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!