my roommate knocked on my door and said "Look out your window."  I did and this is what I saw...


This picture doesn't do it justice... It was literally waist deep...

Normal view for comparison purposes :)

Um, scary!  It was definitely a shock to see the water so high.  We could see in the houses across the street, and there must have been over 2 feet of water inside.   There was no way to get out of our apartment.  I was just thankful we were on the second floor!  We called the director who informed us that there wouldn't be school due to flooding all around Xela. 

Here's some pics of the water coming up the steps of our apartment.

During...

 And as the waters are receeding...  (You can see the water line on the wall)

                                     


Water spewing out of the bottom apartment... We saw literal waterfalls coming out of the houses across the street.

  There are a lot of reasons why Xela floods , but I think the reason why this one was really bad was because it was in the middle of the night and all the trash and debris blocked up the not-that-great-to-begin-with drainage system.   And everyone was sleeping, so nobody helped to clear the drains.  It really was a crazy day.  Just being trapped in side and seeing the enormous amount of damage to people's houses.  We heard stories about people waking up and their belongings were just floating around them. 
And this isn't clean water we're talking about.  The mud left behind was ridiculous.  Like literally six inches of mud on our street.  Disgusting.  That caused other problems and we didn't have school on Thursday either.  And the government here does nothing about it...either preventative or post flood.  The people that live on the street had to pay a lot of their own out of pocket money (which they don't have much of)  to hire a bulldozer to spend three days plowing mud.  The city did nothing about it. 
It really was damaging...people lost a lot of their belongings and some even lost lives.  I think the news reports said about 25 or so people died...
So it was kind of a depressing birthday.  But it was nice to have the day off of school and to relax.  And I recounted many times that day how much I have to be thankful for.  And I did have a student call me (still a mystery as to how they got my phone number) to wish me a happy birthday and "send me a hug".  That was sweet. 
My class birthday party at Pizza Hut :) got postponed.  But students have been bringing in little gifts all week.  They do make birthdays quite special here.

In other flood news, my classroom did sustain a bit of damage.  Turtle was okay... Embarassingly that was my first concern when the director called to let me know that there was at least an inch of water in my classroom.   But all of my supplemental teacher workbooks that were sitting in their cardboard display boxes behind my desk got soaked through.  As well most of the bottom shelf of my classroom library.  It was a sad sight.  But several people helped me to spread out the books in the board room with a heater and fan on them for two days... They look pretty messed up, but still functional.  As for the kids books...Another teacher and I hung string all around my room and had them drying out the past few days.  Unfortunately there are several casualties of books where pages stuck together and ripped.  Also, my classroom rug and carpet squares got soaked and have been out to "dry", but haven't yet seeing as there hasn't been sun for about a week.  My room smells pretty wretched, and there is white mold fuzz growing out of the floor.  But could have been worse.



The road to school...This one is courtesy of another teacher.

 Here's to hoping rainy season is rapidly approaching its end!!

Epic Fail.

Epic Fail.  Yep, its a term our highschoolers use, but it pretty much describes this past week for me in a nutshell.

We'll start with Monday.  Field trip day!   I was really excited about it... we had been learning all about communities, so we had planned to take a little tour of our own community in Xela.  Which I was doubly excited about, because it also tied in Guatemalan culture which is something I feel they miss out on a lot in their American school education.  So anyway, a trolley was set to pick us up and take us on this tour and we were going to make set stops along the way. 

So, morning of the trip, I find out from the school secretary that one of the chaperones has just called to inform her that she "can't make it."  And another mom that was supposed to come with us just didn't show up, neither did her son.  Okay, so about 30 minutes before the trip I'm about 2 chaperones short.  Wonderful.  But I figure we are going to be on the trolley the whole time, and we still have 3 moms and a dad that showed up, so we should be okay. 
And here comes the trolley to pick us up at school!  The kids were so excited and all the mom's had a photo shoot with us on this trolley..

Well, we tooted our horn and pulled away from school, on our way!  We drove down the big hill of our school, crossed the bridge of the river about 1 minute away from the school and then we stopped.  Just stopped.   Engine was dunzo.  Well, the driver seemed to think he could fix the problem, so we waited.  And I went into instant entertainment mode...we sang, we played games, etc.  After sitting on the side of the rode one minute away from the school for an hour while the driver had tried to go get more gas and looked at the engine to no avail, the kids were saying "This is the worst field trip ever."  And I agreed with them.  The trolley experience was the anti-climax of the century.

So the parents offered to continue the field trip in their cars.  We left the trolley and driver on the side of the road (and it was still there hours later when we returned to school....)  So we drove around Xela, and then walked around Xela which was a terror.  I was not mentally prepared to be responsible for 13 students roaming the streets of downtown Xela, where I almost get run over on a daily basis.  Stressful. 

First stop-- public library of Xela, where my class mom had arranged for the librarian to read a book to the kids.  Well, we asked for the woman and she just wasn't there.   Typical.   

Then we went to the museum  (which is ridiculous, by the way.  There are embryos of everything you can imagine in jars.  And a stuffed deer with two heads... its creepy).  But we had to rush through because we got there an hour late and it was about to close.    Kids loved it though.

Then we went to the municipal building where the mayor works. That was pretty cool. We got to meet the mayor of Quetzaltenango.

After that, we were way behind schedule and the kids were starving so we just skipped the rest of the tour and went to McDonalds for lunch.   I was exhausted, but all in all the kids had a great time and it turned out okay. 
But that crazy day was only Monday...stay tuned for the rest of the saga that was last week... A flooded birthday?  Yup.

power's out. surprise, surprise.

Yep, power's out, yet again.   It happens often, so its not a surprise, but it is an inconvenience.   How am I posting on the internet you ask?  Thanks to my trusty internet stick. 

But, I went this evening to a cafe to have wireless internet so I could skype with a friend.  (said internet stick is good most of the time, but it isn't strong enough for skype).   I got all set up, ordered dinner, and was about to get on skype when out went the lights.  Ugh.  I figured it was just contained to that block, and sometimes the lights come back on quickly.  So I waited for my food and for the power.  To no avail.  I ate my food as quickly as possible and headed out the door to try to find another cafe with internet.  No such luck.  Power is out everywhere.  And by that point it was dark...pitch black dark.  I was really scared.  Xela is not super dangerous, but it can be at times.  Especially when its pitch black and I'm an American girl by myself with a backpack... easy target.  Two men on a motorcycle scared the mess out of me as they slowed waaay down and veered awfully close to the sidewalk I was walking on to holler at me.   But I changed my route home multiple times to choose the safest, most populated way.  Still scary, but made it home safe.   My roommate and I think the massive outage is due to the fact that tonight there is this huge promotion at McDonald's to raise money for Ronald McDonald house and they probably blew some giant fuse for the city.  Hopefully it will be back on soon.

Just another one of those... I'm in Guatemala moments.  Another of which happened earlier today at school.  Our school is located right next to a rural and poor neighborhood.  There's just a metal fence separating the school from the neighborhood (and I've contemplated the irony of that fence many times).  But today through the fence there were cows grazing all day in people's yards. 

Oh, and I forgot to mention that last week I stepped on a nail in class and hobbled around for 2 days because it hurt so bad.  (no worries, my tetnus shot is up to date!). 

And on Sunday the water was off for over 24 hours (meaning no running water, meaning no shower for me)

Sometimes I forget that I'm in a third world country.  Other times its painfully obvious.  But I love it all the same.