Day 9

By: Madeleine 

Today we woke up, went out to breakfast and then went Kayaking on the lake. We each rented a Kayak for an hour, and went really far away from the dock. It was really hot and sunny, and so Henry ended up swimming alongside the Kayak for a lot of the time. After Kayaking we went shopping. Every single street in the village had like 100's of stands and shops running up and down. There were so many different things to buy. When we finished shopping we then drove home. We were all looking for a restaurant on the way home, but we needed to find one that was safe to eat at. So we found a Pizza Hut!!!!

Day 8

By Madeleine

Today we left at 6:00 am and drove to this huge lake called Lake Aticlan. It was about a 3 hour drive. When we got there we first found a hotel. Then we went to a Ziplining place. We hiked up this huge mountain and then zip-lined 8 different cables through the jungle. We were so high up and so we saw views of the entire lake and the village. Afterward we had lunch and then rented a boat for the day. The boat driver took us to two different villages--San Pedro and San Antonio. We walked around each of the villages and looked around. We also played fooseball with the kids.  In total there are 12 villages around Lake Aticlan, standing for each of the Saints. By the time we got back from the boat, it was late, so we went out for dinner, and then went back to the hotel. 

The Lake

Day 7

Today we went to the school and mom and I taught a lesson on the colors in English. Then we went to the orphanage and played with the kids and fed them mushrooms. After that we hiked a volcano and roasted marshmallows at the top. That is where Madeleine got the Instagram pick, except my pick was better. When we were driving home, a person jumped on our car and stayed on for a while.    

By Henry

Day 6

By Madeleine
The internet is not really reliable, so it took us an extra day to get this up . . . Today we worked half the time in the school, and half the time in the orphanage. We first went to the school, and were in our regular classrooms. Mom is going to make some lesson plans tonight. 

Then we went to the orphanage and played with the kids. They all love the Ipad. 

After our volunteering, we went back to the house, and had a Spanish cooking lesson. We made some type of tortilla or empeñada. We ate them for dinner afterwards with black beans. We also went to the laundry matt (lavendería) to pick up our laundry that we dropped off in the morning. It wasn't a super exciting day, but it is good that we are getting used to being here.

Day 5

Today we worked in the orphanage all day - though starting tomorrow we will spend 1/2 of our time in the orphanage and half of our time in the school. We are each feeling more comfortable in the orphanage.  Today I brought the iPad for Paolo, who is nineteen, and wheelchair bound since always. Cognitively, she is totally together though she only attended school through third grade.  She just has a body that has her trapped.  The three of us just can't stop remarking on how different her life would be / would have been in the United States.  Medically there would be things to do, so that she would be both more comfortable and more accepted.  She has a wheelchair that is pretty modern and allows her to get between the rooms of the orphanage, but I wish she had a tray, and an iPad!! She has access to everything with the iPad and it is totally accessible.  She laughed and laughed as she interacted with the iPad. I held it for her for almost three hours.  If it could be attached to her tray, she could have access to so much.  I am having her write her story, and she can just touch the keys.  It is very very cool.  

At the end, the nuns asked us to prepare a craft for the 13 orphans who would return to the orphanage after the school day.  They gave us a box of what amounted to trash.  We found 15 soda bottles, which we rinsed out and recapped.  Then Henry cut out 13 circles for heads out of random packages that had been thrown away, and Madeleine found blue party paper that she tore into strips for hair.  I took the labels off the bottles and reversed them and cut them into sort of hula skirts. We'll see how they turned out tomorrow!  

In the afternoon we went to a musuem of artifacts.  A guide helped us to understand the art, starting at 9,000 years before Christ.  Crazy town . . . Once the Spanish came in the 1500s, everything changed.  So many problems today come from that conquest . . . At the end we got to make pottery, which gave us a true appreciation of the art.  At night we went to a very beautiful, modern mall where we had to buy Mads pants because even the long shorts are not o.k. with the nuns, and we had to buy a sweater, too! It was a good day.

Day 4

By Henry 
Today instead of all working in the school, we all worked in an orphanage. A lot of the kids were disabled and couldn't walk. We played with them and drove them around on wheelchairs. Then we went back home and went on a tour of Guatemala City . We saw a mountain of trash that people live  in and a cool church. 

 P.S. By Alison . . . We also went to the National Cemetery, which overlooks what would be, without the trash, a beautiful ravine. As it is, it is the smelliest place I have ever been. I have a very strong stomach, but it was hard to keep from being sick.

 There were many, many mausoleums, but these were the burials you can rent for nine? years. If the family does not pay after that, the body is removed.

Day 3

By Alison

Today was our first placement day.  The Catholic orphanage/ school wanted me to work in the school part, and Madeleine and Henry to work in the orphanage with kids who were left behind - who do not  go to school because of their disabilities.  Madeleine didn't want to do that from the start, because she wanted to stick with me to work, and Henry was game until we were with those kids left behind.  He just did not think that he could do it alone.  Maybe if his Spanish was stronger . . . Maybe if he had Madeleine . . . Maybe if he had had some experience with people as disabled as these kids .  It was just too hard on this first day, so the nuns let us stick together-ish.  They put Henry in a class of nine-year -olds, me with a class of 8s, and Mads with a class of 7s.  Tomorrow I think we will look the same.  I think we would be useful in the orphanage part. Maybe we will be able to alternate days?!? 

In the afternoon we had a Spanish lesson, which was useful to me, if not completely depressing.  It was not so useful to Mads and Hens. Then after a rest a professor came to show us a movie on the history of Guatemala, and to talk about the current political and economic situation.  Now we are tired.