Only 4 buses, 2 boats, and 19 hours to Belize..

It finally hit me that I will be back in the States at this time next week.  I feel like I just got here, and I shouldn’t be leaving already.  I have become really close to some people here, and it’s going to be hard to leave.  This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and something I will never forget!  Well, enough of the sappiness…

The past couple weeks has been one of the most incredible and adventurous weeks.  It is so rewarding to see how much the girls have improved in their soccer abilities.  They can now pass the ball correctly and actually understand the concept of the game better.  Now when they come to the office they even ask for a soccer ball so they can practice juggling with their thighs!  Lately they also love playing cabeza, mano (head it, catch it) in the office.  I don’t think Veronica ever messes up and Wendy has definitely caught on.  Wendy is so little that when she heads it, the ball almost knocks her over! 

Solola has transformed into a totally different city the past couple of weeks.  La Feria (the fair) is a huge event that takes place in the city every August for about two weeks.  Our street is now filled with booths of corny games and food.  There are probably 6 Churro stands within two blocks and 4 different pizza stands.  They have a bunch of fusbol tables and video games, along with really corny homemade games.  There is also a block that is filled with probably 10 different booths of these people selling the same exact cookies.  Well, I don’t really know if you’d call them a cookie or a cracker or what, but they are definitely a big hit here.  They are pretty good, but I’m not quite sure what the big deal is with them, I guess just the time of the year.  They recently brought in a ferris wheel, which they call la rueda de Chicago, and other carnival rides (if you can even call them that).  It reminds me of a carnival from the 1980’s or something, they are a little behind the times!

Last Wednesday we get a knock on the door at 8:30, and sure enough it was two of our girls Laura and Claudia (cousins).  Even though they had already spent probably two hours in the office earlier in the day, they hadn’t had enough.  One of them had their 3 and 5 year old siblings with them.  I don’t know how I’d feel about my 10 year old roaming the street with my 3 and 5 year old in the dark, but hey its Guatemala!  That is something that is totally different here in Solola, most of the kids kind of do their own thing without the supervision of their parents.  There are definitely some parents that don’t allow their kids to roam the streets, but i’d say a lot of them do.  Sometimes you will even see an 8 or 9 year old girl walking around with a baby on her back.  There are a lot of things that I have seen here that would be shocking to see in the States, but here it is totally normal.  I have to mention one of those things being that men basically pee wherever they want.  A couple examples: A man was walking in front of us with his grandson on his shoulders, stops, turns to the wall, and pees.  We were playing in a chamusca the other night and the goalie went behind the goal to pee while we were playing.  One of the many other culturally strange things is that women breast feed wherever they want.  They will be walking down the street with their breast hanging out.  My favorite is when they are in the market trying to sell something while breast feeding.   I could go on and on about all the weird things they do here!

Anyways, after practice last Thursday Steph and I decided to hop on a bus to head to Belize.  We had been talking about it for a while, but we weren’t sure if we were actually going to make the trek alone.  We said what the hell, packed out bags, and caught the bus from UVG after practice.  The bus ride to the city usually takes around 3 hours, but I guess we picked the bus that was being driven by a former nascar driver.  We were sitting three to a seat, so it was already uncomfortable, but this bus was flying around corners so you had to hold on tight.  As we were arriving in the city I looked down at my watch and it was 1 p.m., which meant we had only been on the bus for 2 hours!  But we got off at the stop by Wal-Mart, because a friend was going to pick us up there to take us to the next bus station.  It was so weird going in Wal-Mart, I felt like I was in the States again!  There were people giving samples everywhere though, which they don’t really do at the wal-mart back home.  A couple hours later our friend picked us up and while we were driving he proceeded to tell us that where he is taking us is extremely unsafe.  A couple years ago I guess he saw someone get shot on a motorcycle right beside him!  That made us feel good, but we were lucky to have him to take us there.  We got there, bought the ticket, and the bus was leaving in 10 minutes, so off we went to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala.  The bus was actually super nice, and had air conditioning.  A little different than the school buses we are used to riding.  The ride was supposed to take 5 hours, but ended up taking over 6 hours!  I think we stopped on the side of the road 20 times to pick people up or let people pass!  When we finally arrived and stepped off the bus, it was probably 30 degrees hotter and about 100% humidity.  We got in late, so we immediately got a hostel, which ended up being THE grossest place I’ve stayed in my life.  There were cob webs all over, the toilet didn’t flush, no toilet seat, and I don’t know what the hell was in the pillow case but it definitely didn’t feel like a pillow.  I didn’t even take off the cloths I wore that day, and I used my rain jacket as my pillow.  I think we maybe slept a total of 2 hours that night, but it didn’t really matter because we were that much closer to Belize!

The next morning we had to get our passports stamped and pay a fee to exit Guatemala before we caught a boat to Punta Gorda, Belize.  The boat ride took a little over an hour, and once we got there and got our passports stamped we had to hurry to find a bank to exchange our money into Belize dollars.  We ended up making the bus to take us to Independence/Mango Creek.  We were back on the good ol’ school bus for about an hour and a half but we made it to where we needed to be.  At Mango Creek we had to take a water taxi over to Placencia, which was our final destination!  I think we ended up making it there around 3:30 p.m. and we left Solola the previous day at 11 p.m.  We met a guy, Omar, in Mango Creek, and he had a ‘guesthouse’ for $30 Belize a night ($15 USD).  We decided to stay there, because it was one house away from the water.  The town was pretty neat, because a lot of the houses were actually built on the beach.  It was like 2 blocks of houses on the beach, so not all of them were water front but it was still really neat.  I’m not sure if I explained that clearly, but basically it was a very cool beach town.  A lot of the hotels in the area where we were, were called ‘guest houses’.  We basically just had a room with 2 beds and a fan and then there was a bathroom for all the rooms to share.  By no means was this nice, but it was cheap and really close to the water!  Once we got our room, we went straight to the beach and spent as long as we could.  We were pretty hungry so we went and explored the town a little, and checked out the different restaurants.  We decided on The Barefoot Bar, which was really close to where we were staying.  The food was actually really, really good and we ended up getting drinks and sitting there for a while.  We actually went back later in the night, and had some drinks and listened to this really good Reggae band that was playing.

The first night of sleep was hot, but better than the night in Puerto Barrios.  We went to the beach pretty early and spent most of the day there.  At the Barefoot Bar they were having a horse shoe tournament, so we went and signed up.  I think I got 2 points the whole time, but Steph was pretty good!  After that we went back to the room and showered before dinner.  Omar, also had a restaurant and had been gone all day catching fish and lobster for dinner.  He promised to save us a lobster for dinner, so we went there.  So we had lobster for dinner that was literally caught 3 hours before, and it was delicious!  We were pretty exhausted from spending the day in the sun, so we went back to the room fairly early seeing that we had to get up at 6 to catch the first boat back to Mango Creek.

