Hola family and friends Bridget and Sarah here :)We arrived in Rocja Pomtila way past our bedtimes of 7pm to an amazingly welcoming village. We were all escorted to our new bungalows with our assigned roommates. (Me and Bridget were together! How cute!) The walk was pitch black and treacherous. This village has no electricity to light our ways, so we had to rely on a single flashlight. The new rural setting was a shock to our systems after getting used to the luxury of electricity and running water in San Andres. But none of that bothered us because we were so warmly welcomed by our new families. Our family in particular was made up of 7 brothers and sisters all interested in getting to know us.
We started our volunteer project the following morning. We were helping the local workers to level a site for a new community center. The work was hard and tiring in the hot sun. After shoveling, digging, and hauling dirt around (our projects always seem to end up involving dirt), we were ecstatic to see our families each walking toward us with plates of food at ten for our midday snack. Me and Bridget got empanadas! Everyone was super jealous of our food because it was most definitely the best.
We continued work until noon and then went our seperate ways for lunch at our homestays. After lunch, we worked another 2 hours on the community center and then rushed off to the freezing river for our shower and laundry.
Dinners were an amazing chance to spend time with our families and get to know each other in the romantic candlelight setting. Many of our family members only spoke a little spanish with Que´chi (a mayan dialect) being there first language. We were all able to bond regardless of the language barrier. The kids were always wanting to play and our mom was happy to teach us how to make delicious tortillas. Bridget´s could use some practice, but Sarah was pretty much amazing at it as she is at most things. We both loved the process, it was a good way to bond with our host mom and see what sort of work she does on a day to day basis.
We spent the rest of the week working hard in the mornings and afternoons and enjoying our families and each other´s company in the afternoons. There were many coconuts in the village and we all loved when our brothers would machete one open for us.
Also, two birthdays were celebrated in the village, Mary´s 19th and Greg´s 18th. We all enjoyed the celebrations and eating lots of cake and cupcakes (even though the ants got to them first).
We were all extremely sad to leave such an amazing and different place. I think we all learned a lot from our week in this village about what is truly necesary and what brings happiness. We climbed into the bus to leave at 3am under the most beautiful sky full of stars that many of us city dweelers had never seen before in our lives (Houston and Portland do not look like that at night).
Fourteen hours later, we arrived in the second largest Guatemalan city, Quetzaltenango, or Xela. We were all struck by the amazing architecture of the city. Everything was Greek gothic with corinthian and doric columns on all the buildings.
We were walked to our individual homes and shocked at the luxury we all found there. This is by far our nicest homestay to date, complete with showers, hot water (for the lucky ones), and electricity. We are all very excited to be here in this city with so many activities available to us, salsa lessons, yoga, volunteer opportunities at animal shelters and orphanages, so much good food, all on top of the spanish classes we are taking here at Casa Xelaju. We all feel very lucky to have such amazing one on one experiences with knowledgable teachers. We go to school every day from 8 until 1 and have afternoons free to spend with our host families, explore the city, or do some of the many activities available to us here.
Adam and Allison have a super sweet pad by the school for meetings and group activities (such as Sarah´s super awesome 18th birthday celebration complete with Tres Leches).
We have also done a few activities together as a group, including going to the futbol game between Xela and San Marcos. We were rooting for the underdogs, Xela and they came out on top, winning two to one. It was an exciting game full of…enthusiasm from the spectators. We all learned a lot there. Mostly spanish cuss words.
Yesterday we went to Chichicastenango, the biggest market of the year in Guatemala. SHOPPING! We all bargained our butts off with the local vendors and got great prices for a lot of really cool things. Expect presents family and friends! 🙂
After the market, we celebrated our one month and one day anniversary as a group at Panorama, a beautiful restaraunt on top of a hill overlooking the city. The food was delicious (Bridget got fondue! Sarah got shrimp!) and the company was even better. Adam and Allison gave 12 toasts to our group that were all very special to us and meant a lot. We are having a great time in Xela reguardless of the chilly weather and are very exciting about the remainder of time we have here. We have activity ideas such as a hike to two volcanic mountains that erupt every hour! Along with hot springs,basket weaving, music festivals, salsa classes, museums, volunteer oppurtunites, and even a lecture of Xela´s history from one of the teachers at the school. We love and miss you all! Until next time!
Your bloggers, Bridget and Sarah
