Dana, Juliana, Karianne, and I stayed in Xela for the weekend while the
others hiked up Tajumulco. We had a blast and ate some delicious food at
the hostel, El Cuartito, and Blue Angel, two of Dana's favorite restaurants. On Saturday, we had a relaxing afternoon at Las Fuentes
Georginas, 3 hot springs located in the mountains. In the evening, we
got to witness all of the excitement and commotion of the city after
Xela won the championship soccer game against Guatemala City. We even
got to see the Xela team's bus parade around the city!On Monday after our weekly morning meeting, we went to the market and bought TONS of food for the week. Besides Christina and Cam, we didn't have any classes. Some of us ran some errands in Pana, or went to Spanish school. Upon our return we cooked a delicious meal of fajitas and finished off with some casual mustache-shaped sugar cookies.
The following day, all of the interns went to
Chaquijyá bright and early in the morning to teach nutrition to 3rd and
4th graders in Cooperativa and Central. We all had the opportunity to
practice our Spanish and teach a little about the food pyramid to the
children. We ended the lesson with fun activities such as "Simon Dice"
(Simon Says) and Gato y Raton (Cat and Mouse) to emphasize the
importance of physical activity. Before our after school English classes
with Dana and Cam, we visited the absolutely beautiful Catholic Church
in Chaq, and a few of us even went on the roof!
On Wednesday, we traveled 2 hours to Comalapa to
work with another NGO, Long Way Home. They were rebuilding the Tecnico
Maya Vocational School with solely refurbished and reused materials! The
various buildings were being made from old plastic bottles stuffed with
trash, rubber tires, or earth bag domes (polypropylene sacks). It was
crazy to see how much could be done with recycled materials, and how
every single step of their process was sustainable (including human
waste!). We had such a fun time packing, tossing, and throwing mud balls
to fill the spaces in between the half-built rubber tire wall
foundation. It was great to have the opportunity to see what kind of
work other non-profits in Guatemala were doing. Everything about the
project and the organization were resourceful, creative, and inspiring,
to say the least.
As you can tell, we've been having an AMAZING time
here, and I can't believe we're almost halfway done! We have a ton of
exciting things coming up with mini-camps for our kids and weekend
trips, so keep checking back for our next blog post!
--Rebecca
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