I woke up at like 5:15 to the sound of pouring rain.  I stepped outside and it looked like a hurricane!  It was raining so hard, thundering, and the wind was insane.  In my head I was thinking there was no way we were going to make it out of here in an hour.  But by the time we had to leave, surprisingly everything had calmed down and we made the first boat over!  I forgot to mention we were trying to make the trip back to Solola in one day this time.  So, we thought we were in good shape getting to Mango Creek so early and we would catch an early bus back to Punta Gorda.  We quickly made the trek to the bus stop, and ended up finding out that the first bus doesn’t come until 10!  It didn’t end up coming to closer to 11, so we ended up sitting there for 3 hours, and at this point I was not a happy camper.  Anyways we finally got on the crowded bus, sweating already, and on our way to Punta Gorda.  Luckily we got there in time to buy a boat ticket, get our passport stamped, pay a fee to exit the country, and make the boat so we didn’t have to wait 2 hours for the next one.  The boat ride was probably the most relaxing thing all day!  We made it to Puerto Barrios, got our passports stamped (once again) and started walking to find the Latigue Bus station to get us back to the City.  Since it was Sunday, the bus schedule was a little different, but we only had to wait an hour or so for the next bus.  This bus ticket cost more than our first one, so we thought it would be a nicer bus, but it turned out to be way worst!  The bus was full, the seats were way less comfortable, and the air barely worked!!  It was in the 90’s and about 100% humidity outside, so a bus full of people with no windows open was far from comfortable.  They played the movie the Notebook in Spanish, so that took my mind off the heat a little.  At this point we were way off track in our timing, so there was no way that we could make it all the way back to Solola.  Luckily, we called Luis from a pay phone in Puerto Barrios and he set up for Jose Antonio (taxi driver who originally took us from Guate to Solola in June!) to be waiting for us at the Litegua Bus station and take us to a hostel.  If we wouldn’t of had him there waiting for us I don’t know what we would do at 9:30 in a very unsafe part of Guate!  He took us to this hostel that was someones room in a house, very strange, but we went straight to bed.  We woke up at 5 the next morning, because Jose Antonio was picking us up to take us to where the chicken bus was.  THANK GOD FOR JOSE ANTONIO!!! We ended up getting on a bus that we thought was going straight to Solola, but it actually ended up going through Antigua!  It took us over 3 hours to get back, but I think Steph and I slept 2 out of those 3 hours!  Everytime I woke up there was a new person next to me, that’s how many times we stopped.  At one point I woke up and everyone was getting off the bus, except Steph and I, and I had no clue where we were.  But we made it back to UVG a little after 9, just in time for practice!  Of course, it turns out that the girls were in the Parade or something that day so there was no practice.  Basically we woke up at 5 for nothing, but oh well it felt good to finally make it back! To say the least our travels to Belize were an adventure, but it was definitely worth it!

We had no idea that there were going to be Parades going on this week, so it was hard to get around in Solola.  The city was absolutely packed with people and there was stuff going on everywhere!  It was Monday, so we had practice with the pequenos (my favorite practice).   Unfortunately, not that many girls showed up because they didn’t have school or anything because of all the festivities going on.  Luckily my favorite girls (I know I shouldn’t have any!) did show up, and we had a fun practice.  After practice we played a shooting game with the guy that manages the field, and Steph and I won once again!  That night we had our last chamusca in Pana :(, which is one of the things I am going to miss the most.  I have met so many nice people through playing down there, and always have such a good time playing with them.  On Tuesday we had our despidida (going away party) with our girls.  We bought a cake for everyone, played BINGO and musical chairs.  After everything the girls made us cards, and a few of them made me tear up.  Although the girls sometimes get on my nerves, I am going to miss them so much!  Our girls were in the Parade on Wednesday morning, so I woke up early to try and see them.  I ended up seeing 3 of them, but I really wanted to see Laura and Claudia dancing and didn’t see them.  All the schools have been practicing for this Parade for a while now, and most of them have a marching band so all we have been hearing for the past couple weeks are marching bands.  It was pretty entertaining seeing all of the things that the kids were dressed in, seeing the girls dance, and listening to the marching bands that mostly sounded terrible and played out of tuned instruments.  There were hundreds of people everywhere and the Parade lasted about 3 hours and then they all ended in the soccer stadium.

The highlight of Wednesday and maybe the best part of this 2 and a half months started when Veronica and Wendy came to the office early at like 12:45.   The had just finished with the Parade, and we felt bad making them walk home 30 minutes and back another 30 minutes for practice so we let them hang out in the office.  I gave them some crackers and let them put peanut butter on them.  There is no peanut butter here, so they have never had it and really enjoyed it.  We layed down and watched a movie before practice.  After practice we took them to Pollo Campero to eat pizza.  They come from a poor family of I think 10 kids, and have never been out to eat.  Wendy, the little one, loves hot sauce so when I told her that she could have picante on her pizza her eyes lit up!  When we got there they put picante on their fingers and licked it off (they do this in the office with our picante too) while we were waiting for the pizza.  We got Pepsi to drink, and they really enjoyed that because I don’t think they get that much.  Once the pizza came the girls both enjoyed 2 and a half pieces of pizza with ketchup and picante!  To think that they had never been out to eat before, and we were the first ones to take them was an amazing feeling.  After we were done, we said our good-byes and they ran off with smiles on their faces!  If I could take two things home from Guatemala it would be those girls, they will always hold a special place in my heart.

Yesterday we held a coaching clinic at UVG, which didn’t exactly go as planned.  The director of the school sent out an invitation to a lot of the schools in the area, and told us there were about 25 coaches confirmed to attend the clinic.  Of course, only 3 showed up, typical Guatemala.  We showed a powerpoint and taught them some things in a class room before we went out to the field and showed them how to run a practice.  When we first got out there, they had about 50 kids waiting for us to run a practice.  That would be nearly impossible, so we ended up working with the 30 girls we have been working with in the previous weeks.  It was a little hectic, but it ended up turning out alright.  After the practice, we went back into the classroom and the three coaches all had very good comments and nice things to say about us.  It’s hard to believe that, that was officially our last activity as volunteers for Futbol Sin Fronteras!  Later in the night we were asked to walk around la feria (the fair) with a group of guys we play with in Solola.  We started by walking around, and then playing fusbol for a while.  There a fusbol tables everywhere, and it was actually really fun!  We went to ride the ferris wheel but it was already closed, plus it was raining and lightening.  The thing already goes way too fast, and doesn’t look very safe, so probably a good thing it was closed!  After that we ate pizza, drank soda, and visited with each other, and by that time it was almost 11.  It was fun to experience the fair with a group of Guatemalans!

I apologize for how long this post is, and if you read all the way until now, props to you!  I can’t believe I only have 4 more days here, but it’s time to make the best of it.  Gosh I’m going to miss this place ;( 

'You're not sick, just on a diet'

Once again, I’ve waited too long to post in my blog!  The past few weeks have been fairly busy and exciting.  We have had some new girls showing up to practices, which is always good.  There have been about 10 girls that have been at almost every practice since we’ve been here.   Gloria, Claudia and Laura (best friends) are the three that we probably see the most.  

They all go to Santa Teresita, which is the school only about a block away from the office.  Therefore they pass the office everyday coming and going to school, and often stop by and ring the doorbell 50 times and hide.  Sometimes Laura and Claudia have dance during practice so they will come to as much practice as they can and then run to dance.  The girls love when I play music on my computer and they will tell me to put a certain song on so they can do the dance (they are actually pretty good!).  Although these three girls sometimes get on our nerves, they definitely always bring a smile to my face. 

