Yes, I am still alive! We arrived in Honduras on December 27th after all the festivities in Antigua. We live in Copan Ruinas, Honduras very near a grouping of ancient Maya ruins. Copan is warmer than Antigua and is a much smaller community. I met my host mother, Elena, on the 27th and moved in that night. Elena is an amazing cook and locals come to her home each day to eat lunch and dinner. Elena's daughter Daysi lives in the home too and there are many rooms which are usually filled with Hondurenos who are working in or near Copan or with tourists who are visiting Copan. I have met some very interesting and amazing people thus far. Enrique is an archaeologist who works Mayan ruin sites, Norvito is a local accountant who enjoys playing football on the weekends, Luis is an electrician who is working on projects bringing electricity to indigenous communities, Ellen is a Seattlite who rents an apartment from Elena and she works in the local schools and teaches English to adults in the evenings, and there are many other tourists who attend Spanish school or locals who are working and enjoy Elena's food that I speak with each day. I feel like my Spanish is progressing quite well and this week was major step in the right direction as I find myself understanding more and more. My head is filled with new Spanish verbs and words but I am very motivated to keep the momentum rolling. Back to Elena...I have my own room upstairs with a balcony overlooking the green rolling hills of Copan. Also, she prepares wonderful food: fresh fruits, eggs, black beans, tortillas, wonderful soups, salads, meat and chicken, rice, fresh drinks, coffee, etc, etc. The weirdest part of it all is that I am now eating plantains which I couldn't eat before because of a bad experience in El Salvador in 2004. And...Mom, I'm eating cantaloupe! I don't think there exists a food I don't like in the entire world now! I have loved living in Elena's home and meeting so many new people. The school we work for is located in an indigenous community named San Rafael. There are six grades of students but for the first two weeks only grades one and two attend for some remedial work before the first official day on Feb. 1st. I have switched between helping Susan in the second grade class to helping construct a new pila at the school. A pila is basically a water storage site where water is stored for multiple uses: hand washing, cleaning, flushing the toilets, washing items, etc. It is an important step and I work with a local man named Rene. I think Rene believed I was a complete idiot for the first few days but began to understand that my Spanish was not great and now we have a pretty good working relationship. He is very quiet but a determined and hard worker. We are close to completing the pila and I will be glad to be done hauling sand, water, cement and mixing them constantly. I have also hauled many a cinder block and sawed many pieces of ribarb for the pila. Overall, it has been very rewarding. Further, we have begun to install gutters on the roof of the school to catch the rain and prevent water from building up on the ground. One last detail, we have been teaching English classes to young people aged 8-18 twice a week. For some, it is there first experience with the English language and it's an honor to be their first teacher! I will be teaching the fourth grade class beginning in February and I am looking forward to this! Sophie, our intern in Copan just left this morning so it's the old group again: myself, Susan, Aviv, and Maya. A new intern will arrive this weekend but it is very different going from over 20 volunteers in Antigua to four. But...our group does well together and we are having some good times. Two other volunteers, Noah and Marianne left over two weeks ago and we will hopefully get the chance to meet up with them in Nicaragua down the road. New Year's was passed in Copan and we went out on the town and had a great time! The locals are incredibly nice and my Spanish teacher is the absolute greatest. Her name is Nelly and she is so energetic and funny and smart. I have purchased additional Spanish classes to continue to work on the language and Nelly is a huge support for me here. This weekend, we will travel to an indigenous community with Ellen and on Friday I will be helping to teach an English class for a local man who has a strong desire to improve his English. We will also be going to a butterfly reserve and then at some point down the road we will take a tour of the Mayan ruins which are about ten minutes away! Everybody, check out my new pictures I have added to old posts as well-I finally got a strong enough connection to post them. Hope all is well with everyone. Until next time, buenas noches!

Lake Atitlan and El Salvador

This is a post I have been meaning to put up for some time now. I will keep it short as words do not do justice to these wonderful experiences. During my time in Guatemala our group travelled to Lake Atitlan in Guatemala and to San Diego beach in El Salvador. We stayed at Casa del Mundo at the lake and a hostel run by some really great people in El Sal. We biked into Lake Atitlan and then canoed to a cliff jumping site the next day where we jumped from nearly 15-30 foot cliffs into the lake-the distance was a long disputed subject! The lake is a huge body of water and runs to depths of 300 meters. We also did some night swimming in the lake, not skinny dipping :) and then sat in the hot tub at our hotel. The hotel is built right into the side of a hillside on the lake and it is magnificent. We ended our trip with a wonderful hike/run along a trail near the lake.

