Nuevas Adventuras!

Holy cow I have neglected this. I've had a crazy month, and I hope I can get pictures on this with my sloooooooooooooow internet connection.

Since my last post what has happened...so much....classes have fully started. I was originally enrolled in 5 classes plus my spanish. There is an NGO class taught by Janey where we are split into sub groups and are evaluating NGOs in Guatemala. My group (me, Krysten and Meghan) have thus far evaluated 4, and I have myself visited two. It's been quite a beneficial experience to see the variety of NGOs out there, but also to see what to look for in an efficient organization that is truly serving the needs of a community. On Friday we're goingt to the city to talk to the lady who runs "Photo Kids" which is a children's photography project reminiscent of the documentary "Born into Brothels" for those who have seen it.

I'm also taking Clive's development economic class which I think I actually understood for the first time today. The incredible thing about this semester is the opportunity for hands on learning. Our class is doing a cost-benefit study of a development project in the country. The project Clive chose was to evaluate the effects (good and bad) of increasing tourism on the lake community of San Lucas Toliman (that we visited in February) by cleaning up a very polluted bay. My part of the project is to research the subsequent effects of tourism on the local sex trade. Ha. Imagine having to ask community members questions about one of the most taboo subjects within the culture.

We are taking two classes from Guatemalan professors, The Politics of Poverty and Environmental Geography. They are incredible professors and amazing classes. And finally, I began out taking a class on Central American Spanish literature from Magda the Costa Rican prof...but after having no idea what was going on for the first two weeks, I dropped that class.

I realize school really isn't that interesting to talk about...so I suppose I could let you know a little bit about my jungle adventures last week...

Clive thought it would be beneficial for us to take a significant chunk of time away from Antigua and really get to explore a different part of the country. So we took 9 days and travelled East. We split into two smaller groups and travelled in vans in the Guatemalan heat, and as we got closer to the Carribean, the humidity. My group crossed the border and went into Copan first. The border cracks me up. It was just a metal pole with a stop sign that lifts up dozens of men running around waving Honduran money around to exchange with you. What they failed to tell us was that Guatemalan Quetzales are accepted at almost any store and restaurant in Copan...so they are really just cheating you out of money. But Honduran money is a little prettier than Queztales...so hey...maybe it was worth it.

In Copan we visited the Mayan ruins and spent only one night exploring the modern city. It was very clean and beautiful...but we also saw not a single homeless person, or people peddling goods in the street. It was very different from the streets of Antigua that I'm used to.

After Honduras (which, by the way, has the ugliest postcards you could possibly find) we went North to Rio Dulce on the Carribean and spent four days and three nights at AK Tenamit, an NGO on a river off Lago Izabel. It was an incredible experience. The NGO services the 45 Q'eqche Mayan communities in the area with a health clinic, a high school, gender awareness, HIV awareness, a dental boat, a women's health program and community tourism development. We spent one day helping build a latrine, which really was not what I expected. The NGO did not need our volunteer help at all...they were really only "letting us help" to give us the experience of helping. Labour is cheap and not hard to find and when we got there, the NGO workers had to almost force the construction workers to let us help. They were friendly enough, there just wasn't that much we could do. I ended up lugging pails of sand up and down a very dangerous and rocky path for a couple of hours. Even so, I left feeling very unproductive and as if my contribution was well intentioned...but I really hadn't done anything.

The highlight of the NGO visit was the ecotour we were taken on. We went on a hike to a relatively isolated community at the top of the "mountain" the NGO was located at and were shown around the community. It's a very interestingly run community in that it's only real source of income are these tours that are run by a cooperative of men in the community. Other than that, they are mainly a subsistence community. They have huge cornfields that are owned by two men. Every family has a certain area that they come and farm and then are able to take the product back to their families, as long as the two owners get a certain amount of the product. It was fascinating to hear about. After visiting the town, they took us down into this beautiful cave, planted candles around the cave, and took us to a cliff that we all jumped off of and swam around in a dark, deep and beautiful pool. It was incredible. Though climbing back up the rock on a string ladder into a waterfall is one of the more difficult things I have done...

We finished off the trip with four days in the Northern jungle of Peten, where the ruins at Tikal are found. These are the most famous Mayan ruins and are featured in one of the starwars movies...I think one of the old ones. The ruins were absolutely incredible. And our guide was the spunkiest, most enthusiastic guide you could imagine. He was spewing information out of his ears, having us taste the plants, whipping out diagrams, drawing in the sand...it was hilarious. But I learned a lot. And climbed three or four temples. The last pyramid was only a little terrifying with about 6 flights of almost completely verticle wooden stairs. But it was amazing.

In Peten, we stayed on the Island of Flores. It was absolutely beautiful...and just happened to have a Guatemalan circus down the street from us. Did we go? Of course we went! 5 of us toddles down to the circus grounds. I hate the circus. I've always hated it. Ask my family...they go every year and I stay home. BUt...for some reason...I wanted to see it. And...it was crazy. I don't have much time to type...so I'll just say the craziest part was that guy who rides on his motor bike in the giant metal ball. It seemed pretty cool for the first three minutes. Until he wanted to make it more thrilling and stuck a 4 year old in the middle of the ball. I was appallled.

I need to run for lunch...so I think the only thing I'm not telling you about is the zip lining near TIkal....but I'll put up pictures in the next couple of days.

Adios mi amigos!