Hey everyone! I hope it’s cooling down a little bit back in the states. My parents were here in the Guat last week and they told me they came down here to cool off. We had such a great time, and I have so much to share with everyone, so this is going to be a long one! The rents flew into Guatemala City on Wednesday the 20th and were here until the 29th. I was so excited for them to get here that I got to the airport 2 hours early J We stayed the first couple nights in Antigua in an awesome hotel that used to be a convent, but now it’s a hotel and museum. I felt like a princess! Nothing makes you feel better than being with your parents after 7 months on your own. I showed them around Antigua, which is such a cool city and nothing like they’ve ever seen before. It was so great seeing them after 7 months away that I didn’t really care what we did! They treated me to an awesome dinner at one of the best restaurants in Antigua called Panza Verde which means “green belly” because people in Antigua eat a lot of avocados. Panza Verde might have a different meaning for my dad though because as he was eating his salad he encountered a daddy long leg spider dead in his food with half its legs missing. … that’ll make you sick to your stomach! But my parents laughed as I tried to explain to the waiter the situation and they very kindly brought out another salad free of charge J Always an adventure here in the Guat!
The next day they got to climb their first volcano- Pacaya- which erupted last May so now the hike up is completely made up of volcanic rock. It was so beautiful! We had an awesome guide, Ronny, who explained all about the eruptions and history of the volcano and made drawings in the ground so my parents could understand what he was saying, and then I translated into English for the rents J It was the first time they got to see me in action using my Spanish and it was funny because Ronny would be talking and talking and talking and then I’d translate what he said in about 5 words. You can’t hike all the way to the top of Pacaya because it’s too dangerous, but we got close enough to the top to see steaming holes where you can roast marshmallows and see boiling hot rocks from inside the volcano. Words and pictures can’t really explain the beauty of a volcano so I’m glad they got to experience it first-hand! Thursday night we went out to dinner with some of my Peace Corps friends. My parents can finally put some faces to the people I always talk about.
Friday we left for my site, Cajolá, which was the part I was most excited about! The best part about the trip was my parents getting to see where I live and work every day. I live in rural Guatemala, very different from Antigua and the other tourist towns. They stayed at my house for 4 nights, and we had such a good time! Of course they wanted to help me make my house a little more homey and livable so right away Mom started cleaning and Dad started getting ideas about how to fix up the house. What would I do without them? J They finally got to meet my other half (Suki) and the family that lives next door could not wait to meet my parents so of course they came over to introduce themselves and to meet Ela’s parents. It was a very different experience because I live with a Mayan family and so the parents mainly speak Mam. They were speaking in Mam to the daughters and the daughters were translating in Spanish to me, and I was translating in English to my parents. By the end of the night I was speaking in Spanish to my parents. It gave everyone a good laugh! It’s so amazing how people can be together and not understand each other’s languages but still have a connection with them and build relationships with them and have a great time!
The first night staying at my house was interesting. My parents stayed in my bedroom, and I put an extra bed in the kitchen and slept with Suki. I forgot to warn them that Guatemala’s not exactly the most peaceful and quite place. All night long dogs were barking, Suki was barking at the dogs barking, firecrackers were going off, roosters were crowing, cats were meowing… meanwhile I’m used to it and fell right to sleep but they didn’t get a very good night sleep. Welcome to Guatemala! In the morning we got up early so I could show them around Cajolá. My parents had their first experience cooking breakfast on my gas stove….my dad was so excited to cook on my little camping stove that he didn’t even realize he had sprayed insect repellant on the pan to make his eggs instead of Pam. I guess he didn’t want another spider in his food! Good thing I have a very keen sense of smell and realized what he had done before he almost caught the pan on fire!
