14 de Agosto

This will be my last post of the trip. It is a glorious feeling to be done but I will miss the area and people that I have grown accustom to here. I am so grateful for the opportunity to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity and for all the people that made it possible or worked to make it a good experience. I have gained more from this trip than just a second language. During these six weeks I have had the opportunity to reconnect with one of my best friends, my brother. I have been able to meditated and strengthen my spiritual life. I have been able to demonstrate my beliefs to others and have discovered my about myself and what kind of a young adult I am becoming. This will undoubtedly be my most memorable summer. U.S “ Aqui venimos.”

13 de Agosto

Last night Theodoro offered to take us to a secret fishing hole were there are “hurricanes” of fish. First, let me mention my experience buying fabric today. I decided to get 3 yards of fabric from a fabricaria. There is a funny old man who is the owner. As I was paying I noticed a book that read in Spanish, “The 27 fundamental beliefs of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.” I quickly asked if he was SDA and asked him if he watched 3ABN. I regretfully confess that the first thing that popped into my mind was that their might be a chance to score a sweet deal on fabric. We talked for a while, I explained that Danny Shelton was the cousin of my girlfriend and after all said and done, he ended up knocking off a quetzal. As for the fishing excursion, t’wus another skunk. Theodoro took us to some old and abandoned yachts and we fished off of those. Thus concludes my last Monday in Guatemala. The word of the day is “en absolute.” This means “at all.”

12 de Agosto

I was out at 5:15 a.m. headed to the lake for another go at fishing. The conditions were perfect. One hour passed and not even a lost worm. So I decided to change locations. I set myself up on a dock and threw my line in. As I watched my line, my heart began to race. Three large bass made their way out from under the dock and passed by my worm. I discovered, however that these fish were extremely smart. I spent another hour trying to persuade a fish to take a bite but to no avail. Thus, I came up empty handed. Andrew and I spent the rest of the day finally completing our list of gifts. By the end we were sick to our stomachs of the market and the vendors there. Speaking of sick, my teacher told me that I’m the only student he’s ever had that hasn’t gotten sick once, I’m pretty proud of that fact but perhaps I spoke too soon. (knock on wood). The word of the day is “enfriar.” “To cool” is it’s significance.

The lake at 5:30 in the morningAndrew's first attempt
Andrew's large mouth bass

11 de Agosto

The day started at 5:30 a.m. today. Andrew and I headed to the lake before sunup to try our luck with my new pole. Panajachel is completely traquilo (clam) that early in the morning. The lake is like glass. I hooked a worm and used the current of a small river to take the bait into the lake. After my first try I handed the pole to Andrew. He preceded with the same action except when he reeled the worm it, a fish came out with it. We were stoked! Andrew had a bass with a completely homemade contraption, an ego booster for anyone of the male species. Even though it was only an honest 4 ¾ in long, we brought it home and Andy, the youngest of the family breaded, fried, and ate it. It was a top ten memory for us. The word of the day is “dueno.” It means “Owner.”

The daughter of our neighborsOur can of worms

10 de Agosto

We have completed our final Friday. I still can’t believe that we’ve been here for a entire 6 weeks. I’m pretty excited for this weekend. I plan on doing a lot of relaxing and fishing with my new pole. My plan is to head out at 5:00 a.m. and hit the lake hard all morning. It was a fun experience getting worms. I forgot to look for worms today and when it finally entered my mind again, it was well into night. I asked Magda at dinner time if she kew where I could find any and she suggested her neighbors’s backyard She went with us to ask permission to search the ground. Our neighbor is an older lady with 4 young children. Their house was washed into the lake during the hurricane 2 years ago. This lady was amazing. When she heard that we wanted worms she went right to digging in her compost pile, shoveling away the dirt with a machete. There were tons of worms. These worms were like none I’ve ever seen. They were stinken fast and wild. They demonstrated a new definition of squirm. These things could actually jump in the air as well. The older lady “Dona” was so cool. She scooped, squeezed, and picked those worms right up like nothing and put them in a cool jar for us to take tomorrow. It was a fun experience. “Gusano” is the word of the day. It means “worm” in Espanol.

Ash from the volcanic erruption
ash on all the plants

9 de Agosto

When I woke up this morning, I noticed that everything outside was covered in mud. I figured there must have been a big dust storm during the night followed by rain. However, at breakfast Magda notified us that during the night one of the volcanoes about 50 or 60 miles away had erupted and the “mud” we saw was actually ash falling from the sky. The neighboring villages were evacuated due to the high danger level. It was a day of victory for me today! The Lord blessed me with a sale. I sold my most expensive item in the street to a kid from Florida, 1 down and 1 to go. It is exciting to have money again. The word of the day is “colgar.” “To hang up the phone” is the significance of this verb.

