Crazy for Camionetas
I figured since I hadn’t written about the ‘loco’ Guatemalan chicken buses in awhile that I would focus this week on my recent encounters with our lovely public transport…
First up, I was on my way back to Nahuala last Saturday when I was in my first ‘real’ camioneta accident. I had gone to Xela for the day to buy some groceries and was just hoping that I would make it back home at a decent hour. After hopping on the bus in Xela, I calculated that I was gonna make it back in record time because our driver seemed to be a hero of Mario Andretti. (I confess that I actually enjoy these kinds of bus rides because you get where you are going pretty damn fast…and nothing typically happens…knock on wood.) Unfortunately, this particular driver was a little extreme! We were flying around curves, jumping over speed bumps, barely keeping two wheels on the black top. Mothers began yelling for the driver to ‘Slow down’ and ‘Stop the bus’ (...You always know it’s bad when the Guatemalans are actually complaining.) Some of the women began tugging their children down the aisle to get off, but the driver refused to pull over. He ignored a road block with a long string of cars and continued along the shoulder of the road. Because of all the dust from the never-ending road construction, the driver was blind to the huge bulldozer in front of us and slammed right into it. Luckily, there were only a few bloody noses and a couple of banged-up heads, but nothing serious. I was in the back of the bus so I didn’t even feel the impact. The camioneta itself was done for…it was not going anywhere. The driver jumped ship….he tried to run away (because they are liable for their own passengers), but several guys raced after him. I didn’t stick around but I am assuming that he was black and blue afterwards. Also, everyone on the bus was trying to get their money back from the ayudante (the driver’s helper). This is what led me to escape down the road like nothing happened and pick up another bus...it was just way too chaotic.
In addition to road construction, another obstacle is the ever popular, impassable protest. On Wednesday of this week, teachers all over Guatemala held a national strike, which included blocking off most of the major highways. (FYI, school was canceled all week because of this demonstration!) I had a meeting located off of the interstate so I didn’t have to worry about detours, but the road I needed to take was closed because of an accident. Since our camioneta couldn’t go any further, the forty or so passengers and I just started walking. It was pouring down rain and I was in flip-flops! We passed by the accident (a tractor trailer had turned over and was lying across both lanes) and the hundreds of people milling around to watch. We eventually arrived to our final destination after about an hour and a half walk…fun stuff.
So after road construction and protests, next up are the ‘bolos’ that ride public transport in Guatemala. Every so often, you get on a camioneta with a plastered local that is speaking jibberish, passes out in a strange position, or basically just pesters other passengers. I try to avoid ‘bolos’ at all costs…but on this particular occasion, I have to admit, I was hoping to get provoked. The bus was filled with indigenous women sitting by themselves, and this drunken man kept moving from seat to seat molesting each of them by putting his arm around them and speaking inappropriately. Sadly, each woman just continued looking to the front, trying not to acknowledge his presence or react in any way. This whole time, I’m going through in my head, ‘What am I gonna say to this guy if he comes to sit next to me, how can I express in Spanish to f-off in the most forceful way possible?’ Well, I got my chance…sure enough, he sat down next to me and started to reach his hand out to touch me. At first, I put my hand up in the ‘stop where you’re at’ gesture, but when that didn’t work, I literally stuck my foot out and kicked him out of my seat. He fell in the middle of the aisle, looked around a little bit dazed, and then just passed out right there (I had to step over him to get off at my stop). A couple of the women started laughing and a couple even stole smiles at me. In this case, action spoke louder than any words…
If we already didn’t have to go through enough, now we find out there is an extra frustration looming in public transport. All volunteers have been warned that the Guatemalan government has initiated a vaccination campaign for MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella). Evidently, they are pulling over entire buses and giving every passenger an injection (whether you like it or not). As a precaution, we have each been given a copy of our medical records and must keep this with us at all times so that we can show that we have already been vaccinated. Let’s just hope that the local doctors here are familiar with the English acronym for this shot!
Needless to say, transportation can be quite a headache…but it just wouldn’t be Guatemala without the chicken buses! Even though it might not seem like it, I truly love traveling in this country…it makes for some great stories one day when I am at a cocktail party and need some new material:)
To getting from Point A to Point B,
Moi
Civil War in Nahuala
First off, Mom and Dad, no worries, I am not in any kind of danger!!