I also adore the older girls from Santa Maria.  There are about 5 of them that show up consistently to practices and came to every game in the Copa Mundial.  These are indigenous girls, so they have to borrow cloths and shoes from us to practice in.  A lot of times they are early to practice (very rare for anyone to be early in this country) waiting for us to get there.  They grab cloths from our bag, go chance, and are ready to play.  They always have a smile on their face, and are eager to play and learn.  We are now working with the educasion fisica at UVG, which is a private school.  The majority of the girls would rather chat with their friends or text on their cell phones, so it is often times frustrating for us.  But we have to realize that it is their gym class and they are required to be there, so not all of them necessarily want to be.  Most of the older UVG girls and our Santa Maria girls are more serious and fun to work with.  I have a huge amount of respect for the Santa Maria girls for coming and playing with 30 private school girls.  A lot of the UVG girls wear nice cloths, and have cell phones, whereas the Santa Maria girls don’t even have shorts, a t-shirt, and shoes to play in.  It doesn’t seem to bother them, because they are always working harder than any of the UVG girls.  There have been chamusca’s (scrimmages) where our Santa Maria girls will score all the goals.  They will run all over the place where the other half of their team will be standing, gossiping with their friend.  It is so rewarding to see the look on their face after they are dead tired from running up and down the field and scoring.  Sometimes I even feel like a proud parent, watching my kid play haha!  Needless to say, the Santa Maria girls are a great group of kids who I thoroughly enjoy working with and seeing their improvements every week is one of the most rewarding things.

As a lot of you know, my Dad came to Guatemala to visit me.  The first night he arrived fairly late, so I showed him around Pana a little and we went to Pana Rock for dinner, then went back to the hotel.  The hotel he stayed at was super nice, and was right on the lake with a spectacular view of all the volcanoes. 

It was weird for me to sleep in a nice room AND it had a tv!  The next morning we had to wake up early to head back up to Solola for practice.  After practice I showed him around Solola, and took him to the cemetery.  The cemetery here is actually a very cool place.  Everything is above ground and painted bright colors, and looks almost like a mini city.  It’s hard to explain but this picture should help a little.

Another reason I took him there was because there is one of the most beautiful views there.  After walking around Solola, and killing my Dad with the hills, we headed back down to Pana.  We hung by the lake, then went to a place for lunch that had Papusas.  I think I’ve mentioned these before, but a papusa is a tortilla stuffed with meat and cheese, similar to a quesadilla I guess.  You put these cabage salad on top, along with hot sauce, and unfortunately I can barely talk about this because I think the cabbage is what got me sick the next 2 days.  Anyways, after we ate we swam, and Steph and I took a nice long shower in the nice hotel before going to dinner.  I wasn’t feeling well at this point, so I didn’t eat very much for dinner.  I ended up spending the night on the toilet, and outside vomiting all night.  Unfortunately, we had a 6 a.m. shuttle picking us up to make the 5 hour drive to the beach.  At 5:30 I really felt like I would die if I got in a van for 5 hours with a crazy driver through windy roads.  But I decided I would try it, seeing that we had everything booked.

 I made it to Monterrico without vomiting, so that was good news.  

It was probably 30 degrees hotter and sunny, than Steph and I were used to!  We went on a long walk along the beach, and checked out the town.  It was a lot less developed than I had imagined it, and definitely a different beach experience than I’ve ever had.  We stayed in a bungalow with a straw roof, and a cocoanut as a shower head with a stream of water.  My Dad booked a room with air conditioning, but when we got there it was hotter in the room than it was outside.  Surprisingly, the installed a new AC unit, and the room cooled off a bit.  I still wasn’t feeling great that night, so I stayed in the room while Dad and Steph ate.  I ended up spending most of the night in the bathroom again, but felt better after I got a couple of hours of sleep.

The next morning I wake up and head to the bar area, and enjoy a nice fruit smoothie and look out on the ocean.  My Dad had been talking to the owner, and he said he was going to go out knee boarding because it was fairly calm out.  I was under the impression that we were going out on a boat, so we hop on a 4-wheeler with the knee board and rope, and head down the beach.  Then he hops off and says here I’ll show you what to do, you drive.  Basically you pull the person behind the knee board and you weave in and out of where the waves crash on the beach.  It was hard to keep the right speed, and he kept getting taken out by big waves.  Once he went 4 or 5 times, it was time for me to try.  I actually did pretty good, and tore through some big waves but also got thrown into the sand by some.  It definitely didn’t feel good when you fell, but it was an experience I will never forget!  I don’t think I’d get taken out knee boarding on a 4-wheeler by the owner of hotel on any other beach!  

So, that was an awesome start to the day.  We met some boys that helped us venture out into the ocean past the massive waves.  At times it was actually really dangerous because the waves were so big, but we made it out a couple of times.   The water was a perfect temperature!  After laying out on the beach all day, we showered and had dinner before the rave started.  There was literally a rave that night, and it was actually some fundraiser.  We weren’t really digging the music or scene so we went out on the beach and hung out with the boys we met during the day.  They tried to teach us how to salsa dance, but they were not very successful.  A lot of people hang out on the beach at night, outside the two bars that are close together.  We were tired from being out in the sun all day, so we went in pretty early to get some rest. 

We woke up the next morning and went to the bar, where this group of guys we met were already up drinking.  They were drinking Johnny Walker Blue Label (I guess a very expensive bottle of alcohol) at 9 in the morning.  They had been drunk since we met them, and still going strong.  They were trying to beat their record of spending 58,000 Quetzales (about $7,500) over the weekend!  So the whole weekend they were buying us (and others) drinks and food. 

These guys were crazy, I don’t know how they did it, but they were extremely nice and gave my Dad some older guys to talk to!  On Sunday morning we met another rich guy, that was kind of flaunting his money.  The cool thing about the other guys, was that they didn’t flaunt their money at all, and were just very generous.  They told us that this one dude (the one flaunting his money) was a drug dealer, and drove an armored BMW and had three body guards with him.  I’m glad that guy wasn’t there the whole weekend, but he owned a house on the beach next to where we were staying.  Peter and Jose were the two guys of the group that we talked to the most, and they were both hilarious.  Peter is from Canada and has lived in Antigua for the past 10 years, where he opened a hostel.  When I told him I had been sick the past two nights he was like, "ohhh here we don't call it being sick, we call it being on a diet."  He was extremely goofy, but he definitely had some rich friends that took care of him!  I could go on and on about these crazy men, but let’s just say they made the Monterrico experience a little more lively than it would have been without them.

Nothing terribly exciting has happened the past couple days.  The most eventful thing that happened was on Tuesday, when I was in the shower the power went out.  I had already been dreading showering, because it was cold and our shower is outside.  Then I get in there and two minutes later it’s pitch dark and the water is cold!  Something strange here is that the rig the shower so that the electricity heats the water.  Anyways, I get my towel and go inside and wait, shivering, for the electricity to come back on.  I waited about 20 minutes before I said screw it, and just got dressed.  Yes, I know very exciting couple of days, but it’s the weekend so we will be heading to Pana to have a good time!

P.s.

I hear it’s extremely hot back home, so just thought I’d rub it in that I’m living in about 75-80 degree weather everyday!

 

Road closed!

