about to leave

The trip has been amazing. Though I´m glad to be going home tomorrow, and even though we´ve had our ups and downs, these three weeks have been really really unbelievable, and I will never forget all of the things we´ve done here in Guatemala. Today we said goodbye to the kids, which was really hard to watch. They went from really happy, dancing, smashing the piñatas, to crying and hugging...If anything, that is a sign that we have made a difference in their lives, and hopefully they, like us, will never forget these three weeks.

It´s going to be weird going home too, I´m going to have to re-adjust to my life in America, the culture, food, etc.

I´m really glad I went on this trip, it´s opened up another part of the world to my eyes, a part that until now I knew little about. I´ve also grown a little stonger with speaking spanish, and I think I´ve learned a lot here, much of what I´ve learned I have to thank my wonderful teacher Cristy for.

If all goes well, and Junior Journey continues strong next year, I wish the upcoming juniors the best of luck!

Cambios...

yo sabia que los niños en San Pedro ment alot to me y tambien sabia que saying good bye was going to be hard but I never knew how much i meant to them until today... Throughout this trip i have experianced many things one that i am most greatful for would be teaching these kids. Y le doy gracias a dios por guiar me por este camino porque ha sido en realida una gran felicidad y un gran placer tomar parte de las vidas de estos niños. Sabiendo que el tiempo que tomamos todos los dias enseñandole lo mas que podramos en ingles les abrirara puertas en el futuro. Y la semilla que cada uno de ellos han sembrado en mi corazon nuca se borara y seguira cresiendo con los años que vienen.

I MISS POPEYES CHICKEN

I really miss chicken like really really badly lol I'm dying for some chicken I wish I had some chicken "MUMMY" can you bring me to POPEYE'S as soon as we get the chance lol!!!!!!!!!

SO I CAN GET SOME CHICKEN

FFF (front flip fear)

Oh god!!! I am the biggest CHICKEN when it comes to doing front flips into a pool. i feel like i might bang my head on the side of the pool or something. And I dont know what got into me but i saw the boys doing them and i thought to myself "Hey why dont i give it a shot!!" And then it happend i got rid of all my fears and did the first girl front flip into the pool. I gota say for my first time it wasnt bad, it was even better than Andrews. After the first one they just kept coming cannon balls, front flips and chicken! We had a blast...

La Playa

Yesterday we took a day just to relax and have fun at the Pacific coast beach at the port of San Jose. It was one of the only days since we´ve been here that we weren´t on a tight schedule and didn´t have much of an agenda except to play. The beaches here have black sand from all the volcanos around, and the water is the warmest ocean water I´ve ever touched. We also got to spend some quality time in a pool at one of the hotels on the beach. I think these pictures pretty much speak for themselves - a good time was had by all.

The guy in the hat with the little girl on his shoulders is Milton, our fearless guide through all of our adventures. The little girl is Damaris, his daughter. Hey, she looks like someone I know. Shoot, where can I get one of those umbrella hats??

Gordito!!!

Spending time with the little kids in San Pedro has been such a great experiance on this trip. Sabiendo que, lo que nosotros hasemos va a tener un impacto tan grande y bueno en las vidas de estos niños me tray mucha felizidad. But then theres this one kid in my class named Wilber aka GORDITO! This is special... El es tan travieso, y siempre buscando una manera de cojer atencion. con el se nesesita mucha pasiencia. At the begining i just didnt understand! Why this kid was so active. It would take me atleast 3 pages to explain all the things he does in class from keeping coins in his mouth to doing heads knees and shoulders while standing on a chair. Then there was this one time when i asked his to sit down and he didnt listen so i told him he wasnt my favorite anymore. He started crying his eyes out, he was on the floor crying and yelling. I walked over to him and spoke to him at first he said he didnt want to talk to me because i was the only one who liked him and now he wasnt my favorite anymore. It was so hard for me not to get emotional while i spoke with him because i realized that Gordito life is really hard and he needs all the attention he can get at school since at home he doenct get much. I LOVE MY GORDITO!! I know that if any of you where to meet him you would too...

Niños make me dizzy

Every day after teaching, we spend about a half hour playing with the little kids. The other day while I was standing around, little girl ran up to me a demanded "Dame vueltas. Dame vueltas." Unable to say no, I picked her up and started to spin her around. Before we had done two spins, a crowd of kids had already gathered around me with their hands raised pleading for me to dar vueltas to everyone. By the time I had given ten kids a spin I was dripping sweat and dizzy, but it was worth it, because this picture is how happy they looked afterwards.