We travelled to El Salvador to enjoy the warm weather and the beach. We stayed one day but the travel time was well worth it. The currents and waves off San Diego beach were very strong and made for some good times. It was absolutely the hottest place we have been so far and we passed the time listening to music, eating great food, and chatting when we weren't at the beach. It was nice to return to El Salvador again albeit for a much different reason than when I previously visited this great country. Enjoy the pictures!

Mi familia de Guatemala, Navidad, y mi Cumpleanos!

My family in Antigua, Guatemala is amazing! From day one, I have felt like this is my home away from home. William is the father and Lolita the mother and their son Willy lives with them and will be a lawyer come April of next year. Maria, who works within the home for the family, is also an angel. She and Lolita make the best food and I am fed well here! Food consists of rice, black bean paste, very fresh fruit: pineapples, oranges, bananas, papaya, mango, watermelon, etc. We also eat tortillas, beef, chicken, soups, sweet bread which is a staple, and the cooking is done with many different spices. I like my food spicy now apparently and use a sauce called picante and many things! More about the family, Don William is a retired banker and Lolita a retired school teacher and principal. I speak a lot with both of them in Spanish and we make each other laugh. Don William is always dancing or making funny comments about us or Lolita that make everyone laugh. I will really miss my family when I leave and also miss my roommate Fiona from Ireland. She has been a true inspiration for me and will remain a friend forever. The family celebrated my birthday on December 15th. The celebration was complete with a wonderful birthday cake and of course, Guatemalan rum! We had a very fun night and my friends from GVI also bought me a Gallo shirt (the Guatemalan beer), ice cream and made me cards for my birthday! They are all very supportive and it has been an amazing time with them in Guatemala. For Christmas, I printed off some of the pictures I took of the family and Antigua for my host family as a gift. Don William and the family really loved the pictures and hung the pictures I had framed in the house immediately. I also bought them some chocolates and bought Maria some chocolates as well! A small thanks for everything they have done for me. Christmas eve was a huge celebration with the family. We ate a traditional dinner of tamales and ponche (fruit punch with the fruit boiled in the punch) at 6:00p.m. and then Fiona and I attended mass at La Merced. Then, we returned home in time for fireworks and another dinner at midnight. While Lolita was praying in front of the altar Willy had made in the home, Don William set off fireworks in the front of the house on the street. He reminded me of a little boy and had a huge smile on his face. He motioned for me to come outside and I hesitantly left the prayer and he set off another round of deafening fireworks. Then, Don William told me to follow him and he burst upstairs to the top of the roof. I have never seen him move this fast. Right at midnight, the entire city of Antigua and surrounding cities erupted with huge fireworks. Don William and I watched in wonder as the skies lit up in a circle around us. It was if the show was for us and it was a very special moment that I will always remembering sharing with Don William. The pride he has in his country and faith is amazing! We even saw fireworks go off in Santa Maria in the distance and it was very nice to think the kids I helped teach were enjoying the same fireworks that I was seeing! After the fireworks we feasted on turkey, a potato dish, fruit salad, and champagne. It was a great night and a Christmas I will always remember. We went to bed at 2:00 a.m. on Christmas morning. I have included some pictures of the festivities and of my family!

Volcan de Fuego y Acetenango

On Saturday morning at about 8:00 a.m. Aviv, Maya, and myself departed with our guide Juan for Volcan Acetenango. Acetenango is the third highest peak in Central America and the volcano has a perfect vantage point of Volcan Fuego, one of the world's most consistent and longest active volcanoes. With packs laden with camping gear we began our descent with our Juan and our local guide Santos who lives at the base of the volcano with his family. The descent was arduous and tiring but it was worth the pain. We talked with locals who help to maintain and provide security on the volcano and saw other hikers as well. On our way up, we summited through five climate zones including corn fields, the jungle portion with bamboo and other interesting flowers and plants, forest with pine trees, and volcanic sand and rock. We waited to summit to the peak until the next morning and Juan guided us to our camping spot directly in front of Volcan de Fuego. Fuego erupted twice in the night and we could see the huge amount of lava shoot out of the top of the volcano and then see it run down the sides and illuminate the entire mountainside. The two explosions rank right up there with two of the most amazing events I have experienced from mother earth. It was quite cold where we camped and we were warmed up by the pasta Juan prepared and the fire Santos started. The next morning, we summitted Acetanango (3900 meters) and we could see into El Salvador, Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean. The view was amazing and we could also see at least 13 other volcanoes including Pacaya which we had hiked a few weeks ago. As we summitted Acetenango, Fuego erupted right before our eyes and I have included pictures of this. After summitting, we ran down the side of the mountain as the loose sand and rock allowed you to almost sprint, it was a lot of fun! On our way home, we listened to music of La Raiz, Juan's band that performs in Antigua. He is the lead singer and their band is awesome! Today my hips are very sore and my legs are spent but what a great trip. Enjoy the pictures!

