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.  

Day 2

By Madeleine
Today we all went to Antigua. Antigua was the capital of Guatemala before Guatemala City. The capital was moved to Guatemala City in the 1970's because of a big earthquake. We all drove to Antigua in a big van. When we got there we ran into these two strangers from the Canadian Navy, and they just followed us around the whole day because they didn't know where they were going either. Then we ran into this Guatemalan girl named Mariealle, who lives  in Antigua and who speaks English really well, and she asked us if we wanted her to go with us up the mountain that we were about to climb. I think she was worried for us because we had no idea where we were going, and our Spanish isn't very good. So she showed us the mountain, and then afterward offered to show us around the rest of Antigua. We saw the ruins from the earthquake, we saw many churches, we saw the library which was just a series of open courtyards, we went into two markets, and bought headbands. The worst part of the trip was the very poor indigenous people, walking around trying to sell us things. It was so hard to say no to them, especially  because many of them were children whose families had sent them to Antigua for the day. Our Spanish really improved though because we talked with a lot of them, along with Mariealle, and other people in the park! 

First Day

June 29, 2013: Saturday
By Henry

This is the day we flew to Miami first and then to Guatemala City. At the airport in Guatemala City, little kids sold used pens. Then Don Francisco drove us to the house where we are staying. It is considered middle upper class in Guatemala.

We stayed here for a while and then got money from the ATM. When we were walking down the street we saw a muy delgado dog. Then we went with a few more people to the main government building of Guatemala where they were having a gay rights rally/concert. There was a naked guy there. Also, we got followed by a man in a orange sweater.

Then we went back to the house and ate dinner. When we were going to sleep we saw dogs on the roof of a store outside.

In the night I got a bloody nose because we're like a mile up or 5,280 feet from sea level. In the shower if you touch the shower head you will get electrocuted and you cannot brush your teeth with the water. You need filtered water. I forgot and brushed my teeth with the water and had to throw my toothbrush away.

Amabilia and Silva cook for us and do house keeping.