So Saturday I took them and Suki to San Miguel to my favorite walking path. To get there we had to take a 5 minutes bus ride, and Suki is definitely getting too big to be on a bus. First of all he scares everyone to death because 99% of the dogs here are mean, and second of all he takes up a whole seat and his tail was hitting this little kid sitting behind us in the face. I was once again known as the crazy gringa with a dog, but hey at least it made people laugh! Mom and Dad helped me build some shelves in my room and kitchen which are awesome! Later in the day I took them into Xela, which is no Antigua but I thought it was worthwhile to take them on a chicken bus and to see the central park. It was the 30th anniversary of XelaPan which is the famous bread store around town, so they had music and a 30 foot cake in the central park. That’s about the most exciting thing we saw in Xela. What was more entertaining was having my dad hanging out the door of a micro bus like a dog, and my mom sitting on my lap on the way back into town. Now they know what I have to go through with public transportation every day!
Sunday morning I took them to the Cajolá open air market. Sunday is our huge market day with tons of people and any kind of vegetable you could ever want. My dad liked it so much that we went back a second time an hour later! It is a pretty cool site to see…. Everyone out on Sunday morning selling everything from meat to veggies to little knick knacks and socializing with their friends. You can’t go into the market and not see someone you know so of course I saw a few of my teachers and met some new people too! For lunch the family that lives next door invited us over. They have 10 kids but only 2 live at home. They made us paches which are made of potatoes and a tomato sauce with some spices and some type of meet then wrapped in banana leaves and cooked. They were delicious! They also made us a soup with noodles, chicken, and veggies. I was scared to have my parents eat at their house for lunch because you never know how they cook the food or what water they use, but no one ended up getting sick and we had an awesome time with the fam. We brought them watermelon for dessert. I am so blessed to live with such a great family. The girls call me their sister and they told me they’ve adopted me into their family. The youngest girl, Toy, asked my parents if they would adopt her and take her back with them. I loved seeing my 2 “families” come together and get to know each other, and my parents got to experience real Guatemalan culture that most people don’t get to see if they’re just traveling around as a tourist. It was a really great experience and one that none of us will ever forget!
Sunday night we made dinner at my house and my site mate Megan came over. We cooked and played Euchre. It was a lot of fun and one of those times where I had to remind myself that I was in Guatemala. I have a lot of those moments when I can’t believe I live in Guatemala, and with my parents here that feeling was amplified, but at the same time it was really refreshing to get someone else’s perspective on life here in the Guat. Monday morning we visited one of my schools. We got lost on the way there because I tried to take them the scenic route through the corn fields but the corn has gotten so high that I couldn’t tell where I was. We ended up going on someone’s property and the owner was not a happy camper and yelled at us. I guess 3 gringos walking around looks a little strange to some people, but I explained that I was trying to find the path to the school so in the end he wasn’t too mad. We finally found the right path, and as we were walking up to the school all the kids ran out to greet us. The kids were so excited to have visitors! We stayed there for a couple hours playing games with all the little kiddos. We had so much fun! This is also one of my poorest schools, so my parents got to see the heart of my work here. It was also good for the kids to meet my parents and know that I have family too just like them and that I’m not just some alien J I think my parents had a really good time, and now they can picture what I’m doing when I say I’m going to work!
Tuesday morning we left my site and headed to Lake Atitlan. We stayed at a hotel called Casa del Mundo and you can only get there by boat. Everyone knows that a boat ride to this hotel costs Q15-20 but of course when we get off the shuttle all these guys run up to us trying to get us to buy a private boat shuttle for Q150. Good thing we had my Spanish as a secret weapon because most people who don’t speak Spanish would probably agree and take the private boat. But I stood our ground and argued with the boat guys and we ended up getting a boat for Q15 per person, which is what it should be. It was probably pretty entertaining for my parents to see me arguing in a different language J So after that adventure, we finally made it to our hotel across the lake. Our hotel was awesome!! It’s built up into the mountain side, and we had to climb 167 steps to get to our room. Our room had an awesome view of the lake and volcanoes, and we even had our very own hammock! If you want a nice relaxing vacation by a lake, this is definitely the place to go. The hotel is in a little town called Jaibilito but pretty much once you’re at the hotel you don’t want to leave because it’s so peaceful and relaxing and they serve every meal in their restaurant. So the rest of the day we just relaxed in the hammocks and enjoyed the view of the lake. They serve dinner every night at 6:30 and it’s family style so everyone in the hotel eats together. We met people from France, Australia, all over the states, and it was interesting to hear everyone’s story. There was even a returned Peace Corps volunteer from Ohio who was there with his friend who went to Ohio State! Go Buckeyes! That night we just hung out in the room and watched the storm roll in over the lake. Life doesn’t get much better than that!