BUT, we do have a civil war going on in my town which has slightly interfered with both my work and who I socialize with…
The two towns, Nahuala and Ixtahuacan, go WAAAY back. They used to be one, but Ixtahuacan split off after an argument took place over ‘who knows what’…there are many explanations for the split (my favorite is that the town mayor stole another man’s wife) but not one version can be verified. The people in both towns speak the same language, wear the same traje, practice the same religions, have the same professions, etc. However, there has been standing tension between the two towns for as long as anyone can remember. Ixtahuacan is only about ten minutes down the road from Nahuala, but is recognized as a separate municipality. And there are many small villages that back right up to Nahuala, but are considered Ixtahuacan territories. Confused yet??
Now let me take you back to the beginning of the current dispute between the two towns…
It all started last November during Hurricane Stan. Many villages of both Nahuala and Ixtahuacan had to be evacuated because of intense flooding. Guatemalan NGOs and international aid organizations helped relocate these people to higher land – an area on the top of our mountain chain called ‘Alaska’. (I’ve mentioned this area before in my posts.) These people built up their communities and made this land their new home. There are currently about 3 Nahuala communities and maybe 10 Ixtahuacan communities residing there. Which was all fine and dandy until…?
Ixtahuacan discovered (a year later mind you) that the Nahuala communities are actually on their lawfully owned land. And as a bonus, this land comes with potable water (a US AID project that was completed after the hurricane). Therefore, Ixtahuacan wants the land back, and is planning to kick the Nahuala community out from underneath.
Well, about a month ago, some men from Ixtahuacan decided to venture into one of the Nahuala communities for water…and ended up getting a machete to the throat. I heard that about three men were murdered that night. This became the last straw between the two towns!
Supposedly, a fight ensued the next night in which 30 or so men were injured. And following this occurrence, there have been other reports of miscellaneous murders spread over all the villages. To make matters worse, pickup trucks with loud speakers circulate through the streets to warn the townsfolk and update them on the current situation….which basically means they bash the other town and spread even more terror within the communities. (FYI – The US organization that I work for, that will remain nameless, did call to advise me of the state of affairs. They recommended that I stay in my site, which was kinda comical since I was in Guatemala City that day.)
There have been a number of town meetings with our mayor and the governor of our department since these unfortunate events took place. (My friend Eric attended one of these meetings, and was actually asked to leave by one of the town’s people because he was not considered part of the Nahuala family. Ouch…and we’ve been living here for almost a year. Just shows that they don’t trust any outsiders!) I am told that Ixtahuacan has also had multiple town meetings to discuss what’s going on. In fact, in one of my previous posts, I mentioned that Ixtahuacan had kicked the local police out of town…and now it seems that they have invited them back because of the quarrel with Nahuala.
Right now, things seem to be at a standstill, and I am hoping that they stay that way. But this whole drama has put me in an awkward situation. I live in Nahuala, but I work with several groups that are in Ixtahuacan. So at times, I feel like they want me to choose sides. If I have a meeting in Ixtahuacan, I typically lie and tell people from Nahuala that I am going somewhere else. And there have been a couple of times that my women from Ixtahuacan have needed to come to Nahuala…but refuse because they are too scared to pass through enemy lines. (Just this week, I attempted to sell a group from Ixtahuacan on entering microcredit with Grameen…but they refused when I told them that the bank office was located in Nahuala. This was very upsetting to me because this is one of the poorest towns in our area, and yet they deny help because of the bank’s association with a town name.)
Anyways, it really comes down to having a major catastrophe in the country, having to think quickly about what to do with all of those people that were affected, randomly plopping them down somewhere, and then once they start to pick up their lives again and revamp, you get crazies fighting over what’s mine and what’s yours. Can’t we all just get along??
