Resolution kept...One year to go

Does anyone remember back when I asked for an ice cream making machine for my birthday? I had resolved not to buy any more ice cream, but instead to make it, savoring both the flavor and the effort of the process. Hopefully no one bought me a machine and is waiting until October, because my parents got me one and we just made chocolate ice cream! It was great fun, just enough work, and plenty of patience to wait for it to set.


It was a team effort, with my mamá y papá each doing their part to help me (ha! I actually helped them very little), and the $2 machine actually set the ice cream so fast we couldn't crank the paddles anymore after a few minutes! Not visible is the layer of frost forming on the outside of the pail. It was oh-so-tasty, just like a Wendy's frosty. Contrary to my Dad's pesimistic outlook, I fully believe I'll be able to keep this up for at least a year...or maybe I'll just give up ice cream altogether!
So if anyone wants to get together and have a blast with old-fashioned fun, come on over!

What do you think?

So, what do you think this sign is warning us of? Martial law reigning that corner of the road? Armed bandits ahead? What's your guess?





Another question: what would you do if you really wanted to eat your Chinese food leftovers, but you didn't have any utensils? I decided to fashion one out of the Styrofoam box. It worked great!




Lastly, what do you think the odds are of us getting bird flu? Christie's mom has been pretty concerned for our safety, and though we're not even remotely concerned, this rooster seemed to sense fear and taunt us...

Heat Wave

Thursday morning I set off up the Río Dulce, a long river that empties into the Atlantic Ocean at the town of Lívingston. We first passed an old Spanish castle, and then we passed various mangroves and little huts on stilts. More than anything, I loved the wind in my hair and the sun on my arm. Yes, my right arm got burned a bit while the left did not. Lucky me. I re-realized, though, that I love life on the water. BY the water is simply too hot and humid, but once you're either IN the water or breezing by on TOP of it, life is good again.


When we got to the beach, we had a few hours to explore, so I walked along the beach until I found a spot relatively out of the way of leering eyes. The jungle comes right up to the water's edge, and what beach there is is covered in litter, but I got some rays and headed back to catch my bus.

About that. The boat was supposed to get back to town by 3 p.m. and the last bus left at 3:30. Sounded perfect. But the boat actually left Livingston at 3 p.m. and we had troubles with water in the gasoline, causing us to arrive at about 4:20. Bummer. But I went and checked, and it turns out that the bus hadn't even arrived yet! I left for Guatemala City at 5:30 and rolled in at 11:30, resting one last night before flying home.

Tikal

Wednesday morning we shuttled to the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal. There you can climb and walk past at least 7 major temples, ranging from 25-60 meters high. We practically ran to get to the top of the first one before sunrise, and just barely made it. Luckily, we got a great show--yesterday's sun never did peak out behind all the fog covering the jungle. We then went much more calmly through the trails, seeing rubber trees and other flora. We hiked up the ladders and steep stone steps of various temples, and we saw spider monkeys and howler monkeys.











Honestly, I thought I would love it and I really just tolerated the second half of the tour. As Christie said earlier, once you've seen one ruin, you've seen them all. True, not false. Plus it was hot. Sitting-still-and-sweating hot. I was thrilled to get on the first bus out of there, though that did mean I had to depart Christie and Jess. They are on to Belize City, while I bused 4 hours to the lakeside town of Río Dulce. Tomorrow I will embark on a 2 hour boat ride to the beach town of Livingston, soak up some sun, and return to catch the last bus to the capital.

Another Volcano and Paradise

Since my last post, Jess, Christie and I have traveled much more of Guatemala, enjoying almost all of it! Friday night I met them in Antigua, this apparently colonial and beautiful town. We were less than impressed by the gringo overload, though they had enjoyed a long day of biking. Saturday morning we woke up in the rain that thankfully cleared before we got to Volcán Pacaya. It is stunningly beautiful, sitting at 2500 meters and still active. The lava just constantly flows, rather than erupting violently, so the top layers cool and harden while the red-hot lava flows underneath. Where there are cracks in the lava you get steam and heat that is perfect for roasting marshmallows and sausages (we did the former, other guys did the latter). They were done really fast and tasted much better than those roasted over camfire coals!

We got back to Antigua for a hasty walk through town in the pouring rain. Here, at one of the largest fountains in Central America, Christie was let down by her leaky $2 umbrella!

Once in Guatemala City 2 hours later, I was incredibly impressed by the hotel there--spacious, clean, no cockroaches or mold = luxury! Early the next morning we set off for paradise--Semuc Champey. When we got to our hotel, we refreshed ourselves by swimming in the river, jumping off the rope swing, and tubing down the river. I put my practice from Maine into good use because the river was really high and I needed all the upper body strength I could muster! My arms are still tired, by the way.

The next day, we went on a tour of the nearby caves. This was no ordinary cave tour, though, because it started with jumps into the river on a rope swing--a swing that you actually sit on until you fly off into the middle of the river. We weren't worried about being wet, though, because the majority of the caves were covered in water. We spent about 90% of the time wading or swimming in the water, with our one lone candle held high above our heads. There was a giant waterfall we had to scale on a ladder or rope (we all chose the ladder), and a deep pool where we jumped off from the rocks and stalactites above. By the end of the tour, we were down to one candle for every 4-5 people, but it was one of the most fun things I think I have ever done!

After lunch and a brief rest, we set off for the real attraction of Semuc Champey--the swimming pools. Over the Río Cahabón, a series of over 35 natural pools are on top of a huge limestone bridge. The river passes under it into a cave and comes out the other side. The pools range from really deep to shallow wading pools, but they're all blue and green and incredibly clean. I could have swum there for days--it really is the closest thing to paradise that I think I've ever seen!