We Real!

Who you know hotter than us Junior Journey people?! Whaaaaaat?! Volcano was definitely intense. Never seen lava before in my life, nor a volcano, but why not start aqui en Guatemala. We got mad close to the lava, I got my own personal souvenir, I like to call it my "Burned Junior Journey Shirt". Yeah, thats right i got close enough to burn my shirt. It was beast. All of us got up close too. None of us chickened out, naw that is not us. Like I said, WE REAL!

Volcano is crazy

LISTEN.... the volcano is crazy.... the heat was so intense that the sweat dried up. The Marshmellows were good...UMM But its crazy hot,hot, hot ...but dont get real close becuase you can burn your arms hairs off.

P.S. IT was draining

Horse Back Ridding

Ok, so i woke up this morning thinking i was going to hike up volcano Pacaya, but things turned out a little differently. We began our journey to the volcano at 8:00 am and from the beginning we were all very excited. I knew it was going to be hard and I wasn't sure what I was going to do once I couldn't go any further, but i was willing to just give it a try. We were on our ways in the vans and Ms. Bowman mentions the fact that there will be horses for anyone who gets tired on the way and cant make it to the top. I was even more excited to hear this i had been trying to ride a horse for these past two weeks and finally when i get a chance to its not any ordinary ride its a horse ride up a volcano! Both Alex and I began hiking and it wasn't until at least 10 minutes after that we decided to pay one of the guys for the horse ride. Ill have to admit part of the reason why I didn't want to hike up for longer was because it was hard and i was already tired but also because the horses were so pretty and i was anxious to ride one. Alex and I enjoyed our rides and the view was beautiful. The whole experience was awesome from watching Alex´s horse Morales piss a river that Ms. Bowman later on stepped on to having Mr. Carolan feed my muñeco an apple and then pulling back scared dropping the apple. Ridding Muñeco up the volcano today was a blast, i just hope hes not the last horse i get to ride in Guatemala.

Volcano!

so we just got back from climbing a volcano. it so cool! it was definitely one of the scarest things of my life. as we were walking up the volcano at first the ground was dirt and most of us were confident that we could make it the whole way without getting a taxi (a taxi on a volcano is a horse) but Lelly and Alex couldn´t. I´ll let Lelly tell that adventure.
as we walked up the dirt part each step becasme harder, dogging horse poop, breathing heavy, swatting bugs, and walking up hill but it was kind of fun. as one of us would slip the rest of us would make sure they didn´t while laughing and trying to doge horse poop or the ocassionally peeing horse.
once we got to the volcano part things becasme very difficult expically for me. It was SO SCARY!!!! we were walking on volcano ashes that were rocks and some wigggled and others were hallow. Mr. O´donnel and Ms. Bowman helped me alot on the way there. Once we got to the part of the volcano that had lava coming out of it we had marshmallows which were so good.
After the marshmallows Eddie burnt his junior journey shirt which was really cool.
Then Gabe helped me alot towards the begining of the way back. I was scared that I was going to fall threw the rocks but clearly I didn´t. Today made us remember project adventure when we had to pep talk eachother climbing up the ladder thingy. I wont ever climb another volcano but it was definetly an experiance i would recomend.

volcano heat

So we climbed up the volcano today, and it was AMAZING! I know that there are a bunch of other posts about the hike, heck there better be cause it was so awesome, and I´m all tired out right now.

the top 5 highlights of the hike:

- When a teacher is about to fall into a hole filled with molten lava, bad words sometimes come out of their mouths

- Lava is hot.

- Lava is really really really hot. Don´t get too close.

- Lava is really, really awesome.

- That smell of burt rubber we were all smelling... that was the smell of our shoes melting.

All I can say is that for those kids who will be juniors next year.... you should go on Junior Journey, if anything, just for this experience.

There is a lot of video that can explain what words can not. Also, I´ve never tasted a marshmellow so good...

Being a Teacher; The UPS and DOWNS

So it´s been a while since we´ve been here (2 weeks) and we all love the kids we teach. At first it was kind of hard for most of us because we don´t really speak their language and didn´t know how to connect with them. This little bump in the road lasted for about 2 days at the most because their enthusiasm to learn and our willingness to be patient kicked in. On wednesday we went to the houses of a few of our students to deliver some donated clothes. Seeing the extent of their poverty tore us apart. I´m not so sure about the othe PHAers but I for 1 wanted 2 just 2 break down and cry. Just knowing that we´re really making an impact in their life really makes a difference. Although we love them to death, things can at times get really difficult. Today for example I caught myself being really frustrated with them when they wouldn´t listen. I felt like they weren´t appreciating the time we were spending with them. Regardless I still love ¨my kids¨and I know that no matter what they put me through, I am making a difference. I just dont know how I´ll feel when we leave.

