Are We There Yet? Travel Log

Here it is. Our last day in Guatemala. It hard to believe it has been a month. We have learned and seen and done so much. We had a normal class day in the morning but after the break Steve and his teacher Lorenzo and my teacher Luis and I went to visit families that the school cooperative is trying to help. We took food-like oil and eggs and sugar and pasta-to the families. The school does that every two weeks. Unfortunately the families were not home at the two houses Luis and I went to. We took the stuff to his house instead and he will take it over there later. I did get to meet his wife and she is very nice. The homes Steve went to were interesting he said. In one, the family was doing well until the father died last year. Now it is a mother and three young children on their own. In the other home, it is a mother, father and five children with one more on the way. They live in a shack, basically the size of a bedroom in the US, with no running water or bathroom. The

Today is Tuesday. We have only two more full days in San Pedro and then we leave for home on Friday morning. Last night the kids played Cops and Robbers with all the neighborhood kids for about 2 hours. Yesterday as we were walking back home from the area of the Pana docks and we stopped four times to talk to different people we knew. Today we went by the pool to say goodbye to Paul-Pierre and when we walked in everyone said “Hey, Hola!” like we were part of the regular gang. We really do feel comfortable here and I am starting to feel sad that we will be leaving so many new friends. We don’t have a whole lot of activities planned for this week. We have done all the really good stuff and the kids really just want to play with friends all afternoon. That’s ok because my teacher is piling on the homework now. I had five pages of things to write today and it took me almost two hours. I do know all the forms of verb usage now—at least I have been introduced to them. Using them

Friday afternoon we returned to La Piscina (the pool) to hang around and be lazy. Tate, Cora and Steve swam in the pool while Michelle read and studied. Then Tate continued his chess games with Paul-Pierre. Paul-Pierre is a 60 year old French Canadian who lives in a hammock behind the pool. He travels around making leather baby shoes out of various animal hides (mostly I think old leather coats that he gets from thrift stores) and playing chess with kids at the pool. Paul-Pierre is now making Cora a pair of shoes that we will pick up on Sunday. Cora is very excited. When we were talking to Paul Pierre before we left, he asked what I did. I told him I worked with computer systems that told distributed medications. That was a mistake. Apparently Paul-Pierre spent time working in a psychiatric hospital and somewhere along the line they decided he should stop working there and start living there. He told us he had to go to court to prove he was mentally competent. Fortunately for him, and

Our Daily Dose of Danger That is what Cora has dubbed our adventures in Guatemala. Actually we have many doses of danger every day, but yesterday really stood out. We started the day in class, as usual and all was going well until the last 10 minutes when Tate’s teacher came over and told me that he was not behaving well. I was unhappy, but not surprised. If Tate thinks he can get away with things, he will and I had noticed an escalating situation with his teacher. We made him write a note and threatened just about every privilege he has and he got the message. Today was a much better day. In the afternoon we decided to go kayaking. The winds were low and the lake was very calm. Perfect. About 30 minutes after we started out, the afternoon winds picked up and our pleasure tour turned difficult. It was hard to paddle against the wind and there were small whitecaps on the water. The kayaks we were in are not made for those conditions and thus Steve and Tate turned theirs over.

We have done a pretty good job of exploring San Pedro by now. There are definitely two sides to the town and they both have very different feels to them. On the Central side, that is where the Guatemalans live. It is a typical town with a central market area, churches, shops etc. You don’t see many tourists there but you do see tables with bowls full of dried fish, plucked chicken heads, and squishy avocados. Sunday was market day and the streets were packed with people and vendors. All of the women in San Pedro wear the traditional Mayan clothes. Basically skirts that are a rectangle of woven, colorful, heavy material with a belt to hold them up and then a short sleeved shirt with a scoop neck. The shirts are beautiful with intricate designs and jewel colors. I love them and would like to wear them myself but I think they would just look wrong with my jeans. More often than not, the women are all wearing a beautiful apron as well. Again, colorful with designs. The girls all wear the s

Friday, Feb 13 Today is our last day in Antigua. We started the morning in class. My teacher and I worked right up until the last minute. I think Steve did too. We gave our teachers some gifts, took a few pictures and said goodbye. It was sad, but too much. After lunch we spent the afternoon visiting our favorite places again, taking a lot of pictures and finishing up some last minute business. Steve is in the process of getting us repacked to leave at 7:30 in the morning.Tomorrow we are taking a small passenger van to Panahachel-about 2 hours away-then crossing Lake Atitlan on a boat to reach San Pedro. Once there we have to find our school and then they will take us to our homestay. I am nervous about moving to a new homestay. You just never know if it is going to be better or worse. I don’t think it will be better than where we are now, but perhaps there will be more for the kids to do. Here they just play their video games at night because there is nothing else to do. S

Tuesday The mornings around here have been pretty much the same. We wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, return to the home, and then eat lunch. In the afternoons we do different activities depending on the day. On Tuesday we went to the Volcano Pacaya. It is a popular trip around here. We left Antigua in a tourist van around 2pm There were 12 people total. Two other Americans, two German guys and two Swiss gals, a guy from Peru and a guy from Uraguay. I had to be the translator for the trip! Me! Ha Ha!It was about a two hour drive to the place were we started to climb. The second we got out of the van we were surrounded by kids offering to rent us sticks for Q5 apiece (about 80 cents) We were also offered horses for Q200 each (about $30) The other two Americans got horses (they were in their 60’s or so) but the rest of the group got sticks. I am so glad we did! For the next 2 hours (!) we climbed and climbed and climbed At first we were in a lush forest full of interesti

