Guatemala (my last entry from here for awhile)

The past couple weeks have been a mix of busyness and relaxation. My mom arrived two weeks ago and spent her first week volunteering at the project. The original plan was to have her volunteer in the guarderia with the young children, but she decided that she wanted to spend her time with my class (5th and 6th grade girls) so that she could see my daily routine and meet the kids who have become such a big part of my life. The kids were thrilled to meet her and the language barrier did not stop her from connecting with the kids. The week was bittersweet for me because it was my last week at the project and as the week progressed so did the kids insistence that I stay longer. It was especially hard since for the first time I wasn't leaving because I had to get back to school or do anything incredibly important, but rather, it is time to move on if we are going to make it to all the countries that we want to visit this year. Part of me is tempted to just stay here the whole year, but I'm also very excited about visiting friends in Mexico and Nicaragua and also going to countries that I've never been to before.

Friday (the 16th) was my last day at the project and both my morning and afternoon classes enjoyed breaking the piñatas that they worked so hard on throughout the week. They were especially happy to find chocolate inside that my mom had brought over from the states. My afternoon class threw a party for me that was unforgettable. They all chipped in to buy the ingrediants to make tostadas with guacamole and pasta. After dancing and playing a few games we went to the playground to play soccer. I will miss the kids a lot, but luckily I'll be back to volunteer for a few more weeks in May.

Leah and Rachel had one more week at the project while my mom and I went to Lake Atitlan for four nights. We stayed at a beautiful hotel called La Casa del Mundo and had a wonderful time. We spent the days reading by the lake, playing cards, swimming, and eating and every evening there was a candlelit four course dinner for all the guests. The food was delicous and it was a nice chance to meet people from all over, though interestingly enough, on our last night we sat across the table from a father and son from Raleigh. We also had the chance to go in a hot tub one night after dinner in a hot tub that was heated entirely by wood. There was a wood stove of sorts in the middle of the hot tub and it took the staff the better part of the afternoon to heat the water. It was very hot and at one point I jumped in the lake to cool off.

We got back to Antigua yesterday afternoon and after going to the market for some last minute shopping, we met up with some friends from the project and went out to dinner at a fancy Japanese restaurant. It was fun and the owner was very accommodating (he made wheat-free tempura and attempted to make to make fried ice cream even though it wasn't on the menu; unfortunately it doesn't work very well with homemade ice cream). My mom left this morning and my friends and I are leaving Antigua tomorrow. We're going to stay with friends in Guatemala City tomorrow night and then we'll head to Mexico on Monday morning. The plan is to take a bus to Tapachula (about five hours), have an eight hour layover there, and then take a bus to Puerto Escondido (about 16 hours). It's going to be a long ride, but once we get there we'll make up for it by spending a few days at the beach.

xoxo

p.s. I had hoped to post some photos, but unfortunately my camera disappeared last weekend at a birthday party we had for Leah at our apartment. I'm sad not to have the camera, but the worst part was losing my memory card with about 500 pictures. I'm glad I had already uploaded some of them online so at least I didn't lose all of them from the whole trip.