Here We Go Again!

Well, I decided to start posting before my next trip - to get a head start! :)

There are quite a few differences between my trip to Guatemala and my upcoming trip to Maryville, Tennessee. The trip to Tennessee will be taking place over the course of my week-long Spring Break, from March 17th to March 24th. Unlike my trip to Guatemala which I embarked on alone, I'll be heading to Tennessee with 4 of my friends; Faith, Melissa, Steph, and Mike. I was lucky enough to meet these guys last year on my Alternative Spring Break, which all of us (minus Mike) participated in through UMass.

Last year, Faith, Melissa, Steph, and I all went down to Georgetown, South Carolina to help renovate an older woman's house.  We had no idea what to expect!  Our friend Danielle (who unfortunately can't join us on our trip this year) and our 'Team Leader' (who will remain unnamed) and the 4 of us ventured down to the South, making the trip over the course of two days. Once there, we were introduced to the church members of the Methodist church that we would be staying in; and welcomed with open arms. We became very close with a few members of the parish, because once we got there it was discovered that the showers that had been arranged for us had broken. We were welcomed everyday into the homes of some wonderful people to let us shower once we were done working. Without them, we would have been a miserable, smelly bunch of college students!

We also made some great relationships with our contractors, Sean and Lee, who helped teach us how to rip up floorboards, use the table saw (Melissa's favorite activity), secure the outside of the house from animals, and many other skills to help improve the house. One very important person we met on our trip was Ms. Rue, who's house we were working on. Ms. Rue was an older, African-American woman who lived on her own in a small house in a poorer neighborhood. All of the houses along her street were very small, and they were all built in the middle of the 20th century to house workers for the giant paper mill that operated close by. Many of the houses had not been updated in a very long time, and clearly showed the wear and tear of time. Ms. Rue's house required a lot of work; we worked Monday to Thursday from around 9am until 3pm until we had finished all of the work that was scheduled to be completed that week. We even bought Ms. Rue paint, and surprised her by painting her living room for her! The trip was eye-opening, which is why we decided to go again this year.

We decided that although we had great experiences going through ASB, we did not want to travel with the program again this year for a few reasons. So we took it into our own hands to find a way to volunteer over our Spring Break, and then we found the Collegiate Challenge through Habitat for Humanity.

The Collegiate Challenge is a program specifically for college students; essentially any group of college students can create a team and choose a place to go to volunteer over their break. The catch is; the groups themselves are responsible for all of the finances of the trip. WHOA. Although we realized that we would face many struggles from finding transportation to actually raising the amount of money necessary to make this possible, we decided to go for it. I don't mean to brag; but I will say we are very determined college students.  So far, we have cashed in bottles from a friend's party for money, written countless letters to friends and family, sold pizza in the dorm, will be hosting Trivia Night at The Harp, and having a Bertucci's Fundraising night. We have organized transportation (which will be official tomorrow!) and also been in contact with our host in Blount County, Tennessee.


None of this would be possible without the love and support of our family and friends; so this is a shout out to all of you who have encouraged us either with words or donations! Without you guys, our goal of helping to build affordable housing in low-income areas of the United States would not be possible. So THANKS :)


I will continue to update this blog as we get closer to the trip, and while we're on it.
Party Llama, World Traveler says: Tennessee, here we come!

Chico :)

This is Chico, who is 4, with Nikki

Santiago

So, since I'm home now and have more free time that I'm able to use the internet, I figured I'd post a few little stories about a couple of the kids that I met at Hogar Madre Anna Vitello.  

This is Santiago. He's 8 years old.

     Santiago is an outgoing 8 year old that I met on my first day at the orphanage.  My friend Nikki had been working at the orphanage for 2 weeks before myself and 2 other volunteers got there, so she introduced us to almost everyone. The one thing that was different about Santiago right away that he was determined to learn our names and remember them.  A lot of the kids constantly ask our names, and will almost immediately forget and come running back to ask again. But, Santiago rarely got my name name wrong and every morning when we got to the orphanage he would run over and say hi to all of us individually.