Senorita Douglas

Ms. Douglas, she is such a great person. Honestly, if it wasn´t for her I really don´t believe I would be here in Guatemala. I thank her so much for looking out for me when I felt like giving up on school and stuff. My whole junior year was up and down and she would always have her door open for whenever I needed someone to talk to. She stepped in and became my advisor for the year. IF anyone needs someone to talk to, Ms. Douglas is definitely someone to talk with. She gives great advice. Thank you Ms. Douglas for not giving up on me. You didn´t give up on Dennis nor me, hmm I´m guessing Erik is next.

some minor problems with the family

I´m a roomate with Alex, and we´ve recently had a few minor problems with our family, though I think they have been cleared up now. You see, it´s roughly the half-way point at the moment, and for the first half of the trip we would always have the same thing for dinner. It would always be beans and plantains, beans and plantains, and MORE frijoles y platanos! Anyway, it was getting a little boring... this didn´t mean that we didn´t like the food, it just meant that we were getting a little bored.

From the start, we have felt a little uncomfortable around our family. Not to the extent that we don´t want to live there or anything, it´s just that every day it seems that there is a different member of the family, wandering around, or eating. Many times at night, before we go to sleep, there will be a bunch of people from the family, huddled in the parents room, talking really loudly together, or watching some intense preacher into the wee hours of the night.

So, now we had this food problem. Since we didn´t feel comfortable talking to the mother ourselves, we asked Carlos to talk to her. He did, and we began dreding what would happen next.

We walked into the house for lunch, knowing that Carlos had probably talked to her. Usually, she is all smiles, she prays with us, eats with us, and talks with us. But today she just put our plates on the table, told us we could eat and walked out!

This happened again for dinner, and we were a little worried. We knew we hadn´t done anything wrong, so we were not sure what her problem was. But the next day, thankfully, she talked to us during breakfast and told us that if we ever had any problems or questions we shouldn´t be afraid to talk to her.

So for now, I think the whole house thing is okay, but who knows what the future has in store for us...

Lago Atitlan

On Tuesday, we drove in a customized flaming bus for 2 and a half hours on curvy, hairpin, mountain roads to get to a giant lake called Lago Atitlan. When we got there, we got on a nice boat and sailed to the other side of the lake. The lake was nice because it was surrounded by two giant volcanoes. On the other side, there was a big mercado where we could buy whatever we want. We got coke in bottles and other cool stuff. Good times...
We then went back on the boat and Marc, Norieliz, Cory, and Dreezy (Andrew) found a deck on the back of the boat where you could stand and be in the water and the boat at the same time. It was great and we had a lot of fun.
Everything here is so beautiful. You really need to see it to believe it.

Visiting the Students

visiting the kids was pretty amazing. we were talking about it after at one of our many meetings and it was crazy to see that they dont even realize the difference between our life style and theirs....

as i was walking with the kids i was trying to keep them from stepping on mud puddles and stuff to keep our shoes clean and it hit me that they didnt care and that they were stepping through the streets like it was nothing...like it didnt matter.

thats when i thought that there are so many differences between our lives. they dont know what they are and what they can be. they havent really realized their potentials yet. they have so much life and so much hope. i love my students as well as all the other children here. they are so much more. they are so out of our ordinary. their humility is incredible.

but that is about it for now. i just love these kids.

Salsa Classes

So while I have been down here I have been taking advantage of some classes that have been here. It has been a great time down here. There are some free classes in the Sevilla school and then i also went to La fabrica which is a gym in antigua and i have gotten classes from a very good salsa dancer named Juan Carlos. I am glad that I am learning it and I definately want to continue when I get back!

Regalos de Ropa

Lisa´s personal growth project was to gather TONS of clothes from her Church and to bring them to Guatemala to donate to people here. It was a bit complicated to figure out how to get the 11 extra bags down here, but we did it, and it was so worth it. On Monday night we gathered at school and divided up all the clothes into 56 little bags to deliver to some of the most needy families from the school where we´re working. Then on Wednesday, we divided up into groups with the kids and some of the teachers from the school and walked all over the town to, up and down the side of a huge hill to make our deliveries. I´ll leave it to the kids to describe the experience, but some pictures here should give some hints. We learned a lot that day.