On Wednesday we took a boat across the lake to a town called Panajachel, which is one of the tourist towns around the lake. My parents got to take their first tuk tuk ride, which is like a little taxi with 3 wheels. Pana has a whole market street so of course we shopped a little bit and walked around town. We wanted to make it back to the hotel for lunch because their food is amazing so we tried to take a public boat back around 11:30am, but were very unsuccessful. The public boats are supposed to leave every 20 minutes, but if there are not enough people they won’t leave. Since we were the only ones waiting for a boat they wouldn’t take us across the lake to our hotel. They said if we wanted to go then we’d have to take a private boat. I argued and argued with them and they were not being very nice and wouldn’t take us. So our options were to wait for other people, which could take all day, or bargain down the price for a private boat or one guy told me we could swim across the lake naked… that lightened the mood a little bit. Since we didn’t really want to waste our day waiting around for a boat, nor swim naked across the lake, we finally gave in to the private boat. I guess that’s why the travel guide refers to the boat guys as scoundrels. At least we got our own little boat tour of the lake and got back in time for a nice refreshing swim in the lake, and a delicious lunch at the hotel!
Thursday we tried to rent kayaks in the morning, but the guy never showed up so we ended up just enjoying our last morning at the lake before heading out to Antigua. We took a boat over to Pana to wait for a shuttle to Antigua and in the mean time we stopped at a little coffee shop. The guy working was from Guatemala but spoke perfect English and German because his mom is from Switzerland. This made my dad’s day because he loves practicing his German. They had a about a 10 minute conversation in German, and my mom and I couldn’t understand one word! I guess now I know how my parents feel when I speak in Spanish. After that we headed out on our shuttle to Antigua for our last day together in Guatemala. Usually it takes about 2-2.5 hours to get to Antigua from the lake but there was a teacher’s strike on the main road, so we had to take another route which was a dirt road and it took about 4 hours to get back. It was pouring and we were on this narrow dirt road with a cliff on one side and huge trucks coming at us from the other way. It was really scary, and my dad thought we were being kidnapped, but thankfully we made it safely back to Antigua. We shopped around Antigua for a little and printed out pictures for my host family from when we had lunch at their house. My parents wanted to give them a framed picture so that they would always remember that day J
That night we went out for my “last supper.” We went to my favorite sushi restaurant, and at first they were a little skeptical of eating sushi in Guatemala, but they ended up loving it! None of us wanted the night to end because that meant 6 more months without being together, but we went back to the hotel and my mom and I had a girl’s night in the hot tub with bubbles and a glass of wine. We literally soaked up every last minute of our time together J The rents headed out around 5am Friday morning, and I headed back to my house in Cajolá. It took me a few days to adjust to being back in site and not having them around, but we had such a great trip so I couldn’t really complain about much. Thanks Mom and Dad for everything! Without their support I don’t know if I could do this, and now they have an even better picture of where I live and where I work, so it helps them know that I am safe and happy. I’m so glad that I could open this part of my life to them, since not many people will be able to come down and experience it firsthand, and they can share their experience with everyone back home.
Now it’s back to work for me… there’s only about a month of school left so this month is going to be really busy. I’ll be giving a talk to every school about having health corners in their classrooms and also brainstorming on how we can accomplish the goals of the Healthy Schools program in the next year. It’s going to be tough because time is running out but hopefully I can get them done before school ends. Prayers and blessings to everyone back home. Miss you all! I promise it won’t be so long before the next update J
Xoxo Maddie
Keep up the great work Maddie! We love and support you 100%.
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