8 de Agosto

I spent 4 hours today in the center street trying to sell my goods, absolutely no luck. I’m still being optimistic and telling myself that I still have 5 or 6 days left. I had a hard time sleeping last night because Magda told us the stories of Guatemalan Legend and why she believes in some of them. The freakiest one is about this phantom ghost who takes the form of your girlfriend from the back. When you follow here into the woods you soon become lethargic and after a while you can’t walk. At that time, the Phantom ghost turns around and her face is actually a skinless horse face. Once you make eye contact, you die. Scary, huh? The other one has something to do with 5 little ghost children in Mariachi outfits. Needless to say, I woke up a lot. The word of the day is “suena.” This means “ dream” in Spanish.

7 de Agosto

As the days wind down I find myself eagerly awaiting our departure date. In class, I am at the tail end of Spanish grammar as far as the basic essentials. My motivation is beginning to suffer. I’m pretty satisfied though with my progress and the amount of knowledge I now have. My mind has been preoccupied lately with the task of reselling my purchases in the street. I have discovered that it is not an easy task. I have been doing really bad in taking pictures which is why there is not much to see in these past few blogs. The word for the day is “ asi.” I like this word because it is two words of English, “like this or that way.”

6 de Agosto

This morning I had a case of buyer’s regret. I realized that a couple of my purchases yesterday were somewhat of impulse buys. This led me to such irritation that I decided to become a vendor myself. I’m going to try this entire week to sell two of my least useful purchases in hopes to get my money back and use it in a more constructive manner. I didn’t have too much luck today but it’s only Monday and I am Thinking Optimistically. Tonight is the big concert. I can hear the music from my room right now and I can just imagine my little 4 ft homestay parents moshing to the Christian music along with all the other 4 ft Guatemalans. I’m reminded of the little aliens in “The Toy Story. “ with the “Claw” I bet that’s pretty close to what it looks like from stage view minus the green. The word of the day is “rabia.” This means “Rage” in Espanol.

5 de Agosto

It was an early rising for Sunday morning. We packed a few things and headed out to meet Alan and Sam go to Chichicastinango. Andrew and I ended up taking a chicken bus there which really wasn’t that bad, especially since it only cost 15 quitzales. When we arrived, the place was already hopping. The market in Chichi is pretty darn big. There are roads and roads of vendors selling everything from fruit to cheesy Mayan artifact replicas. I was a dumby and forgot the batteries to my camera so I have nothing to show for this day. For the first couple hourst we had a good time. I got in the bargining mood and scored some good deals. We managed to get almost all of our gifts in that time. After lunch we were ready to get back to fresh air and space to move our arms when we walked. When we got back to Pana, we met back up with Alan and Sam and went out to dinner. We had an awesome time socializing over a super delicious meal. After a while we called it a night and said our farewells. The word for the day is “ya.” It means “already” in Spanish.

4 de Agosto

It’s been a very chill day, as Sabbaths should be. I must say, however, I do miss the aspect of church, worship and reverence at least once a week. We got a little of that down by the playa today. There were a couple good sized groups worshipping in the morning. We’re pretty sure they aren’t Adventists because the song service had a trap set and because we asked a few people and no one mentioned any names close to SDA. It was a monumental day for my fishing pole. I finished construction on it today. Maybe sometime this week I can take it for a test run. We were excited to discover more familiar faces are in our midst. Alan Newbold and his friend Sam are in Pana tonight. We finally caught up with them around 10:00 this evening and discovered that they are in the exact room that we stayed in for three weeks at villa Lupita. We have made plans to visit the large market in Chichicastinango tomorrow and do some shopping there. The word for the day is “Averiguas.” It means “to find out” in Spanish.

P.S. I forgot to mention the super cool gift that we decided to get our host family as an expression of our gratitude for their hospitality. There is a huge concert scheduled for Monday in Pana. Two big Christian Latino artists are performing at a large church. Ever since we arrived magda and Theodoro have been mentioning how cool of a concert it is going to be so we decided to surprise them and get them tickets so they could have a night off and enjoy it with each other. We presented the tickets tonight and they were pretty excited. The artists are Annette Moreno and Jardin.

3 de Agosto

One more week down. Our last week draws near. As I look back, I feel like we have accomplished what we set out to do on this trip. We actually had a nice vespers time tonight. Jonny, the eldest boy brought home a guitar that his tio lent him. We spent about an hour teaching him how to play and performing praise songs for the family. It was kinda cool because with all my ridiculously talented friends that I always hang around with I am not used to being considered a good musician. But here, I’m a rock star! Well, at least my homestay family thinks so. The word for today is “sabiduria.” It means “knowledge” in Spanish.

