Xela Retreat!

This past Sunday and Monday, I went on my first work retreat in Guatemala, the third retreat for the rest of the PDs. We went to Quetzaltenango, more commonly referred to as Xela, the Mayan name. We left early Sunday morning to catch a chicken bus, and after a swerving two-hour bus ride, we made it! After checking into the hotel, Nim Sut, we went to lunch at a restaurant that let us overlook the town square. 

The Square in Xela

After lunch, we walked around the square, where we were able to have a puppy fix.There the most adorable little puppy that we fawned over for a good thirty minutes. Ja, Nicole, and I are especially susceptible to the cuteness of puppies, and can't help but 'awwww' over them. 

Nicole with the puppy, Muñeca (Doll in English)

After lunch and puppy time, we headed to Las Fuentes Georginas Hot Springs, nestled in the mountains, just a short ride out of the city. It was absolutely beautiful there, a forest wonderland. 

 

Las Fuentes Georginas

We were able to relax for a few hours in one of the pools. It allowed us some time to catch up and enjoy each others company. 

One of the hot spring pools- Yes, that is steam from the pool! 

After coming back to our hotel, Ja was feeling a little under the weather, and Sarah was craving some pure American McDonalds, so Jess, Nicole, and I went in search of some dinner. We landed at Cafe Tecun, where Nicole discovered the most delicious caesar salad sandwich ever created. That night we also had a meeting over a survey that the previous PDs took last quarter about the site. 

Monday morning was a work day, starting with our weekly Monday meeting, where we discussed current programs and potential program progress. After a short break, we discussed the January Goals that were set back in December. There have been a number of changes that we discussed, especially regarding the Basico English at Central that Nicole and Ja are in charge of. This meeting wrapped up just in time for lunch. Since dinner from the previous night was so scrumptious, we decided to go back to the same place for lunch where all but Sarah ordered the caesar salad sandwich!  The perfect meal to end our relaxing and successful Xela retreat. We headed back to our beloved Sololá right after lunch. 

The group in Xela! 

-Julie

Sunday Snapshot

PDs and Interns took a trip to Xela this weekend. Here we are at the one and only XOCOMIL, Central America's largest water park!

Left to right: Christina, Andrea, Dana, Kylie, Lorena, Kayla, Jess

A week in the life of a summer intern

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

Last days in Antigua, First days in Xela!

Saturday, the 30th, Maddie and I climbed up to Cerro de la Cruz, literally Hill of the Cross.  We thought it was going to be an actual hike, so we braced ourselves... only to find out it took 15 minutes to get to the top.  Oh well, still a beautiful aerial view of Antigua from the North.

View of Volcan El Agua and Antigua from Cerro de la Cruz

Monday we had our first meeting with Judy from Nueva Vida.  Judy arrived in a small town called Santa Maria de Jesus in the early ´90s as a missionary.  Since, she has built, directed, and sustained a school for special needs children.  She started with 8 children and 1 teacher and now runs multiple classes of grades K-6.  Santa Maria de Jesus is a Mayan village of 24,000, situated on the side of Volcan El Agua (in the above picture).  Over 90% of the community is indigenous and speaks Cakchiquel as their first language. It has the highest poverty rate in the state and has a 44% illiteracy rate. Most adults who are literate have only up to a third grade education, although this statistic is slowly improving.  If you´d like to read more about Nueva Vida, read Judy´s blog, http://www.newlifeguatemala.com/.

She had so many wise words to share with us...

1. You can do a lot ineffectively, or you can do a little well.
2. It's always possible you don't know the whole story.
3. The less you say, the more people presume you know.
4. You'll never do everything 100% right the first time.

After spending 5 hours with Judy, Maddie and I caught a bus to Xela-- Our somewhat permanent location for the next month.  Our 3 bedroom apartment is incredible and only 2 blocks from the park.  We have one roommate named Ellie who works for Habitat for Humanity: Guatemala (shout out to Alex Dey!)

Come on in for the grand tour of our apartment, where we will be diligently working till the end of February!

Here is my bed and desk!  Thanks for the speakers, Miriam.

...And the other side of my bedroom.

The view from my window and our living room :)

... and the view to the left

Please have a seat in our living-dining room!  And say hi to Ellie on the left.

Now, here´s the fun part!  How much do you think Maddie and I spent on groceries today!?  Please take our poll in the righthand margin above.  Results will follow in our next posting!

More to come shortly.. thanks for reading and playing!

Dana & Maddie