El Lago es la Vida

What a beautiful beautiful weekend! And by weekend I mean Sunday, Monday Tuesday. Spanish lessons are over and I had my final on Saturday (eeeeeeeeek!) and today we started regular classes. Development Economics on Wednesdays, Spanish Literature on Thursdays, Politics of Latin America and Environmental Geography of the Central American Region on Saturdays. So I suppopse I have to get used to bizzare weekends of Sunday to Tuesday.

Santiago de Atitlan

On Sunday morning, our whole group took a bus to Lago Atitlan, a beautiful lake and popular tourist destination about two and a half hours out of Antigua by bus. We first visited the town of Santiago which I can't say I really liked. It was really really touristy without being friendly the way Antigua is. I did however run into a heavenily earring stand with about 500 pairs of earrings to choose from...and I resisted and only bought one pair!

Chelsea in Santiago de Atitlan

Earrings!!!!!

Santiago is also the home of one of the Catholic-Mayan fusion God's, Maximon. I'm not sure that I totally understand that God. He is the God of Beer and Cigarette's, but I can't figure out if he is the Saint they pray to about their sins with beer and cigs, or if he is some sort of rebellious Saint to whom they pray to about revenge on others. I can't seem to figure it out. Anyways, it was very interesting. The Mayan religion exists along with the Catholic traditions of the people. And they contradict each other as well. But there is such a desire to hold onto the indigenous traditions, even with a belief and acceptance in Christianity.

After Santiago, we visited the site of the mudslide in October 2005. I need to correct my other post about the mudslide...haha, this is what happens when my Spanish isn't amazing. When Volcan de Agua broke, it was a couple hundred years ago, and it destroyed Ciudad Viaja, they town in which we volunteered at the school. The mudslide was caused by a build up of water in the volcanoes near the lake after Hurricane Stan last year. A large crater broke at 6 in the morning and covered an entire town, killing I believe 7000 people. We visited the sight, but couldn't walk very far into it because there are gangs in the hills and it isn't a secure area. We did however get to visit the temporary housing that the government set up for the displaced families. Luis (Lisa's husband) acted as our guide. He's from San Lucas, a neighbouring town on the lake and was part of the response crew that helped after the slide. He said the Guatemalan government should be ashamed of the help they have given to their own people. A year and a half later, they are still living in metal and cloth housing that was mainly supplied by international NGO's. And Luis predicts that many of the families (there are about 3oo right now) will stay permantently in the settlement, as they can't afford to move. It was ridiculous. There are still houses on the other side of the roof that are completely covered in mud, with possessions and probably bodies inside. It was quite a disturbing sight to see.

10 of us took the bus to Luis's hometown of San Lucas on the lake. Our accomodations were amazing! Luis's family is quite well off and prominent in the town, as they own a very successful 500 Acre Organic coffee farm. His sister has a huge property on the lake that they built a GIGANTIC seven level mansion with two hot tubs, a pool, a bunk house for friends, luxurious bathrooms and kitchen and beautiful balconies. However...when they built it, they cleared ALL of the trees and didn't build any drainage. When Hurricane Mitch hit 7 years ago, the entire house fell into the lake. All that was left was the original kitchen and bunk house. Which is still beautiful. So 10 of us stayed in a giant room that looked like a rustic cabin with 15 beds in it.

Katie and I on top of the ruins.

Looking up at what used to be an amazing house.

Katie looking down at the lake.

Over the town of San Lucas

The Lake was beautiful...we took a boat ride and jumped in in our clothes. On Monday night, we had Lisa, Luis and her kids over and had a BBQ with hot dogs and marshmellows.

The Volcan de Atitlan

Adam swimming in the lake

It was a wonderful weekend. Now classes have started. I have a politics exam on Friday that I deferred from last semester, so I should get to studying! (or possibly watching movies with my housemates...)

With my amazing housemates!!! Laurel, Katie, Adam, Sabrina, me!

Lots of Love!!