Tate’s stomach is doing much better so we decided to take a trip to the beach today. Of course it started with its’ usual drama. At first Cora didn’t want to go because she didn’t want to do the two hour bus ride. We got her talked into it and then Tate decided he didn’t want to go because I wouldn’t let him take his DS game system. Good Grief! They did finally thank me profusely for taking them there, but they always have to push my buttons first. Anyway, we got to the bus depot around 9 and, luckily, our bus left soon after. They still take a while to get out of town, but we didn’t have to sit and wait for a long time. It took us about 45 minutes to get to Ascuintla where we changed buses to go on to San Jose. The bus from Antigua to Ascuintla was very full and everyone rides three to a seat, sometimes more if there are children. That is why they are called Chicken Buses, because everyone is crammed in like chickens. They are old school buses, but with wider seats so the mid

Friday The day did not start so good and was a roller coaster all day. Tate has stomach troubles and I found myself in one of those situations that only a parent can deal with and not completely lose it. I got some medicine at the farmacia and now things seem to be getting better, but I don’t know yet. I was planning on the kids and I going to the beach tomorrow but I don’t know if I can risk an hour long bus ride. On a good notes, it is finally Friday, we all had a good week of school ,the weather seems to be getting warmer, I figured out how to get the shower past lukewarm, and I was able to get rid of the bags of clothes for the poor at the local hospital. My philosophy of traveling is that there are always bad things and good things that happen every day. The days that are the worst are the ones that end up having some truly great moments in there somewhere. I promised to tell you about the woman who hates me. I did make her smile today so perhaps I am wining her over, but I

I am reaching a point of exhaustion that I haven’t felt in a long time. It has been very cold here, which is not normal, so we have been very cold at night. I have on two shirts, a pullover and a sweater. There are four blankets on my bed and I bet I still feel cold tonight. Last night the power went out at 4:30am and stayed off until 10:30. It has been going on and off all day, probably because of the high winds. When the power goes out the water goes out too so it has been an interesting day. Yesterday the kids and I and our teachers went to a coffee farm near Antigua. The town is called Jocotenango. It was fantastic. It also had a museum of musical instruments and traditional clothes, but was set up in a very interesting way. We now know the process of how coffee is made and it is fascinating. Tate has taken a liking to coffee now and I’m not sure that is such a good thing. The really great thing was the green grass there. We have been missing that in the city. The kids

The people of Antigua are quite diverse. We went to the local market place and walked through stalls where they were selling fruits and vegetables in the same way they have been for centuries. Most of the people were dressed in traditional clothing, at least the women, but I saw a lot of them talking on cell phones. If you sit in the central park, you see rich Guatemalans in expensive clothes, the women wearing high heeled shoes (insane considering the cobblestone streets and broken sidewalks!) and in the same sightline women in traditional dress with large bags of goods balanced on their heads and a baby strapped to their back. I don’t see many of the truly, truly poor like I did we did in Ecuador, but the city is very touristy so I wonder if the police make them move along. When you walk around in Antigua you see lots of walls. Entire blocks are one long wall, with doors every once in a while. The walls are painted various colors but are grimy, like most everything else here.

2-2 Today was the first day of class and it went very well. I really like my teacher, Mavi, and I was amazed at how much I was able to converse. I made a lot of mistakes as well, but overall I am very pleased with how much I have progressed in the last year. Cora really likes her teacher and did a lot of work today. Tate’s teacher, however, does not speak any English so I am not sure this is going to work for him. There are lots of pages of drawings in his notebooks. It looks like he did about half of what Cora did. We will see how tomorrow goes. This morning was very cold here. It really is like spring. The mornings are cold and the afternoons are very warm. We have to shed clothes as the day progresses and then put them back on in the evenings. This afternoon we have a Salsa lesson and the kids have already decided that they are not doing it. I don’t know whether to bribe them or just let them sit in the corner. I am really starting to crave some time away from them. Tate

1-31 We have arrived, but the person who was supposed to meet us at our homestay is not here. I must say, this trip in was very easy. We got through immigration in 5 minutes (Tate said “Are you sure this is really immigration?”) and the baggage claim was calm and orderly. The man we were to meet was right outside the gate. We got in his SUV and I even had a limited conversation with him. I was able to read a lot of the signs I saw on the side of the road and I was surprised how normal it all seemed. Like we never left Ecuador. Our plane landed at 1 and we were at our homestay by 2:15. If only the person who owns the home were here! The home is very nice, at least from the outside. It is a walled neighborhood with 5 buildings, all quadplexes, and a lot of grassy areas and a playground and outdoor tables and chairs. The buildings are all colorful. Red or yellow or orange. Overall, I am very, very impressed. At least with the outside. Tate and Cora have already made three fr

I started my usual pre-trip insomnia. Actually, I can fall asleep, I just wake up at 3 and can't go back to sleep. So, here I am-the day we leave-finally getting the new blog going. Perhaps that chronic procrastination issue is related to the insomnia. Hmmmm... Today is Friday, January 30 and we leave for St. Louis late this afternoon. The kids and I fly out at 6 am tomorrow and will be in Guatemala City around 1pm. Then it is the long customs and immigration line and then a 45 minute drive to Antigua. I hope we will be settled in at our homestay location around 4pm and have a few hours to explore before it gets dark. Steve won't head down until Feb 7th but then he will be with us the rest of the trip. We will all fly home on February 27th. The kiddos and I will have all day Sunday to get acclimated to the world of Central America (it really takes more than one day, but that's what we've got) and then off to Spanish class on Monday morning. We will be in class