Unfortunately, a couple weeks’ ago events did not included much of the Futbol Sin Fronteras girls because the fields were flooded because of the amount of rain we had.  It rained for it seemed like two days straight, which is never any fun.  A few of the girls came to the office instead of practice on Monday, so we had some fun for a couple hours.  Laura and Claudia are always trying to rack in the points and come to every possible thing that they can.  I can’t remember if I have explained the points system in here or not, if so I apologize.  Every practice the girls come to they get a point, and if they bring homework and actually do it during homework hour they receive another point (most of the time they just play games, or try and fake do their homework).  Every 5 points they receive a bon bon, a watermelon flavored sucker that they love.  At 10 points they can choose to get shinguards, shorts, shirts, backpacks, ect.  At 20 points they get tacos (cleats), which they generally get very excited about.  We give them 3 or 4 pairs to chose from, and they usually bring their closest friends in the office to help them pick the “coolest” ones.  Our most dedicated, and one of my favorites (if that’s allowed!), has close to 70 points!  We have other girls that come regularly, that are following in her footsteps.  For our office activity on Wednesday, we celebrated one of the girls, Rosa, birthday.  We all made cards for her and gave them to her.  I'm not sure my card made sense in Spanish, but i tried.  We made them popcorn to eat while they made the cards, which they love.  They LOVE when we put seasoned salt on the popcorn, and are constantly asking for more!  After the cards we taught them how to play twister on a home made twister board that we taped colored squares of paper on the floor.  Most of them didn't really understand the concept of not being able to move after you place your hand or foot somewhere, but it still was fun for them.

Pupas took us for a hike on Thursday, which was a lot of fun.  It was so beautiful, and we could see a lot of the different cities around the lake when we were up high.  We also went through some land that the people farm on.  It's amazing to me that they can farm on land that is so steep, and do everything their selves, and then walk it down.  A little different then the huge machinery they use to farm in the states.

The weekend definitely was an adventure though.  Because of the rain, boulders have been falling on the road to Pana so it is closed periodically.  There is one spot on the drive down that it happens and it seems like it takes them a week to git rid of one boulder.  They work on it all day with a jack hammer (I think) and break it into a bunch of little pieces.  I feel like there has to be a more efficient way, but hey its Guatemala.  Needless to say the road to Pana is not necessarily safe not during rainy season, but during it’s even worst.  I have learned here that when you drive a bus you are supposed to accelerate on turns, and it is normal for a bus to pass a car (on a curve).  So, like every other weekend, we went to Pana on Saturday night to go out.  It was one of our friends birthday, so it was fun.  We were supposed to go to a churasco (bbq) during the day for his birthday, but we ended up going up to this spot that had a really good view of the lake.  We were with a couple of Pupas’ friends there and one of the girls was from Canada.  She had bleach blond hair and definitely didn’t look like she belonged here, but I guess her family has lived here a little while.  She invited us over to her families house to watch a movie before we went out.  It was actually like a real house inside, with a couch and big tv, so it was kind of nice to be there.  The best part of the day was her family having peanut butter, and getting to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (yes, I’m a fat kid)!  You can’t find peanut butter in Solola, and its probably really expensive in Pana.  So after the movie and more importantly, the peanut butter and jelly, Steph and I headed to the hostel to take a little nap before we went out to the bars.  Everything was good until we woke up the next morning.

It was Sunday morning, which means we had the Copa Mundial Femenina in the gym at 9.  We woke up at 7:45 to be sure we made it back to Solola with plenty of time.  We were sitting on the curb waiting for the bus, and after 10 or so many we began to wonder where it was.  A man walked over to us and was to speaking to us in Spanish, but we caught that he was telling us that the road was closed.  We tried to stay clam, and walked over to wear the road was closed and there were the police.  We noticed there was 2 pick-up trucks with a million people crammed in the back.  It turned out they were letting one truck at a time go up, so we got lucky and got on the second truck.  At this point I was relieved, thinking we got lucky, until the truck stopped like a mile up and made us get out.  This was the point of the road where the boulder had fallen, so everyone got up and started walking to San Jorge to catch the next bus.  Steph and I had to run there, because we were running out of time.  But we made it and caught a bus back up to Solola, and made it to the gym right on time.  According to Guatemalan time we were early, because the teams don’t start showing up until 9:15 haha.  The games went well, with all the teams showing up except one that had everyone show up eventually, but according to our rules they had to forfeit.  They still got to play, so that’s really what matters to us.  Again, all the games were fairly close and it seemed as if the girls were really enjoying their selves.  One of our FSF teams got their first win, so we were all pretty stoked about that.

Last Monday was our first day working at UVG in the morning during the week.  UVG is a private school, a short bus-ride away from Solola.  It is close to Santa Maria, so our girls from there and other places near by come to the practices there.  Generally the public schools here have the younger kids from 7:30-12:30 and the older kids in the afternoon.  Therefore it is hard to have practices with the older girls during the week, but we finally got it so we could do it in the morning.  At UVG I think they have more of a normal schedule, and they actually practice with us during their physical education time.  Monday was the first day back from a two week vacation for the UVG kids, so they had some ceremony during the time of practice.  So, we only ended up having 5 Santa Maria girls.  It actually turned out really well, because we got to work more individually with them, and work on more technical things.  They are a group of girls that always come to practice, and are so energetic and thankful.  When we got back, we had the younger girls in the afternoon.  We have practice at Xamba, which is a big field on Mondays, so we have more space to work with.  It was a good session and of course they never leave right after, so some of the girls were trying to work out with me. 

Tuesday, Steph and I started at a Spanish School in Pana.  Our first day went by very quickly and we learned a lot.  After class we had to get back to the Solola for the office activity.  We showed them a powerpoint of the countries’ flags, the national anthem of each country, each countries’ typical food, where the countries are located on a map, how to say hello in each country.  At the end we showed them a video of the top 5 goals of the last women’s world cup, because most of them have never seen a woman play professional soccer. All the girls were very involved and interested in the powerpoint and especially liked to see the typical food of each country. The funniest part of the workshop was teaching the girls how to say hello in different languages. Our personal favorite was teaching the girls how they would say hello in England. The British accent is key when saying hello and we got a good laugh hearing them trying to speak with a British accent.  The girls know some simple English phrases from school, so it’s funny hearing them say them.   My favorite that they say is, ‘Oh My God’.  After we got done with the powerpoint, of course the girls didn’t want to leave so we let them watch Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 on my computer.  You can buy dvd’s in the market for 5 or 10Q (around $1), that have multiple movies on them.  One that we bought randomly had Alvin and the Chipmunks in Spanish.  Needless to say the girls loved it, but we had to cut the movie short and get them out of the office at some point. 

We had practice again on Wednesday, but it’s at Casa Deportista, which is basically like a sand box.  There is a huge puddle at one end of the “field” so that gives us about a 15 by 10 area to work with.  We had a new girl show up to practice that was so cute!  She claims she is 8 years old but looks like she is 5.  She actually was pretty good, and it seemed as if she had a lot of fun, so hopefully she will come back to practice on Monday.