Sadly, we tore ourselves away wee the next morning to arrive in El Remate, a little town on the Lake Itzá in the northern part of the country. There we downed an enormous pizza and proceeded to swim in the lake with all the locals who were doing their washing. We went to bed bright an early in order to get up at 3:30 the next morning.

Last Day in Xela

As I wait to lead my last experiment here in el Colegio Miguel Angel Asturias, I will add a few random pictures from this week.

The 1st graders learned about friction by making hovercrafts out of CDs, pop tops, and balloons. One kid made the discovery that you don't actually have to take the balloon off each time you want to inflate it!

The kindergarteners learned how to change the pitch of a rubber band by stretching it in different ways. Aside from the musical part of the experiment, wow they made a lot of noise!

Christie had her classes make signs about oral hygiene and post them around the school, my favorite being this cartoon.

Christie left yesterday for Antigua, and I will follow her this afternoon to meet up with her friend Jess, climb an active volcano, and then travel for another week. I'll be sad to leave this town, this school, and my host family, but all good thing must come to an end, right?

Ode to Chicken Buses

The main transportation in Guatemala is the Chicken Bus. It's quite the cultural phenomenon that I will investigate in this post.


First, you take an old U.S. school bus. Then you repaint it lots of bright colors. It's a must to add lots of chrome to the sides and the front. The more the better.




If possible, you should also paint on curtains to the front and side windows. Each bus must also be named after a beautiful woman, a famous saint, or a town, making sure each bus has its own identity.








As for the inside, well, first you have to add racks along the top to store everyone's stuff. You also need bars to hang on to for all the people who have to stand and want to stay relatively upright as you whip around the mountainous curves.





Once those structures are in place, you need to plaster pictures slogans on every available surface. The sides work great for slogans, while the front and the roof work the best for cartoons, pictures, and Bible verses.




You then need to supplement the pictures with 3-D objects, the most popular being tassles and fringe, or stuffed animals. You can never have too much.





Now the bus is ready to be filled. And again, you can never have too many people. First, each seat must hold 3 adults. If you don't squeeze in tightly enough, they will shout back and ask you to collaborate with them and sit pegadito (literally, stuck together). Then you add at lease one child to the lap of someone in each seat. That makes 4. Once the seats are filled, people must fill in the aisle space, or the small space in between knees. Even after there is physically no more space, the bus attendants will request you to keep moving back and filling in, and the people oblige.

You may be wondering what happens when someone needs to get off. Good question. Everyone squeezes and maneuvers, and you jump off the back if you're closer to the back than the front. If you had stuff on top, the bus guy will climb up on top while the bus is still moving and then hurl it off the side (or slide it down the ramp they set up on the side of the bus) for you.





The last great feature of the chicken bus are the vendors. Vendors of everything imaginable come on and shout their speech, hoping you will be suckered into buying their product. We've seen candies, stickers, pencils, chicken tortillas, drinks, plantain chips, eyedrops, stencils, CDs, parasite pills, and Vitamin B pills twice! You also see lots of preachers who come on, preaching and seeking funds for their church. This one old man didn't seem too interested in money, but he sure did preach for the entire ride, even as people moved to available seats to avoid him!





Don't get me wrong. There are alternatives to the chicken bus. The most common is the microbus. While it avoids all the flair and the vendors, you don't fare much better in getting your own seat.








There is also the ride-on-top-of-any-vehicle option, as chosen by this man. He actually looks pretty comfortable!






For long-distance trips on which you have lots of luggage and you want to have your own seat, you can pay significantly more and ride in a pullman bus. Here you may even be lucky to get seat covers with pockets, handy for holding your drink!



But at the end of the day, we all know we love the chicken bus the best. After all, where else will you actually see chickens in the laps of ladies as you bounce along? Where else will you hear the blaring banda music accompanied by the constant chirping of a young chick? Nowhere but Guatemalan Chicken Buses.

A little bit of everything

Here are some of the pictures I've taken in the past few days:

In school, the 2nd graders learned about electricity and circuits by trying to light three light bulbs with a battery and some wire. Lessons I learned:

Kids can't share.

Kids who can't share cry.

Karla will never be a 2nd grade teacher!

Christie is wrapping it up with all her kids and their oral hygiene lessons. Having handed out toothbrushes and toothpastes, she now regularly brushes with them after snack-time. It really is impressive how the teachers have kept up the teeth-brushing every day! So for all those who wondered whatever happened to our 100+ pounds of toothpaste and brushes, they made it into the hands of kids and teachers alike, and will continue to do so for at least another year!

Because another volunteer left today, the school had a farewell ceremony for the three of us yesterday. They first sang the school anthem, Queremos Paz y Libertad (we want peace and liberty). Then each grade presented a song or a speech, along with cards for each of us. It was so cute! At the end, I got to give hugs to over 200 kids, which took awhile, but was endearing!

Yesterday at lunch time, we had every single member of our family present at the table! I don't think this has happened since I got here, so I took a picture. Literally one minute later, the doorbell rang and ended the perfect moment! Clockwise you see me, then a new girl Sarah, then Julio the

long-term resident from the capitol (2 years!), Carlos and his recently-arrived girlfriend Sarah, then Jenny and Quique. That's right, we now have a Karla, a Carlo, and 2 Sarahs! Yikes! Bikes! Oh, and that's Tofi, our dog who eats more bread at every meal than I do!

At lastly, after 13 hours or work, I finished my scarf! It was a little anti-climactic and I just wanted to be done, so I think the quality dwindled at the end. It always amazes me the rollercoaster of emotions as one undertakes a project. First excitement, then disappointment, then boredom and apathy, and lastly that feel-good feeling of knowing you made something all by yourself from start to finish!

And one last picture with Carlita because she's just so cute and actually smiling in this one!