12th of September...

hellllllllo lovely people of my life!!!
i hope all is well over there in the united states.. oh quite a day today. May God rest the innocent souls whose lives were taken this horrid day. And may God rest all the innocent souls whose lives are taken every day as a result of war, genocide and violence in our world. I hope all is going as it should in rememberance of these lives today and every day.

Important people of my life, I am glad you are still alive and well. I wish you all health and love and contentment and fulfillment in your lives today and every day with all the sincerity of my heart I can offer you.

Here in Guatemala things are going suuuper well!! That day that i wrote that blog last weekend, ooof, after that, my day was a little rough I´m not gonna lie. I was walking around with rebecca and talking to a whole bunch of people and everyone kept saying, how rebecca spoke muuuch better spanish than me and how i still need to learn more and blah blah blaaah. and she was hardly even talking, i was doing most of the talkinggg!! ohh man, it killed me. and after i heard it about 3 times, i was pretty much done with the day. i know that they say it all with love and they want to me to get better at spanish but whyyy sooo much thaaat day!! ah then something else happened with a very angry drunk man that i really don´t want to go into detail because it really made me sad to encounter someone with so much anger in his heart and anger towards americans. though, i do know some of the past politics of the US and some of it is really quite horrible, especially in guatemala and other parts of central america, and i could see how he could be angry at us for our social and political involvements. and for that reason, let´s sit and talk about the history of the politics between the US and guatemala, please, let´s discuss and i want to hear your experience and your knowledge. but as far as i´m concerned, it made me very upset as to how this man expressed his anger towards me. and when i told a few people of the pueblo, they were all very surprised to hear my story and they said that this man must have not been from el chol. and when i talked to my sitemate she told me that this has never even close to happened to her before. so this experience is hopefully going to be a solitary one, but it sure was both saddening and humbling for me as a foreigner living in a completely different community in a different culture who all have their various opinions of me and my country. it was humbling, to say the least.

anyways, after that day, it was only uphill because ooof that one was rough. the next day, i think it was the next day, there were dances at one of the schools with all these elaborate beauuutiful costumes and dresses. and each dance apparently tells a story about a different event or theme in guatemalan history. it was really coool. oh man, i´m getting these days all confundled. anyways since i cannot quite remember the days of last week, let me talk about this week... there´s just been so many activities!!

so mooonday, i had a class and we were learning how to give assertive messages involving explaining our feelings, our requests, listening to a response, finding agreement and giving thanks. and this is all in response to their overwhelming interest in learning better communication skills. but oooh man, it was much harder than expected! i made copies of a paper with these steps to assertive messages and gave them scenarios and 20 minutes to write their assertive messages but they had a million and one questions about this that and the other and one group turned theirs in but they didn´t do it right.. so next class we´re gonna spend the whole day on these assertive messages and scenarios.. and my directions are going to be super clear and direct.. because that´s what they are used to and that´s what is just more affective anyways. so i´m learning a lot about how to be a more effective teacher. so next year after vacations (vacation is from november until january), i can come in and be a better teacher for them!! wooohooo!!

so then the next day, i went to a few teachers and parents and a whole bunch of kids, packed in a minibus, and i mean PACKED IN A MINIBUS to Xemap, a mini water park with a couple waterslides and pooools to swiiiim in!!! ahhhh, so much fun!! we left at about 3 in the afternoon, and the bus was so packed that the majority of the people on it had to get out of it when we were going up some steep hills and help push the bus up! ohhh, quite an experience, it happened like 6 times, i´m not even joking! so we stayed over night in these open windowed ranches together.. first played basketball and soccer with the kids, ate dinner, talked, danced, listened to music and sleeept! woke up at sunrise, ate some eggs, beans and tortillas. and then played basketball and played on the jungle gyms and then swaaaam, sunbathed and swaaam some more! went down the waterslide about 30 times, teached some kids to swim a little bit, do handstands in the water and diiiive in!! it was really fun!!

then on the way back, we ran with the torch with the kids and parents through pachalum )where tiara is living, and then through saltan (where ryan is living, another volunteer) and then through granados (where rebecca is living), and then finally arrived to el chol at about 8 in the morning, tired but still happily energized with endorphins, to run through el chol... then there was a ceremony to thank God and all the participants for coming and then we ate hot chocolate and tomales!!! then yesterday one of the schools put on folklore, dances and plays in the afternooon. that was fun to watch, there´s been activities in the afternoon every day this week and some of last week to celebrate 15th of september coming up, which is there independence day of guatemala!! sooo, another school is presenting today!! and tomorrow i´m going to Xemap another time with one of the high schools i work with for the day to hang out with them and run through all the towns and ours another time to traer la antorcha (bring the torch). and then i´m going to another waterpark this wweekend to bring the torch with one of the middle schools at work at!!! we´re getting back monday night at 11 p.m. and then there´s a dance til odd hours of the night! and then the next morning is independence day!! ahh, it´s really fun, these activities!! i´m soo happy to be a part of them and get to know every one involved from the community!!

well it´s time to go eat lunchhhh.. i hope you all are happy, safe, healthy and content on this friday! i wish you all pleasant and fulfilling weekends! i love you all very much! and can´t waiiiiit to seee sommmeee ooffff you for two weeks in december and january!!!!!!! woooooooooooo!!!! mucho mucho amor!!!!!!