Thursday was a very eventful day for us, starting with practice at UVG.  This time, the UVG girls all showed up, which included almost 30 of them.  We definitely did not expect that many, but we made it work.  They did some running drills that we made into a competition at the beginning.  At the end we had two fields set up for 7 v 7, and they got to play for 30 minutes or so.  It was a lot different having that many girls at a practice, but now that we know there will always be that many, we can plan out more concrete practices.  After practice, Steph and I headed to Pana and layed by the lake for a while, before we began our trek from Pana to Solola.  I’m not sure why we thought it would be a good idea to walk 8 kilometers up a mountain, but hey now we can say we did it.  Of course, about 20 minutes into our hike it starts pouring and the temperature drops.  We kept going up the hills and curves, and all I could think was ‘I hope I don’t get hit by a car’.  There is no shoulder or anything and the road is fairly narrow so we had to be careful, but luckily most the cars are loud going up a hill so we could hear them coming.  After one of the hills I wanted to quit and sit down in the middle of the road, but I’m not a quitter haha.  As we got higher, the view got more and more breath taking.  Without the beauty of the scenery, I probably never would have done that.  Anyways, we made it and can now say we walked from Solola to Pana.  Now before we leave we have to walk down, which I will be more than happy to do after going up.

After class on Friday, we went to the lake and layed out for a couple of hours.  There was no one out where we were and the water was really rough, but it was very relaxing.  Hearing the waves hit the rocks kind of made me feel like I was at an ocean haha.  We both got a little burnt, and it is official that Steph does not know how to put sunscreen on properly.  She has white blotches all over her body!  We came back to Solola for a couple hours before we headed back down to Pana to party. 

Time has been flying by lately, and before we know it we will be leaving.  I have made many memories in the last couple of weeks, and look forward to 5 more weeks of Guatemalan livin’.

It's been awhile

My apologies for not posting in here in so long!  It’s almost been two weeks of Steph and I living on our own, without the other two interns.  It was really sad to see them go, even though we had only known them two weeks.  They helped us so much the first two weeks, I seriously don’t know what we would have done if they weren’t here.  Along with the interns we got to meet, there were two others that were here for 9 months (mas o menos).  The four of them took this program so far and accomplished so much in the time that they spent here!

The day Julie and Ava left, we woke up at 5:45 to say our good-byes, and then later in the day we had our first office activity without any Spanish help.  It actually went a lot better than I thought, and the girls seemed to enjoy it.  We played a game that Ava actually made before she left, that was similar to BINGO.  Instead of calling out numbers or letters, each square had a question and they had to find someone in the room that was the answer.  After that we played musical chairs, of course to the sound of Justin Bieber.  All the little girls love him, especially Veronica!  It has gotten a lot easier to communicate with the girls, as my Spanish has improved.  The girls speak fairly simply and slower than the adults here, so it is good practice.  Another bonus is they don’t care if you mess up or don’t know what to say, they’ll even correct us.  

After practice the next day, we packed our bags really quickly and headed to Antigua.  I think we had to take 3 buses and 2 and a half hours to get there.  The first bus we caught out of Solola was the most crowded bus I’ve ever been on.  We were crammed in through the back door, and with a boot it’s not so easy.  Once we got to Santa Maria (I think) we had to get off and catch another bus, which wasn’t as crowded.  That took us to some other city that was crowded and fast paced, but we hopped off and found the next bus.  This was the last bus ride, but seriously felt like I was on a roller coaster.  Anyway, we made it and immediately walked to meet one of Luis’ friend to get something to eat.  After that we went to find a hostel, which turned out to be the nastiest place I’ve ever stayed.   After the bars closed we were hungry so we got some street food and sat and ate it.  While we were sitting there I watched a police officer knock on a little window on a door and then grab a bag of white stuff.  I’m pretty sure I watched a cop buy cocaine at 2 in the morning.  Oh well, we still had a good night out in Antigua.  The next day we toured around the city for a while.  The architecture is very unique and beautiful.  It was a very touristy place, so it was different to see a lot of white people.  But we had to get back for practice Saturday morning.

We went to Pana Saturday night to watch Guatemala play Mexico in the Gold Cup.  We watched the first half at Pupas’ house then went to the bars to watch the rest.  They were actually up 1-0 at half, but couldn’t hold them off, similar to the U.S.  in the finals.  After the game we went to different bars, and met some boys our age from Guatemala City.  They spoke almost perfect English, and didn’t look Guatemalan at all, but they were haha.  We hung out with them most of the night, and and had a really good time minus the fact that Steph left her rain jacket at the restaurant we ate at.  So, now she doesn’t have a rain jacket during rainy season. 

Sunday we decided to finally take inventory of all the donated gear and clean up the office.  We got Luis and his friend to help us write the sizes on the back of the newly donated cleats, while we counted and organized the old ones.  The office looks a lot better now that it’s clean and doesn’t have random donated gear everywhere!

Last week was a busy week for us, because we had to get all of our last minute things together for the Copa Mundial Femenina (Women’s World Cup) that we are having.  We went around to some of the schools with Julie and Ava to give the information to, and then the rest with Luis.  When we went back to pick up the registration forms, not one of the schools had them ready.  They all said come back Wednesday, so we did and if I remember correctly NONE of them had it ready!  We spent like an hour and a half at Intergral, waiting for the gym teacher to come then find all the girls to write their names down!  The Director at that school is extremely nice though, and was very excited about what we are doing.  Thursday morning I was laying out on the roof, reading, and a coach came and had the registration sheet for her school.  Another coach showed up at 5 with the forms, but couldn’t stay for the coaches meeting at 6, so we had to give him his country and uniforms.  By the way, with this event we are doing, we are giving each school a set of uniforms that they get to keep even after the tournament is over.  The other coaches ended up showing up to the meeting Thursday night, and we passed out all the uniforms and clarified some things.

The big opening ceremonies were set for Friday at 4, but that didn’t happen as planned.  We were able to use a projector from the city I think, and then a guy was supposed to come to set up the sound and everything.  The first thing that went wrong was that we didn’t have an extension chord for the projector, which wasn’t the worst thing.  Then I realized the chord to plug the computer into the projector would not work with a mac.  Luis tried to turn the projector on, and it wouldn’t even work, so all the time we spent on the power point and everything was wasted.  Luckily Luis’ father came up with his computer and we at least got the sound to work, so we could play each countries national anthem as they walked around the gym.  Only four teams showed up for the ceremony, which was pretty much expected.   For the teams and girls that did come, we had a really good time.  After the introductions and stuff, we did some relay races.  And then at the end each team had 5 minutes to come up with a cheer for their country then do it in middle of the court.  For the circumstances, I think it went well, although it’s kind of a bummer that a lot of the work we all put in for it was wasted.

After the Ceremony we took everything back to the office, packed out bags, and headed to San Pedro.  We took a bus to Pana, then had to take about a 30 minute boat ride over to San Pedro.  Once we got off the boat and dropped out stuff at the hostel we ate Pupusas at this little stand that a lady cooks at night.  Pupusas is similar to a quesadilla(a lot different than a quesadilla in the states), a tortilla stuffed with cheese, beans, and pork.   They were really delicious, but I had to finish off my meal with my first candy bar since I’ve been here.  I saw a snickers at a tienda and couldn’t resist!  After we ate we went to a bar with live music, and I met some students from NC State that were on a study abroad program.  It was cool to talk to them and hear what they were doing and tell them what I am doing here.  The next morning, Steph and I explored the town a bit before Luis woke up, then we all went to breakfast.   It was a really cool place, with a really good view of the lake and volcano!  After that we went kayaking, which was so fun and beautiful.  It was kind of a bummer for Luis, because when he was trying to get out of the kayak he fell in and had his phone and camera in his pocket.  So that was a pretty expensive kayaking experience for him.  After we got changed and everything we headed back to Solola, because we had plans to watch the U.S. game with a family here.  We went over around 7 and watched the game in one of the bedrooms that had a tv with cable.  They were all actually cheering for the U.S. because a lot of people here hate Mexico.  While we were watching, one of the girls was cooking steak on a grill type thing.  Steak here is a thin piece of very tough beef, and you basically just use your hands and teeth to rip it apart to eat.  Along with the carne we had a salad with cucumbers, avocado, tomatoes, and who knows what else, but everything was very good.

