I flew out of SeaTac Airport on May 7, 2007 with a woman named Lindsay Kasting. Emily and Catherine had already left the week before us, and Danielle and Kaya were flying out of Vancouver on a different flight and meeting us in Guatemala City. We arrived in the afternoon super jet lagged and tired and met up with Danielle and Kaya. We found our hostel. This was the first hostel I had ever stayed at in my life and was called Hotel Fenix. It was a struggle to get to the hostel and to check in because none of us really spoke fluent spanish. At this point we were relying on my high school Spanish and the one semester I had taken at Cap. We all took short naps once we checked in, but in the late afternoon we decided to wander around and explore the city. Somehow we ended up in a protest at the city centre. After observing that we went for dinner. We hadn’t eaten since the night before with mom, yet i still wasn’t that hungry. We decided to be inside our hostel once it was dark because Guatemala city is a fairly sketchy place. I fell asleep fairly early and ended up waking up to the sound of a massive truck driving by and honking its horn. This meant I was awake for most of the night.
The next morning we took a bus from Guatemala City to Rio Dulce where Casa Guatemala was loacted. The guy who was sitting in front of me on the bus kept telling me about the places we were passing through in broken English. We got off the bus and had to walk to the hostel that is owned by the orphanage with our backpacks and our supply bags as well. They weighed so much and it was painful to have to carry down the long road. We ate and slept well that night and I also got to check my email and reassure my mother that I was alive.
The first night at the orphanage I remember feeling really homesick. I actually considered coming home because I hated it so much. Our first week of work was pretty mellow. The first day there we started to paint the boards that would become the ceiling in the clinic. We were in a small enclosed room painting for hours and the paint fumes started to make us a little crazy. We began to create ridiculous songs that we were singing as loud as we possibly could. It was so incredibly monotonous, but the other girls were with me which made it bearable. The next day Cat and I got to start putting up the boards and make a small part of the ceiling. It was really hard to hammer the nails upwards, and also we had to hand saw all the pieces to fit the ceiling. The next day most of the girls were put on the task of putting in the walls to the bathroom in the medical clinic. We also finally got electricity routed to the clinic so we didnt need to hand saw anymore; thank god! It was really hard work, but time went by really fast. we are working with two really funny guys named Hector and Ermando. There was quite a big language barrier between us, but they were really funny. When we were painting they were working underneath the clinic and we could hear them making fun of us talking and giggling in really high pitched voices. It was hilarious.
The kids were really cute during that first week. There is one girl Diana that came and tucked me into bed on the first night because she knew i was tired. She is six years old, but can already speak a little english. The other kids are great also. We are sleeping in the same building as the girls, which kinda sucks because they get up at 4 in the morning. It isn't so bad though because breakfast is at 6 and we start work by 7. It was hard to adjust to being at the orphanage though, One reason was that we had some kind of bugs, we think gnats, that lived in out beds with us. They didn’t bite, but they hop around all night which gets kinda annoying. Also the electricity went off at 8:30 so everything after that is by candlelight
We continued to work on the bathrooms in the clinic for the rest of the second week and to finish installing the roof. The bathrooms are actually outside the clinic, and I got to operate a power saw for most of the week. I really enjoyed this part of the job. We also started to paint the bathrooms and the outside of the clinic. On Wednesday, the orphanage piled most of its volunteers into the Launcha and took us to the backpackers bar for the night. I really loved Wednesdays when they did this because we got to shower and eat food that wasn’t rice and beans. That Friday was Catherine’s birthday and to celebrate we went to a hostel called Casa Paradico. This place was one of the most amazing places i have ever been to. Unfortunately my battery in my camera died and i did not get many pictures, but the place was built all on docks over a jungle floor. It kind of reminded me of a Ewok village. The Hostel is down this long gorgeous canal that words cannot even describe it. We all got our own private rooms (well three people in each) and had a marvellous buffet dinner that did not consist of rice bean or tortillas. The next morning we got up and just got to lie around in hammocks. That afternoon we we went to this place called el Cacadas de Finca Paraiso. They are a hot spring waterfall, and were amazing. It was the perfect end to the weekend. We ended up missing the last bus back to Rio Dulce and ended up having to hitch hike home. This bus full or crazy americans from New York picked us up and sing songed us all the way to Rio Dulce, and we didn’t even have to pay. That night was the volunteer party for Catherine at Backpackers.
The next week at Casa Guatemala we worked on sanding and varnishing the floors of the clinic. I was super frustrated because our Jeffe, spanish for boss, was pushing us to finish before the director Angie came to visit the kids. Hector and Ermando were working overtime to finish it as well and were doing a crappy job. This frustrated me because we were doing a good job and our name was on the project. We were sanding with this super old sander that vibrated so much that my fingers became very swollen.
This week we also were preparing for Angie coming. This was super important for two reasons. First, we were going to have a huge birthday party for all the kids in the orphanage. Second, we would get the chance to talk to Angie directly about the finances and where the money we donated was going. It seemed like we were getting no answers from anyone and didn’t see the twenty grand being spent on the clinic. Eventually we got it all sorted out in our meeting and felt at peace about it, but it felt like we had to pull teeth to see where any money was going.
The last week we were at the orphanage was a much more relaxed week. We hung out with kids and helped teach some of the classes. I got to help out in both the recreation class and in the kindergarten class. The kids were so cute and two girls drew us pictures of the clinic and wrote us little messages. This past week we were also discussing safety with some of the people that live with the kids. At night the kids dorms get locked up and people get locked inside. This is because there is a really possibility of kids getting kidnapped. It was hard to take in that reality and know that the kids weren’t as safe as our North American standard.