Santa Claus and Heartbreak!!

So...it has been way too long since I posted a substantial blog update! Things in Guatemala have been very busy and everything taking place has been amazing! I want to focus this blog around the kids at Santa Maria de Jesus and give everyone an update! Over the past few weeks I have been teaching two separate classes; a morning class filled with around fifteen 7-8 year olds and an afternoon class comprised of fifteen 10-11 year olds. Each morning as we pull into our stopping point in Santa Maria we are greeted by five or six kids who want to carry our backpacks and give us hugs. The amount of love and energy these kids possess is extraordinary! We have been working on multiplication, addition/subtraction, reading a clock, vowels/consonant sounds, writing, geography, etc. We have seen a lot of progress within the two classes and kids who seemed to be withdrawn and behind have made some good gains. I think this can be attributed to giving the kids some positive feedback and spending extra time with individual kiddos who are struggling. My fellow teacher, Aviv, has done a great job with this and together I think we did make a difference during our time in Santa Maria. Kids like Edwin, Maynor, Marta Julia, Adda, Mayra, and Wendy who were not understanding material began to realize that they could do the math problem or they could create something without having to copy, etc. The kids have been a blessing to me and have helped me to put many things in perspective. Many of the children live in multi-family settings with multiple siblings. Further, many of them work with their families in the fields and must work around their work schedule to attend school. Also, many of them have lost family members to death including a parent(s). Yet, not one child goes without brandishing a smile each day and school seems to be the place they can be a child and reach into their creative and fun sensibilities and mentalities. For me, I have realized that kids have the same traits and characteristics wherever one goes. You see the bullies, the shy kids, the daredevils, those boys with their shiteating grins, girls and boys who have crushes on one another, girls and boys intentionally segregating themselves from one another, the whiz kids, the kids that struggle, on and on. The big difference here though is that these children were born in Guatemala and have less opportunities than kids in the UK, or Canada, or the United States. Some of these kids are overwhelmingly intelligent or instinctual yet I wonder how far they can really go in a country where upward mobility is a painfully slow realization. Yet, these kids come from families where education is a privilege, not a right. In Santa Maria, more and more girls are receiving an education and GVI and the community are making this a priority. I hope the minds and hearts of all these children can one day be honored the way the should be and deserve to be. Today, we celebrated December birthdays and Christmas with all of the kids from the morning and afternoon classes. This included some of the older children who are taking English classes and doing remarkably well! Well, I was asked to be Santa Claus and I happily obliged. I left the fiesta a bit early and Santiago helped me dress up as Santa Claus. When I entered the party as Santa, the kids all shouted and looked at me in astonishment as I carried bags of gifts purchased by GVI. I hugged every child today and gave them their gift and the kids were so happy. The gifts were simple, a spiderman figurine or a notebook with a pen, or a small plastic play set for the girls, but the kids loved each of them and coveted them. It was a wonderful day rounded out by the traditional Christmas food of tamales, ponche (fruit punch), bread, and a dessert (doughnuts today). But...today was the last day of classes in Santa Maria before the break and our group heads to Honduras on December 27th! I said some goodbyes to many of the kids but it has been a bittersweet day as we were hit in the face with the fact that our time at Santa Maria has come to a close. I feel so blessed to have been a part of this community and this school and the memory and legacy of these kids will forever be engrained in my memory. The last child I said goodbye to was Hennri. He is about 10 years old and is hands down the smartest kids in the afternoon class. Hennri has big dimples and makes me laugh with his slyness and dancing. For these reasons and others he is one of my favorites. Anyway, I told Hennri that I think he is very intelligent and that I think he will be president of Guatemala one day and that the future is his. He did not thank me but simply smiled and said yes as if he was agreeing with me and had already planned this. Then, he gave me a hug and told me he did not want me to go! Just one example of how neat this place is. Driving away from Santa Maria de Jesus I could not help but put my sunglasses over my eyes and try to hide the tears that were falling from my face. I guess that just makes me human and I hope to return here someday.