Photographias!

The kids at the Proyecto Mosaico School in Ciudad Viaja. The Cutten Club in Guelph very kindly donated a load of tennis balls.

With my little hyperactive little friend from the school- Ulyssa. You'll never need to go to the gym ever agin if you walk with this little one.

Two of the kids with their grandparents.

Clive Offered to give me a break from throwing Ulyssa up and down...over...and over...and over...and over...

The view of Antigua from Café Sky

Keidie, Yenn and Allan (our Spanish names...) also known as Katie, Jenn and Adam. Two of my fabulous roommates!

Adam showing us that's it's possible to actually frown.

Vida es bontia!

Me hace falta Ustedes!!! Life has changed quite drastically since my last post. Sabrina and I moved almost a week ago into a house very close to the school and the centre of town. Patty was a wonderful house mom, but I thinkI've become a paranoid person and really was not experiencing Antigua when I wouldn't leave my house past six. We moved into a fairly large house with a lovely surprise...two other students from Guelph are living there as well! Laurel Gaylor (chica bonita) and Katie Mac! And the other surprise was Adam, an 18 year old Canadian from Winnipeg who is taking a year off before going to Carlton for Political studies. He's studying at another school in Antigua, but has pretty much amalgamated himself into our large group. Sabrina, Laurel, Katie, Adam and I have become a tight-knit little family. Haha. Before I didn't want to leave my house because I didn't feel safe, and now I don't want to leave my house because I have so much fun in it! Our house mother's name is Ahilde, (I can't pronounce it, so I just call her Señora) and she lives in this huge house just with her sick aunt. And a lot of boarders. There are the five of us Canadians, an older Guatemalan man named Don Conrado (I think he's around 80, but it's a mystery that no one knows for sure) and 3 Koreans. The Koreans are hilarious. They don't speak any English, so we communicate in Spanish. I can tell that I've started to really get a hold on the language when we are able to make jokes in it. The dinner table is a funny time. And Don Conrado is fascinating. He is totally fluent in English, as he taught it at the University when he was younger. He has a son that lives in Kelowna, so he's pretty familiar with Canadians. He's very quiet, but when we start to talk to him, he's very willing to share about himself.

We've had a couple cool experiences with a school in Ciudad Viaja (a smaller town beside Antigua) in the past few weeeks. Our group was able to get connected with an NGO called "Proyecto Mosaico" and have been involved with this particular project. Last year, the NGO opened a school in Ciudad Viaja for kids who can't afford to pay school fees. CV has a lot more poverty than Antigua, and even public school is difficult for a lot of children to attend. PMG bought an old house and converted it into a school that can take 25 students ages 5-12. They are taught basic reading, writing and math skills, along with art, acting, music, sewing, cooking, nutrition, gardening and other basic skills. The fees are about half of those of a public school-- about 5 dollars a month, and even so, many parents can still not afford it. So the NGO funds scholarships for about half of the kids. It's a tiny building without electricity and the water isn't totally hooked up. But it's an education that these kids would never have the opportunity to experience otherwise. So our group volunteered to do some clean up and painting for the school. We've spent the last to weekends cleaning up the yard and painting the walls (I'm not too sure our painting of the Mayan calender looked to authentic...haha...but they really appreciated it). But the coolest part was the week before when we went to the school and met all of the children. All 25 of them brought us home to see where they live and meet there families. I have never been so close to poverty in my life. The spaces where whole families of 8 or 10 people live are the size of my backyard. And their chickens and dogs and pigs and vegetables are all in the same place. But they were so welcoming. And so proud to show us their homes. I was really taken aback by that. But it was a blessing. I have some pictures that I want to put up, but the internet connection where I am is too slow, so I'll put them up tomorrow hopefully.

I'm off to lunch...escribiré un orto vez tan pronto como pueda!

Time for a real post!!