2 de Agosto

It’s been another normal day in class. I’m learning a lot. I’m talking better as well. We had a couple incidents that made us laugh today. The first happened when Andrew was flipping through the channels of the television and we happened upon nun other channel than good old 3ABN. We quickly looked at each other and started laughing. 3ABN in Guatemala, who would have guessed. The next incident occurred when Andrew set out to buy a sweater since he left his at the top of San Pedro Volcano. There are many second had stores in Pana so we looked around and he found one that he liked. He bought it for a good price and put it on. I wondered if it had a brand name so I checked the collar. The brand name was “IN DUE TIME” and below the brand name read “maternity.” Andrew is sporting a used sweatshirt from some pregnant lady. That’s ok though. It looks cool. I’d wear it in public… We also had the awesome opportunity of talking to friends in the states and family as well thanks to the parents. It was awesome to hear familiar voices. Afterwards, Andrew and I felt sad because we were missing the party at Mivoden with the family. The word of the day is actually a phrase. I think it’s extremely hilarious. It is “con sus manos en la masa.” And it is used in the same way that we use “with their hands in the cookie jar.”

Cave adventurers
Just ontside the mayan cave

1 de Agosto

We have less than two weeks now. Time is definitely not taking it’s time over here. We were able to have another unique experience today. Gregorio took us on a trip to visit the Mayan cave. The cave is used to this day by those who believe in the Maya religion. There are candles, incense, lotions, articles of clothing, flowers, and tons of smoke. Also, it is not uncommon to have animal sacrifices. We unfortunately were unable to view any ceremonies because know one was there when we arrived. Gregorio was a great guide, very informative and very funny. The word of the day is “anciano.” This is the more respectful way of saying “old person.”

more fishing pole construction. all i have is a pocket knife so it takes time

31 de Julio

There is not much to log about today. Class was a little frustrating because my maestro made me explain the difference between infatuation and true love before allowing us to continue learning something new. Normally, I don’t mind the conversational aspect of class but this time, I came out feeling more upset than like I had learned something. After class, we took the youngest nino of the family, Andy, to the soccer field and played until it got so crowded that we had to leave. The oldest son, Jonny, is a big music fan and was practically drooling when he saw my 4 days worth of music on my computer. We passed the evening listening to hundreds of songs in the living room. Luckily, I had enough variety for everyone. The father was an Eagles and Malo fan. The mom was exited about Andre Bucelli and Jon Secada. Of course, Jonny was into the newer stuff. We also showed pics of home, the house and family. It was a nice family night for all of us. The word of the day is “reganar” It is the Spanish word for “to scold or reprimand.”

Poor little PolloOur fair town from arial view

30 de Julio

We can actually walk down stairs today. I should probably just start running because this is a good start for getting in shape. We had a very interesting lunch today. Before Magda served us, she explained that the meal today was very traditional, Mayan cuisine and that it is made for people who have had great accomplishments. I’m still not sure why we had such an honor to eat a prestigious meal, but anyways, it was a thick soup, red in color. It had big chunks of potatoes and the “special ingredient was chicken, but this wasn’t just any chicken. Apparently, this soup can only be prepared with chicken that has been freshly murdered. Magda spent the morning picking out a couple chickens, wacking their heads off, plucking them, and then putting them in our stew. She said there is a different taste when you cook chicken that is fresh and I agree. I think it’s the adrenaline pumping through the poor little veins of chicken leg. We began class in the morning for the first time today. It is definitely the way to go. Your mind is fresh, the temperature is perfect, the mosquitos aren’t awake yet, and time flies even quicker than the evening. I was able to get some history of the Gorilla warfare in class today. I was really interested which is odd because it was history and it was of another country at that. Nevertheless, it was cool to learn something else as well us Spanish at “hervier.” This is the verb, to “boil.”

Uca reunion plus 1

Scotty told a joke right before the picture was taken

29 de Julio

So today we can’t really walk. I’m sure if we held a bucket out while we hobbled down the street, people would pity us enough to fill it. I haven’t mentioned the fresh squeezed homemade juices that are prepared for us every morning by Magda. I feel like a king. And it’s never been the same kind of juice. So far we’ve had orange. Hibiscus, pineapple, and others which names I have forgotten. After checking our email this morning, we discovered that we had American friends in our very midst. We immediately set out to find Andrew’s school mates Kyla Humbert and Scott Guthrie. It took only a few minutes before we found Kyla. We spent the day showing her the sights and around 3:00, I heard my name in the street. I almost didn’t turn around because I haven’t heard my name in English in so long. But I did and it was Scotty. We set a time and place to meet for dinner, the 4 of us, and split. It was a great time catching up over fine Italian cuisine. We laughed and contemplated and used our Spanish every now and again. It makes you appreciate how small the world is when you see a familiar face in a foreign country. Before we departed, we nagged a picture of rare history. Never has there been 3 generations of Student Dean/head RAs together in Panajachel, Guatemala until tis very night. The word for today is “comestibles.” This word means “groceries.”