Besitos de Cheetos

Yes, Cheetos.

Every day when we leave the school after playing with the kids during recreo for about thirty minutes, they all line up to give us kisses goodbye - besitos. The thing is that they also have a little snack shack that sells cheap junk food (hmmmm .... sounds familiar) and today one little boy who LOVES attention from his favorite gringos had Cheetos all over his mouth. So we all got in the car and asked each other if we had any of Wagner´s (yes, that´s his name) lefotover Cheetos on our cheeks. Mmmmm ... I do love the besitos, but not so much the cheeto covered ones.

The awesome little kid in this picture is Wagner, the Cheeto kisser. He pretty much wants people to hug him like that all the time.

Le Tour de Antigua

Pardon the weird mix of French and Spanish in that title ....

Today we took a bike ride through some of the surrounding little towns around Antigua. We probably covered about 15 miles up hills, down hills, on dirt roads, paved roads, cobblestone roads, through processions of people on their way to Church, dodging little girls in their white Frist Communion dresses, even wittnessing an almost fatal accident between a dog and a speeding truck. The dog barely made it out in time. It´s a good thing that Carols and Milton know people everywhere we went, because we needed to leave a few bikes at people´s houses along the way so some tired people could climb in the back of Carlos´car. Everyone´s pretty tired this afternoon!

Pictures later ....

10 lessons learned in our first week:

1. Watching Cory get told off by little girls es bien divertido.

2. Teaching es DIFICIL!

3. Tetnus shots are significantly weaker in Guatemala que en los Estados Unidos.

4. Sr. Carolan is significantly less guapo con un bigote.

5. No es buena idea to go to a blind tailor (un sastre ciego).

6. The Celtics-Lakers rivalry is recognized por todo el mundo.

7. Frijoles taste good with anything.

8. Standing in the center of a futbol field and screaming can be a clever strategy to scare off your opponent.

9. Fake Brittish accents are funny for only so long.

10. Besitos from little children make us all MUY FELIZ.

junior journey rocks my socks

I´m having such a great time here in Guatemala!

We´ve so far done a lot of really cool and interesting things here, such as visiting the Jade Factory, climing a hill that overlooks Antigua and the volcano Agua, eating lots and lots of frijoles, hanging out in the park....., playing soccer against the teachers, and lots more.

At the moment though, I´m most looking forward to our climb on the volcano, which we will be doing next weekend. I´m really excited becuase we have been told that there is lava flowing down the volcano!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That means.... real, hot, molten lava. It´s going to be awesome!

i got married

So today we went to San Antonio and there we went to a group of indiginous people (Mayans), they told us about their elaborate weddings. Then Ms. Douglas choose four volunteers to participate in a mock wedding, the volunteers were... Tenes and I (we were the couple) and Lindsay and Marc were Tenes´ parents. It was quite hilarious =D. Then Tenes and I had 6 babys lol (they just gave us one plastic baby)

LOVE chloe

Decision

So everyone basically knows that I wasn´t sure about going to Guatemala or not, but talking with Ms. Douglas, Mr. Lippard, and calls at 7:30 in the morning from Ms. Murray helped out with my decision. They told me how I would change, and I have changed within the first week. Its sad seeing how my people, my country lives alot different than those in the United States. Watching the clothing that Guatemaltecos make, mostly with their hands. Basically, it is pretty early,but I know that I definitely would´ve regreted not coming to Guatemala.

tag with the children

So last friday during receso, a few of us were playing hide-n-go seek. so we would count to 10 then chase them around. I guess i was pretty good. becuase after about 10 minutes and all the little kids ran up and said profe(teacher) we want to play tag but you r the only one who is it. so i ran around till my legs fell off. it was the cutest thing ever to see them run in circles. Im having lotss of fun.

being a teacher. . .

teaching the little kids engish is so fun . . we do hands on projects . and games and sing songs.. something funny that happened was since we have been speaking spanish all the time when i tried to go write the days of the week in english i forgot how to spell wednesday

Pensamientos

Hello -

Yesterday we got involved in an ill-adivsed football match against a bunch of Brits and Guatemalans. They should have kicked our butts, except that they let us play with about twice as many players as they had. In the end, I think we won. Damany as goalie .... it was pretty great. Then in the evening we managed to catch the 4th quarter of the Celtics game. A little dose of home cooking - flat screen TV´s, NBA playoffs, onion rings and Coke was good for many spirits, but I have a hunch that the deep fried goodness might have been the cause of a few rumbly stomachs this morning.