Hola Amigos!! While I have time, I’ll write a complete post about what I’ve been up to. Guatemala is absolutely BEAUTIFUL as you will see in the pictures I’m putting up below. Antigua is a smallish colonial style city in the interior of the country. It’s up in the highlands, so it is relatively dry, and it is surrounded by volcanoes—Volcan de Fuego, Volcan Pacaya and Volcan de Agua. Volcan de Agua (water) is called that because its crater used to be a large lake. As many of you may know, in October 2005 the wall of the crater broke causing a huge mudslide that killed thousands of people in one of the towns of Lago Atitlan on the other side of Volcan de Agua. Guatemala is not a stranger to such disasters. In 1976, a huge earthquake killed about 3000 people in Antigua, and destroyed much of the city. My Maestria (Spanish teacher) recalled in detail the night of the earthquake that happened when she was a teenager. She lost an aunt in the disaster. I’ve realized what a luxury it is to live in a place where I never wake up fearing a major natural disaster.

The town is precious. The streets are cobble stoned (mighty good for the calves I have discovered) and as it is a Spanish centre, there are people from all over the world. There is a Japanese student named Toshi living in my house for the month of January. He’s learning Spanish so he can continue on in other parts of the country for the next two years teaching in the primary schools. I live in the North East corner of the town on Calle Candelaria, about as far from the school as you could get. Haha. I love Patty (my house Madre) so much, but we may end up being moved just because of the distance. It can get dark quickly and it’s important to be in a well populated area. We’ll see what happens.

My Maestria’s name is Nivea. She is wonderful! She’s born and raised in Antigua, and now lives with her husband next to her three grown up children and their children. She’s very interested in world issues and we get talking about everything. My vocabulary has expanded a lot and I’m learning to describe almost everything in Spanish. This morning I told her all about NightLight, the drop-in centre I volunteer at in Guelph. In the past I’ve explained the Canadian governmental system to her, Canadian climate and geography, the Rwandan genocide, Project Serve Mississippi, and we had quite a lengthy conversation about midgets. I don’t know exactly how that one started. We often talk about religion. She is a Pentecostal, which is very common in all parts of Guatemala…except Antigua. Antigua is very traditional and very Catholic. There are some beautiful churches here and almost every week there seems to be a Catholic celebration. Today is the day of a Saint from Guatemala. (I can’t remember his name) But it began with firecrackers at four in the morning. Lovely way to wake up. Haha. But I’m used to it…they set them off early in the morning whenever it’s anyone’s birthday. And it always seems to be someone’s birthday.

This past weekend was WONDERFUL!! All 43 of us (students, Clive, Janey, Magda, Lisa, her husband Luis and their three children) piled into a rented chicken bus and drove two hours to Monterrico. Montericco is a beautiful beach on the Pacific Ocean close to the El Salvador border. We took over a cute beach side hotel and made ourselves at home for the weekend. Monterrico was very different from Antigua in more ways than replacing the cobblestones with sand. It felt very very safe. I never got nervous the way I sometimes do walking down the street in Antigua, especially when it starts to get dark. And there were tons of pigs…just sauntering down the middle of the road. There were kids everywhere! I think they are very used to tourists and used to being cooed over. They knew exactly how to pose for pictures…and they loved to grab our cameras and take them. Haha. It’s reminded me of the movie Born into Brothels to see all these little kids snapping photos. But it was sweet. For dinner on Friday night, all 40ish of us piled onto the rooftop patio restaurant of the hotel. I was so impressed with our little waiter. He was the only one on duty…had had a pretty chill afternoon, and all of a sudden 40 hungry 20something year olds arrive and it was only him and his buddy in the kitchen. He was a trooper.

