Antigua, Guatemala

Yesterday marked exactly three weeks since we got on the bus in Chapel Hill and headed towards Mexico, though it feels like a lot more time has passed. We have finished our first week at the project and it was one of mixed emotions. I'm working with the 5th and 6th grade girls, as I have done for the past two years, and it has been nice to reconnect with the kids I already know and meet the new group of 5th graders. There have been three teachers with my class since July (the class has a reputation of being difficult to handle) but the current teacher is doing a really good job and the girls seem to like and respect her.

Despite the grief that I've felt over the course of the past week and and a half, I've also been moved by how many people have offered their support to Safe Passage and at the number of people who have gathered around the world to remember Hanley. I also found out this past week that there is a documentary about life in the Guatemala City Garbage Dump that has been nominated for an Oscar. The film is called "Recycled Life" and Hanley was interviewed several times in the making of the documentary. I'm looking forward to seeing it and I've heard that DVD's will available in the spring.

My friends and I are getting settled into life in Antigua and are planning to stay and work with Safe Passage until the end of March. Then we'll probably head back up to Mexico for a few weeks because we didn't make it to Oaxaca or the coast and we would like to see some of our friends there before we go to Nicaragua. For now we are content to stay in one place for a little while. The three of us are currently sharing a room in a guest house, but we are hoping to move into an apartment in a couple of weeks. Our daily commute to Guatemala City has been longer than usual due to construction on the road and it has been taking between 1.5-3 hours each morning to get there and then a little over an hour to get home so it has made for some long days. Even though the days are long, I can't complain because there is no where I would rather be.

xoxo

Guatemala

Leah, Rachel, and I arrived in Guatemala much sooner than expected. On Friday afternoon we got the tragic news that Hanley, the director and founder of Safe Passage (the project that we volunteer with in Guatemala) was killed in a car accident. We were able to get a flight from Mexico City to Guatemala City on Saturday morning and then we went straight to the project where they were having a memorial service for Hanley. The project was full of grieving mothers and children and volunteers and staff. Hanley was only 36 but she touched the lives of so many people and she will be greatly missed. We are coping the best we can, but it is hard when something this sudden happens. Over the past few years, whenever anyone has asked me who my hero is, I've always answered Hanley because of the way she dedicated her life to other people. When Leah and I were 18 and in Guatemala for the first time she took us under her wing and has played a small, but very important part in my life ever since. There was an article yesterday in a Portland paper about Hanley, click here to see it. There is also more information about her on the Safe Passage website.

Below is a poem that my stepmom sent me that touched me.

You, who have gone
so suddenly,
Torn from this life:
We are still with you
As you are with us.

You, who have found
so suddenly
Light weaving of love:
We are still with you
As you are with us.

May our will guide you
In the mill of creation,
For we, who would sorrow,
Find purpose: Your light.

May our thoughts balm you
In the kiln of renewal,
For we, who would miss you,
Meet comfort: your love.
by Jens-Peter Linde

This morning there was a meeting for Safe Passage volunteers and we talked about how to help the children deal with the grief. It was helpful and I hope that I can be strong tomorrow when I start volunteering. A long term volunteer who was in the car at the time of the accident is currently in the hospital and having some complications so please hold her in the light. I send my love to each of you in this sad time.

Leah, Martin, Rachel, and I after climbing a mountain to some ruins in Topozlan

Outside the museum

Cuauhtemoc and I in a bubble at the children's museum in DF

At the botanical garden in San Miguel de Allende

Mexico City

We made it to Mexico City on Saturday after spending Friday night with Leticia, Paco, and Chaak (friends of Rachel's family that lived in Durham until recently). We had a nice visit with them, though my getting sick on Friday night made it harder for me to enjoy myself. I was sick for most of the night throwing up and having diarrhea and since then I've felt under the weather, but I've been improving everyday. Today I almost feel normal again and I had my first real meal in days!

We've spent the past two nights at the house of a friend that Leah and I met when we studied in Mexico last year. Martin lives with his family and has given us his room for the week. His whole famliy is very sweet and his mom is a wonderful cook. We've seen a few of other friends that we met while studying here and today we spent the afternoon with a host family that we stayed with for a few days last September. They are a very sweet and large family (28 people live in their house) and our host mom spent a few hours catching us up on how the family is doing and talking about Mexican politics. The new president, Calderon, promised to help the poor, but prices for tortillas, gas, and milk have recently gone up and a lot of people are suffering and blaming him for the changes.

We're planning on spending the rest of this week in Mexico City, visiting more friends and passing more time with our host family. Leah and I also want to show Rachel some more of the places that we visited when we studied here. We're thinking that we'll take a bus to Oaxaca this weekend, we've heard that the political situation is much better there and we're looking forward to visiting friends and host families there as well.