Our last weekend with Casa was spent at a place called Denny’s Beach. Lennox McKneely who was supporting us in being at Casa owns a house in a touristy area of Lago Izabel. He let us stay in his house and eat and sleep for free. I also got to wakeboard on the lake, which resulted in me getting run over by the boat. Fortunately I was fine and no hurt in any way. The beach was beautiful and it was a really great way to close out.
Wednesday was our last day at Casa Guatemala. It was kind of sad to leave, but I also felt that since our project was done it was time to go. It was hard to leave the kids. Kaya had a really hard time leaving Lisa, one of the girls she had a great bond with. Lisa is an older girl, who has a mild disability. She is constantly tormented by the other kids and called loca (crazy) Lisa retaliation to this is an attention seeking one where she calls everyone names. On our last day Lisa just was hugging Kaya and gave her kisses. After some of the volunteers came over and said they have never seen Lisa that way. After our good bye with the kids it was volunteer night at the hotel, so we had our good bye party. It was also really hard to leave the volunteers. We became very close to them as well.
This morning we woke up bright and early to say good bye to Emily Lindsay and Danielle. It was a mildly tearful good bye, but happy too. Kaya and I took the 2 hour trip to Puerto Barrios in a 15 passengar van filled with 16 people. From Puerto Barrios we crossed the Belize border into Punta Gorda by boat. It was one of the most uncomfortable boat rides I had ever been on. From Punta Gorda we took a 2 hour bus to Independance and from Independance a 15 minute boat ride to Placencia. After a long day of travelling we finally made it to the small Creole peninsula of Placencia. It was amazing and beautiful. The way people speak is crazy. It is like English but not. One of the signs on the beach reads: “sho yur luv fo' di bare foot dem no throw trash in a fo' we sand.” The people of Belize seemed much friendlier and it is more of a relaxed attitude. We stayed in a small guest house and spent several days on the beach just rejuvenating from our crazy month at Casa.
When it was time for us to leave Belize we got up really early to head to Tikal in Guatemala. This was probably one of the worst travel experiences I had ever had. We started with the fifteen minute boat ride from Placencia to Mango Creek. We then took a three hour bus ride to Belmopan. From Belmpan we took a 2 hour bus ride to Viejo del Carmen and then crossed the Guatemalan border into Melchor. From there we took a 3 hour taxi ride to Tikal. We arrived and all the hostels were booked up so we shelled out 100 Quetzals for a small hotel room. We went an explored the pyramids until the park closed. On the trail back, Kaya and I were walking and suddenly a coconut exploded on the ground between Kaya and I. We looked back into the tree and a monkey was up there and actually sounded like he was laughing. We continued along the way, and we heard roaring in the jungle around us. We were so freaked out and ran back to the base singing praise songs the whole way. We thought that we had seen Tikal at that point, and that we didn’t need to stay the night especially with the extra expensive hotel room. We ended up getting our money back, and took the last bus from Tikal to Santa Elena. From there we made the 11 hour journey to Guatemala City. This bus ride was the most uncomfortable bus ride I have ever been on. There was a fairly large man that was sitting in front of me, who put his chair back to the point that my knees were supporting his whole entire body weight. Then he continued to put his child on his lap. I could not move my legs for eleven hours. When we got off the bus I had such a bad muscle cramp and could barely walk. From Guatemala City we took a 4 hour bus ride in a Chicken Bus to Panajachel, a big market town. Overall we spent 25 hours on a bus in a 36 hour period.
We spent a day shopping and getting presents to take home in Panajachel and then headed across the lake to a town called San Pedro la Laguna. Here we met back up with Lindsay and a friend we had made at Casa named Chandler. She oddly enough was from Victoria. We stayed in a beautiful guest house right on the lake, and happily found that it was a lot cheaper to eat out than to cook our own food. We found a cute little restaurant/hang out place called Zoola’s that served Mediterranean food and you sat on mats on the ground with lots of bright coloured pillows. On one of our last days, I spent the majority of the afternoon sitting on these rocks and having time by myself for the first time this entire trip. It was great for just reflecting and figuring out my thoughts on our trip. In a typical Guatemalan fashion I was caught in a sudden downpour, and was soaked to the bone within minutes. I then jumped into the lake. It was super refreshing and beautiful.
On Saturday morning we went back to Panajachel to finish up our shopping, and then headed to Antigua to spend our last day. Antigua was very much a mixture of Latin American Culture and European. Our last day there we climbed up the Volcano Pacaya. Unfortunately Kaya couldn’t come, so it was just Lindsay and I. It was so freaking cool. I got within a couple of meters from flowing lava. I also stole a rock to bring back to Canada. Lindsay and I just hung out that last night with a guy from the hostel that we had met. The hostel had a rooftop kitchen and garden area that we were hanging out in. We stayed up all night and took a taxi at around 3 am to get back to the airport in Guatemala City.
We got to the airport about 3 hours early, and nothing was even open yet. Lindsay and I waited for about 45 minutes for the desk to open so that we could check in for our flight. There was a really cute Israeli guy in front of us who I ended up sitting next to on the flight. He was really interesting. We then had a lay over in Houston where Lindsay and I slept on the floor of the airport. Overall it was a fantastic trip and I wouldn’t trade any of my experiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment