Guatemala--Family Stay

Wednesday May 23, 2007

We had breakfast at a very touristy restaurant.  Unfortunately, I don't know the name.  It had fabulous food.  And the hot chocolate?  To die for.

me and Jordan and our delicious hot chocolate

After breakfast we talked to a nurse, Juana Riquac.  She talked to us about how important education is.  She said, "If I had land or a house, I could sell that and have nothing but no one can take away an education."  We loved her.  And she was so cute.

me and Juana

Afterward, we went to the Ruth and Naomi Project where they teach young people different occupations and in return the young people weave and sew things to sell in the shop.

 Next up was the elementary school in the community of Chontala.  We were able to visit almost every clsssroom there.  It was so fun to see all the kids there.  They were so excited to see us.  On class room even had a song and dance prepared for us.

Singing and Dancing

We stayed in this small community for a "family stay."  We broke into small groups and stayed at one family's home.  Our "mom" was Anastacia. 

After dropping our things off we headed back up the mountain to play soccer with some local kids.  I'm not a soccer player and I have no idea what the rules really are but I had such a good time.

After the game

After soccer we walked back to the house and spent some time with the kids while the food was being prepared.  At one point, Felix asked us if we wanted to go see the animals but I somehow misunderstood that and responded with my best Spanish "Yes, let's eat now." to which he responded, "NO! We can't eat these animals."  I felt a little idiotic.  After that adventure, we went back inside and tried to help Anastacia and Tomasa make homemade tortillas.  They were horrible looking and very funny for the family.  They thought it was weird that we didn't know how to make them.

After dinner, we went to bed in one of the two rooms in the house.  The bed was a bunch of boards on an incline...not fun to sleep on.  The room was infested with giant bugs.

I know it doesn't look big but it was finger sized...for real guys.

After we got the bug situation under control (by squealing like little girls, gaining our composure and ninja skills to kill all bugs in the room, and spraying every surface & ourselves with bug spray) we tried to sleep.

Jordan spraying the room

It was a horrible night for sleeping.  Aside from the fact that we had 3 people in a 5 foot by 5 foot space we also had to deal with the fact that large bugs may be crawling all over us, a crazy rooster that insisted on crowing (cock-a-doodle-dooing?) every hour on the hour and we kept sliding down our inclined bed.  Ugh.  No sleep.

For as horrible an experience as it was, I think it's the best worst thing I never want to do again.