    On one of the first few days, Santiago saw me sitting alone just watching the kids play on the playground. He come over and motioned to see the little green book that was sticking out of my sweatshirt pocket. It was my Spanish to English pocket dictionary, so he started flipping through it. When I explained to him that the front half of the book had English words so I could find the Spanish meaning, he just kept flipping through and showing me different words. He found the translations of the numbers from 1 to 10 in the back, and proceeded to read them to me in English! Once he reached 10, he calmly handed me my book back and pointed to his head and said "cabeza". He repeated it twice until I repeated it back to him, mimicking his movements. We went through almost all of the body parts, and he was impressed when I would beat him to a body part and already know the word for it in Spanish. Sometimes, I would repeat the word in English and he would also repeat it, but he was more set on him teaching me rather than the other way around.

    Another day, Santiago was kicking around a soccer ball and we started playing pass. Now anyone who knows me understands that I have no foot/eye coordination. I quit soccer when I was probably Santiago's age; after we switched to the "big kid's" field I didn't see the fun in running back and forth all the time. (I'd like to blame my asthma for this, but it really was irrelevant. I just didn't really like soccer). Anyways, we started playing pass and gradually started running up and down the playground. Eventually we tried juggling the ball up into the air, and passing it. That didn't work out so well, but it was fun.

       Santiago is the little boy I played cards with that I mentioned briefly in a post earlier. We had a little crowd watching us play War, and then the next day we had a group of kids playing Uno.  What I failed to mention was that after Santiago realized that I understood exactly how War worked and that I really knew how to play (Jackie and I used to play all the time when we were kids) he decided to take matters into his own hands. He started cheating!!! Anyone who plays War knows that the Ace's are what will eventually win you the game, if you throw them at the right time. So, Santiago held onto his Ace's and pretended to drop his cards to mix them up when he realized he would have to give up one of them. The kicker was that he knew that I knew that he was cheating, but he also realized that I had no idea how to say that he was cheating in Spanish! I kept throwing him looks, and he just kept laughing. Needless to say, I lost (technically) but that wasn't really the point. It was just fun :)

Santiago is a sweet kid, and I was lucky to have met him. He was one of the few people I met while in Guatemala who didn't see lack of knowledge in Spanish as an obstacle; but more as a fun challenge.

1/12

Today was a very, very slow day at the orphanage. My friends Nikki, Diana, Tae and I started off the morning by hanging up a ridiculous amount of laundry to dry. Because it's not the rainy season, which is generally April through November (I think at least), it's sunny in Guatemala every day so the kid's laundry is always outside on the lines drying.  After we finished, Nikki and I went to go see the younger kids ages 2, 3, and 4. They are by far the cutest kids, but they fight with each other constantly. Almost as soon as we walked into the room 3 kids began to wrestle over a small toy, which obviously resulted in the 3 of them yelling and crying. We walked with the little kids to a room across the orphanage where they were going to get their diapers changed, but as soon as we got their the nun that takes care of them suggested that we go and hang out with the older kids.

   Some of the nuns at the orphanage are more friendly than others, but it's hard to tell because of the language barrier. I think with this nun particularly, she doesn't enjoy having volunteers with the younger kids because it can do more harm than good. When we're around the younger kids, they're constantly fighting each other for our attention or they're trying to pull us away somewhere else. Having us around probably causes a bigger disruption to their day, although they are fun to hang around with.

   After that, we pretty much just wandered the orphanage not really doing anything in particular. We helped out in the kitchen for a while, played soccer with a few of the boys, and just walked around. This weekend is the last weekend of the summer vacation for all of the kids in the orphanage and the village, so a lot of them were helping to clean out the 3 classrooms that occupy one half of Hogar Madre Anna Vitello's complex.  The orphange hosts the local village's school, and students are split up from 1st to 5th grade, and then 6th, 7th and 8th. Somewhere around 6th grade, public school stops and if the kids want to continue their education they must pay to go to a private school.  

