Vamos a la Playa

Wow there is so much to write about it is hard to remember where to begin. I will begin with our first 5:30 am departure. It was to go to two of Lydia’s farthest away schools, a went along to see what the world was like in a different part of Guatemala and to accompany Lydia as a bit of protection. We met the school teachers near the center of Patzun and took a bumpy and scrunched hour long bus ride out to the school. The sun rose between the volcanoes and mountains to make for a beautiful sight, with a lake of clouds covering the low lands. I wish we could have stopped and taken a picture. We had to wait a few hours at the school because the director, who Lydia was meeting with, was busy. While we waited they put out new trash cans in the courtyard area, which had some of the children utterly confused, but extremely curious. They stared at the top and once they figured how to open it they peered inside to find that it contained nothing. It seemed like our presence had caught the attention of every student in the school because they all, at some point or another, came outside to stare at us. Once Lydia had finished and the Director had offered us a snack we make the hike seemingly straight up hill to the next school which was even more rural and we were even more of a rare sight to see. Again While Lydia talked with the director I waited outside while the kids had recess. The recess in this school was much different the recess in the schools I had visited so far. There was no soccer, no basketball, none of the games I had seen so far. All of the boys were playing marbles and all of the girls were running around on their knees, or sliding down a grassy hill, or just sitting. However when I arrived a new game started, it was called sit around he gringo and stare and giggle. I felt like an alien with a mass of people of the planet I had recently happened upon. They were most enthralled with my arm hair. One of the more courageous young boys reached out to feel it. After that I let them all feel it and played games such as “try to pull the stick or twig away from the big alien”. It was an amazingly profound experience that I will remember for a long time. Some of them knew some words in Spanish, such as numbers and fruits, so I went over some of those with them, and then it was time for their snack so they forgot all about the alien that had just landed in their school and lined up. I had my snack with Lydia and the Director and then we started making our way back down the mountain. We walked for about a half an hour before getting picked up by the teacher’s bus on its way back to Patzun. That afternoon Lydia joined me in a little map painting extravaganza. It was nice to have some company. The next morning we were out of the house and on a camioneta by 5:30 to Antigua in order to catch a shuttle to Monterico. The landscape on shuttle ride changed from mountainous to midlands, to rolling hills, to prairie, to the beach. Parts of the trip reminded me of part of Florida, mainly the pastures and prairie areas. The beach was gorgeous, with black volcanic sand and big green waves breaking on the shore. The hostel that we were staying at was great too. There were little pools in front of every bungalow and hammocks hung all around between the palm trees. Where we were sleeping was less than 100 yards from the beach and less than 200 yards from the water. The weekend pretty much was spent either swimming in the water, bodysurfing (more like wave tumbling), sitting on the beach, sitting in the hammocks, swimming in the pools, and walking round the small town of Monterico (the name is a bit deceiving, it was not the most aesthetically pleasing, or prosperous looking place). It was a very relaxing weekend. I also got to meet some other PCV’s from different parts of the country and get their take on the different areas of the Peace Corps. We wanted to leave the beach at 11 am, but could not get enough people for a shuttle to take us so we had to wait until 4 pm. While we were waiting we sat on the second story of a restaurant in hammocks enjoying the breeze and the view of the ocean. Since we left so late, we would have missed the last bus to Patzun. Instead of spending another night in Antigua we called Juan, Lydia’s taxi driver, to take us home. We got home late, made some fried plantains and then hit the hay. Today I worked all day on the map, finishing light green, blue, pink and white, and starting on red. The only colors I have left are orange and purple. I got to play with the kids at recess which was great. I realized it was really difficult to settle any disputes between the boys because my Spanish was not adequate. We made some more delicious eggplant and zucchini parmesan tonight. With only a week left I feel like there is still so much to do. I will be busy up to the end.