This morning was our first day of Copa Mundial games, which started at 9.  The first game didn’t end up starting until 9:30, which was pretty much on time for Guatemalans.  It’s so different coming from America where you are almost expected to be early everywhere, to here where NOTHING starts on time.  Everyone is very relaxed and kind of on their own time here.  All the teams showed up, and we fit all 4 games in the time slot we had for the gym.  Thank you to Lindsay Basalyga and EKU, one of the teams was wearing the uniforms that I wore at Eastern my sophomore year, so they definitely looked good.  Well the Futbol Sin Fronteras team looked pretty good too with their FSF jerseys.  Overall, it was a very successful day and all of the work we put into making it happen was worth it after seeing the smiles on the girls faces while playing.  There are still three more weeks of the tournament, and I am so excited to see what will happen!

I’ve made a note to myself, not to wait this long to post because that took way too long to write and I’m sure I missed a million things!  But I will work on posting pictures (for you Grandma, since you can’t figure out facebook)! 

Much love to all!

Mi tobillo duele

I will start off with the bad parts of this past week, which include bug bites and a bad ankle.  I have mass amounts bug bites all over my body, and the itch terribly.  I’m trying so hard not to itch them because I don’t want them to scar but its tough.  New bites keep popping up, but I have never seen a bug on me, it’s strange.  We thought it might be bed bugs, but we checked the beds and looked up symptoms, and none of mine matched.  Well, my ankle isn’t getting much better; it actually may be getting worse.  It is bruised from my toes all the way up my calve, I’ll try and post a picture sometime.  I am going to get an x-ray today, so we’ll see what happens.  I’m pretty sure it’s just a bad ankle sprain.  That’s about all the bad that has happened; don’t want to worry my parents too much :)

There has been way more GOOD than BAD this past week!  On Wednesday we made maracas and necklaces out of pasta with the girls for our office activity.  The maracas turned into a sword fight with the bottles, but the girls seemed to enjoy it.   We got colorful pasta from the market to use for the necklaces, and it turned out well.  When we were done  one of the girls asked to take some pasta home to cook, so we got together a little baggy full.  We gave it to her little sister who was there, and it was moving to see her eyes light up when she received it.  The two sisters come to every practice and activity, and are the sweetest kids ever.  All together their family has 9 kids, so that is 11 people to feed every day.  Seeing what all of these kids have definitely makes me appreciate more of what I had when I was growing up and have now.

On Thursday we went to the dispensa and made a meal together.  We got a rotisere chicken and chips, and then got avacados for guacamole and tortillas.  We made rice and mashed potatoes to go along with everything.   It was amazing, but we all ate so much that we felt sick!  After dinner we played cards, and just had a good time.  Fridays practice went well, and then it was time to go out in Pana for the first time.  When we were wanting to leave it was pouring down rain, but we had to hurry and go to catch the last camionetta.  It’s not smart to walk up hill a flooded street with flip flops on with a messed up ankle, but hey I made it.  It was probably the scariest bus ride I’ve ever been on.  It was raining so hard and the streets were flooding, and we were driving down a mountain.  I guess a little before we left they had the road blocked because rocks were sliding down into the street.  Julie and I were sitting in the back row with I think 5 other people, and you couldn’t see out the windows.  To top everything off it sounded like the tire underneath us was going to fall off.  Once we made it down we went and got a room at the hostel for the night.  It is only 35 Q a person, which is less than 5 dollars.  We went to a couple of different bars and met a lot of Ava and Julies friends, so it was a really good time.  Ava and I had a fun time dancing by ourselves at one bar as well.  We woke up early Saturday to go to practice in Santa Maria.

It was a beautiful day, and we had a good turn out of girls.  All the girls didn’t show up until after 10:30 even though practice is supposed to start at 10, but that’s Guatemala.  I led the warm up and had them do relays, which were fun for them.  After practice we ended up getting a ride back to Solola in the back of a truck so we didn’t have to wait or pay for the camionetta(bus).  We all got a lot of sun and were tired so we came back to the office and rested for a little while before we headed back to Pana to have a Churasco(barbeque) for Julie and Ava leaving.  Ava, Pupas, and his mom made a bunch of delicious food, and then the boys cooked meat on the grill once we got there.  Rojo, one of their friends let us have the Churasco at his house, which was really big and nice.  After that we all headed to the bars and had a good time.  After the bars closed and we were on the way to the hostel, we passed a bunch of people with sheets over their heads and baseball bats.  Thankfully there were a bunch of police, or else we would have been scared.  Overall it was a really enjoyable night.

Sunday morning we woke up early again to come back to Solola to get ready for Ava and Julies despadida (going away party) with all the girls.  We played a bunch of games and then they all made them cards.  After our time in the gym was up, they asked if our girls wanted to play in a game against a team that is made up of girls apart of an extracircular program from the government (I think).  Our girls got to put on jerseys and they looked so cute!  They were so excited, and kept looking up to us to make sure we were watching.  Then ended up losing 5-0, but they did really well considering the other girls were much bigger than them.  It was a great way to end the despadida!  We were invited to another families house for dinner.  The family was extremelt nice and made a really good dinner.  It was like a bunch of vegetables and chicken in a pot and they served  it with mashed pototatoes.  We sat and talked for a while and one of the women was studying to be a nurse so she was very concerned about my ankle.  She kept oferring to give me a shot for the pain and inflammation, but we had no idea what it was, so vetoed that idea.  After dinner and visiting with the family we came back and watched a couple of movies.

 View out the back of the office

Yesterday, I finally went to the doctor for my ankle.  Luis and I first went to the hospital to get an x-ray.  The emergency room barely had anyone in it, and it took forever to get any attention.  It was really dirty, and totally different than a hospital in the States.  The nurses were eating and talking on their cell phones, but finally a doctor came in that Luis happened to know so he wrote us an order to get the x-ray.  We got the x-ray and then it was off to practice.  We had a good turnout and a fun practice.  Rosa, one of the little girls, scored some sweet goals during the chamusca!  After practice I went and saw the doctor to actually look at my ankle.  We made an appointment for 3:30 but naturally the doctor was late, so we didn’t get to see him until 4:30.  Right when I walked in he blew his nose and then shook my hand, that’s sanitary right?  But he was extremely nice, and concerned about my ankle.  I could not understand a word he was saying in Spanish, because he was talking so fast.  Luis translated most of what he said to me, but it was kind of frustrating not knowing what the heck he was saying.  At one point he said it was broken, but then he said it’s not.  So I really have no clue what is going on.  He gave me an option of getting a cast, or a boot.  I refuse to have a cast and be on crutches here so I chose the boot, the only problem is I would have to go to the city, which is 3 hours away to get one.  He made a phone call and luckily someone he knows has one that will let me borrow it.  Luis is going to pick it up today, so hopefully in no time i’ll be back to playing!  

