Days 7 and 8

Day 7: Friday, August 16th, 2013

This morning we volunteered at our sites and worked with the hemodialysis patients. Sometimes I feel like we're more in the way rather than actually helping anyone. It's hard to interrupt the nurses and med techs routines, but i'm thankful that they have all been so accepting and helping us learn.

After volunteering, we headed home and had a delicious lunch, per usual. We were all enjoying some down time when we heard lots of music and singing in the street. We ran outside to see what was going on and saw about 100 children in a band, marching and playing their instruments. We all followed them around the block, taking pictures and videos. Some were dressed in school uniforms, and others dressed in shorts and t-shirts. It was amazing to see such a large group of children, marching the streets, and smiling for photos.

That afternoon, we went to a museum called Popl Vuh. We got a nice history lesson and saw so many  detailed clay pottery items and clothing from the indigenous people from many, many years ago. Once the short tour ended, we were able to make our own clay items! Mine turned out terrible, but I never claimed to be artistic! I had a rough time trying to mold it and keep it from breaking into two pieces. I'd post a picture of my "masterpiece" if I wasn't on an iPad! (It's way too much work, sorry.)

That evening, we had dinner at home base and then headed out for a few Gallo's at Taco Contento again, just down the street. There are a few other volunteers staying with us that are from Missouri and California - It was their last evening in town so one of them came out with us and we celebrated a bit. We paid 100 quetzals for a mariachi band to seranade us with three songs. They were dressed in traditional wardrobe and once they were done, we all cheered and tried to get them to play an encore with no success.

We walked home and headed right to bed.

***

Day 8: Saturday, August 17th, 2013

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early (5:30am) to drive to Panajachel, near Lago de Atitlan. Once we arrived, we hopped on a boat that was to take us to several little towns. The boat ride was bumpy and the ride to the towns was fine, but the ride home made me sick. The first town we stopped in was Santa Catalina, where weaving is the local trade. There were so many beautiful scarves, dresses, and blouses that it was hard to pass them up. I have been pretty good so far about not spending an insane amount of money. We stopped in a church and took some pictures and to hide from the rain that was coming down. It has rained every.single.day while we've been here! A few of the girls tried on a traditional Mayan wardrobe, and took pictures for a few quetzals. 

The next town we stopped in was San Antonio Palopa where their specialty is ceramics. It was raining even harder at this point and the boat ride to the next town was 35 minutes away. We tried to wait it out, but it kept on coming! We ran through the streets with our ponchos (or without them!) and hurried onto the boat to go to San Pedro where we had lunch. Out of the 10 of us on the trip, we've had several sprained or twisted ankles, lots of nausea from motion sickness or the food/drinks, and lots of exhaustion. As of right now, there are only 4 people who haven't had anything happen to them! Unfortunately, I am not one of those 4. :(

It continued to rain, but we had to get back on the bus and just tough it out. The ride back to Panajachel was LONGGGG. We all ran off the boat in the pouring rain and got soaked, stomping through puddles and trying to find the road that took us to our hotel. When we got back, it was sooo nice to see my bag of clean laundry that had just been washed by the hotel staff. It was DRY, warm and smelled so good. I'll never take for granted my washer and dryer EVER again.

That night, we searched for a restaurant for Tracy to eat at since she hadn't had much all day. We met up with a few of the others and had a couple drinks at a jamaican-style bar - Our bartender was born in Guatemala, but his mother was American/father was Guatemalan. He had lived in Austin, Texas for many years and then moved back to Guatemala. He said he would "NEVER" move back to the states. He is the second person to tell me that people in America "live to work" and do not enjoy life the way that we should. I agree. We live our lives in such a routine! Working 8 to 5, coming home to dinner, resting, sleeping, then waking up to do it all over again! C'est la vie.

That's all I got for now!
Sam