Guatemala

It hardly feels like Leah, Rachel, and I are on a one year trip since we have gotten so settled in Guatemala, but soon we will be packing up and heading back to Mexico. I only have one more week at the project and it will be bittersweet since I'm looking forward to going back to Mexico and I won't miss the 3+ hours on the chicken buses everyday, but at the same time it will be hard to say goodbye to the kids.

This past week at the project felt really long, but I think it is party because everything was turned upside down on Monday by a visit from Laura Bush and Wendy de Berger (the wife of Guatemala's president). The week leading up to the visit was filled with preparations to make everything look perfect and background checks on all the volunteers, teachers, and staff. My classroom was the model classroom so everything got moved around and huge lights were brought in by photographers. The room was also carefully inspected and dogs were brought in to sniff the entire building. While I wasn't very happy to have Laura Bush visit the project, it was very interesting to see all the work that went into planning a one hour visit. My kids were given art projects to work on, but they had to sit around for about an hour working on the projects very slowly because they weren't supposed to finish them before our visitors arrived. Once Laura Bush and Wendy de Berger arrived, they came into our classroom for about 15 minutes and I chatted with them a bit while they tried to fold paper flowers. The kids had no idea it was going to happen until they arrived at the project and I think the girls in my class felt a little bit uncomfortable by the 20 or so people from the press that came in and flashed photo after photo, but the kids were surprisingly patient and did very well. After leaving my class they visited a few other rooms and then had a press conference in the library and then after a photo with all the American volunteers, they were on their way. On her way out, Laura told us that she was very proud of us for volunteering and that all the hard work we do is very sweet. I was very glad to have everything go back to normal on Tuesday.

Tonight I'm going to the airport to pick up my mom and I'm excited that she will finally be here soon! Tomorrow my sponsor kid (Hector) and his family, along with Leah and Rachel's sponsor kids and their families, will all be coming to Antigua and we are planning on having a picnic in the central park and then hanging out and playing sports with them. Hopefully I'll be able to post some more pictures soon.

Best wishes to everyone!
xoxo, Katie