I hope that everyone is doing well! Hugs and kisses to all!

San Miguel de Allende

This morning we said good bye to Guanajuato and our cute hostel and took a bus to San Miguel de Allende. The city is just as beautiful as Guanajuato, but the vibe is different. We were excited to find natural food stores all over town and we had dinner at a delicious organic restaurant.

After lunch we went looking for a botanical garden that we read about in our guidebook. It turned out to be quite a hike and the hill we had to climb was very steep, but it ended up being well worth the effort. The garden was full of paths we saw lots of different kinds of cacti (it turns out that Mexico has more types of cacti than anywhere else in the world).

I wish I could write more but the internet cafe where we are is about to close so I should go. Tomorrow we are going to Cuautitlan Izcali to visit a family friend of Rachel and then we'll be off to Mexico City.
I hope you are all doing well!

View of Guanajuato

At a cafe in Guanajuato

Guanajuato

Hi all! Thanks for the messages! We made it to Guanajuato yesterday after a long trip from Brownsville. Charlotte dropped us off at the border on Monday around noon and then we paid our 60 cents and walked across the bridge to Mexico, a short but very exciting walk. I'll put up a picture of our crossing if I can figure out how to on this computer. Once we found the bus station (a surprisingly difficult task for three people who speak Spanish), we bought tickets on an overnight bus to San Luis Potosi and then spent the day wandering around Matamoros. The trip to San Luis took about 10 hours and then we took another bus to Leon (only about two hours) and then we got on our last bus to Guanajuato (which only took about an hour).

Guanajuato is a gorgeous and colorful city made up of small winding cobblestone streets. It is a great walking city because most of the traffic is out of sight in tunnels beneath the city. There are lots of little parks and plazas and it reminds me a lot of Italy. Leah, Rachel, and I have been enjoying our time being tourists and wandering around the city with our Lonely Planet book in hand. This morning we went to Diego Rivera's house which is now a museum and wandered around and got to see a lot of his artwork. His murals are really incredible and I'm looking forward to seeing more when we go to Mexico City.

Tomorrow we are heading off to San Miguel de Allende, a touristy town a couple hours away for one night and then on Saturday we are planning on going to Mexico City. We are having a great time so far and we especially enjoyed today, our first full day without riding on a bus.
xoxo

Brownsville, TX

We made it to Brownsville around midnight on Sunday. The trip ended up taking a little longer than expected because we had to switch buses in Houston and then wait for about 6 hours before catching the next bus to Brownsville. We were lucky on our first bus from Chapel Hill to Houston because there were only about 10 other people so we each got two seats to ourselves which made sleeping a little easier. Even so, we were very glad to arrive last night! Charlotte, a friend we met while volunteering at Safe Passage, was very nice to pick us up even though she had to get up early and go to work today. She is currently doing Teach for America at a school in Brownsville. We crashed as soon as we got to her house and I'm feeling very refreshed after taking a shower this morning.

We're not sure yet where our next destination will be. We had planned on going to Monterrey next, but we still haven't heard back from our friend there so we are thinking about going straight to Guanajuato. Monterrey is only about 5 hours away and Guanajuato is about 12 hours away (I think) so we're deciding whether we want to take another over night bus tonight. I'll let you know when we make it to our next destination, wherever it may be...

Thanks to all my family and friends for their support and for helping to make this trip possible. I am so grateful to have this opportunity! Thanks also to everyone who came out to the bus stop on Saturday morning.

Countdown

The countdown has really begun. Leah, Rachel, and I bought our tickets this morning and we'll be getting on a bus tomorrow morning in Chapel Hill and heading to Brownsville, Texas. The guy at the store said we should arrive at the border by tomorrow night, but we're not expecting to get there until Sunday afternoon.

I can't believe that we are really going to to do this! We have been planning this trip for three or four years now. It all started one day when we were riding in the back of a pick-up truck in Nicaragua with a bunch of other international travelers. Many of them were traveling all over Central and South America and we decided it would be fun to do something similar. That same day over dinner we wrote out a budget and we've been planning ever since.

Our plan right now is to spend 12-18 months traveling. After Mexico we'll travel through Central America (spending extended periods in Guatemala and Nicaragua) and then work our way down to South America. We're not sure exactly when or where our trip we'll end, it depends how we feel and when we run out of money.

I better go finish packing, but I just wanted to write a quick entry. I'm feeling excited, nervous, and sad for all that I'm leaving behind. Please keep in touch and leave lots of comments. :)