Peace Out,
Carin
BBC E-mail: Crow calls for limit on loo paper
I thought this was kinda funny...Maybe we should all adopt the Guatemalan way and use old newspapers and magazines!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/6583067.stm
Spring Break 2007
Here I am, 27 years old, and I still go on Spring Break trips…who would have thought…
Semana Santa, the week-long Easter holiday, is by far the biggest festival in Guatemala, internationally renowned in Antigua (supposedly the western hemisphere’s largest Easter celebration). The year’s best parties happen during this time. In both Antigua and Livingston, I was able to observe the endless processions of floats that navigate through town, sometimes way past midnight. Along the procession route, locals create alfombras, or carpets of flowers that are arranged over intricate designs or pictures. The cumbersome floats pass over these carpets, and every block or two, the men must change crews in order to master the weight that is on their shoulders. It’s really impressive to see…
So this trip might not have been as crazy as previous Spring Breaks (i.e. Panama City during my freshman year of college) but the location was absolutely idyllic…and the company wasn’t so bad either. With my two buddies in tow, JP and Taylor, we first set off for Livingston, a Caribbean town up north near Belize. This entailed a 6 hour bus ride atop a double-decker, that included not only air-conditioning but also lunch service…livin’ the good life baby! (Of course, this slight luxury didn’t come cheap.) Once we stepped off the bus, it was like walking right into a sauna…I was immediately dripping with sweat. After fighting against the crowd to claim our backpacks, we quickly found a taxi to get us to the dock (Livingston is only accessible by boat). After settling in at the front of the boat for the best view, we were forced to put on life preservers….which I guess makes perfect sense because I don’t know one Guatemalan that knows how to swim. It was a pretty rough ride going across due to the competing boats and the winds coming from the sea. We passed a LOT of really nice, expensive-looking houses with elongated docks reaching out over the water. And I have to admit, I became a little nostalgic when we passed one beach that could have been a site for MTV Spring Break. Throngs of scantily clad Guatemalans, beer tents, loud music, and no space to even lay a towel…I was almost expecting a wet t-shirt contest. Fortunately for us, we hadn’t made it to Livingston quite yet…
Livingston is at the mouth of Rio Dulce, on the Atlantic side. And the word that comes to mind when trying to describe this perfect little town is ‘Tranquilo’. It’s a very laid-back, ‘Mayberry’ kind of lifestyle. They have a very distinctive Garifuna culture that is common among Caribbean villages. It was impossible not to see the impression Bob Marley has made among young Garifuna men. Also known as Black Caribs, most of the locals are descendents of African slaves. The people there are mainly dependent on fishing and tourism.
As soon as we hit land, we went in search of our hotel (which Lonely Planet calls the ‘Hilton of Backpackers’), Hotel Casa Rosada. The hotel is owned by a Belgian woman and her Guatemalan husband. It’s literally right on the water, with hammocks hanging at the end of a shared dock. The rooms are cute little adobe huts with mosquito nets swallowing each bed. But the best part of the hotel is their restaurant….the seafood was amazing! The signature dish in Livingston is called Tapado, which is basically a bowl of spicy soup overflowing with sea critters (and sometimes plantains for good measure). JP ordered Tapado one night for dinner…but it looked like it was more trouble than it was worth. I didn’t go wrong with just shrimp and the local fish!
The beach was calling my name the next morning…so we hopped into a local pickup truck that eventually packed about 30 people, including coolers, beach bags, and kiddy floats. It was so freaking hot….and we stopped about every two minutes to either pick someone new up or wait on someone that had to get out for some odd reason or another. Once we made it to the coast, we walked along the beach to what is called ´The Seven Alters´ - basically a tourist trap of limestone pools cascading through tropical forest. Since we haven’t entered the rainy season yet, the majority of the pools were really low…which meant a multitude of slippery rocks (both JP and Taylor fell on their asses!) Because we were traveling during Semana Santa (pretty much the busiest travel time of the year in Guatemala), the pools were packed with Guatemalans…it didn’t make for a very relaxing swim. Lots of people were climbing up the cliffs to jump directly into the pools (JP, the only white person). Funny story: I started talking to a guy that handed me a small crab he had found in the water. I asked him if he was gonna eat the crab for dinner…and I am not kidding, his response was that all crabs out of water are poisonous to eat. I just decided to keep my mouth shut since he obviously thought he was an expert. Maybe this is why you can’t find crab to eat anywhere in Guatemala!
Side Note: On our walk to the Seven Alters, we ran into our hotel owner picking up trash by the shoreline. We thought maybe he owned the land and was just cleaning it up. We were completely astounded to discover that he was picking up litter out of the goodness of his heart, to make the beach more pleasant for tourists and locals alike. You don’t see this too often in Guatemala…but poco a poco, people here will learn, and it takes just one person to start the chain of education.
Anyways, the rest of the day was spent at an eco-lodge right on the water…which was pretty comical because there was nothing ´eco´ about it. The playa was a typical Caribbean beach – very shallow water, no waves, calm waters, but VERY relaxing. Pelicans would skim right over your head while you were sunbathing in the clear, salty water. Absolute paradise!
Unfortunately, the sun started to set, so we found a local dive that was literally two feet from the water. (When I asked the guys what was their favorite part of the trip, they both mentioned our time at this bar!) The place personified Bob Marley to a tee. It was filled with locals kicking back, knocking down a couple of brews…or more. It is truly the only place I know that you can sit that close to the Carribean, with that kind of view, and drink beers less than $2!
