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.
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!
Take care of that ankle....don't want you to end up like me!
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