Guatemalan Extremes.

This weekend was one of ups and downs.  Moments of seeing Guatemala as a whole-- across the spectrum.  Reminders that I'm definitely outside of the states...In the most horrible ways and the most delightful.  And then moments where the lines where blurred altogether. 
We had our staff retreat this weekend.
We left Friday morning.  (No school that day, nice).  All 20+ of us headed to the coast.  Now when I say coast, its just near the coast.  Not quite to the beach.  But its HOT there.  And totally different than in Xela. 
We went to a waterpark called Xocomil for the day.  My students knew we were going and gave me all kinds of suggestions on how fun it was and what to ride.   And a bunch of the teachers and I spent most of the morning on rides-- lazy river and lots of slides.  It was quite fun--until the climax of the day.  A bunch of us went to ride something we referred to as the toilet bowl.  You get into a raft with a friend and go down a slide into a large basin-- kind of like a funnel (or toilet bowl) where you swirl around a few times and then "flush" down the hole into another slide to finish the ride.  There were about 8 of us in the group at this point-including a lady that not many of us really knew, but who is the former principal who had come for a visit.  I was in one of the first pairs to go, and it was fun.  We got stuck trying to go down the whole and flipped our raft when we got to the pool at the bottom, but that just added to the fun.   We all waited at the bottom to watch the others come out.  All of the sudden we heard a really loud boom come from the ride.  Startlingly loud.  And as we pondered what it was, about a few seconds later we heard a whistle blow.  Followed by subsequent whistles.  Followed by "lifegaurds" running towards the ride.  Not good--sinking stomach feeling ensued as nobody was coming down the slide and we tried to figure out which of us hadn't come out yet.  Meanwhile, the ride never gets turned off, water is still spewing as these so called "lifegaurds" try to walk up the slide to the basin--which was not visible to where we were standing on the ground.  Minutes pass and we continue to worry.
Finally, the lady from our group, the former principal, comes out of the slide on a raft, by HERSELF looking very dazed and confused. 
One of the other teachers came down a minute later, totally okay, and told us what had happened.   Somehow, their raft had flipped in the basin and both had fallen out.  He thought all was fine, and was laughing, but then he looked at the woman who was face down, limp, and continuing to swirl around in the bowl.   He realized she was passed out and that he needed to get to her, especially since she was face down in water.  He held her in the bowl until the "lifeguards" came, and she remained passed out for over a minute.  She had hit her head in the fall.  Now, I don't know much about injuries and lifeguard or any of that, but I do know that there are certain procedures for head injuries.  And these "lifeguards" did not do a very good job.  They never turned the ride off the entire time.  They kind of awkwardly ran around when the whistles were blown and didn't seem like they knew what they were doing. And then when she came to, they sent her on a tube raft, by herself, down the hole through the rest of the slide!  When she got to the pool area, and clearly looked very out of it and was crying, and in pain, and couldn't remember things, and had spotted vision...they asked her if she thought she needed to go to the doctor.  She was obviously in pretty bad shape, and in no place to be making that decision for herself.  Then they basically handed her over to us.  And we decided she needed to go to the doctor at the park.  And she had to walk!  The doctor there decided she did, indeed, have a concussion and released her.
Hours later when she was still in miserable shape, looked and felt terrible, and still couldn't remember things, the friend she was visiting decided to take her to a hospital in Xela.  She was vomiting the whole way there, and it turns out her brain was bleeding and it was quite a serious concussion.  They kept her in the hospital, and she should be fine, but it was quite a scary day.  And one of those moments where you get frustrated with Guatemala.  Everyone from our group was pretty appalled with how the water park handled, or really, didn't handle the situation.  I don't think it ever would have happened the way that it did in the States.  It just didn't seem right to me.
Anyway, the group that experienced this craziness decided we weren't exactly up for riding any more rides after that, so we spent the rest of the day lounging poolside.   That evening the staff had a really nice devotion time and dinner together.  It was a really fun evening.
We were staying at a resort called Irtra, which I mentioned in a post waaay back at the beginning of the year.  I had visited the pools there before, but never spent the night.  And it was pretty extravagant.  Incredibly beautiful-- like a little paradise.  Pools, flowers, and peacocks.  Peacocks were everywhere!   They just roam the place and make these loud sounds, kind of like what you might imagine a dinosaur to sound like. And its mating season so all the males kept raising their feathers.  They really are incredible creatures.


The one male, feathers down, surrounded by a flock of females.




And there he is, in all his glory.

 There also happens to be a spa at this place and so a bunch of the girls signed up for massages.  This was my first massage/spa experience and I might be hooked.  It was incredible.  And it was expensive for Guatemalan standards, but a)totally worth it and b)rather cheap when converted to US dollars.  Only about 20 dollars.  For which I got an hour to use the giant jacuzzi or sauna.   And then a 45 minute hot rock massage.  When I was making the reservation the day before and asking the receptionist which massage to choose, she described the hot rock one as "deliciosa"-- meaning, delicious.  And I would have to agree.  It was fantastic.  And cool little Guatemalan perk, as we were climbing into the jacuzzi we looked out the window and got a beautiful view of a nearby volcano erupting.  I do have to say, that it was quite ironic and mind boggling that I was having my first massage in Guatemala, a third world country.  In fact, the whole weekend was a little strange to be in such luxury, knowing how many of the people in this country live.  At points it definitely felt like I wasn't in Guatemala at all.  Very strange, but at the same time, nice to escape for a little while.
We headed back to Xela this afternoon, much more relaxed.  And tomorrow is the Super Bowl!  A group of us are going to watch it here, only sad thing is that since it is being broadcast on Fox it will be in Spanish and without the commercials.  Lame.   But still fun, I'm sure.