   Tomorrow is the last day at the orphange, which is insane. We're hopefully going to take the kids for a walk to a little store down the street from the complex, and just spend the morning saying our goodbyes. Hopefully update soon, I'll be stateside again in only 3 days! Once I'm back in the state's I'm hopefully going to add pictures to this blog and continue writing. I only have so much time to write while I'm here, but I really want to try and describe this experience, because I have yet to do it justice. 

:)

It's Tuesday?

I can't really believe that I've already been Antigua for over a week, and my time is here is quickly coming to an end. Today was my last Spanish class, and for the rest of the week my friends and I are going to try and do as many different things as possible. I walked around the local market for gifts for my friends and family before class today, and realized that I'm no better at negotiating in Spanish than I am in English (I generally just say "okay" rather than bargaining), but it was still really fun.

Today at the orphanage it was pretty hot out, so my friend Tae and I started off the morning by hanging up all of the wet laundry to dry during the day. After that, we went to watch a fútbol game that the boys ages 8-12 had started on the basketball  court.  I'm no good at soccer, but one of the 8 year old boys was determined to teach me how to juggle a ball on my foot successfully. Today was almost a lazy day at the orphanage; most of the kids wanted to just hang out in the shade rather than run around. At one point, my friend Diana and I found ourself sitting in the shade with at least 20 of the orphans on our laps or sitting right next to us. I started to play a card game with Santiago, who's 8, called guerra. Guerra means war in Spanish- so luckily I actually knew how to play! After a while we had a large crowd of kids watching, everyone getting involved too. I ended up losing, but it was a really fun game :) While we were playing, Diana had her ipod out and was playing Shakira and other music that the kids knew - some of them knew all of the words! It was relaxing but very fun.

The one thing I'm still amazed at is that the kids always just enjoy sitting on our laps and pulling us around the orphanage to show us things. Although my Spanish has improved and I know enough to get by, a lot of the kids enjoy teaching me words and don't mind when I point to something and ask how to say it in Spanish. Some of them do laugh at my pronounciations sometimes, but they will always repeat it until I get it right.

 It's going to be really weird saying goodbye to all of the kids knowing that I'll be flying back home to my family and friends, and then leaving to go to school when I know that all of the kids will be in the orphanage for an indefinite amount of time. As I said before, this trip has been extremely eye opening. It's been a lot of fun, and not exactly what I expected either.

Tikal Ruins

This past weekend I was able to travel all across Guatemala to the Mayan Ruins in Tikal.  Tikal was one of the largest Mayans city, and was in use for over 1,000 years.  Archeologists believe that Tikal was home to around a half million people at it's peak, and it was eventually abandoned because the Mayan's destroyed the jungle around the city and lost all of their resources.  We were able to climb to the top of Temple 4, which is the largest temple currently uncovered. We were able to see over the jungle to the other few ruins that are visible above the tree line.
  One thing that I found insanely interesting was that so far archeologists have found around 3,000 different Mayan structures in Tikal, but they estimate that there are still around 7,000 more that have been covered by the jungle.  The jungle is extremely dense; it's hard to tell where one tree starts and another begins. At one point, there were no trees in Tikal, and all of the buildings were painted different colors.
  Our tour guide let us in on a secret - a few months ago, archeologists discovered a subterranean city a little ways away from Tikal, deep in the jungle.  A large storm knocked some trees down, which exposed a hole that led arceologists to colored paintings from they Mayan's time. New ruins and artifacts are being discovered and processed everyday in Tikal.

Unfortunately, thats all I have time for right now. Off to Spanish Class!

P.S. All of the Guatemalan's and Mayan's living near Tikal do not believe the world will end in 2012 - it's just a new beginning of the Mayan Calendar, and will be a time of big celebration here! :)