Fortunately, it didn’t start pouring down rain until long after the sun had gone down. So we made our way back to town to meet up with three friends for dinner – Mary Liz, Elisa, and Stacey, also fellow volunteers. Afterwards, we showered up and went in search for some true Garifuna music. Lucky for us, a local group started playing out in the streets, moved through town, and then concluded at one of the local bars called Ubafu. Garifuna music is mainly made up of drum and base with a trance-like beat. (Stacey and I played our own rendition on the drums after the band was finished…it was pretty funny!) To close out our time in Livingston, you could say we ‘lived´ it up…We went down to the beach and discovered a HUGE party – Hello Panama City! I danced myself silly until 5 in the morning…until JP and Taylor had to drag me back to the hotel (Yes, I could have danced forever that night). I took advantage of a late-night swim, and then it was to bed for a couple of hours before we left for Rio Dulce…
Rio Dulce, which translates to Sweet River, is the name of both the river and the town that grew alongside it. The river feeds into Lago Izabal, which is the largest lake in Guatemala. The town is famous for its 860 meter bridge over the river, supposedly the longest bridge in Central America (also the only place you can bungee jump in Guatemala…and pretty much the last place I would choose to jump in the whole world.) The waters have unfortunately been encroached by numberless power boats, jet skis, and high speed yachts. But the boat ride from Livingston upriver to Rio Dulce is altogether indescribable…Okay, unless you are Lloyd Stephens…
“On each side, rising perpendicularly from three to four hundred feet, was a wall of living green. Trees grew from the water’s edge, with dense unbroken foliage, to the top; not a spot of barrenness was to be seen; and on both sides, from the tops of the highest trees, long tendrils descended to the water; as if to drink and carry life to the trunks that bore them. It was, as its name imports, a Rio Dulce, a fairly scene of Titan land, combining exquisite beauty with colossal grandeur. As we advanced the passage turned and, in a few minutes we lost sight of the sea, and were enclosed on all sides by a forest wall; but the river, although showing us no passage, still invited us in.” --Lloyd Stephens
After disembarking in Rio Dulce, we had to search for a separate dock in order to get to our hotel. From there, the hotel ran a water-taxi service to transport us back and forth to town. We stayed at a place called Hacienda Tijax – an eco-lodge in the middle of the jungle that is a working rubber plantation and reforestation project. Each of us had our own log cabin on stilts, placed directly over the swamp, with a little porch on the back to soak in the wildlife. Pretty cool huh?
The first dot on our itinerary in Rio Dulce was the Castillo de San Felipe de Lara – a Spanish fortress that dates back to 1595. The castle guards the entrance to Lago Izabal and was supposedly used in colonial times to protect against Dutch and British pirates. Unfortunate for us, everyone and their brother decided to visit this popular tourist spot on the same exact day. The line was probably 500 people long…which really wouldn’t have been that bad if Guatemalans didn’t always cut in line. (We tried a couple of tactics to prevent this, like forming a human wall and informing the offenders that God would not approve…but neither seemed to work.) Once inside, the fortress grounds were crammed with Guatemalans barbecuing and swimming in the lake. After touring the castle, we had our own Gringo picnic of ham and cheese sandwiches, and then went swimming outside of the roped area in order to get away from the chaos…but I ended up cutting my foot pretty bad on a rock, so it wasn’t the smartest idea.
So with one cut foot, we paid for a guided hike in the rainforest near our hotel. With our walking sticks in hand, we traversed over swinging bridges high up in the trees, glimpsed leaf-cutter ants, swam in a natural spring, learned about rubber trees, and climbed a looking tower to see the far-off hills of Belize and Honduras. We returned after dark – after our guide left us to fend for ourselves and yelled at us over her shoulder to beware of poisonous snakes...What a great tour!
That pretty much concludes our trip! It was really interesting to see Guatemalans as tourists and doing actual tourist activities…instead of seeing Gringos traveling everywhere (we were the minority this time). We caught a bus back to Guatemala City on Easter Sunday…a lot of traffic which doubled the driving time, no bathroom on the bus, and two kids deathly ill sitting behind me. But the evening culminated in a pleasant Easter dinner with my two travel companions and several phone calls from home. I’m back in Nahuala now, and back to work!
Hope everyone’s Easter was as enjoyable as mine,
Blue (i.e. new nickname….slowly catching on in Guatemala)
More Pics - Nicaragua
http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=90171176827274565/l=261702030/g=50536731/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALBPics of Nicaragua trip....better late than never!
We have internet at the radio now (if you guys are wondering why I am suddenly downloading months of photos:)
P.S. There are a ton of pics, but I didnt feel like trying to edit or look through them...sorry!
Love,
Carin
Photos of Rio Dulce and Livingston
http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=795131176483072739/l=255572821/g=50536731/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALBI will post a blog later this week to tell you all about my Springbreak 2007 adventures...but until then, here are some photos from my Easter vacation:)
Have a great weekend,
Carin
From My Carly
Hi everyone!! Just wanted to send an really long email about my trip and I will send the link to my photos for everyone to enjoy after this! I first have to say that I had a wonderful week last week and the best hostess a person could ask for even though she claims that we winged it!! I will do a play by play best I can :) Sorry it is long but sweet!!
I flew in on Saturday afternoon and deboarded the plane. When I finally got my bag ( I waited for about 45 minutes and was extremely scared that it had not made it) I walked out of the "Most Modern Airport in Central America" to find Carin. There was a huge mob of Guatemalans all crowded behind a fence barrier but I had no problems finding Carin as she stands at least a foot above all of them. Another funny note about that was I really never thought that I would go to a country where I at 5"3.5 would tower over people. The guy who sat next to me on the plane was no kidding maybe 4 feet tall. Amazing:) So I found my girl and we had my first experience with Guatemalan transportation. I have to interject here that thank God Carin is fluent in Spanish...I would not have known what to do if she was not. So she negotiated our ride into a town called Antigua. Antigua is about 1 hour from Guatemala City (other wise known as "Guate") and it is a very charming cobblestone town nestled below a volcano. All the buildings are painted a different bright color form a border along the streets. So we drop off my very cumbersome bag and head to the favorite bar called Monolocco (Crazy Monkey). Mono is the only bar that has the NCAA package on Satellite so we were able to catch some of the games on Saturday. We then headed to a bar named Rickey's and had a few shots and Gallos (Guratemala Beer). I have to admit that travelling can wipe you out so I asked if we could crash early..which we did.
We then got up at 7:30 the next day and caught a shuttle mini bus to Montericco which is on the west coast. It was about a 2.5 hour ride and you could drastically feel the temperature change as we got closer. I have to say the driving habits of the Guatemalan people are not "the safest"...we had a pretty uneventful (really fast) ride until we got a bit closer to the coast and the wild pigs started appearing. Needless to say we all almost ate some ham when one of them ran out in front of us! This pig was huge so it would have definitely done some damage to the mini bus...but luckily it squealed and so did our breaks and we barely missed hitting it. Also there are no child safety seats so there was little boy in the front on his dad's lap who thought that this was the funniest thing ever. So we all had a good laugh!
We stayed at a place called Johnny's in Montericco that was beach front. It is made up of small cabanas with private pools and then one large cabana with a pool and several rooms...we stayed in the large cabana connected to the other rooms. I would be remiss if I didn't stop here and say how inexpensive this country is! A room on the beach was a whopping $8.44. The sand in Montericco is black due to all of the volcanos. I am not sure if you have ever walked on black sand but it is like walking on hot coals!! So Carin and I braved our swim suits and laid out on the mini coals. One of the things about Guatemalans is that there are very interested in "Gringos" or us white folks for you Southerners! So we had some very aggressive young men that started taking our picture on the beach...it is hard to stop them when you can't really touch any part of the sand!! So Carin and I decided that we are for sure on some internet site somewhere...probably MySpace!! That night we headed onto the main street and ate some, get this PIZZA!! Carin had heard that it was good and let me tell you it was good!! There is not much of a night life in Montericco so we laid in the hammocks on the beach and enjoyed the night...it was great!! While we were at Johnny's we ended up meeting 3 American girls on Spring break. They were very nice but so innocent and worried about the future. Oh to be back in college again!! They ended up taking our shuttle the next day as well.
So we went back to Antigua for a night because of the timing of the transportation. In Antigua I treated Carin to a steak dinner...you would have thought that I had bought her the world!! She has a very small budget to live off of (comparable to what an average Guatemalan makes) and this does not afford steaks so I was happy to treat!! I think that she talked about that more than anything this week!!
