Guatemala is money. So money.

HEY THE INTERNET IS BACK!!! Sorry for not updating the past couple days with all these new people in the house the internet has been super sketchy. So here is goes…

Sunday: So the new people got back Sunday night, it’s a group of 8 but theyre not all together. There’s a dad and his daughter (Dan and Grace), two friends from college ( Jill and Terry-Ann) and everyone else is by themselves: Kathy, Mishiah, Sarah and Caitlin. Sunday night we just kind of hung out and played a little uno before bed and did the basic getting to know you conversations…blah. Also it was the longest game of uno I’ve ever heard of.  So that’s all I remember of Sunday.

Monday: Work was good, pretty much the same as usual, except that the teacher had asked me to bring in a craft for the kids to make Munecas (dolls). At least that’s what im pretty sure she asked….anyways I decided to use the activity as art and  to teach the kids some body parts in English. So at breakfast Monday morning me, abbey and Natalie started the ridiculous task of trying to draw little dolls for the kids to color in and glue body parts onto. They were pretty awful, but luckily kids aren’t too picky and the teacher didn’t laugh at me too much. Just a little, which is completely understandable. After work we had a history of Guatemala lesson with Virginia and she showed us this video about the genocides in Guatemala. Between 1982-1984 the military government here authorized the killing of hundreds of Mayan people in Guatemala. The men who were responsible for this are just now being brought to justice and even so, it is only a few of the men and it has been 30 years. I found it interesting that this event is something that I had never really heard of; how could genocide just be forgotten? I think it has something to do with the fact that the United States supported the military government that committed all these crimes. But after that me, Abbey and Natalie decided to go on a walk to the Central Park area in town and check out some of the stores around there. On the way we saw this big building we’d been by a bunch of times and were like “oh that’s pretty, what is it?” So we walked inside and it turned out to be a beautiful church that we’d never noticed. Unfortunately we didn’t have our cameras but we’ll definitely bring them next time. The church was so ornately decorated and because it’s lent, in one of the side chapels they had what we thought was a rug on the floor with purple and gold decorations, but when we got closer we noticed that it was actually made completely out of sawdust. It was amazing. Here's some pictures I got of the outside on Tuesday, inside ones to come...

Spooky lookin with the clouds

After, we walked around to a few shops and I found a few really cute pairs of cheap shoes that I may have to come back for. That night we ordered PIZZA, which was surprisingly difficult because we couldn’t work the online system, but it was delicious and we watched Swingers, which was money.

Tuesday: At work on Tuesday I brought in some worksheets for the kids to do that basically taught colors and they went ok, the kids didn’t really understand what they were supposed to do, but regardless they had fun coloring. After work and lunch we had our Spanish lesson and I finally learned the words to this song that the kids have been singing at recess, so that’s exciting. Then me, Abbey and Natalie went on another walk to see more of the street market, we didn’t really find anything we wanted to buy but I remembered my camera so I got some pictures!

Parque Centrale

Wendy's 

Names of victims of genocide

Street Market

 

Uncle Sam

And after that Me, Abbey and Natalie met Clark at Tacontendo for happy hour and dinner, mmmm. The pina coladas there are probably the best I’ve ever tasted. After that we headed back home where Miguel (the awesome guard) taught us some puzzle games. One was where you nail a nail into a table just a bit and you have to figure out how to balance 7-9 other nails on top of it. It was crazy hard. And the other he tied a rope around your left wrist and then put a knot in the middle and tied the other end around you right ankle and you had to figure out how to untangle it. We all tried for like an hour before Miguel showed us how to do it and it was of course ridiculously easy. It was a really fun night.

Today: So today at work I decided to bring a beach ball for recess. Two problems: one- the kids do not understand how to play volleyball or keep it up and I couldn’t explain it in Spanish so they all just kept throwing the ball in the air and then fighting over who got to throw it next. And two- there are barbed wire rolls all over the top of the building and they hit the ball at them repeatedly so by the end of recess the ball was like covered in tape where I had tried to cover up the holes. Overall, it was a fail. After work we just had lunch which was awesome and now we’re getting ready to go see some Mayan ruins that are apparently in Guatemala City! And after Virginia says she has a surprise for us, I’m excited! And then Me, Abbey and Natalie are going to dinner with her family that lives here in the city. Ill try and take lots of pictures and update tonight if the internet works! Adios. 


*******UPDATE!************

The ruins: So went all piled in the car to go see the ruins and I'm kind of expecting another long trip but much to my surprise we didnt even leave the city. The ruins were actually a site that is currently being excavated in a park in the city. The park is named Kaminaljuyu and there are tons of hills in the park and underneath them they have been finding ruins from an ancient Mayan city. It was pretty cool to see the work in progress going on but the ruins here were still nothing compared to pictures I have seen of Tikal of course. The guide was telling us that when they were building the houses in the neighborhood surrounding the park they found a bunch of arrowheads and other small artifacts and many of them actually have personal collections of Mayan artifacts in their houses. Kaminaljuyu is actually an important ceremonial site for Mayan so while we were at the park we saw three different people building altars and performing ceremonies, it was really cool! Here are some pics from the park but theres more on facebook!

Surprise!: So after we went to the ruins Virginia had said that she had a surprise for all of of so we got driven around for awhile to throw us off and then ended up back at home,  where we found out it was a birthday celebration for Dan (the Dad) whose birthday was in March! So I got to experience another Guatemalan birthday. Virginia had bought a pinata and we all got to take turns hitting it, i was pretty intense. After that we ate legit non-taco bell tostadas, which were amazing and some cake. Here's some pictures and video of me and Natalie doing the pinata! 

                                      

Dinner: So after pinata time me abbey and natalie went to dinner at natalie's family's house in the city. The dinner was absolutely delicious and I definitely ate wayyyy too much. Also her family was awesome and so welcoming they told us to call anytime we want and we definitely will

Well thats all for yesterday! ill update later about today :)