The Hike

            My first Saturday night went well.  We ended up watching Amores Perro, which translates to Love’s a bitch.  It was in Spanish so the subtitles kept me awake the whole time, but it was a very interesting movie.  It had about 3 different plots, and none of them really went together.  The first plot had a lot to do with betting on dog fights, so I was convinced I was going to have nightmares.  As we were walking back we turned around and there was a pack of 6 dogs.  I think I mentioned in my first post, but there are stray dogs everywhere.  At night they all come out and eat the trash and food laying on the ground from the market.  I’m not scared of walking alone at night because of people, I’m more scared of the dogs.

            Sunday was probably my favorite day so far.  We had two practices in the morning in the gym, which were fun.  After practice we played a 5 v 5 basketball game with some kids that were in the gym.  Then the day got interesting…

            Majo, one of the girls we coach, invited us to go on a hike with her and her brother.  We went over to her house to meet her and her Mom was cooking lunch and invited us in.  She was making meat tortillas, which is ground up beef with vegetables mixed in.  You flatten the meet and put it in a pan with a bunch of oil and butter.  Julie and I got to help her but ours didn’t work out as well as hers.  While we were cooking, Majo went to the market and got fresh tortillas and orange juice for our meal.  We all sat down in one of the rooms to eat with the family, and it was amazing!  The tortillas here are so different than in America, and so much better.  The family lives in a very, very small house with two bedrooms, and five people.  It  was so amazing to me that a family could be so happy living that way. 

I found this ball that some of the little kids were playing with that we ran in to!

            Anyways, once we were done with lunch it was time to go on our hike to see beautiful scenery (and get lost and the woods).  We walked from the office up through a lot of different areas, including a strange abandoned house and an agricultural school.  We were being led by Majo’s cousin and his friends, so they knew all the cool places to stop.  The agricultural school or whatever it was had a barn full of bunnies in cages, but I’m not really sure what they do with them.  They also had a boar and this massive pig, which might be considered a boar.  Once we were there we were about at the highest elevation we would be at on the hike so we went a little ways and entered the forest.  It started out fine, and we came to the first mirador, or look out and it was beautiful.  I posted some pictures on facebook and if I can figure out to put them on here I will.  We kept going until we got to Mirador #2 and it was equally or more beautiful than the first.  The boys acted like they knew where they were going so we followed them and ended up deep into the woods not knowing how to get out.  We went through some crazy terrain and ended up by this waterfall, which was pretty dope but Steph slid down into Julie that had potential to be bad.  After 3 and a half hours we made our way out, and got back to the office.  It felt like it was midnight by the time we were back, we were so exhausted from the day.

            Monday we have homework hour for the girls at 1:30 when they get out of school, but it was raining so only 3 girls showed up.  Practice is supposed to be at 2:30 but the field closed because of the rain, so we just played games with the girls in the office.  We gave them trashbags to cover themselves on their way home, because it was raining really hard.  The two sisters had a pretty far walk too, so I felt bad.  At 5 we got on the bus and headed down to Pana to chamusca (scrimmage).  It was an excited adventure down the mountain, and the buses drive crazy.  Once we got there we had to walk fast to get to the field because we were late.  The field was about the size of a tennis court, fenced in and had a cover over the top.  It was the perfect size to play 5 v 5, and so fast pace because the only time the play stops is when it hits the fence behind the goal.  There were 3 teams, so once one team scored the losing team went off.  I played for about an hour, and then I went in for a tackle with the goalie and landed on my ankle wrong.  I have only rolled my ankle once and it wasn’t very bad, but this hurt worse than anything!  I was lying on the ground and some guy was like trying to move my ankle and I was yelling at him, but I proceeded to get up and go on the side.  Ava, being the nice person she is, went and got me ice to put on it.  So I sat out the last 45 minutes or so then we had to walk back to catch a ride back to Solola, but first we stopped to get an empanada.  We saw a bunch of guys we played with at the place so sat with them for a while, therefore we missed the bus.  We had to take a pickup truck back up the mountain, and it was pouring down rain.  They stuffed about 10 people in the back of a tiny, old truck and put a tarp over us.  It was not the most fun ride with my ankle, but needless to say we made it. 

            I woke up yesterday morning and could barely walk, and my ankle was huge, but once I got going it was fine.  We took a bus then had to walk 15 minutes to a families house in Santa Maria.  It was very interesting to see how different the people in this village lived.  They had a mud floor, most of them were barefoot, and cooked on a fire.  The women made us soup with noodles (similar to ramen noodles) and then tortillas.  One of the women, delivered a baby at noon yesterday, so we got to see a new born.  She had the baby in the bed she was laying in when we saw her.  You put the noodles in the tortillas, and eat it.   Actually you put everything here in tortillas and eat it.  For dinner, Luis’ family invited us over.  His mother made us tostadas, one was with guacamole and the other was with meet and veggies.  For desert she made plantains in this special chocolate sauce.  Everything was delicious, the food here is really good.  That’s about all I got for now, much love! 

The Beginning..

After all of the anticipation, I am finally here!  Getting here went very smoothly and was actually enjoyable.  I landed in Dallas and I swear it took 20 minutes to get to the gate, and another 20 to get off the plane.  Once I got in the airport it was time to meet the girl that I will be living with for the next 2 and a half months.  I sat down at the gate and she came up to me, and that’s that.  We met some pretty cool people that were also going to Guatemala, while we were waiting for the flight.  Then before I knew it we were landing in Guatemala City!

Once we got our bags and went through customs it was out the door to meet Luis.  He was there with his brother, who lives in the city, so he had a car.  Guatemala city was sort of similar to any big city in the U.S. which was surprising to me.  There were two-story McDonalds everywhere, and even Taco Bell (who would have thought)!  There were police everywhere, and they have huge guns, they almost look like our military. We ended up staying at his brothers place, and he made us sandwiches.  Luis decides to warn us that there might be a strike tomorrow morning, which means the roads will be blocked and riots.   Luckily that did not happen and we got picked up around 11 to head to Sololá. 

The drive was incredible to say the least.  Solola is at a higher elevation, so we were driving up through curvey roads, with beautiful landscape.  There were horses and cows tied up on the sides of the road, and women walking around with things on their head.  We arrived around 2:30, and were greeted by the two interns, Mary, and the kids that were in the office.  The kids have homework hour in the office at 2 on Thursdays, then it’s off to the field for practice at 3.  So, we walked a couple of blocks and entered a fenced in area, and there was the field.  Well, the field was about a 20 by 10 box of dirt, but it didn’t matter.  The kids were anywhere from 5 to 12 years old, and were so fun to work with.  It was so cool to see the smiles on their faces, and how much they enjoyed the practice.  About half of the girls wear their traditional Mayan dress, and the other half wears normal clothing.  Some of the girls have cleats, which they earned through futbol sin fronteras (soccer without borders).  There is a point system and once they get enough points they get cleats to wear.  After practice one of the girls had earned enough points to get a pair, so she brought some of her close friends back to the office to help her pick out the cleats.  It was awesome to see how excited the girls got after receiving a pair of used cleats!