The trailhead
at midpoint

The trail . it's steeper than it looks!a large beetle in the trail


our housemate Paul and the guide dog
camo lizard

super cool colorful lizard
Our guide and a guide dog

28 de Julio

After 3 hours of sleep, I rise up to begin packing and waking up the bunch for our expedition. We gathered our things and began asking locals how to get to the trail head of the volcano. A travel agency happened to be just down the street and we just so happened to be in time to tag along with a group from Toronto, Canada. We set off at 6:30 am with 2 tour guides. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was just beginning to show completely and the scenery was already exquisite. It became apparent that the Canadians were not in the best of shape. At the halfway mark we decided to make two groups, one that would go fast and one that would go slow. Our incentive for speeding along was that it inevitably becomes cloudy at the top of the volcano around 11:00am. So we started booking. The trail became more and more steep. Around the 75% mark, my body began to resist. After a while, I was taking one small step at a time and stopping every 10 or 15. My head was getting light and my hands were getting tingly. Andrew, on the other hand was a rock. Despite the fact that he was doing the climb in flip flops, he blazed the trail ahead of me hardly breathing deeply. We reached the top and received a great sense of relief and accomplishment. We climbed more that 3,000 meter high in 3 and ½ hours. The view was incredible. We were so high that the small clouds which rolled by were eye level. We rested and took pictures and finally found an appetite. We spent a good hour and a half at the top after deciding to come back down. Since Andrew had sandals on, we decided it would be best that he go down barefooted. This is why Andrew deserves the Master Climber award. We ran down the entire mountain in 1 hour! We found that we completed the enter trip, up and down, in the time it usually takes to just climb up. Although our victory was sweet, the only thing Andrew and I could think about once we got down was getting back to our comfortable new beds and sleeping for the next 24 hours. Our bodies were destroyed. There was no part of us that didn’t throb with ain. When we got back to Panajachel it was raining which made the home stretch that much more agonizing. But we finally got home. Andrew got first dibbs on the shower because he was King of the Mountain. After we showered we died the first death in our room. The word for the day is “exito.” This is the word for “success.”

a locust in the showerSan Padro from the boat
view in san pedro

27 de Julio

Well it’s been quite a day. Such a day in fact that I am writing this two days in the future. We ended class early today in order to catch the last boar to San Pedro, the village at the base of the volcano. After finding a cheap hotel for the night, we decided to grab something to eat. Our house-mate, Paul, who invited us on this trip initially, is a social character. He will strike up a conversation with any and every gringo that speaks English. It so happened that a couple gringos were sitting in the vicinity of our table and not long after, they pulled up chairs and began discussing all matters and topics. Around 8:00 I was getting a little anxious to hit the hay as we were planning to begin hiking the volcano at 6:00 in the morning. Just around that time one of the gentlemen who was from Tampa tried in broken Spanish to ask a local if she knew where he could buy playing cards. She thankfully did not seem to understand and went on her way. In another 10 minutes the lady returned with a deck of brand new cards and before I knew it, I was pushed into my first real game of Texas Hold’em Poker. I was really not down with the idea of throwing away 50 quitzales in a game that I didn’t even know how to play. Needless to say, I fell under peer pressure and sat quietly with a couple of cards in hand. As the game progressed, our housemate and the man from Tampa steadily became drunk. The other gentleman was a young 24 year old guy from England with a very formal, courteous, and honest demeanor. Oh, and also an awesome accent. The entire time I felt like apologizing for the somewhat crude and embarrassing behavior of my fellow American citizens. This small little game of “fun” was turning into something much longer and not my definition of a good time. One hour passed, then two. Three hours passed and then four. Five hours passed and the six. At around 3:00 am a third player was finally eliminated and only the Englishman and I were left. In attempt to try and end the madness, I suggested we split the pot and leave it at that. The English man generously agreed and we split the pot of 250 quitzales. This ended the sketchiest night of my entire trip, gambling with drunken men till 3:00am in the morning. The word of the day is “Peor.” In Spanish it means “worse.”