Hola friends and family,
Apologies all around for the long silence. Don´t worry I´m about to send lots of info and pictures your way to make up for it!
The remainder of our time in Pasac was a whirl of fun times. Most days included group meals, playing with the village children and a lot of rain. We learned about how far Pasac has come through the help of Roots and Wings, the organization that brought us there, and many other programs that have helped them recover from a wild fire, combat the litter problem that pollutes the beautiful greenery of Guatemala and bring business to their small village. The group came together and joined our creative forces to choreograph a dance for the community. After many very entertaining rehearsals we all learned a little more about how we operate together to achieve a common goal. We all found a good balance between stepping up to take command and letting someone else make descisions. By friday, the day of the unveiling of our masterpiece, we were dressed in tradtition Guatemalan clothing and very ready to show the community our gratitude through dance (we are currently trying to upload the video for you but it’s proving a little diffcult considering the slow speed of the internet here) in return we got to see many skits, and tradtitional dances from the community. Sadly, after a week in Pasac it was time for us to leave. We all bid a fond farewell to the families who had taken us into their homes and then were off to our next destination!
We arrived in Xela and spent our first night here in a hostel where we were reaquainted with hot showers, clean clothes and had the possibility of a foreign city to explore. That day most of us stayed pretty close to the hostel but the group found a lot of very interesting cafes, stores and a lot of exciting adventures. There were a lot of things we learned very quickly like the fact that cars have the right of way and apart from that there are no traffic regulations in the very narrow old streets of Xela. That night we had an amazing home cooked meal thanks to Jai, Sarah, Ian, Scott and Joel.
The next day we set out to our language school of Casa Xelaju, the largest spanish language school in Xela. Casa Xelaju includes one on one language tutoring from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and provides optional afternoon activities like salsa dance class, historical tours of the very interesting city that explain the religious background and the way the government works within the city. Each group member is placed in a homestay where we eat three meals a day and can practice our spanish even more. We have all been given small windows into the lives of a very diverse group of the people who live in Xela and it has really allowed us to get a more in depth grasp of this place we are lucky enough to see. Earlier in the week we got to attend a professional soccer game which was a really fun experience because if you thought Latin American countries were very interested in soccer then you were wrong because they are REALLY REALLY into soccer. even in the middle of the week the whole crowd was decked out in red and blue and sang a song about Xela throughout the entire game that included trumpets, drums and lots of jumping up and down. Our group happily and enthusiastically showed our support along with everyone else.
Our group has continued to get to know eachother and have new adventures in pairs, smal groups or as a whole. On Sunday our group organized to take a chicken bus to Chichicastanango to see the famous market that is held there every week. What is a chicken bus? Well imagine a school bus but the policy of the chicken buses is that if you are never full even if you have 3 to 4 people to a seat and every single inch of standing room is occupied. It was quite an experience. The market was also very much like being on the chicken bus because there were hundreds of stalls, thousands of people and millions of colors. Everyone was walking, yelling, singing and selling their brightly colored wares. Many ofus really enjoyed the busy atmosphere but others found it very overwhelming. No matter which impression we had of the market no one could deny that it was unlike anything we had ever seen before.
Love to everyone out there from the CAM Maya group!
p.s. pictures will be up when the internet decides that it is ready so keep an eye out for those.