After Antigua we headed to Carin's house or site as she calls it (Nahuala)! I met her site mate Eric and several Guatemalans that she lives and works with! (Sorry I don't remember all of their names) I am so glad that I got to experience her town...walking down the street we were stopped by several people that know Carin by name. It was great to see that she has been welcomed and has become a member of this town. Carin's apartment is big by Guatemalan standards! She has two rooms to herself. We ended up making guacamole (this is the first time I have ever seen Carin fix any type of food..ever) and pasta for dinner. Then we watched movies all night! It was very relaxing and she actually had alot of movies I had never seen!!Bootleg of course!
From Nahuala we then went to Lake Atitlan. Let me interject how we got to the lake...I was on a "chicken bus" (converted school bus), a mini bus (or mini van), in the back of a pickup (sorry Mom) and on a TucTuc which is a covered motorcycle with a double back seat all before 11am!! It was a trip I tell you! Our first stop on the lake was at the "town with no name." (For security reasons I can not disclose the name of the town!) Here we experienced the backpackers way of life!! It was great! We rented kayaks and ended up going really far around the lake. It was here I was able to meet another one of Carin's good friends Olivia. This town has a secret pathway that leads to all the bars and restaurants. We found a great place that served humus and cheap beer! I was in heaven:) We moved eventually to a couple other bars and even played a round of darts with some new friends. I like the town with no name!
From there we moved to a private hotel (the most expensive one we stayed at $15) called Casa Del Mundo. This is owned by a man and a wife who spent 17 years building it. It juts off the side on a cliff and I am not sure how they built it so it was a marvel. Also a marvel was getting my bag up and down the side of this cliff. Not fun but we got it there some how!! We laid out next to the lake during the day and enjoyed a family style dinner with all of the guest in the hotel (only has 15 rooms) that night. We met a couple from outside of Yosemite Park and a girl that was our age and quit her job and was backpacking around Guate and Mexico. I have to say I was a bit envious of her. Also there were some other volunteers staying there. There are around 200 volunteers in Guatemala right now so they are rampant!! Ironically the 3 spring breakers we had traveled with before were staying there as well!
From Casa Del mundo we then moved to Panachel (all transportation once on the lake is by boat). Pana is where all the people go to sell their crafts. Handmade goods that really blow the mind. Negotiating is a sport in this town! So I was able to get lots of great gifts and had my very own Spanish speaking negotiator!! As a merchant or retailer I have to say that the things that Guatemalans are making by hand are amazing. Machinery will never be able to duplicate this art form.
The trip was now winding down and emotions were high. For those of you who don't know if Carin's cries then I cry and then she cries more...we are a mess. So we held back because we had one more night in Antigua. We took a Pullman bus back to Antigua. Another interesting challenge with transportation is that they are doing alot of road construction right now, not unlike America, but they completely shut down all lanes to do their work. So you could be sitting at any given spot for hours. Fortunately we were stopped frequently but not for more than 20 minutes or so.
Back in Antigua we did some shopping (for Jade which is only found in Asia and Guatemala) and hit some other of the funky stores in the town. Then we went to watch the Final 4 games at Monolocco...where I was able to meet more of Carin's friends. We drank quite a bit on my last night in town and we shared a delicious wrap sandwich. Up until this point the famous "stomach ache" had not affected me. But I ate the end of the wrap with the lettuce and boy oh boy did I feel the vengeance!! I have been sick before but I was up all night and had to fly home the next day...it was unlike any pain I have ever felt. Thankfully it happened on the last day because I am not sure I would have eaten anything at all if it had happened on the first!!! But enough about that...at Monolocco we hung out with two girls, Holly and Cecelia, fello volunteers!! They were great and it was so fun to hang out with them...they of course drilled me for current events (which Rachel would have been much better at) and welcomed me with open arms! We also got to meet some Guatemala boys that were the same age as us (ok maybe 24 or 25 but who is counting!) and I asked them a multitude of questions about their lives so it was neat to see how they have lived up until this point. Needless to say when I woke on Sunday morning I was not in the best of shape but I had to get back to America so the reality of getting home set in. Then the reality of leaving Carin set in and no sickness could out weigh that. I tried to be strong for her but I have to admit that I cried in the cab to the airport, and apparently she was crying at the hotel:(
C, I love you girl more than any Spanish or English words could ever say...I don't care what countries we are in, the bond that we share always picks up right where it left off with no space in between. You are my breath of fresh air and you are the strongest and bravest and most giving person I know. I know that I doubted your decision once and I now know 100% that you are in the right place at the right time and God is working through you. You are amazing and I love you! Hostess with the Mostess..thanks for unforgettable trip!
Carly
