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!