At our daily meetings after we´ve had a few minutes for journaling, we have a little open mic for anyone who wants to share a story or a thought or a question. Here´s a little sample of some of the things people are thinking about

• How should we respond to the little street kids selling apples and bracelets? If we give them money, we´re just encouraging the behavior, but if we don´t ....


• I really wanted to cry when the little kids all sang the National Anthem. I don´t know why, but before I knew it there were tears streaming down my face.


• A little girl at the school asked me a quesiton and I have no idea what she said, but then she starting playing with my earrings and said they were ¨muy bonitos.¨


• I gained some respect for teachers today. This is really hard.


• I´m realizing how much more I want to travel in my life.


• I loved that the little kids called me Profa. At first I didn´t know what they meant, then I realized they were calling me teacher!


• I know that we´re having fun with the little kids and that they can repeat all the phrases back to us, but are they really learing anything?


• I´m so glad I came. I almost didn´t, and I´m so glad I made it.


• I went to the REAL market today - not the toursity one by the square, but the one where real people go. It was like their Wal-Mart.


• The meat selling part of the market might be the grossest thing I´ve ever seen.


• I can´t believe they have dogs just roaming around the hospital. Americans would freak out.


• Today some of the little kids actually remembered the things we taught them yesterday!


• I see the little kids with so much enthusiasm and potential, and adults who are so hardened. If these little kids were in some different circumstances, maybe their life would turn out differently.

Pardon the spelling errors. Guatemalan keyboards are a little complicated!

It finally rained and cooled off a little. But then came the mosquitos!

- BB

Words of the day

Hi all!

We´ve made it here safe and sound and we´re starting to settle into a routine. Classes at the language schol started yesterday and everyone seemed excited to be learning so much so fast. We also went to meet the little kids from the school where´we´re going to help teach English in the next three weeks. Wow. They had a whole preseentiton for us - including a welcome from the mayor of the town, presentaitons from the kids on the history of holidays in May (mothers´ day and workers´ day), the singing of the - very long - Guatemalan national anthem and the most adorable song and dance by some of the youngest kids dressed up as animals. It was pretty impressive! We´ll go there for the first time today and work in their classes to teach them some Enlgish. More to come!

At our daily meeting yesterday we all shared the most interesting or important or funny word we´ve leared so far. Here´s a sample:

1. Pajilla - straw


2. Perros Callejeros - stray dogs


3. Disculpa - what you say when you bump into someone


4. Jamon - ham


5. Adivinar - to guess


6. And Eddie´s favorite T-shirt ...¨no solo soy perfecto pero soy Chapin tambien.¨ (Not only am I perfect, I´m Guatemalan too.)


7. Regatear - barter

More to come soon. We´ll get the kids on here writing their stories soon!

- BB

Getting ready to go!!

I am mad amped to go! Its about 7 and I still need to start packing...

But I'm also very tired from my long day of chillin in ALL of my classes.

I think imma take a nap 'til bout midnight then get up and start packing then leave straight from there. 

Sounds like a plan lol

Project Adventure

Tenes,
You, Eddie and Jessica were'nt the only ones to go to the top. Asianna made it all the way and I would have also if I had about .00000002 more seconds.

Project Adventure

It was a fun day. It felt like such an accomplishment when Eddie, Jessica, and I (Tenes, not Marc) made it to the top... I'm just making that correction.
But really though, we all are a great team together.

Project Adventure

I meant to write a little note about our adventure at project adventure, but I forgot. So here it is - albeit late.

It sure was a good adventure. We played and laughed a lot, talked a lot about what’s going to make us a good traveling team, and got to try some new things we had never tried before. I’d say climbing a giant rope ladder thirty feet in the air was new for all. To watch the teamwork was amazing. I love this picture on the right because it shows Tina, Vanessa and Asianna working as such a team! It was also cool to see how much better the groups got at the climbing challenge as we went along because they were all learning so much from watching the other groups. In the end when Marc and Eddie and Jessica stood at the very top - the only group to make it all the way up all together - it felt like an accomplishment for all of us, not just for those three. I think that we'll have many more such adventure where teamwork and a good sense of humor will be our keys to success.

A great start to this adventure …
- Ms B