It was about time, sorry!

Hello!

I know it has been a while, but at first I didn’t do anything worthy talking about, but now I do, and I also took some more pictures of things I have done. So here goes…

Let me start off with saying I will be staying longer than planned. I wanted to add four weeks to my trip, but apparently this was not possible, because I only had a 3-month ticket. I didn’t even know this existed! So, I could only extend my trip with 2 weeks. But hey, 2 weeks is better than nothing. So I will be coming home the 11th of April instead of the 24th of March.

My Spanish classes have been great! I decided to add two weeks of Spanish courses, so 6 weeks in total, but I’ve finished them now. In these 6 weeks I had 2 teachers. The first was very nice and a lot fun and I actually still meet up with her for coffees, dinners or lunches. The other teacher was a bit stricter, but she did teach me a lot, and I was able to have a lot of nice conversations with her.

This week I started my voluntary work at ‘la escuela de Esperanza’ in Jocotenango. It is at walking distance from my house, which is perfect. My Swiss housemate also goes to this school. Some background information about the school system here. There are 2 types of schools. Private schools (which are very expensive) and public schools (which are free). However, at public schools you do need to pay for books, pencils and a uniform, which makes them expensive for a certain group of people. Therefore there are schools like mine, which are completely free of (extra) costs. The kids get a snack at 10 am and a lunch at 1 pm. The kids start at the age of 6 and finish at the age of 15. Classes are 40 minutes each. School starts at 8 am. Then there is a half hour break at 10, and then classes continue till 1, follow by a lunch break and then 2 hours more. Up till now I assisted a Guatemalan English teacher, because her regular assistant was ill. I help till 12, and in this time frame we have 5 different classes. The kids are really adorable and fun, and they like hugging and holding your hand. Really cute! I do think that when the regular assistant comes back, I will attend just one class, which will be only Spanish. I prefer this as well! In the brakes I play with the kids, for example jumping rope. It had been a while, but I was still capable of doing it haha!

Last week I participated in some church activities. I went with a group to a school in a town nearby. Here we were able to play with the kids, color (the group of Americans I was with brought drawings of the creation of the earth), listen to a story (about the creation of the earth), sing, and play some more. Afterwards I had a really satisfied feeling! With this same group (so a group of Americans who where here for only a week (on a mission) and Guatemalan guides from church) I went to climb the volcano Pacaya. It was a 4km hike. You were able to take a ‘taxi’ which was a horse. I preferred walking, but they followed us up the mountain, so when somebody half way was tired they could still offer them a ride up! The view half way was lovely. But unfortunately at the top it was misty, so we couldn’t see a lot. So I will have to go revisit the volcano for a better view! O, and there were hotspots. Very interesting. I only thought the actual crater would be hot, but near the top there were also hotspots, so we were able to roast marshmallows. Really random, but fun! I also went to visit Cerro de la Cruz with a guy from church. It’s up in the mountain and there you have a nice view of Antigua and one of its volcanoes.

I haven’t been dancing for the last week. Well at least no classes that is. When we go out ‘partying’ I do dance. But I traded dancing for swimming! There are some outside pools here at hotels which I can use. My German friend went with me. It was lovely, just swimming and then enjoying the sun. The best part, though, was being able to take a HOT shower!!! Think we stood in the shower for almost half an hour haha! Why did I like this so much? Because at my home I thought we only had lukewarm water. Apparently we don’t (something I figured out yesterday), we do have warm water, but then the amount of water isn’t a lot. I now made a deal with a hotel which has a 25m pool. I can swim here for 6 weeks, 2 days a week, for 2 hours a day. For this a pay a little less than 80 Euros. To my surprise they also have two saunas and a Jacuzzi. SCORE!!

I have also seen my first ‘procesion’. This is when they walk around with big religious images on their shoulder. This starts 40 days before Easter, and is every Sunday. The week before Easter it is Semana Santa. It is something the Catholic Church organizes. It was interesting to see, but don’t really understand it.

I do know I would not want to actually live/move here. I guess I do miss or dislike certain things. For example, there are times we don’t have water for a certain period of time, or no electricity. Hygiene isn’t great here. There are a lot of car exhausts, so the air here is quite dirty (now I understand why some people walk around with the SARS masks!). Sidewalks that are straight. I really need to mind my step here! However, besides this I am meeting more people, having coffee dates, see and doing more, etc. So I am still very much enjoying myself! But I do think when I’m back in the Netherlands, I will be more at ease ;)

Till next time…