Tuesday, June 16, 2009

back from a week away! ah!













as for the rest,

here are some pictures. the first one is my homestay brother and me, well our wrists. we were hanging out watching tv and he started to draw my wrist flower on him in the same spot! when he was done, he took a picture. so that's that! the rest are of my family here!!


hey there lovely family and friends! thanks for your warm thoughts and comments!!!! mmm!!! cookies for my soul!!!
sooo, let's see. mom, you asked what i'm eating.. i'm eating lots of soup of various sorts, blended with tomato, garlic, onion, cilantro, it's reeeall goood! que mas? to drink, coffee and a drink made of rice and cinnamon and milk.. mm delicious as well! and i can't remember your other question, i'm sorry! thanks for sending the package for me and thanks for decorating it katie!!! oh yes and padre, i will create spaces in between my paragraphs, it starts now..
okay
no just kidding! ha! so last week was crazy busy. we went to stay in the city of totonicipan in the departamento of totonicipan about 3 hours away from where i live now. it was beautiful winding mountain roads, the countryside filled with farms and people and small pueblos filled with simple hours of aluminum and cement. the cities are crowded, building piled on one another, buses, smoke, music, food stands of all kinds, beaming markets and people, yelling, everything, smells of gasoline, fried comida. in there's a great energy in the cities. and there's a great stillness in the campos, the smell of wet grass and plants. the people work really hard here. from dusk into dawn, whether it is on the land picking their vegetables to sell, or getting firewood from down the street to make their dinner that night, or preparing from scratch what they are eating later that day, washing clothes by hand, taking care of the kids, sewing their clothes, washing dishes. i don't know if their work ever ends. as i was washing my clothes one afternoon, i was complaining how my arms and back were sore, because shit, it's tough work! it was all in good fun and a joke. i was talking to my homestay mom and she asked me about machines and i told her taht in the us, all we use are machines. and she said, here in guatemala, our hands are our machines. we get along really well, i really appreciate her a lot and how she's welcomed me and takes care of me here. i think she appreciates my presence too.

as for last week, words cannot express. i have fallen in love with guatemala in more ways than one. we had a great week all together, learning from eachother, spending time together, working together. we talked for a while at night to the men who work at the hotel and talked to other women whom we were doing activities with. there's a friendliness here between us and guatemalans and between us and the other volunteers which i hold very close to my heart. i'm very grateful for this.

we gave two presentations in spanish, our first two! the first one, on gender. oof that's a complicated social construction to talk about or work with. probably not the best first plan for our first spanish presentation. we took a risk, we learned. then the next day me and tiara worked with the kids on a series of games and activities about thinking about their futures and professions. mapping out what they need for these professions and getting them thinking about their interests. that was reeeally fun! the more interactive, the better. the more we enjoy and they enjoy! so that was a difference in the first and second one. then the third presentation was helping assist in a workshop on AIDS/HIV prevention. that was.. well.. it was what it could be considering our level of spanish and the fact that another volunteer that's lived here for a year was helping us the whole time! that was helpfulll!!
here we gooooo

4 comments:

  1. i sent you a big thank you and big hug but it didn't register. so here it is again.

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  2. Sarah,
    So glad that things are working out... really enjoy the pics, alot of work though well worth it... been having a lot of rain here, not much to report on the home front... Love, Hugs and Kisses, Mom

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  3. Compiled your Guat pics into an album with captions and sent it to Mom.

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  4. Oh, my goodness! I am apparently behind myself here! There I was wondering why you didn't post last week, and this week it takes me two days to get around to checking! Go figure, right? Sounds like you had a blast on your week away. I cannot imagine doing my laundry by hand! It's a primitive culture, but it sounds as though sometimes it's a much simpler life, particularly if that's all you know, huh? Far fewer complications - other than the ones that come w/ the territory. Great pics, too. Love being able to see your surroundings and homestay family. Glad you are bonding well with them. Take care of YOU, continue to enjoy your adventures, and stay safe, ok? Love you LOTS!

    Aunt Judy

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