Once we got all the kids out, Steph and I kind of got settled in and talked to the other interns for a while before dinner.  We went out to a restaurant with Mary (the executive director who is visiting) and Luis.  It was very nice and had great food, but we had to get ice cream after!  Once we got back to the office we were pretty worn out, and that was the end of my first day in Solola!

The next day we slept in a bit, because we didn’t have practice until 4:30.  Once we were up we went to the dispensa (similar to a grocery store), to get some food for the office.  We also walked through the market, which is crazy on Fridays.  It’s hard to explain but there is fruit, vegetables, and random stuff that you can buy.  They also have a bunch of dried up fish that they sell and it smells terrible.  I can’t imagine what dried up minnows taste like, but it can’t be good.  There are also people making tortillas everywhere and they are amazing!  Everything is extremely cheap here it’s kind of crazy.  We had practice at the stadium field in the afternoon, but only like 4 girls showed up, because it started to rain around the time it started.  For some reason when it rains here people think they are going to melt, which is weird because it rains everyday.  But practice was fun, we just played 5 v 5 with the girls. 

Today, we had practice in Santa Maria so we had to leave here at 9:30 to take the chicken bus (cost 35 cents) to the field.  There is actually a University type school there, which is where we hold the practice.  This practice is for older girls, and was a lot of fun.  We bring a bag of gear including cleats, shorts, and shirts for the girls to wear because most of them come in their Mayan dress.  By the time everyone showed up and got changed we only had about an hour to practice.  We first did some agility work, and me and Julie were on a team, so it was fun.  Then we played a game where you have to hit a ball off a cone, which they liked.  Lastly, we scrimmaged, and it was so much fun.  We played with them and it is so cool how their eyes light up and how excited they get when they are playing!  After practice two of the girls came up and asked for help with their English homework.  So, Julie and Ava helped them translate a story from English to Spanish, then we had to catch the bus back to Sololá.  We were supposed to have another practice at 1:30 in the gym, but when we got there it was already being used by a weight lifting competition.  It was young kids competing and was kind of funny to watch.  It rained for about 5 hours, but stopped recently so Steph and I are going over to Luis’ to watch a movie.  Ava and Julie went to Pana with Mary, because she is leaving tomorrow and catching a shuttle to the airport from there.  Pana is a town on the lake that has restaurants and bars and is only 15 minutes away.  Sololá doesn’t have much of a night life, but once the sun comes up the people are ready to go.  Well there ya go, my first post since being in Guatemala.  I hope you enjoy, and keep reading!

The Journey Begins..

It's so hard to believe that at this time tomorrow I will be in Guatemala!  I can't explain my emotions right now: excited, anxious, stoked, curious, scared, happy... whatever it is doesn't matter because my flight leaves at 1:45!  I fly to Houston first where I will meet the girl that I will be spending the next 11 weeks with.  From there we fly to Guatemala City, where Luis (the local SWB guy) will meet us and take us to a hostel to sleep in for the night.  We will catch a shuttle from Guatemala City to Solola Thursday morning, and get to attend a practice that afternoon.  There will be 2 interns there that will overlap with us for 2 weeks, which I am really happy about.  I'm sure they will show us the ropes in the time they are with us, and then it'll be Steph and I until August 15th!
Well this is where i'll say good-bye to Kansas City, and all of my family and friends.  It has been so nice to spend this much time here, and each time i'm here I realize more and more how lucky I am to have the family that I have.  I got to meet my new born cousin, Lucy, for the first time and she is beautiful.  I got to spend time with my favorite little cousin Bennett, who just turned 2 and is the cutest thing ever!  Most importantly, I got to spend the most amount of time with my Mom, who is the greatest person I have ever met.  She will always be my best friend.  
I'm definitely going to miss everything that I am leaving, but I think (and hope) that I am approaching the greatest journey of my life.  Here it goes..

15 days!!!

It's hard to believe that I leave for Guatemala in 15 days!  I've enjoyed my time at home, and look forward to getting to spend 2 more weeks here.  We had our second conference call tonight, and it got me even more excited.  It looks like it will only be me and one other intern (Steph), living there for 2 and a half months.  We will be holding practices for teams in Solola, and for kids from villages in the outskirts of the city.  Also we will get the chance to hold some practices at the University that is only about a 6 minute bus ride away.  I think my family is more nervous for me to go than I am, but it's probably for a good reason.  My neighbor/ best friend(Ashur) got held up by a gun while studying abroad in Costa Rice this semester, so that freaked my parents out.  I have been told that Guatemala City is very unsafe, but where I will be living is not like that.  I still have to be cautious, and plan to take all precautions not to get into any unsafe situations.


More importantly right now, I still need your guys' help with donations to help pay my way over.  Any amount helps, and it is tax deductible if you do it through www.justgive.org once you get there you will be able to make a donation by credit card, but make sure you put my name so that it comes to me!  I have received about half of what I need, and am very pleased with the generous amounts that have been given.  So, thank you to everyone that has donated!


CLICK HERE TO DONATE:  JUSTGIVE.ORG

I know these post are boring, but please continue to follow my journey throughout the summer on here!

If you wish to donate..

Here is a quick and easy way that you can help me, help others.  Any amount will help and be greatly appreciated, as I am paying my way over there.  Click on this link,  Justgive.org and go from there.  Even though you are not sending the donation directly to me, I will be receiving the money.  Be sure to dedicate the donation in the name of Alex Raich!!  Any questions, let me know!

If you have not received the letter yet, here is a little background info if you are interested..

I am excited to share with you the news that I have recently been accepted as a Soccer Without Borders Summer Coach in Solola, Guatemala, for the summer of 2011. Soccer Without Borders (SWB) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to use soccer as a vehicle for positive change in the lives of marginalized youth. In so many communities throughout the US and the rest of the world, young people lack access to opportunities to play organized sports and receive the benefits of participating on a team. Focusing on youth populations that commonly lack the chance to play sports or join a team, such as refugees, indigenous populations and girls.

SWB envisions that all young people participating in the program have the opportunity to realize their inherent potential. It is the goal of every site to create a sustainable life skills curriculum that directly meets the most pressing needs of that community while setting relevant, tangible, and achievable goals for participants. SWB creates safe and supportive team environments through which participants build friendships, community connections, and powerful mentor/mentee relationships.  I have played soccer for over  17 years and just concluded my playing days at the highest level at Eastern Kentucky University.  I plan to be the Graduate Assistant coach for EKU, while getting my Masters in Sports Adminastration.  I want to share my passion of the game and give back by coaching children that don’t have the opportunities that I did as a kid.

My summer internship with SWB is unpaid, and I am responsible for covering my own living expenses for my time in Solola, Guatemala I hope that you will support me by making a contribution to Soccer Without Borders on my behalf. All donations made to SWB are tax-deductible. Please send a check made out to Soccer Without Borders to the following address (be sure to indicate either on the check or in a note that your donation is on behalf of Alex Raich).

Soccer Without Borders

2149 Byron St.
Berkeley, CA, 94702

Thank you so much for your time and support, and I promise to keep in touch via a blog and email updates while I am in Guatemala. Take it easy!

Sincerely,

Alex Raich

816-582-5230

Alex_raich@eku.edu