We had our first development economics class at the beach. I’m really excited for that class. Clive told us all about a project that we will be doing while we’re here. It’s called a Cost-Benefit report. We will choose a hypothetical (or possibly one already in progress) development project in Guatemala, in collect data to analyze the total cost (financial, social, environmental, cultural, health) of the project, and ultimate benefit to the community. Oye am I glad I didn’t take that class in the fall. This will be a great experience. And I have decided that I really like my coordinator Clive and his wife Janey. They are mid 60’s, both from South Africa and came to Canada I think in their late 20’s for Clive to take an economics PHD. They’ve done incredible things since then, including a CUSO project in Kenya for 2 years and several of the Guelph India Semesters abroad. Clive just retired from the University of Guelph’s Economic department, and this is his last big thing before they really settle down (if that’s really possible for those two). But they are nuts and tell fabulous stories and I really enjoy them.

We took a half an hour boat ride from a little canal town to Monterrico...the scenery was beautiful.

How we fit 43 people in this tiny little boat...I have not idea. It was hot. I think because we were all sweaty we couldn´t smell eachother.

Two of our little Guatemalan friends--Carmello and Eduardo.

Iguanas from the wildlife conservation project. Alisha! I found our lizards!!

I feel very blessed to have be able to see a sunset this beautiful.

The waves were freakishly strong...but my brave little pro swimmer Emilie had the time of her life!

The sunrise (I actually saw both the sunset and the sunrise!) at six o´clock on Sunday morning.

Some tired chicas on an early morning eco-tour boat ride...

I´ve been making some new wonderful friends here...but it has really made me appreciate the close ones I have at home. This is my fabulous best friend from Calgary, Rochelle. She´s studying social work at Mount Royal College and is going to change people´s lives.

I hope that as the new semester has started that you are all feeling happy and satisfied with where you are! I miss you all!

Guatemala es bonita!!!!

Hola mis amigos!!!

What an adventure so far! It´s beautiful here and mostly warm, aside from the occasional cloudy day. My house is wonderful! I live with a 50ish year old Guatemalan woman named Patty and her mother Mila. They are wonderful and make delicious delicious food (but healthy because they are both diabetics!) My roommate is another girl from Calgary named Sabrina how goes to the University of Saskatchewan. She is hilarious and we get along really really well.

I´ve started Spanish lessons...anbd I`ve realized just how imperative it is to be constantly in conversation to properly learn another language! It´s going well, but it´s really hard. I´m late for lunch as I´m typing this ! (Internet time is precious!) ´We´re all going to the beach for the weekend, but I´ll post an update when I get back!!!

Se Amo!!!!

Es el tiempo para despegar!

Hello Buffalo!!! There are five (room max 4 yikes!) us lounging (well…three sleeping, Katie and I typing away) in our hotel room in Buffalo New York. It’s 12:02 am on Wednesday January 3rd…and we leave in 6 and a half hours!!! Yikaroo! I’m getting super duper excited and thinking that sleep will not happen…

8 DAYS!!!!!

Hey guys! Welcome (I suppose that's the appropriate term) to my Guatemala blog! I jumped on the blog bandwagon, figuring it will be the easiest way to make sure everyone knows what I'm up to. BUT I also want to know what you guys are doing! So if you have any news or just want to say hi, drop me an email (mcintyrj@uoguelph.ca) or post a comment.

Why am I going to Guatemala some of you may be wondering? Well...most of you probably know because I've been so excited about it, it's actually all that I talk about! But, that excitement means I'm going to tell you again. I'm going down to Antigua with 19 fabulous students from the University of Guelph, Professor Clive Southey and his entertaining wife Janey, and 19 soon-to-be-not-strangers from the University of Saskatchewan. (I'm actually stinking excited because I love Saskatchewaners!) I'll be staying with a Guatemalan family, emerged in Spanish! January is a month of one-on-one Spanish lessons at the schools, and then we start University classes with Southey and some guest professors. There will be tons of opportunity to travel within Guatemala, and at the end of it all, I'm spending May in Costa Rica Volunteering with Canada World Youth and 20 different Guelph students. It will be quite an adventure!

Here is my lovely Emilie!!!! I'm very excited to spend the next four months with you!

Here's little Katie and me! Let's hope the next four months doesn't go by as quickly as the last four!